@TubbyTinker: lol yes, I've waited so long to reveal their couple name! Thanks for reading!
Besties
Chapter 12
“Ahhhh! I already miss the home cooking!” Mark declared, splayed across a couch in the lounge. “Yo, Mario, let’s play some Wii.”
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend had ended and everyone had returned to campus, with a slight reluctance, which is understandable, after having enjoyed the leisure of delicious food and a break from studying. But campus was ready to welcome everyone, its lawns tinged with a warm brown and the trees painted in beautiful colors that gave off the effect of warmth, despite the chilling wind.
“How was your Thanksgiving?” Nadech asked Margie.
“It was…normal,” she smiled gently, “Yours?”
“I feel like I gained ten pounds! Mai’s mom is too good at cooking,” he rubbed his stomach with appreciation.
“Heh heh, won’t your parents be surprised when their little Esan boy returns home craving gravey and burgers,” Mai chuckled mischievously.
“No way,” he puffed up with pride, “Nothing could beat my mom’s Esan food.”
“Is it very different?” Margie inquired. She had grown up on Thai food too, but wondered if there was any telling difference from having it in the US instead of Thailand.
Mai looked down at her phone, awaiting a text from Om who was not yet back from visiting his family for the holiday.
“Mai, do you have markers I can borrow?” Kim asked.
“Yeah, hold on.” She got up out of the lounge and headed upstairs. Reaching the first landing that led to Clark Hall’s lobby, Mai stopped short at the same time as Om, who had just entered the building and obviously been about to go searching for her too.
“Hey,” she said, smiling.
“Hey.” Their faces mirrored each other. How did one short holiday without her feel so long, he wondered, as she stepped forward into his open arms. Her warmth combated the cold from outside, making him warm to the tips of his fingers instantly. When she lifted her face, he planted a ready kiss on her lips.
Pulling away, she shyly glanced around, but he didn’t give her time to feel embarrassed, leading her up the stairs to his room.
“Om, don’t you have luggage to get?”
“I’ll take care of that later…”
An hour later, after they had shared their own little family stories along with thoroughly making up for their kissless days, Om and Mai descended the stairs to get some dinner, fingers intertwined in a firm hold. Their eyes sought out and enjoyed each other’s smiles. They passed the group of other friends along the way who had already gone to Subway.
“PANDA!” Mario shouted at them. “Meet us in the lounge later for games!”
Kim looked up, suddenly realizing something. “Where the heck did Mai disappear to when she was supposed to be getting me markers?”
“Well, you forgot about it yourself,” Margie pointed out, and Kim nodded in agreement, as she had mostly been enjoying her turkey sandwich and chocolate chip cookie, while complaining about the pranks her brothers had pulled during break.
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“Thai lakorn is way better than Korean drama,” Kim said, and Yaya nodded beside her.
“I know,” Beau readily agreed, but persisted with her explanation of why she was recently tuning into more Korean dramas, “But sometimes I just like the change from the structure of Thai lakorn, you know? Like the whole, rich guy, poor girl, over-the-top nang rai that annoys the hell out of me stuff.”
“But that’s how it is in most Korean drama anyway,” Yaya pointed out.
“But there’s a bit more variation in the Korean ones,” Beau insisted; the book she’d brought down to read was forgotten beside her as she and the girls debated over asian dramas.
“Uuuuh,” Mark looked up with annoyance from his video game that he was now playing with Nadech after Mario and Margie left to go study. “Why would you watch Korean stuff when you got awesome Thai entertainment?”
“You don’t even watch lakorn so butt out,” Kim said. “You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between revenge and slap-kiss.”
“What?” he made a weirded out face. “Slap-kiss, why would anyone wanna watch that?”
“See? You just don’t get it, so stop jumping into our deep serious conversation.” She rolled her eyes, crossing stuff off of her planner that she had accomplished that day. She was very compulsive about making such lists as it always helped her keep her tasks organized so she didn’t forget stuff.
Offended, Mark sat up tall. “Oh yeah? Well I bet dramas aren’t even all that. I’ll prove it to you by WATCHING one.”
The girls exchanged looks then burst out laughing.
