Marriage Contract

[11]

At noon, Kongpob  was roused from sleep by an incoming call. The one contacting him was Arthit, who then informed him that his lunch had
already arrived at the entrance, and for him to open the door to accept it.
Kongpob  hung up the phone, immediately heading to the entryway. There, just as expected, he saw someone waiting with a small box of food in their
hand. However, the clothes that person wore did not appear to be the ones
worn by a delivery worker but rather those of an office worker.

"Hello, are you Mr. Kongpob ? I'm Tod. The Boss told me to deliver this meal to you. "The other guy informed Kongpob  courteously."

"l am." Kongpob  took the small box of food, "I'm sorry for troubling you."

"You don't need to be, I'll leave first then." Tod left right after he
finished speaking.

After he descended from the apartment building, Tod called Arthit to report the completion of his mission. When the call ended, he looked back to gaze at the towering building behind him and thought, It turns out there's already a Mrs. Boss! And Mrs. Boss is a man! He looks so small!!

Kongpob  was unaware of Tod's thoughts so he had simply taken the food back into the house. Having opened the box, he discovered there were quite a few side dishes inside besides the congee. Each of those sides were kept in separate thermal containers to keep them warm, so upon him opening them, they would still be steaming hot.

At the sight of his lunch spread out atop the dining room table, Kongpob, for the very first time, was overtaken by an urge to call Arthit . He suddenly
really wanted to hear that man's voice. Just as a bit of hesitation held him, a
phone rang beside him, on it's screen was the display of just two little
characters ---Arthit Rojnapath.

Kongpob softly whispered that name, before he answered the call, saying,
"Hello."

"Have you eaten?" The man's voice flowed from the other end of the line,
accompanied by the sound of rustling papers.

"I'm about to." Kongpob  replied, "What about you, are you still working?"

"if l don't work how am I going to support you?" Arthit  said, responding to the boy's question with his own.

".... You don't need to raise me, I'm a grown up too." Kongpob  explained.

"Really?" Arthit  paused momentarily, "So are you blaming me for not coming to fetch you earlier and bring you back with me as a child-bride?"

"How could that be possible?" Kongpob  was now convinced of that man's ability to distort his meanings.

"What are you pointlessly fretting over? Even though I didn't get to look after
you as you grew up, I promise I'll take care of you, always." Arthit  said in reply.

".....You really are too much." Though Kongpob  responded that way, the
corners of his lips did lift themselves ever so slightiy.

"Alright, dinner will be delivered too, okay. I still have some business to take
care of so l'm hanging up." Arthit  explained just as he was about to end
the call.

"Hold on!" Kongpob  quickly called out to stop him.

"What is it?" Arthit  asked.

".....Order yourself something to eat earlier too... goodbye."Kongpob
uttered before rushing to hang up the phone.

At the end of the line, Arthit  released a gentle hum. His eyes had within them an almost imperceptible smile, not minding at all that Kongpob had cut off the call before him.

Prem, who had accompanied him to the meeting with their client and was currently right beside him, grabbed his own arms then looked at the man and said, "Your whole body reeks of lovesickness and it's giving me the
willies."