Chapter 10: Burning Questions
"Ouii! Ouch! Ooohh!"
Who would've thought having a sprained ankle would be this embarrassing? Not only was Love limping all the way to the nurses office, but since her entire weight was supported by P'Milk, she was worried about exactly how heavy she was and how much of her weight she was supposed to put on P'Milk to support herself.
In the end, self conscious as she was, Love ended up putting most of her weight on her injured foot and having to limp all the way to get treatment, wincing in pain with every step she took.
If P'Milk hadn't been there, she would've called either P'Pond or P'Joong to help her give a piggy back ride to the nurse's office and would've burst into tears a lot earlier, as opposed to having to bite her lip now to stop herself from crying out loud and scaring P'Milk away.
Why was being in love so damn difficult?
"A little bit longer, na?" P'Milk told Love, giving her encouragement as she supported Love with her hand on her tiny waist. "We're almost there."
Love nodded her head quietly, trying her best to stop her tears from flowing.
Milk pushed the infirmary door open with her leg and called out for the nurse to help her, but unfortunately, no one answered.
"Oh? The nurse isn't here?" She looked left and right before bringing the Nong to the nearest bed and helping her sit on it. "Stay here, okay? I'll get the ice pack to place on your foot while we wait for the nurse to arrive."
Love nodded her head, sniffling lighting as she wiped at her eyes as soon as P'Milk was out of sight. She was stronger than this, she reminded herself. And there was no way she wanted her crush to think of her as a crybaby.
Milk returned a few seconds later with an ice pack in her hands and then she knelt in front of Love, taking off her shoe and socks before placing it on top of her raised knee so she could apply the pack to her leg properly.
She could tell that the Nong was hurt badly, her foot was starting to swell up a lot, but she tried to put up a brave front just for her. Stubborn little girl.
"You can cry if you want to," Milk told her, gently patting her foot. "I know you're hurting. I won't judge you."
"N-no." Love sniffled, but no tears fell from her eyes, even as her cheeks puffed a bit, her nostrils swelling. "I'm o-okay."
"You should be really careful around the field." Milk warned her, applying the ice gently. "It was a good thing that it was just the women's team playing. If the men's team were next to us, your chances of getting hurt would've been a lot worse. Why didn't you come around to the bleachers? You could've seen their match clearly and not ended up getting hurt either."
"But I don't take pictures of the men's team!" Love protested in a small voice, before she stamped her hands on top of her mouth.
No! She wasn't supposed to say that! Crap!
Milk stared at her with wide eyes, trying to understand the situation as to what the Nong was saying when the door to the Nurse's office flung open and two people entered the room, disrupting their conversation.
The nurse, Khun June and another boy that Milk didn't know stopped by the door, taking in the scene before them, before both of them rushed to the Nong's side with worried faces.
"Love? What happened? Did you get hurt?" The boy asked the Nong, who Milk just learned was called Love, while Nurse June knelt down next to her, looking at the injury to her leg.
"I'm okay, P'Gemini ka," Love smiled up at the boy, who hardly looked a few months older than the Nong herself. "Did you finish you break already? Where's Fourth?"
Milk handed the ice pack to the Nurse and moved aside, looking at the Nong interacting with the boy. She thought her work was done, since the nurse was now here to take care of Nong Love, but she hesitated, deciding to wait till the nurse gave an okay sign that everything was fine with her.
"I just dropped Fourth off to his class." Gemini told her. "I'm just here to collect a few things for class. Do you want me to let your brother's know that you're hurt? Should I ask one of them to pick you up if I see them around?"
"Only if anyone is free and you run into someone, okay?" Love told P'Gemini sincerely. "Please don't go out of your way to contact them. I don't want you to miss classes because of me."
"It's alright." Gemini touched his hand to Love's hair lightly, almost in a brotherly gesture of affection that didn't go unnoticed by Milk. "I'll take care of it. Nurse June, khab? How's her injury?"
"It's just a little sprain," the nurse smiled up at the two of them. "If the swelling doesn't increase, then there's nothing to worry. But if it increases in the next hour, please get an x-ray done. I'll apply some cooling gel and wrap it up and you can be on your way home in no time."
"Thank you, kha." Love bowed to the nurse before turning to P'Milk as Gemini went away to the back of the room to get his supplies. "Thank you, P'Milk…for all your help. And I'm really sorry for imposing on you like that."
