A Tale Of Thousand Stars – Novel BoyLove – Chapter 3.2
Underneath the house was renovated into a simple working room. The room used to display the fairy-tale drawings drawn in crayons by that volunteer teacher, and students from remote areas. In addition, there are also pictures of charitable foundations.
Tian was looking left and right as he stepped into the room. It was strange that no one was here while the door was wide open.
“Excuse me, is anyone here?” He yelled.
“Normally, yes, but today is a holiday, so nobody came to work.” A low voice like a teacher’s voice intterupted the silence, made the visitor shocked.
“Maybe, I came to the wrong date.” Tian laughed to hide his embarassment. “I will come again the next day.” After that, he was about to leave.
A man who was about to rentire with a stout appearance, dressed in traditional Thai Mohom. He looked at Tian, skinny young man dressed in brand name clothes and accessories, and then he ask,
“Did you come here to do something related to charity?”
“I..” He gulped when he saw the eyes of opponent, but then he decided to say, “I want to register as a volunteer teacher.”
After hearing him, he couldn’t help raising his eyebrows as if he couldn’t believe it, because looking at Tian, he could immediately see that he was a rich and well-dressed man.
(*) Mohom or Morhom is a traditional Thai shirt made from fabric, shirt with short slevees, round neck with no collar or lapel. Usually dark green or black.
“Follow me” The old man took him to an office, with a sign right in front of the room.
‘Mr. Winai – Manager of SaengThong Foundation’
Tian slowly sat down in front of the desk of the person he thought was Winai. He let the manager stare at him for a while, then softly interrupted, “Do I need to write an application?”
Winai took a deep breath, then leaned his back on the chair with a more relaxed posture, “That will be later. Now, I want to explain to you again, just in case you haven’t understand what the ‘volunteer teacher’ is.”
Tian tightened his lips because he knew that the manager thought that he was thinking about fun. But when he was about to answer, Winai raised his hand as a sign.
“So like this, if you think you understand well, then answer some of my questions. What is the volunteer teacher does?”
“Uhm…” Tian didn’t know what to say. Is he currently being interviewed for work? “…bring knowlegde to the children so, they can apply it in the future. And I can teach everything. I can teach english, math and physics, because I am an engineering student.”
“I mean, I ask about you.” Winai smiled slightly tiredly, he looked at the boy sitting in front of who was a little strange. In fact, there are many young people come here to try new things to gain more experience in life, without knowing the purpose of being a volunteer, even if only a little.
“The word ‘volunteering’ means working for other with sacrifice, he’ll may feel happy going to a new place, meet new people, eat regional foods. But the physical hardship would discourage him. In the end, he would take his backpack and go home without giving himself the answer that, “So what’s the goal so far? What a waste of time.”
Tian dropped his shoulders, then looked down, he’s thinking of his current feelings and the confused thoughts he had been thinking these past few days. These things are really difficult to describe in a few sentences. But then the manager heard a hoarse sound in a soft voice,
“I…don’t know anything.”
Tian let out a breath that had been holding his chest for a while, his eyes looked up the elderly seriously.
“I really don’t understand what you said about sacrifice, but if ‘sacrifing’ helps me to be ‘happy’, then, I want to search for it.”
“So, why don’t you try other ways? Being a volunteer teacher needs to sacrifice a lot of things. The more you are the ‘teacher’ who teaches students, the harder it will be. Now, you don’t know how to do it for other people, then how can I trust you and send you to the remote places on mountains?”
“But I’m sure!” Tian quickly interrupted and his voice was a little louder. “…if I go to those places, I will have the answer for myself and come back to answer your question again.”
Winai shook his head tirelessly with this stubbornness, “What is your name, young man?”
“…Tian”
Tian means “diligent”, but that name doesn’t suit with this reckless guy.
“So, Tian, tell me where you want to teach?” The old uncle asked with a soft voice.
He responded without hesitation as if he already had that place in his heart. This time, it really made Winai feel confused,
“Phu Pan Dao.”
“The border of Chiang Rai province?” Winai thought for a while, “There is nothing there. No electricity, no running water, even though you are a man, but as you never lived there, It will be very difficult. I think, if you just want to try, can you go to teach in places sufficient conditions?”
When uncle Winai told that he couldn’t be there, Tian quickly ask with a little high tone, “If it is really that bad, why can a girl like Thorfun stay?”
“You..”the old man mumbled and then started to remember something, “Do you know Thorfun?”
