Together With Me (Thai Novel Fan Translation)

Chapter 12A

"Knock."

I answered his question bluntly, and didn't offer any further explanation. He'd asked me who I wanted as my lover; this wasn't something I needed time to think about, so I could answer him right away. The only one I wanted was him. 

The sudden increase of weight on my shoulders told me Knock had fallen asleep.

My answer had been so direct that it might have gone over his head entirely, even if he had heard it. I could only smile bitterly to myself.

I carried him through the carpark, and put him into the passenger seat gently, carefully leaning his neck on the head rest so that he could continue to sleep. The handsome face was clouded by pain and obvious exhaustion, and I found myself gazing at his slumbering form.

"You've really made me hate your girlfriend, Knock." I whispered quietly, knowing he'd never hear it. I shut the passenger side door gently, and climbed into the driver seat.

Before anything else, I took Knock to hospital for a check up. Although he kept whining that it wasn't necessary, I remained steadfastly determined and insisted that the doctor check him out before I took him home. As expected, the muscles were inflamed and swollen from overusing the injured leg. The splint had gotten wet, so doctor changed it out for a new one so his skin wouldn't develop a rash from the moisture being in contact with his skin. He'd run around carelessly in the rain, he was just asking for a skin infection! His injury was never going to heal at this rate.

Before leaving the hospital, the doctor reminded him again, "Take good care of your injury if you want it to heal quickly. If you keep playing around as if nothing happened, then you're just going to extend the healing process." Knock just nodded and yawned, I could only shake my head at his nonchalant attitude.

"Hold up your leg when you shower, don't let the water splash the splint and get wet again." I kept reminding him.

"Yes, I know, I'm not a child!" Knock replied in annoyance.

"It's only because you're being so careless." I was being straightforward, "You do everything so haphazardly."

"Shut up, are you gonna stay beside me everytime I shower? Then I can brace my leg on your shoulder, so it won't be splashed at all." Knock retorted sarcastically, throwing the towel over his shoulder.

"It won't be splashed by water, but it will get wet from something else instead."

"You perv!" Knock kicked me with his good leg and limped to the washroom. I moved to the couch, and watched TV while I waited for him to finish washing up. He came out of the washroom, looking fresh after the shower and sat down next to me.

"Korn."

"Yes?"

"Lend me two thousand baht." He raised his eyebrow.

"Will that be enough?" I asked him dryly, as I took my wallet.

"Three thousand, then." He grinned.

"Nah, I don't have that much on me." I laughed.

"Hahaha! Tell me next time if you're gonna play this gag, I didn't get it asshole!" Knock pushed me with his good leg. I smiled and passed him all the cash I had, then leaned back to the couch.

"I really envy you." I sighed.

"What for?" He asked while swiftly pocketing the money I had given him.

"I wish I had a holiday to sleep at home."

"You'll have it soon, your exams are coming up." Knock leaned back into the couch and I turned to him.

"How did you know my exams are soon, who told you that?"

"Yiwha. Did you forget that Yiwha is my friend too? She complained that she wanted to have the exam week done and over with so she could have six months holiday." Knock explained.

"Oh yeah. That's true, my exams are coming up soon."

"Yeah, you want some good luck charms to help you study?" He asked, and just as I was about to answer, he interrupted me; he really enjoys teasing me and interrupting my thoughts. "Let me buy it for you later, ten baht pack so this little pretty boy can do well in his exams, hahaha!"

"Who taught you this gag, Knock?" I asked him, pretending to be curious.

"I made it up just now, it's hilarious, right?!" Knock laughed out loud. 

"No really, who taught you this, tell me, will you?!" I repeated.

"I admit, I got it from someone else." He couldn't stop laughing.

"I'm so happy, it's almost as if we were going to be graduating together. You know what, this is a university." I teased him and he pushed my head.

"Asshole! Don't mention it, I transferred 'cause I was heartbroken!" He was bothered for having to to retake the last semester. Luckily, even though he transferred, he was taking the same major so he'd been able to transfer the credits. However, there was no credit for subjects where he'd scored a D grade or worse, so he'd have to retake those classes. 

"Yeah, so how does it feel to be so broke? You're always acting like a wealthy young master, giving your girl whatever she wants." I thought of it and asked it out.

"It sucks, Pleng literally spent every baht I had in my wallet. She was acting like a spoiled brat today, the new bag she picked out costs almost as much as a motorcycle." Knock looked like he deeply regretted his decision.

"So why did you buy it?" I asked.

"Cause she's my girlfriend, it's my job to spoil her."

"Err, is that so?" I nodded, "How much did you spend?"

"More than thirty thousand baht." He smiled sheepishly, obviously embarrassed. I opened my wallet to check, but I only had a credit card left. I put the card in his hand, and curled his fingers around it. (Editor's Note: 30,000 Baht is about $950 USD)

"Why are you giving me this?" Knock was confused.

"Buy something worth thirty thousand."

"For myself?" He pointed at himself in disbelief and I nodded.

