Melted: One Shots

Group Work in America: Leaving Thailand to Find Thai Friends Abroad

From Chapter Two: Two Questions (Tul)

Tul had felt completely alone. His best friend, Tor, who had been a steadying force for him in the MBA program, had won a prestigious internship in Australia. Tor had tried to be supportive, but there was so much he could do from so far away. Prin, who had befriended all three of them when he had had been a TA for one of their classes and had functioned as a mentor/slash older brother to Tul, had also at this time disappeared. It wasn't until much later that Tul found out that he had been facing his own tragedy.

. . . Tul looked at the lives his father, stepmother, and stepbrother lived and knew he didn't want that, but no one believed him except Prin and Tor.

From Chapter Eight: Ice Cream Instead

Max to Tul "You have a reputation of being very detached. Cold even. You come to work. You work hard, but you don't really talk to anyone other than Prin. Though you had a reputation for drinking and partying years ago, since you've come back from the States this time, you've basically had the reputation of being a monk and not caring about anyone but your two friends: Prin and Tor Leeluttanakajorn."

****

Tul didn't breathe deeply until he got through customs at JFK International airport in New York City. No matter how much he knew that his stepmother wanted to get rid of him, part of him still couldn't believe that she was actually going to allow him to study for his MBA abroad. He kept waiting for something to mysteriously happen at the last minute. He knew that she did not want him to succeed. He had purposefully applied for programs out of the country in the hope that her desire to have him far away outweighed her desire to keep him from improving himself and his life.

She had hated the fact that he had won an academic scholarship to university—keeping his schooling out of her reach—especially when she was sure that Plustor wouldn't get such a scholarship. She had her people keep a close watch on him when he was there; she wanted to know whether he was making any influential friends that might help him take over Plustor's spot. He had known this and had hung out very little, playing on a club team for soccer and concentrating on his studies. He hadn't even majored in business, but instead had focused on marketing and public relations, hoping that if he didn't take major in what he knew his stepmother was going to make Plustor major in, she would not feel so threatened.

Thus, when he was in his last year and contemplating internships and full-time opportunities and his advisor told him that if he really wanted to be independent, he should probably look into MBA programs, he hesitated. He knew his mother's history and how she wanted Plustor to follow in her footsteps by getting a Masters Degree in Economics or maybe Finance in London like she had, so would she think an MBA was too similar? However, once his advisor introduced him to a former student who had returned from the States after finishing an MBA program, Tul got more excited at both the program and language opportunities. The potential freedom of being away from the Pakorn world was just an added bonus.

To everyone's surprise, it hadn't been his stepmother that had fought against the idea of him studying abroad, but his father. Channarong was excited about how well Tul had done at university. He was impressed by how Tul had always played down any connection to Pakorn group and utilized none of those connections during his university days. He didn't realize that Tul couldn't use any of those connections because Metinee took care of that; in fact, he was a little hurt that Tul had never contacted him for advice or ideas during his university days. He had believed that now Tul was finished and felt like he had proven himself, it would be the perfect time for him to take on an internship in the company , and they would finally become closer. The United States was not his idea of closer.

Metinee, on the other hand, adored the idea. Tul being out of the country and not stealing her son's spotlight for a couple of years, if not longer, was worth giving him any support she could to get him to go away. She knew several of her acquaintances whose children had left for the states and settled there, visiting only every other year or so. She could be happy with that. Tul with his looks and winning ways, something Metinee hated to admit, would probably be attractive to many American girls who would probably not want to live permanently in Thailand. She hadn't been surprised that her husband didn't liked the idea, but she was surprised at the intensity of his opposition. What worried her the most was the look on his face when Tul had brought it up. Channarong didn't look angry or annoyed but sad and fearful and something else. Regret? Longing? It made her hate Tul and what he represented even more.