Khemjira's Rescue

Chapter 2

Finally, the semester had started.

Khemjira looked in the mirror at himself in the university uniform with pride. He grabbed his tote bag, slung it over his shoulder, and went out.

It took him precisely one hour to walk from his apartment to the university. Exhausted, he stopped to buy a bottle of water from a stall near the faculty building to quench his thirst. There was still plenty of time before his class started.

"No straw, please," he told the vendor, who was offering him a plastic straw. He rarely used straws unless they were biodegradable, and if he could do anything to save the environment, he would.

Khemjira moved to stand beside the stall. While lifting the water bottle to his lips, his eyes caught sight of the bottom of a potted plant as it began to fall.

'Oh shit.'

"Look out!"

Khemjira heard someone shout a warning, but no matter how much he wanted to dodge, his body wouldn't move as if it were pinned in place. In the split second before the pot shattered on his head, someone rushed in and knocked him to the ground.

Crash!

"Ahhh!"

The sound of the pot breaking and people screaming followed.

"You okay!?" The man who'd rushed to save him asked with an alarmed expression. He had honey-colored skin, golden-dyed hair, and a small black headband on his head.

Khemjira turned to look at the broken pot with a pale face.

"Th-thank you for helping me," he managed to say once he recovered from the shock, then let out a soft cry when he was pulled to follow the man.

"Wait, wait, where are you taking me?" Khemjira asked. The man turned to him with a serious look. Khemjira was too scared to resist, so he obediently followed him. They stopped under a plumeria behind a study building, where it was relatively free of people.

The man looked around before locking eyes with him and said:

"You're being haunted by a ghost."

"..."

"If we don't do something, you're definitely gonna die," Khemjira's mouth fell open in shock. Being told something like this out of the blue by a stranger would startle anyone. With curiosity, he furrowed his brows and asked:

"How do you know that?"

"When that pot fell earlier, I saw it on the third floor. It pushed the pot down."

Khemjira wasn't ready to fully believe it, even though a part of him had already accepted it because of all the strange things he'd encountered since coming here.

"It's fine if you don't believe me. I just wanna warn you to be careful."

Khemjira hesitated before sighing.

"No, it's not that I don't believe you. I just don't want to accept it." Khemjira seemed to be speaking more to himself with that last sentence. "But thanks anyway, if it wasn't because of you, I would've definitely gotten hurt."

The man shrugged.

"It's nothing. I'm Jhet, Jhettana. You?"

"I'm Khem... Khemjira."

Jhettana blinked in surprise upon hearing his name, then gave him a quick once-over...

Khemjira gave a dry smile.

"My mom gave me a girl name to ward off bad luck."

Jhettana looked bewildered before scratching his head awkwardly.