Arranged... With Love...

18. Promise

"Hia, don't cry na. Cade will always stay by your side." The little boy rubbed the back of the crying taller boy.

The taller boy looked up at the little boy, whose face was filled with concern.

The taller boy was none other than the nine-year-old Raya. It was almost the end of their summer vacations and his parents had planned a family trip to Australia.

Young Raya was really excited about it. He was looking forward to meeting the kangaroos and koalas when they got there. The possibility of having a road trip with his family made him thrilled.

The thought of going to Australia had him going the whole summer. He didn't even mind it when his father added two more subjects to his summer vacation classes. As long as he could go for the trip it didn't matter.

As the trip was planned to be at the end of summer vacation, Young Raya worked extra hard to finish off all the work assigned to him by his vacation tutors so that he could go on vacation with ease. 

Raya rushed back home as soon as his tutor evaluated his work and permitted him to go, only to be greeted by an empty house.

He tried calling his parents and was told that they had left for Australia two days ago, with his younger siblings.

No one had told the young Raya about the change in dates. As it turned out, his parents never planned on taking him on the trip with them. He was never part of their plan. 

They simply called their friends and asked them to take care of Raya till they got back.

When Chen and Yada picked him up from his home, he was quiet. He didn't complain. But his heart was broken.

Cade was five years old back then and was over the moon to have Raya over. 

When he heard that Raya would be staying with them for more than a week, till his parents got back, Cade was jumping in joy. 

As the only child, summer vacations were boring for Cade as he had no one to play with. But now that Raya was here, how could not be happy? He was excited to have Raya all to himself. He didn't have to share Raya's attention with Suki, whom he was not very particularly fond of.

Raya acted fine in front of Cade and played with him all day. But he couldn't forget the fact that his parents had abandoned him.

At night, after putting Cade to sleep, he curled up in the corner and started crying.

Cade who was woken up by the sound of the sobs found that the person who was supposed to be sleeping next to him was missing. He saw Raya crying.

Yada had already told Cade about what had happened and that it was his responsibility to make Raya feel at home.

Little Cade got off the bed and went to Raya and started pacifying him.

"Cade loves Hia so much. Cade wants to stay with Hia for the rest of Cade's life." That was the reply Cade gave when Raya poured out his thoughts.

Raya chuckled hearing those words. "Rest of Cade's life? Then, don't Cade want to get married like Cade's mom and dad and have a wife?" 

A troubled expression appeared on his face. He was thinking deeply about finding a solution to the said problem "Then... Cade will just marry Hia!"

"Cade wants Hia to be Cade's wife?" Raya asked with a glint in his eyes.

Cade stared at Raya wondering if there was anything wrong with asking Raya to be his wife. "If Hia doesn't want to be Cade's wife, Cade can be Hia's wife na. Then, we can stay together forever!" Cade said innocently.

"Really?" Raya was amused.

"Yes. Cade will be Hia's wife and Cade will love Hia more than anyone else in the world." Little Cade said with a serious expression.

The expression was so cute that Raya immediately burst out laughing.

"Hia, don't make fun of Cade na," Cade whined.

Raya pulled Cade into his embrace. "If Cade wants to stay by Hia's side, Hia promises Cade that Hia will always try to keep Cade happy. Hia promises that Hia would never hurt Cade."

"I am sorry na, Cade. Sorry that I broke my promise." Raya curled up into a ball, crying inside his hotel room.

He was the one who broke the promise. That promise. That childish, silly promise that they made to each other. 

He was pretty sure that he was sure that Cade didn't remember. Cade was just too young back then but he would still remember what he said that night.

After that summer vacation, Raya had never seen Cade, not until their wedding day. The Sriwanna family had moved to Singapore, where they were expanding their business.

The ties between the Jampatom family and the Sriwanna family weakened as time passed by. After a few years' time, the two families were completely out of touch and the two kids forgot each other as they grew up.

Raya clenched his chest. "Why? Why did it have to be like this?" He wailed.

He had never intended to hurt Cade. 

While agreeing to the marriage, he had assumed that it was just a marriage of conveyance, with no emotions involved. He had had Nawa look into Cade and he was told that Cade too had only gotten to know of the marriage arrangements a week before the marriage, just like him.

Neither had they met nor was it a long-term engaged marriage. It was a completely arranged marriage, made between the families, and practically had nothing to do with them. Both of them were just pawns in the deal their parents made.

He couldn't comprehend why Cade would be hurt in such a situation. Weren't they supposed to be in the same position?

Raya was unaware that Cade had been expecting 'love' in this marriage of conveyance. His outlook on relationships wasn't the same as Cade's.

It was painful for Raya as well. He had long wanted to get in touch with Cade and reestablish their friendship. After all, Cade was the only person who had approached him without ulterior motives.

Every person who normally came to him must have some or the other reason for doing so. Some because of his rich family background, some because of his popularity among peers, and some because of his looks.

None of them had even tried to get to know the real him.

Even though Raya had anticipated that Cade might have changed so much from the little Cade he knew, over the years, he somehow hoped that they could still have the same kind of bond they had as kids. The bond between Hia and Nong.

The brotherly affection Raya had towards Cade was much more than that he had towards Suki and Few.

But everything went wrong because of the marriage. The marriage had become a curse to their relationship.

When his parents told him that he had to marry a family friend's son, he didn't even know that the other person was Cade.

If he had, he would have done everything to prevent this disaster called marriage.