my future roommate

Chapter 18: Two Sarawat vs One Tine

"Mom..."

Tine's POV

"Tine, what are you doing here?" She looked up from the table and finally noticed my presence.

"Hi Mom..."

I hadn't seen her in 2 months and yet, she looked like she had aged a decade. Her wrinkles were more prominent, she had big dark circles, and she looked frail.

I could see the tears forming in mom's eyes and I couldn't hold myself anymore. I hugged her instantly.

"I missed you, mom" My voice was quivering as I tried to talk through my tears.

"If you missed me so much, then why Tine...just why didn't you pick up any of my calls? Why didn't you just come home?"

I looked at her all confused. "Mom, what are you talking about? You are the one who has not been picking up my calls!"

"Tine...why, just why would I ignore my own son? I tried calling you everyday son, you never picked up my calls. I didn't even know where you were living now. I was planning to go to your college next week."

Next week... Mom had her accident on the expressway near the college. Was she really coming there to see me? Was I the reason she got into that accident?

"I tried calling you too mom, but you ignored my calls. I thought..you hated me for.. coming out. I thought you hated me for being who I am." I sat down on the chair next to her, looking down at the table, trying to hide my tears, unable to meet his eyes. "I am sorry I couldn't be the son you wanted me to be."

"No, no. Tine. I would never hate you. I was angry that day when your father asked you to leave the house because it all came as a shock to me, but I could never hate you, Tine. I was angry because I had to find it out from someone. I was angry because I thought you didn't trust me enough to share something so important."

"Why—why didn't you stop me mom? Why didn't you say anything to dad?"

"I am sorry Tine. I just..I didn't think that things would get so bad. I thought it was just a spur in the moment thing and Thipat would bring you back home by night. But then-- then your father only got angrier after you left. I have hardly ever seen him at home since then. He is rarely even in the country. When he is, he refuses to talk to me even. Tine, I—I have lived in that house my whole life but I have never felt that lonely.

Tine, sweetheart — Not stopping you that day will be the biggest regret of my life. I had no idea I wouldn't get to see your face for two whole months. I called you the same night you left to ask you to come back home, but you haven't been picking up my phone since then. Then a few days later, I even tried calling you from a friend's cellphone, but your number was switched off."

I sat there taking in mom's words. Something... something didn't fit here. I had changed my number after a week of leaving home because I broke my phone. But that was still 7 days. Mom should have been able to get in touch with me before that.

"Mom, will you show me your phone? I think there is something wrong. We should have been able to connect to each other, but none of our calls got through. There must be a reason."

She handed me her phone and I started looking through it, searching for any issues, but everything seemed fine, until...

"Mom, you blocked my old number! And it seems that any number that isn't already saved in your Contacts get automatically blocked. This is why we couldn't call each other. Did you block me?"

"Tine, I don't even know you can block people on phone. I don't know how the blocks things work"

"Did someone take your phone on the day I left the house?"