From Something To Everything (Bounprem)

174. Maternal love.

Prem bid farewell to his parents and the rest of his relatives. Jassy had initially been very reluctant to part with Prem, given the previous day's incident. But he pacified her somehow.

As he watched the bus arranged to take the family to Don Mueang airport leave, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Half of his problems were already solved.

Prem hurried back to the resort. Boun was still asleep when he left. Thankfully his situation hadn't escalated to fever and the duo managed to have a peaceful night.

He couldn't bear to wake Boun up when he saw the latter catching up on the much-needed rest as he knew that in the following week, Boun might need to pull all-nighters to complete his mission.

Prem was caught off guard when he saw Tessa waiting for him. The older lady was looking at him with tear-filled eyes.

Tessa didn't know how she should be thanking Prem for taking care of Boun and staying by his side despite knowing the consequences. The emotional turmoil within her couldn't be expressed in words.

She walked forward and hugged Prem tightly.

Prem stiffened completely in Tessa's embrace. He had never been good at dealing with emotional people, especially the ones that had started crying.

Helplessly, he decided to use the same tactics that he used to calm Boun up. He returned her hug and gently caressed he back to make her calm down.

But the effect was reversed in the case of Tessa. She started crying louder as Prem hugged her. She was relieved that Prem was not prejudiced about her and was warm to her.

Tessa took it as a positive sign that would help her rebuild her ruined relationship with her son. Mentally she had long accepted Prem as Boun's partner. But she never voiced it out as both the boys hadn't said anything.

'Think Prem! Think! ' he had to console Tessa and get out of there. He couldn't leave Boun's side for so long as he knew that Boun had the habit of panicking if he was absent when he woke up. Especially on the mornings after he had breakdowns.

That was when he noticed his three friends walking over to the common dining hall. The trip had also noticed him.

Prem begged his friends to help him out with his eyes.

The trio looked at each other. Sammy wasn't actually aware of many details and didn't want to be deeply involved in the situation.

Earth on the other hand had a clearer idea about the situation but didn't know how to handle an emotionally vulnerable Tessa.

The only person left, Fluke became the perfect scapegoat.

Earth and Sammy pushed the reluctant Fluke forward to help Prem out.

Fluke didn't want to interrupt the mother-in-law-son-in-law union. But he knew that neither of them was ready to establish that relationship.

Fluke cleared his throat as he reached Prem's side. " Khun Tessa, khrab. "

Tessa was startled by Fluke's presence. She was embarrassed that she was a crying mess in front of the kids. She quickly wiped her tears and put on a smile. "Swadee N' Fluke"

" Swadee Khrab Khun Tessa, " Fluke mirrored the smile. "Actually... P' Boun was looking for Prem... "

"Really? He is awake? ". Prem acted as if he was surprised even though he knew that there was a high chance that Fluke was lying to get him away from the situation.

" Oh? " That was when Tessa realized that she was holding onto Prem for such a long time. She blushed as she let go of Prem.

Even though she was close to Jassy, she hadn't actually interacted with Prem before. It was really awkward that she had hugged him just like that.

"I think I should go now. " Prem waied at Tessa and ran away like a monkey whose tail was on fire.

Earth and Sammy had also ditched Fluke and he was left alone to deal with Tessa. He knew he had to sit down and have a talk with Tessa, not as Prem's best friend but as Boun's little brother.

"Khun Tessa khrab? " He called gaining the attention of the middle-aged woman who was staring in the direction Prem vanished into. " If you haven't had your breakfast, would you mind joining me? "

Tessa mustered a smile and nodded at him. The duo entered the breakfast buffet area.

Fluke filled the breakfast plates for both him and Tessa and brought them to the corner-most window table. He was planning on having a serious conversation with Tessa and didn't want to be interrupted.

Tessa thanked Fluke as she saw the well-balanced breakfast. She sipped on the Apple juice to calm herself. She was exhausted from all the stress and crying. She hadn't slept a wink after witnessing Boun's condition.

" I didn't know you were good with the guns, Khun Tessa. " Fluke said with a smile as he settled down opposite her on the table.

Tessa looked up in surprise at Fluke's statement.

" The shot was so precise. I am impressed. " He complimented with a chuckle.

" I don't know what you are talking about. " Tessa decided to play dump as she avoided Fluke's piercing gaze.

Fluke's lips curled up as he watched Tessa. She looked like an innocent rabbit who had entered the Wolf's den. It was difficult for him to believe that a successful businesswoman like her would be so flustered in such a situation.

" I am talking about the shot that killed that assassin who took a shot at P' Boun yesterday. It was so clean and precise, neatly piercing through the middle of his forehead. " Fluke said tapping his forehead to show where the bullet had hit the man yesterday.

He leaned against the backrest of the chair relaxingly and looked outside the glass window. " You know, first I thought that it was one of my men who shot him down. But all of them insisted that they weren't. The one who managed to shoot was clear that he had missed his target and had hit the assassin in the chest as he was moving too fast. "

Tessa clenched her fists beneath the table until her knuckles were turning white.

"I was very intrigued by the marksmanship of the shooter you know. " Fluke swept his gaze at Tessa. " That's why I sent the body for a post-mortem. "

Tessa's eyes widened at Fluke's statement. She was sweating bullets.

Fluke clamped his hands together and placed them on the table. "Amazingly, the bullet retrieved from the body didn't belong to any gun that was used by my men, the assassins or the Guntachai family guards. It was from a specially designed gun, that only has two copies of itself."