Two weeks later

" Arthit , why are you not in class ? "  Kongpob asked seeing Arthit sitting in a chair at his bedside .

Listening Kongpob talking first time in two weeks Arthit had tears in his eyes, he sniffled " I...  I did not have a class today. "

Arthit didn't know why he teared up listening Kongpob talking a regular sentence, in last two weeks Kongpob was under heavy pain medication and most of the time stuff he talked didn't make sense. His skull, ribs have suffered multiple fractures . There was also fracture in left wrist and back injury. Overall he was in pretty bad condition still now , but he was alive that is what mattered.

For first two days doctor had given up on him, every one was praying for Kongpob.

" Don't worry about him he is a survivor. This situation demands  you to be strong " P'Sam had said when he had visited Kongpob.
P'Sam had visited Kongpob, signed the forms, paid bill and left. But before going he instructed Arthit to be by Kongpob's side.

" I have signed the forms they need, paid the bills in advance, if you will need more contact this number, my personal assistant will take care of everything. I will be a little busy, may be I couldn't visit him again, take care of him alright " Sam had told him handing the card. Arthit felt something was not right.

Two days later he saw the news of car crash on TV. May be P'Sam always knew he was not coming back do he had facilitated everything for Kongpob in advance.

" Arthit...." Kong called groggily, almost moaning in pain.

" No, I'm okay. What are you hiding from me ? " Kong asked.

" Nothing. "

" Don't lie Arthit, the more you make me talk more I will have to endure the pain, even taking is effort right now. "

" Then don't talk na. "

Kongpob gave him a look. " Nothing, P'Sam....."

Kong closed his eyes immediately after listening Sam's name " I don't want to listen.... "

Arthit stayed silent, he didn't know he should give this traumatic news to Kongpob or not, his condition was pretty fragile right now. Even minor emotional shock was sending him in to seizures. So he stayed silent, turned his back to wipe the stray tear that escaped his eyes.

He turned back at the sound of heavy gasping, Kongpob was gasping for breath, tears streaming down his eyes continuously. A nurse came running on Arthit's frantic calls. After he calmed down Kongpob was drugged again that sent him in to peaceful slumber.

Arthit decided it was not time yet.

One month later

Kong was still bedridden, last week the news of Thaksirat's suicide sent him in to another seizure, he wasn't ready to handle emotional turmoil yet. Seeing Kongpob desperately trying to inhale at the same time choking on air was something Arthit couldn't bear anymore. He didn't know how Kong will take Sam's news. Every time P'Suzy visited, Arthit had seen Kong staring at the door for the whole day, his eyes blank and lips frowning.

P'Sam's will was still not read because Kongpob couldn't be present.
Two weeks later doctors gave their permission to disclose the news to Kongpob, P'Suzy came with a boxful of things P'Sam had left to Kongpob .

" P'Suzy, does P'Sam not care at all ? It's been  more than a month ..." Kong asked.

Arthit blanched hearing this. Suzy had told Arthit how Sam doted on him when Kong had fractured his leg last time. Sometimes when in drug's influence Kongpob calls Sam and Nat's name, talking like they were still alive but he had never talked about them while totally conscious, until now.

Suzy didn't answer Kongpob, she just turned around, trying to hide her tearing eyes. She loved Sam since she had seen him but at the same time she knew Sam could never be hers. Only person Sam wanted, needed and ever allowed near him was Nat. Suzy wiped her tears.

" P'Suzy, what happened ? " Kong asked.

" Nothing, you will understand, see this box." Suzy handed him the box. Opening it with trembling hands, Kong took out the first item - P'Nat's notebook of secrets as he called it. It was Nat's programmimg diary.

Kong screeched as he saw second item          " No...." he threw away the ring " it's not ..... Possible " Kong yelled as he gasped for breath. Seeing his condition Arthit couldn't even call for nurse, no sound came out if his mouth. Kongpob had worst seizure till now.

" Don't you dare drug me down " Kong yelled as he saw the doctor ready with syringe. " I am fine, I am.fine. " Kong yelled. Still he was injected the medicine that would help him calm down his heart rate.

When he woke up, first thing Kong searched was the ring  "  It's not possible, he will never part with his ring, don't tell me he...." Kong couldn't complete .

Arthit nodded. Kong clenched his teeth, though tears ran down unchecked from his eyes,o he didn't go in to another seizure.          " What happened ? " He asked.

" Car accident "  Kong took deep breaths hearing this. Same as his parents.

" P'Sam has left you this letter. " Arthit passed him the letter.

Kongpob unfolded the square piece of paper, his heart clenching in his ribcage at familiar spider crawling script, Nat and Kongpob always teased Sam for his crooked handwriting calling it spider crawling script.

Kong ran his eyes over the letters.

Kongpob

How are you kid ? I hope you are doing good. Get well soon na.

