MYENGINEER, CHAPTER 54: Hand in Hand
[Bohn]
“Tiger, how’s the food preparation going?”
“Already contacted the restaurant. They’ll deliver it tomorrow at 2 AM.”
“And the other…”
I didn’t hear what they talked about after that, James’s friends and Tiger’s work seem harder than the professors’. They have to run around all the time, Su has lost quite a few kilos. I can see your handsome face now, Su, just a bit more, another seventy kilos, and you’ll be slim. Keep it up.
“Tomorrow already? I feel like we just finished exams yesterday.” Tee stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the volunteer camp sign, ‘Follow me, follow the senior, I’ll lead the juniors to…to catch the stars’. I hate that slogan so much. I don’t know what the professor was thinking when he let Boss come up with it.
I feel like Tee, time flies so fast, tomorrow we’ll go to Phu Sot Dao. It’s good that other faculties are helping out, otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to prepare in time. It should have been done long ago, but there were some issues, so it got delayed.
“Yeah, I still feel like I was just eyed by Phii Kamfah with that scary look…brrr! Even though I was drunk.” Tang said while rubbing his arms. It’s been exactly one week since that night, actually, I wish time hadn’t passed…Duen was clingy all night, making that cute, groggy sound by my ear, and when sleeping, he liked to scratch my chin. When I told him to sleep with King, he protested, saying he wanted to sleep with Bohn.
My heart…the heart of someone who’s in love.
“Can I go visit my grandma after the camp?”
King, the divine one, asked, his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze lost in the pond beside the faculty. His grandma lives in Uttaradit, King was the happiest when he heard we were going to Uttaradit; he said he missed his grandma but hadn’t had time to visit lately. At first, he even said he would skip the camp to see her, thank goodness we managed to persuade him. The path goes up and down to Phu Sot Dao; how would you walk to your grandma’s place first? If you don’t die, you’ll get dragged off to be sold, King my friend.
“I don’t know…try asking James, I’ll go with you.” As soon as Bom finished speaking, he stood up and took his close friend to find James. I don’t know if he’ll allow it. Normally, he wouldn’t let you go because it’s part of the project’s responsibility…but if there’s a parent coming to pick you up, it’s uncertain.
“What color shirt should we wear tomorrow?”
“‘We’ meaning we have to match with you?”
“Yeah, better put Duen’s group in too, so when they walk, they look like the tail of a dancing doctor, heh.”
“Listen to you compare…for us, we should call it a boy brand, come on, with Tingting included, what should we call our group?” Bom looked thoughtful. Don’t spark his creativity, I beg of you. It’s known that Boss loves to invent words…
“Me, I’ll name it myself!” Boss raised his hand as if asking for permission, but it might be too late…you guys should stop him quickly before he comes up with something strange, like our group name!! ‘Loy Lod Ha’ or something like that, I can’t accept it.
“Uh…is that a good idea? I think-”
“The-Mong-Ting!”
Damn, am I too late again?
“…” The whole group fell silent, each looking at Boss with disdain, what kind of name is ‘The-Mong-Ting’, it sounds awful. Since I’ve been with him, not once has his vocabulary been decent, and this time is no exception.
“I like it, I’ll take it. Tang, Tang, from Bohn, Bom, Boss, Merk to Ram, King,
Phu, Duen combined, actually, I have another name in mind, ‘Khing Buen Rabom’. Which one do you guys want? I like the latter, but the former sounds good, like a perfume brand name.” Please, Boss…
“Sigh!”
“Why are you sighing like that?” I don’t see any charm in your words.
I looked up at the sky, which was now turning orange. It’s not surprising it’s this color; it’s nearly nine o’clock after all. Did Duen prepare his stuff yet? This morning, he even forgot that we have to go to camp tomorrow, better call him.
Ring, ring.
(Hmm…)
“Why does your voice sound like that, are you sleeping?” His voice sounds sleepy like he just woke up, what have you done since you woke up, Duen, or are you sleeping to prepare for the camp?
(Yeah…just finished packing, got tired so I’m lying down.)
“You’ve packed? I thought you hadn’t so I called to remind you.”
(What level are we at?)
“Yeah, we’ll sit together tomorrow.” Is nine buses too many for just over two hundred people, the ‘over’ part being the professors. They’re there to supervise our behavior. Even though they say they’re supervising…they’re all kind-hearted, Professor Pakorn, Professor Porntip, sweets, pork, and alcohol are all there.
(Yeah, I’m excited.)
“I’m excited too.”
(I haven’t been to a camp in so long. I’ve never been to Phu Sot Dao either, I just looked it up online, it’s so beautiful. Have you ever been?) The voice on the other end of the line was excited. I bet if he had a tail like a dog, it would be wagging.
“Never been either.”
