Mate by chao Planoy

Chapter 19

After last night, Aoey was cheerful and acted as if nothing had happened. Iassumed she didn't want me to ask her about what happened. I realized

there was a problem, even other people saw that face full of smiles. I didn'tthink it was a real smile. But... I had to pretend like nothing was happening.

“Your phone is broken now. How can I contact you?”

“Telepathic contact.”

The soft eyes smiled mockingly. She seemed very comfortable when I

didn't protest her flirtatiousness. I liked it too.

“Buy a new one.”

“No, I don't have anyone to contact.”

“Me.”

"I'll see you at home anyway."

“Don't you want to call me and tell me you love me on the phone?”

I joked. The soft eYes smiled and shrugged.

"I want to show it in other ways."

The vague meaning gave rise to so many interpretations, so I simply

ignored it. I took the car key and was about to leave. She looked at me, whowas not wearing a student uniform.

“Where do you go today?”

“To visit a friend.”

I didn't explain anything more and she didn't ask for more details. She

might have thought that it was a friend I was working with for an

assignment. I didn't want to answer any more questions either. I drove to anail salon to get a manicure first. I saw some beautiful colors last night, so Iwanted to paint my nails first before doing anything important... whichwas… Buy a bird.... I did some research that a bird could be a friend andlive in a condo. Aoey liked to say that she had no friends. I had the idea ofgetting her a pet, a talking pet, a bird. I had to choose between a parrot anda myna. Many people had pet parrots, and I wanted to be unique, so I chosea Myna. I asked Somkit uncle (he was always my choice to help me) to findthat bird because I had no idea about birds. The older man made anappointment with me to deliver a cage “Here it is. A myna.”

“To talk to?”

“If you train him, he will surely talk. What happened, why do you want a

bird now?”

“I want to speak with someone.”

“Poor.”

I looked at him and realized that it was actually my fault that he said I

needed a friend..

“Thanks for your help.”

“I also wanted to ask you if you have seen my handcuffs.”

"Wives?"

I said with surprise.

“How can I know that?”

“I don't know if I accidentally left them in your car when I took you to thepolice station the other day. I don't know where they went.”

“I'll search for them. I'll let you know if I find them."

I smiled at him and thought about other things. Well, he was the only one Icould ask for help.

“I wanted more help from you.”

“Yeah?”

I handed over Aoey's broken mobile phone..

“Can you take this to fix it, please?”

“In this state? Why don't you buy a new one?”

I actually bought a cheap new phone to put Aoey's old SIM card in. I

wanted to give it to him, but then I changed my mind. I wanted to know

who the last call was. I wanted to talk to that person, so I chose not to give

him the new phone.

"There's something important here,"

I lied. In fact, I wanted to see what was on this phone.

"Can you fix this for me, please?"

“No problem. Did you take out the SIM card?”

“Yes, it's done. Please fix it.”

“OK.”

“Thank you.”

I said thank you and took the bird, our new member home with my colorfuland shiny nails. But once I opened the door, I stopped when I saw Greatsitting there. Uncomfortable... -

“You're here again.”

“What? What kind of greeting is this? Wow, what is this,"

The nosy Great walked in and took the cage out of my hand. -

“What kind of bird is this?”

“Myna.”

“Do you have a bird? Since when do you want a pet? You even kill ants

every time you see them.”

“I'm not that bad. The bird is for Aoey, so she won't be too alone.”

Aoey looked at me in surprise.

“You said you don't have many friends to talk to. I bought you a myna. He

can talk.”

“Nice.”

Aoey gave me a big smile. I don’t know what she meant, that I was prettyor that the bird was cute. But she made me feel so shy that I looked away.

“How do I teach him?”

"I don't know,"

I replied.

"You might have to talk to him every day. It's all yours. You can teach him

whatever you want him to say.”

The soft eyes walked beside me and whispered to me.

“I'll teach him to say. Aoey loves Gen.”

My heart pounded once I heard that. My patience was falling apart. The softeyes looked at me as if hypnotizing me. I thought I was already fallingthere. I immediately snapped out of the moment, mesmerized and looked ather..

“What's happening?”

“Nothing. I'm just jealous. I wanted to look into her eyes too,"

Great told Aoey. I just shrugged and walked away.

“You can look at it now. I'm going to watch T.V.”

Aoey washed the dishes and did her homework as usual. Great was now

sitting with me.

“Why can't I touch her? I'm her boyfriend."

He got upset.

“She doesn't like that. Why would you touch her anyway?

I said with some agitation..

“But I'm her boyfriend. If I can't touch it, what's the point then?”

“Break up with her if you can't stand that.”

“Gen, I'm serious! Can you give me better advice? Can we take her to a

doctor?”

“What kind of doctor can cure this?”

“A psychiatrist! There must be something causing this problem. Even youcan't touch her, right?”

No, I can touch her and I was the only one who could touch her. But I didn't

tell him that. I didn't see the point in telling him.

“How are you going to explain to her about taking her to the doctor?

Because I wanted to sleep with you, so I'm taking you to the doctor?”

“What a bad excuse.”

“Is it true?”

“Yes it's true.”

I hit him on the head with a feeling of disgust. Was that the only thing he

thought about?

“She is my friend. Be nice to her. You can have s*x with other girls but not

with Aoey. I said with a very serious tone. She looked at me feeling guilty.

Now she treated me like her older sister.

“I really like her.”

“If you really like her, you will wait as long as it takes. Otherwise you can

break up with her and date other people.”

Now he was upset with me because I told him to break up with her all the

time. My brother got up and threw a pillow on the couch.

