Chapter 3

"You swapped our dissertation papers, Tong?" Pok asked, in disbelief.

"Answer him!" Sandee shouted at Tong from beside.

"Yes, I did." Tong felt ashamed knowing that it was not needed at all. Both Sandee and Pok got pass marks on their dissertation and graduated as top of the class.

"You didn't have enough trust in me that I could do it by my own merit!" Pok's voice broke, reflecting his emotions.

"You put my future at risk. What if he was going to fail and because you swapped it, I could have lost one year of my life, repeating the project work. How could you, Tong?" Sandee had lost trust in his friend.

"I did it out of desperation. I am sorry. I have no words to justify this. Please forgive me." Tong had tears in his eyes. He felt like he has lost a friend and more importantly, he also lost the guy he secretly loves.

"But why?" Sandee pleaded for a just reasoning from his close friend.

"Before Pok's mother died, she asked me to take care of Pok and make sure her son succeeds in life. You have seen how weak Pok was in his studies. He was improving with my tutoring but I was still scared that he might fail. I just wanted him to come on top of the batch." Tong answered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Pok and Sandee both left. Tong broke down in tears, on the floor. He felt lost, lonely, broken.

---------------------------------------------------------

"We are going to your noodles place. Meet us at 1.30," Pok read Tong's message and left the office at 1pm.

He parked his car in front of Tong's office and waited for them to come out.

"This is Bank. Bank, this is Pok. We are roo...flatmates."

Pok smirked at how Tong was going to say roommates and then switched to flatmates, saving himself the embarrassment.

Pok asked Tong to get in the car and he would drive them there. Tong deliberately sat at the back, leaving Bank the front seat beside Pok.

Pok's eyebrows frowned at this.

It took three minutes time of driving and frowning within himself to reach the next road where the noodles shop was.

"Why did you not sit beside me?" Pok whispered as they walked inside.

"Because people who hate each other should not sit together."

"But we sleep together," Pok won this round. He grinned in his mind.

Pok passed a piece of meatball on to Tong's plate.

Bank noticed."You two must be close friends," Bank commented.

"Very, very close," Pok answered before Tong could open his moth. Pok matched his eyes with Tong and raised his eyebrows, teasing him and smirking.

"Bank, do you want a meatball?" Tong wanted to get back at Pok.

"No, he gave you an extra meatball, so you must love them a lot. You can have them. Take one from me too if needed." Bank offered.

"No, he only likes mine," Pok remarked.

Bank gave a blank expression, unable to understand.