Roommates - Not in Bangkok anymore [completed]

Chapter 33

Tin's POV

"Ey Tin, what's this?"

With a tired groan, Tin turned around and blinked in the direction Can's voice came from. After his eyes had adjusted to the light of the bedside lamp, he could see Can standing in front of the other bed, scratching his head and now looking at him expectantly.

Oh crap.

He had forgotten to put the framed poster back on the wall last night. He had been distracted by Can, of course – but he had expected to either take care of the picture after Can had fallen asleep or putting it back up in the morning before Can woke. It was unlike Tin to miss both opportunities. And even more curious that Can was up before the alarm – and in a suspiciously jolly mood, too.

Tin wondered how Can had managed to get out of bed without waking him, who had slept on the outside as usual.

He sighed and walked over to his still half-naked boyfriend. He briefly contemplated the option of distracting Can with a bit more of the attention he had loved so much last night, hoping he would forget about the picture by the time they needed to hurry downstairs for breakfast.

But it wouldn't do. The thing was too unusual for anyone to brush off.

He put his arm over Can's shoulders and followed his gaze onto the frame in front of them.

"That's part of the research I'm doing for Mr. Yaxley."

Can frowned.

"It looks really complicated. I don't get it."

"I haven't solved it, yet. It's still work-in-progress," Tin admitted, and he now felt the urge to talk to Can about it, maybe he could see things he had missed. "Do you want to hear what I have so far?"

He smiled when he saw Can nod.

"Hmm... it's probably best to start here in the upper left-hand corner. That's not really in the data, just context. But it's weird..." he took a deep breath when he realized that he was talking to himself and probably didn't make much sense.

"I think someone is trying to take over the school and they're coming at it from different angles. It's weird, there doesn't seem to be any pattern behind it and I can't figure out who is attacking... so I tried to find out more about the school's history, see who might have a motive. It's basically the messed-up history of the Yaxley family. I've never realized that Jonathan's family history is as ugly as mine."

"Jonathan? As in... my football captain? Coach Lavinia's family?"

Tin laughed.

"I guess the last generation of the family is doing alright..."

He then went on to tell Can the story, as far as he had been able to figure it out.

Apparently, the Yaxley family used to own this entire area, literally, all the grounds, fields and most of the houses in town and the surrounding villages. They even had some kind of aristocratic title tied to their name. Most of it had been lost in a big scandal about twenty years ago.

In a strange way, there was an era before the big scandal and an era after, like a big fissure that had torn the entire fabric of the family apart and rearranged it.

The school had been founded in the late Victorian era, in an effort to provide education for the future elites of the country, both civil and military. This was why they had traditionally had a general education and a sports branch, the sports people usually went on to pursue military careers.