The Art of What-If: A Drabble Collection

i ain't gonna tell him, i think he knows (KA)

"I swear I'm not this embarrassing in real life, but I had an avenue to vent it out and why not use this opportunity? Maybe I'll get lucky and meet them again, but hopefully, I do better this time because my god I was a flustered mess!"

The speaker crackled for a moment before they heard Krist speak into the mic again, "For now, enough about my gross love story and I want to hear your own! Send your love-at-first-sight encounters to our anonymous wall at Krist Radio and I'll read them! Looking forward to your stories. While we wait, here's "I Think He Knows" by Taylor Swift to keep us on our toes!"

The familiar bop resounded perfectly as it faded in, and Kongpob still stood in the near-empty classroom in shock, gripping his book tightly.

Tew looked at him curiously, raising an eyebrow.

Kongpob, flushing dorm from his ears to his cheeks to the base of his neck, spluttered, "I... I think I know the person he's talking about."

"Who?"

"Tew, remember the guy I bumped into that I was talking about? The extremely adorable and extremely shy student was stuttering out his reply but it was amazingly cute and I was mad I didn't get their name?"

His friend laughed, "What? Are you telling me that that story was about you? Wait— oh."

"Oh my god," Kongpob rushed out of the classroom in a desperate search for the student council office.

Tew was left in tow, still in disbelief at what was happening.

When Kongpob left the office, disappointed at the strict protection of Krist's identity, he was now floored. How was he supposed to find him and know his actual name and get the chance to try their meet-cute again and again until they get married?

One thing is certain, he won't go down without a fight.

One thing that Kongpob didn't know is that as soon as the On Air Red Button turned white, a third-year engineering student removed his headphones and sighed into his hand, putting his glasses back on and composing himself.

The man behind the radio, wearing a school ID, the bold words of Arthit Rojnapat smack dab under the ID photo.

He sighed, looking over at the properly stacked books that were lying on the floor earlier that day.

When he saw dozens of messages popping up on his wall, the smile slipped back on his face, putting back his headphones and prepared to filter out the stories that were appropriate for live radio.

As he quietly reminisced in the back of his mind about the person he fell in love with, at first sight, he continued to do his job and stretched the last 30 minutes of the show with laughs, music, and fun.

"And that's a wrap for today! Tune in tomorrow for another fun afternoon with me, thanks for listening to Krist Radio, and good evening, everyone!"

—fin.

"Hey, Arthit, someone's been looking for you in the student council room for weeks now, they won't give up! It's getting even crazier having to conceal your identity because that guy really seemed to be desperate to contact you in any way," the student council president, Knot, knocked on his makeshift studio and interrupted just as Arthit went off-air.

Struggling to put his glasses back on without placing any fingerprints on the lenses, Arthit squinted his eyes at him, "Huh?"

"Yeah, his friend was also with him, calmly explaining that the guy really wants to meet you— for true love or something."

"Excuse me?"

"It's weird, they both are. But you don't have to meet him if you don't want to."

Arthit went to grab his bag to leave the studio, frowning. "Are they still outside?"

"No, they left a while ago."

"As much as I am curious, I don't want to meet him, because I don't even know the guy, it's not worth risking my identity."

With that, he left. Knot shook his head in pity as he tidied up the studio, arranging the playlist for downtime.

_____________________

"Arthit Rojnapat?"

"Present."

Kongpob tuned out of the class, chin resting on his hand as he mournfully sighed. Another unproductive day in finding the person behind his true love.

Tew sat beside him and looked at him with concern, "No luck today, huh?"

"Nope."

"I mean, how can you fall in love with just bumping into someone and learning their voice? Besides, shouldn't you have recognized them by now? You saw him, right?"

Kongpob pointedly looked at the closed front door of his classroom, carefully noting the white noise from the class around him, the professor continuing his lecture whether somebody listened or not.

"I saw him, yes. But now I'm not sure because it's making me overthink everyone I laid eyes on. Now, his picture is just a mess in my head."

"Maybe he's just not meant to be found again, I mean it could jeopardize his identity," Tew suggested, and Kongpob chuckled darkly.

"It's like he has two different personalities, Tew, but I love them all the same. For weeks now, I've been trying to scour every piece of recorded shows of Krist, trying to memorize his voice, and god he's just so—"

"Mr. Sutthiluck, care to share your thoughts?"

Kongpob straightened up, already lost in talking about Krist, Tew was closing his eyes and picking the bridge of his nose. Kongpob looked back to the front and saw the professor glaring at him, the book held in his hand. Now, all of his classmates were looking at him.

"I'm sorry, please continue," he tried to do some damage control.

As he wallowed in his embarrassment, he didn't realize that someone a few seats away from him was already snickering with flushed cheeks, a happy twinkle in his eye.