"Yeah."

"Why?" He looked confused and I smiled.

"Because you're my wife, it's my job to spoil you."

"What kind of rubbish is coming out of your mouth!?" he howled, whining like a child, and then kicked my leg again. I caught the chance to grab his wrist and pulled him towards me. Spontaneously, I leaned down and sucked on the tip of his nose. I did it so hard that the skin turned bright red immediately, enough that it would have been visible from the other side of a large room.

"Damn it, Korn!" He yelled and pushed me away, I was on all fours, and almost rolled off the coach, "How can you do this? Pleng will misunderstand."

"Yeah, I got it." I acted ignorant, but I didn't want to hear another fucking thing about that girl.

"Hoi, such a troublemaker!"

"I am." I was unamused, Knock pushed my head again. He stood up and limped to the bedroom. I stood up too, following him mindlessly. I watched him plug the gaming controller into the console, so I plopped down on the floor next to him in front of the bed. 

"Let's play together."

"No way, dude."

"I see how it is, you're afraid I'll beat you. It's fine, I understand."

"Who's afraid? Let's play, a guy like me is only afraid on one thing, afraid that you'll lose everything but your underwear." Knock whined and passed me the other controller.

"Sure, I'll take that bet. You'll realize quickly that I'm not bluffing, I'm really good at this game." I mentally prepared myself and logged into the game. I leaned back against the foot of the bed while Knock leaned his back against me. He's not exactly light, but I didn't push him away; instead, I draped my arms around him with my controller in front of both of us. So at the moment, whether Knock noticed it or not, I was embracing him from behind.

"I'll choose this player, I'm definitely going to win." He said. We were playing Street Fighter, and undoubtedly Knock chose the character that he's most familiar with, and I chose my own favorite character as well. 

"I'll take this one."

"Such a rookie." He said, breathing into my neck.

"We shall see." I raised an eyebrow. After choosing our players, the game started. After the intro screen finished, our players appeared. There were green HP bars on the top corners, representing our health. In every round, the person who got hit would have the HP reduced. If the opponent attacked continuously so that the HP could not recover and got to zero, then the game would be over.

The game's logo appeared and we were ready without further ado. Knock had moved his body so that his back resting against my chest. I kept on attacking him, mashing the controller furiously; I was serious about winning this match.

This is about a man's reputation; I might yield on many other things to him, but not on video games!

"Damn it, Korn, you combo attacked me twice in a row!!" Knock yelled, kept pressing the controller buttons frantically, frowning in concentration. I did warn him that I was really good at this game, right? I pulled off another series of brilliant attack combos, reducing Knock's HP to almost nothing.

Hahaha! Victory is mine!

"Hey hey hey, it's just a game!"

Just a game that I want to win!

We kept pressing the controller buttons, attacking each other's characters furiously, and our sitting positions had become a total mess. Finally, my player's name appeared on the screen.

YOU WIN！

The screen was showing the playback of me defeating Knock, with his character on the ground, and it was rubbing salt in Knock's wounded pride. Knock seemed to be over it, and he was so pissed off that he threw the controller at the TV. I smiled, as he shook his head in frustration.

"Such an idiotic game, I'm way too cool for this childish stuff." He shrugged as I put the controllers way. 

Knock turned to me and I turned to him too, he said. "You were just lucky. I won't admit defeat, let's play another round."

"Oh, I was just lucky, was I now?" I teased.

"Yeah, Korn, yeah." His finger pointed to my face.

I hugged him, embracing his whole body, and leaned in to kiss him. Without any warning, I gently nibbled his lips, my own feelings of desire heating up from the contact. I let my tongue linger hotly over his soft lips, moistening and reddening them. I pushed past his lips with my tongue, searching for his. Knock pulled back slightly, but as my arms were wrapped tightly around him, he couldn't pull away from my embrace. Plus his leg was injured, if he struggled carelessly it could cause some bad consequences.

"Uughnn..."

The sound of kissing and moans echoed in the room. His breath had become unstable due to my quest, his body had stiffened as though he wanted to push me away. However at last, his body slowly began to relax and he started to respond to my kiss, so I hugged him tighter, closer. The tall guy in front of me also tilted his head up in cooperation, lifting his chin to improve the angle. Our lips parted and hovered close the next second, before meeting again, this time mutually exploring each other's mouths. 

I went back to our original sitting positions after gaining satisfaction from the kiss. Knock said nothing, he seemed kind of shocked in the aftermath of the moment.

We remained speechless for several more minutes, just staring at each other. Please don't think that Knock was shy or blushing. That was not the case at all; instead he looked confused and a little bit helpless. I hugged him till he gradually slipped from my arms.

"Is this right, what we're doing?" Knock asked me quietly, turning his face away from my gaze, leaning his back against me again. I could see the complicated emotions traveling over his features from my side view of his face.  

Since he'd had the courage to speak the words himself, I owed it to him to be totally frank in my response."For me, what would be wrong is lying to myself, and trying to convince myself that I don't want to see you."