Arthit gaped at the woman, causing her to let out a short giggle.
- "You know, your case is more complicated than your friend's... your bond was broken when you died, a few months ago, so your mate know is bonded to someone else."
To...To someone else...?
Then...
His soulmate was... was no longer his?
He sadly lowered his gaze to the ground. Now he no longer had any doubts... his mark was not going to return. Not now... Not ever.
"I'll end up completely alone...", he told himself , "just like those nurses whispered when they thought I wasn't listening..."
Alone...
Yes, he could fall in love with someone else, look for a new person to be with like Nam and many others before him but...
How to do it when he knew that, in some other place, there was a person who was his other half? Someone who...if nothing had happened...would have been with him for the rest of his life?
He couldn't... he knew he couldn't... he will never be able to move on...
A hand on his knee snapped Arthit out of his thoughts. Then he looked at the old woman, who was smiling ruefully at him.
- "All is not lost yet..." - she said - "but you will have to fight for it, you will have to make him fall in love with you and reject that other person. Only then a new mark will appear on you..."
- "But that..."
"That's unthinkable..." Arthit though as he paled enormously, "How am I going to do that if I don't even know who my bonded is? And that person... that other person is not going to let me take away his mate that easy!"
- "Listen, your mate will appear before you very soon...if he hasn't already. Your bond, though broken, will lead him to you...you must make sure he chooses you before the next full moon, otherwise you will never be one again..."
Arthit, with a slightly grayish face, typed on his mobile and then showed it to the old woman.
"On .. on the next full moon? But that's in less than a month!!!"
The woman nodded with a serious expression and then, without saying anything else, left through one of the doors, leaving Arthit completely shattered and his head in a mess.
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER, IN ARTHIT'S APARTMENT...
The door closed behind Nam's back, leaving Arthit completely alone. With a sigh, he took his guitar and went to the terrace where, like every afternoon, he sat down to start playing, with a melancholy air, his favorite song.
His eyes, fixed on the sky that could be seen between the buildings, did not notice a man who, quickly, was leaning on the balustrade of his own terrace just to hear the sound that his fingers were generating.
"My mate has a new bond..." he told himself while inadvertently biting his lower lip.
The truth was that.. he didn't know if it was a good idea to try to recover the link from him or not. Perhaps that person was happy with his new partner and it would only generate a serious problem if they knew each other now. Also...
What could he offer him...?
He had nothing, he couldn't even speak and his leg...
Arthit sighed and once again began to play the opening chords of the song.
....
...
..
.
Kongpob smiled as he listened to the beautiful sound of the guitar.
In his hands there was a glass of iced coffee. The same one that he had bought that morning in the store from which he had seen the boy leave. A coffee that now, calmly, he was drinking in small sips while he moved his head to the rhythm of the song he had been listening.
Once again he was glad that his parents had chosen this apartment for him. He was starting to like the bedroom, but the best thing was definitely the views...
He adored them.
-"It was worth waiting all this time..." -he whispered, thinking about the two hours he had been sitting in that chair -"and the music..."
A smile appeared on his lips, feeling how the chords transported him far away...
"Hmmm...so sad...but at the same time..."
He felt so good, so calm, that he barely heard the sound of his cell phone. It was vibrating on the covers of his bed and, from what he could see, it must have been doing it for quite some time if he took into account the seven calls that were appearing on the screen.
He quickly got up from his seat and, taking the small device in his hands, activated it. Then he brought it to his ear.
- !!!WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING??!!! I was already imagining the worst... I was about to go to your room to pick up your corpse..."
Kongpob sighed.
- "Come on Em... it's not that big of a deal... It's only been... let me see... seven calls and fifteen messages..."
- "ONLY?!!!"
Kong grunted before requesting a video call. Em accepted it in seconds.
- "See? I'm fine... I just didn't realize you were calling me"
Em sighed, then shook his head.
- "Always the same... one day you are going to make me have a heartattack... Anyway, I am calling you because I have news..."
Kongpob leaned over the device, obviously interested.
- " And?"
- "It's as we thought... my number is 0596. Yours should be on your registration papers" - he commented from the other side of the line - "by the way, have you received a message saying that SOTUS will start tomorrow? Do you know what is this?"
Kongpob sighed, feeling that the calm he had been feeling from his neighbor's music was beginning to wear off. He worriedly nodded before taking a piece of paper from his desk.
- "I received it a while ago... Apparently it is a kind of initiation that will last some weeks. It was supposed to start together with the classes, but I suppose they have changed their minds..."
Em sighed.
- "And here I was... hoping to have more free time before classes start..."
- "I don't know why... as far as I know your last girlfriend left you already... or was it a boyfriend this time? I never remember them since they don't last you more than two days..."
- "KONG!!"
Kongpob laughed and, with a smile on his face, he turned towards the building that was in front of his. His smile disappeared in a matter of seconds.
The boy was no longer there... he was gone.
"Damn!" -he exclaimed, to himself, while he reluctantly sat down in his chair -"Em and his habit of calling me at the worst of times..."
- "...I'm just waiting for him to show up...and it's not like I have anything serious with any of them...and...Kong..."
...
..
- "Kong..? Do you hear me?" - Em exclaimed.
- "YES!" Kong growled, making Em, on the other end of the line, wonder why his friend suddenly seemed to want to throw him out a window...
-----------------------------------------
- "Then tomorrow we'll see each other at the university's hall"
Arthit nodded. Then he turned off his tablet and looked at his coat rack where his college clothes had been already laid out. For days he had been fixing everything, even reading some of the books they were going to study that year... as he didn't want to be left behind.
He had been very lucky that his accident had been after the exams, since that way he hadn't missed the year but... now he feared what was going to happen once he started the new term. He hadn't attended to any of the practical classes and, although his professors had allowed him to make them up with extra work, he knew he wouldn't be on the same level as his classmates.
A sigh touched his lips.
He had no doubt that it was going to be difficult, especially with the initiation sessions they would have after the afternoon classes.
"Perhaps the dean's idea of bringing forward the initiation is for the best...", he though as he recalled the angry expressions of his friends, especially Prem's.
He knew that they had wanted for him to recover in time but he was not going to be able to do it after all. Knott would have to take his place while he...he would just have to help out where he could.
Arthit smiled sadly and, getting up, headed towards the bathroom where he began to remove his shirt. However his thoughts about taking a bath vanished as soon as he noticed that the pendant that he normally hung around his neck was gone.
"No.."
His pale face turned to the bathroom floor. After verifying that it was not there, he ran to check his shirt and then the rest of his apartment's floor as well.
Nothing... it wasn't there.
"My gear...", Arthit though in horror - "my gear is missing..."
Kongpob smiled while, from his window, he watched how the boy, wearing only pants, was looking for something on the floor of his terrace.
"Hmm...maybe...", he told himself as he turned his gaze towards his desk where, on the dark wood, was the small gear he had just found that same morning.
- "Hmm...."