Hide N Seek

9. Boyfriend

"Let me help you!" Dawn quickly stepped forward to pick up the carton of cold drinks.

Seff rolled his eyes in annoyance. He was thinking of ways to get rid of this big puppy who had been following him since morning.

Even when he was doing his third shift of the day in the convenience store, Dawn was still waiting there, trying to help him unload the new stock from the truck and take the things into the store.

Since Dawn was willing to do the manual labour, Seff let him do it. He would be a fool if he didn't.

"Should I place this here?"  Dawn asked, picking up a bottle from the carton that he unwrapped. He wanted to help Seff stack the drinks on the store shelf.

"I can do it myself, Dawn." Seff took the bottle from him. "Thank you for your help till now."

"Are you still mad at me?" Dawn asked testing the waters. He wanted to get closer to his new flatmate.

"What makes you think that I am mad at you?" Seff professionally arranged the drinks on the shelf with older ones in the front and newly arrived ones on the back.

"I know you lost that job in the bar because of me," Dawn mumbled looking guilty.

"I didn't lose the job because of you. I lost it because the bar was shut down for the time being." Seff moved to another carton and started stacking it on the shelf.

"The bar shut down?" Dawn's detective instincts were tingling.

"Someone died there the day after I met you and the place was shut down for investigation," Seff replied.

Dawn frowned lightly. He wasn't informed of this matter. But he had a gut feeling that this death had something to do with the case he was investigating. "Someone died? How did he die?"

Seff who had finished stacking up the drinks moved to the next shelf with Dawn on his toe. "I am not really sure. I heard that they were overdosed on drugs or something. That was the main reason the place was shut down."

"'They'? As in plural?" Dawn was frowning harder.

"Yeah. There were five or six of those rich brats. It would be a wonder if they don't die." Seff mumbled the last sentence.

"You seem to be familiar with them." Dawn was dead set on retrieving information as much information as he could from Seff.

"Of course. Every staff in that bar know them. They are kind of regular customers. That was why all the staff who worked that night got into trouble." Seff scoffed. He remembered how his colleagues would brag about getting huge tips from those young masters.

"Do they usually do drugs there?"

"I don't know I never really served them," Seff answered stretching himself as he finished stacking everything.

"Why? You never got the opportunity?"

"No. I did serve them once in the beginning. But they tried to harass me. So P' Shawn made a scene at the bar and had me banned from serving them."

Dawn raised his eyebrows "Who is this P' Shawn?"

Seff looked at Dawn weirdly before answering "Our house owner. Duh!"

"Why would our house owner have you banned?"

"He just wanted to protect me and P' Shane is P' Shawn's Nong. So, P' Shawn's words are the final ones there." Seff shrugged. "By the way, P' Shane is the owner of the bar."

"P' Shawn's Nong sells drugs" Dawn muttered to himself.

"No!" Seff said defensively. "P' Shane is not such a person. He is a rightful man. He wouldn't get involved in illegal stuff. I am sure that those young masters snuck the drugs in. After all no security guard in the club would dare to check them."

Dawn nodded absent-mindedly. Something didn't seem to be adding up in the whole thing. He smelled something fishy about the whole situation.

Before he could ask anything further a bunch of girls entered the shop.

Seff immediately went to the counter to attend to the customers. "Please come in" He welcomed them with a sweet professional smile.

The girls went ahead and started picking the things they wanted from the shelves.

Dawn realised the obvious gaze of those girls on him. Sensing that those girls were going to make a move on him he quietly moved towards Seff. He wasn't in a mood to deal with those little girls.

The girls having picked everything they needed got to the counter and placed it in front of Seff for the billing. Seff started scanning the barcode of the items one by one with the scanner.

Those girls looked flirtatiously at Dawn. He acted like he saw nothing and kept looking at the computer screen as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

Once the billing was done, Seff quickly pulled out a polythene bag and started packing the billed items into it. "That would be five hundred and thirty-two baht, khrab."

"Oh?" The girl in the front took out her purse to pay. "P' Seff Kha" She called out in her sweetest honey-dripping voice that made both Dawn and Seff want to throw up.

Seff still maintained his smile. "What is it N' Pin." He was familiar with the girl as she often shopped at the convenience store.

"Who is this, phi?" Pin looked at Dawn shyly. From the closeness Dawn was showing to Seff, it was obvious that he was not just a customer.

Seff noticed the way Pin was eyeing Dawn. He couldn't blame her. The man next to him was one good specimen. But before he could answer, Dawn hugged his waist and pulled him closer.

"I am his boyfriend!" Dawn declared shamelessly.

Seff looked at Dawn in both shock and surprise.

"You don't have to be shy baby. It is just our Nongs." Dawn said pecking the top of Seff's head to make it look realistic.

Seff wanted to murder Dawn at the moment but decided to play along as he could see that those girls' intentions weren't pure. He just put on a smile and stood still.

All the other girls other than Pin cooed at the two guys. 

Pin stomped her feet and threw the money on the counter before taking the polythene bag and exiting the shop.

"Phi, please ignore her." One of the girls apologized for Pin's rude behaviour. "You guys look good together. Su Su" She gave them a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Nong," Dawn said with a bright smile. "Please visit the store again." He added as the girls left one by one.

As soon as the cost was clear, Seff pinched Dawn's waist.

"Ouch!" Dawn jumped away, removing the hand that held Seff on the waist. "What was that for?" He asked with an apparent pout.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that question?" Seff glared at Dawn as he picked up the money and arranged it inside the drawer.

"Didn't you see how those girls were looking at me like vultures?" Dawn tried his best to look pitiful.

"So? Was there a need to throw me under the bus?" Seff asked with his hands on his hip.

Dawn gave him a toothy smile and apologized. "Sorry, couldn't come up with a better idea"