Knowing that what he said was wrong, Tian just wanted to find a place to hide his face, he hurriedly but stammered, “I’m a friend of her cousin’s friend.” But he realized that the more he said it would be more wrong, because the person in front his is now looking at him with suspicious eyes.
“Thorfun certainly went there for her ideals. But he left because of confusion. Sooner or later she couldn’t stand the outback and return to the city after a few weeks like everyone else.” He meant after Thorfun died of an accident, other volunteer teachers who went to Pha Pan Dao, but no one stayed for three months as agreed.
“I don’t know what to do or say to make you trust me now, but I really want to go to there.” Tian said softly, he began to feel hopeless, because no matter what he said, the manager protested.
“Tian, being a volunteer teacher means that you need to interact with so many children of different ages. And I would say, it’s not an easy job. We have a requirement for all the teachers, to teach for the end of term. I think you are still in college, how can you balance these two things at the same time? ”
This is an important condition that affects whether or not to go, after Tian almost twisted his heart, he finally made up his mind.
“Something is going on inside my house, I don’t need to go to college temporarily. This is not a problem, I can get a long time there.”
Those words that he said, half true, half false.
Uncle Winai looked at the handsome face like Korean idol tiredly. Even if he tried to give a thousand souls a reason to extinguish Tian’s determination, there was no problem with him.
…In the end, Winai surrendered to Tian.
“Okay, I will let you go. There is a shortage of people out there, I hope that even though you didn’t get any answers from this trip, you can at least learn a few things.”
Uncle Winai saw that Tian was frowning, thinking he still didn’t understand what he said. So, he comforted him gently.
Tian nodded vaguely, he wanted to leave because all those words now seemed like nothing but theory.
“So, do I need to do anything else?”
Winai took out the registration form for Tian, “When this form is delivered, a team will contact you to prepare your personal belongings. Incidentally, Phu Pan Dao is a location under the supervision of border soldier.”
“Thank you.” Tian hurriedly took out a pen to write as though he were afraid the manager would change his mind.
The young man walked out of the office of saengthong foundation with delighted feeling of having achieved the purpose of today’s trip. But He did not know that the decision to pursue the dreams of others, is it only a temporary one because he wanted to break the standards that have kept himself for so long?
Tian stopped, his eyes filled with chaos, his hand slowly clenched. I’m fact, he was mad because he thought of making a ‘hero’ to help humanity from his own hands.
But, this hand..in the past, only hurt himself and those around him. Would it really help others?
The high-class guy shook his head to clear his distractions. While making such a bold decision, as a gentleman who said he did it, it shouldn’t be cowardly to back down.
He stepped out of the blue gate, Tian was suprised when he saw Tul’s car was still parked ahead. He bent down and looked inside the car, saw Tul lying and playing with the phone.
Slender hands knocking on the windshield glued with dark-colored film, the person inside jumped up and lowered the car window, “You are so late.”
“So, why didn’t you leave? ”
“I saw that you had already given all your money to that mother and her family, so how are you going home?”
Hearing that phrase from his friend, Tian frowned because he wass suprised by the answer, “Since when did my friend get so kind?” Maybe he forgot that he had no money, but he still had his phone, he could still call his home.
“Don’t talk anymore, get in the car quickly!” Tul urged his friend in annoyance for poking him.
Tian shrugged unconcernedly, then opened the car door and slowly got into the car. When the car started, everything fell silent again, only melodious music, nobody spoke to each other.
“Did you finish your business?” Suddenly, Tul spoke, but that made the next person annoyed. It was a stupid question, right?
“If I’m not done yet, will I walk out? What a strange question. If you want to ask something, say it.” Tian is a little impatient.
“Okay, I don’t go around anymore.”Tul let out a breath as if expressing all his inner troubles immediately.
“Thorfun, she donor her organ for you, right? And you are the one who signed up for that donation. So, if she didn’t have an accident but survive, the dead would be you. Am I right?”
Tian looked stupidly at Tul with a little suspicious look, “You told your dad’s people to investigate while you wait, so you wait for me just to talk about this, right?!”
“Tian, calm down a little.” Tul knew this was something he didn’t want to get involved in, but Tul felt that his friend’s actions were crazy now.
“I don’t know how much you learned about the donor named Thorfun. But, the fact is that you received only ‘her heart’, not her brain. It has no memory. So you don’t have to live for her.”
Incorrect! Tian wanted to argue back, but he could only bite his lip. If this ‘heart’ really didn’t have any memories, why when he see that soldier’s image, his heart was pounding so fast?!
