BAD BUDDIES / BEHIND THE SCENE CHAPTER 1

 

BEHIND THE SCENES – SCENE 1 || PRAN

Someone once told me there was no secret in the world. Whenever a secret is known by more than two or more people, it will no longer count as a secret.
I don't like having secrets. I don't think that having to hide something is fun. But ever since the time I remember it, I've always had one secret,
a secret that's known by more than two people that wasn’t supposed to exist but it's a secret that till now I'm still trying my best to keep anybody from knowing, maybe because I'm afraid... I'm afraid that if it's no longer a secret... something will be lost.

“Pran! Watch your back!”

Phew! Thud!

I could hear the wails and shouts of the guy from behind me and as an automatic instinct, the opponent jumped at me, but he missed the position I was originally standing at and fell on the ground. He stared angrily at my face and shot up from the ground. The fist was clenched until it trembled, preparing to hit the jawline but I grabbed his fist, bowed a little, tilted my face until the fist reached my hand, before throwing the fist directly under the other side of the chin.

I gasped and took a step back because I used too much force on the previous movement.

"You!"

Pluck!!

“Ugh!!”

“Pran!!”

Someone's heavy foot slammed into the middle of the back, followed by a heavy punch at the corner of the mouth. I fell to ground and my body twisted because of the pain that came from the impact of my arm on the hard-concrete floor. I looked up and saw the bastard who was quick. I spit the bloody spit on the ground.

I wiped the blood off my lips casually and moved to help my best friend.

"Wait, go help Kae!" I said when I saw my friend being surrounded by two guys and Waiyakorn nodded in response. He hit his opponent's belly before stepping on his long legs.

Even though I said that, but I was unable to swallow my sticky saliva down the throat when I turned around to see the three dogs baring their teeth at me.

At times like this, where the hell are kids who started all this up!?

“What kind of a person are you Pran? So pale faced.” The owner of the voice smiled at me, stirring the organs below. He moves close, hands still tucked in the pockets of the pants. I frowned a little and looked like I wanted to ask. 'What are you going to do?'

“Are you stiff?”

HUH.

I grinned and the laughter sneaked out of my lips.

The result!!

I drew a fist and punched the person in front of me without a warning.

His face turned towards the punching force, but the satisfying smile was still there at the corner of the mouth.

"This fuck!"

He reacted by pouncing on me hard.

“What the fuck Pat?”

“I will take care of it.” Naphat said.

He gave a dangerous smile, a smile that I am familiar with and the smile I have seen many times in a situation like this. Our eyes met and I smiled, I accepted the challenge but for good.

That was until we heard a chime in our heads, and that was the last look we gave each other before we leapt onto each other, the first punch hit the stomach, but it wasn't so strong. I grabbed the other side's occiput and hit my knees in his abdomen.

"You're not saving hard." He whispered through his teeth until I sneaked up a smile. He pushed his body up from the ground and then rises.

Relying on the tempo I was taking from the right fist, deflecting to the opposite side, and locking my neck tightly. I skewed my face because I was uncomfortable with suffocation. We gathered all the strength, threw, and flicked each other’s legs until both of us were overthrown. We continued until we were exhausted.

"Fuck! Shit!" He complained. He alternated with his cussing and wiping the blood from the wound on his eyebrows with a damp cloth.

“It doesn’t hurt that bad, but my eyebrows are wounded.” He said.

"Where's Golf?" I asked and I looked for my closest friend in another group, because since the band broke up because the master's voice was coming from a far away, I didn't see him yet.

“I saw him following a second-year kid.”

These guys are recruited for nothing. Just the projects that they are currently working on, are they not busy enough? If this time, the topic of Thesis is not going through, then only you will understand this matter.

"Ok, what's this time?"

“I am not sure." He said. “But I saw him talking roughly to the second-year kid who grabbed one of the first year’s ass."

These things again. When will our university agree to the budget to sepak takraw so we could shut the mouths of the other groups?

[T/N: Sepak takraw is kick volleyball and is a native southeast Asian game. Player play volleyball using their feet, knees, and head. No use of hands is made]
So that we can find peace and we don’t have to fight like mad dogs every day.

“Are you okay? Your wound on the arm is very big. Did you wash it with the water first?” he said, holding the arm I was holding to have a look.

