The Protector (EarthMix AU)

Chapter 15

Tian

I ended up letting Phupha drive to my old house since I was still on edge from the rough morning I'd had.

Somehow the information that I was meeting with our biggest competitor in Chiang Mai to discuss possible buyout had gotten out, and I'd spent the morning fielding phone calls from worried employees and one very angry union president.

To make matters worse, Mew had gone home sick so I'd been on my own.

"You did really great this morning," Phupha said and I glanced over at him.

His eyes kept shifting to me as he drove. He had been in my office when the news had broken but after the first couple of phone calls, I'd actually forgotten about him.

"Thanks," I murmured. "I'm not sure they believed me," I said.

"Your employees?" I nodded.

"So many of them worked for my dad... I could hear it in their voices, you know?"

"Hear what?"

"The disappointment... like I was letting them down." I turned to look out the window.
"Like I was letting him down."

I felt Phupha's hand close over mine. "He'd be proud, Tian. The way you handled yourself... they'd all be proud." I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes but I managed to keep them at bay.

I was trying to be like the man my father was. But as much as I'd hoped to feel that thing that New had felt when he'd joined the military... it hadn't happened to me yet.

My teachers and Mew said I had a head for business, but I still felt like a was playing a role... like I was trying to fill shoes that maybe weren't meant to be filled.

I glanced at Phupha whose hand was still covering mine.

"How did you know you wanted to be a doctor?" Phupha's grip on me tightened before he released me and I instantly regretted the question.

As much as I wanted us to be friends, I needed to remember that we weren't those kinds of friends. We were friends with boundaries... a lot of boundaries, if the tight look on Phupha's face was anything to go by.

"Sorry," I mumbled before turning my attention back out the window.

"I didn't know," Phupha said quietly. I risked looking at him as he spoke.
"Not at first. I enrolled in medical school for someone else."

"Who?"

Phupha swallowed hard. "My father."

"But you fell in love with it?" The tension eased from Phupha and he nodded.

"Where did you go to school?"

"Chula."

We were back to the one word answers but I didn't care. He was still talking.

"Wow, I had no idea you were a geek," I said with a smile.

Phupha glanced at me in surprise. "What?"

"Chula... that's like top rank shit. right?"

I felt my body go all warm when Phupha chuckled. "Actually not really."

"Well, it should be."

"So did you do anything bad while you were in school?"

"What do you mean?"

I shifted my seat so I could see his reactions better. "Pranks, practical jokes, that sort of thing."

Phupha didn't say anything but I laughed when I saw his jaw tick.

"You did!" And even wider smile spread across his mouth and I wanted to lean in and kiss him. "Tell me."