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Part 10

"Jessica, we need to talk about Arthit. Let's meet this lunch period.

–Nam."

So many questions were formulated in my mind as I held Nam's note, and no matter what I did, I just couldn't stop my suspicion from growing. Why would Nam and Jessica meet to talk about me? Was it because they were going to plot something against me? Did Nam have something to do with the my past plans that backfired? And the biggest question of all was, why would Nam do something like that to me? Behind my back?

As I sat through detention with a couple of unfamiliar students, I just couldn't get myself together. I wanted to go home and talk to Nam to clear things up. And so, my eyes were only focused on the clock on the wall, hoping that the minutes just lasted for seconds. But unfortunately, it felt like it lasted for hours.

When the final bell of the day finally rang, everyone hurried out of their seats and left the room. The school was only open until 5:30pm and it was already 5pm, so everyone rushed outside. Nobody wanted to get locked inside for the night so you could just imagine how rushed everyone was. And believe it or not, I was even twice as fast since I wanted to confront Nam badly. In a matter of five minutes, I was already halfway towards home.

However, when I reached my doorstep, I remembered something. I opened my bag hurriedly and checked for my Physics book. We had an assignment that was due tomorrow and since the teacher was an old angry lady with incredibly scary demeanor, it was a big no-no not to do it. But how could I do it when I forgot to place my Physics book inside my bag? I sighed...I had to go back to the school and get it.

Lucky that the school and my home were close to each other, so I was able to reach the school when it was still open. I didn't waste any time and just hurried to my locker. The hallways were already deserted, dark and silent that I wasn't used to it. In fact, it was quite scary in the dark. There were rumors before that our school used to be a morgue and the school was just built over it. For that reason, when it was starting to get dark, the school would become haunted with ghosts.

"Ghosts are not real." I whispered to myself as I opened my locker and took my Physics book.

Suddenly, I heard a creepy scraping sound coming from a nearby classroom. It sounded like a chair being moved. My heart began to race as I remembered that there was no one besides me in the area. I saw the janitor earlier heading towards the second floor.

"It's probably just a rat," I attempted to convince myself. But of course, who in their right mind would believe that a mouse could move chairs? There was definitely someone in that room, and even though I used to find the heroes in horror flicks very stupid whenever they checked out the place even though they already knew that it would give them the scare of their lives, I found myself doing the exact same thing by walking towards the room where the sound came from.

Hands shaking and cold sweat already covering my body, I moved towards the door until I heard another similar sound come out. This time, the sound was even louder than before and I jumped in surprise. I yelped in shock and breathed heavily as I peeked inside the room, ready to hit anything that came in my way.

At first, I didn't see any presence in the room. But as I turned to the left side of the room, I saw a person, a guy, with his head lying on his crossed arms. I couldn't recognize him because well because his head was facing the other side and it was already dark.

But somehow, I had a feeling I knew who it was and I was sure he wasn't a ghost.

Wanting to confirm whether he was really who I assumed him to be, I walked over and tapped his shoulder. "Excuse me, aren't you going home yet?" I asked in a friendly tone, just in case I was wrong in thinking it was my worst enemy.

He didn't wake up with that so I shook him harder. That made him raise his head and blink at me sleepily.

"Who are you?" Kongpob asked sleepily, his husky voice sounding a bit croaked.

Of course I was right and it had to be Kongpob Suthiluck in there. Great, just my luck.

What is it with us always running into each other?

The minute I saw his face, I regretted waking him up. If I hadn't shaken him off his sleep, then he would've been left alone inside this room for the whole night and he would've gotten sacred by the ghosts that lurked around during the night.

"I'm no one, just go back to sleep." I remarked quickly, turning around and walking away from him. Or rather, running away from him because I was already out of the room even before he could say anything to me.

As soon as I was out of the room, I realized that the hallways had gotten even darker than before and it was hard to see where I was going. At first, it was still fine for me to continue walking. But when I reached the end of the hallway, I noticed that the next hallway was even darker. And even though I hated to admit it, I was afraid of the dark, so I turned around reluctantly and headed back to the room where Kongpob was. At least another human being was there with me. Even if it had to be my worst enemy.