Tian closed his eyes to calm himself and then slowly said, “I don’t know how much you know. But, I hope you don’t stop me. In fact, the things I do now, I was already thinking. It’s been a long time since I made that decision.”
Tul laughed sorrowfully, because he couldn’t stop his friend, “If I’m not wrong, you came here to register as a volunteer teacher like that girl, right?”
Knowing there was nothing more to hide now, Tian freely admitted, just nodding and listening to Tul complain.
“Why didn’t I guess a lottery ticket like this! Why are you following her path? Your life and her are different. Thinking about the scene where you have to sleep in the middle of the ground, eat in the sand, teach the Karen children. I really can’t figure it out.”
(*) Karen are a group of the Karenni people, a Tibetan – Burmese ethnic group of Myanmar. Since the 17th century, a part of this person has moved to Chiang Rai province – Thailand.
Identity : Women and girls often wear a lot of bow ties for long necks.
“At least, I have passed the military training.”
“Tell me, do you think your mom will let you go? Or are you planning to make a spoiled child run away from home and leave the letter as a souvenir?”
Tian looked back at Tul with a face full of confidence and sparkling eyes, “Your idea is good. My mother probably won’t allow it. Now, the only way is to leave home.”
Oh god, please! Tul angrily patted the round head with his hand, “If that’s the case, your father will surely use military power around the country to find you.”
“Then you have to help me.” Tian touched his beaten head.
“Your dream! I don’t want to be put of death. You can do whatever you want, and I don’t have the heart for that.”
“It’s fine, but don’t tell anyone.” Tian saw his friend agree so he was relieved because, at least Tul was the one who kept his word.
At the afternoon, the children’s laughter echoed throughout the mansion, after the shower, Tian heard, and walking out of his bedroom to another room to see what was wrong.
About 10 years ago, the room was once decorated into a wonderful world, which contained billions of toys from around the world to please the youngest master of general. But now, it become a place to store the crazy treasures of Mrs. Lalita.
Tian saw that the door was a little open, so he took a look and found three children playing inside. In other words, his nephews, who were born from the first and second husband of his sister, respectively.
“Tam, Ton, Taem!” He shouted loudly, before walking through the belongings that the three monkey had randomly splashed to play, “…Who let you guys come in here? All of grandma’s things will be broken!”
“Mom said find a place to play, but don’t go out.” Tam, the nine-years-old boy replied, sounded very suitable for his eldest role.
“Then come down. I will open the game to play.” Tian was trying to control his explosive mood, but when he saw the two other nephew trying to pull the robots in his collection from the glass case, he couldn’t calm down anymore.
“Ton, Taem! Put the robot where it was!” The young man pointed his finger at the command, his handsome face now grimaced was no different from Yak. But, the two children ignored him and continued to play with the robot. They also bounce back and forth, running around the room happily enjoying it.
(*) There is a story that Yak was a Yaksa who specialized in cannibalism and was reclaimed by the Buddha, so he asked to be a God to protect the temples. Yak has a tall physique, fierce face, wide eyes, wide mouth, red tongue, sharp jaws and sharp teeth.
Tian watched the small figure running around the room in exasperation. He knew that his childhood was naughty as well, but now that he received the retribution, he just wanted to apologize to all the nannies right away.
After being irritated for a while, Tian deciced to catch his naughty nephews to the point where everything was all messed up.
The eldest and the middle nephew nodded to each other then saw the young man grab the youngest nephew and regaining the toy succesfully. While Tian was crouching down due to the height difference between adults and children, Ton and Taem jumped up to hug his neck and locked his neck from behind.
The suprisingly heavy weight make the knees of the tall, skinny boy bend to the floor. He tried to knock away the giant leech that clung to him, then he fell with the limited – edition Gundam robot, and the collision with the tiled floor caused the robot to burst into a pieces. At that moment, Tian’s mind went blank because he was shocked.
“Damn it!” He shouted loudly without caring about how rude it was to children. Tian tugged on the arm of his second nephew because he still hadn’t realized the mistake, and he even kicked the robot against the wall.
“I told you to put it down! And this is how it all broke! Why are you so stubborn?!” He shouted and involuntarily clenched his small arm, causing Ton to scream and call for his mother. When one child cried, the other two also cried along. Resulting in a cry that reached the entire floor below.
Mrs. Lalita and Pimprapha, who were talking in the living room, rushed to see when they heard the crying of children. The second elder sister of the Sophaditsakul family or the mother of three naughty children is angry, when she sees her brother using force with his children. She rushed in, pushing the young man’s chest out while screaming.
“Tian! Why did you hit my son?!” Pim sat down to cuddle her frightened children.