Kong gritted his teeth in annoyance. Sam always talked straight to the point. What was on with small talks that too in letter ?

Don't grit your teeth Kongpob, I'm coming to point. I know you have many questions, I will try to answer them all. You know I am not adept at expressing, I have never written even a single note to Nat yet I am here writing this novelette of a letter to you so bear with me , will you ?

Kong sniffed nodding his head, forgetting Sam wasn't physically there to see his response.

You were right I hated you with all my heart at start, since you came in to picture, my time with Nat was viciously cut short to few minutes a day. That idiot used to drag you even on our dates. Dates are supposed to be couple time Kongpob ! and there I was pathetically sitting, looking at my boyfriend feeding you, doting on you 24/7.
So I hated you, that was not the only reason to hate you, I hated your vengeful heart. You didn't see anything else other than your revenge from Thaksirat. Nat didn't like it. He used to think of you as his own son, he used to be sad whenever you cooked up new plans though you didn't know how to execute it effectively, you thinking of it was great in itself.

To steer you away from revenge Nat started teaching you programming, he started giving you more and more hectic task so you wouldn't find time to plan anything devious but you were more apt at multitasking than he was. You still came up with plan of sabotaging Thaksirat's game launch.

When you planned it, Nat was furious and proud at the same time, furious that you were using your brain for such destructive purpose, amazed that not even he thought to mask the virus under conditional loop.

When he saw your determination to be actively involved he volunteered himself. He had promised me he will never set foot in Thaksirat's company or anywhere within ten feet radius of Thaksirat's presence yet he broke the promise for you, apparently son comes before lover.

If not for Nat, I would have murdered you that day and I'm dead serious. So yes I hated you because you didn't care about my phoenix as he did for you, he imparted his knowledge to you in hope that it will bring you to right path yet every time you asked him to check your errors, it was in interest of you being able to extract your revenge soon.

Every time Nat tried to deter you from destructing yourself because he knew it would only being ruin but you didn't listen. He cried in the dark nights, I have seen him spending nights after nights awake thinking of a way that would make you think to improve yourself, he desperately wanted to find a way to destroy Thaksirat soon so that you won't dirty your hands in the mud of hatred. We all thought Thaksirat was the real enemy at that time.

But he wasn't , he was just a minor puppet, a minion of my devil adopted father. Nat was hinting that Thaksirat was just a sidekick, he got some clues when he hacked Thaksirat's personal laptop. You know how curious he was, he found out Thaksirat had been depositing hefty sum in old man's account since one month before your parents death.

He also got evidences of Chanagun being in the same city and within ten miles radius of your parent's accident site, I don't know how but old man found out that Nat had been snooping around. He was taken care of, same way old man takes care of every one but in haste of framing Thaksirat old man stuck the note on Nat's back, that was my first clue.

Nat probably knew he was being followed and his game was going to be over anytime, he had left clues for me to find out. Four days before his death he gave me the necklace, it has some clues you will have to decode the message, password is patbingsu. It has some evidences. He asked me to promise to take care of you and make you stop the revege plan. That's why we slowed down our plan but in reality it was halted, I would have never let you continue, Thaksirat lost the tender to Chanagun industry but it was doing of old man not me.

When I saw your state after Nat's death, I realised you cared for Nat same way he cared for you. From there onwards started my journey of finding evidences against my own adopted father, I came to know about his shady businesses.

He was an underground drug dealer. Tracing that trail I found out that your father and old man were once business partner. Old man Chanagun was sharp and clever but he didn't had his own capital so your father helped him to start his business and eventually they became good friends and business partner but when your father found out warehouses of your companies were being used for drug dealing he had Chanagun arrested.

Chanagun has made many influencial friends in his short tenure of being attached to Suthiluck's name so eventually he got out of jail within an year. Your father became the enemy in old man's eye, he was looking for an opportunity to take out the thorn pricking his eye. When he found out Thaksirat was actually a greedy leech, he offered to clear your family from picture so Thaksirat could take reigns of Suthiluck empire.

Thaksirat hasn't been downgraded himself morally to the point that he would facilitate killing of his own friend inspite of his greed for money but here old man got lucky.

Thaksirat's wife who was Nat's cousin found out about Thaksirat's affair, she confronted him about it , they got in an argument and in a fit of rage he threw his nine months pregnant wife off the stairs. Apparently Chanagun was one who fed evidences of Thaksirat's debauchery to his wife, he was expecting for something to happen. He had planned to blackmail Thaksirat with evidences of his affair since it would have made a big stir in business world, to his luck he got the act of murder covered on camera.

Thus when Chanagun carried out his devious plan against your family Thaksirat didn't retaliate or dragged him to court, all to save his own neck. To protect you from Chanagun he put you in that orphanage and ran away, Thaksirat was always dimwitted, you would have been more safe with him than anywhere else.

