Those words always resonated in Kanghan's mind, make him angry, and besides being beaten by Sailom, not to mention being scorned by you saying his life passed like a mud puddle. These things make him very nervous. Kanghan holds the steering wheel tightly, but he has to get it all back from Sailom. At this time, his phone rang, above the screen the call was called Nava. At this point he remembered that he had an appointment with his friends to come home to play games all night, usually taking turns at him house or Nava's house.
' Kanghan, where are you?" Nava's voice came from the phone's speaker, followed by Mac's noisy voice, causing him to frown discontent.
" Do you know where Sailom's house is?"
"What's the point of asking this? Don't tell me...." said Nava aggressively, but Kanghan threatened to talk again.
"Don't think about it, motherfucker, he hit me in the face, today if I don't find him, I'm sure I can't sleep."
'Why is he beating you?' Nava was very skeptical whether Sailom hit his friend for no reason or what his friend did to deserve it.
'Can you stop asking questions? Ask Mac for me, see if he knows where the Sailom are?"
Realizing from his voice that he was in a bad mood, he quickly turned on the speakerphone, he teased Mac to stop playing games, and after a while, Mac found Sailom's home address from his classmates. Your house is a rented house in a slum, he knows the exact location. The three then met and prepared to go there to avenge Kanghan. Then half an hour later, Kanghan, Nava and Mac stopped in front of a small alley. This is the path to Sailom's address. Many families have gone to bed early, so the area is relatively quiet and somewhat remote. There are homeless people who use the corners and edges of some buildings as residences. The piles of beer bottles lying in a mess along with other rubbish smelled unpleasant, causing three rich children to raise their hands to cover their noses as they passed by.
"Is this a place where can live?"
In silence, Nava opened her mouth. It is hard to imagine that Sailom's family, who are classmates with them, is in such a situation. The other houses along the road don't look much better.
" I know is that his family is poor and can enter our school on scholarship. But I didn't expect it to live in an environment like this." Mac added, looking around and shaking his head.
And Kanghan himself calmed down a little at the sight. But he has a competitive personality, so he thinks at least give Sailom a punch, to make up for your behavior towards him.
But without waiting for them to arrive, they heard the noise of many people. The scene that comes before us is like a group of people stepping on something, or someone, not only that, maybe the possibility of being stepped on isn't just one person.
" Hey! Sailom!!" The first thing Kanghan saw was Sailom body lying curled up on the ground. His instincts drove him to help Saaim before he could think. And Nava and Mac followed me as soon as they saw my friend running.
Kanghan grabbed a man's shoulder, and when the man came back, he gave him a big punch. Taking advantage of the chaos surrounding him, he quickly grabbed Sailom's collar and then pulled him up and protected him behind his back from those who tried to grab him. The previous anger seemed to dissipate with Kanghan's energy. At this time, Kanghan had no intention of asking who Sailom had been messing with or what had happened. Although he was looking for Sailom himself. He even wants to punch you back two times. But right now, somehow, he can't let you get hurt.
Maybe it's because... compared to these thugs, he has more authority to bully Sailom?
Anyway....His grandmother paid to hire Sailom, didn't she?
It wasn't until someone came to help, Sailom could stand up and deal with this debt-collecting gang to cause trouble. Because i and brother don't have the money to pay off the debt as promised. And today, Nimon, a debt collector who is familiar with Saifah has not come, so no one has helped to talk and can relax their debt for a few more days.
"Let's go, let's go. Make a big deal and let it get in Zheng's ears, we will definitely have bad luck."
When he saw someone coming to help him, one of the hired debt collectors shouted at his accomplices. Then they pulled back together because they didn't want to complicate things. As you all know, threatening and assault in debt collection is against the law. Most of them just got out of prison and they don't want to cause trouble to go back to prison. Furthermore, it may displease their boss, so that the real unlucky people aren't Sailom, they are.
After the gang demanding debt left, Sailom, Saifah, Kanghan, Nava and Mac all collapsed exhausted. Everyone has big and small wounds on themselves. Because before the siege, the two brothers were slightly injured. The rest was just a few bruises, bleeding from the corner of his mouth from being punched.
"Is that your friend?" Saifah swept his eyes through Kanghan group. At first glance, it was the appearance of a group of thugs, making him feel that them background was no better than himself.
" You go to work. They're probably not coming back today." Sailom answered.
" Go inside and lock the door carefully."
