MYENGINEER, CHAPTER 6: Pictures
[Duenhaw]
Now I’m in the medical building, walking to my next class. I just rode over to ask that scoundrel at the traffic light what kind of flowers he wanted. Just asking, because the guy can’t decide; this one is beautiful, that one is good, another one is excellent, and he wants that one too, even if it’s not for me.
Oh, forgot to tell my good friends that I met a senior I know. Better go tell them on LINE…
Tingting, 23 missed calls
Tang, 15 missed calls
Phu, 14 missed calls
Ram, 19 missed calls
Before I could even open any app, I was startled by the flood of messages and missed calls from my close friends displayed on the screen. Phii Duen is dead for sure. When I regained my composure, I opened the group chat, oh my, 140 new messages. They must be cursing me out, I better go apologize.
Tingting, BeautifulFigureAndAlsoGorgeous: Have you met the senior you know, Duen?
Phii Tang, Good Person Has Money But His Heart is Still Empty Angry Angry: Duen, answer, damn it!
Ram: It’s been a while.
Tingting, BeautifulFigureAndAlsoGorgeous: Is something wrong? I’ll call him first.
Phii Phu Mischievous Dog-Mouthed But Ferocious: Yeah, call him.
Tingting, BeautifulFigureAndAlsoGorgeous: He’s not picking up.
Phii Tang, Good Person Has Money But His Heart is Still Empty Angry Angry: He didn’t pick up mine either.
Ram: Class is over now. Me and Phu will go look for Duen at Gear Plaza.
Reading this, I immediately started sweating. This is bad. If Ram comes looking for me like this, I’m going to get a thorough scolding. Goodbye, Phii Duen’s teenage life.
Phii TangGoodPersonHasMoneyButHisHeartisStillEmptyAngryAngry:
Yeah, yeah, let us know when you find him.
Phii PhuFizzyFoulMouthedButFierce: We haven’t found him yet. Don’t know where he went. He didn’t get dragged away by girls, did he? The girls in our faculty are wilder than thirteen wild boars, Duen.
Ram: Should we report to the police?
DuenhawCoolAndHandsomeButTrulyInLove: Calm down, everyone. Phii Duen just forgot to turn on his phone, sorry, Y_Y
That’s it…they flooded the group chat until it was practically on fire, but I expected it would be like this. As I said, they’re worried sick about me.
Phii PhuFizzyFoulMouthedButFierce: Damn. Do you know how much you scared us?
TangGoodPersonHasMoneyButHisHeartisStillEmptyAngryAngry: I was about to file a missing person report! Where have you been?
TingtingBeautifulFigureAndAlsoGorgeous: When I see you, you’re dead, Duenhaw.
Ram: It’s good you’re safe. Next time, tell us before you go anywhere, Duen.
People are worried about you.
DuenhawCoolAndHandsomeButTrulyInLove: Sorry. I’m about to get to the room. See you there/bow down.
I was planning to make a pun like, ‘I didn’t go anywhere, I’m always in your heart,’ but now doesn’t seem like the right time. Not waiting for more text scolding, I opened the door to the room and met with Tang’s murderous glare. Each of them was holding a phone, probably cursing me out. I didn’t stand there to receive their glares for long. I quickly walked straight to them.
“Uh…”
Before I could even apologize, my two best friends started scolding me in unison, making everyone in the class jump. No one has ever seen them scold like this. Usually, we speak nicely to each other in our faculty.
“Why would you turn off your phone!” Their voices harmonized better than a choir. My friends can produce such melodious, beautiful, and harmonious sounds, with their low and high notes blending perfectly. They could be sopranos.
Huh…
“Uh…sorry, I forgot.” I went over to hug them, acting cute. Couldn’t help it, forget about being tough. Right now, I need to save my life. Tang isn’t so bad, but Ting, she’s hard to appease when she’s angry, and she’s scary too, especially in a situation like this, her anger multiplies by eight hundred thousand times.
“How could you forget! We were so worried about you, my heart skipped a beat when Phu said he couldn’t find you.”
“Don’t do this again, listen to our hearts, you’ll see how fast they’re beating. Don’t you know how important you are to us?”
“Sorry, sorry…” I murmured softly and tightened my embrace. They nodded in acknowledgment before loosening the hug. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tingting’s eyes well up with clear tears.
“Don’t do this again, I mean it, I couldn’t handle losing you.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep my phone on loud.”
