Perseverance [Complete]

Chapter 8

Arthit's POV

I think my pain killers were wearing off. The stinging pain in my leg had returned and my head was feeling a little dizzy. I opened my eyes to get my bearings straight, but all I saw was the back of a neck and thick black hair which my faced was pressed against. I blinked and realized that it was Kong's hair that was burying half my face. Most of his back was pressed against my chest and I had my arm draped over his waist.

I quickly moved away from him and in my hurry tumbled right out of bed. Ouch, ouch, ouch! I forgot my leg still hurt. But I absolutely needed to stop waking up in bed next to Kong. Thankfully my ruckus hadn't woken him up. I limped up to see Rune curled up against Kong on the other side still fast asleep. I wasn't surprised to see that at all. During the entire debacle last night, he was the first and only person she had called and hadn't left his side since he arrived.

Sometimes it felt like they were inseparable. Atleast that was the case for Rune, who had told me many times that I was her pa while Kong was her best friend. It also didn't help that whenever I tried to discipline her Kong would swoop in and make her laugh or give her a treat. I was constantly the bad cop and he was always the day saving hero.

I didn't mind though, infact I actually liked this arrangement. I had been so lost after my parents had passed away. Rune is just a child with so many needs that I am never going to be able to fulfill. I am in no way ready to be a father. I just don't know how. But the idea of being both a father and mother was something that constantly kept me awake at night.

As hard as I thought juggling school and Rune would be, that wasn't the part that turned out to be challenging. There were so many people always ready to help and Rune was just an awesome kid that I never felt I had to choose between one or the other.

It was the small everyday things that always threw me in a loop. She would ask random questions I had no idea how to answer, or she would cry for hours because her friend didn't share lunch with her. But then at times she would get angry when she thought I was treating her like a child. Which she is by the way. How is one supposed to figure out what goes on in the brain of a 7 year old girl?

But Kong was a natural. I don't know how he did it but even when she was bawling out tears for a reason I couldn't comprehend he would have her in giggles within minutes. I had to constantly remind Rune that he was an engineering student who could not possibly spend all his free time with her.

And now it seemed all of that was messed up. Last week I had tried my best to keep my distance from Kong, Rune had chanted his name at home almost non-stop. How was I supposed to avoid Kong myself while not separating Rune and him?

Ugghh! This was driving me insane. What the fuck happened? How did Kong and I end up making out? It made no sense. Kong definitely has had girlfriends before. Girlfriends. So how did he go about kissing me that morning. And why the hell did I not push him away. I mean I didn't even tell him to stop. What is wrong with me? Of all the people in the world Kong somehow always manages to mess with my brain.

Ok I can be honest atleast with myself. I did have a few....umm...interesting dreams about him. But that was it. They were just dreams. It didn't mean anything. But now we had this giant elephant in the room we needed to deal with. And everyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am absolutely terrible at confrontations.

I get tongue tied and say the worst possible thing that should be absolutely avoided. Kong on the other hand is slick and smooth. He charms his way out of any situation. Whatever this situation was we needed to solve it and put it behind us and quick. I didn't want to lose Kong's friendship and I definitely did not want to devastate Rune by keeping the two of them away.

I carefully made my way over to the broken glass to start cleaning away the debris and the blood. I was only half way through when I heard Kong behind me.

"P'Arthit what are you doing? You are already hurt. Do you want to make it worse?"

"Kong I told you it was nothing but a small accident. You even had to miss classes because of it. Just go home and rest, I should be ok now."

"Really? You could barely walk last night. Also, you think Rune would be ok when she wakes up and I'm gone?"

I just grunted as a response. I knew it, he was just too slick when it came to arguing.

"Are you finally talking to me P'Arthit?"

"Umm ...I was never not talking to you."

"Good, then can we talk about that day?"

"Uh..ummm...I don't know what you are talking about."

"Oh really? I am talking about the day we made out and you clearly liked it."

"Kongpop!!"

"I want to do it again."

"Wh...What did you say?"

"I want to kiss you again. I want to touch you again. I know you feel the same way. I just don't understand why you have been avoiding me." How exactly was I supposed to put things behind me if he said things like this?

"Kong you don't know what you are talking about. Stop being ridiculous. We are both men. We are friends."

"So what? Whatever happened it was good, it was great. For both of us. You can keep denying it, but it won't change reality. Don't you want to know what it means? Why we reacted in this manner?"

"No Kong it didn't mean anything. It was stupid and impulsive and nothing more. Can you please just drop it?"

"No"

"What does that mean?"

"No. I won't drop it. I want to know what it means to me, and us. You can keep running away but I won't."