Saifah stopped asking questions. You have a job, you have to take care of a patient with a fever, this patient is in a special condition. His family has urgent business abroad. Therefore, he often had to work overtime from morning to night to take care of him.
" Yes, I know."
" Find something to put on your friends' faces."
When I look at my face, I get nervous. If I don't do anything, I'm going to get swollen tomorrow.
" Thanks for helping me."
Kanghan nodded reluctantly, looking at Sailom still staring at him, his eyes looking much weaker and tired than when you punched him. Then Kanghan waved his hands and kicked his two friends out first.
'Why are you staying here?' Nava frowned, apparently more serious, because Kanghan had been beaten by Sailom before and the corner of his mouth was covered with bruises.
" I have something to tell him."
'Whatever Call us if you need anything.'
Nava said and went back to call Mac, although he wanted to ask Kang Han what he wanted to talk to Sailom. But they have been friends for a long time, Nava knows that if Kanghan doesn't want to talk, it's useless to ask, not as much as saving time to deal with his wounds.
"Aren't you going to get something to put on me like your brother said?"
Kanghan asked Sailom, who was still standing motionless. At this point, Sailom realized that he was being silly who stared at Kanghan for a long time, hurriedly nodded and agreed to go into the house.
" You sit here for a while."
Kanghan did not answer, but was willing to sit on Sailom's floor and look around with sharp eyes, seeing clearly from inside to outside in less than a few minutes. Because the room was so small, so small that he wondered how it could accommodate two people. Everything was very old as if it had been used for years. These are the truths that Saaim faces every day.
"Can you do it it yourself?" Sailom returned with a clean sheet and a few stones wrapped inside.
"I can't see, so I don't know where I got hit."
Sailom doesn't mind taking care of him, because Kanghan fights with the debt collectors but always protects him behind his back, which is why he's hurt so much. Sailom slowly leaned forward, sitting lightly on his heel, looking down at Kanghan's face. Then, the hand holding the towel slowly put on the bruised part of the towel.
"Thank you." Kanghan whispered.
Sailom shifted his gaze from the high nose to the deep eyes, then burst into laughter.
" I just wanted to thank you for helping me"
" Then why are you involved with that kind of person?"
Even if he doesn't care, there's no denying that Sailom is the man of all the good conduct at the school. The garage manager and his colleagues like you a lot, too. So, he doesn't understand why Sailom's life is associated with those gangsters if it's him, it's a different story.
" I heard a name" Kanghan thought quietly about the memories, Sailom answered.
"Zheng."
' Huh! Whose name is that?"
" Creditor. All those troublemakers back there were his subordinates."
" You owe money?"
Kanghan was astonished to see this fellow of the same age, what did this tiny body take money for? Sailom read his mind through those eyes and burst into laughter.
"It wasn't me, it was my dad gambling debt."
"What about your dad, why didn't he pay his own debt?"
"He's death." Sailom laughed.
" Both mother and father passed away, leaving only the brother Saifah you just saw."
Kanghan stood motionless, as if he were taken from his breath for a moment. What he did to the opposite person in the past, scenes came to mind one after another. Pleasure in the heart turns into empathy and understanding, then guilt. When he hears Sailom talking about his own story, it's like telling an old story, and everything's going to go away, you don't have any worries.
Although he's the one listening to the story there's a pain in his heart that can't be said.
"So I have to work part-time, also have to take extra work from your grandmother. My brother alone will never make enough money to pay off the debt."
"Is there a lot?"
"Maybe it's not much for you, but it's a lot for me."
Sailom focused on the bruises on Kanghan's face without realizing his own face was also engraved in his opponent's eyes.
"Excuse me."
His quiet voice and unexpected words made Sailom truly unable to believe his ears, he slowly changed his eyes. This made Kanghan repeat again.
"Sorry for all the bad things I've done to you."
" It's okay, I hit you today, and you're here to take the beating of debt collectors."
" But..... "
Kanghan tried to argue, but was stopped by Sailom's untroubled smile about the past that couldn't say a word.
'That's weird, I was wrong too, I shouldn't be messing with you. Although it makes your emotions better."
' Is that also wrong?"
'That's wrong. Usually I can take more."
" Why suffer?"
" Then why bother?"
'All right, all right. I'm not arguing with you anymore."
" You can't beat me." Sailom muttered to himself, but Kanghan didn't notice.
" But for what I've done, I'm really sorry."
" I'm not the type to hold grudges, so I don't mind what you do."