Though Thaksirat was paying old man to keep his mouth shut about the murder he had intentionally or unintentionally commited, Thaksirat was trying to find any evidences on Chanagun ranging from evidences about his drug business to your parents murder.

Thaksirat was desperate to find any evidence to stop extortion. He loved his money, that's how later I found many evidences against my adopted father, I bribed Thaksirat. When you will be reading this letter Thaksirat would have been dead, old man has it arranged and I did nothing to stop it. Thaksirat calling you to meet was a deliberate plan to take you down, at this point you are danger for both businessman because business runs in your blood. And you have showed the signs in early age itself if raise in Chanagun's profit are any evidence.

Returning to topic , Kindness of your father was one favour Chanagun owed to your family, you know how serious he was about paying favours that is why he took you out of the orphanage. The fury burning in your eyes and your vow to avenge your parents were all in interest of his own dirty game of checkmate on Thaksirat. Nat was already working for him, you joined the force too so he sat on sidelines watching his own plan unfold without dirtying his own hands , everything was going according to his plans until Nat found out his identity.

After Nat's death I didn't disclose my suspicions about Chanagun to you since I didn't want you to follow same path as Nat. You are more of a nosy Parker than Nat ever was, use your curiosity to satisfy your thirst of knowledge not revenge. 

I got sidetracked again.

Nat always wanted you to find love so you will get a reason to change your path , when you found Rojanapat kid I was happy for you because changes in your behaviour were evident. I was on ninth cloud when you said you wanted all this to finish. Make no mistake, I knew every little thing you did , in or out of dorm, you were followed and protected 24/7. I couldn't take chance with your saftey after Chanagun tried to kill you after AAA game launch sabotage cuz he could have framed Thaksirat very easily.

When Chanagun's men clicked your photos with Rojanapat kid, old man would have made you do his deals by hanging Rojanapat on your head hence I did the same before he could do so. Seeing your temper and Suthiluck Pride old man would be forced to reveal his real slimy self infront of you and he did. My plan worked at least for few hours, until you went MIA on me. I had more men placed around Rojanapat kid so that he wouldn't suffer same fate as Nat, I didn't dare to withdraw them from their positions. You will have to understand I have just handful of people I could trust blindly to have my back, old man had more resources and man power. I am sorry, though I promised to protect you I couldn't. I failed Nat too.

Damn! I never wrote this much even for marks Kid. At last I just want to say don't blame yourself for anything, I didn't sacrifice or anything I was actually dying. I had attached my reports for you to see the truth. The reason Nat had me cut off my alchohol intake was because I was an alchoholic , I had damaged my liver. After Nat's death I again went on rampant drinking till you stopped me but the damage was done already. If I was going to die I had vowed to take old man with me, I can't trust him to jails, he would have gotten out eventually. And I prefered my car over a hospital bed for my last breath.

We were never great model for you. Though Nat didn't want you to walk on path of hatred, he was doing same thing. I don't want you to ruin yourself but I did the same thing, my life turned upside down when I found Nat, I learned to live rather than existing. The shine I see in your eyes tells me you have found your forever. Cherish it. Though we are not blood related Nat cared for you as a father, I think of you as my little brother. Take a lesson from our lives and walk a path that will lead you to your self discovery.

While Suthiluck name is great and grand, it is a sunken ship - titanic to be exact. Stop hiding behind the name Suthiluck. You are Kongpob first then a Suthiluck. Make a name for yourself, let the world know you as Kongpob.

I have left you some things with Suzy, she will give it to you. Read Nat's notebooks of his game plans, see if you can make it to reality.

I have donated most of the property to trust and different organisations. Nat's apartment is already transferred in your name, I have left you some of my personal savings for your start-up. Don't think of it as my kindness. It's a payment because I am naming your first game - phoenix.

I know you always feel alone Kongpob, it's just because you can't see the people you want to see around you. There are people who care for you, open your eyes a little and find them. Me, Nat, Suzy, guys you have worked with, your astrophysics seniors, Mook, your classmates and many more. There are many people around you who care even though they are not the one you want, you just have to open your heart a little.

This letter is unstructured and all over the place, in my defence it's my first time writing a letter to someone, I have not even written a letter in board exams when marks were being alloted for it. Thank you for reading this far, I have few more things to say.

I am looking damn fine today, more handsome than your P'Nat. I will say hi to him for you when I meet him, though I know he will sulk for at least a week . Get well soon so he will end his sulking spell.

We are always with you .
Never feel alone.

Take care of yourself for your Phi na.

( though he is not here today, there is no Sam without Nat. )

- Sam & Nat.

P.S. : Just remember you can never be as genius as Ai Nat. It will keep you humble.

Kongpob kissed the letter, folded it and kept it under his pillow. He dry heaved, hicupping. Arthit handed him a glass of water, helping him to take few sips , calm himself down.

