Age 18

Though earlier Kong had alloted hostel room, most of his time was spent at P'Nat's apartment. But after the incident he didn't return there, he was not brave enough to face the emotional turmoil that bubbled up even at the name of P'Nat.
' I have failed you P'Nat, I wasn't selected. I came second. I lost.' His mind supplied single thought repeatedly like a broken cassette would sing same song.

'Arthit Rojanapat' he wrote on a piece of paper to drop it in his file of failures. He had a habit of preserving tokens or certificates of his failure,it reminds him to not repeat the same mistake. He had every failure saved up in his file to fuel him up to perform his best because KongPob Suthiluck hate losing.

He firmly pushed the thought of P'Nat and the scholarship at the back of his mind and stood up. Time to grab life by its lapel.

Kong couldn't believe seeing the paper stuck on the door of his room

Room No-106
Kongpob Suthiluck
Arthit Rojanapat

Wow, fate always had a way to fuck him up. Now he will have to face his defeat every damn minute.
Dumping both his suitcases under the bed Kong barged out of the room to eat.
............

Kong sat at a table furthest from crowd. He liked this restaurant since it has cozy, homely feeling and less crowd than normal since it was a bit far from campus.

" Your regular order Nong? " the old lady and owner asked him.

" Yes, Phi "

"I don't know what is bothering you today but don't loose hope Nong. Everything happens for the best." The old lady smiled at him.

Kong nodded his head. 'How is him losing the scholarship is for best?'

Kong felt his mobile vibrating in his pant pocket, P'Suzy P'Sam's secretary was calling him. Apparently P'Sam was in a near by bar drinking himself to death.

He groaned pinching bridge of his nose. Does everything have to happen today?
Kong paid for his uneaten meal and sped towards the bar on his bike.

He picked up P'Sam from the bar and dropped him at his home in his car. Then came back to bar for his bike and finally returned towards his room to have much needed sleep.... If only a man could get everything he wish!

Kong marched up to the bed and fell face first on it, he stayed like that couple of minutes but couldn't relax his mind wandering at the speed of light. He decided to read a book, he flipped open his favourite book and was actually reading until....

" Ummm....Hi I am Arthit.....Are you Kongpob? " A hesitant voice fell on his ears.
' Arthit!!!!!!' his mind screamed.

" Yes" Kong supplied with a stoic face.

" We are roommates. " Arthit stated.
'Seriously! Did you think we are camping for the night here? I would have been escastic if that was the case' Kong was screaming in his mind. Keep cool he told himself.

" That's what I saw pasted on the door in capitals ." Kong replied because it was more polite then what was in his mind.

The guy on the other bed was silent for few minutes. " It's nice to meet you Kongpob."

'Really won't he give up ? If it's his definition of nice then this guy is totally nuts!' Kong thought.

" Really? How so?" Kong intentionally used a bit of sarcastic intonation. 'just give up man '

" I am sorry Kongpob. "

" What for Arthit ?" This time Kong didn't even have to think, he replied sincerely . Arthit had done nothing wrong. Why was he apologizing?

Kong neither had time nor inclination to befriend him. He feels like his head is going to explode. He doesn't even remember what did he reply to obvious socialising attempts of his roommate. What he knows is he can't tolerate another hour of being in this room. As soon as Arthit left the room, Kong climbed down the tree.
..........

Kong lied on his bed in utter pain. His throat ,stomach, everything was on fire. He could literally feel the path damn chilly pickle had travelled in his body.

Stupid pride of Suthiluck's, how can he be so stupid to eat whole jar of chilly pickle when he can't tolerate a single chilly? The guy must be so smug now, celebrating his victory.

Kong closed his eyes, he refuse to look at his room partner's smug face now. But Kong was taken aback seeing Arthit placing bowl of congee infront of him and urging him to eat. Though Arthit still teased him little about falling in to his trap but on an overall he looked sincere in his attempt to care for Kongpob.
Kong was more surprised when Arthit initiated truce between them. Kong nodded his head in agreement, he can work with that. He would like someone seeing him in neutral light.

Till now Kong is at two extremes in people's books, either he is the devil incarnate that everyone wants to kill or an angel who can do nothing wrong. He would like to be seen as a normal person for a change. It's all fine as long as Arthit doesn't want to suddenly be best friends for life or something.

............

A week has passed since chilly pickle incident.
Kong was sitting with P'Sam at Chanagun residence, both were drinking silently. Kong seldom indulged in drink, he didn't liked the idea of his senses clouded by alcohol, but today is an exception.

Today is the day of DT games and technology's new game launch. It would have been the day of executing first step of revenge had P'Nat been alive.

