Roommates - Not in Bangkok anymore [completed]

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tin's POV

"This is outrageous! You can't do this to me."

Sometimes, Tin Medthanan believed that he lived in a nightmare.

First, his brother had gotten his parents to send him away to school in England. Then, he had been tricked into attending an illegal party that got raided by the police for drugs, labelling him as a drug addict – now, the school had decided to take away his last refuge, his last sanctuary.

"Please, can't you assign him to another room?"

Tin had fallen as low as pleading with the headmistress.

He had just been informed that another kid from Thailand would transfer to their school, and apparently, someone in the school administration had thought that just because Tin was the only other Thai kid here, he would love to share his dorm room with him.

No. He didn't.

Worse.

It wouldn't be a regular student like him, from a good family who could afford the school fees and might even understand him. No. A scholarship student. And not even one of the respectable ones, the genius kind.

A fucking sports scholarship student.

Worse.

A football player.

Tin knew the kind. If they had any brain cells to begin with, they would have lost them all to head injuries from too many headers on the pitch, anyway. They were all loud, crass... and probably stinking of sweat all the time.

"There is no room to negotiate, Mr. Medthanan," the headmistress said sternly, "besides, we think it would do you good to socialize a bit more with nice, normal people. Your parents agree, too. They are very worried about you after... that incident."

His parents.

Of course his parents would agree. Was this their way of punishing him for falling for his brother's cheap tricks? He didn't do drugs. He didn't even want to attend that party. How could they think socializing would be the way forward? Socializing had been the reason he was in this mess to begin with. He could be grateful that they hadn't found out about the girls, yet. He really should stop responding to their advances.

Tin only glared at the headmistress, already vowing to make his roommate's life a living hell as soon as he arrived. He'd show them how long they'd believe this to be a good idea.

Unfortunately, his thoughts behind his glare were too easy to guess for the headmistress.

"If your roommate doesn't succeed here, we will fail you, too, Mr. Medthanan."

"How unfair is this?! What am I, a babysitter? How big are the chances that this guy even makes it past the first two weeks all on his own? I don't get why this school offers scholarships like this, these boys never fit in and they don't belong here."

The headmistress fixed him with a severe look that made him shiver.

"This attitude of yours is exactly why we have decided to give you a roommate. I'm sorry, Mr. Medthanan. You might think life is unfair, but you have to learn to deal with it."

Tin had to grudgingly admit his defeat and walked out of the headmistress' office, kicking the door as he left – just lightly enough that it didn't get him into trouble, but hard enough to express his frustration.

The only good thing about having been shipped off to England so far had been that he had had his own private room here at boarding school and didn't need to deal with his family and their "friends" – business partners of his parents and politicians too important to ignore.

How dare they take this away from him?

He needed to find a way to get rid of this roommate in a way that would not damage his record. He couldn't afford to be failing at school. As much as he hated being here – not having a proper degree wouldn't help his plans for independence.

Can's POV

Can pressed his nose against the window of the car as it drove through the impossibly green landscapes of rural England. It was late September and despite wearing a warm jacket in an air conditioned car, he was still shivering.

Maybe he wasn't just shivering because of the unusually chill weather for someone who had spent his life in Bangkok up to now, but because he was nervous.

Ever since he had said goodbye to his parents and his sister at the airport in Bangkok, there had been a ball of nervous energy in his stomach that hadn't really dissipated – and he still oscillated between absolutely hating the feeling and being incredibly excited about the adventure he had entered.

It had been like this ever since he had understood that the mysterious talent scouts that had approached him after their junior league match were actually legit and offered the opportunity of a lifetime. They had encouraged him to apply for a series of exclusive football scholarships the Football Foundation offered to Asian football talents.

After going through some tough try-outs, he had been offered a scholarship at Manor Academy in England, a truly exclusive school that had a special branch for sportspeople in different disciplines. They had promised that he couldn't just train and develop his skill, but also get try-outs with football clubs all over Europe.

Before that, Can hadn't even dared to dream about the Premier League. Now he was in the back of a fancy car driving towards a school housed in a castle in the English countryside and everything suddenly seemed possible.

Unfortunately, with all the paperwork that needed to get sorted after he had received the scholarship, he was almost a month late for the start of the semester. While he was waiting, he had studied English as hard as he could, but he still didn't feel very confident that he could keep up.

He gasped loudly when the car turned away from the main street into a small private road and a vast geometrical garden in front of a castle came into view. Can suddenly felt like a prince. Or was he only a lowly domestic worker, posing as a prince?

The nervous energy in his stomach intensified, as the car drove through an entry gate into a courtyard and stopped in front of the oversized wooden door that obviously made the main entrance of the castle.

While the driver helped him unload his luggage, a middle-aged woman came rushing out of the main gate. She wore an old-fashioned black track-suit and had her red hair messily tied back into a pony tail.

"Ah, Mr. Kirakorn, good, you're finally here. Quick, follow me," she said to him, and while she walked forwards to shake his hand, she stumbled over a land hockey stick and nearly fell, "Who forgot to put away that goddamn hockey stick properly again? Those sodding hockey cunts just don't know their place... ah, I'm sorry, Mr. Kirakorn. I forgot to present myself, how rude of me."

She took a deep breath and finally offered him her hand to shake.

He reluctantly took it.

"I'm Ms. Lavinia McNeil, I'm your football coach and also your homeroom teacher. You can call me Coach Lavinia, everyone bloody does anyway. Please excuse my swearing, been on that cursed pitch too long. Now, please follow me, you'll have to meet the headmistress and we need to get these dreary things sorted. I'm sure you're bloody hungry after such a long flight."

Can's mouth fell open. He began to realize that his time here would be a lot different than what he had known so far. He had never heard a grown woman swear like a sailor... and he also had never heard of a female football coach in such a prestigious program.

But, well... the scholarship people should know why they had chosen this school, shouldn't they?

"You can close that mouth of yours now, Mr. Kirakorn. Don't worry, you'll get used to this place soon enough. Please, come along."

Can grabbed his luggage and followed her inside.

He definitely wasn't in Bangkok anymore.