For The Love of Us | KingUea & MaiJade Special Novel | ENG TRANS |

Chapter 7 - Family

[Uea's POV]

"Uea, are you free this Friday?"

The last ray of sunshine that day faded just as Jade asked me that question. I took my eyes off the company's product catalog that I was quickly finishing and turned to look at my best friend who today shared my cruel fate of working overtime, before answering him in a calm voice: "I'm free, why? Has something happened?"

"Mom asked me to invite you to eat with us, she complains that she misses you and that she hasn't seen your face for several months." Jade spoke without taking his eyes off the work he was doing.

Before he had time to open his mouth to respond, the deep voice of the person sitting lazily behind me echoed in the room.

"Hey, what about me? Didn't your mother ask you about me?"

"No." Jade turned his attention away from the computer screen to turn his chair and give his childhood friend a mocking smile. "You only asked about Uea. I bet he doesn't want to see your face."

"Oh."

My boyfriend raised his eyebrows and his sharp eyes stared at Jade, quickly assessing, before his lips curved into an evil smile.

"Then you better call her and ask her right now."

As soon as he said that, his tanned hand moved to grab the phone on the desk and Jade, who was sitting at the desk next to me, quickly stood up from his chair and rushed to grab King's hand just in time.

"Wait!" he shouted.

King waved his hand to prevent his phone from being taken away and Jade, who was shorter, had no choice but to chase after my tall boyfriend who had stood up and was running towards the door holding the phone to his ear before speaking.

"Ready?"

"Damn King!"

I sat in my seat in silence, watching the chaos created by those two and listening to Jade and King's screams disturbing the silence of the empty IT department.

Not a minute passed before my boyfriend and my best friend were face to face in front of the office. One had a superior look on his face and the other was snorting heavily.

"Okay, he invited you both." Jade finally confessed.

"Then why did you say your mother didn't invite me?"

"I didn't want you to come, I get annoyed with you."

The person questioned responded without fear of hurting King's feelings, even though I believed he didn't feel touched anyway, otherwise he wouldn't have laughed like that. From time to time those two argued, taking turns biting each other and annoying each other incessantly.

"I don't want to have to listen to my mother praise you."

"Well, it's like if you sat down and listened to your mother praise her favorite hero, Likay*."

(*Likay is a form of Thai folk theater. Its uniqueness lies in the combination of fantasy costumes with poorly equipped sets and loosely determined plots, so that the performances mainly depend on the actors' improvisation skills and imagination of the public.)

Jade frowned, making a face that reminded me of the one he had on New Year's Eve when we went to visit Mai's resort with his family. I remembered that Jade's mother praised King's qualities and he, being the person praised, was diligent in his way of serving and distributing food and drinks to his elders, using his skillful sweet mouth to please them. While Jade, her real son, had no such people-pleasing skills and simply sat there with a grimace, listening to his mother praise his friend during every meal we shared at the table.