Khun Sam and P’Tee have left. Nop and I are eating the giant river prawns on the table in front of my house that Khun Sam brought for me. Actually, no. It’s not accurate. We are not. It's just Nop eating. In my case, I’m distracted and my mind is far, far away.

It’s over to the woman who said “I’m disappointed" to me, turned around and drove away without saying another word.

“How did you get close to Khun Sam and that other pretty tomboy woman?”

I come back to reality when Nop asks me this question.

“Pretty tomboy woman? You mean P’Tee?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. She is a friend of Khun Sam. We are not close.”

Nop takes his eyes off his food to look at me, as if he’s being careful around a stranger and not a long time friend.

“If you’re not close with her, why did you go out with her?”

“She invited me to eat.”

I don’t give him details, which only P’Tee and Khun Sam’s other friends know. Nop is still looking perplexed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you like P’Tee?”

“P’Tee?”

I’m taken aback and quickly wave my hand in dismissal. “That’s crazy! I do not like her. She is just a friend of Khun Sam.”

“But she is rich.” He continues. “And she is also beautiful. I’ve seen a lot of girls who are lesbians, so I think you might like her.”

“If I liked girls, wouldn’t I be into Khun Sam?” I laugh. My face feels hot and I have to hide it because I don’t want him to notice. “Anyway, I do not like P’Tee.”

“I am so relieved.” Nop takes in a long breath. “When I think that you might like her, I don't feel good. I’m afraid you’ll take a liking to her because she’s rich and classy. And I’ve seen her in magazines, she’s a celebrity.”

“By the time she was in high school, she was already famous.”

“Right. It means she is not my opponent.”

I get uncomfortable. It seems like he’s been trying to drag me along since we were students. If a man showed interest in me, he tried to show off by acting as if he were my boyfriend.

“Nop.”

“Hmm?”

“I think we need to clarify our relationship.” When he understands that I’m serious, he tries to calm me down.

“No… no… no. You are scaring me.”

He is annoying me now. Whenever I try to talk about our relationship, I never can.

“By the way, Khun Sam is so cute. She talked like a little child.”

When he mentions Khun Sam, I forget that we were talking about our relationship. I think she’s mad at me. Even though she’s indeed cute, she annoys me.

“She is kind of weird.”

“Why is she upset with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you going to apologise to her?”

“Why would I apologise? I didn’t do anything wrong, she did.” I’m taking it out on him even though it’s not his fault. “She didn’t keep her word.”

“You’re childish for being mad at her. I don’t know what happened, but don’t forget to keep a good relationship with her. At least you have the chance to be with Khun Sam, who is your idol. She even came all the way here to see you. If one of you ruin this relationship, you will regret it.”

After hearing those words, I get mad. Yes, we are close now. It was not easy to spend the night at her house. If she leaves me, what am I going to do?

At first I was upset, but now it has turned into anxiety. Normally, she always sends me stickers on Line. But she was gone all day and all night (including Saturday night and all Sunday). Even though she’s the mind-boggling type of person, at least she has a cute side to her when she sends me stickers every night. But where is she now?

I get worried, I can’t sleep. To keep my dignity, I won’t talk to her first.

On Monday morning, we bump into each other in the elevator, but we don’t utter a word.

What a perfect timing, I’ve been working here for a month and I’ve never taken the elevator with her. Why today of all days?

The elevator is very fast. So we didn’t exchange a single word. Which shows she’s definitely mad at me.

“Why are you all so late?”

She’s smiling at everyone in the office. Yes. Everyone is silent as if the boss is going to turn them into stone statues. I look at my watch, it’s half past seven. It’s not even office hours yet. Is she crazy?

“Noi, you just got here. You are part of the Human Resources team, you should arrive sooner. For about thirty minutes. You need to be an example for others.”

Noi, who arrived early but not early enough, is in complete shock before apologising.

“Boss M.L., I usually arrive at this time. Besides, my home is quite far from here.” Suddenly, a pair of demonic eyes turn towards Noi.

“Why don’t you look for a job closer to your place?”

It does not make sense! She glares at everyone with her evil eyes before entering her office and keeping the walls in clear mode to pressure everyone in the office. Now, I’m feeling rather uncomfortable. I have to come to work early in the morning to witness this.

Everyone begins to work in silence as if they had forgotten their voices at home. You can only hear the sound of typing on the keyboard and the sound of mouse clicks. And then as if someone had suddenly resurrected us from the dead, Mr. Kirk appears. He’s arrived.

He heads into his girlfriend’s office and switches the walls to matte mode for privacy.

I’m annoyed. I’m in a really bad mood.

It’s not the first time I get this feeling after seeing Mr. Kirk. Even when he is sitting, standing or walking, I feel that way. Am I mad at him because Khun Sam broke the promise she made to me and went out with him?

“Sam, please calm down and talk to me.”

Khun Sam leaves her office room hurriedly. Everyone pretends not to notice them arguing.

But I do not. I want to know!

After they both leave, everyone gossip like never before. I get ready to go to the bathroom, but Yah tries to stop me.

“Mon, please wait. You may get into trouble. They must still be waiting near the elevator.”

“I do not think so. And, they are both adults. They wouldn’t be mad at me for going to the bathroom.”

