Risking The Hate

Chapter 11:You must like me for me💋

He had a whisky that night and then told me he shouldn't have drank so much.

Would you ever forgive me Tine for all the mistakes that I have made? — That's what he asked me and I had no answer to it. Who was I to judge Sarawat for his past? Everyone has a past. I didn't like myself either in the past. What really matters is who we are today. I saw the Sarawat in college and now I see this Sarawat sitting right in front of me — they feel like the same person, and yet, so different. He seems more mature now, more considerate, more hardworking, and so much more grounded.

"Here are your drinks." The waiter kept the drinks on our table which brought me out of my thoughts.

Just as the waiter left, Sarawat took a big chug of his beer and looked at me with his patent smug smile. "So, who is Type?"

I chuckled. "May be you shouldn't be snooping on other people's phone calls."

"You were literally talking in front of me, Tine. I obviously overheard it."

I shook my head. "Type's my brother."

Sarawat shifted forward in his seat. "Is he younger than you? Staying with your mom until he finishes up his studies ?"

"No. He is actually older than me. Four years older than me. He stays with mom and handles the family business back in my hometown. And.. and I am the son who was pushed to live far away from home because at least one of us should have a good education and a stable job." I swirled my whiskey and drank up.

Sarawat's facial expression changed suddenly. "It must have been hard for you, staying away from your family all this time."

I looked down, smoothing over the table cloth to somehow calm my emotions. "It was a little hard in the start when I moved to Bangkok for the first time. But it got better as years went by. I mean, it has now been 8 years since I moved out here."

"Do you miss them?"

"Everyday." I said without looking up.

"Did you..did you ever consider moving back to your hometown instead of staying here in Bangkok?"

"I did. In fact, I didn't even want to move here to Bangkok in the first place, not even for college. But Type pushed me. He said 'I was too smart to stay back in our hometown.'

"And you just agreed with him?"

"Of course. Type was 20 when dad passed away. He managed to revive the crumbling family business all the while finishing up his college and making sure we always had food on the table. I was only 16 back then — there was only so much I could do to help. And to be honest, he was right. The family business isn't that big that it needed two people to oversee things."

So when Type said, I needed to study to get into a good college with scholarship, I listened to him. He already had so many responsibilities on him."

"I am sure you had a lot of responsibilities on you too."

I laughed, trying my best to conceal the sadness in my eyes. "Well nothing compared to Type. He went out to work, I just had to stay home, study, and take care of mom."

"You had to take care of your mom? Was she unwell too?"

I sighed. "The first-- The first few months were really tough for mom after dad passed away. She hardly ate, she hardly even got out of the room. I had to make sure she was eating on time, getting her medicines on time. Sometimes..." I chuckled. "Sometimes I would put on funny movies on the TV and force myself to laugh so mom would laugh with me too."

"Did it work?"

"Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't." I shrugged my shoulders.

"How is doing she now?"