Vintage Diaries.

8. Servant

" Since when did we start allowing servants to share the dinner table with us" Jarinya asked as she walked in.

Earn paused upon hearing his grandmother's voice. His grandmother looked younger and prettier than he remembered. But her attitude and arrogance made him nauseated as always.

" Mind your language! " Prapha scolded her daughter-in-law.

She never understood why her husband had their son marry such a lady. In the initial few years of their marriage, she was a good wife. Afterwards, her true colours started to show, making Prapha feel disgusted.

"This is Noah. He saved Cher from drowning today. Where were you all this time, Ya?" Prapha asked.

"Oh? I was busy." Jarinya answered giving a disgusted look at Earn. She loathed the fact that someone dressed in servant's clothes was sitting on their dining table.

"Busy visiting salons?" Jeab asked. His anger was apparent in his undertone. 

Jarinya turned a deaf ear to her husband and looked at her son. "Ped, follow me upstairs."

Ped had just started eating his food. After having starved all day, he could literally eat a whole cow. But seeing that his mother wanted to talk to him he reluctantly put down his spoon and fork.

He was really scared of his mother. He knew that his sudden departure from the camp might have pissed her off. "Khrab" He stood up slowly.

Neither Prapha nor Jear objected to her.

Jarinya turned on her heels and headed upstairs, closely followed by Ped.

Earn frowned deeper seeing his grandmother's attitude. She had completely disregarded the other two elders on the dining table. She didn't even bother greeting them.

He finally understood why his father never liked his grandmother. His father had cut all ties with her when he was still a kid. He remembered how his father always advised him to stay away from his grandmother when he joined the school in which she was the Dean.

"Noah, don't take her behaviour to heart," Prapha said apologetically on behalf of her daughter-in-law. She was embarrassed by the total disregard Jarinya had shown her in front of an outsider.

"Please don't feel bad. She didn't say anything wrong." Earn looked at his clothes. "I am indeed not fit to sit here."

The awkward dinner ended with Prapha emotionally blackmailing Earn to stay for the night.

✨✨✨

Earn stood on the balcony of the guest room, looking at the sky as he couldn't sleep.

How could he sleep? He had yet to completely digest the fact that he had time travelled to the time when his father was also a teenager like him.

He had no clue what he was doing and what he should do to complete his mission.

It all came to a blessing that the Thanacharts asked him to stay over for a night or else, he had no idea where else he would go.

He had lied to the Thanacharts that he was an orphan who came to Bangkok in search of a job and was robbed as soon as he landed there. Thankfully, the Thanacharts believed him and offered a roof for him to stay for the night.

A noise from behind made Earn walk out of the room and check.

He saw his father limping out of his limping out of his grandmother's study. It looked like his father was punished for kneeling all these hours.

Earn rushed to support Ped as he was about to fall down.

Ped was surprised to see Earn "Why are you still here?"

"Khun Pha allowed me to stay here for a night" Earn answered while helping him to his bedroom.

Ped frowned at the answer. His mother was definitely going to be pissed if she knew that Noah was staying at the mansion for even a night.

She would flip out at his father for not opposing his grandmother in this matter.

"Where do you put the first aid kit?" Earn could see that his father was in bad shape. Not only was he punished to kneel, but also was whipped. There were bloody whip marks on his back.

"Inside the third drawer from the left" Ped answered in pain. He understood that the boy wanted to help.

Earn quickly found the kit and brought it over to the bed. "Can you remove your clothes yourself?" 

"I can." Ped removed his shirt with difficulty.

Earn proceeded to tend the wounds on the back first. His blood boiled when he noticed visible old whip marks on his father's body. He gently rubbed the alcohol to clean the wound.

Ped hissed in pain as the cotton touched his wounds.

"Sorry" Earn muttered as he gauzed the wounds. "You shouldn't get these wounds wet for the time being." He instructed before squatting down on the floor to have a look at Ped's knee.

Ped was blushing. This was the first time someone other than his doctor was treating his wounds. He mostly took care of his wounds himself and only went to the doctor in cases he couldn't handle.

It felt weird having a total stranger take care of him as if they were close.

Earn got back to his feet after applying the ointment on the bruised knees. "Do you have a big bed sheet or something?"

"Bed Sheet? For what?" Ped asked in confusion.

"To give you a proper haircut." Earn raised the scissors in his hand.

That was when Ped remembered that his mother had chopped off his long hair here and there. His hair currently looked like a rat had bitten it off.

"Inside the lower compartment," Ped answered pouting. He was so embarrassed at the moment that Noah got to see him like that.

Earn didn't hesitate and grabbed the bed sheets. He used the bedsheet to cover Ped who had now changed into his pajamas.

He sprayed some water onto Ped's hair so that he could get the exact length before he started chopping it down. His actions looked professional.

It was Earn's dream to be a hairstylist, a dream neither of his parents approved of. He used to secretly practice various hair styling on dummy dolls that were usually used in saloons to try out new hairstyles.

He had never expected that the first actual person whose hair he would be styling would be his father. He felt so happy about that.

 He styled Ped's hair into a curtain-cut hairstyle. He did try keeping the fringe up but felt that his father looked cuter with his forehead partially covered with hair.

"You are done" He announced, taking off the bed sheet and transferring all the hair collected on it into a newspaper. He wrapped the hair in the newspaper and threw it inside the dustbin.

Ped was amazed to see the results of Noah's work. The new hairstyle looked really good. Now he didn't have to fear being mocked by others in school.

"Thank you," He said in a small voice.

"You are welcome" Earn's words were replied by the grumbling of Ped's stomach. That was when he realised that his father hadn't had his food. "Let's go check in the kitchen if there is something good to eat."

[A/N: For those who are confused between the names Earn and Noah, both are the same person. Since Earn lied to his father and the rest of the family that his name is Noah, they don't know his real name. From next chapter, I will be using the name Noah alone to avoid complications.]