COLD RAIN

CHAPTER 22

When Benz returned home that night, he immediately realized that the atmosphere at home was not right.

“Don’t bother your brother.” Sammy grabbed his hand when he was going to knock on Pon’s door, “He is in a bad mood, so let him stay alone for a while.”

Benz went downstairs unhappily and kept looking upstairs while eating, “Brother really doesn’t want to come down and eat with us?”

“Hush—” sammy asked him to keep his voice down, “Don’t make trouble, he promised me that he would come down for dinner when he calmed down.”

Benz grasped the point, “Calm down? What happened?”

Sammy shook her head and said she didn’t know.

Thinking of her son’s reddened eyes when he came back, she was more impatient than anyone else to know what was wrong but was afraid that chasing and asking would have the opposite effect.

So she had to pretend that everything was okay and waited for him to figure it out and tell her everything himself or for a suitable time to ask a casual question.

In the room upstairs, Pon sat on the bed wrapping himself from head to toe in a blanket.

He had this habit since he was very young. He did it when his parents quarreled over him, when his mother hugged him and cried and when he was bullied by other children and didn’t want to talk about it.

Drowning in the darkness made him feel safe. He was the only one in this small world.

No one would scold him, no one would look at him weirdly, and as long as he wanted to hide, no one would find him.

His reaction just now had been almost instinctive. He didn’t want to see that man, nor did he want to be seen by that man.

He closed his eyes as if burying his head in the sand. He was used to admitting his mistakes and waiting for punishment, so he stayed stiff and waited, even if it wasn’t his fault, even if he acted only in self-defence.

The cheek the man had touched still felt a bit hot.

Pon raised his hand and rubbed the unusually warm skin. With just one touch, he immediately withdrew his hand and then wrapped himself tighter.

His vision was blurred, but his mind was very clear. He knew that he had overreacted just now.

He should walk down the road with his head held high, not to run as soon as he encountered someone, and when asked, answer in a dignified manner, “My name is Thanapon Kitjaruwannakul.”

He was now Thanapon Kitjaruwannakul, not the timid Thanapon Aiemkumchai who was afraid of everything.

He now had a home and a family, so he didn’t have to go back to that big cold and empty house and wait for someone who would never come back.

Thinking about it this way, Pon felt a little emboldened. He picked up his mobile phone and wanted to see how his brother and sister-in-law were doing recently.

He also wanted to call Aonn.

Aonn called him when he was going home just now, but he hung up without saying a word. He had to call him back and say that he was okay.

As soon as his hand stretched out of the blanket and touched the mobile phone, his fingers felt numb from a sudden vibration.

It was a text message from an unknown caller.

[Feeling better? 】

Pon was puzzled. His gaze moved to the number and when he saw the string of digits he knew by heart, with a shiver he almost pressed the dial button.