Keep It Secret

He Already Knew!

Prem walked out of the Engineering Faculty, impressed at their freshmen's determination. And amused at the way Kongpob kept zeroing his attention on Arthit. That guy...he seemed so dead set on riling Arthit up. Prem would never tell Arthit, but he found it really hilarious, and if he could trust the kid, he'd tell Kongpob to keep it up. He knew Tutah and Bright were in some sort of cahoots with Kongpob. He hoped they were egging him on.

;)

He turned a corner and nearly ran into Tutah and Bright. They were standing very close, their faces even closer, but they sprang apart as soon as Prem found them.

Who do they think they're fooling? He rolled his eyes at them. "Cut the crap. I've known since first year."

Bright gaped at Prem. Tutah folded his arms, suspicious. "How? We were so careful."

"Are you kidding me??" Prem chuckled. "I caught you going inside Bright's dorm room, then saw you leaving early the next morning sporting hickeys. Pretty much said it all."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Bright asked curiously.

Prem shrugged. "I figured there was a reason you two were hiding it, so why would I confront you? As long as no one got hurt, and it didn't cause problems in the group, I didn't need confirmation. Sheesh."

Tutah and Bright shared a look. Prem, the hothead of their friend group and second nosiest - Bright was number one - had held his tongue all these years??

"I will ask this - what's going on between you two and 0062?"

Tutah smirked. "Why?"

"Because I think it's damn funny what he's doing with Arthit," Prem said honestly. His eyes danced mischievously.

"I thought you didn't like the freshmen," Bright cocked his head like Prem was speaking a foreign language. "Kongpob especially."

"No, it was his smartass friend I didn't like," Prem corrected him. "Kongpob I don't really have a problem with. I was mostly fronting so Arthit wouldn't come down on me for backing a so-called troublemaking junior."

Understanding dawned in Bright's eyes. "Oh! You mean N'Wad? He's a bit of a loner, so it's no wonder he spouted at you like that."

Prem shrugged again, like he didn't care. "I wouldn't have gotten so testy at him, but you guys remember what a rotten day I was having back then."

His friends grimaced. Yes, they certainly remembered. Prem had gotten yelled at for talking during one of their classes when he hadn't said a word. Then when the professor finally understood Prem wasn't at fault, he didn't even apologize, just sent Prem on his way. Then in his next class he'd somehow forgotten his textbook back in his room, and got yet another lecture on coming to class prepared. Lunch hadn't been any better with the auntie giving him the wrong order. The junior, Wad, not waii-ing him just happened to be the thing that set him off, and he'd taken it out on all the freshmen.

He still felt a little guilty about using Wad to vent his frustration at being treated so unfairly, especially since he had done the same damn thing to the poor kid, but...they seemed to be on good terms now. Prem had even tied a string around Wad's wrist, and took his picture.

"So that means the only one left to figure it out is Arthit," Bright broke Prem out of his thoughts.

"Wait," Prem eyed Bright in confusion. "You don't mind people knowing??"

"We only kept quiet to see how long it would take you guys to figure out we were dating," Tutah explained.

"...no problems about it at home?"