Sotus: For One Last Time

Save Us From Hurting

KongPob POV

"Oon?...Oon?" P'Bright was saying in a loud whisper with widened eyes, behind Oon....no...behind P'Arthit. "The last time I called him by that nickname, he punched me so hard I had a black eye for weeks" he adds.

With everyone looking at us in caution, waiting for what we'll do or say, I felt everything but him retreat to the background.

Blood rushing quickly away from my ears and face, my entire being focused on him.

Arthit Rojanapat. The King's nephew and current heir of the throne since the King didn't have an heir. Well that explained why I couldn't find any trace of him all these years.

With equally wide eyes, and in complete shock, P'Arthit whispers "Kong..." with a closed off, as if in pain expression, "You're KongPob..." he continues, with a surprised tone.
"You're Arthit..." I also say, almost accusingly.
Suddenly, I realize that with all the resources he has, there's no way that he didn't know that I was looking for him. And with all the resources he probably had, if he wanted to, he could have looked for me and found me ( I left so many clues, despite the risk to my safety). But he didn't even try.

My heart hurts. Everything hurts. Especially after what happened during the last day that I saw him twelve years ago.

I look at his right wrist, looking for the white thread that I tied there twelve years ago, to find it gone. I look at mine, even though I couldn't tell what color it was anymore, the white thread he tied was still there.

Following my line of sights, his eyes widen a fraction more, his expression becoming more pained, with a tinge of guilt, that I could still read quite well, but the damage was done.

By just looking at him, although I spent the last twelve years looking for him, it seems like he spent his trying to forget me.

Unable to breathe, I started backing away from him, from the table, from everyone.

"Kong!" I heard him say behind me.

I know I was not being rationale. I know I was being bizare, my friends looking even more shocked, because despite all the drama in my life, they've never seen me act this way.

I try to open the double doors but they wont budge. I give it two more pushes using all my strength before they finally open but P'Arthit is already onto me, pulling my arm, trying to stop me.

"Kong...I..I.." flicking his hand off my arm, I rush out the dining hall, the building, and run towards our dorm as soon as I can, wanting to be alone.
When I reach my dorm building, I glance behind me and come face to face with a panting P'Arthit.
"KongPob!" He yells with what may have been his authorative voice "Stop right there."

"Why? Because you finally decided I'm worth finding? Worth talking to, P'Arthit?" I say bitterly, despite knowing that I'm being unfair.

"You know it's not like that!" He refutes.

"How would I know? For the last twelve years, I have tried to find you. You must have known it, don't even try to deny it"

"I know. And I won't." He says coming closer to me. Looking at me deeply with eyes that haven't changed at all, he continues "Finding the person who was trying to look  for Oon Puttipat was my first mission at the military academy. And as soon as I heard that the head was a mysterious person named Kong Bunyasarn, I closed the case without further investigating."

Tears stinging my eyes, feeling even more hurt, and wishing that he at least tried to lie about it, I turn back towards our building, starting to walk away again.

"But I only wanted to save us from a world of hurt Kong!" he yells at my still retreating form.

"KongPob!" He shouts.

"KongPob!" He yells again, making me stop.

"Look at me," when I refuse the request,
"Fucking look at me!" He insists.

When I turn and face him " I am Arthit Rojanapat" he says with conviction and hand over heart, which is a royal act done to show respect, but in this case, to remind me of his royal status. "Do you know what that means?" he asks. When I don't respond, he comes closer to me, "It means that whatever happened during that time in the village really shouldn't have happened" he says looking at me straight in the eyes with a firm gaze. "It means that whatever you thought would happen if you found me or If I found you can't happen" he adds, hinting at the feelings we had for each other and also continuously killing me.

" I am the only heir, KongPob" he says in my continuous silence, " I have already chosen my path, although others would argue that it was chosen for me" he adds with a pause. "I didn't look for you because I really treasured that time back then and I really didn't want to hurt you" he whispers in sincerity that I could read in the depth of his eyes.

"But you never even gave me a chance, Oon" I whisper back, "It's not like I didn't know the consequences of how I felt towards you, especially in our country, or that I didn't think about it. In fact, I thought about all the reasons for your disappearance. I even thought that, perhaps, you could be hiding from me, afraid of the rejection that you might receive because of us, but I always berated myself for it, knowing/thinking that my Oon wouldn't give up so easily"
With a voice full of hurt, "I had decided to fight for you, no matter who the oponent was, even if he was the King himself" I  continue looking at his eyes getting even bigger.
"But while I am willing to fight anyone or anything for you Oon, I won't fight you for you." I finish, walking away with tears angrilly sliding down my eyes.

********************************************
****************************************************************************************
Note: As always, thank you for reading and the immense support!
PS: I was told that the chapter was very fast paced and the reveals a bit too fast but I really hate dragging over misunderstandings too much, so it is what it is. I hope you enjoyed it, and see you guys tomorrow with my next update. 💚