“Yeah right,” Yaya chuckled. “Mark, you would not last one episode before crawling back to your video games.”
“Oh it is AWN!” Mark thrust his control at Nadech, “Give me your cheesiest, sappiest most dramatic lakorn and I will sit through every single minute of it!”
Beau quirked a brow. “Heh. Which one should we tell him to watch?”
“Is that even a question?” Mai chirped up.
All at once the girls yelled, “Four Hearts of the Mountain!”
“It’s perfect. It has a little bit of everything!” Yaya said.
“Wait, how can we trust your word though?” Kim said suspiciously. “You could just be fast forwarding through it all and pretend you watched everything.”
Beau said, “Then someone has to watch it with him.” She looked at Kim. “You.”
“What?!” Kim objected. “Why me?”
“You said you’re behind anyway, so just catch up with him. The rest of us are going to watch Pathapee Leh Rak.”
“I’m going to make Om watch with me too,” Mai laughed. Recently during a free day with Om, she had tried getting him into watching a Thai lakorn, which had ended up in a make out session that made her blush to think back to. Thank goodness Om was a CA and had his own room.
Upstairs, Taew joined Margie in Margie’s room to work on homework together. Mario was still there, playing on his laptop. She rolled her eyes.
“Hey Taew,” Margie greeted. “Come in.”
“Is Hayley not here?” Taew asked about Margie’s roommate.
“She’s visiting home and will be back tomorrow. Anyway, I wanted to ask you about this…”
Meanwhile, Mario continued to search random music on youtube. He found one of his favorite look thong songs and laughed, body caught in the light-hearted music, and he turned up the volume, raising his hand and bobbing his head. “Hale yeah, this is mah jam!”
“Can you please turn your fobby music down so I can study?!”
“S’cuuuse you?” he rounded on Taew, who, even while sitting down, had her hands on her hips with a fierce attitude of authority.
“Can’t you see we’re working?”
He gave her a snarly face before reading his text from Aum on his cell phone.
“Where’d Mark go?”
“He and Mario said they were quickly going to buy coffee before coming back. Did you hear too? Aum said he was bringing someone to meet us,” Yaya told Nadech. They, along with the rest who were previously downstairs, looked up when a young woman walked into the lobby.
Even in her simple jeans, hip-length jacket and knee-high boots, she still walked gracefully like a model, though without doing it consciously. Her cheeks held traces of a blush, as if December had kissed her, and the snowflakes on her coat looked like bits of cloud, so that she seemed to glow even more beautifully.
“Aff!” Ploy came down the stairs and hugged the beautiful stranger.
Aum approached the group of underclassmen. “Hey guys, did you have a good break?” He noticed them all staring intently at the woman and chuckled.
Mai’s eyes widened. “Hey! I think she’s the same woman who I met this morning while working!”
Aum nodded. “I’ve brought my girlfriend over to meet you guys.”
“That beautiful goddess is your girlfriend?!” Nadech exclaimed with disbelief and awe.
“Yup!” Aum nodded without hiding his pride.
“Heh, come on. Admit it. You hired her didn’t you?” Kim snickered. “Just kidding,” she added when Aum glared at her. “It’s just unbelievable.”
“WHAT is so unbelievable about Aff being my girlfriend?” he asked in a droll tone of offense. The whole group was shaking their heads in amazement.
“Well I mean looking at her,” Taew said with admiration, “and look at YOU.” Aum’s proud grin was wiped off.
“What are you trying to say?”
“She is one of the nicest and smartest ladies I’ve ever met. You are so lucky,” Mai said, to Aum’s satisfaction, which went down the drain when she added, “I just wonder why she settled for you.”
“SETTLED?!” Were they trying to say that Aum wasn’t good enough for Aff?! “Are you guys kidding me?! Who else would be good enough for Aff if not me?!”
“We don’t mean that,” Yaya said, “We’re just happy for you, that’s all.” Aum once again softened with happiness at his little friends…until Yaya added, “I mean, we didn’t think you’d ever get a girlfriend.”
It wasn’t that Aum wasn’t a good guy. In fact, it could be admitted that he made a great friend, always up for a joke or party, and despite his sometimes cocky remarks, he was as much of a role model as he could be to the underclassmen. And he was good looking, well-rounded and smart. But he was almost too much of an older brother for them to believe easily that he could have a girlfriend.
