That night, I quickly got on my bike and sped back home, my mind consumed with thoughts of the wristwatch. I couldn’t think of a reason Kinn would come looking for me with his subordinates except to get his belongings back. He might remember that his watch was worth five…six…no, seven hundred thousand baht!
I got up at six and went to the market to get breakfast for Chay. I hadn’t slept a wink last night. I kept worrying about Kinn and when he was going to come for me.
“Looks like someone’s loaded right now,” Chay said, glancing between me and the bounty of food on the table.
“Just eat and get your ass to school,” I chided him while absentmindedly pushing around the shrimp in my rice porridge with a spoon. Our breakfast was indeed fancier than usual. We usually only had rice with a fried egg or porridge with pork. But today, we also had toast, butter, jam, fresh milk, orange juice—the whole shebang.
“Can I have my weekly allowance?” Chay asked.
I took six one-thousand baht notes out of my wallet and handed them to him.
“Wow!” Chay’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Let’s just say I’m giving you your allowance for the whole month in advance,” I replied. I decided it would be better if I spread the money around. This way, I couldn’t repay Kinn even if he wanted me to.
“Where did you get all this money?”
“I’ve been saving up,” I said. My little brother clearly didn’t believe me one bit. He kept staring at me skeptically until I shooed him away.
“Go to school! And don’t spend it all in one place!” I yelled at him. I watched my little brother leave the house in his prestigious high school’s uniform.
Once he was gone, I sighed. The tuition fee for my brother’s high school was costly. Still, we should be able to cover at least four semesters with the money I got from pawning the watch.
You might wonder why I still let him attend such an expensive school. He’d been attending this school since kindergarten, and I didn’t want to uproot his life. It was my school growing up, too. I didn’t want him to transfer to any school that wasn’t as good as his current one.
Chay often told me he didn’t care what school he went to, but as his older brother, I wanted to provide the same life for him now as our parents did when they were still alive. I didn’t care if I had to work hard. I would do anything to take good care of my brother.
I locked the door and was about to drive my bike to university as usual when it suddenly hit me that Kinn knew where I lived. Crap!
“Auntie Ooy!” I called for my neighbor. She was a kindly lady who fought with her husband from time to time. I often heard them shouting through the thin wall between our houses.
“What?” she yelled back.
“If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I moved.”
“Who’s looking for you?” she asked, curious.
“Just…if anyone asks, tell them I moved to a border town,” I told her dismissively. After she nodded in agreement, I quickly brought in the stuff I had lying outside, like the shoe rack, my umbrella, helmet, and spare bike tires. I tried to make the house look like it was abandoned. Luckily, we didn’t have a lot of stuff in the first place, so it didn’t take me long to put everything away…
✦ ✦ ✦
We went to the cafeteria after class. Tem stared at me for some time before finally asking me, “Why are you so restless today?”
“What do you mean?” I retorted.
“You keep looking around nervously. Is someone out to get you again?”
“Tem’s right. You’re acting skittish.” Jom looked at me skeptically for a brief moment before he continued, “I won’t help you again. We barely got out of there alive last time.”
They both had managed to get away from the fight without getting seriously injured. Since then, they’d berated me over the phone and in our group chat for getting them caught in the crossfire. I gave no excuses and let them believe it was my fault.
“It’s nothing,” I said, idly playing with my food. I managed to keep my emotions at bay, but I had been on guard since I arrived today.
“Nothing, my ass! Are you afraid those thugs will show up here? I doubt they’d try,” Jom said incredulously.
“So, what did you do to piss them off?” Tem asked.
“Ha! I bet he just looks at them with that annoying face of his. That’d piss anyone off,” Jom interjected before I could reply. I shrugged, too lazy to explain myself.
“Jom!” A yell came from P’Ohm, a third-year student in our department. “Your dad’s5 looking for you!”
We greeted him as he approached our table.
“My dad?” Jom asked.
“Hell if I know. But that guy said he has to talk to you,” P’Ohm said.
Jom looked flabbergasted, so P’Ohm insisted, “He really said that!”
I gulped at P’Ohm’s words, wondering if it was Kinn who was asking for Jom. I did tell him my name was Jom. Shit…
“What does he look like?” I asked nervously.
“Jom’s dad? He’s fine as hell! I didn’t think someone that good-looking would be related to someone so hideous.”
“Seriously, man! Who is he?” Jom cried out.
P’Ohm chuckled. “He really said he was your dad and that he wanted to talk. He’s wearing our uniform with the business school’s pin. Min said he’s very popular. His name is—”
“Hey! Let’s go see a movie. My treat.” I cut P’Ohm off before he could finish his sentence. Everyone turned to me in confusion.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Porsche? You’re awfully talkative today.” Jom eyed me suspiciously.
“Come on! Let’s take Tem’s car. I’ll leave my bike here,” I said, nudging Tem’s arm. Both of my friends were utterly perplexed.
“Fine! We’ll go to the movies, but first let me take a good look at my handsome dad.” Jom stressed his last words with a pointed look at P’Ohm.
“Suit yourself, shithead!” P’Ohm cussed and walked off toward the soccer field.
“I’d smack you if you weren’t my senior!” Jom yelled at the departing figure.
“Let’s go,” Tem said. He picked up his backpack and headed to the school entrance.
“Guys! Movie!” I said in a firm voice.
“I got it! But let’s swing by the entrance first so Jom can see his dad.”
“I won’t treat you if you don’t come with me,” I tried to threaten them, getting more anxious by the second.
“Of course we’re going with you. I just want to check who my dad is.”
“Really, what the hell is wrong with you today, Porsche?” Tem asked.
“I don’t want to go near the entrance,” I said, not budging.
“Wait for us at the car, then? We’ll be quick.” Tem handed me his car keys before taking off with Jom.
Phew! I’ll pay you back, Jom, I told myself in case anything happened to him.
I was on my second cigarette, patiently waiting for my friends to return. I wasn’t really worried that Kinn would do anything to them; I was more afraid that Kinn had come after me for his watch. I could fight him, but he’d still force me to return it.
What should I do?
“P’Ohm, you fucker! Is he messing with me?”
I immediately looked up at Jom’s loud voice. I heard him before I saw him.
“So? Did you see your dad?” I asked Jom, who looked visibly irritated.
“There was nobody there! What a waste of time!” Jom spat.
I sighed in relief and chuckled. “P’Ohm likes to mess with us like that. Let’s just forget about it.”
Tem and Jom nodded and took out their cigarettes for a quick smoke. Then, we drove to the movie theater near our university in Tem’s car.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Has anyone come looking for me, Auntie Ooy?” I asked loudly when I arrived home.
“Yes!” she replied. “What did you do? Those guys look like the mafia.”
I pursed my lips nervously. “What did they say?” I asked.
“They asked for Jom, the house’s owner. I didn’t know who that was. So, I told them there was no Jom here—or anyone else.”
I nodded. “When did they come?”
“Around noon.” She looked at me in puzzlement, but didn’t press me for more. We rarely talked—this was probably the first time in years I had spoken this much with her.
“Can I park my bike at your place?”
“Fine!” Ooy agreed to my request, then began to rant at me: “Don’t get yourself into trouble, Porsche. Think of your little brother.”
I simply nodded at her, thinking it was good that they came when Chay wasn’t home. I reminded myself to warn my little brother not to open the door to strangers. More anxiety crept into my head: what if Kinn decided to pay me fifty thousand and ask for his watch back?
No way! That watch was worth seven hundred thousand! I won’t trade it for anything else.