Work Text:
Looking back, if any of them were asked about it years later, they’d blame it on Khu Thada, as all things can be.
The students of Bangkok Secondary School all have one thing in common -- every year, the students who are just before eleventh grade pray to be sorted into Class F. You see, Khu Kao has become a sort of legend among both the faculty and the student body. He’s been working at the school ever since he made it fresh out of college, after a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s in mathematics and education. The easy way he teaches as well as the care he takes in his students is nothing short of praiseworthy. Either way, the faculty loves him, the students love him, and the kids continue to pray every year that they, by some kindness, slip into his class. The people who do tell them stories of Khu Kao setting up insane experiments for chemistry, how he makes stories out of formulas, and tells them childhood tales of himself and Khu Thada. After Khu Kao came to work at the school, Khu Thada had soon followed to work as a sports teacher. None of the students know much about their relationship or how they know each other apart from the stories they both tell, and the apparent fact that they have known each other since university. It’s easy to spot them sitting together in the teachers’ room, or Khu Thada driving Khu Kao home after school, or one of them popping into each other’s class. They have, however, left behind a sort of legacy imprinted in every BSS student’s mind to be the best teachers they have ever had, as well as have the most famous friendship and mock rivalry within the school itself.
Ploy is one of the students lucky enough to be in both Khu Kao’s class, as well as in one of Khu Thada’s sports classes. When she had gone home and told her sister about it, just a few grades above her, she had been jealous immediately. It’s the first week of school, and all of her classmates are buzzing as they change into their sports jerseys and tie their shoelaces tight against her feet. Ploy combs her hair back into a ponytail as they file out into the gym, with Khu Thada standing with his little clipboard at the side.
He grins at all of them as they sit shoulder-to-shoulder on the bench, pushing and shoving. “Alright,” he says, clapping. “New school year, everyone! Now, it’s going to take me a while to learn your names, but I’m Khu Thada. We’ll be focusing on basketball for the first part of this semester, as we do in tenth grade. Is it okay for you all if we take a quick minute to go around the round, say our names, and a couple of interesting things about ourselves?”
The class murmurs their approval, and one boy grins and says, “Will you go first, Khu?”
“Sure!” says Khu Thada, and squints at them like he’s thinking. “I’m Khu Thada, I have a niece, and… hm, your Khu Kao is one of my best friends!”
“What’s your niece’s name?” asks another, and Thada shakes his head.
“That goes in the realm of too personal questions,” he says good-naturedly. Ploy rests her head on her hand. She’s never quite understood the craze around Khu Kao and Khu Thada’s personal lives, but she supposes she can see the appeal. “But maybe if you unlock a certain level, you can find out. Once I ask her parents, of course.”
They go around the circle, and Ploy says her name and that she likes drawing and used to play basketball when she was in seventh grade. She learns that one of her classmates is from Japan, one of them has a lizard at home, and that one is a bit of a football prodigy. Her best friend, Earth, leans forward onto his knees and says that he writes. While they’re warming up on the sidelines before going in for some drills, Ploy spots a phone lighting up on a sports bag a few metres away from her.
“Uh, Khu Thada,” she says, as the screen goes dark. “I think your phone’s ringing!”
Khu Thada waves a hand, helping someone with their stretches. “Let it be, I’ll call them back later,” he yells back. “Work hours, you know.”
Ploy lets it be, before the screen lights up again. It seems persistent, so she raises her voice again hesitantly. “They’re still calling, Khu!” she says.
He frowns and jogs over, shooting her a thumbs up on her jumping jacks. When he sees his phone, he sighs and accepts the call, putting it to his ear. “I’m at work, Pete,” he says, before his frown etches deeper into his skin. “Shit, did you reach Kao? Okay, I’ll go tell him. No, don’t worry, the kids will be fine. They’re tenth graders. Yes, I’m sure. Stay safe.”
Khu Thada tucks his phone away in the pocket of his basketball shorts and signals to Ploy. “Hey, kid,” he says, “can you keep watch for just a second? I’ll get one of the teachers to stand in, but I need to go and tell Khu Kao something, yeah?”
Ploy blinks at him as he races past her and out of the gym, the door banging shut as he does. She mumbles an “Okay?” after him. Everyone stops warming up to stare after him. Earth finishes his last push-up to jump up and smack her in the arm lightly.
“Did you hear that?” he asks, brushing his sweat slicked hair from his forehead. “He said something about Khu Kao, and a Pete?”
Ploy catches a glint in his eye and steps away warily. “No, Earth, don’t -- “
“Who do you think he could be?” he says, grabbing a basketball from the cart. “Maybe it’s his husband!”
