Anyone in this world has a favor. The poor asks for wealth, the injured begs for recovery, and the lonely ones pleads for love. The old Monk Songthanari has seen it all. Day by day he sits at his ancient temple, that is usually crowded with people, with his orange robe on, guiding the wrongs to follow the right. It may seems like an unexciting experience, but to Monk Songthanari, it is a way to learn about the unfairness of life. Meanwhile Monk Songthanari sat in his temple with a calm and perfect posture, the rays of the sun beams at the entrance of the temple. There was a sense of energy within the Monk.

A beautiful young lady entered the temple with an elegant posture that a proper woman should have. Her dress is pastel green with richly printed white florals. Her skin was majestically silky white that perfectly matches her traditional pure black streams of hair. Although the young lad holds a strong image, Monk Songthanari was not distracted by her appearance, but by her eyes; it exhibits pain, confusion, love, and even death. However on the exterior, she displays a polite smile.

The young lad simply walks over to the Monk with a distress smile, and greets the monk with her hands. Monk Songthanari greets her back, and then gestures her to take a seat in front of the Monk. She obeys. As the young lad patiently kneels across from the Monk, the Monk observes her stance. Her hands is clench tightly with spots of sweats, and her gulps of saliva is rather heavy. Monk Songthanari breaks the awkward silence with his rhymes. “Today the weather is nice, but one is as cold as ice. Today the best thing that I’ve witnessed was love, but the best thing that one witnessed today was a dove.” Expectantly, the last sentence that the Monk proclaimed causes the lady to shed a tear. She slowly raises her hand to plead the Monk as her heart beats faster per minute. “Monk Songthanari, I’ve heard that you are well developed in love, and that you know how to deal with love problems. Today, I had made effort to come visit you, and ask for your guidance.”   

Now that the lady spoke up, her emotions is more uncontrollable. “How may I help you today child?” asks Monk Songthanari. The young lad calmly reply as she tries to hold in her wavering voice. “Monk Songthanari, I am grateful that I am blessed with wealthy parents and ancestors, and that I am blessed with an abundant amount of food to feed my stomach. However, I do not know where I went wrong, that I am not bless with a choice to stay and live with the one that I love dearly.” The young lad takes a pause to wipe the tear that dominated her right eye. She continues. “Long ago, before I was even born, my parents engaged me with my dad’s best-friend’s son. As we grew up together, I had never took a liking in him. I view him as an elder brother, but he had never view me as a younger sister, but rather a lover. Now that I am have hit the age to marry, everyone including my fiance is forcing me to marriage, and worst of all, nobody knows that I already have a lover, other than my parents.” The lady moves her eyes from right to left vigorously to withstand her incoming tears. “My father denied the fact that I already have another lover that is not my fiance, and threatened me that if I dare runaway with my lover and not marry my fiance, my father will disown me, and take in a second wife to provide him an obedient child in which my mom failed to produce. This will not only affect me, but also my mom.” The young lad pauses again, but this time to prepare to pose her question to the Monk. “Who should I marry? The one that loves me, or the one that I love dearly?”

The predictable question triggers a smile on Monk Songthanari’s enlighten face. He replies back with a soft, yet confident voice. “There is a story that will help you determine who you shall choose, but before I tell you the story, I must introduce you to the characters: Patcharin Kongpaisam, the one who received pain, Wattana Naowarot, the one who gave love, and Lek Atitam, who later became Annawat Naowarot, the one who received love.”  

    The word “father” had never approached Lek’s mouth, and even if it did, it will just be mention in a brief moment. It was a word that was never taught to him, and a word that was never welcomed in his house; it was a dead word. Lek lived with his hardworking mother, Wun, who was rather an introvert. Unlike the other moms in the city who gossips and creates dramas, she was silent and untalkative. The clothes that she wore was either brown, dark green, dark blue, or black. Colors that were bright and brought attention was something that Lek’s mom did not adore. She always had her hair tightly bundled in bun at the back of her head which paired up with her natural plain face. Although Lek’s mom seemed like a cold-hearted person, she had a big heart. At some points, Lek would witness his mom giving out free kanom (desserts) to homeless children even though she didn’t have enough to sell.

    One day, as Lek was selling his mom’s kanom while his mom was running an errand outside of the house, an elder man and an elder woman approached Lek’s shop. Both of them was dressed wealthily. The man had a gray suit on, and the woman had a pastel yellow dress on, with a pearl necklace that was evenly dangled on her neck. They smiled at Lek as they waited for Lek to greet them. “Hello, welcome to my mom’s and I kanom shop. How may I help you today?” said Lek to them as he greeted them with a smile and a heart warming tone of voice. “Today is my son’s birthday, and he said he wanted some Kanom Look Choop.” The woman looked around the shop, and then asked, “ Do you guys have any left?” Lek processed the information about the stocks of Look Choop. “Sorry, we don’t have anymore at the moment. However, if you’re willing to wait, I will make it for you guys, and then deliver to your house if that’s fine with you?” Abruptly, the silent man answered Lek. “It’s nothing to worry about. We can wait since our son’s birthday party will only contain us and the servants, nothing big. If you don’t mind, can my wife and I stay here and observe how you make Look Choop?”  Lek gave the man a welcoming smile and gesture the man and the woman to come inside his house that was located behind their kanom shop vendor.

Lek pulled out two short stools for the man and the woman to sit, and then proceeded to the kitchen to gather all of the ingredients. As Lek returned to the room where the couple sat, he politely told them. “Sorry, my house is a humble one. Please do not mind.” The elder man gave a slight chuckled and replied back, “Child, don’t worry. My wife and I don’t mind. We may seem wealthy and arrogant, but really, we are really accepting of others.” Lek grinned and thanked the man in return.

The pound of the mung beans in the mortar increased the curiosity of the elder woman. She inched closer to Lek who was pounding it. “What is that that you are pounding?” She said with her loud voice going against the loud pounding of the mortar as she pointed at the mung beans. “It is peeled mung beans.” From the corner of Lek’s eyes, he could see the woman gently nodding in response to Lek’s answer. Lek showed a slight smile due to the elderly woman curiosity which seemed like a small child’s.

After beating up the mung beans for about the 30 minutes, Lek poured the mung beans into an empty bowl, and then started the next step. While Lek was in the process of the current step, he felt a presence at the opened entrance door of his house. He immediately turned his head toward the entrance door. There stood a well dressed and handsome young man, who was probably around his 17’s, smiling. His hair was well combed to the back like many other wealthy young masters, and his suit was pitch black with no speck of dust in sight. “Wattana.” said the elder man in the background. When the elder man said his name, the young man walked directly towards the man and the woman as if they were his parents without any invitation to the house. Lek stared at the whole scene and wondered who was who. “This is our only son, Wattana Naowarot.” reassured the mom to Lek who was still staring dumbfounded. “Is he perhaps the one that you are ordering this Kanom Look Choop for?” asked Lek. “Yes, he is the one.” responded the father. Wattana moved towards Lek and greeted him with a warm smile. “You can call me Wat.” said Wattana. Lek started to observe Wattana. His eyes were focus on Lek, and Lek only. It was as if Wattana was mesmerized by the presence of Lek.