Perseverance [Complete]

Chapter 11

Arthit's POV

Kong and I rushed towards the hospital bed where Rune was lying while watching cartoons on room TV. Thankfully she looked fine.

"Rune! Oh god baby are you ok? You gave me a heart attack." I was holding her in a bone crushing hug.

"Pa, too tight. Can't breathe."

"What the hell Rune! You know you are allergic to apples. We go over it all the time. Why would have apple juice? You are a big girl now. You know what you can't eat or drink. Thankfully your teacher noticed in time and brought you here. What would have happened otherwise?"

While I has started my tirade, she had fresh tears pouring down her cheeks. I was feeling awful for scolding her but she needed to learn this lesson. She couldn't repeat this mistake again. What if no one reliable was around the next time around? I wasn't exaggerating when I said that my heart had almost stopped beating when I heard she was taken to the hospital.

"Pa, I swear I didn't have apple juice. It was some other flavor. I know I am not supposed to have apples. I didn't have it. I swear." She choked out through multiple sniffs and hiccups.

"Rune now you are just making things worse. I just spoke to your doctor. You need to stop lying to me otherwise your punishment is going to be very severe. This time I am not joking Rune. This is very important dammit." I had unconsciously raised me voice louder than I had ever used with Rune before. She shrunk back on her bed and started crying harder.

"P'Arthit you are scaring her. She is already traumatized." I tried to control my emotions as Kong stepped towards the bed and started comforting her.

Kong and Rune basically ignored me while I settled the hospital bill and we made our way home. I knew both of them wanted Kong to stay the night and I didn't argue.

I was cursing myself that I was getting so caught up with my emotions regarding Kong that I wasn't focusing on the most important thing in my life. I was not spending enough time with Rune, I was letting too many other people take over my responsibilities. All of that was going to change. I was going to be there for Rune and stop getting distracted. I don't know how I would have survived if something happened to her today.

Kong and Rune had fallen asleep on the bed and I was sitting on the chair questioning a lot of the choices I had made recently. I must have sat there for a few hours before I got up to grab a drink of water. I walked across my bookshelf and stopped when something caught my eye.

It was common knowledge amongst all my friends that I keep my books alphabetized on the bookshelf. It was a weird quirk I had and my friends had ribbed me for it more than once. Rune and Kong had practically picked up the trait themselves since I insisted on alphabetizing them every time.

But right now the books on my shelf were out of order. The only people who could have touched it recently was me, Rune, or Kong. Rune and Kong would definitely not have left them this way if they didn't want to deal with my ire. So then the questioned remained as to how did the books get out of order?

The easiest solution would be to put the blame on Rune. But somehow it feels like recently I have been blaming her for a lot of things she swears she didn't do. I frowned as I started thinking back to the past few weeks.

The first incident was when she hadn't locked the front door. We were at home that evening while she was getting ready for her play date I was going over the notes for the hazing training. I got a call from the landlord and I needed to go meet him for a few minutes. Since it was too short a time to get a babysitter I made her promise to lock the door behind me and not to open the door for anyone. But when I returned the door was unlocked. I had cancelled her play date as punishment then even though she swore she had locked it.

My frown deepened. Something similar happened soon after. I had woken up in the middle of the night and stepped over glass. The broken shards were so close to the wall. Why would she even be in that corner of the apartment with the glass. Why would she not tell me? And the most obvious thing, I was with her the whole day. I would have heard her break something.

And finally today. Rune knows how dangerous apples are for her. She is a very sharp and bright girl. It is possible that she could have made a genuine mistake and taken a sip without checking first. But she swears that she verified before she started drinking. And now the books.

"P'Arthit are you ok?"

I felt Kong come and stand next to me. He was rubbing his hand comfortingly on my back, "P'Arthit I know you were really scared today. But Rune is fine now. You should try and get some sleep."

"Kong"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think Rune is honest to me about things?"

"Yes. Sometimes brutally so. Is it about today? I think she just made a mistake P'Arthit."

"Hmmm, I think I have been too hard on her lately."

Something was going on in my house that wasn't just Rune's fault and it was giving me a bad feeling.