(I wish tomorrow would come sooner, huh.)
“Me too.”
(Why don’t you seem excited, you bastard?) Hey, why are you scolding me?
“I am excited. You can’t see my face, so you don’t know.”
(Really? What kind of face are you making?)
“Excited.”
(I thought you were dead inside, going somewhere far but not excited.)
“I’m not excited about Phu Sot Dao.”
(Oh, you bastard. You-)
“I’m excited because I get to go with you.” Honestly, even if it’s just to the end of the street, if the person walking beside me is you…I’d still be excited.
“Yawn.”
“Eek! Phu, that is gross, why yawn without covering your mouth!” the star from the medical faculty slapped her best friend’s back. She made a disgusted face and walked over to Tang. Ouch, I feel the pain for you, Phu, go get Tang to apply some ointment.
We were all gathered in the university’s central auditorium…what a pitiful group name. In the end, Boss used his power to force everyone to wear the same color shirt, and from being noticeable because of our looks, we’re even more noticeable now because of the shirt color. While others wear muted tones, we’re the only ones in yellow.
“Everyone’s here now. Mostly first and second years, huh? So, I’ll refer to myself as ‘Phii’ then, my name is Sao, I’m in my fourth year at Engineering. You can call me ‘Most Beautiful Phii Sao’. Feel free to ask anything, I don’t mind.” This senior is from my faculty. She likes to dress in a boyish, tomboy style, often sitting at the four-way junction teasing guys from other faculties who pass by…
“Most Beautiful Phii Sao!”
One guy raised his hand. Oh, that’s my senior, do you remember him? He’s the one who signed my name with a flourish, seems like he’s changed a bit…did you braid dreadlocks!! Damn…from rogue to even more rogue, you! Why are all the seniors in my faculty so wild, it’s exhausting.
“What’s up, Nong Sen?”
“I have a question.” My code senior stood up to face off with the senior girl…oh no, I need to rush to tell the rector that the janitors are about to fight.
“Go ahead and ask.”
“Being this beautiful…”
“Oh, go spend money on some snacks.”
“Being this tall…”
“It’s genetic, junior, this is what they call a model’s figure…but, are you going to ask if I have a boyfriend yet? I haven’t, I’ve been single for centuries.”
“No, that’s not what I was going to ask.”
“Oh, then what?”
“Do you have balls down there?”
“You bastard!!” Thud!!
R.I.P
Rest in peace, Sen…I won’t forget the times we had together.
“Alright, let’s get to the point, I won’t talk much because you juniors probably don’t want to listen. We’ll go to Uttaradit for four days; the first two days we’ll plant trees and do various activities at the park office. The remaining two days we’ll go sightseeing at the top of Phu Sot Dao.” The travel review websites say the hike up is very tough; from the park office to the top of Phu Sot Dao, you have to go over several hills, each one with names like…’Hill of Death’, hearing that gives me motivation.
Phii Sao said we’ll camp on the lawn in front of the park office, we can bathe at the waterfall or in the bathroom, whichever we prefer. The place where we’ll plant the trees is deep in the forest; in the past, there were trees there, but now due to forest fires and illegal logging, only stumps and roots remain.
“Good news. We have an additional host, give a round of applause for Phii
San!”
“Scream!! Phii San is so handsome! Did your parents feed you Ohmo Plus or what, how can you be this white! Are those eyes or rice grains, how can they be so sharp and mysterious, Phii San! Is that a nose or a rhino’s horn, so sharp and beautiful! Are those pants or missiles, why do they look so ready for battle!! Scream!! You’re out of this world, into the galaxy, P’San!!”
It’s not a woman’s voice, it’s Boss’s voice, clapping and cheering loudly. You might wonder why he’s cheering for P’San so enthusiastically without any regard for his husband…P’San is his code 4th year senior in the faculty, you know, it’s all about supporting code line business.
“Oh, such flattery between uncle and nephew, Phii San, please introduce yourself to the juniors.” The female host teased. This senior once flirted with Boss for four days before stopping, giving the reason, ‘Boss is too wild, I like quiet types like my husband.’ Now I understand…
“Yes…uh, my name is Sun…that’s all. Ha ha.” After speaking, Phii Sun scratched the back of his neck out of embarrassment. The whole sentence was nothing but ‘yes’ and…
“Squeal!!”
That was enough to get screams from the shy deer and monkeys. Phii Sun is shy, Boss’s code senior is shy, his junior is shy, everyone in this code line is shy…everyone except Boss, my friend. The seniors in the older years like to tease that Boss is Phii Sun’s child and his line raised, but actually, he get babied by Phii Shin, who is Merk’s code line senior, and that line is all mischievous…all except Merk.