"I'll go back and get the wound done in the room. Just walk away"

“I will walk with you. If you run into those brittle mouth again, it will be worse.”

“Their condition is no different. They have been licking their wounds.” I said.

“Ugh, I will go back.” He ends the conversation and turns to talk to the other person.

“You can go back first. I will sit here for a while.”

“Well, see you tomorrow. Do not forget to go back and do your work as well.”

"Can you stop talking about my work when my body is about to break like this?" Waiyakorn laughs gently before walking with me.

We have been fighting like dogs, but the beatings have become so common for the leaders of the two gangs which wasn’t the case before. So, the architecture students like us and brittle bastards like them, even when they're in their fourth year, if even the youngest ones have a problem, they're always going to have to go and clean it up.

Sometimes my gang and the opposite gang don't have a direct problem. Because a lot of times, during the fight, when they are crushing each other until they collapse with blood, they don't even know the exact reason or the story behind the fight.

But because of dignity one sustains, when there is an issue…one must win.

“I am sure there is going to be a wound on your eyebrows by tomorrow.” He quickly turned to look at his face before raising his hand, touching his eyebrow tail, and taking a deep breath "Well, I missed it. The fucker attacked from behind."
“How’s your stomach? I have seen you hold onto it since then.” What the hell is going on? Patara repeatedly punched me in the stomach when I fell to the ground the first time. The second time was also rough because I made a mistake.

“It's under the clothes.” I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Someone like you is going to get bruised to death one day.”

“So, you are going to die.”

“Damn Pran.”

I smiled a bit, walking down the university's tree street to the back of the
tower.

"I have to stop by to buy dinner for a moment.” Waiyakorn gently hit my shoulder and walk to the noodle shop.

“Aunty, a small tom yum noodle bag.” When he finished ordering the regular menu, he turned to ask me.

"No, I won’t eat anything. Your mouth is so bad and still you're going to eat spicy stuff. Don't look at me." he laughs. "Well, I'm a sadist. Then what do you want to eat?"

“I don't know, the punches made me full." He smiled and nodded a couple of
times, accepting my words and putting an end to the conversation. I looked at the soup pot waiting for the owner who was scalding the bag, "So see you tomorrow.” and then, he said goodbye, because we were in front of my building and he had to go into the next building, so we had to split up in front of the door. I nodded at him and walked through the door into the elevator.
The door opened shortly after. I stepped in and pressed my own floor number and waited for the elevator door to slowly close...

"Wait!” As the elevator door was about to close, a familiar sound came, followed by the movement outside of the door. I saw the face that I had just punched a few hours ago.

The troublemaker just smiled at me and entered the elevator. He stood beside me and I looked at my floor number. The long hair that is fastened
behind the neck annoyed my eyes. The face that was always smiling, always stirred my mood. He turned to make eye contact when the elevator is closed, preparing to move up.

Naphat, the fourth-year head of the Engineering faculty, has been fighting with me for four years at my university.

It's known when I see him within the same radius that we're going to cause trouble for each other. We just pretend to kill each other.

If one side is fire, then other is oil. This clash is ancestral.

It’s funny how we really don’t bite each other…but it all started from our parents.

My parents and his parents have been business rivals even before I was born. It can be said that hatred runs in their blood. They have cursed each other until in seeped into the brain of their children. And it's like heaven knew when they started living in adjoining houses. We studied in the same kindergarten. Same elementary school. Same high school. When meeting each other, they almost always presented shoe as a gift. The hatred from adults passed onto the children like us who must bully, punch and be rivals. We are competitors everything; school, sports, stamina, everything I can think of is that I must be superior, and it's laughable when we entered the same college. It's a mistake to disperse a rival group that is so attached that it's like inviting them to kill each other so that everything is so conducive to being forced to go, almost to lose my foot when I feel like I’m going to get away with it.

I think it's amazing to be born with someone who's been made to hate me since we didn't even know each other.

We must win even though we haven’t even seen each other’s faces yet.

I snapped out of my old memory when the man standing next to me poked my
shoulder.

"Have you eaten yet?"

“What do you want to eat with a mouth like this?” The face was bruised and battered.

"Go back and drop the rice water in your room." he laughs. I looked at him and he pushed his tongue against his cheek.

“I’ll share a cup with you.”
I rolled my eyes. That’s it for today. I'm so damn edgy that I'm going to go.

"Keep it for yourself."