Forth groaned. His head hurt so bad, so did his whole body. He looked up at the ceiling above him and remembered something.
He fell off the bike and rolled to the ground, then saw something, no, someone was staring at him.
Wide eyes with charcoal black eyes, thick eyebrows and long, curly eyelashes. A sharp nose and cherry red lips, above a small face with milky white skin.
Forth closed his eyes again and thought, he might have died when he fell and saw an angel greet him. Forth opened his eyes again. Hey, if he's already dead, why does the palate above him look so familiar and smell like this... grilled meat?
"Ah. You're awake. Thank goodness." Forth turned slowly towards the source of the voice.
He was stunned. "You... am I really dead?" mumbled Forth confused.
The angel he had seen earlier was now actually standing next to him.
Forth just realized that he was lying in bed, in ... hey, this is where he was going before he died. The villa belongs to Grandma Nayna, her grandmother's sister.
The man next to him smiled and Forth was mesmerized. He is very handsome? Ford was confused. He is also very beautiful. And the way he laughs. Ouch. Forth grimaced while holding his head.
"Hey," the man looked worried. He placed the bowl in his hand on the small table beside the bed and sat down by the Forth.
He bent down and studied Forth's face carefully. He touched Forth's forehead. "You don't have a fever anymore, but your head hurts and you still need a lot of rest."
"Do angels smell like vanilla?" asked Forth. His eyes didn't move for a second from the face in front of him.
The man looked at Forth, then smiled and shook his head. "I don't know. I've never met an angel. Why do you ask that?"
"You smell like vanilla and I thought I was dead and you were the angel assigned to escort me to hell."
"Umm...are you a bad person? Why don't you choose to go to heaven? Even if you're really dead," the man chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you, but you're not dead and I'm not an angel either."
"Who are you? Isn't this Grandma Nayna's villa?" asked Forth, glancing around him. He is in the guest room. Forth always slept here when he came to visit Grandma Nayna.
The man looked surprised. "You know Nanna Nay?"
"She is my grandmother's sister. This villa was bought by her husband for their 50th wedding anniversary, five years ago and two weeks after the party, her husband passed away."
"Your grandmother's sister? How do you know this place? According to Nanna, no one knows this place other than her and her husband. Even their children don't know. They deliberately kept this place a secret, after ..."
"After Grandpa Lim became very sick," Forth continued. "I saw them at the hospital while they were checking themselves. I've been taking care of them ever since, including when Grandpa Lim wanted to buy this villa."
"Wow," the man in front of Forth looked surprised. "Do you know why they kept this place a secret?"
"As far as I know, there is a problem in Grandpa Lim's family and they haven't been in touch for a long time. They came back to Thailand since Grandpa Lim was diagnosed with a brain tumor, six or seven years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Grandma Nay only told my grandmother about returning home. There seems to be an agreement between them. My grandmother once asked me to take care of them both, after she found out that I knew of their condition."
"Are you ... your grandmother named Shanee Vachiravit Jamorhnoom?"
Forth nodded. "Grandma Nay is her adopted sister. My grandmother's parents adopted Grandma Nay when she was twelve."
"Who are you?"
"Forth. My father is Gary Jamorhnoom, Grandma Shanee's youngest child."
"I've heard of you guys."
"Hey! You haven't answered my question. Who are you and why are you in this villa? What is your relationship with Grandma Nay?"
"My adopted mother is Grandpa Lim's niece. He came to my mother and told her about his illness, asking my mother to help with his finances and inheritance, including this villa. Grandma Nay specifically asked me to take care of this villa before she went to Switzerland."
"Switzerland?" asked Forth in surprise. "Why did she choose that country and why has my grandmother never said anything about it?"
"Maybe not yet? Grandma Nay just left early last month and I also only had time to come here last week."
"Your name?"
"Beam."
Forth's stomach rumbled. Beam smiled. "It's a bit complicated, our relationship with the owner of this house. I don't know why we happened to be here. However, just leave it as it is. Now you have to eat and take medicine again. I'm afraid you'll catch a cold again if you think too much. I will fix your bandage after you finish eating."
"You act like a doctor."
"I'm a doctor."
"Uh?"
"I'm on vacation. I purposely came here because I needed to take some photos. The scenery here is nice and the atmosphere is calm too."
"You're a doctor? Why take photos?"
"I love photography. I was chasing a beautiful red-tailed bird when you fell off your motorbike."
Forth was silent, then put his spoon hard in the bowl. Beam was surprised. "So you made me fall, by jumping suddenly in front of my motorbike just for a bird?"
Beam gulped.
*****
