Trash Polka | ForthBeam

Chapter 9

"So basically... you got jumped?"

"If you sum up my three hour story into three words, yes," Forth snapped. "Yes, I got jumped."

The four stared at him in silence.

"What?" Forth sighed.

"Oh, nothing! I'm only thinking about some strategies to quench that truth out of your thirsty ass," Park hissed.

"I am telling the truth!" Forth shouted. He did tell the truth. He just didn't tell them the full truth. Surely, that didn't count as lying. That was simply reducing the information he gave.

"Then why is the story incomplete?" Niran argued.

"It isn't!" Forth insisted. "I was walking home from working on the faculty booth that you all ditched, and these people came out and attacked me!"

"What time did you go home?" Bank asked, ignoring Forth's emphasis on when they all ditched him to work on the faculty booth for the Kantaphat University Festival by himself.

"Uh... around four?"

"See! I would believe it if it was at night. Why would anyone randomly attack you in broad daylight? I think they specifically knew your schedule, dude!" Park argued.

Forth frowned. This was also new for him. Although he remembered each and every single one of his attackers' looks, he knew they weren't from the faculty. However, what was odd was that he mainly had problems with students from different faculties.

Park's analysis made sense. Only students, specifically from his faculty, knew his schedule. He would believe it was students from different faculty if he didn't work on the faculty booth, but faculty booth was taken care by volunteers, and they happened to need big men to do the woodwork. There was no way anybody knew he was going.

"Is it possible that Suthee hired those men?" Bank suggested. "Then again, why the fuck is that bastard even involved with us?"

"There's a possibility. That bastard didn't have a problem with us, but why would he post a misleading video about us? There must be a reason," Niran said. "Maybe he hired those men to mess with you. Maybe it's because he has something we didn't want to know, and we almost do."

"But we didn't even know he existed before he posted that video!" Aran whined.

Forth gulped. It was as if those five shared the same brain. Forth was also sure that those men were hired by Suthee. But then Park gave a serious analysis, and that knocked Suthee off the list fairly quickly... not entirely.

"Wait. All the moons and stars are working on the festival promotion, right? That might be how he knows. They always stay late and walk around the university," Park reasoned.

Forth sighed. "You know what? Maybe they were waiting for me to come out. Who knows? Maybe they've been sitting there, waiting for my arrival, and—"

"Okay, let's say they didn't know your schedule," Park said. "That still put Suthee at the very top of the list. People who have problems with you won't even hire someone from outside to do their job. They would want to beat you up themselves... but not for someone who's inexperienced in fighting, like him."

Forth blinked. Okay, shit. He didn't expect that to be the conclusion, but Park was right.

"Okay! The point is, just drop this!" Forth grunted. "I don't want to hear any of you attacking someone over this, got it?"

"Fuck no," Aran argued. "We're going to search for this bastard and beat the shit—"

"Ai'Aran," Forth growled.