“Who’s number two? Number two.”
“…”
“Class leader, who’s number two?”
“Oh… I think it’s New Thitipoom.”
I awoke to the sound of my name from afar, having been sleeping with my head buried in my hand. I extend my head out like a meerkat I saw on TV, searching around the surroundings.
“Yes, yes?”
A bitter voice came back from the teacher. “Thitipoom, are you sleeping?”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
“Read the first paragraph.”
My deskmate pointed to what the teacher said in my textbook. I grabbed the book with both hands and read it slowly, sentence by sentence. Only my voice echoed in the quiet classroom. It was unavoidable to doze off. Going to Tay's house from dawn to dusk was exhausting; I couldn’t sleep and I needed to cook as well. This was not easy either. After I was barely done reading the paragraph, the teacher asked number 12 to read the next part. Number 12 was also sleeping, and after being called a couple more times, I could only hear his hoarse voice.
Poke-
Someone poked me from behind. There was only one person who would do this. It was strong enough to pierce my skin. I looked at the teacher’s eyes and turned my head at an angle so as not to get noticed.
Tay handed me a piece of paper from the textbook that was torn. He then patted my shoulder and motioned me to look forward again. He simply patted my shoulder, but I had no idea why it hurt so much.
I couldn’t even tell, so I mumbled and returned to my original position. When I unfolded the crumpled paper a black circle was drawn. What… was this again…? But, I couldn’t ask him right now, so I decided to pass it on for now. Instead, I took a pencil and filled in the black circle drawn by Tay.
~
“Ah, damn it. Book you bastard!”
“Is it a sin to not be able to kick? Don’t make a fuss about kicking the ball!”
Book's voice resounded in the clear autumn sky. His voice, which was a little higher than boys of his age, became sharp as if my ears were going to rip if he raised it a little more.
Book was caught in the middle of a swarm of people chasing a single ball around the large playground. Book, who was not particularly skilled at soccer but enjoyed it, resembled a dog chasing a ball.
Rather than a huge, bulky dog, he looked like a little dog. Chihuahuas, Maltese, and such. It means that it seemed like a small thing had lost its fear and was fighting back and forth.
I wasn’t participating in soccer at the time. Soccer was an energy-intensive sport, and I didn’t want to waste my energy on it. It wasn’t only me who was missing out. Some of the guys were having a good time during physical education, which was close to their free time. That was sufficient for us. Because it was the fall of the second year of high school, which was about to enter the third year.
The entrance exam was due in two weeks. The 3rd graders scrambled like zombies as time passed, and we felt a strong sense of responsibility. I was advised to enjoy the time during physical education class to my heart’s content, but I preferred to just sit and enjoy the wind rather than participate in physical education, so I stayed in my seat.
But the problem was.
“Hey, Tawan, ah, come on!”
“Tay, come in, please.”