"It's alright." Milk gave her a small smile in return. "I should get back to the court. Be careful next time, okay?"
"Kha, P'Milk." Love bowed yet again in a wai, as the nurse finished bandaging up her foot.
"There you go," she patted Love's head. "All better. Why don't you rest here while your brother gets you?"
Love nodded, lying down on the bed as she waited for the pain to subside.
Gemini came back from the back of the room, his arm full of cotton pads and several other supplies that Love couldn't even name. Nurse June gave him a tray and he dumped all his findings into the tray itself, so he could carry them back to his faculty easily.
"I've texted Fourth about your leg," Gemini told her before he left. "He'll be texting both P'Pond and P'Joong to see who's free to pick you up. I've told him to let the others know that you were with him when you sprained your leg and he was the one who got you here."
Love nodded, thankful that P'Gemini had thought a possible cover for her so that her older brothers don't ask too many questions. Not that they won't, but she was glad that the severity of them will be less compared to if they knew she was at the sports fields when she got hurt.
'Why were you there? Who were you with? What were you doing?' would just be the tip of the ice-berg for her and Love did NOT want to answer ALL of her brother's burning questions and neither did she want to answer why she was taking pictures of P'Milk in the first place.
And just as Love had predicted, it didn't take long for one of her brother's to arrive at the infirmary to get her home safely. Also, just as expected, it was P'Pond rather than P'Joong.
"Love? Fourth told me what happened…how are you now? Does it still hurt? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" Pond immediately rushed towards the bed, showering her with all of his burning questions while checking to see if she was alright.
"I'm alright now, Phi," Love pouted, looking at her older brother with big brown eyes. "Will you take me home? I don't want to go back to classes…"
"Love…" Pond tried to be strong…he really did, but in the end, he had to give in to his baby sister's puppy eyes. "Fine! Let go back."
"Yayyy!!!" Love hugged her brother's waist, happy that he had given in and she was able to cut classes.
Pond took a note from the nurse just in case Love gets in trouble the next day, but since the Jirawatthanakul family was quiet famous and the teachers and the nurse knew their fathers, they usually didn't get in trouble easily.
Still…it was better safe than sorry, right?
Pond knelt in front of the bed and Love hopped onto her brother's back, making him give her a piggy back ride all the way to the parking lot. And even though Pond complained about Love being heavy and how she was no longer a child…he still gave in to his sister.
"Okay…how about, instead of going home directly, we stop by at P'Nirin's shop?" Pond suggested, just because he was in the mood to spoil his sister a bit.
"P'Nirin's shop?" Love was immediately excited. "Oh my gosh! We haven't been there in ages! I'm really craving a strawberry shortcake!"
"Alright then." Pond helped Love into the passenger's seat. "Let's get you your cake and let's go say hi to our cousin."
Technically, the rules of surrogacy were a bit different in Thailand, with it mostly being illegal, with some exceptions. The exception, which was usually for same-sex couples looking for a surrogate, was that the surrogate has to be their sister and they need to have prior children and their husband's consent for the surrogacy.
So technically, Joong, Pond and Nirin had the same mother, but to make matters less complicated, everyone had decided not to address the issue as such and to call her aunt instead. Because their entire family was proud to have two fathers and they wouldn't have it any other way.
Which was way, Nirin was referred to as their cousin. Always.
"And we can take some home for Pa and Fourth too!" Love interjected, knowing how much of a sweet tooth both father and son had.
"Deal!" Pond, gave her a mock salute as he got into the car and drove off.
However, he failed to notice the car at the other end of the driveway that had just entered the University parking lot, but stopped short before parking as they saw Pond's car pull away. So they decided to follow the car instead…
*
Milk was halfway to the court when she felt something heavy inside her pant pocket.
Placing her hand inside, she realized that it was the camera that Nong Love had been carrying with her all this time, which she had given her for safekeeping while Milk helped her to the Nurse's office.
At first, she planned to keep the camera back inside her pocket and return back to the nurse's office so she could return the camera to its rightful owner. However, just as she turned back…curiosity got the best of her.
"But I don't take pictures of the men's team!"
Nong Love's words from earlier rang in her ears as she turned the camera back on, and even though some part of her hesitated…something drove her to press the menu button on the camera screen…to go into the gallery and look at the pictures she took…to find out what exactly she had been meaning.
And what she found left her stunned…her eyes wide in surprise.
Her. They were all pictures of her…hundreds of them…
"Shiaaa!"