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Part 7

"See what you've done? You've just ruined someone else's life." Nam accused me before she stood and left.

And damn, that hurt.

Maybe I really had gone too far?

No matter how painful Nam's words were, she was right. It really was my fault that Michael was in this situation where his closest peers were mad at him. And somehow, I knew I had to do something about it.

I ran over to the middle of the basketball court and attempted to stop the players from pushing and shoving Michael by pulling their arms with all my might. "Yah! Stop it!" I exclaimed loudly as I did. Unfortunately, you couldn't expect a slim guy like me to succeed in a situation like this, could you? I had no chance against tall bulky basketball players and so, I ended up being pushed back hard.

I almost thought I was going to fall flat on my butt after one of those guys pushed me, but to my surprise, someone actually managed to catch me before I completely lost balance. I turned and checked who it was. It was Daniel, the tall guy who was also Michael's friend, and he didn't look very happy seeing me.

"If you're going to continue stopping them that way, I don't think you're going to succeed." He commented.

He was right. I had to think of another way to stop them. Maybe it was time for me to just tell the truth. However, if I did that, everyone would get mad at me instead. But then again, it really was my fault, so Michael didn't deserve to be the one to take the blame. I shouldn't have gotten him into this mess.

"Listen, everybody, I have something to say!" I finally shouted, hoping everyone would turn to me. Sadly, no one even glanced at me. They continued to focus on Michael and his angry teammates. I cleared my throat as I decided to shout again, this time even louder than before.

But before I could say anything again, an angry shout suddenly filled the whole place. "Shut up!"

Everyone, even me, upon hearing it, turned towards the origin of the voice, which came from the bench. Kongpob Suthiluck was standing there, fuming, hands balled to fists beside him and a very serious expression on his face.

Damn, I couldn't remember if I've ever seen him so angry before.

When people saw who had shouted at them, silence filled the air. Even his angry teammates stopped. Slowly, Kongpob stood up and walked towards them. And when he got there, he removed his teammates' hands from Michael's clothes.

"What do you think you're doing? Don't you know who you're touching? He's Michael, our trusted captain." He spoke in a clam but firm tone, his dark eyes throwing daggers at his teammates.

"He doesn't deserve to be called our captain after what he did!" one of his teammates remarked. "We almost lost because of his foolishness."

Kongpob's eyebrow went up. "Are you serious?" he asked in a sort of sarcastic tone. "Tell me, was there ever a game we played where we were confident in winning? Our opponents are unpredictable, they might play well or bad in any game."

It became silent again. And so, Kongpob continued. "You can't blame Michael for this. You and I, we all chose him to be our captain. When we did that, we implied that we trust him, whatever he does. And that's why I didn't stand up during the game. If Michael thinks I shouldn't play, then I'll respect his choice. So if you have any problems with our captain, then you also have a problem with me."

After what Kongpob said, his teammates fell silent and started backing away from Michael. With their heads down, they left the court and it was only a few people left. As soon as they were gone, Michael placed his hand on Kongpob's right shoulder. "Thanks for doing that." He whispered gratefully.

Suddenly, Kongpob frowned at Michael. "But seriously, why didn't you let me play?" he complained, causing Michael to be shocked. By this time, the noise of the people had come alive again.

"That is..." Michael started hesitantly, unaware of what to say. But then, he smiled at him. "It's because I knew that we could do it even without you. The opponents were pretty easy."

There was no way Kongpob would believe such lie...

But to my surprise and relief, silly gullible Kongpob actually fell for that. His face lit up as he placed his arm around Michael with a big smile. "I noticed that too. I was thinking while I sat there that I'd just be bored if you asked me to play." He spoke, followed by a heart laughter, and they started walking towards the locker room.

"What were you going to say just now?" Daniel suddenly asked, staring down at me. For a moment there, I forgot about his presence because I was so engrossed in what Michael and Kongpob were saying.

I turned to face him. "I think you already know that." I answered him, seeing how he frowned at me earlier.

