The power of friendship and respect.
Deans POV
He hears the coach call his name but he follows Win. He watches his friend drag his boyfriend away from the university. He smiles and shakes his head, such a Win reaction. He sees all their friends watching them and he walks towards them, "Guys lets go somewhere else, we need to talk." He tells them everything that happened and just like him, every is pretty angry. He holds his boyfriends hand for comfort. He was so proud of Win for taking a stand against that idiot president. He honestly doesn't know how he managed to hold himself back from punching the man. His thoughts are broken when A speaks.
"I will resign too." He puts his hands on his hips and and squares his shoulders. "I joined this club for fun and to get girls but now I really like it here and if You and P'Win are being mistreated then I wont stand for that either." He looks at his two friends who nod and stand next to him agreeing.
Dean smiles and shakes his head, they really are like cartoon characters from a funny show, "Calm down you guys, there is no need for this. You all should focus on yourselves. Win and I will be fine."
"No, we are friends, more then the friendship what we have is respect. We respect you P'Dean and we respect P'Win. Team is our friend and he cant fight this fight or he will lose his scholarship, he has us though. This university will know the power of friendship and respect." He looks at Bee and Sea who are nodding their heads in agreement.
"We may not be the brightest bunch but we are the most loyal bunch. If you come for one of us then you come for all of us. So lets start a revolution." Sea looks pleased with himself after his speech but gets smacked in the back of the head by Bee.
"Don't be an idiot, what revolution? First we need to mobilize the whole swim club. We may not get the first years on our side because they are all close to that naughty little shit but the rest of us are close. We can all quit and this will force the university to rethink their strategy. We have a swim meet in a month with K university, what will they do if they have no swimmers and no workers for the event?" Bee grabs his phone and starts texting furiously.
"Guys stop, you cant ask the swimmers to do this, it has nothing to do with them." He watches as the boys all look at him.
"P'Dean, this is bigger then you and P'Win. What that kid did was seen by all the first years. Yes they are juniors today but in a few years they will be seniors. What happens to the kids who come in after them and decide to behave the way he did, knowing there will be no punishment if you have the money to make it go away? He is a kid doing that to a senior, the president of the club. People will notice when he gets no punishment, this is sending a bad message. We have to do something." A finishes his speech powerfully and looks around at all the gaping eyes pointed in his direction. "What?"
"I always thought you were dumb, turns out you are pretty smart." His friend looking at him like he grew a second head. He smacks Sea again in the back of the head.
"Everyone is headed to the swim club, lets go." Bee grabs his bag and starts walking in the direction of the club. He stops and turns to face Manow, "Please post this on the university cute boy page. Say all the swimmers quit." She nods at him and takes out her phone. They all follow him.
"Stop Bee, wait." Dean is at his wits end with these trouble causers. He is impressed though, he and Win have been friends for many years that's why they always stand by him but these kids have nothing to gain from this and yet they are so eager to help them. He is so grateful and humbled that he got to meet these crazy people. Even his boyfriend who has nothing to do with the club is on his phone texting and causing a stir on the campus. They reach the club and see the president with the coach and the boys mother, the boy standing meekly next to her with his head down. They seem to be in a disagreement but that doesn't stop ABC gang headed straight for them. "Guys stop, that's the president. You will get into trouble. Think about this for a minute."
They ignore him and head straight for the trio, just then they are joined by the university representative who was on a call. Dean watches in fascination as the brave trio walk straight to the coach and announce they quit the club.
"Why are you quitting the club?" The president looks shaky, knowing something big is about to go down.
"We value our safety sir and we will not be in a club where is it okay to just touch people and get away with it. As you know we are an all boys swim club and most of the time we shower together, we deserve to be comfortable and feel safe in a university we pay thousands for. Unlike some people here who have the financial ability to get special treatment from the university, we don't have that luxury. Our parents work hard for every dime they have." A turns to the coach, "Furthermore coach, If P'Dean and P'Win are disposable after they did nothing wrong in this situation, we don't want to be associated with a club like this." Bee and Sea follow.
