Love and Pain

The grand, arched gates of Mahidol-Vajira University represented two entirely different worlds. For North and his best friends, Ter, Dao, and Phoon, it was a golden ticket-a prestigious engineering scholarship earned through sleepless nights and relentless hard work. For Johan, his twin brother Hill, and their medical school clique, the university was just another playground they inherently owned.
​North was the kind of boy who seemed entirely untouched by the cynicism of the world. At eighteen, he possessed a pure, honest soul and a smile that could disarm a storm. He was the glue that held his engineering friends together. They were just regular scholarship kids from the provinces, trying to keep their heads down, study hard, and build a future.
​Then came the rainy Tuesday that ruined everything.
​The Spark of Rivalry
​It started with a simple misunderstanding in the campus central cafeteria. Phoon had accidentally bumped into Tonfah, one of the elite fourth-year medical students, spilling hot coffee down Tonfah's designer jacket. Before Phoon could even finish stammering out an apology, Tonfah shoved him back.
​Ter and Dao immediately stepped in, defensive and tense, while Arthit-another medical student-joined Tonfah's side, sneering at the "low-class engineering kids."
​North, seeing his friends in trouble, rushed over to de-escalate. "Please, it was an accident. We'll pay for the dry cleaning, we are truly sorry," North said, his voice soft, his eyes shining with genuine remorse.
​"Pay for it? You couldn't afford the threads on this jacket," a cold, smooth voice cut through the crowd.
​The crowd parted as the twins approached. Hill, the elder twin by five minutes, looked on with a calm, composed, and analytical gaze. But beside him stood Johan. Rich, cruel, fiercely egoistic, and intensely possessive of his group's status, Johan looked down at North with absolute disdain.
​"Kneel and clean it," Johan commanded, his voice dripping with malice.