In Love With An Idiot
Chapter 13: A-Chi
“I think Pei loves you, Eung.”
Achittaphon shook his head at his older brother's words.
“Don't give me false hope. I've finally started coming to terms with it.”
“Are you seriously going to let Pei go?”
“Mm…”
“Then where's he supposed to live? He obviously can't come and live with me. Are you going to send him back to the main house?”
“I've already bought him a flat in the building I've been preparing.”
Chairman Achi narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. He claimed he was going to let Pei go, yet he'd gone and bought him a condominium in the same development. It certainly wouldn't be wrong to describe Eung as someone who loved spoiling people with money. He bought Paobei practically everything.
From head to toe, he'd never allowed the younger man to use anything inferior or experience hardship. He'd even bought him a car, even though Pei had never asked for any of it.
“I think you should talk to him first.”
“Pei's been living with you for so long. Surely he must have some idea how you feel.”
“Things might not be the way you think they are.”
“Why don't you just sit down and clear everything up?”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
The more Achi listened to his younger brother's reasoning, the worse his headache became. He finally resorted to peeling an orange and eating it.
“Eung, you're older than Pei. You might be looking at things from completely different perspectives.”
“And Pei isn't exactly… er… someone who thinks things through very deeply.”
“He can't keep up with the way your mind works.”
“You need to actually tell him things!”
“Why haven't you considered that he might become nervous around you because he's embarrassed?”
“Or because he's worried about upsetting you?”
“I already told him everything at the beginning.”
“What exactly did you tell him?”
“Come and live with me. I'll take care of you.”
Achi's hand froze halfway through peeling the orange. That's supposed to be a declaration of love?!
He tried to understand his younger brother's thought process. But the more he thought about it, the more he wondered how on earth these two had managed to live together all this time. The Paobei he knew seemed like an entirely different person from the one his younger brother was describing.
“Why would I ask him to live with me if I didn't love him?”
My head hurts. Achi desperately wanted to shove the orange into his younger brother's mouth. Unfortunately, he couldn't.
“When did you say that to Pei?”
“Right at the beginning. Before he moved in here.”
So Achittaphon's method of confessing his love had been to tell the younger man to move in because he'd take care of him?
Achi's headache became so unbearable that he shoved a piece of orange into his own mouth and chewed furiously. No matter how he looked at it, those words sounded like something a pervert or a threatening criminal might say. And to make matters worse, his younger brother had phrased it as an instruction rather than a question. It would have been more surprising if Pei hadn't been frightened!
“And what did Pei say?”
“I think he asked… ‘What would Pei have to do?’”
“And what did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
“I told him we'd discuss things after he graduated.”
“What exactly was I supposed to make him do?”
“He was still so young. Of course I wanted him to concentrate on his studies, P’Ein.”
“He'd already started university later than other people his age.”
“What was wrong with what I said?”
Chairman Achi put down the half-peeled orange and stared at his younger brother. Achittaphon's face remained completely expressionless. Something must have gone wrong somewhere along the way. But then again, Achittaphon had never been particularly interested in romance. He'd been forced to shoulder responsibility for the family business from an early age.
From the moment Achi decided to study medicine, their younger brother had been left carrying all their parents' hopes and expectations. Achittaphon was only ten months younger than him. Their mother had become pregnant again almost immediately after giving birth to Achi, meaning the brothers had grown up and studied at roughly the same time. However, they'd attended different schools.
Their parents had worried that if the brothers went to school together, they'd spend all their time together and fail to develop their own social circles. Achi had attended international schools throughout his childhood. Eung, on the other hand, had chosen to sit the entrance examination for one of the country's top government schools. And he'd passed. During his teenage years, he'd done little besides study.
His school was full of exceptionally talented students, and the competition was intense. By the time he entered university, he'd already been identified as the future head of the company. Then, only a year or two after graduating, their parents passed away. At the time, Achi was an extern, his entire life revolving around the hospital's chaos. So he'd effectively dumped all the responsibility onto his younger brother.
“It's my fault.”
“P’Ein, you never wanted Pei to fall in love with you. Why would you blame yourself?”
But Achi wasn't blaming himself for that. He was blaming himself for allowing his younger brother to shoulder everything. Achittaphon had been left with so little time for himself that he'd become remarkably capable of dealing with complicated problems, yet completely unable to recognise the simplest things. He was one of the fastest-rising young executives in the property development industry.
Achi might have been the one who'd managed to secure emergency loans, but he certainly wouldn't have known how to manage hundreds of millions, let alone billions of baht. He was far more accustomed to life in a hospital. What would he know about negotiating and competing in the business world?