He looked at me with confusion. "What do you mean?"

He was probably trying to cover up the fact that Michael told him about it. I was not going to fall for that. "I know that Michael told you about our deal. That's why you were frowning at me earlier, weren't you?" I retorted.

He looked at me in silence for a while, before saying, "So you're really responsible for what happened after all. I was only speculating earlier that you had something to do about it, because it involved Kongpob." He said, smiling proudly. "How'd you do it? How were you able to convince Michael not to let Kongpob play?"

There he was again, confronting me like I was an evil person. "Why are you always like this towards me?" I couldn't help but ask him, because it seemed like I was a villain in his eyes. "If you see me as a bad person, then why even bother talking to me?"

"Actually, I've just realized something. I was wrong about you." he said, looking down at me with interest. "At first, I thought you're really doing this because Kongpob wouldn't go out with you. But then, if that was the reason, then why would you do all these things when these would obviously make him hate you. So now I'm wondering, what's your real motive?"

Whoa, so he was actually smart. And he was definitely an awesome basketball player. And quite handsome at that...But wait a minute, what was I saying? I shouldn't be thinking this way right now. "It's none of your business." I told him, and left quickly before I could formulate another silly thought about how muscular his body looked. I needed to patch things up with Nam still.

I decided to look for Nam by her locker. She was probably getting ready to go home now. But on my way there, I saw her talking to a girl I couldn't recognize because I was still too far to see properly. I hurried towards them and finally realized who it was. It was Jessica, the leader of Kongpob's fan club. Rumor had it that she was so obsessed over Kongpob that she even had this shrine in her room filled with Kongpob's pictures and stuff. Sadly though, Kongpob didn't seem to notice her at all. At least not the way she wanted him to. The only times he would approach her was when he was in dire need of assistance in studies. Because believe it or not, this foolish, pathetic girl was actually one of the smartest people in the batch.

Anyway, when Nam saw me nearing them, she quickly ended their conversation and said goodbye to Jessica. After that, she walked over to me with a cold expression that she always used whenever we fought. Once we were standing face-to-face, she waited for me to speak first.

Curious about why she was talking to Jessica, I chose to leave the apologies for later. "Why are you talking to Jessica? I thought you both hated each other?" I asked her. Jessica hated the fact that Nam became Kongpob's girlfriend when she wasn't even even in Kongpob's fan club. Jessica believed that Nam didn't deserve Kongpob anyway, so the two weren't exactly on good terms. I had a bad feeling about this.

Nam shrugged. "She approached me first." She replied, still not warming up. "What happened to the mess you caused?"

I didn't answer her. Instead, I asked the same thing again. "Tell me, what did you two talk about?"

"About how disappointed everyone was that Kongpob didn't play." She answered flatly.

Seeing how she wouldn't soften up unless I apologized, I finally swallowed my pride. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I know I should've told you before hand, but I had a feeling that if I did, you wouldn't approve of it and you would definitely put a stop to it." I said, trying to sound sincere though it was a complete lie. After all, I had a feeling she wasn't telling me the truth about her conversation with Jessica so we were even.

She smiled upon hearing my apology. "You know that I would never stop you from doing something you want to do, right? I'm behind you whatever you do." She said with a comforting smile. "Just don't surprise me like that again."

I nodded happily, although I was pretty sure I couldn't keep that promise.

After that, we went home on our separate ways. But as I walked home, I just couldn't stop thinking about what was it that she was hiding from me. It was really strange how Jessica and Nam were talking to each other in a friendly way when they were the worst of the worst enemies. And Nam hadn't been the perfect friend when I had to clean up the mess I made with Michael. She just left me all alone. If it wasn't for Kongpob (though I hated to admit that he saved me), I'd probably be facing another swarm of haters...

Could my best friend actually betray me like this?

No, I was probably just being paranoid. I was fighting this battle for her, why would she desert me? I had to get my mind straight.

Kongpob was the enemy, not Nam.

He didn't intentionally save me. He just wanted to help Michael.

...

Or did he?

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