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I took my cell phone and sent a message to May, saying 'Hey, there's an emergency. Call me now.'

Unfortunately, as I was sending it, I accidentally sent it to Daniel instead.

"Shit!" I exclaimed in shock and hurriedly tried to send another message to him, saying I sent the message to him accidentally, but before I could even type it, he was already calling me.

"Well shit..."

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As soon as I picked up Daniel's call, he didn't even give me a chance to speak. "Arthit! What's wrong? Are you hurt!?" he asked, his voice frantic and filled with genuine worry.

For a moment there, I almost believed that he was really sincere about his feelings for me. I mean, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be this worried over a message saying I was in an emergency, right? But I wouldn't trust him as easily as before because after all, everything we shared before was a lie, and I tried to remind myself about that. "I'm fine. Nothing's wrong, okay?" I finally responded as calmly as I could. "Look, I made a mistake. That message wasn't meant for you. I just sent it wrong. I'm sorry."

He wouldn't believe me. "Yah, are you really this mad at me that even when you're in an emergency, you won't let me help? Would you rather die than receive help from someone you hate?" He remarked so seriously, like I really was in a matter of life and death.

"I'm not dying, not even hurt, okay? I just need to learn to cook right now." I mumbled, embarrassed by the fact that I couldn't cook. "Anyway, I better hang up now. I'm not ready to go back to the way we were before."

As I was about to end the call, he suddenly stopped me. "Wait!" he shouted loudly and hurriedly. "What if I help you with this cooking problem of yours? Would that be enough for you to forgive me?"

I thought about it. Was his deal reasonable? Could I trust him? "Do you know how to cook?" I asked suspiciously, trying to make sure he wouldn't fool me.

"Of course. I have an older sister who loves to cook." He replied proudly. "I know it's hard for you to trust me now, but believe me, I won't fool you twice."

Seeing that he seemed to be really sincere about this, I decided to trust him. After all, I was desperate, wasn't I? "Fine, we have a deal. But where would you teach me?" I said, softening up on him. "We can't use our kitchen because my parents invited guests over."

"Let's use the schools cooking room, the one the cooking club uses, I'll meet you there in 10 minutes. And don't worry about bringing anything. I'll bring everything we'll need. Just be there, okay?" He instructed, probably forgetting that it was Sunday, thus, the school was locked.

"I only have one question. How are we going to get in there?" I asked quickly to remind him. "Unless you're an expert when it comes to opening locks with no keys, I don't think that place is a good idea."

But to my surprise, Daniel didn't change his mind. "Don't worry about it. You'll see when you get there, the doors will be open for you." he remarked proudly like it was no big deal. "See you then."

After he hung up the phone, I started to get ready. But as I did, I wondered just what Daniel was up to. He wasn't going to break into the school, was he? I mean, he wasn't that type of person. But still, he couldn't simply enter the building without any means.

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When I got to school, the locks on the school entrance were really gone and I could enter freely. As I did, I tried to observe any signs of how Daniel managed to do it. But I couldn't find any, so when I arrived at the cooking room, I was itching to ask him. "How did you.." I asked, knowing that he knew what I was going to ask so I didn't bother even finishing my question.

He smiled mischievously in response. "I broke in." he answered proudly. Hearing that, my eyes widened. "What's wrong? Did I do anything bad?"

Was he crazy??? If people learned that he did this, he would definitely be expelled. And being with him, I will probably be labeled as an accomplice and also be punished the same way. "Yah, have you ever considered how much trouble we'd be getting in if someone finds out?" I exclaimed, starting to get mad. How could I have let him get me into this mess?

Suddenly, his smile even widened. "I'm just kidding." He said, taking something out from his pocket. It was a set of keys as he let them tangle in between his friends. "See these? These are the keys. The janitor is a friend of mine and he owes me a favor. And so I borrowed these from him. I sometimes use these to come here and play basketball during the weekend, nice and quiet."

"Oh." I said in a small voice, suddenly ashamed of getting angry so quickly.