Let’s switch…
“Who is he?” The person next to me asked after being silent for a while. I almost forgot you were sitting here, Duen. If you and your friends are going to eat and be silent like this…
“He’s Boss’s code senior, why are you eating like this?” I used a tissue to wipe the corner of Duen’s mouth, which was stained with MSG, it even got to his ear…I swear, I thought you were bathing in it, not eating.
“I have to compete to eat with them.” Duen pointed at his friends, making me look over. I saw that the others were in a similar state, only Ting was eating leisurely. Not that there’s any reason. She went and took the snacks from them, so the rest had to fight for it, oh my…
“Didn’t you buy stuff this morning too?” This morning, I stopped at the convenience store for him, and there was plenty of food, from snacks to all sorts of things.
“We did, but I didn’t want to open it yet. We have to steal snacks from friends! It’s the pride of a hunter!”
Hunt your dad…
“Okay, okay. Then don’t get too messy.” Duen nodded and went back into what he called the ‘arena’. The main contenders were Phu and Ram, are you also playing with them?
“Alright, ladies, calm down first. Let’s continue, this volunteer camp isn’t just about planting trees and going back home, we want everyone to get to know each other. Seniors, please distribute the name tags.” With the host’s voice ending, we each got a pink name tag to hold. So proud, I made these myself…oh, my group used string.
“Phii Sun wants the juniors to write their names on these, nicknames or real names are fine.” P’Sun said into the microphone before walking down to distribute the markers to those at the front of the line.
“Phii Sun, I want to write my real name, but there’s a small problem.”
One fierce girl raised her hand. I know her; she’s in the group of beautiful, kind-hearted but tough girls, which is the transgender association at our university. I don’t know who founded it, but it’s been around long enough to have a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. At first, I was puzzled about why they needed a treasurer because they didn’t seem to have much need for money. They explained, ‘We collect money from those girls who get hit on by girls. We keep collecting, and when we have enough, we give all the money to the person who gets hit on the most by men, so they can go for breast augmentation and beauty treatments,’ do they really have that?
“Yes? Isn’t there enough space?”
“No, I am tired of my old surname. Now I wants to change it, can I borrow
Phii Sun’s?”
“Wow!!”
“Don’t, Jamren! Go find another victim, this one’s taken!” If you’re going to say that through the microphone, sister. What am I even watching, I forgot we’re here to plant trees.
“You girl! I told you not to call my name before my debut!”
“I’ll call it, why? Jamren, Jamren, Jamren!” Let them be…
“And what about you?” I nudged the person next to me. Today, Duen is wearing a sheep-patterned shirt, which is cute; he said his mom bought it for him when they went to a pig farm…huh? The yellow shirt makes him look even whiter than usual. No, I should say it makes all of us look whiter than usual.
“What?”
“Want to change your surname to my surname, huh?”
“Always finding excuses to flirt, huh?” Not only not embarrassed, but he also gives me the middle finger. That’s harsh.
Soon, we were ready to travel. Phii Sao let everyone choose which bus they wanted to board according to their preference. We chose bus number seven. There’s nothing special about it; Boss just likes this number.
“Be careful when you walk…wow, I just noticed, that yellow-shirt group is so handsome, can I hit on them?” The senior girl teased when my group reached the bus, even blowing kisses, making everyone around look at us with one expression. How could they not look, the sister used the loudspeaker…
“Come on, scream!! Father of the child!!”
“I want that one, you know, the one in the yellow shirt.”
“The whole group is in yellow.”
“Yeah. I want the whole group!”
“I envy that woman, having all these men around her, what kind of good deed did she do?”
And there were plenty more teasing remarks. They nudged each other with embarrassment when Tang and Boss smiled, always like this. While in the auditorium, we sat in the corner where they probably didn’t see us. That’s good, I don’t want to stand out, it’s too chaotic…like now.
“Jealous? Yes…I used to think that way. If not, I wouldn’t understand how painful it is to listen to them flirting with each other. I thought I was over it…but you guys keep bringing it up!! Great! You should try being me. You’d know how worthless you feel, I feel like I’m just a speck of dust or lint on someone’s clothes. I’m proof that beauty alone isn’t enough…you need to have something more, Thai guys won’t come flirting otherwise.”
Tingting is the one who makes me feel the most guilty in my life…
“Boss, I feel sorry for Tingting. Do something about it.” Tang nudged the flirtatious wife. At first, Boss looked like he didn’t understand, but then he nodded with a smile. What? What are you guys going to do? What does ‘do something’ mean?
“No need to scream, ladies. Even if we’re handsome…there’s a husband who’s even more handsome.”
“…”
“Shit, it’s dead silent, oh. It’s okay, Tingting, we’ll comfort you ourselves.” After saying that, Boss walked over to pat the shoulder of the only pretty girl in the group. Not very flirtatious, are you?
