The end game

3. Plathong and Mint (Baby bright+Mint to be).

Plathong woke up with a headache and back pain. He fell asleep at the table, on top of the blueprints, again. He groaned as he stretched his stiffened muscles. The blood rushed to his sleeping limbs and brought a temporary relieve.

He scratched his head as he took another glance at the blueprints, folded them neatly and put them in the red folder. As he made his way to the bathroom, he pulled the towel that was hanging loosely on the back of a chair, and took a long, cool shower, letting the cool water wash off his headache and remnants of sleep.

Plathong felt much more refreshed when he came out of the bathroom. He wore his crispiest white shirt and sleek light gray slacks that he prepared last night, for work today. Without looking at the mirror, he just brushed his still wet hair back with his fingers, took the red folder from the table and put it in his briefcase. At the door, Plathong briskly looked around his apartment, to check if he didn't forget anything and fixed his eyes on two suitcases. The last five years of his life fit in just two suitcases.

He shut the door with a sigh, locked it and deciding to take the stairs instead of an elevator made his way downstairs, to the garage. He took a minute, checking out his new shiny SUV that he bought just a few months ago. With his job he traveled a lot to the sights, so he needed a big car to handle bad, dirty roads.

*************************

Plathong entered the office with a fake smile, that he mastered just a few years ago, to mask his unhappiness. The only thing that made him wake up in the morning and get on with his life was his job. He loved his job. It's funny how circumstances lead him take an agricultural engineering in college, when he wanted to take economics in the first place.Now, the major that he despised so much was the only thing keeping him sane.

Plathong also remembers the thing that made him insane. The death of Tod. Tod, his friend and also his lover, the love to whom he realized too little, too late.

He is not sure if it was real, or it was his subconsciousness helping him survive, but he remembers how ghost of Tod told him that he was on his way to confess to Plathong, when he was hit by a car. Plathong remembers the words of love that he spoke in return, and how they spend the best three days of his pathetic life together.

He never saw Tod after that, but he could swear he felt him a few times back then. He even felt him that day, the day his college essay to Institute of Economics and Business disappeared magically, and he had to study engineering instead.

Plathong chuckled bitterly. He wished he could feel or see Tod again. He knows it's crazy and people would think he is insane if he told them he saw the ghost, and they will probably be right. Still, he would rather be insane and see him one last time...

His heart shrank in pain at the thought. He cringed, but recovered quickly, giving his co-workers his signature fake smile.

"Khun Thong, everyone's waiting in the meeting room." his boss' secretary broke his reverie of thoughts.

He went into the room with long oval dark cherry table and found most of his co-workers sitting around it already. He turned on the smart board for the presentation and opened his microsoft office account. The images of the latest blueprints he was working on appeared on the smart board.

His boss came in and Plathong started the presentation, switching the slides as he explained the system of laying pipes underground to get rid of the excess water from the soil.

A.N. Spare me, I'm making this all up, I don't know anything about agriculture or if the "agricultural engineering" even exists.

After the presentation was finished, everyone clapped loudly, congratulating him on a job well done.