A FEW MONTHS LATER:

I was finally free from that wretched school since my 10th boards were atlast over. The last few months in the school had been hellish with almost daily bullying and the innumerable hurtful taunts.

I was no longer even the least bit interested in continuing in the same place and thanks to a long standing rule in mae's side of the family I was no longer required to go to that cursed place. According to the rule, all the children of the family were required to attend a boarding school to complete their 11th and 12th grade to make sure that no distractions obstruct their journey towards their goal since those two years were the pivotal years of one's life and even though mae's side of the family had barely any interest in me, they were not willing to let go of their tradition for any child that rooted from their family.

Ofcourse I had to travel alone to the school since mae and Phaw were too uninterested in the whole thing to want to even drop me off.

"Porsche Pachara Kittisawasd?" The receptionist enquired.

"Yes" I replied.

"This way. Your homeroom teacher must be waiting for you." She informed and guided me to my class.

"Class! Be quiet! Introduce yourself child." The teacher said as I entered the class. From what I had heard they didn't usually take any new admissions after 9th class but my case was different thanks to my uncles having connections in the school.

"I...I'm Porsche Pachara Kittisawasd. Nice to meet you all". My voice was not too loud but wasn't inaudible. The students started whispering as soon as their attention shifted towards me and I wanted to puke the moment I saw the scene.

A lot of terrible memories of the old school cascaded into my mind making my stomach churn. The teacher directed me towards an empty seat and my legs wobbled as I walked towards it. With great difficulty I succeeded to reach the place and sat down. I was unknowingly burrowing my nails into my skin due to how wildly my heart was beating and just wanted to run out of the class.

The teacher maybe understood my uneasiness for, she gave me a faint yet reassuring smile before making the students turn their attention towards her and started the lesson to have them stop whispering about me.

I slowly started calming down and thankfully by the end of the period, I had calmed down by a considerable margin. The bell rang and the moment the teacher was out of the class, I dipped my head into my arms and pretended to be asleep not wanting to face the curious kids.

After the classes were over, I was shown the way to the hostel and to my room and met my roommate. It was a two-people room and I was quite relieved since I had been dreading the possibility of having to stay with a whole crowd.

"Hey, this is Pete". He extended his hand for a handshake.

"Porsche" I nodded and shook his hand as I gave him my name.

"I know. Welcome to Satthaya High." He welcomed me with a smile and I felt my heart skip a beat for, I had never been given such a pure and joyful smile before.

"You-you're cute" I whispered but he heard it owing to his sharp senses.

"Hm? Thanks!! You're adorable too" His smile was even brighter this time.

'A baby chick?' was all that came to my mind after seeing him.

"Oh right, how did you enter the school?" He asked.

"My uncle has contacts with the school principal. He said that all the generations of my family have attended this school and the family is a major stakeholder, so there was no problem in getting enrolled." I answered. L

"Ohh...makes sense. Everyone was confused when they saw you since the school doesn't take any admissions after 9th grade." Pete informed.

"Um...is that why everyone was staring at me?" I asked wandering if he would give an answer or would choose to ignore someone like me.

"Pretty much, but it was also because you know...you've got quite the looks." He said perplexing me.

"What looks?" I questioned.

"What do you mean what looks? The way you look? Dude...don't tell me you didn't know that you have the face of a model, like boy you are quite handsome on top of being cute! Have you never been complimented by your friends for your looks before?" He sounded curious.

"I...don't have friends...but the seniors back there did say something similar"

"What?" He asked.

"That if they looked like me they would've chosen to die and that I make toads look handsome" I repeated the words and he looked visibly taken aback scaring me if I had done something wrong.

"Ok first, that was nowhere near to what I said and second, tell me you punched them! Like how jealous does someone have to be to say that to a junior?" He sounded frustrated.

"You know what. Forget about them, and from now on remember that you are good looking as hell and don't let anyone make you believe otherwise. Anyways, get changed, store away your things and take a rest. We've got to go for self studies at sharp 6:30 pm and let me tell you, they are quite serious about the self-study time so you better not miss it." He warned me and after giving me last smile slipped into his blanket and drew it upon himself making me wander if he was trying to get himself suffocated.

Two hours later:

"Pete. Petee" I tried to wake him up.

"Peteee-" On the third time I was hit by him with a pillow.

"I don't wanna wake uppp" the muffled voice barely reached my ears.

"Wasn't he the one to warn me to wake up in time?" The mild hypocrisy amused me.

"PETE PHONGSAKORN SAENGTHAM!" An elderly voice came piercing through the closed door and echoed in our room.

Pete threw the blanket away and sat up in an instant.

