After Counting The Stars [A Tale of Thousand Stars Additional Stories]

1001st star: The Kids' Reaction to Phi Seetian's Comeback

The school starts as usual and the chief, Rang and Yod are waiting for the kids.

Ayi: “ Oh, why is everyone here early? Meejoo hasn’t even washed her face when I left home.”
Kalae: “I saw phi Rang going to school early. I still haven’t eaten breakfast. I am hungry.”
Inta: “Grandma told me to go to school early.”
Rang: “Yes, kids, today is a special day. It is better to be early.”
Kids: “Special day??”
Rang: “Chief will explain it later.”

Kids nod and wait for other kids to arrive.

Yod: “Ok I think everyone is here.”
Ayi to Meejo (whispering): “They said today is going to be special. I hope we could go to the waterfall like when Phi Seetian was here.”
Meejoo nods and other kids turn around and nod too.
The adults didn’t hear that.
Chief Phupha: “Okay, it has been quite a long time since we haven’t had a volunteer teacher in our school. But I believe you are having a good time because there are three handsome teachers teaching you everyday.”
Kids: “We are bored!”
Chief, Rang and Yod: “What?”
They all laugh in unison.
Khaoneung (holding up his hand): “Can you please tell us why today is special? We are really curious.”
Chief: “Okay. Okay. The news is … We are having a new teacher today!!”

Three adults clap loudly and the kids’ faces are delighted.

Chief: “But unfortunately, there is some bad news about the new teacher.”
Inta (raising her eyebrows): “ We have never seen a bad teacher. Does the teacher destroy houses and steal things?”
Other kids look worried and patiently wait for the answer from the adults.
Chief: “No, not that. But this teacher is a trouble magnet.”
Meejoo: “What is a trouble magnet, Chief?”
Chief: “A trouble magnet is a person who always brings troubles.”
The kids look sad all of a sudden.
Chief: “But he is a person with the purest heart and no matter how difficult the trouble is, he always manages to handle it. He is a hero.”
The Kids: “Yayyy!”
Ayi: “Where is he? Is he here yet?”
Rang (trailing his voice at the end): “Maybe, or is he still travelling around the world, Chief?”
Chief shakes his head and shoots daggers at Rang. Rang turns his face around.
Chief: “He is in the Vitamin Garden. Go and check yourself, hurry up!”

The kids run excitedly towards the Vitamin Garden and the three adults follow, too.
The kids search desperately along the trees and small plants and see a figure sitting down beside the lemon tree.

Ayi: “Hello, new teacher!”

The figure doesn’t answer and continues touching the leaves of the lemon tree. The kids are confused and go near the figure slowly. Kalae nudges Khaoneung’s arm and they look at each other. The girls are also wondering why the new teacher didn’t answer Ayi’s greeting and remember the fact the chief told them.

Meejoo (whispering to Inta): “I think a trouble magnet doesn’t answer when someone talks to them.”
The new teacher: “Hey, hey, I told you to let the sunlight into the plants and water them regularly. Who put the cover there?”

A very familiar face turns around and starts nagging like he sometimes did back then when he was here for the first time.
The kids freeze in shock for a moment and stare at the teacher with teary eyes.
The teacher is shocked to see the tears in the kids’ eyes.

Tian: “No, no. I didn’t mean to…”

The kids run over to him and cry as they hug them tightly in a group hug.

The kids: “Phi See Tian!!!!”

Tian hugs them back tightly and rubs their backs.

Tian: “I miss you a lot. Whenever I saw something related to you guys, I cried, you know?”

The kids cry harder.
Chief, Rang and Yod had to step in and help them stop crying because they cried for quite a long time.

Rang: “Okay, kids. At this point, we won’t be able to learn anything today. Don’t you miss the regular classes with Phi Tian?”

The kids finally stop crying and the group hug finally breaks.

Ayi: “We don’t usually see our teachers again when they leave us.”

This time, Tian tears up.

Tian: “I am back and will be with you for a really really long time.”

The kids jumped and screamed.

Yod (whispering to Rang): “The kids miss him this much. I wonder how someone reacted when they saw Tian back in the village.”

Rang and Yod giggle and look at the ‘someone’ Yod mentioned earlier, who is crossing his arms and looking at the kids and the teacher with the proudest face in the world.

Chief: “They look like a family, don’t you think?”

Chief waits for the agreement from the two at the back.

Rang: “I think the family is still incomplete, though”

Chief frowns.

Chief: “Who is lacking?”

Rang and Yod exchange looks.

Yod: “The three of us, for sure.”

Rang raises his eyebrows at Yod and shakes his head, meaning “You should’ve known what I meant”
Yod laughs in his usual way, scratching the back of his neck.

Chief: “Okay, let’s go back to the class, everybody. You are supposed to learn math today.”

The kids frown and look at Phi Tian, asking for help as they hate to learn math.

Tian: “Okay, why don’t we skip math for today? Today is a good day, so let’s do something fun.”

The kids cheer and run around the garden.

Tian: “I am still going to find out who put the cover to avoid the sunlight.”

The kids run to the class giggling as they avoid answering who was the culprit.
Tian walks slowly towards the class and someone joins him.

Chief: “Today’s class is supposed to be math. When are you going to teach them that?”
Tian: “If you like math that much, go teach them yourself. I am not going to let my kids be stressed on a good day like this.”

Tian says sarcastically and Chief shakes his head. They arrive at the class and the kids are already sitting at their seats.
The kids’ eyes sparkle as they wait for their Phi to say something.

Tian: “Okay we’re gonna learn multiplication today.”
The kids: “Phi See Tian!!!!!”

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Author's note
I am writing Chief instead of Phupha because I love Tian calling him Huana. I hope you really don't mind 😁.