The Ghost Of You

Haunted

The first day of university brings a mixture of emotions in Kongpob; fear, excitement, nervousness, happiness. It all compiles into this ball of emotion which leaves him jittery. He only gets to breathe a little when he sees his best friend, Aim, waving at him. At least he won’t be alone, he thinks.

    “Hey, Kong.” Aim nods.

    “Hey,” Kongpob greets back, “What are we supposed to do?”

    “I don’t know,” his best friend shrugs, “But we’re supposed to register over there I guess.”

    Aim points over to where a lot of his fellow freshmen are lining up. Kongpob and his best friend lines up as well; they register their name and is given a student code – his was 0062.

    After they have registered and gotten their codes they are asked to find their classmates. They’re already at the faculty of engineering so the both of them start walking around looking for their co-programs.

    They spot a group of first years chatting over at the corner. Kongpob drags his dumbfounded friend over to them because there’s a sign at the table that reads ‘Industrial Engineering.’

    When they reach the table the group stops talking.

    “IE, Kongpob, 0062.” Kongpob says.

    Aim introduces himself next and before they know it the group started introducing themselves one by one. It’s too formal and Kongpob wanted to laugh. They all start making small talks with each other; what to expect with their classes, the SOTUS system, the hazing activities they’re about to go through, just about anything under the sun.

    After a couple of minutes their group starts to grow and they all introduce themselves to the new comer. When the last of them arrived Kongpob had already warmed up to most of them.

    “Will all the freshmen please follow me?!” A senior wearing white with a gear symbol in the middle shouts.

    The gear looked familiar. Kongpob is pondering over where he had seen a similar design when he remembered that night he found a gear by the beach.

    Kongpob had kept that gear and even brought it with him. It’s in his dorm, in one of the drawers of his study table.

    The senior leads them into the covered court where all the first years are gathered. They’re going to have an orientation for the better part of the day and Kongpob and his classmates looked already bored out of their minds. He knows that orientations are important; and his father had taught him to always listen to everything because you’ll never know if you’re going to need the information in the future.

    Kongpob takes notes, and a guy named Tew takes notes as well; seems like he’s not the only one responsible enough to listen.  He looks over to his best friend who, even though, has his eyes at the senior talking has his mind elsewhere; Kongpob knows Aim too well not to know that his best friend is only a sentence close to falling asleep, so he elbows his best friend who startles and makes a noise.

    His classmates all look at them, even the senior in front, and laugh. Aim tries to hide himself by making himself small but his big frame won’t allow it.

    Kongpob looks around; the hall is almost packed with first years from different programs and a couple of their seniors. He knows he’ll get to be acquainted with these faces as they start their cheering activities. He’s heard about the SOTUS system and how others are not in favor of their hazing methods due to the brutality some hazer inflict on their juniors.

    He wonders if it’ll be the case for them

-

By the end of the orientation Kongpob feels a little bit light headed. He figures it’s from hunger since it’s already way past lunch time, so he goes with Aim and a couple of his classmates to the cafeteria to eat.