Sailom knows that he is not a lamp that runs out of oil, because many times he teases Kanghan first, straighten up until the opponent can't hold back to him. But for Kanghan to say, the more Sailom did not regret, the more likely his voice was to forgive his actions, which on the contrary made Kanghan even more uneasy.
" Does it hurt?" Seeing the opponent quiet for a long time, Sailom asked.
" Much lighter than when you punched me."
Kanghan's answer laughter Sailom burst into laughter.
"And you?"
"What about me?" Sailom raised his eyebrows raised.
"Doesn't your wound have to be treated or something to put on?"
Sailom didn't say he didn't need it, and the towel on his hand was pulled away, and his thin wrists were pulled back. The coldness of the towel spread from Kanghan's face to Sailom. A strong hand slowly pressed the corner of his mouth, gradually moving to one side of his cheek, gently touching him. But even if it was only a slight force, this repeated pain made Sailom unable to hold back his pain.
"Being injured like that, he went to take care of others." Kanghan scolded. But his wrists got tighter, avoiding being too strong.
" This isn't the first time I've been beaten either." Sailom said softly. This makes the other strong hand more nervous, this time not because he needs to be more careful, but because of what he just found out.
" Regarding tutoring", not wanting his opponent to be immersed in a sad story for too long, Kanghan opened his mouth to talk about their unfinished work.
" You don't have to worry. After I hit you, I called Mrs. Ging and said I wanted to cancel my tutoring. I'm busy with other work, so I don't have time to teach you."
Kanghan was speechless, because Sailom had given the reason to his grandmother, who was trying hard to fill up the holes he caused. Tons of repeated mistakes made Kanghan unable to bear the burden, because this is probably the first time in his life that he has been shaken by other people's actions like this. Kanghan never realized whether there was some deep reason in his feelings or how much his incompetence drove him how dissatisfied he was with his behavior?
*************************
The villa over 400 m2 in the outskirts of the city is still as quiet as ever. But now, with only a few minutes left until the new day, the lights in the living room are still on, making Kanghan look skeptical as soon as he got home. Mrs. Ging used to go to bed before ten thirty and go to bed. And his father came home at a very irregular time. But since his mother died, there's never been a time when you've been waiting for him like today.
The living room was brightly lit, highlighting the dark night sky. Kanghan's father, Mr. Gong, was sitting on a long sofa.
Mrs. Ging sat aside in her pajamas, watching her only grandson come home alone, as if she had just been fighting somewhere. But this isn't something that surprises two adults.
" Grandmother isn't sleeping yet?" Kanghan stopped, standing right in the living room door. He didn't dare step closer, because he noticed his grandmother's face when he looked at him, making him feel hot and feel cold.
" We're still awake because we have something to tell you."
" Tomorrow and tell me later."
" Did you know that Sailom canceled your tutoring?"
" I know."
" Did I tell Sailom to do that?" Mrs. Ging looked at her nephew with a disappointed look.
In this regard, Kanghan himself cannot be categorically denied, because the truth is the truth, he really wants to force Sailom to give up his tutoring. Although he now thinks it's wrong for him to do so, it seems too late.
"Grandmother still wants to find someone with good conduct to teach you, but you still don't study all day like a thug. Behavior is more like a bully than a student."
After receiving Sailom's call in the evening, Mrs. Ging stood restless and constantly tried to contact her grandson to ask the truth, but no one answered. But even so, she could guess that the reason why Sailom quit was not because of what he said, but because of her own grandson.
" How long do you want to be like that? Huh Kanghan?"
" Mom, it's time to go to bed. Besides, your blood pressure will rise." Mr. Gong touched his mother's arm lightly. Then he turned to look at the child with his hands clasped there with a deep look.
Grandmother remembers never teaching me such absurdity. Even your dead mother always taught you to be a good person, didn't she?"
" Mom, stop talking." Mr. Gong stood up, picked her up slowly, and led her back to the bedroom. But as he was about to pass by Kanghan was still standing there, the middle-aged man looked at his only son again.
" You don't have to do anything, just waste your life like you wanted to."
When the father finished talking, the two adults left. But those words still lingered in his head. Kanghan clenched his lips, as if holding back the rising emotion in his chest. The torch-like gaze, now fragile as glass, can break at any moment. Without a doubt, sympathy was aroused by his father's sharp words, which meant he never expected anything of this child and reiterated that he was nothing in his father's eyes. This made Kanghan's heart seem to be squeezed by some invisible hand.
It hurts......
Then become numb without any sensation.