"Yes sir?" He said in the clearest voice I had ever heard as if to pretend like he was not fast asleep.

"You are not still sleeping, are you?" The voice questioned.

"Not at all sir. I've doing my best studying from the past three hours!" The lying ability was commendable.

'Does he have an acting background or something?' I thought seeing the Oscar worthy acting unfold right infront of me.

"Good. Don't be late to self-study today." The voice said before walking away.

Pete listened quietly as the sound of the footsteps kept getting weaker and once even the trailing noises disappeared he gave out a deep sigh before plopping on the bed again.

"That old geezer is gonna be the death of me someday!" He sighed.

"Uh...Pete?" I called him softly.

"Yes?" He answered.

"Why is that man staring at us?" I asked signalling towards the window that was right infront of us and had Pete's bed in full view.

Pete looked in the direction and I saw life practically draining out of his body.

"When I said that the old geezer was going to be the death of me, I didn't think that the time would come so soon." He said in a grieving voice.

"The warden? Wasn't he outside our door like a moment ago?" I was beyond confused.

"Both the buildings are connected" He said as he awaited his destined fate.

Within a minute, someone started knocking on the door and with a heavy heart and heavy feet Pete dragged himself to open the door and was given a earful for lying.

After a good five minutes, he came back to the room and I had no idea what to do to uplift his mood and was visibly troubled.

But he ended up exceeding my expectations.

"I hope he gets diarrhoea" was the first thing he said upon entering the room.

"What-" I was clueless.

"And I hope he gets fed really spicy food on top of it..." He continued.

"Huh-" I barely had any time to register it.

"And the water and tissue paper runs out before he gets to finish doing his stuff-" He kept adding things to it.

He had quite the brain full of ideas for such a cute face.

"And then he takes the wrong medicine worsening his condition." He finally concluded and I was speechless by the end of it.

"That wasn't your first time wishing something dire upon him, was it?" I asked since he sounded pretty fluent in the curse.

"Ofcourse not. It's a daily ritual! He loves to give me an earful everyday you know." He explained.

"Anyways, let's go, we'll get late if we don't leave right now." He said. And we instantly picked up our books and rushed out of the room to avoid recieving anymore scoldings.

An hour later:

"Porsche Pachara Kittisawasd, your family is here." The warden ordered me to follow him.

I was pretty sure that he was mistaken since there was no way mae and Phaw would be willing to travel to another town just to meet me.

I followed him into the principal's office only to find a slightly familiar face which was neither mae's nor phaw's. However, his features were similar to mae's, thus it didn't take me long to figure out that he was my uncle.

He introduced me again to the principal and asked him to take good care of me which was quite unexpected and after standing silently for a while, I was called out of the office by him to talk about something in private.

"Yes uncle" My voice barely managed to reach his ears.

"When are you turning 18?" He asked.

"In about 6 months." I said.

"You are quite the unlucky lad, aren't you?" He scoffed.

"Do your best to study and find a job that you can take as soon as you get out of the school. You know your parents detest you, right?" He asked.

I agreed without a second thought. Afterall, that was something that had been constantly drilled into my mind from a young age.

"The Kittisawasd house cares for the lives of the children of the house hence anyone who tries to kill you will be given a fearful death. However, the rule stops applying to the children once they turn 18, so they'll have to fend for themselves once they reach adulthood. Weren't you confused as to why would your parents choose to raise you if they hated you so much? To put it simply, they had no way to dispose you off without getting reprimanded by the family. So they chose to take their frustration out on you while making sure to not end up killing you since they are forbidden to do that." He elaborated the situation.

"So I had to suffer in that hellish place while wishing for death every single second because of that shitty rule? What's the point of going on living if the life is worse than death?" I was in utter disbelief.

"None. But it's a century old rule which we are bound to obey. So now that you've received a chance, do your best to cling too any possible opportunities and get out of their clutches. Once you turn 18, they will try their best to get you killed, so do your best to survive! Try not to give in. Now then, I have to go back. I hope you get to create some good memories while you are here." His wish sounded genuine and he was the second person in life who was related to me by blood yet towards whom I didn't feel extreme hatred. The first one was my biological dad ofcourse, the person I loved the most.

I came back to the study room but couldn't get his words out of my mind.

"What should I even live on for?" Was the only thought that I was getting repeatedly.

"Your family must really love you to visit you on the very first day." Pete whispered. I wanted to protest but didn't feel like saying anything hence kept my mouth shut and just gave him a soft smile.

"I wish" I whispered softly to myself.

(Now then, that was all for this chapter. So, how are you all doing?<3)