When I got there, Kongpob was staring into space. He was probably still adjusting to his surroundings since he had just woken up. I didn't wait for him to look at me and I called his attention instantly.

"Yah, Kongpob Suthiluck, let's go home." I told him, trying not to sound friendly because he might think I wanted to be friends with him, yet trying not to sound too harsh either, because I needed him to accompany me through those dark hallways.

He snapped out of his trance and turned to me. Upon seeing me standing on the doorway uneasy, he smiled at me playfully as if knowing my fears. "What are you talking about? I don't want to go home yet." He spoke calmly, his lips twisting into a smirk as he saw my pale face. "I heard there are ghosts here at this time. I want to see them. Don't you?"

"T-there's no such thing as ghosts, okay? S-so let's just go home." I answered him hesitantly, trying my best to not give him any hints about my fear of the dark and ghosts. If he knew about it, he'd definitely not accompany me out of here.

But he seemed to know anyway and teased me further. He shook his head stubbornly. "No, I'm not going home yet. Why don't you go ahead by yourself?" he responded as he looked at his watch. "It's only 6pm anyway."

"No, I can't go without you because if the people find out I left you here alone at this time, I'm sure they'll attack me again." I tried to reason, still not willing to reveal that I was scared to death and couldn't leave alone.

"It's okay. I'll tell them it's me who asked you to go ahead." He remarked in a somewhat innocent yet taunting tone. Then, his eyes widened and his smile brightened. "Wait a minute. You're afraid of going alone, aren't you?"

"W-what are you talking about? I'm just trying to protect myself from your obsessed fans. They're very capable of doing the craziest things for the smallest reasons." I pretended not to understand what he was implying so it wouldn't be so obvious that it was true.

But Kongpob didn't fall for that. "If that's what you're so worried about, then I'll guarantee you that no one is going to hurt you because of this incident. If someone does something to you, I'll make sure they would feel sorry for it." He replied, an amused and oh so smug look present on his face. "You know, I heard that there's a little girl dressed in white lurking around the hallways during this time. As she walks, she calls out the name of the person she sees in a small, innocent voice, Arthit~... Arthit~... and then, all of a sudden, she'll pounce at you!" At the exact same time he said the word 'pounce', he stomped his right foot loudly, causing me to jump in surprise and yelp in shock, almost bursting into tears.

"Yah! It's not funny!" I cried out as he began to laugh at my reaction. "Y-you're just making that up, aren't you?" I said with a frown, my heart beating super fast in my chest.

Suddenly, I felt something moving over my neck. I screamed and ran towards Kongpob's side, only to realize that it wasn't the scary hand of the little girl, but a cockroach that flew away as soon as I moved. Kongpob laughed even harder when I ran beside him and clutched to his arm in fear. "Nam never said you were afraid of insects. I would've given you a box of spiders if I knew." He exclaimed through his laughter.

At the mention of Nam's name, I remembered how I was supposed to be mad at him. I let his arm go, turned serious and faced him. "How can you mention Nam's name so casually like that just after you guys broke up?! Don't you even feel a bit sad about it?" I asked him, hoping he'd talk to me seriously too.

Sadly though, Kongpob probably just didn't know how to be serious because the smile on his face didn't disappear as he answered me by shaking his head. "Only stupid people feel sad after a break up." He said with that husky voice of his, sounding like a little kid.

Just much much more charming and handsome kid.

By the way he answered, I could already imagine how he broke up with Nam. He was completely unfazed by their breakup. He was probably even smiling then, when he told her he was tired of playing. And I could already feel how painful it was for Nam, who had been so serious about their relationship.

"If that's how you feel about Nam, then why did you ask her to be your girlfriend in the first place?!" I asked angrily as I felt my blood starting to boil.

"Because she liked me." He answered simply.

What kind of an answer was that?

"But you have a fanclub filled with girls and guys that more than like you! They even worship you! Why did you have to choose Nam and hurt her?!" I asked him angrily, my eyes throwing daggers at him.

He looked at me in silence for a while, before taking a step closer to me, so close we were only an inch away from each other and I could feel his hot breath ghost over my lips as he spoke, that mischievous tinkle shining in his dark almond eyes.

"Because if I chose someone else, then I couldn't tease you anymore."

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