A Tale of Thousand Prompts

Chapter 9: Forgetful Birthday Boy

They go back to the base and Tian seems to be awake by now. Phupha gave him the container told him that everyone wanted to fatten him up a bit. Tian whined.

"Why does everyone want to fatten me up so much? I'm not that skinny." Tian complained.

"It's because of your clothes, Khun! They are always too big for you." Yod said.

"But I also wore clothes that were just the right size and everyone could see I was not that skinny," Tian said.

"Actually, you kind of are Tian. Remember when you got wet from the rain and your shirt was plain white that time, everyone can see the inside of your shirt. They could see your ribs, to be honest." Phupha said.

"Can't I like the way look then?" Tian asked.

"You can like the way you look, Tian. Being skinny isn't bad as well but when you see the person's ribs with how skinny they are, it will be concerning for everyone." Phupha said. Tian sighed but nodded in understanding. He went inside, knowing full well that Phupha cooked and left the food there. He removed the cover and sat down to eat the food Phupha and Khama's wife cooked.

As Tian ate, he was rechecking the papers of the kids. Phupha shook his head and took the papers away. He gave him a stern look before putting the papers on the far side of the table. Away from Tian.

"Focus on eating, Tian," Phupha said.

Tian ate quietly as the rangers were talking outside. When he finished, Rang took the plate and container and said he'll wash it and give the container back to Khama. Tian nodded and thought of going to the school to put up the things he had designed to make the school look livelier than ever. He took his things and walked to school. While walking the kids saw him and had followed him, curious where their teacher is going.

When they got to the school, the curiosity of the children grew and they watched as Tian pulled out a bunch of decorations from a box he was carrying. While he was putting up one of them on the back of the class, the kids sneaked in and looked inside, they pulled out each decoration and looked at it with amazement.

"P'Seetian, what's with the decorations?" Meejoo asked out loud. Tian jumped and looked behind him to see the kids, each holding on to decorations. He shook his head and laughed.

"You kids weren't even supposed to see that until classes started," Tian said.

"Well, we saw you on our way here so we followed you," Khaoneung said.

"Is there any food here, P'Seetian?" Kalae asked which caused everyone to laugh.

"Didn't you eat breakfast, Kalae?" Tian asked.

"I did but I'm hungry again," Kalae said.

"We can eat later, but for now, I need to put these decorations up before starting class. It's to make the school look livelier." Tian said.

"Can we help?" Inta and Ayi asked.

"Sure, put those ones up here." Tian shows them where to put the decorations up and when they finished, the school had more color to it more than ever. Tian goes up in front and the kids went to their respective seats. Tian started to teach them how to make origamis. They first made simple origamis until they started to make lotus flower origamis. Inta asked for a string, which apparently Tian had in his bag for some reason, and had given a long enough string for Inta's origamis. Tian helped Inta how to place the origamis to the strings as the others watch them. When Tian was done, the others did the same thing he did.

While all of this was happening, Rang, Yod, Nam, and Longtae were apparently there when Tian was teaching the basics of origamis. They laughed when Kalae asked for food which Tian gave him a chocolate bar and warned him to eat slowly. Kalae obeyed and Tian gave him water. The other kids asked for one as well and Tian gave them each chocolate bar and water. When Phupha came, all the kids noticed him and called him. He walked towards them and noticed the chocolate bars that Tian gave. He raised a brow at Tian and the teacher just shrugged.