“Senior…I think I might faint. Can we get on the bus now?”
“What’s wrong? Because of what they said, right?”
“What you said!”
“Oh, karma.”
After the conversation ended, we stopped fooling around and walked up to the bus. Wow…I thought there would be fewer people, but from what I see, it’s almost like standing room only. There are nine buses, two at the back for luggage, so the seventh bus is the last one where people can sit, each bus can seat forty people. We have over two hundred people, so that’s about twenty-eight per bus, but you guys are all squeezed into one bus!! …Can we change buses now?
“Bohn, Bohn.” Duen nudged my shoulder. We chose to sit at the front. No, I should say they reserved spots for us.
“Hmm?”
“Can I sit by the window?”
“Sure, want to look at the scenery?”
“Uh huh.” Duen doesn’t often travel far from home. And this time, going with me, it’s natural to be excited…right?
It didn’t take long for the bus to start moving away from the university. It’s now 4 AM, and there aren’t many cars on the road; it’s not yet work time. Try leaving at 10 AM…you wouldn’t leave the city all day.
“Let me see your name tag.” The person next to me leaned over to look at my pink name tag.
“Sure, but I haven’t written on it yet.”
“Why haven’t you written on it?”
“Otherwise, other people might come to flirt with me.” I raised my eyebrows teasingly a couple of times.
“Ew! You self-absorbed jerk. No one would flirt with you; they’d change direction and run to me as soon as they see my face. Heh.” He said confidently, puffing his chest out and showing his tag which read, “Phii Duen”…even though he’s one of the juniors in the camp.
From the initial chatter and laughter, the bus started to quiet down until all that was left was the sound of the engine and the air conditioning. In front of us, there was Tang and King, behind us were Boss and Tee, and opposite us were Merk and Bom, Phu with Chai, and Ram with King.
I think I should investigate the story of those two in the back.
It’s starting to get strange; the other day, I drove past King’s condo and saw them both coming out together. It’s not just a coincidence that they meet; I’ve seen it several times. Others in the group have seen it too, with Tang and Phu seeing it the most since they live in that area.
“Bohn, want some snacks?” Duen asked, offering me a large bag of Lay’s. If I get a stomach ache, it’s not my fault, Duen, you’ve been eating since we were in the Little Elephant auditorium and haven’t stopped…oh, the central auditorium isn’t called Little Elephant, but there’s an elephant fountain in front of it, so people at the university call it that.
“Huh, eat well, then. Oh, Duen, we haven’t set our relationship status on Facebook yet.”
“Huh? Whatever. Why set it? Everyone at the university already knows. No need to set it, this is so tasty, I can’t stop eating.” Can you please stop eating for a moment, Duen? Even if I want you to gain weight.
“No way, we have to set it.”
“Tee’s friend, what are the people in front of us talking about?”
“Yeah, Boss’s friend, what’s this about setting or not setting?”
“Most annoying, Boss can’t stand it.”
“Tee can’t stand it either.”
Who would pair you guys up like this? Why can’t it be Merk and Boss, Tee and Bom like before? If I had a choice, I’d put Merk and Ram in the back…it would be so quiet, but it would be interesting to find out what they’d talk about.
“So, you’re not setting it?” Duen spoke while wiping his mouth with his sleeve, hey, and then you wiped your face with it too? You’ll definitely get acne, you foolish doctor.
“Set it.” I crossed my arms and spoke firmly.
“Why set it? I already told you everyone in the university knows.”
“I want the whole world to know so no one will mess with you.” After I finished speaking, the listener’s face turned bright red, he turned to look out the window, probably not wanting me to see him blushing…sorry, I can see your face clearly in the reflection.
“Uh.”
“What, are you going to make me suspect you have a lover? No need, I
trust you.” Suddenly, he handed me his phone while still looking out the window, his reflection clear.
“It’s not…”
“Huh…”
“I left my Facebook logged in, do whatever you want with it.” The other party spoke in a muffled voice, covering his face with his hands before repeatedly banging his head against the window. What kind of illness is this, hurting oneself when embarrassed?
Forget it, let’s focus on this instead…
“Duen, can I have your hand?” I nudged the person next to me. When I finished speaking, Duen immediately gave me a glaring look. Hey, what did I do wrong to deserve that look?
“Are you treating me like a dog?!”
“Oh…”
“No. I just want to take a picture of us holding hands.”
“…”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I reached out, grabbed his hand, and lifted it to a height I was satisfied with. Duen turned his face away, but this was fine…
Click
The photo came out so well that I had to smile with satisfaction. My arm was almost half in the frame, our hands were clasped, but I wasn’t focusing on the hands…I was focusing on my love.
Bon Ss: currently dating Krisda Duennhaw
My love isn’t just about holding hands and walking; I hold your heart and follow it. 🙂
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