Stumbled In Love [Complete]

42.

I looked up at Arthit from under hooded eyes as both of us pushed around the breakfast on our plate wordlessly. Lowering my gaze in the very next instant with the fear of getting caught once again. Blind he may be but somehow Arthit always knew when I spent my time simply staring at him.

And turns out since the time we roused from bed after an extremely long, silent, sleepless night, I have been doing a whole lot of staring.

In fact, the moment Arthit rolled out of bed wordless an hour back, throwing on clothes from yesterday to step outside to find his brother missing, he had yet to even have a flicker of expression on the face that was eerily blank.

And yet the moment Arthit was about to open his mouth after an hour of an excruciatingly silent meal, I knew exactly what he was about to say.

"I'm not your brother."

"Listen Kong..."

"I know where your brain is going, and no I'm not going to let it happen. I'm not Sol. And I don't think that way.  I'm not angry or jealous or mad. Not in the slightest actually. In fact I'm on freaking cloud nine every time we are together. And neither do I see you as any sort of a burden nor am I with you cause I think you need protection of any sort. I'm here cause I'm in love with you. And that's not going to change. So before you get any more ideas. I. Am. Not. Sol."

He didn't really respond to my big confession in any way, at least not immediately, pursing his lips as if mulling over my words, his face still devoid of all emotion, he simply nodded.

"Ok..."

Why doesn't it sound at all convincing?

"...You should probably head back home today. You haven't really had a chance to celebrate with your family after your last exam. Plus I am sure you have a lot of packing to do."

"Oh no I moved out of my dorm room before the exams itself. I am totally free to hang out with you."

"Hmmm...you should still head home. I need to go see Erica about my book chapter anyway."

"But Arthit, I can stay..."

Arthit was past discussing anything anymore in fact, he hadn't even begun the conversation. Pushing his plate away from him before he stood up and simply walked away into his bedroom and softly shut the door behind him.

And as much as I was itching to run behind, sorely tempted to follow him, make him talk to me, I also understood that he probably needed time by himself to process everything. His mom, his brother, my family, and well, me. Especially, a man like Arthit, who dealt with so many of his issues by himself. Perhaps someday I won't have to do the relentless chasing, but it was definitely not this day.

Standing up from the table myself, staring at the shut door before shaking my head in resignation. Willing to leave today, but if Arthit thought even for a second that I wouldn't be back he was sorely mistaken. Especially after what I had overheard the past two nights. Seriously how messed up was his family? Rubbing his insecurities in his face over and over again. Although eavesdropping on his obviously personal conversations wasn't exactly a stellar thing to do either, I feel I can at least begin to understand him better. And who knows someday I might even figure out what goes through that mysterious mind of his.

And with a whole lot of thoughts focused around Arthit, exactly like most of my other days it seems, I finally made my way back home after two whole nights post my exam, not in the least prepared for what I was about to run into myself.

Cause right inside the deserted main living room, arms wrapped across his chest was my extremely grumpy father, looking like he was simply itching to have a nasty showdown of his own.