P'Nat had worked as the main programmer for this ambitious project of Dave Thaksirat. He was supposed to code the program with a virus which would be masked as a conditional loop of game itself and activate at final testing. They had full proof plan of sabotaging the final testing before launch, it's not possible now that they had lost their key member for execution of this scheme - P'Nat.

Kong held the stem of delicate wine glass, running his finger along the rim of glass absent mindedly. They needed another plan, he needed to drag Thaksirat in marsh of loans and then drag him in some scandle big enough so that others will refuse to do business with him. They needed to limit the monetary resources of Thaksirat to break the spine of DT empire.

Kong was brought out of his musing by beeping of his phone. He had a mail by phoenix30! But it was P'Nat's mail id. He turned to P'Sam only to see his eyes too wide with shock. Sam almost dropped his phone.
Their email had a single short clip which said

3
2
1
.
.
.
BOOM!

P'Nat's face appeared on his mobile screen.
" Ain't I a genius?" He boasted smiling and
The screen went black. Msg ended.

What? How could it be? Right P'Sam still used P'Nat's laptop.

They were informed two hours later that all the system used for final testing crashed simultaneously taking down every system that was connected to it too. Every system was showing a black screen with a single word ' END GAME'

First step done!

Seeing the craze of action games in youth and huge profits that gaming industry garnered, Thaksirat had invested too much in creating an AAA ( high budget) game that would reaffirm his number 1 rank in Thai business circle and earn him billions of dollars. Failing of product is going to cost him big time.Though not irreparable but Thaksirat would sure suffer a knee breaking loss from huge amount of data loss and fail of final product launch caused by P'Nat.

'Sure you are genius P'Nat.' Kong thought.

' There was a reason you called yourself a phoenix Ai Nat " Sam whispered.

...........

Two days later

Sam barged in the hospital room Kong was laying in. Kong had only few superficial scratches on his hands but his leg was badly injured.

" Can't you walk carefully Ai saat." Sam
yelled at Kong as soon as he walked in.

"Car had failed breaks phi, driver lost his control on car and it rolled in footpath, I was not the only one injured Phi. It was an accident"

" This was no accident Kongpob. It means Thaksirat knows you are here in bangkok not in nowhere he left you to rot at. It was their reaction to our action." P'Sam gritted his teeth.
......

(At Chanagun residence)

Kong sat on the sofa with his injured leg resting on a coffee table, Sam sat beside him drinking wine, since Nat's death he had picked up on drinking.

" P'Nat hated you drinking too much."

"Well, Ai Nat is not here to stop me is he ? " Sam retorted. Sam dumped the wine in sink after seeing Kong's hurt expression on his retort.

" I won't from now on. Sometimes it's too difficult kid you won't understand."

None of them knew what to say to break the awkward silence. Sam took it upon himself to initiate the conversation.

"Stay at your hostel. Stay low profile. Don't trust anyone. Nat had left me a video, he is hinting at someone from inside trying to harm you, bastard garbles nonsense as usual, can't talk straight. I have hard time understanding what he's saying."

" I want to see the mail"

" No ways, It's too private " Sam instantly defended.
Kong didn't reply.

" Keep that pendant with you always. It is important. Nat insisted you will need it and you will understand what to do when it's time."

" Okay" Kong nodded.
........

Days were passing at snail's pace, Kong was now in second year. He was not used to having free time for himself. He indulged himself in helping astrophysics student with analytical data interpretation and writing program for a new game in his free time.

Arthit had somehow managed to creep up and surpass the huge wall of unsocial persona Kong had created. Kong enjoyed being in Arthit's company whenever he could . Arthit was someone who saw him as normal person, cursed freely whenever Kong teased him. Kong had never had any siblings or close friends before. He like their friendsh** - no Kong will not jinx it. He vowed to stay away from Arthit, can't bring him in his fucked up world. Arthit doesn't deserve it.

" Ain't I a genius?" Arthit boasted after setting up the telescope to see Saturn's rings.

" You are " he chuckled hearing it- he didn't mean to say, it was automatic response.
Same words. Same manner. Different person. There were many traits in Arthit that reminded him of P'Nat. It brought an all too familiar pain in Kong's chest.

' stay away. ' he repeated the mantra.

It was hard to keep his distance when the said male was annoyingly stubborn and thick skinned to Kong's attempt at being unsocial.

Arthit didn't get irritated on Kong's sarcastic remarks now, he had started retorting and even initiating the bickering.

