Marriage Contract

[18]

The following day, Arthit took Kongpob to the Traditional Vietnamese Medical Clinic for his appointment.

During the car ride, Kongpob could not help himself from asking, "Arthit, why are you so good to me?"

"Because I'm a good man." Arthit stated in all seriousness.

"Seriously." Kongpob was speechless.

"It's because you're irritating." Arthit shot him a cold glance, "Your pain-filled groans are so noisy."

"I don't groan, alright." Kongpob retorted. It was still not the coldest time as yet, and his legs did not have much of an aching feeling. Furthermore, even if
it was that time, he could still endure it.
He certainly did not believe Arthit did so for those reasons, but regardless of what they really were, it was all okay, but he would just keep that to himself.

Having arrived at the Traditional Vietnamese Medicinal Clinic, Arthit
stopped the car, and he went in with Kongpob.

Since they had made an appointment with Dr. Apinya Maharat, the two followed the nurse to her office.
In her office, Apinya was currently writing something down. Upon seeing the two enter, she put away her pen, stood up, then smiled, "You can
both come in."

She was roughly between thirty to forty years of age, had cropped hair, wore
rimless glasses, and appeared very friendly.

"Doctor Maharat." Arthit nodded to her in greeting, with Kongpob also following suit to say hello.

"Hello you two, please have a seat." She directed them to their seats with a wave of her hand, Arthit patted Kongpob, sitting together with him.

"Please, explain the situation to me." Apinya asked.
Kongpob explained the matter himself, with Apinya taking notes as she listened across from them, asking a few key questions in between. After she was done with her notes, she put away her book, got up, then said, "I'll take a look at you in the physiotherapy room right next door."

Kongpob not knowing how critical his condition was, followed her to the
physiotherapy room, with Arthit.

She came then came closer to Kongpob, squeezed his knee, asking,"Compared to normal, where does it hurt?"
Because he was to receive acupuncture, the pants he had worn were too
thick, and as a result inconvenient, so Kongpob changed into a pair of shorts
he had prepared beforehand. Following this, Apinya asked him to lay
down on the bed.

Kongpob sat up, pointing to a few places for her to see. Nodding, Dr. Apinya proceeded to press a few acupuncture points on his leg, asking whether or not he felt anything with each one she pressed. When she pressed a certain acupoint, Kongpob's brows wrinkled slightly, and Arthit rubbed the back of his hands to comfort him.

"It shakes, and feels like l'm being stabbed by nails." Kongpob described,
"When it's serious, I can't move my legs that much."

"What measures did you take when it got to that stage?" Apinya inquired.

"Medicated plasters (pain relief patches), or medicinal liquor rubs." Kongpob
explained. This was due to those methods being the simplest and cheapest ones to deal with it.

Apinya jotted down Kongpob's condition, saying, "Ointments like
those can only relieve symptoms, and they won't address the root cause. In
addition, a condition such as yours became this severe due to it being
delayed treatment for so long."

"Then i..."

"How should we treat it?" Arthit asked, his brows knitted.

"Today the first step will be acupuncture, we'll arrange the next course of treatment later." She explained, "Have you ever had acupuncture treatments before?"