Luckily, he didn't find my attitude upsetting. "Let's start then." He said excitedly, leading me inside the kitchen.

When I got inside, I was surprised to see three grocery bags on the table. "You bought all these?" I asked wide-eyed, walking over to them and checking what were inside. They were full of different kinds of vegetables, some eggs, uncooked rice, even some frozen meat.

Wow...he really had outdone himself in just 10 minutes.

"Well, you didn't exactly specify what you wanted to cook, so I just bought ingredients that can be used in most dishes." He responded with a smile.

For the first time in days, I returned his smile. "Thanks for doing this." I told him sincerely.

And for a moment there, we just stood looking at each other in silence. But it was a good thing he broke the ice. "So, what do you want to learn? Fried rice? Omelet? Kimbap?" he said in a mock bragging tone, focusing on removing the food from the grocery bags. "Just name it, I can teach you anything."

Because of his mock bragging tone, I found myself laughing out loud. He sounded so silly, it was funny. "I'll go for fried rice since I've heard it's not that hard and I like eating it." I answered him, going over to his side to help him. Once everything was out of the bags, I faced him. "So what's the first step?" I was softening up to him when I was supposed to hate him.

"Since it's fried rice, we need cooked rice." He said, setting aside the uncooked rice and taking a container from the stack of ingredients before us. "Aside from the rice, we need to prepare the other ingredients. What's your favorite veggies?"

If it was me, I would want carrots, potatoes, and peas. But since Kongpob was the one who would be eating, I tried to remember what he would like. "I think Kongpob would like carrots and peas." I remarked absently,totally forgetting that Daniel didn't know I was learning to cook for Kongpob. And when I realized that, I instantly covered my mouth. "Uh, I mean, I would like carrots and peas."

But of course, Daniel was always too keen to miss anything I said. "You're doing this for Kongpob?" he asked, his expression suddenly darkened.

Knowing that I couldn't possibly lie now, I nodded slowly. "Yes, I am. I'm learning to cook so I can cook lunch for Kongpob tomorrow." I admitted, almost sorry for suddenly hurting his feelings. "I wanted to prove to him I can cook."

"How can you be like this?" he suddenly looked at me angrily and accusingly. "What happened to your vow to make Kongpob pay for hurting your best friend? Suddenly, you like him?"

My forehead furrowed. "Why are you so angry?" I asked in confusion. "Who said I'm not continuing with my mission?"

"So you admit that your liking for Kongpob is not true then?" he asked, getting even angrier. He didn't let me answer. He already knew the answer. "Do you know why I liked you in the first place? It was because I found you to be truthful. When you were mad at someone, you would show it, no matter what people would do to you. When you liked someone, you would do anything to protect them, even sacrifice your reputation to make them feel better."

Was he actually accusing me of being a liar now? Had he forgotten who deceived who first? "Don't you think I felt the same way when I found out you've been lying to me?" I remarked, now angry too. "I actually thought that you were the most honest friend I had. But it turned out that it was the opposite."

"How many times do I have to tell you I wasn't lying?!" he exclaimed in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, you're not? Then where'd you get the money to buy all these stuff, huh?" I shot at him, really worked up by the fact that he was annoyed when he had no right to be. "Wasn't all this bought by the money you got from Jessica? Look, you know what? I'm sorry I sent the message to you by mistake. I'm sorry for disturbing you and I'm sorry you had to spend Jessica's money on me. I'm going."

I didn't even wait for him to say anything more to me. I just rushed out of there and headed back home. So much for finally learning how to cook. We didn't even start. But maybe the cook would finally be available for some cooking lessons when I arrived home.

Or better yet, I could call May now, since that was my first option anyway.

I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket and dialed May's number. This time, I made sure it was really her. When she answered though, I already had a feeling I caught her in a bad time, judging from the noisy background on her side. But I still gave it a try. "Hello May? Are you busy?"

"Hey Arthit! What did you say?" she replied, shouting over the noise.