Kong wrapped his arms around Arthit as later turned to him after placing the glass on bedside table.

" Kong " Arthit called tenderly, Kong didn't answer, he quitely shed tears , sobbed in to Arthit's arms.

Today Kongpob shed tears for every body he lost, he mourned each soul he had lost and didn't mourn. He hadn't shed a single tear when his parents died, he fainted when Nat died, same when he heard about Sam.

Today he mourned every single soul to his heart's content. Quite sobs turned in to wailing, spectators froze seeing Kongpob wailing like a baby, at most he clenched his teeth when pain became unbearable bit never cried aloud.

Arthit had him wrapped in his arms, let him shatter to his heart's content, he was there to pick up every single piece. He let Kong soak his shirt in his grief, his pain flowing down in tears.

Arthit didn't dare to wrap his arms around Kongpob as Kong had done, Kong was still fragile, Arthit simply kept his arms around Kong, patting him tenderly, letting him know of his presence.

Arthit broke his hug when he felt Kong leaning away from him, Kong simply wiped his tears as if he never cried.

" I didn't wanted to cry when I'll visit P'Sam and P'Nat tomorrow, P'Nat hates crying. I am sure P'Sam will haunt me if P'Nat gets sad seeing me cry. " Kong said.

Arthit couldn't laugh at this lame joke but the solemn atmosphere cracked a little.

_____________________

Kong couldn't visit Sam next day, he visited them after two weeks. Kong had taken a single white Rose and a black rose.

He placed white rose for Sam and  black for Nat.
" Phi Nat, don't sulk at P'Sam na. He took care of me more than you " Kong said placing the rose.

A strong gust of wind blew out of nowhere, it ruined his carefully done hairstyle, messing it up, making his hair stick in every direction.

" But Phi Sam can never look more handsome than you. " Kong soothed Nat's ego.

Another strong gust of wind rustled through his hairs, ruining his hairstyle for good, making it resemble bird's nest.

Arthit paid his respect while Kong was talking to Nat and Sam.

" I pray to God you get to live with your love in next life. Thank you, if not for you two I couldn't hold Kong in my arms. Bless us, let our love be as strong as you, in life and beyond that too. " Arthit whispered his prayer. A gentle breeze caressed his face.

" This is not fair P'Nat. You mess my hair and bless him ? " Kong complained looking skywards.

__________

" Why did you do that ? Are you trying to make my son against me ? " Nat glares at Sam.

" Well, your brat thinks I'm not handsome. " Sam shrugged nonchalant. " I'm sure if I ask Arthit he will chose me. "

" He thinks I am more handsome than you, do you dare to counter that ? " Nat asked with stern eyes.

" No , my love. Of course I find you most handsome man in the world but he shouldn't think you are handsome. I don't like anyone thinking you are handsome " Sam cajoled.

Nat flicked his hair " Well, you can't change universal fact, I am handsome and genius. Beauty with brains as they say "

Sam frowned " You are supposed to say you are handsome too. That's how it goes. "

" I am already  saying I am handsome. " Nat countered with a mischievous smile.

" You are supposed to say I am most handsome man in your eyes Ai Nat " Sam said exasperated.

" Why will I lie? " Nat asked as if genuinely confused.

" Do you think I'm not handsome ? " Sam asked .

" I just think you are not more handsome than me, I mean just look at this face . " Nat showcased his face in his hands.

Sam shook his head in defeat.
________________

Kong chuckled " where ever they are , I'm sure that are arguing about who is most handsome ? " he told Arthit.

" Who do you think is more handsome? " Arthit asked.

" P'Nat ofcourse" Kong answered without batting an eyelash which earned him one more strong gust of wind messing his hair.

" Kongpob, when your faen asks such question , you say he is the most handsome. Say Arthit is most handsome man I have ever seen." Arthit instructed with puffed cheek and glaring eyes.

" But wasn't comparision between P'Sam and P'Nat ? " Kong raised an eyebrow.

" But I'm most handsome, even they will agree. " Arthit looked sky wards, a gentle breeze caressed him once again.

" This is total partiality " Kong complained .

" They like me more than you " Arthit grinned.

" I am sure it was P'Sam, P'Nat will never agree someone is more handsome than him." Kong countered.

" You know what - " Arthit retorted

" And you know what  -" Kong countered.

And they happily bickered ever after!!!!!!

_____________THE END __________

A/N : Stay tuned for special chapters, don't delete the book from your library just yet 🙏😊

What are your honest thoughts about this story ? Plz give your honest reviews, it's okay if it isn't nice. A little bit of bitter is good for health🤣🤣 ( but it isn't an open invitation to thrash me 😄🤗🙏)

If you have any questions about the story or ending , you can ask me.

If you liked this story, join Kongpob on the journey of secretary to lover in my new story ' The Secretary ' .