Chapter 7

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Kengkla shifts into his mother's room. The curtains, the footrest, the wallpapers and every possible detail left behind by his mother has been 'renovated'. He could have moved into another room and it would have felt just as strange. Why has he moved in here then?

It doesn't matter, he thinks.

He sends a text to his father's secretary who also happens to be Kengkla's baby sitter. He schedules for himself a screening of Venom. 

He doesn't scheme any plans to meet Techno after that. Kla decides to lay off for a bit. A week later, Technic asks if he has lost interest in his older brother.

"You tell me first, Ai'Nic, how come you are so eager to sell your brother out?"

Technic pauses, burger close to his mouth. "Well... "

"Yes?"

"Are you suddenly developing a conscience?" Technic gives him a challenging look.

"No, just curious." 

"Good. That's all it better be. No backing out from the deal."

"Answer my question."

"You come with money and you also actually like my brother. Rather be you than anyone else." Technic smirks and Kengkla smiles. "Is your curiosity sated or any further questioning I am going to be subjected to, Khun Kla?"

"You're done." 

Kengkla picks up his school bag kept next to him and walks out of the booth.

*

That night he watches Venom in the special screening set up just for him. His cousins join him at the last moment. They love the movie for its comedy timings and Kengkla understands why the main character Eddie Brock ends up in an alien, confusing, body-sharing relationship with an alien.

Does No like it for the same reasons?


*


Techno walks back to his room thinking what did I do that for? He rakes a hand through his hair and sighs in frustration. What if nong Kengkla misunderstands? He'll die of embarrassment. That's his younger brother's friend for gods sake. He shakes his head.

It just happened once. 

Techno doesn't see Kengkla for more than a fortnight which is funny since nong Kla had been hanging out at their home regularly. Maybe Techno had made things awkward? On the seventeenth day since that popcorn incident (not that No is counting or anything), he meets Kla again. This time he is walking in his college's campus, going home after football's practice. He is tired and ready to crash on any flat surface. A car's honk saves him from dozing off on his feet. He had been going back with Ai'Champ but then the latter's two-wheeler broke down. That's how he finds himself on the road, walking alone by himself. He had given Champ money to get his bike repaired while having no money left for himself to travel back in a bus or a tuk-tuk. 

The car slows down next to him and the window rolls down.

"P'No!" Techno is surprised. It is Kengkla. "Want a lift back home?" That means the younger boy had not been avoiding him. It was just a simple gesture, Techno reminds himself. Nothing bad.

Kengkla - the wolf in the closetWhere stories live. Discover now