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Part 4

"Yeah, who knows, maybe it really is Kongpob's." The first guy agreed. He took out his cellphone and called.

Just as the guy pressed the cellphone to his ear, my cell phone began to ring, causing the two guys to turn and look towards me.

What the...

Could it be...?

I didn't realize I was sweating until I had trouble taking my phone out of my pocket.

"Hello?" I finally answered it. I let out a huge sigh of relief as I heard Nam's voice on the other end of the line. The two guys turned away from me as I exclaimed in relief, "Nam!"

"Arthit! I'm sorry for calling so early but I need to ask you to so me a favor. I left my homework at home and now I have to do it all over again." Nam spoke in panic. "Can you help me? I really really need your help."

As I listened to Nam's plea, I couldn't help overhearing what the two guys were saying. The one with the cell phone had already hung up. "The line's busy. Do you think a lot of people are calling him so we can't get through?" he pondered.

The other one nodded. "It's possible. After all, Kongpob's really popular. Let's just try again later." He remarked as they started heading out.

"Where are you? Are you at our first class already?" I asked Nam when my attention got back to her.

"Yes, I am. Please hurry." She replied, sounding desperate. She wasn't the type who easily forgot these kinds of things so I knew how she felt.

"Don't worry, I'll be right there as fast as I can." I remarked in assurance as I walked out of the bathroom and headed for our classroom. On the way, I noticed people crowding over the places where I had posted the notices. My first and second plan might not have worked, but the third was perfectly functioning.

When I reached Nam, boy was she beyond panicking. "I only have fifteen minutes left to finish something I did for two hours!" she exclaimed, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

I took a seat beside her and grabbed a piece of paper from the stack of papers on her desk. "What do you want me to do?" I asked in a very good mood. Somehow, knowing that I was succeeding really perked me up. "Do you want me to just copy my work for you?"

Nam stopped for a moment and smiled gratefully. "You'd do that?" She spoke, almost surprised. She of all people knew that I hated it when people copied from me. But today was different. I was in such a good mood, I didn't even mind. I nodded in reply so she thanked me repeatedly. By the time the bell rang for class to begin, Nam's homework was done.

As I listened intently to the teacher's discussion, I felt my cell phone vibrate a couple of times. Not wanting to get in trouble for using a cell phone, I ignored it. I didn't even try to think about who it was that kept on calling me. I just concentrated on the lesson at hand. That was until I finally got annoyed because the vibration just wouldn't stop. Once I had enough, I shut my cell phone off.

I had days where I couldn't focus even if I tried to, but today, it was the other way around. I was so focused with the lessons that I forgot all about my cell phone.

As Nam and I entered the cafeteria for lunch, May came up to us in a rush.

"What's up?" Nam asked her in concern.

May turned to me. "I've been calling you, Arthit. Why weren't you picking up?" she asked suddenly.

I raised my eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? My cell phone hasn't rung since first period." I replied to her. But then I remembered that I turned it off, so I took it out of my pocket. "Oh, I forgot. It's off because earlier, it wouldn't stop vibrating. Was that you calling me nonstop?"

She shook her head. "I only called you twice. Once, it was ringing. The second time, I couldn't reach you anymore." She responded with a frown.

I turned on my cell phone and to my surprise, there were twenty missed calls. Checking the numbers that called me, my eyes widened. Except for May, all the other numbers were unfamiliar to me. "This is strange. I got nineteen calls from nineteen different numbers." I told them as I deleted each one. But that wasn't all. After deleting them, another window popped up, saying I had forty messages received. "I think my cell phone's broken."

"Wait, that's the reason why I've been calling you earlier." May exclaimed in a serious tone. "There's something I need to show you."

Nam and I looked at each other, wondering what May meant. "What is it?" we asked her at the same time.

"Come on, just follow me." She said, starting to walk out of the cafeteria.

We followed her as she led us to one of the places where I posted Kongpob's number. Once we got there, I saw the notice still intact so I smiled proudly. "What's wrong with this?" I asked May as I continued looking at it.

"Nothing's wrong with that. I'm talking about this." May remarked, pointing towards another notice a few meters left from the one I posted up. Nam already saw it before me. Her jaw dropped in surprise as she seemed to be speechless.

I walked closer to read. Written on the notice was, "Are you tired of hearing terrible rumors about Kongpob Suthiluck? Do you want it to stop? If you do, then here's your chance. This is Arthit Rojnapat's cell phone number. Bother him all you want till he stops bothering me!"

As I read it, I could feel my blood boiling. It was Kongpob Suthiluck's doing, I knew it. Who else would do something like this? But just to confirm whether this notice was really responsible for my flooded cell phone, I took it out of my pocket again and started to read the messages.

"If you think you can ruin Kongpob, think again!"

"Please stop hurting Kongpob. I'm really sorry he doesn't like you, but it doesn't give you a right to put a stain on his name."

"I don't see what you're getting from all these rumors. Do you actually believe that by doing this, he'd resort to liking you?!"

"Yah! Answer the phone, coward!"

After reading the last one, I decided not to read the others. Those four were enough to prove that the notice brought swarms of messages and calls into my cell phone.

"Are you okay?" Nam asked me as we started walking back to the cafeteria. She must've thought something was wrong because since the time I read those messages, I hadn't spoken a word to her and May. I was busy thinking how I should handle the situation.

I nodded in reply. "I'm fine."

Nam cleared her throat before she spoke again. Whenever she did that, it meant she was going on serious mode. "Listen, Arthit, I don't think you should go on with this." She said, looking at me with sincere eyes. "I mean, I appreciate what you're doing for me and all. But it's just an impossible task."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "What? So you think it's impossible for me to beat Kongpob too?" I asked, suddenly feeling irritated. How could my best friend also believe that Kongpob Suthiluck was that great?

"You know that's not what I meant." She replied. "I just don't want you to get hurt because of me."

I was touched by what she said, really, but there was no way I could stop just because I was afraid of getting hurt. "Don't' worry, okay? It's not me who's going to get hurt. It's him." I told her with a grin.

"You're really crazy, you know that?" Nam remarked, snapping out of her seriousness.

"At least I'm not as crazy as you who got your heart broken by Kongpob Suthiluck." I shot back at her.

Suddenly, her mood shifted to depression again. "You're right. I'm crazy too." She said. But then she smiled. "Let's hurry before our lunch period ends."

While we ate lunch, my cell phone was vibrating nonstop on our table. And so, being thrilled was an understatement for me when my battery finally died. But that wasn't the only thing that made me cheer up again. I found out from a reliable source that Kongpob, too, had been getting nonstop calls and messages as well. So in a way, my plan still worked.

"Kongpob's been complaining about not being able to play his game on his cell phone because it keeps on vibrating due to incoming calls and texts." My reliable source told me as we neared my locker.

"Really? He must be really annoyed." I told her.

She nodded. "He is, but he doesn't show it much though."

Reaching my locker, I thanked her for the information and said goodbye as she left. I placed all my books in my locker and got ready to shut it close until I noticed a piece of folded paper by the corner. Taking it out, I read it.

"Since you declare war, I accept it.

Kongpob Suthiluck."

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