“This kids ruined my toy. I told them to keep it, but he didn’t hear it and ran around the room.” He responded eloquently, then painfully picked up the wreckage of his beloved robot.
“They are still young, they don’t understand! These various toys are broken, then I’ll bought another one and my children won’t find it anymore.”
The slender hand clenched tightly, “…won’t find it but will do it again, right?” When the sister opened her mouth to swear to him, he immediately argued in a loud voice, “And this toy, you can’t get it back. Even if you find it in the next life, it can’t be replaced!”
“But don’t you dare hit my children. Tian, my bad brother!!” She shouted so loudly that Lalita had to stop them.
“Come on, nobody’s lucky. Pim, take your children and get them down to eat candies.” Then she turned to look at the youngest. “And Tian, talk with me.”
Tian bit his lip in annoyance, while following his mother out of the house. Behind him was the angry look from Pimprapha.
They both entered the General’s empty room and the son sat in a chair in frustration.
“Tian didn’t hit Ton. P’Pim did it too much, spoiled the children like this.” Tian complained.
“My son, look at me. Did you that seems reasonable? When you were young, you were so mischievous that my nannies had to resign.”
“But, this time, you are not on my side.”
Mrs. Lalita shook her head tiredly, then said in a soft voice, “Well, not to mention old stories anymore, see how old they are and how old you are. I’m an adult and I think you should think carefully before doing something, okay?”
“Definitely calm down, if they didn’t ruin Tian’s stuff! The robot is..” His first birthday present on the day the whole family reunited to celebrate together. Tian immediately closed his mouth, before he took off his weak shell.
“Okay, stop it,” he shrugged. “Let’s just say Tian is impatient with children, and that’s why I spoke harsly to them.”
Hearing that sarcasm, Tian’s mother sighed. She walked closer to her son, and gently rubbed his head with her hand, comforted him, “At least, I’m glad you think that violence doesn’t solve anything.”
Tian remained calm for a while, and in his light brown eyes appeared an apologetic expression. If he hadn’t encountered the serious event of life and overcame it, now he would probably still be living in a scene where his mother would suffer.
…Was this the right thought for him to choose to move forward facing a completely different life?
Tian reached for the plump hand resting on his head and held it gently, “…Tian doesn’t want to disappoint mom anymore.”
Mrs. Lalita raised an eyebrow at the son’s serious but strange words. Even though she had a bad premonition, she was happy, “What is it, my son? Have you seen so many Chinese movies? It seems like you’re going to say goodbye to me to run away from home.”
At that moment, Tian hugged his mother’s waist, he looked down, then answered in a choked voice as if he had pinched his nose, “Maybe I’ll go.”
“As long as you don’t go racing. Don’t go to bar until early in the morning to go home, I’m happy.”
“I know.” He was afraid his mother would mention the previous story, so he hurriedly interrupted, “Can you tell the maid to bring dinner to Tian’s room? I don’t want to go down and fight with P’Pim again.”
“Alright. Do you want to eat more fruit? I got some fuji apples today, all of them are huge.”
Tian nodded silently in agreement, then held his breath and said, “I will be playing games late at night, so I will wake up very late. Don’t let anyone come to wake me tomorrow.”
“Ok, I will tell someone to bring it to you later. Tomorrow, the parents have something to do with the army early in the morning.” Mrs. Lalita bent down to kiss her son’s smooth forehead, “Don’t stay up late, remember to sleep early.”
In the middle of the night, the whole mansion turned off the lights, leaving only one room on the second floor and the electricity was still bright. The branded backpack that secretly Tian bought online is full of personal belongings and clothing. The young man was engrossed in the closet, he took his coat, hat, and scarf.
Although this month is the last month of the rainy season and it will be a little cold. According to Uncle Winai, Phu Pan Dao is very cold. Tian looked at the fully charged laptop, but remembered that there was no electricity there, sometimes the 3G signal didn’t work, so miserable.
Ok, finished. No need to bring anything. He will die because the internet can’t be played.
The tall, skinny man laid himself down, his hand on his forehead, after rolling around many times, he seemed to think of something, so he quickly jumped up. He searched the drawer next to the bed where someone’s diary was, then opened the last page to see before the blue handwriting disappeared forever.
A story without end…
Her little dream – that girl, is to be the light that never goes out inside this beating ‘heart’.
Tian reread that paragraph so much that he almost memorized every single word. The light-brown eyes glanced the photos that were there in front of them with mixed emotions.
Is it possible to meet ‘him’ in the Phu Pan Dao?