“Who has a girlfriend?” Mario asked as he and Mark returned with their coffees.
“You’ll never guess—Aum has a girlfriend!” Kim announced.
“Oh I knew that,” Mario shrugged, always one to keep up with his friends’ relationship statuses.
“Hey guys, check out that sexy fox over there. You think I should go talk to her?” Mark asked. They looked and found his finger pointing at none other than Aum’s surreal lover. Aum’s eyes narrowed with danger at the unfortunate Mark.
“SHE is MY girlfriend,” he growled.
Mario snorted into his cup. “I didn’t know THAT!” His head whipped back and forth between the goddess and the fuming Aum. “Are you sure—“
“ARGH!” Aum stomped off.
“She had the semester abroad in England,” Ploy explained. “Their semesters start and end earlier than ours, and now she’s back!”
“Uh, I can explain for my own girlfriend, thank you very much,” Aum said, sitting on the other side of Aff, making challenging faces at Ploy, who happened to be best friends with Aff.
Aff chuckled good-naturedly. Apparently she was used to these bickers between her bf and bff. “I can explain for myself, thanks.”
“How was it?” Taew asked. “I’ve always wanted to study abroad.”
“It’s an amazing and irreplaceable adventure. You all need to do it if you have even the smallest interest!” Aff said. Just as everyone had been able to see Ploy as a role model, the freshmen immediately took a strong liking and admiration to Aff as she told them what she’d seen and done who she’d met.
“Aff, are you living on campus?” Yaya asked.
“No, she’s living with me,” Aum grinned cheesily. He hugged her hard, not caring about the watching eyes, just so glad to have her back in his arms. She was his favorite person in the world and owed a lot of his happiness to her. Everyone watching felt touched by their affectionate display.
“I’ve been looking into the semester abroad in England,” Yaya said later as they sprawled in her room. “We get to study at Oxford there! I really want to do it.”
“England would be so cool,” Mai agreed with a sigh. “Argh, I can’t decide between England or South Africa. And then there’s Germany and South Korea and Australia too! There’s too many choices!” she wailed, always having had a hard time when deciding between many desirable choices. “Let’s go to all of them!”
Kim snorted. “Yeah. If only I was rich enough. You know,” she sat up by the desk, “why don’t we all study abroad at the same time? That way we when we all get back, we’ll be together.”
Margie sighed. “You’ll all have to tell me about everything you see. My parents would never let me go out of the country.”
“Oh, but you must convince them!” Yaya said. “Besides, this is for your education. There can’t be any serious objection against THAT.” To Yaya, there was never a better reason to do something new or outrageous as long as it was for gaining knowledge. “Imagine all the things you’d learn.”
Margie nodded sadly. She would love to be able to experience new cultures and really be out there in the world, but she was also hesitant to leave the comfort of her home. Being independent was so challenging; but she couldn’t deny that since college had began, she had grown more and more used to her freedom and the responsibility of making her decisions. She also had a secret yearning to visit Japan, and Lawrence happened to have a program abroad there.
“Well, I’m going for sure,” Taew declared. “I’ve toured Europe before and have always wanted to get to know the education system there.”
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Mark tried to keep his mouth shut. He pressed his lips together hard, keeping his eyes on the screen. But in the end…
“AUGH! I can’t do this anymore!” He stood up, hands holding the sides of his head. “How can you take so many hours of watching such overly-dramatic stuff like this!? It’s so…so…eck!” He had endured a week of the Thai lakorn the girls picked out for him and was almost done with Duang Jai Akkanee, but tonight, he needed a break.
Kim leaned back in her chair. “Do you give up?”
He gave her a pained expression, not wanting to admit defeat but also not wanting to watch any more. “J-just a ten minute break. Please!” He stomped out. “O! Hey, are you here?”
“He’s over in Mai and Yaya’s room, watching the new episodes of the third series.”
“What!” To confirm this, Mark ran over and witnessed it for himself. Sure enough, there was his roommate lying on Yaya’s bunk and spazzing out about Din and Cha-aim.
