Kiss Me

One Of The Others

Kao is steadfast
Kao is headstrong
Kao is resilient
Kao is kind
Kao is merciful
Kao is strong

Kao is Kao

But above all ...

Kao is breaking ...

Every step he took inside the university with his chin up and a smiling facade broke him into million pieces. A crack that became wider and wider underneath his smiling mask. Beside him, Khai was anxious and worried about the leers and sneers the latter was taking bit by bit.

"The bitch ..."

"The audacity to laugh and mock us, showing that he can do however he wants just because two hot and rich men were after him"

"Slut ... Who sells his body to his students"

All those murmurs and gossip flew through Kao's ears, yet his smile never faltered one bit as they head to the dean's office where was being called.
It was dreadful when Kao received a notice from the school dean, three days after the scandal had broken.
As he didn't go to school for the next two days he thought he was prepared to go through harsh comments and name callings by some of his so-called friendly classmates. Even his tutees had reduced to only one Manow remaining saying she should not believe everything that had been thrown at her favorite tutor Kao.

Kao thought of all the possibilities to counter such allegations without hurting either Pete or Khai. In regards to Pete, he somewhat brushed it off as some useless gossip because he is used to being the bad boy/popular guy. Still, he pursues Kao relentlessly making amends to him and showing he had some kind of change of heart while Khai stuck to him like glue even if their buildings were far away with different departments. Such as now that he was with Kao the first he was called in.

" Hey it'll be okay, I'll wait for you here .. Alright?"- Khai

Kao just nodded a slight hope for him that everything would just be a simple memo and a warning for being a troublemaker.
But little did he know everything will start to crumble down in front of his very eyes.

" I am sorry Kao, with your position right now. The scholarship you were applying for got revoked, it has come to the attention of the board, er... I mean the issue you have... I'm really sorry Kao" - Dean

Those words rang inside his head over and over again, the scholarship he had hard worked for gone in a blink of an eye. Gone were the sleepless nights of studying, projects, and lab works that he perfected for a 100 score.

Truth be told that Kao didn't come from a rich family and he was just getting by, with Gift about to enter college and his mom suffering from a sickness that she stopped teaching altogether and stayed home. Kao juggled part-time as a tutor, photographer, and an extra on-call at Sun's cafe.
Also being paid for making students' projects and all other stuff that students need to pay him for paper works.
He had no time for love and even more to himself, but Pete happened but it was an utter failure.

He broke his fragile heart he'd be guarding piece by piece that was slowly disintegrating.

He was half broken already when he met Khai. Hiding in all his facade, a mask that Khai hadn't figured out yet.

But Kao is Kao he smiles through it all...

Tenaciously holding onto the idea blindly followed, that everything will be okay. It made him live and endure hardships with a smile making him hide behind his mask unconsciously doing it.

A week had passed...

"Kao? ... Are you alright? You've been spacing out?" - Khai

"Ahh yeaah I... I'm okay so where's Chawee?"- Kao