Meanwhile, Achittaphon had become so used to complicated thinking that he'd forgotten how to approach things simply.
“Let's give it another try with Pei.”
“He's your first love, Eung.”
“How can you let him go so easily?”
“Let's prove that Pei loves you, not me.”
“How?”
“Just ask him directly.”
“If he loves you, then you can carry on living together.”
“And if he doesn't, you won't have to keep holding on to each other.”
Why on earth am I giving relationship advice to my younger brother, who's nearly thirty?
“Eat a little more, Pei.”
“Pei's full already, P’Ein.”
Chairman Achi sighed as he looked at the young man suffering from a broken heart. Honestly, these two. One was bad enough. But the other was just as hopeless. Apparently, that old-fashioned theory about people eventually falling in love simply by living together wasn't going to work for two people who refused to communicate.
It had been almost three years. Yet his younger brother and Paobei had never once had an argument. That was completely different from Achi's relationship with Eung. They barely saw each other, but whenever they did meet, they almost always ended up arguing. Arguments were sometimes an opportunity to open up about how each person felt and what they thought.
Every relationship involved disagreements. The important thing was learning to resolve those disagreements together so the relationship could move forward. There was an art to arguing. But these two didn't seem to possess it. And somehow, the person suffering from the resulting headache was Achi.
He was practically an older brother to both of them. Although with Pei, perhaps he was more like an uncle or another older relative. He certainly couldn't be considered Pei's father. Not after that ridiculous incident when Pei had actually bought flowers, incense sticks and candles to pay his respects to Eung on Father's Day. Since Achi was Eung's older brother, he would technically be Pei's uncle.
The uncle next door, perhaps. And how had Eung failed to notice that the boy had paid his respects to him alone?
Lately, Eung had barely been coming home. Now Achi understood why. His younger brother couldn't bear being around Pei because he believed Pei didn't love him. Meanwhile, whenever Eung was away, Pei became visibly miserable. Yet he never called him.
“If you don't eat properly, you'll get ill.”
“And if you get ill, Eung will worry about you.”
“He's probably worrying about someone else now.”
“What do you mean?”
“P’Eung… might be seeing someone else.”
Chairman Achi began to see the problem. Whenever Pei had looked miserable in the past, he'd assumed the couple must have argued. But that wasn't possible. These two never argued. Don't tell me he's been miserable because he thinks Eung's having an affair!
Where on earth would that idiot Eung find the time to date someone else?
He worked more than ten hours a day without even getting overtime!
As though he had endless free time!
All Eung ever cared about was his work and the little cabbage sitting miserably in front of Achi. Yet because he hardly ever came home, that little cabbage had convinced himself Eung was seeing someone else.
“Why would you think that?”
“Maybe you're worrying too much, Pei.”
“Well…”
“He's been gone for several days.”
“I suppose he's probably bored with Pei.”
The little cabbage's eyes began filling with tears. As his unofficial uncle, Achi wanted to comfort his nephew. He wanted to explain how Eung really felt. And he wanted to tell Eung exactly how Paobei was feeling. But he couldn't.
If Achi kept doing all the talking for them, when would these two ever learn to resolve their problems on their own?
What would happen if they faced another difficulty in the future and once again refused to communicate?
How could they possibly maintain their relationship?
Achi wasn't going to live forever. One day, he'd have a family and a life of his own. Every family encountered problems and had to learn to repair and resolve them. When it came to Pei and Eung's relationship, he was ultimately an outsider.
“Why don't you call and ask him?”
“Pei's scared P’Eung will get annoyed.”
“He might be really busy.”
“I don't dare call him.”
“Does Eung get angry with you?”
“No!”
“P’Eung's really kind. He never scolds me.”
“But he gets irritated easily, and he's quite fussy about things.”
“Pei doesn't want to make P’Eung angry.”
One of them is terrified of annoying the other. And the other is hurt because he never receives a single phone call.
“Do you feel uncomfortable living with Eung?”
“You can tell me, you know.”
“No.”
“Pei's happy.”
“I'm not uncomfortable at all.”
“You love Eung very much, don't you?”
“Yes!”
“Pei loves him more than anyone in the entire world!”
The little cabbage smiled so brightly that his cheeks turned pink. Chairman Achi almost wanted to cry. It was practically a miracle that these two had managed to live together for nearly three years. Perhaps the heavens had taken pity on them. He felt sorry for both of them.
He was frustrated with them too. And mixed amongst those emotions was a sense of guilt.