“Okay, okay, let’s stop the drama, the teacher’s coming in. Go sit down.” Not long after that, the teacher came in, talking in some language I couldn’t understand. Maybe I’m dumb or the lesson is just hard, whatever. Even if I don’t understand, I still have Tang to tutor me. He’s good, really good at pulling me through, and he doesn’t care about the grades either.
“Duen, who did you go to meet?” The person I was talking about whispered to ask, see, even now he’s not interested in studying.
“Why do you need to know?” I whispered back.
“Come on, I’m curious too, why? He’s more than just an acquaintance, right?”
“Shut up, I’m not talking to you anymore.”
“Oh shit, talk to me first, I’m burning up with curiosity, gossip is my life.”
“Look at the board.” Thank you, Tingting, for helping Phii Duen.
“But…is he handsome?” I just thanked you a moment ago, didn’t I?
“He’s so-so. Nothing special, kind of rough around the edges, looks like he’s been through several assassination attempts, satisfied?” They looked stunned by my answer before turning to whisper to each other.
“What, I thought he’d be handsome.”
“No, I think he’s cute too, Duen must be the pursuer, trust me.”
“You have no sense in these things, Tang, I think he’ll have a husband soon,
Tingting bets on it!” Is this what they call gossip on fire? If you’re going to gossip, why not do it further away!
Ding!
Shit! I forgot to turn off my phone’s sound!!
“That medical student over there, please show some respect. I’m teaching right now.”
“Sorry, professor…” I raised my hand in apology. The first thing I did after she turned back to the board was to mute my phone, then I checked the person who got me scolded by the professor. My dad would skin me and throw me into the sea, watch…but I guess he can’t do that anymore. My dad, that is.
DirekFatherTheCoolestRichestMostStylishInThreeWorlds: This evening, you’re picking up Daonuea, right, my son?
DuenhawHandsome Cool And Silly But Truly in Love: Yes, sir.
DirekFatherTheCoolestRichestMostStylishInThreeWorlds: Good, look after my daughter well, don’t go too far from her.
DuenhawHandsome Cool And Silly But Truly in Love: Trust me! She won’t get lost.
DirekFatherTheCoolestRichestMostStylishInThreeWorlds: No, I’m not asking you to look after Daonuea.
DuenhawHandsome Cool And Silly But Truly in Love: Huh?
DirekFatherTheCoolestRichestMostStylishInThreeWorlds: I’m having
Daonuea look after you. If you get lost again, it’ll be a disaster. You’re unique, a limited edition, it was hard to make you. Don’t stray from her, she can watch over you, don’t worry, my daughter is capable.
DuenhawHandsome Cool And Silly But Truly in Love: …
And that’s how the father-son conversation ended. Are other dads like this, or is it just mine? Whatever, back to studying. But not even a minute later, my phone vibrated again, showing a notification of a new friend on LINE from a saved number. Who is this?
‘Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT’…I almost choked on air! You saved this name, aren’t you embarrassed for me, the phone owner? At least be embarrassed for yourself.
Duennhaw: You saved the name without any shame, you bastard, and what’s this…’I Love You, Nong Duen likes this’?
My name on LINE is Duennhaw, but the name in the group, I can’t change that myself. If I used that name, people would think I’m crazy.
Rrrr
Surprisingly, he replied quickly. I thought he’d take longer, must be pretty free, huh. No one to talk to, I see.
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT: I just put the truth out there.
I pouted, raised my camera to take a selfie showing my middle finger, then sent it to him. At this moment, no sticker could express my annoyance.
Duennhaw: Sends a picture of himself showing the middle finger
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT: What? Want something from me? Here, but you have to take it off yourself, sends picture
Shit…I almost choked on my saliva. Do you know what Bohn sent? It was a picture of his belly, the most disgusting one!
“Ugh! Hey, Nong Duen, what are you looking at?” The sharp voice of the beautiful medical student (Shaya) rang out as her slender hand grabbed my phone. She and Tang zoomed in and out on the picture Bohn sent until my screen almost broke.
“It’s as you see.”
“Wow, those abs are gorgeous, and he’s handsome too. Who is he?”
“Is this the person you went to see?” I shrugged, took my phone back, and made a face like I didn’t know what they were talking about.
Duennhaw: Have I ever told you that you’re a huge pain in the ass? And why send such an ugly picture? Phii Duen can’t stand it! Sends a picture of himself making a disgusted face
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
You say it’s ugly, but you took a long time to respond, Duen, where were you?
