Brute

Part 20

Joong

 Last night, I slept in the other room, to let Nine have a proper rest, in case another nightmare visited me. There's a rainstorm last night, making the warmth air a little cold. At almost two in the morning, my door was opened slowly, and in the darkness, a small stature carefully slipped under the blanket and hugged me. At first I was too rigid, didn't know whether to let him know I was still awake or continued to pretend to sleep, but a light kiss was planted on my cheek, and a tired good night, made me moved to cuddle him close. The soothing scent coming from his skin, calmed me down, lulled me to sleep dreamless till morning.  

This morning, Nine complaint of a severe headache; a combination of walking under a drizzling rain, not eating on time, and skipping the supposed time for medicine. I prepared a light meal of bread and scrambled egg, brought it to Nine so he could eat some breakfast, taking a painkiller and slept back after giving me the school key to return to P'Sam. I arrived at the school almost at ten, kids were running on the compound. Must be recess time. I asked where the teacher's room was located, and was shown to the back of the main building. I knocked and walked in, to the surprised look of most of the teachers in there, not until P'Sam recognized and introduced me to the others. He invited me to have a hot tea and snack at the school canteen. 

"How is Nine? Hope his condition is better already...", P'Sam asked, as it was already informed through text message, that Nine was not well. 

"Did he frequently get sick, P'?", I asked, trying to get some info from his colleague, since there's not much said by Nine himself.

"Sometimes. He insisted on being actively involved in handling the children, but we could see that he get tired easily, although determined, his body could not cope with their energy. Look at that..", he said while pointing at a group of children that were hanging from a tree and jumped, "rural kids tend to be more active, such contrast from the city environment that focus too much on smart phones this day", P'Sam said and shook his head with a smile. 

"Is there any nearby clinic, P'? He only took painkiller. If his condition not doing any better, I wanted to bring him to get treatment", I said in earnest. 

"The nearest is at the nearby town. But, you need to take a bus to go there. Ah, let do it this way, my house is just nearby, so just take my car to use for anything, Joong. I don't need to use it in the mean time", P'Sam offered sincerely. How easily people lend help to one another in this community. No wonder Nine looked happy, although living outside the city, "Come, we have another 15 minutes before the recess end. I need to collect the kids from this surrounding or else they would continue to play liked there's no tomorrow". 

The car was an old, manual car. Luckily, I used to handle a manual before, when playing around the dusty racing circuit during my wild days. As I dropped P'Sam in front of the gate, a stocky, short man was already going around asking the kids to go back to the classroom. 

"Sam, come and help me", he called, a little short of breath, "oh, hello. Who is this Sam? Are you new around here, I've never seen you before?", there was a curiosity showing on his face.

"Mr.Gu, this is Joong, Nine's friend from the city. Yesterday Nine needed to stay back, so I'd given the key to him. But, he's not well today, so Joong came by to give me the key back. Joong, this is the headmaster of the school, Mr.Gu". I greeted him politely and suddenly realized, this was my biggest chance to ask about the school.

"Mr.Gu, maybe this is not an appropriate time, but I heard that the school is closing? Looking at the children, it seemed that they still have a few years for their school time...", I asked carefully. Mr.Gu looked at P'Sam and sighed heavily, but kept quiet. Maybe they were reluctant to share internal problem with an outsider. "No, don't worry Mr.Gu. I ask this out of concern, not only for my friend, Nine, but also the school as a whole. Is it...financially related?".

"How did you know? Did Nine say anything about our situation? Well, last holiday, he did say that he would try to approach some connection he has in the city to look into this matter, but when he came back, it seemed things fell through. I also tried approaching a few connections too, but who would put interest for something that would bring no return", Mr.Gu said, a little disheartened, but then showed a smile back, "It's alright, everybody still in high spirit and willing to try their best. Before the end is here, we will do whatever we can". P'Sam was nodding in agreement.

"Alright, about this matter...Mr.Gu, do you have time right now? I think we could discuss something further...". Mr.Gu looked surprised, so did P'Sam. They looked at me liked I was a mad man, wearing a borrowed old shirt belonging to Nine's grandpa, rubber slippers and a sweatpants  that only reached up to my ankles, "with one condition, I shall remain anonymous and please, keep it from Nine for the time being. So, shall we?". 

Nine

I looked at the time, it was almost two. Joong went out for such a long time. My headache had reduced greatly, but still I needed to take lunch and my medicine. I walked out from my room and to my surprise, Joong was already home and was at the kitchen.

"Had you been home for long, Joong?", I asked, my voice was hoarse. My call, caused him to look back and answered, "Ah, Nine, sit. I bought lunch, but you slept too soundly, I didn't have the heart to interrupt. So, I just reheated the food to not let it go bad if left exposed for longer. Just on time then, that you come out", Joong said with a cheery voice. Something good must had happened for him to be so happy liked this. He turned back and continue his tasks. I walked slowly and hugged him from behind, leaning my cheek on his warm back. "Ermmm, Nine, I was just gone for a few hours, do you miss me that much?", he teased. 

"I had always missed you, not just now. It had been liked this every time we were apart", I said quietly. My confession somehow, caused Joong to turn off the water, took a deep breath and turn around. 

"Well, you...could miss a friend, it's normal, right?", Joong said, testing the water. His hands were holding my waist lightly. I looked into his eyes; his words did not match the feeling his eyes conveyed; that he was asking me to let him in, to be something more. "Joong...I think...we..", my words were cut off by a loud knock on the door. The moment was broken and Joong immediately went to the front to look at the visitor. I sat at the dinner table, my heart was still pounding. Suddenly, a few people came in, making me felt confused. I stood up and moved to the front, looking confusingly at Joong who just smiled. "What is going on, Joong?".

"Oh, I went to the town this morning. Bought some clothes to wear, and also making some arrangements. Lucky you're already awake, if not, it might disturb your peace a bit. They are from the electrical company", Joong said while the technicians came in one by one bringing with them tools and parts.

"Electrical company? For what?", I asked dumbfounded.

"The weather is unpredictable, it could cause you to get sick easily. I don't want that. So, you should have options; air conditioner when it's hot, and a heated pad when cold, air purifier if it's stuffy, water heater to bath in the morning or if it needed to be used during cold weather, water dispenser for clean drinking water anytime, electrical appliances to reheat and cook your food easily". 

My mouth hung open. My headache that supposed to be better, became prominent again. I pulled him into the kitchen and whispered, "This is such an extravagance, Joong! What is this?! Are you my sugar daddy?", I said in disbelief.

"To answer to your question, no, I'm not your sugar daddy. Didn't you listen carefully? I said, I love you. From now on, I'll say that many times over. Maybe, when you're tired of hearing them, you could finally give me a definite answer back".  

Joong held my shoulders, pushed me to sit at the dinner table again and signaled me to start eating. I looked at him with stinky eyes; but started to eat when his hand almost moved to feed me.