Fresh Roses

Ram always wondered how he could repay the kindness that King gave him.

It wasn't new that King annoyed Ram but no one knew that Ram was more thankful for King than he was for anyone else that he had ever met.

King had wanted Ram to talk to him but he was smarter than everyone else Ram had talked to at this university.

He hadn't pushed for Ram to talk to him, he hadn't begged to hear Ram speak just once, and every time that he did talk to King, the senior had cheered so happily.

It made Ram want to smile, but he buried the smile deep down inside every single time. He didn't know this senior well enough to express himself around him, but it seemed from the way King acted like he already knew everything about Ram that he needed to know.

It was odd.

King was odd.

But at the same time, Ram was passing Calculus. There was no way that he would've been able to pass the class without the senior coming to tutor him and his friends when they were working on difficult assignments.

Ram sat with Duen, staring at the food in front of him.

"You know," Tang spoke up amidst the silence, "I don't know much about food but I don't think you can communicate with pad thai telepathically."

Ram rolled his eyes at his friend but started to eat lunch rather than staring at it.

"So what's up?" Duen questioned, "You're never this lost in thought. Contrary to popular belief, you do talk to us."

Ram shook his head and dropped his spoon into the bowl before taking a sip from his drink. He looked at Duen.

Duen had been together with Bohn for a few weeks now, he spent a lot of time with the head hazer and his group. He must know at least something about King.

"What do you know about P'King?" he questioned.

Duen chewed his food in thought for a moment.

"Why are you suddenly curious about him?" Phu questioned, "Even when he is tutoring us, you don't seem to be that interested in him."

Ram shrugged.

"Well...I know that P'King loves plants," Duen replied after swallowing, "He got into an argument with P'Tee the other day in their group chat over whether or not a certain flower was a tulip or a daffodil. It was strange."

"That's what's strange about him?" Ting Ting asked, raising her eyebrow, "The fact that you're in the head hazers' group chat doesn't sound off any alarms with you?"

Duen shook his head.

"You misunderstand," he replied with a smile, "I got curious why Bohn was cursing at his phone one day and he showed me the conversation."

Ram nodded.

He took his phone out and typed it into his notes.

Figure out the difference between daffodils and tulips.

"I think that P'King likes this one restaurant that's not far from the university, from their faculty. He's always trying to convince everyone to go with him but they don't want to," Duen finished, "But other than that, I don't know much about him."

Ram nodded thanks toward Duen before writing down the second note.

Find PKing's favorite restaurant.

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Ram walked with his bike next to him, his backpack hanging off the handlebars. It was a hot, humid day out today, too hot for him to waste more energy on biking back to his apartment building than walking.