Zooming in on my picture, huh?
“Damn you, Bohn, you’ll see…” I, Bohn, muttered, doing everything without paying attention to my surroundings. I didn’t realize that all my actions were under the scrutiny of my two best friends since they grabbed my phone to look at the stranger’s picture.
Duennhaw: Hah, your body isn’t even a fraction of mine, sends a sticker of a rabbit smirking
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
Where’s the proof? Send it.
Duennhaw: Your dad, I’m not as shameless as you.
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
You’re just embarrassed because your body can’t compare to mine, huh.
Duennhaw: Hah! I’ll send it to you! Wait a sec!!
Damn it, his hand moves faster than my thoughts, what should I do? I don’t even like taking selfies, there are hardly any pictures of me on my phone, where should I get one from?
“Hey, do you have any pictures of me?” I turned to my helper because Ting loves photography. In her spare time, she goes out with her multi-hundredthousand-baht camera to take pictures at various locations. She often photographs us, and her photos have won so many awards I can’t even count them all, (most of the money she spends on lenses comes from those awards). I’ve heard that Ting is now a photographer at some company too, my friend is so talented.
“Huh? Yeah, I have some, do you want them?” Damn, she really does have them!
“Let me have one.”
“What kind do you want?” He asked while scrolling through the photos on his phone. Normally, he saves all the photos he takes on his computer, but if it’s photos of us, he keeps them on his phone.
“One that’s extra handsome.”
“Huh, wait for me, I have one…so hot it’ll make you whistle.”
“Huh…I don’t get it, but you do have a picture of me, right? Send it to me on LINE.”
“Okay.”
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
Where did you disappear to, you idiot? Oh…probably went to edit photos.
Duennhaw: Idiot my ass, and why would I need to edit? My body is so good that Korean models would beg for mercy.
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
Really? But from what I’ve seen with my own eyes and touched, I think it’s just average.
Duennhaw: Fuck you, you’ll see me soon, wait for me, let me get a photo from my personal photographer.
Phii
BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT: You have a personal photographer? That’s not ordinary.
Duennhaw: Heh, who am I? This is Phii Duen, for someone of my caliber, ordinary doesn’t exist.
“I’ve sent it, hope you like it, heh heh.” Let’s see…uh, is that me?
“Why so quiet? I think this photo is super beautiful, I even set it as my wallpaper.”
“But I think it looks…”
“What? …Shit, Duen, you’re really something.” This thing is awesome, when he saw Tang couldn’t see clearly, he moved closer to let him take a better look. That’s great, you guys.
“See, I took this picture when I went to sleep over at Ram’s place last time. He had just woken up, so I secretly took the shot.”
“Really? He looks so good when he’s not posing. Send it to me, I want it.”
“Sure, I’ll send it to the group on LINE, I took it a while ago but forgot to show it.” Let them talk among themselves. Now I’m thinking whether to send it to Bohn or not. It’s a good-looking photo, it makes me feel like a model. Ram’s pajamas look so good they don’t even look like pajamas. Plus, the light from the window makes the photo even more appealing.
“Should I send it…?”
“Who are you going to show it to?”
“Yeah, but…do I really look good?” I’m not sure, the picture looks good, but my gut tells me otherwise.
“Absolutely.” If you guys are going to agree to this unanimously.
“Am I handsome?”
“Handsome.” Why does your voice sound so weird, Ting?
“Is my physique good?”
“Awesome.” Am I just imagining it, or do you sound high-pitched too, Tang?
“So, who has a better physique, me or the guy you showed us?”
“…You, obviously. Nothing can overshadow your hotness, my friend.” With confirmation from my two best friends, I didn’t hesitate; I went into the LINE app and sent the picture directly to Bohn’s personal chat.
Phii BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT: Where are you? I’ve been waiting for you for ages, you’ve made me go through several waters already.
Duennhaw: Wake up, finishing quickly means you’re not tough .
Phii BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
I haven’t even told you what water it was.
But…want to try it?
Duennhaw: No, I’m not in the mood.
Phii BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
You have a sharp tongue, Duen, don’t come crying to me later.
Duennhaw: Hah. Never.
Phii BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
So where’s your picture?
Duennhaw: Huh, move your blurry photo aside, Bohn, mine is a million times better.
Phii BohnHandsomeandRichSohandsomethatNongDuenScreamsthatHeLikesIT:
Prove it, don’t just talk, let’s see it.
Duennhaw: How’s this, handsome enough, sends picture
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