Roundabout Way to You

10. Mother

"Mama!!!" Ayut screamed seeing his mother walk into the house.

"Au, my darling!!!" Mali ran over to hug her stepson, leaving all the grocery bags she brought with her son.

They were chummier than biological mother and son.

"I missed you so much, Mama" Ayut pouted.

"I missed you too, darling." Mali smiled widely. She absolutely adored the child in front of her. Even though she wasn't his biological mother, her love for him was not any lesser than her love for Anwit. She loved the child as much as he loved her. "How is your leg, darling?"

"It's painful and irritating, Mama. I can't even go to the washroom properly." Ayut complained looking at his mother pitifully.

"You should have watched where you are going instead of running around as if your tail was on fire" Anwit placed a glass of juice in front of his mother. "I had told you a hundred times not to run in the hallway of our office. But you never listen. Now bear with it."

Ayut made faces at his little brother for chiding him in front of their mother.

"Wit is right na, Yut. You should really stop running around like that" Mali supported her son.

"But it wasn't my fault this time, Mama" Ayut whined. "It was that kid's fault for spreading those marbles on the floor. If not I wouldn't have fallen."

"Thank god P' Hit was there to catch you. Or else you would have broken your head that day" Anwit huffed. 

"Hit? Who is that? I haven't heard that name before." Mali eyed her sons suspiciously.

"He is our neighbor, Mom" Ayut shifted back to calling her Mom as his baby phase was over. "He lives across the hall."

"I thought the accident happened at the radio station." She knew that her stepson secretly did DJing behind his father's back. 

"The accident did happen in the office. P' Hit just happened to be there to meet someone." Anwit answered the question.

"Really?" Mali smiled mischievously.

"Mom, its not the way you think it is." Ayut could guess what was going on his stepmother's head.

"What am I thinking? I didn't think anything." Mali shrugged.

"Whatever you say" Ayut knew that she wasn't going to accept it.

"Then again" She scooted closer to the wheelchair "Is he handsome? How old is he? What do he do for a living?"

Anwit giggled at the side. He was so clear that his Phi was interested in Mihit.

Ayut wordlessly stared at his mother. Just a moment ago she was denying that she wasn't having any thoughts and now she had turned Sherlock Holmes to find more details about Mihit. "I don't know." He said with puffed up cheeks.

"He is really handsome, mom." Anwit answered. "Tall too. He even taller than me."

Ayut was shooting daggers at his little brother for indulging their mother in the conversation.

"Really? What else do you know about him?" Mali was excited like a teenager.

"He is an year older than me and he is a techy, mom. He works at a game company as a game developer. Do you remember that game that Aunt Su's son was playing the other day? That was developed by him!" Anwit said enthusiastically.

"Wow! He looks like a good catch then" Mali eyed her stepson who was sulking at the side. "Does he have a lover?"

"He said he didn't, Mom. He hadn't dated for a while." Anwit replied.