Call You Mine

Chapter Eleven

Less than ten minutes after his interview, Arthit found himself sitting on a bench situated under the shade of a large tree, hunched over with one arm cradling his stomach, his phone pressed hard against his ear. His head hurt, and the world was spinning round and round, making him sick to his stomach. Arthit closed his eyes and listened to the ringing on the other end of the line. Why did things always have to be so complicated? He just wanted to go home and sleep.

"Hello?" came Knot's tired, raspy voice. He sounded like he had still been sleeping, which wasn't a big surprise considering how much he'd drank last night.

It was an ugly reminder that a certain alpha might still be asleep in his room, and Arthit's stomach churned at the thought. He didn't want to see Kongpob, especially not now.

"Hey, Knot," Arthit said, trying to sound normal.

"Remind me to never go out drinking with Bright or Tutah ever again," Knot said, groaning as if he were in immense pain. "They're both monsters. How can they drink that much without dying?"

Pressing his mouth into a thin line, Arthit responded with a soft hum of agreement. Maybe he shouldn't have called Knot. He sounded terrible.

"But I'm feeling okay, if that's why you're calling. Or is this about your interview? What time is it...Oh, it must be done by now, right? How did it go?"

"Okay," he said. "The manager seemed to like me, I guess..."

"Why do you sound so weird?"

"I don't..." Arthit trailed off, momentarily distracted by the incessant sounds of traffic on a nearby street. It was too loud, and his head hurt too much to listen to a bunch of assholes honking at each other. Why did they keep making so much noise? He absentmindedly scratched at the inside of his wrist. Honking was so fucking unnecessary.

"Where are you? At the mall?"

"Yeah." Arthit swallowed thickly. He shouldn't have called. If he just sat here for ten minutes, whatever was causing his dizziness would pass and he'd be fine. "Um, if you don't feel good, stay home and sleep. I should go—"

"What's going on? You always use that tone of voice when something's wrong but you don't want to say."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. It's like when Bright's done something stupid and can't stop smiling like he's won the damn lottery. It gives him away every time, same as your voice when you're lying or flustered."

Arthit sighed. Out of all his friends, Knot had always been the hardest to fool. He was quiet and observant as well as protective and nurturing, but aside from that, he could also be incredibly stubborn and volatile when his friends were in trouble. Sometimes, Knot reminded Arthit of a mother bear protecting its cubs.

One instance, in particular, stood out in Arthit's mind—it was two years ago, when they were the nervous freshmen and Tum was the frightening head hazer. During one of the gatherings, Arthit had drawn Tum's attention by swatting a mosquito on his neck, and the former head hazer had decided to pick on him for daring to do so during his speech. According to Tum, the campus's mosquito wasn't his to kill and he shouldn't have touched it. And then somehow killing the mosquito meant he wasn't listening? Tum had gone on and on about how Arthit didn't know manners and, to teach him, then demanded he wai to a tree for three hours.

Later, when Arthit told this story to his family, his mother had stopped him, laughing, and guessed that Prem must've lost his cool and yelled at the hazers on his behalf. His father had merrily gone along with her assumption, because they'd always heard that alphas were overly protective and aggressive.