“I'm not going to talk to you now. I'm going home. Aoey, I'm going home

now.”

Aoey turned around but didn't say anything to him. I noticed that she wasnot warm towards him. It was a little cold. I wasn't surprised that Greatdidn't feel like things were moving forward. He couldn't even touch her, letalone have s*x with her.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

I walked over to her, who was washing dishes in a small kitchen sink.

“Have you ever wanted to see a psychiatrist?”

I expressed my concern. Aoey looked at me in surprise.

“Why would I need one?”

“Well, you don't let anyone touch you. It must be something a doctor

could…”

I didn't finish my sentence. The soft eyes approached me and hugged me

with her face on my warm neck. It was like a cat trying to find a warm

place. I was stiff because she caught me off guard.

“Here I can touch you.”

“What about other people?”

"I won't touch anyone except you."

The smaller girl looked at me and seemed like she was trying

to kiss me. I turned my face away and backed away carefully.

“Do not joke.”

“I'm fine. Do not worry about me. If I can touch you, I'm still fine."

She smiled at me.

“I just want to touch the person I chose to touch. I'm fine.”

“Poor Great. My brother is very upset because he can't be near you. He

worries me that you two will break up over the issue.”

“That is what I want.”

“I don't want Great. I wanted you, Gen.”

The soft eyes meant it. I felt guilty for forcing Aoey to choose.

“You should break up with him soon because he's too excited.”

"I'll do it right away when I can,"

She said flirtatiously.

"But you'll have to replace it, Gen."

"You're too good at flirting now."

“Nah, I have to try harder with people like you. People who don't accept the

truth.”

She smiled and stopped because I remembered something.

“Speaking of doctors, I have to go see one.”

“What happened?”

“There is something strange here. I found it here

“

She raised her left arm and touched the side of her breast. I looked at her

and worried about the illness that many women had.

“Do you have a ball?”

“It could be, but I'm not sure. Feel this. I'm not sure if I'm too paranoid."

I reached out and felt the side of her chest without thinking. I didn't find

anything strange......

“Nothing here.”

“Yes there are.”

Wait… I felt like she was cheating on me. Aoey smiled slyly and looked at

me like a cat that just caught a mouse “Here... is my heart. Please take it.”

I was losing again. Finally, the myna was one of the members of the house.I tried really hard to get him to say something. I thought it might be a mutebird, and couldn't learn to talk.

“Uncle Somkit, did you give me a sick bird? The bird made no sound at all.

I'm not even sure if he's still breathing or not. Does the bird inhale and

exhale through its nose?”

I spoke to Uncle Somkit on the phone and at the same time searched for hishandcuffs which he said might be missing in the car.

[You have to try hard. I heard some birds can actually talk.]

“It's so hard to get him to say a word. Did you forget to put the batteries

in?”

I looked around my car and sighed.

“However, I don't see your handcuffs. It's not in my car.”

[Okay, okay. I'll buy new ones. It's a shame. They were new... by the way,

your phone is fixed.]

“What happens with all the information? Is there?”

There was silence on the other end of the line. I had to repeat my question.

"Are you okay, Uncle Somkit?"

[Is this really your phone?]

That serious tone scared me immediately. I could feel there was somethingmore to it than that. But I insisted that the phone was mine.

“Yeah.”

[Nothing. Come get your phone.]

“Something must be wrong. Otherwise, you wouldn't be so serious.”

I tricked him. He was so uncomfortable that it shook me.

“What did you see on my phone?”

[If it's your phone, what can I say then?... I'll return it to you at your condo.]

"You're not calling me about the handcuffs, are you?"

There was no response from the other side. It was the first time he hung up

on me without saying goodbye. 30 minutes later, he arrived at my condo ina van and gave me Aoey's phone back.

“Here it is.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

"I thought you had something to tell me."

We looked at each other for a long time. He finally threw both hands intothe air as if he had given up.

“Okay, I'll say it.”

“Yeah.”

“Is that you in the photos?”

“Photos.?”

I didn't say anything because I still wasn't sure what he was talking about. Iturned on the phone and searched through photo files I'd never looked atbefore. At first they were normal photos, but in the end, there were photosthat shouldn't be there. Nude photos. I swallowed a large lump in my throat.They could be images from the Internet. But my heart trembled with fear that this was something real and not what I thought. Aoey's photos… Aoey

videos....

“I don't want to say anything now. Has anyone else seen this?”

“The guy who fixed it and me.”

“Please don't tell dad.”

“You haven't told me if it's you or not. But I think she looks like you but

she's not you.”

The girl did not look happy at all. I bit my lip hard but said nothing.

"I'll talk to you later."

I walked away from him and scrolled through those photos. Each image

was taken in a different place, at different times, but it was the same girl.Some VDO clips came with sound and I had to mute them. I couldn't seeher face clearly, but she was the same person in the photos and videos.What I was very sure of was that mark on her shoulder. I wanted to confirmif it was her. I needed to prove something.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

The soft eyes that were writing a novel in their notebook looked at me...

“Did you ever get an injection in your shoulder when you were young?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you have a big scar there?”

“I don't know.”

“I can see?”

She was surprised but ready to show me her shiny, smooth shoulder. I

sighed when I saw nothing there. Ugh... that wasn't her.

“They didn't give me an injection here. It was the other side.”

She rolled up her sleeve on the other side to look for a scar. It was on her

shoulder. I was stunned.

“Gen, are you okay?”

I didn't know what happened to me. It could be disappointment or whatever,but I couldn't speak. I went into the bathroom and locked myself there forhours. Why did he take those photos?!... Why did you take those videos?!