Finding My Place ⚙️ Knot (a SOTUS fanfic)

vol.4: s p i r i t s

"I put my armor on,
show you how strong I am.
I put my armor on,
I'll show you that I am.
I'm unstoppable."
- Unstoppable - Sia

⚙️

"Didn't you hear what I just asked?" Arthit questioned, his eyes sweeping the room as he stood at the front with the other juniors, their hands behind their backs which were as straight as pieces of lumber. "I asked, how many of you are there?"

Silence settled heavily over the room as the students either stared at the ground or looked around wearily at one another. But no one answered the question.

"Answer my question!" He demanded, anger creeping into his voice. "No answer. That means the whole day you spent together, none of you cared about your friends. You can't even recognize one another."

I scratched my cheek, keeping my gaze locked on my shoelace. We're not friends, though. Just because we're in the same class doesn't automatically make us friends. Surely he doesn't expect us to be friends with every single person in our class or year, right? That's just insane.

Arthit started walking toward the group, his eyes locked onto a target. I followed his gaze to a few seats down from where I sat and noticed he was staring at Kong. Oh come on, not again... what is this guy's damage? He made his way to stand in front of Kong.

"Kongpob, 0062, stand up."

As ordered, he pulled himself to his feet, looking down at the smaller man, but Arthit wasn't the least bit intimidated by the height difference.

"How many are you all?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you know?"

"I never counted us."

"It doesn't matter. Every question that I ask, you must be able to have an answer. Understand?"

Kong seemed reluctant to answer, but finally said, "I understand."

Arthit reached into his pocket, pulling out the gear necklace and holding it up as high into the air as he could. "Do you see this gear?"

"Yes."

"This gear is the gear of your class. It represents the pride of the Faculty of Engineering and not just any individual. If you can't prove to me that you are ready to earn it, then leave this place. And I'll no longer consider you my junior."

Oh, if only I could. I would give anything to be able to walk out of this room for the final time, never to see the horrifying face of Arthit or Prem or the other upperclassmen. I just want to go home and hide under my covers like a child, reading my manga and pretending that the world outside of my room just simply didn't exist.

But I couldn't. Anong would never allow it and if she found out I did so, she would be furious. While I would be perfectly content going back to the states and to my shitty hole-in-the-wall apartment, I knew Taeho deserved better. He had earned this fancy new life of his, and I refused to be the reason that was ripped away from him.

"No, Mr. Kongpob, if I don't give you this gear, what will you do?"

Kong remained silent and Arthit shook his head, placing the necklace back into his pocket before turning around to return to his spot at the front of the room. "I'll take it from you," Kong declared.

Arthit spun back around, his eyes narrowed. "What did you just say?"

"If you don't give it to us, we'll just take it from you."

The other juniors shared surprised looks as a murmur went through the freshmen. My mouth fell open as I stared at Kong in disbelief. He really did have quite the pair on him, my god. If only I could harvest a fraction of that courage, I'd be set for life.