Listening to the Heart

Chapter 3

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Cooheart's POV

"What the hell, Earth?" I heard Title say angrily without warning.

One minute we were pleasantly talking about how I had just learned how to make my favorite Thai dessert from my uncle's assistant cook, the next minute he was calling me by my official name 'Earth' which meant he was upset with me about something.

"What are you upset about, Title?" I asked cautiously.

"Don't pretend to be innocent with me, Cooheart," he said, "why didn't you mention to me that you have decided to rent out your room to some handsome stranger?"

"I didn't know anything about that until after I landed here," I tried to explain, "my mom convinced me to rent my room out temporarily until that student, whoever he is, finds another place to stay close to the university."

My explanation seemed to appease Title because he was quiet for a little while.

"I still don't like the idea that someone is going to invade your private territory," he said grudgingly, "but there's nothing we can do about it if that's your mom's decision to rent out your room.'

"Well, anyway, he will have to move out once I go back there at the end of the semester," I said.

"Cooheart, your mom has finished doing business with the new tenant of your room," I heard Title say, "she is showing him and his father out the door right now."

"Okay," I said, "tell mom I love her and that I will talk to her soon. Are you staying for dinner? You know she loves your company."

"Will do," said Title, "take care, Cooheart. Talk to you later."

"Be good while I'm gone," I said and cut the call before he could get back to me with some cutting retort.

Third Person POV

Amongst Mrs. Namwirote and Title and the housekeeper Rose, Cooheart's room was emptied of all of Cooheart's personal belongings. They placed all of Cooheart's stuff in one of two big and spacious closets in Mrs. Namwirote's room which she had never used. They had to leave the foldable bed that was kept on one side of Cooheart's closet because there was no more space to place it in Mrs. Namwirote's room.

"No, no, no! Leave those picture frames up there!," Mrs. Namwirote exclaimed when she saw Title reaching for them and getting ready to take them off the wall, "Cooheart said it's alright to just leave them there."

Title wanted to argue with Mrs. Namwirote but decided to hold his tongue.

Kao had already packed his stuff even before he and his father had proceeded to Mrs. Namwirote's office, and so when all the necessary paperwork pertaining to his occupancy of Cooheart's room had been signed, and all the rental fees had been paid to Mrs. Namwirote, Kao was ready to move in that same day.

Kao's father helped him to bring his boxes and suitcase into Cooheart's room and then left him with instructions to call him if ever he needed anything. Kao thanked his father and hugged him goodbye.

Before unpacking his stuff, Kao looked at the picture frames that were hanging on one side of the room. There were two high school graduation pictures of Cooheart, one was by himself, and the other one was with his mother. A third graduation picture was with a friend whose high school badge on his uniform showed that he was two years lower than Cooheart. 

There was another picture of Cooheart posing with that same friend by the entrance of a theme park. The younger friend had grown taller than Cooheart, probably about the same as Kao's height and he had his arm resting on Cooheart's shoulder. There were two other photos hanging on the wall. They were photos of Cooheart at the beach with the same friend. One photo showed the same friend standing in the water, with Cooheart riding piggyback on him, and another photo of them in one of those sheds by the beach and they were sipping some kind of tropical drink with a pineapple slice stuck in one corner of their glass and a small red umbrella on one side of their drink.