Yah and my colleagues are amazed at my courage. And so, I leave. I don’t want to go to the bathroom. The truth is, I want to know what’s going on between Mr. Kirk and Khun Sam. And, it wasn’t hard to find them.

They’re really waiting for the elevator.

“Why are you so angry? I don’t know what I did wrong. We were fine that day eating giant river prawns in Ayuthaya.”

“Please don’t talk about it.” She looks mad at him. “As of today, I don’t want to hear about giant river prawns anymore.”

“But why? Why are you mad at me?”

“I am fine. It is nothing.” She said in a monotone voice and then puts her hands in her pockets while letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry for being upset with you.”

“You can tell me anything. What happened on Saturday? You suddenly had a headache and went home. And now you are so mad at me. Was it because I wanted to go eat giant river prawns?”

Khun Sam looks at her boyfriend as if she was going to lose it.

“I said that I had enough of this topic, you need to stop.”

“I just want to know why.”

“Because of you, I had to cancel a plan with someone. I told you I already had planned something on that day, but you forced me to cancel.”

“It was because we don’t go out together very often. But I said you could take this person with us.”

“I didn’t want to make my friend feel uncomfortable.”

“But, you are my girlfriend.”

“Really?” She answers him. It seems as if this word holds no meaning to her.

“Right. I will apologise to your friend. Who is it?”

Khun Sam is shocked.

“You don’t have to.”

“I do. Especially if you care about your friend that much. Is this person a man or a woman?”

I can hear the nervousness in his voice and now I’m curiouys to hear the answer.

“A woman.”

“Wow. That’s good. If it were a guy, I would think you were cheating on me.”

My beautiful boss is startled and waves her hand to close the topic.

“You should go. I’m not in a good mood today. We will talk later.”

“Are you still mad at me?”

“No, I’m not.”

I silently go back to work but, I can’t focus much because I keep thinking about what I heard. I’m confused, excited, and numb. A few minutes later, Khun Sam returns to the office. We look at each other and then away.

Pit-a-pat…

Pit-a-pat…

My heart races again.

She has already returned to her office room. Everyone is gossiping now because the room's glass has matte mode on. But I keep looking at my phone, at my boss’ contact profile.

I don’t know what I did wrong, but it’s okay to talk to her first.

Doraemon: Sticker

I do a test by sending a sticker of a cone. The message is read, but I don’t get a response.

It’s a Cold War.

I send Line stickers to Khun Sam to get her attention. She reads them but remains silent. So I can’t take it anymore and send her a text message.

Doraemon: I’m hungry.

It seems to work. She is typing.

Boss: Why are you telling me this?

Doraemon: I want to eat giant river prawns.

Boss: You already had giant river prawns.

Doraemon: I wanted to eat them with you.

It’s so awkward. But at the same time, I’m excited, because I have no idea what she feels when reading this. If she were a man, it would look like I was seducing her.

And yet she remains silent without answering. Why did she change the walls to matte mode? I wanted to see her reaction.

Maybe it’s better this way.

Doraemon: But… You went and had them with Mr. Kirk. You must not want to eat them with me.

Doraemon: We can go eat something else. I'll pay.

I’m playing.

The phone on my desk rings and breaks the silence. Everyone looks at me curiously. The last time my desk phone rang, I was summoned to the freezing room. I take a moment to calm down and then answer the phone.

“Yes?”

[It’s Sam. Come here please. We need to talk.]

She said nonchalantly. It scares me that I have to go to the freezing room. I hang up the phone and get ready to go see her. She is waiting for me.

“Do you know why I called you?”

“I don’t know.”

I don’t know what to expect from her now.

“How long have you been working here?”

“About a month.”

“Hmm.”

I’m nervous. Will she compliment my work?

“So, it means you still haven’t received your first paycheck. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“How would you pay for me?”

“Huh?”

I look at her questioningly.

“It’s not good. We better eat something cheaper.”

“Are you coming with me?”

“Um, if you pay for something cheap, I will. But it's giant river prawns…” The grim woman nods. “Then, I’ll take you out to eat giant river prawns as an apology for not keeping my promise.”

I’m smiling from ear to ear. When she looks at me, she suddenly covers her eyes with her hands.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s too bright!”

“What is?”

“The light is burning my eyes.”

I look around the room and see no light that could burn her eyes. But she keeps her eyes covered and makes hand gestures for me to leave.

“You should go back to work.”

She’s not mad at me anymore, is she? When I think about it, I’m happy and bouncing like a rabbit. But I remember something.

“Ah, Khun Sam.”

“What is it?”

I lift my pinky and extends it towards her.

“Pinky promise.”

“What?”

“I am trying to make up with you. Promise me you will not sulk.”

“Okay, you can go now.”

“No can do, show me your pinky.”

“I will not.”

“So, instead I’m going to shoot you… Bang! Bang!”

I shot her a mini heart like in Korean dramas. At first, I thought she wouldn’t understand, but she responds by catching the heart in the air and shooting one back at me.

“Bang!”

“…”

“I shot you back.”

I’m the one who’s blown away right now and I am in a hurry to get out of there. Why? Because I don’t know how to react. Gods, how gorgeous she is.

I feel like I’m going to faint.