“You watch lakorn too?”
Mario looked up, puzzled. “Uh, yeah?”
“Who do you think was most excited about this new four series lakorn?” Kim laughed quietly.
“Shhhh!” Yaya hushed them so she could hear the screen. Meanwhile, Aff was braiding her hair, as Ploy munched on chips with Mai and Beau.
“It’s really snowing a lot!” Beau hooted gleefully as she and Yaya pranced under the light flakes drifting down.
“Oh man,” Kim groaned, “great, and I was starting to have false hopes that we wouldn’t have heavy snow.”
“How long have you lived in the Midwest? You should be smarter,” Mario said.
“How can you guys not like the snow? It’s so pretty! And romantic!” Taew danced around under the fluttering flakes falling in swirls. “See?” She nudged her chin where Om and Mai were strolling, as he tucked Mai’s coat around her chin before taking her hand again.
“Oh, we WILL see,” Mario said sarcastically. He knew Taew was from California and never endured the brutal winters of Wisconsin before. “Wth!?” He whipped around to see Great run off with a laugh after having hit Mario with a snowball. Soon, there was a full out snowball fight that pretty much cleared up the snow on Clark Hall’s lawn, since it was the first falling of the season.
Everyone gathered inside for some hot chocolate.
“Hey, who started the snowball fight anyway?” Mario asked.
“Wasn’t me,” Mark said.
Margie hid a sneaky smile. She had been the one to throw a snowball at Aum while he wasn’t looking and then hurried away to the side, so that when he turned around, all he saw was Great. She didn’t notice Yaya noting her smile, but Yaya just pleasantly giggled silently. Margie was such a sweetheart, it was funny to think she had initiated the battle.
Om turned back to the front again. “Glad we steered clear of that mess,” he referred to the snow war going on behind them. But next thing he knew, his neck experienced an iciness sliding down inside his coat. Mai was already several steps in front of him, preparing another snowball, her laughter ringing out in the clear air.
“Did you think you could really get away from it?” she mischievously packed her snowball firmly.
He eyed her narrowly, scooped up some snow, dodged her attack and ran after her.
“I give up!” Mai yelled in between her bouts of giggles, while Om held her from behind, arms wrapped tightly around her, also caught up in the giddy atmosphere. They found themselves overlooking the frozen river behind one of the buildings.
Mai sighed in satisfaction at the view before turning around. She found Om had sandwiched her between himself and the railing, his hands on either side of her. It was at times like this, when he was looking at her like he was content to feast his eyes, his lips lifted in that half-smile as if he was enjoying a vivid dream, that made her heart nearly pound its way out of her chest. The cold was brutal, but it had not numbed her cheeks enough to not feel his butterfly kisses as he leaned ever so close to her, caught up in her essence. And just when they could both no longer bear it, he tilted his head and she opened her lips for his kiss.
Margie was still flushed about the snowball fight as she went in early for her drawing class. Surprisingly, her usual stool was occupied—by a poinsettia flower. She gingerly picked it up. Did someone leave it behind?
“Interesting,” Mario rubbed his chin, examining the flower.
“I wonder who gave it to you,” Kim said, looking up from trying to turn a page of her Glamour magazine while her nails were wet with nail polish.
“It might have just been left by a student,” Margie suggested.
“Have you noticed anyone interested in you?” Kim asked.
“No…Although,” Margie bit her lip in embarrassment, “this isn’t the first time I got something.”
“Really?” Mario looked up, “What happened before.”
“Nothing really. Just…I ran out of yellow paint and the next time I went to class, there was a new tube with my name on it on my easel. I asked a few of the people but it wasn’t theirs.”
“If it had your name on it, then it must have been given to you,” Kim said with a duh. “Looks like you’ve got a secret admirer.”
“Interesting…” Mario repeated, but with suspicion this time.
Finals week was looming around the weekend, and everyone was studying hard to complete their first college semester strong.
Once the grueling week was over with, everyone said their temporary farewells as they parted to visit their homes and families.
------A/N
"I have a girlfriend. Better believe it!"
"Yoohoo! Join us for some 4 Hearts episodes!"
"Who is it that is secretly admiring me? Hmm..."
