“Was that really necessary?” Keb asked One and looked at him mad about how careless One had been. “I thought you know Khem.” With these words, Keb got up as well and went after his friend without even looking at the other two for one last time.

“I’m a jerk,” One sighed and lowered his head at the same time. “Why can’t I think before I speak at least once?” He hated the thought of having hurt the younger one’s feelings, regretted the cruel words he had said just moments ago. He had not intended to hurt Khem, but just like every time, he had ended up doing so. Every single time, he hurt his friend’s feelings and noticed it way too late.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Ford just commented and stopped smiling. He got up as well, getting ready to leave One all alone here. “Let Keb know that I’m going ahead and will meet him in class if he comes back to you.” Ford didn’t even say goodbye to One, didn’t try to calm him down even a little. He didn’t let him know that Khem would forgive him easily as he had always done. He didn’t remind One that Keb wasn’t the kind of person to be angry at anyone ever. He just left One alone with his thoughts. He left the person he only spent time with because of their shared friends.

“Khem, please wait for me,” Keb asked his friend while running after him and trying to keep up with him. Keb didn’t want his friend to be alone after he had heard those harsh words. Although he was sure that Khem’s smile had been honest, he also knew that One’s words must have hurt Khem a lot. Khem loved gossip, loved to hear about other people’s great stories, and liked to share them. But in the end, he couldn’t take someone talking bad about him. He cared too much about what other people thought of him, he cared too much to be completely fine after what One had said. Keb wanted to be with him, wanted to make sure he was all right. Khem heard Keb’s words and slowed down a bit. He waited for his friend, knew there was no point in running away from him. “Are you okay?” was the first thing Keb asked as soon as he had reached the youngest of their group and had matched his pace with Khem’s to walk next to him.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Khem replied showing his usual smile. “But next time, you don’t have to listen to me. Just tell me if you aren’t interested. No need to pretend.” Keb noticed that Khem was saying the truth, that he wasn’t lying. He felt good and he had no problem with his friend’s disinterest in this happiness of his. It wouldn’t hurt him if his friends didn’t want to hear him talking about what was happening in the university anymore. He would be fine with it. Keb knew that, but he couldn’t bring himself to just thank him for his understanding. A part of him didn’t want his friend to stop talking about what was giving him joy, what was making him truly happy. And another, a much smaller part of him was interested in what was happening with some people around him. Keb was interested in this new transfer student and his reasons to move to Bangkok when he had lived in Europe before. He didn’t want his friend to stop for numerous reasons.

“No, it’s okay,” Keb said to his friend with a calm voice. “Maybe we aren’t interested in everything. But please don’t stop talking about it. I don’t know about Ford and One, but I like listening to your stories. And the new student, he seems kind of interesting.”

“Really?” Khem asked in surprise and smiled at his friend even brighter. Keb just nodded and smiled back. “I wish I could tell you more about him, but I don’t know much else,” Khem let Keb know, was excited about the interest Keb showed. “I will tell you right away if I know more!”

“Do you know his name?” Keb felt strange being this interested in a stranger. He had never seen this new guy and might never get to be close to him. But for some reason, his heart beat faster by only thinking of the new guy. He had never felt this way before and he was scared to ever feel this way again. It was weird, so weird. But he couldn’t do anything about it. He looked forward to seeing this stranger for the first time in a week. Although he had just learned about him, Keb was already aware that he wouldn’t think of anything else for the upcoming days, that he was going to have many conversations with Khem about the new student. Keb was so interested in that stranger that hearing his name made everything inside of him go crazy.

“Moon.”