Within My Stratosphere • SOTUS

Chapter 2. Pink Freesias

[Kongpob]

They say his name is Arthit. It wasn't like Kongpob had deliberately asked around. Because... because... he hadn't been the one who was doing the asking.

Yes. That's right. That was it.

The shorter boy was currently watering the storefront plants as Kongpob looked through the tinted glass. It's been about a week and he had no idea why he was secretly watching the hard working boy. From what Kongpob had observed, Arthit was very clumsy. This was confirmed by the number of pots he had seen him dropped within a span of a week, but his diligence and dedication with how he handled the customers and the flowers balanced the losses.

"Sup, Kong," Em stated, peering into the crack of the open window on the opposite side of the car.

"Shh!"

"What? What is it?" Em whispered.

Kongpob glanced at Arthit once last time before rolling up the windows and stepping out of his sleek, black Ferrari Aperta. It was the least conspicuous one out of his cars and he felt like it was necessary to not stand out as much as possible.

Kongpob motioned for his friend to follow him silently and Em made it a point by downright rolling on the ground, James Bond style.

"So, why are we sneaking around?" Em raucously whispered, 2 inches away from Kongpob's ear.

"Yeah, why are we sneaking around?!" Oak added, whispering just as boisterously in the opposite ear.

Kongpob shoved both of his friends away from his ears and propped himself up on the side of a fountain. He didn't know where Oak had popped out from, but seeing as how the group rarely separated from each other, he blankly looked on as the rest of his friends assembled around him.

"Ai'Kong, why have you been sneaking around this past week?" Tew demanded, in a judge-like manner twirling a stick before striking it down, as if it was a gavel.

Oak and Em pryingly looked on in anticipation.

Kongpob sighed, rubbing the back of his neck when suddenly Wad spoke up. "It has something to do with that florist shop boy across the street. Doesn't it?" It wasn't a question, more of a statement.

"Who? What boy?" Oak asked, genuinely curious.

Kongpob had to hand it to his friends. They sure knew to corner a person into a tight spot. Even he didn't have any answers at the moment, but if he didn't say anything at all, they were never going to let him go. Furthermore, Ai'Wad had spoken up, which meant that there was absolutely no room for escape.

If that was the way it was going to be, now was a better time than never. Kongpob looked directly at all of his friends before starting, "I've been observing a florist shop employee for the past week... and, I'm currently working on trying to figure out why." Kongpob succinctly added.

"How far have you gotten in terms of your 'observation'?" Wad asked.

"Not very," he answered.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's get down to it." Em stated, clapping his hands together.

Tew pulled out a pen and notepad as Em and Oak began firing questions.

"Would you say that your actions are controlled by the definite force of emotions of either, dislike or like?" Oak asked in a cryptic manner.

Blinking back his urge to slap his friend upside the head, Em opted for covering Oak's mouth.

"He meant to ask, do you hate him or like him?" Em reiterated. "No pressure, just whatever you feel like is closest to the truth."