Mrs. Anant has had enough of this farce. "My son is not a predator." She snidely states at the boys, "You will not make him out to be, he is 18 for Gods sake and made one mistake. You all are acting like he raped your wonderful president."
P'Phruek steps in-front of the three boys shielding them from her, "We are not calling him a rapist ma'am and nor are we making him a predator. You and the university president are doing that by allowing him to behave in this manner towards another human being and not correcting his behavior. I agree he is 18 and he should know better what is right and wrong. We will not be a part of a system that covers up bad behavior because he comes from money. Dean has money, Win has money, never once have they used their authority or status to get ahead of anyone. We will never stand with the university on this, and you can be sure Mr. President that everyone will know about this because we will make sure of it." He turns and walks away.
Dean watches as the swimmers all line up in-front of the coach and resign from the club, every few minutes a new swimmer comes along and joins the line waiting to quit. In all his years on this planet he has never felt so encouraged and at peace. Pharm squeezes his hand and looks down at him, he sees the shine in his eyes and the smile on his face, seeing the support from him makes his heart swell. Dean feels tears stinging the back of his eyes, yes he definitely is thankful he made the right group of friends. He looks over at Manow who is recording the whole scene. "What are you doing?"
"Sending this to Team, even though he cant participate he should know that his friends always have his back. The power of friendship and respect." She laughs, "When did ABC gang start making sense?"
Dean snorts as he welcomes the distraction. He takes out his phone asking Win to meet him at their spot. He needs to know what's going on. He walks over to A, Bee and Sea and thanks them. He tells them to tell all the guys to meet them at the bar and they all leave separately. He looks over at the coach who is still receiving 'I quit' notifications from his fellow members. The coach looks at him and nods his head, looking proudly at him. He nods back at the coach and turns to his boyfriend, "Lets go."
******
After hearing the full story from Dean, Tul pulls out his phone and walks away from the group. He dials his boyfriend, "P'Waan, we have a problem. How soon can you be in Bangkok?"
******
Teams phone beeps and he throws it aside, not in the mood to talk to anyone. He knows its from the group chat because he has a special notification sound for it. It keeps beeping, Ping ping ping ping. "Aaaah what the hell?" He grabs his phone and sits up, ready to swear whoever is bugging him. He sees a video and hits play. He watches in awe as his friends and the rest of the swim club walk up to the coach and quit. What is happening? He closes the video and heads back to the group, seeing his messages from A, Bee and Sea:
A: Don't worry Team, we know you cant do anything because of the scholarship so we decided that we will protest for you.
Sea: That's what friends are for :)
Bee: We will make sure that P'Win and P'Dean get justice for this.
Sea: We got your back.
A: Always.
A: By the way we are all meeting at the bar, you should come.
Bee: See you there bro.
He closes the chat and goes to the one he has with Manow and Pharm, seeing there are more videos in this chat. He watches them all one by one. He even watches P'Phruek quit. He is shocked but also delighted. He is so thankful to them for caring enough to do something like this. Team always strived to be a good person, he thought he was until he met Win, he was the epitome of a good person. I guess all Wins good karma is finally showing up for him. He loves this for Hia Win, maybe now he will see just how important he really is to the people who are close to him. Team does a quick happy dance before he changes and goes out to meet his friends. He checks his phone once again before he leaves:
A: Team, we don't have much in terms of assets, we cant go to the university president and throw money at him the way Riders mother did, what we do have is the power of friendship and respect. Even though its not much, they wont break our resolve no matter what they threaten us with. This might seem like not a big deal to the adults who are supposed to be in charge but to us, its all we have and I promise you that its worth so much more then they will ever have. You are a friend who we care about, so is P'Win and P'Dean. So please don't feel bad that you cant partake in any of what is happening right now, we will be your parachute this time. See you at the bar. Bye bye.