Fateful Encounter (Completed)

Chapter 22

Forth and Arthit sat in the same seats they've earlier vacated. Two empty water bottles in front of them. The rest just watched the two cousins, some in concern and some in curiosity. The two had looked shell shocked when they returned and they'd simply downed and entire water bottle in sync without uttering a word. And now the two cousins were just sitting at the table staring blankly into space. Kongpob had returned a little behind the two, but nothing in the senior hazing leader's face has given anything away. And now Kongpob, too, sat looking at Arthit in concern.

The silence was finally broken when Kongpob cleared his voice.

'Arthit, are you alright?' He asked softly and slowly, as if he was trying not to startle Arthit.

Both cousins turned towards Kongpob simultaneously. All the seniors, including Kongpob, were startled by the identical blank looks in their faces.

'Since when?' Both asked in unison.

'Since when what?' Kongpob asked slowly, trying to make sense out of the situation.

'Since when does your family know?' Arthit asked, equally slowly.

'Since last Wednesday.' Kongpob said.

Arthit and Forth both gasped and started talking at once.

'Last Wednesday?'

'He hasn't even said yes, properly.'

'Does that mean she knew when she met me on Saturday?'

'I haven't even taken Beam to meet my parents.'

'Is that why she sent all that food?'

'Arthit already met his mother-in-law?'

'She's not my mother-in-law.'

'Well obviously her son thinks you are. Who are you to refute that?'

'What the hell P'Forth. We are talking about me.'

'And they are the Suthilaks. They probably sent your dowry to your parents by now.'

'Did they?' Arthit asked turning to Kongpob furiously.

'Did they what?' Kongpob asked, trying hard not to laugh at the two cousins. In fact all the seniors were of the same state. For the first time they felt that even Forth was kind of stupidly adorable when paired with Arthit. However out of the juniors, except for Knott, Korn and Mew the rest wore looks of surprise and confusion. While Korn and Knott looked surprised, Mew looked positively scandalous and stared at Kongpob.

'Send a dowry to my parents!' Arthit asked, looking rather angry. Kongpob, of course, thought he looked adorable.

'No Arthit they didn't. My mother only met you because she wanted to apologize because we stopped the interviewer from mentioning my name or my family, when you talked about those photos. And for using Forth as a distraction.' Kongpob explained kindly, looking at both Arthit and Forth.

'Oh, that's OK then.' Arthit said. Forth nodded and the both seemed to calm down a bit. Knock, Farm and Prem who were still confused about the whole thing were just about to ask for an explanation when they were inturrupted by Mew.

'No it's not.' Mew said furiously. Everybody snapped their attention to him.

'It's NOT OK!' He said again looking at everyone.

'Don't you see? They are talking about P'Kongpob and Arthit being together.' Mew whispered furiously looking towards his friends and Arthit's friends. Finally enlightened Knock, Farm and Prem gasped looking at Arthit and Kongpob accusingly. Arthit cringed while Kongpob stared back. He knew, he would have to face these kinds of scenarios often. He'd figured that when he'd listened to those fan-girls and checked all the videos and comments about Arthit. But no way was he going to back down.