Kong's resistance to emotional intimacy and resolute determination to stay indifferent was slowly chipping away with each passing day. His relation with Arthit has changed to the point that they bickered on nonsensical things just for the sake of having fun in each other's company. They were comfortable with each other to the point that they could lie beside each other staring at night sky without a word disrupting the silence for hours - even silence was comfortable between them.

Arthit even managed to drag Kong to celebrate his birthday which he didn't even remembered in last five years. Last time he even remembered his birthday, he was sitting in that tiny hostel room in Greece.

........

After his last paper for fourth semester Kong was sitting in a library reading newspaper when he read about Thaksirat collaborating with other investors to build a ' tourist village' on a private island he owned. It was said to have a casino, luxurious cottages, restaurants, everything that would be needed to spend a peaceful, luxuriousband comfortable private vacation. Kong smirked. May be he found his chance.

His phone pinged displaying message from Arthit asking him to return earlier. In moments like these Kong felt his resolution of staying away strengthening to its maximum. He was too dark he didn't wanted Arthit to taint with his darkness, to make him target.

He didn't return the text and straight away marched to economics faculty to help his senior with his thesis.

But like a boomerang he was made to bounce back to Arthit - destiny at its finest!

Next day when he walked in the room resembling a zombie Arthit didn't even ask why he bailed on him yesterday. He cooked him Ramyeon, even made him take rest by stealing his glasses and hiding the thesis so that he won't strain his eyes trying to read.

Two weeks passed still Arthit didn't raised the topic. Sometimes Kong didn't like how caring and trusting Arthit was. He felt himself lacking infront of Arthit.

.........

They were at P'Mook's house to celebrate P'Win being awarded pH.D. Arthit was being his usual self socialising at party, talking to people, charming strangers with his charisma. Kong's eyes were following Arthit's every move , he wasn't aware when a lady sat beside him.

The said lady was chattering since last fifteen minutes- borderline horribly flirting was better way to put things in perspective. Kong stole a glance at Arthit, he was laughing with a beautiful girl - they seem to enjoy each other's company. Kong was cursing in his heart Arthit always sticks to him when there is no need and when he actually needed him he was flirting with a random chick!

Kong decided to look at his mobile time to time and keep his replies to minimal, the lady will surely get bored! But she didn't . Apparently some people didn't need another willing person to have a conversation- just person present is enough for them.
Kong saw Arthit's silhouette approaching him from corner of his eye. Finally!
Arthit casually sat on his thigh as if it's normal thing to do.

" You are heavy " Though Kong said so he didn't mind if it would keep the lady away he will let Arthit sit in his lap even for a week!

Kong angled his mobile and chuckled inwardly seeing Arthit giving the girl death glare. He looked like jealous lover marking his territory.

"Kong I didn't like that girl" Arthit had said after the girl walked away.

Reply was automatic " me too"

Arthit still didn't get up from Kong's lap
" Kong"
Kongpob heard Arthit calling his name.

" Hmm" he hummed in response.

He felt Arthit getting a bit closer to his ear
" let's date"

Kong's brain froze - NO!!!!!!

He instantly stood up " What the fuck Arthit?"

" No!! No!!! Can't be!! He didn't wanted to lose Arthit , didn't wanted to be near him too. He can't risk Arthit being hurt.... Kong felt conflicted and confused and most importantly he was enraged at his fate. It was good till being almost friend. But relationship, love - No!!!

Kong knew Arthit is too stubborn to give up on him and Kong himself would not be able to offer much resistance. When it came to Arthit Kong found himself unable to deny.

Arthit sat there looking at him with his big doe eyes widened in shock..... he stayed like that for few moments before yelling at Kong

" Ahhh....it hurts... Ai saat did you have to stand up and throw me on my ass. You can curse perfectly while sitting too. "

" huh ????" Kong was dumbfounded.

" P'Mook show me my hard earned money......" Arthit grinned at P'Mook who placed four 500 bills in his hand.

" What did I say? There is no man in this universe that doesn't curse. They need just right motivation."
Arthit said winking at Kongpob who still stood dumbstruck.

" Okay... We now bow to your intelligence Nong" P'Mook teased him " By the way what did you say to him? "

" That's a secret Khrap " Arthit smiled.

Their journey back home was silent. Kong didn't speak even when they reached their room.

" Ai Kong are you still mad at me ?" Arthit asked a bit hurt because he had kept apologizing the whole ride even though Kong practically ignored him.

" No, I'm glad the bet was not to throw me down from a 20 storey building"

" Ai saat ....! " Arthit scolded.

Kong sighed in relief . It was good as long as Arthit didn't fall for Kong because Kong was a long goner.
..............................................................................

(A/N): This chapter was a bit hard to write.
Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

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