LOVE SICK : The Chaotic Lives of Blue Shorts Guys

Chapter 1 : BEGINS

“Noh! How the hell did our club budget end up this little?!” Om’s booming voice hits me the moment I step in. I barely got to the club room a second ago, but that problematic document already made its way over and covered my eyes.

I furrow my brows as I begin to read all the details (that Om lovingly shoved into my face). I recall this number better than Aum Patcharapa’s birthday. I definitely requested for 25,000 baht so that we can use it for our new drums since the ones we have are getting too old.

So why does this only say 5,000?! What the hell happened to the other 20,000?!

“ ##########…you know that the bills for those drums will be here soon. Are we gonna have to go and beg on the street or something now?!” Om still insists on yelling tirelessly. Meanwhile, other club members are sitting around looking stressful. So what does the president of this club like me should do now?

“I’ll be right back.”

***

The sound of my black leather shoes echos as I run toward the main office building. I’m scared that they might be closed since it’s getting late. Everything in my head is all muddled right now. I don’t understand how this could’ve happened. And I’m scared that I’ve screwed up somehow as the president of the club. ########## it! When did I make this mistake?! I was so sure that we would get the budget we requested for. I was so sure that I had already placed the order for those drums to be delivered. How can they just cut our budget like this?!

Bingo! The student council office is still open! I hope that I’ll run into some people who has the power to fix this.

“I’m the representative from the music club! I’m here to ask if you could check our budget numbers! We think you might’ve made a mistake!” It seems like my yelling was for nothing at first. But then, I see a boy standing there in the middle of the office.

Phun Phumipat. The student council secretary for 2 years in a row. He’s in my grade (although we’re not very close).

This is more like it! I bet this guy can help me out!

“Phun! Can you check my club’s budget for me? Please? Please? Please? There’s 20,000 missing! I’m about to go insane here!” I decide to use our (distant) friendship as an advantage. It seems like I startled him when he saw me at first, but then he walks over and kindly goes through some folders to check the paperwork for me.

“One sec, Noh.” Sure, I can wait!

I stand there staring at Phun while he flips the pages. I desperately wish that the first words he tells me are ‘oh yeah, we made a mistake,’ or ‘the rest of the money are coming next week’ or something along those lines. I have very little hope though, the student council rarely makes any mistakes (especially when they have Phun checking all their work). Plus, they have never sent out budgets in increments like that before.

“We didn’t make a mistake, it’s written right here. Take a look at it, Noh.” Phun tells me what I wanted to hear the least. He passes the folder over to me so I can see. Despite the fact that the font size is tiny, the number 5,000 written pretty much attacks my eyes that I almost fell backwards.

“How can this be?!”

“You didn’t show up for the budget meeting we had, right? Who did you send again?” Phun’s words make me begin to think back. And then I remembered. A budget meeting for the clubs and other school activity groups are held each school year. Except I wasn’t in Bangkok that day. My grandma got really sick so our entire family went to visit her in Petchburi. Therefore, the person who attended that budget meeting in my place was…

That ########## Ngoi!*

His name is actually Ngaw, but whenever I get pissed off I tend to call him Ngoi instead (both names are equally terrible anyway in my opinion). He’s in our club. They picked random numbers and he got chosen to go in my place since nobody wanted to go. These meetings tend to take at least 12 hours. Not to mention they really do take a toll on you. But why the hell did Ngoi do this?!

“I was there at the meeting. P’Aun from the Thai culture club kept cutting down your club’s budget because otherwise he would’ve needed to cut from his own. Ngaw was too afraid to go against p’Aun so he just sat there silently. In the end, only 5,000 was left for your club. I was actually kind of confused and I wondered whether you would mind this.”

“Of course I do. So what do I do now?!” I started yelling at myself because I have no idea what else I could do other than yelling. Meanwhile, the office is dead silent.

The folder gets tossed on the table as Phun begins to say something.

“I have another way…”

“Tell me, Phun! Tell me right now! I’ll do anything!” My chance is here, how am I supposed to throw that away?! I stare at my not-so-close friend’s face waiting for the reply. I totally missed that he was giving me a weird look.

If I had known then what would happen, I would never have said those words to him.

“Noh, be my boyfriend?”