From Something To Everything (Bounprem)

161. Ignored

Boun dumped a few tea leaves into the boiling water. The leaves dispersed their colour and flavour into the water.

Those tea leaves were sent to him by his grandfather. He was not a big fan of drinking tea. But Prem insisted that he should keep those tea leaves.

Now, he was following Prem's methods trying to pacify his aunt. He wasn't the best person to handle emotional people, but he tried his best as he cared about Ann so much.

Boun carried the pot of hot tea to the coffee table. He sat next to Ann and poured her some tea.

Ann gracefully sipped the tea that was handed to her. As the soothing flavour of the tea hit her taste buds, her nerves started calming down.

Boun patiently waited for Ann to speak.

Ann looked around at the interior of the living room, it looked much cosier than she remembered. There were visible changes made. She could guess that it was Prem's contribution.

"Last time I visited, this place was a mess. " She commented softly.

Boun looked up, puzzled. As far as he could remember, when Ann visited his place the last time, he had done a work of extra cleaning, making his condo look spotless, like every time. He couldn't recount an instance in which Ann visited his place and things were not in order.

"I am talking about the night you assaulted, Prem." Ann sipped the tea again.

Boun felt his heart drop. That night was something he wished that never occurred. A night he wanted to forget. A night for which he could never even forgive himself. The night when he let the dark emotions hidden within his heart take control over his soul.

"Mae, I-" Boun never wanted Ann to know any of it. He wanted to defend himself but he had nothing to say to justify his actions.

"That night, I was pretty upset on seeing how messy this place had become and how messy you had become, Boun. But when I found out what you did to Prem, I was really disappointed. Really disappointed." Ann looked down at the tea left in the cup. "I was quick to label you as someone who is no different than your dad."

Boun somewhat had an idea about his father's violent tendencies. He did have some memories of his father being abusive to some servants working for them but the rest of it was a blur. He was too young to remember anything back then.

"Once reached my conclusion, I didn't even want to see your face. I left without meeting you that day."

That was when Boun actually realised that Ann, who used to call him twice a week hadn't been calling him for the past few months. He was the one doing the calls. Even when she used to pick up the calls, the calls would only last half the time they usually did before. As Prem had taken all his attention, he missed out on this detail.

Tracing the rim of the teacup with her fingers, she continued. "I felt ashamed. Ashamed that I failed to teach you how to respect others. Ashamed about the attitude towards the person who said you loved."

Ann's words made Boun's worst fears creep back to him. The fear of being disliked by the people he loved, the fear of being pushed away from them.

"But I soon realised that my actions were wrong. Instead of jumping to a conclusion and pushing you away, as a Mae, I should have sat down and talked to you. You are my son even if I didn't give birth to you. I should have stayed with you and told you what you did was wrong and taught you how to reflect on it."

Ann glanced at Boun who was sitting frozen next to her, staring blankly at the carpeted floor. She took his hand, making him look at her. His eyes reflected the feeling of helplessness he was feeling at the moment.

"Boun, all these years I never realised how much that incident that happened back then would have affected you so much. Even when I knew that you regularly visited Tee, who happens to be a psychiatrist, I chose to ignore it, given how a lot of young people nowadays go to get treatment for problems like anger management, stress management and so on." She sighed.

She squeezed Boun's palm, looking straight at his face. "I might not have never realised it if not for Ohm yelling at me the other day."

Boun being shocked was an understatement as he heard that Ohm actually yelled at someone and that someone was his own mother.

Ohm was the calmest person he knew. Even in the most irritating situation, he would be cool as a cucumber. He couldn't even imagine a scene where Ohm would forget his manners and yell at someone older than him.

"For the first time in my life, I saw my son getting mad at someone. And the funniest part was that the person was me and your mom. He had never talked to someone in a raised voice before.

His outburst was like a wake-up call to me. A call that made me realise that as a mother, I hadn't done enough."

Ann's gaze lingered on her hand that held Boun's. "Maybe it was exactly because my children had been well-behaved and mature all these years that I felt like that. I was proud of you guys as a mae.

Ohm had a very successful acting career and co-owned one of the biggest entertainment giants of the nation, not to mention his own company which is running successfully."

She cupped Boun's cheek. "And you. You became a well-known international supermodel with a personal sports brand under your name that you began from scratch. You two had achieved so much at such a young age that you guys turned out to be the reason for my pride."

Boun could hear the crack in his aunt's voice. He held her hand tightly without speaking, just the way Prem used to do for him when he was talking- Without interrupting, providing attention and support to the speaker.

"Other than Dream, who used to act cute and clingy with me, I didn't feel like you two needed my attention. You two acted so mature in front of me that I forgot that you were kids as well. I chose to believe that you didn't need my constant attention as Dream did.

And that was where I went wrong. I, who pride in being the person who knew the three of you so well, turned out to be the same as the other people. Completely oblivious to your problems."

Ann chuckled in self-mockery. "The other day, I talked to Fluke. Even that kid, who had known you for less than a year understood that you were having problems but I couldn't. I wasn't a good mae to you Boun. Neither to you nor to Ohm."