Chapter 17: Affair

Mindara Manaying

Flashback

“You like him, Pie?” My head voluntarily snapped at Kimhan’s direction. She seemed indifferent, driving casually as if the question she had been throwing at me was a leisure pick for a small talk.

“Whatever I do and whoever I like has nothing to do with you, Kimhan. Why bother so much Kimhan?

Kimhan snorted, throwing a quick glance at me while giving her significant smirk. “It’s just a question though.” She said. “I know you know better but please be careful, okay?”

Eventually everybody was telling me to be ‘careful’. Firstly, it was Fern and then Kimhan. Did everyone think I was such a fool that I could not possibly differentiate the right from wrong at this very age? Right, I might have done a mistake; that was by marrying a woman whom I thought was a man but why everyone needed to treat me as if every step I took would actually lead me to trouble?

~.~.~

“You look pretty tensed,” I could feel my body jolted a bit as the electricity of shock ran through my entire body. Someone else presence had broken my long contemplation, pushing my existence back to reality.

“Mr.Yupanun, what a surprise!” Stood a metre or two away from me, the Headmaster was staring at me with his right brow arched in a questioning look. “What brings you here?”

“Everyone is out for their meal time and you are still here.” He said, arranging his way to my direction. Reflecting fast enough, I tidied up my belongings and made it sure that everything was at their place before the Headmaster reached me. Mr. Yupanun had obviously showed his interest in me and I did not wish to go beyond anything you could imagine. His presence can be a nuisance somehow; there was something about him that made me uncomfortable but I guessed most of the time, I pretended to ignore it.

“I was just finishing my work and thinking of my weekly teaching plan.” I told him. Seeing him nodded relieved me. At least I knew my excuse made sense for him.

“You are surely a good educator, Pie. We are so proud to have you here.” He said.

“I’m just making sure that I give the best input so that we can produce the same quality of output,” I uttered it fluent enough as if I have heard it somewhere. “This is for the children and their future.”

“Big dream,” He threw his gaze to the ground quickly and found its way back to me. “Come, let’s take a break. It will be over in 10 more minutes.”

*****

I managed to make a phone call to Kimhan just now. It was really difficult here that we had to search for the signal. Hongyok accompanied and assisted me for that. She surely helped me a lot. The call was short, just enough to inform Kimhan that she did not need to pick me up over the weekend. It was not because I did not want to; it was because our school was organising an event for the children.

“A sport day uh?” I tried to clarify the matter again with my dearest colleagues. Nann and Hongyok were both enjoying their meal as much as I did. It has become a routine that we would sit together for dinner time. They were my family now. They were all I have and all I could rely on along my journey here.

“So both of you are unofficially a P.E teacher as well.” Only Hongyok lifted up her head and made an eye contact with me. Nann seemed did not bother at all.

“Actually, Nann is handling more on that.” Hongyok responded. “Look at her, she is more capable than us.” The younger teacher broke into a soft laughter, amused by her own statement.

Nann threw her a look but then did not react. We both watched her finishing her current bite. “Don’t you think we need a P.E teacher here? Mr. Yupanun should have request for one.” Nann voiced her complaint.

I had ever thought of it too. Perhaps, everybody refused to be placed here just like me.

“Speaking of Mr. Yupanun…” Hongyok b