Teach Me Right

Chapter 31

Recap

'No it's not for the best. Not at all. Do you know where he is now, what he's doing and with whom? .' My dad was clearly not happy, and it looked like it's not only because of mom.

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Maithri's POV Cont.

Even though I had a pretty good guess, I still wanted to confirm.

'Why dad? What is wrong with where Kongpob is at right now?' I asked.

'Tharak get me the tab from my desk.' And proceeded to unlock it and give it to me.

'Oh...' Was all I could say when I saw the picture my father wanted me to see.

It was Kongpob bridal carrying Professor Arthit.

Kongpob, my little brother, bridal carrying Professor Arthit, his teacher from college.

And my father had multiple photos of this scene. Adding all the pictures it looked like he was carrying Professor Arthit in to Professor Arthit's house. 

'When did you get this?' I asked, trying hard not to be suspicious. I might not be the most sensitive when it comes to Kongpob and his love life, but I know enough not to escalate a situation.

'Today morning.' Was my father's curt reply.

So to sum up the situation, Kongpob was upset last night and went to Professor Arthit's place. Dad, was concerned and had him followed. And that person, who was assigned to follow Kongpob to ensure his safety, stayed until next morning and was able to document this little scene. Which he then sent to dad prompting the unreasonable behavior.

'By your reaction I assume you already knew about this?' He asked. It's been 8 years since I was appointed to the Board of Directors in the company and started running my own branch. But in front of my father , I'm still only a kid. 

'Yes dad, I found out Few months ago. But it is not what you think.' I said and patiently proceeded to explain to him about Kongpob's feelings for Professor Arthit. Before that, I sent Tharak and Phoom away since this was a sensitive issue.

We spoke for a long time, Niran putting in his professional opinion about non-heterosexual relationships. He also explained the struggles of being labeled as different for the LGBTQ community and how such feedback from the society can be detrimental to a person. However, he explained that it was even worse to deny one's true sexual orientation, since such restrictions put so much strain on a person leading to serious mental issues like chronic depression, dissociative identity disorder, schizophrenia etc. 

We spoke through lunch, which was coincidentally joined by Lana and the twins, Tadeas & Tadeo. A coincident that had nothing to do with the text messages I kept sending the trio while my husband was speaking. 

It's not like I specifically asked them to come out and support defend Kongpob to our dad. My message read that Kongpob was in love with a man and that I was planning to have lunch with our dad and P'Niran. They also acted appropriately surprised at the news of our youngest being gay.

However, I don't think any of us fooled our dad. But I think that he was happy to see all siblings banding to support Kongpob. 

It also helped immensely that non of them had any problem with Kongpob being gay. Their casual attitude towards the news further reinforcing our effort to have our father accept Kongpob. I might have been wrong to tell them about Kongpob. But seeing the support they gave for Kongpob, I think this time the end result justifies the means. 

I also suspect that supporting Kongpob was not the only reason my other three siblings came. They also wanted to know more about Kongpob and his love life. Because none of us were privy to any such information regarding Kongpob throughout his life. Dad showed them all the pictures he showed me and got various reactions from them.