“I think Eung loves you too.”
The bright smile abruptly froze. A trace of loneliness appeared in Pei's large, round eyes.
“Pei wishes P’Eung loved me.”
As Eung's older brother and practically Pei's guardian, Achi realised he hadn't paid nearly enough attention to either of them. Almost three years was a long time. Long enough for the seeds of misunderstanding to grow into enormous trees. When he told Eung that Pei loved him, Eung didn't believe it. When he told Pei that Eung loved him, Pei didn't believe it either.
If they continued like this, there would be nothing in their relationship except suspicion and insecurity. And neither of them was even trying to solve the problem together. Perhaps, if they spent some time apart and went their separate ways for a while, things might become clearer. If they eventually looked back towards the place where they'd once stood together, perhaps they'd be able to see what had been hidden from them before.
“So this is how you're planning to do it, Eung?”
“If I ask him directly and Pei refuses, I can always pretend I don't feel anything.”
“We can't afford to lose money, after all.”
Chairman Achi stared at the five-page contract in his hands. He wanted nothing more than to roll it up and smack his younger brother over the head with it. Apparently, Achittaphon's idea of a marriage proposal was to hide the question on page three of an employment contract. Paobei's employment agreement for a public relations position looked exactly like the standard contracts Achi had seen the human resources department prepare. Except for page three.
In addition to the usual contractual information, a single sentence had been inserted in bold print in the middle of the page. Will you marry me?
The next line looked, at first glance, like another ordinary contractual clause. But it explained that if Pei agreed to marry him, he wouldn't need to sign the contract. If he refused, he should sign the final page. It was certainly one way of making a romantic marriage proposal. But knowing these two, Chairman Achi couldn't help feeling concerned.
Nevertheless, his younger brother had already made his decision, so he didn't particularly want to interfere. Neither of them was especially young anymore. Continuing to meddle in their private lives would be excessive. Even so, Achi couldn't shake the feeling that they needed to resolve their misunderstandings before taking such an important step. What would happen if they got married and still refused to talk to each other?
The contract bothered him so much that he eventually went to the office to speak to someone directly involved in the matter.
“Khun Ta, could I consult you about something work-related?”
The secretary was in his fifties. He'd been with the Araya family since the days when the previous Chairman first entered the property industry. Back then, Araya had been little more than a small business that bought and sold houses. Now it was one of the country's leading property development companies. Throughout those years, Khun Ta had become almost like an older relative to the family.
“Is this about Khun Eung's contract?”
“Yes.”
“Please, sit down, Khun Ta.”
“I know it's strange for me to interfere in my younger brother's private affairs.”
“But Pei is practically one of the children of the Araya household, and I feel responsible for him too.”
“To be perfectly honest, I'm worried about both of them.”
“Khun Eung loves Khun Pei.”
“And Pei loves Eung.”
“Then I don't think there should be any problem.”
“Although I must admit, this method of proposing marriage is rather unusual for someone of my generation.”
“Haah… Khun Ta, that's not the problem.”
“The problem is that Eung thinks Pei doesn't love him.”
“And Pei thinks Eung doesn't love him.”
“This contract is Eung's final gamble.”
“Surely love shouldn't be mixed up with suspicion and insecurity?”
“I'm worried that this is completely the wrong time for them to get married when they still haven't resolved their misunderstandings.”
“Eung loves Pei.”
“Pei loves Eung.”
“But neither of them believes they are loved by the other.”
“And yet you have no intention of speaking on their behalf, Khun Ein?”
“It's their family matter.”
“But as someone close to both of them, I want them to be happy.”
“Quite right.”
“Those who tie a knot should know how to untie it.”
“All we can really do is watch from a distance.”
“But I suspect you wouldn't have called me here if you were content to simply stand back and watch, would you?”
The young Chairman laughed softly at the knowing expression in his experienced secretary's eyes.
“I just want them to spend some time apart.”
“Not too far apart, though.”
“Just enough to give them time to think, reflect and reconsider their relationship.”
“Perhaps when they look back at everything, they'll be able to see things more clearly.”
“That's why I wanted to consult you before making any changes to the contract.”
“I'd like to know whether you'd agree with me.”
“And I don't want to put you in an uncomfortable position.”
“Your professional responsibilities are involved too.”
“If Eung discovers that you've taken my side, he might lose his trust in you, even if we did everything with good intentions.”
“You should be the person Eung can trust most.”
“If Khun Nid secretly betrayed me and started siding with Eung instead, I'd feel as though my entire world had collapsed!”