"I said, are you busy?" I repeated in a much louder voice. "You're not home, are you?"

There was a shuffling sound. "Oh, yeah. I'm at the mall right now. Michael's treating me to a movie because he lost a bet." She answered me happily. I could hear Michael's voice as he asked her who she was talking to. "Is something wrong?"

It was so like May to say that instead of admitting that she was out on a date with Michael. But either way, I couldn't disturb her now, could I? "No, it's nothing. I was just a little bored so I called you." I lied smoothly.

"Oh, is that so? I'll just call you when I get home then." She remarked distractedly. I heard Michael say something about the movie starting soon. "I'm really sorry, but I need to go now."

"Okay then. Have a good time." I replied, knowing there was nothing else I could say.

As I walked home, I tried to console myself by thinking that I still had one last option (since Nam knew nothing about cooking either) – the chef at home. But my hopes were shattered when I saw her dressed in a casual attire instead of her uniform when I entered the house.

"You're going somewhere?" I asked, desperately hoping that I was wrong.

She nodded. "I have a family matter to take care of, so I need to go now." She answered me worriedly. Then she must've noticed how I instantly frowned upon hearing her so she reassured me about our food for dinner, thinking that was what bothered me. "I already cooked the food for dinner so you shouldn't worry about it."

I smiled at her weakly, then headed to the kitchen. There, I took a seat on a stool and rested my chin on my right hand. What was I to do now? Should I just admit defeat by calling Kongpob and confessing to him that I knew nothing about cooking? But if I did, he'd definitely make a big deal about it. he would surely not let me hear the end of it, insulting me for being a girl and yet an ignorant when it came to cooking.

Suddenly, my cell phone started ringing from my pocket. I took it out and saw that it was Kongpob. I took my time in answering him. "Hello?" I said, after about four long rings.

"So, how's the cooking going?" He asked me, his voice awfully smug as if knowing exactly how I was feeling at the moment. "Since you're so busy preparing my lunch, I decided to make an exception today and call you instead of you calling me."

I now knew why he always sounded so annoying to me. It was because he always knew the truth about me and was always rubbing it in on me. But since he loved the fact that I got annoyed, I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. And so, I decided not to give up anymore. "The cooking's going great." I told him convincingly. "Can I hang up now? Like you said, I'm busy right now so I can't talk long."

"Okay then. I just called you because I thought you needed some inspiration to get you working so I let you hear my sexy voice. But now that you've heard it, my intention is fulfilled. Make sure to cook it well!" He remarked happily before hanging up.

After the phone call, I was determined to try to succeed no matter what. Wasn't there a saying 'it's better to try than to not have tried at all'?

So the next morning, I woke up three hours earlier than usual. I checked our refrigerator and found a whole carrot, a piece of sausage and some eggs.

From my knowledge of fried rice (from having eaten it), I knew that all I had to do was mix everything up while cooking them. But of course, I had to chop them into little pieces first. Taking a knife from the cabinet, I tried, for the first time, to chop a carrot. For my first try, I was successful (meaning I had no cuts), though it didn't look too good. But after a few more tries, I started to improve more and more. Then I chopped up the sausage. Unfortunately, as I was chopping the last pieces of the sausage, I accidentally cut myself in my finger.

"Damnit, Arthit! Focus! You can do it!"

I told myself with confidence and after tending my wound with medicine and band-aid, I continued with my work. In a pan half-filled with oil (a lot of oil was needed for frying, wasn't it?), I put in the rice, an egg, the pieces of carrots and sausage.

Since I had no idea how to know whether the food was cooked, I figured that once the smell was good, it was good enough to eat. Despite the decent smell, the finished product looked greasy and disgusting, even I would say so. But since I had no more time left or no hopes of a miracle to happen, I had no choice but to give this to Kongpob.

I quickly placed the food in the blue lunch box as neatly as possible and left for school. As I reached the school building and walked towards my locker, I received my first surprise of the day.

Daniel was leaning against my locker, holding a small white lunch box in his hands.

Ohoh...

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