“My wonderful secretary would suddenly have a new boss!”
“It would make working together rather difficult.”
“Khun Ein, you're speaking as though you're giving me a choice.”
“But after explaining everything in such detail, aren't you deliberately making me feel sorry for Khun Eung so I'll agree to cooperate with you?”
“After all, you know perfectly well that neither of you is merely an employer to me.”
“I regard you both almost as my own sons.”
“I respect you like a father, Khun Ta.”
“And Eung feels the same.”
“We couldn't bear to lose you.”
“So, as someone older and wiser, please help your son who's lost his way.”
“I've run out of ideas myself.”
“Then how about this?”
“We'll leave the marriage proposal in the contract.”
“But if Khun Pei signs the final page and rejects Khun Eung, we'll introduce another condition to prevent him from going too far away.”
“The most reliable way to make sure Khun Pei won't leave completely would be to remind him of a debt of gratitude.”
“We could bring up that five-million-baht jewellery set again and use it as our justification.”
“But what if Pei agrees to marry him?”
Achi frowned.
“Which, personally, I hope he doesn't…”
“Khun Ein, you can't keep playing God in other people's lives forever.”
“If that happens, we'll simply have to accept it.”
“But judging from my experience, I don't believe Khun Pei will read the contract carefully.”
“Once someone mentions a debt and tells him he'll have to work to repay it, he'll probably be too shocked to examine every clause.”
“Most ordinary people don't pay particularly close attention to the contents of contracts anyway.”
“In property development, there are plenty of people who sign documents without properly understanding them.”
“Some end up losing their land to unscrupulous investors.”
“And legally, they've signed away their rights themselves.”
“So you're suggesting I gamble on how carefully Pei reads the contract?”
“Exactly.”
“If Khun Pei reads everything carefully, your plan will fail.”
“But if he doesn't, you'll be rather like one of those wealthy investors who successfully trick an ordinary person into signing an unfair contract.”
“When you put it like that, you make me sound like the villain!”
“Interfering with someone else's contract isn't exactly the behaviour of a good person, Chairman Achi.”
“Haah… All right.”
“Let's see how things turn out.”
“Whatever happens, thank you, Khun Ta.”
“Although I have a feeling I'm going to win.”
“Everyone around me is far too cunning.”
“Pei's probably the only person I'll actually manage to fool successfully.”
“Are you referring to that banker from Chofa?”
“Still haven't managed to win him over, Khun Ein?”
“Not even close!”
“That man is like a bloody hyena!”
“He's the reason the Revenue Department came to investigate our company!”
“My credit card was suspended because of him too!”
“And most recently, the Medical Council sent me another letter.”
“I still haven't dared to open it.”
“I'm scared they'll be investigating me again!”
“What sort of person could be so cruel?”
“Why can't he be sweet and adorable like Pei?”
“I wish you success, Khun Ein.”
“Both with the contract and with your banker.”
“Eung's lucky he's in love with Pei.”
“If he were in love with that banker like I am, he'd know what real heartbreak feels like!”
“I took a client out for dinner, and when I tried to pay, my credit card said I'd exceeded my limit!”
“And I didn't have a single baht in cash!”
“I brought disgrace upon the entire Araya Group, Khun Ta!”
“Luckily, Khun Nid saved me.”
“Why did Khun Nid have to hurry up and get married and have two children before I had a chance?”
“Nid heard that, Chairman.”
A woman's voice suddenly interrupted.
“If Khun Ta is your father, then I suppose that makes me your mother.”
“Now, would you please sign these urgent documents?”
“And I'll pretend I didn't hear the ruthless little scheme you and Khun Ta have been plotting.”
There was a reason the management team had never won the company's annual sports day. Whenever the two executives competed in the three-legged race, they inevitably fell over together. And their two secretaries had a combined age of more than a hundred.
“Khun Nid has a lovely daughter, doesn't she?”
“Would you consider giving her to me?”
The younger-generation Chairman quickly signed the documents and handed them back.
“No, thank you.”
“I'm on the banker's team.”
“If someone like you kept hanging around nearby, I'd probably have to restrain myself from slapping you senseless four or five times a day.”
“Don't tell me the Revenue Department came to investigate us because you were secretly helping him too!”
“That's right.”
“And there are still plenty of other ministries and government departments I've arranged to cooperate with.”
“Haah…”
Achi sighed dramatically.
“Can I resign from being Chairman?”
“Eung, you little bastard…”
“Why won't you just let yourself be tricked into taking over the position already?”