“Don’t be silly,” says Ploy, as he passes to her. She runs up to the basket, one, two, three and jumps on the last one to execute the perfect layup. She misses, and the ball bounces off the backboard and back into Earth’s hands. “Shit. Here, let me try again. And don’t go poking around in Khu Kao’s business, Earth, we don’t know anything about him.”
“We do know he’s married.” Jump shot, Earth misses.
“Good for him.” Left layup, Ploy swishes the ball through the basket. “Yes!”
“Khu Thada said he had a niece.” Right layup, Earth shoots.
“He didn’t say much about her.” Jump shot, Ploy misses.
Earth lands back on his feet after another jump shot, sighing at her. “We know both of them are good friends,” he says, dribbling back up to the basket. “It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for us to assume that Khu Kao has a kid. Come on, you’re a hopeless romantic.”
“And you’re ridiculous,” says Ploy, rolling her eyes fondly.
“You are ridiculous ,” hisses Ploy under her breath, tugging at Earth’s sleeve. They’ve been in class with Khu Kao for a couple of weeks now, and none of the class has given up trying to figure out who the mysterious Pete is. After that sports class, it’s all her class has been buzzing about all week. People have been sending in theories into their LINE chat every day -- mostly gossip if Ploy is being honest -- but nobody has found any other mention of this Pete, or has the guts to ask Khu Thada or Khu Kao himself. Of course -- except Earth, because her best friend is the most absurd person she has ever met. “Do not bring him up. We’re in maths class!”
“Exactly,” says Earth, raising his hand. They’re going over class organisation, suggesting places to go on their trip -- maybe Pattaya, or Hua Hin, or anywhere that’s cheap enough for them to go and has enough things to see -- but Earth raises his damn hand anyway. Ploy tries frantically to get him to put it back down, but Khu Kao straightens up against his desk.
“Yeah, Earth?” he says, crossing his arms. Ploy puts her head in her hands, rolling her eyes as she refuses to look.
“First off, I think Pattaya is great,” says Earth, all earnest, and Ploy can’t even try and begrudge him. “Secondly, Khu Kao, is it okay for your family if you go away for such a long time? Won’t they miss you?”
Ploy thunks her head onto the table, looking up just to see Khu Kao giving him an amused little look. “Well, I assume your families will miss you all too,” he says, going back around the desk to pick up the chalk. “My family will be alright -- I do this every year.”
The others seem to catch on, because another boy in the front row pushes his glasses up and asks, “So you have children, Khu Kao?”
“A daughter,” says Kao, turning back to the board. “As much as I would love to talk about my personal life with you all, we do have a curriculum to get through. So open your books to page forty-seven and we’ll continue with maths, okay?”
A good-natured groan ripples through the class as they flip their books open. Ploy has just enough time to read and register the title before Earth is elbowing her. She sighs, turning to him. “What is it?”
“Did you hear that?” he asks, eyes glinting. “He said he has a daughter! Meaning what I said about Khu Thada and his niece could be right.”
Ploy sighs as she writes down the numbers on the board. “Don’t be silly, Earth. Come on, why is this so important to you, anyway?”
Silence. Enough to make Ploy worried and look up at him. In all of their days together, friends since they were in diapers, Earth has never been quiet. When she looks up, he’s donning a nervous expression, something that’s so unlike Earth that fear rises its shackles up inside of her. “Are you okay?” she asks, reaching out to touch him.
“I just think—well, if this Pete guy really is his husband, I think it would be nice to have a teacher who’s like us,” says Earth, scribbling down the sum. Ploy melts. This is her best friend, after all, and they’ve both been through a lot already.
“Alright,” she says, pointing a pencil at him. “You continue trying to find out who this Pete is—but don’t harass Khu Kao about it! And don’t out him!”
Earth brightens. “I won’t, I promise.”
Ploy smiles at him and turns her attention back to the front. She spots a little picture frame on his desk, turned to face him, and wonders what it could be. She immediately curses Earth for putting ideas into her head.
CLASS 11F GC
(Members list: unfurl.)
ploy: hey, does anyone remember what we had for homework in maths?
namtan:
Y’ALL I need to tell you what I overheard today
namtan:
so about this mysterious P’Pete
earthie: yes i am all ears :)
beam: Spill haha
namtan:
I was near the teachers’ room because I needed to talk to Khu Jane but as I was waiting, I saw Khu Kao and Khu Thada come out of the room
namtan:
they were talking about P’Pete! I don’t know how people haven’t noticed this before, but they were
jan: what were they saying? like if it wasn’t too private
namtan: I think it’s fine because Khu Kao saw me listening and kind of rolled his eyes fondly, but anyway!
namtan: from what I could hear and interpret, Khu Kao and P’Pete live together?
earthie: WHAT
ploy: okay i know you guys are really invested in this but can someone please just tell me what the maths homework is? :(
The Khu Kao and P’Pete conspiracy takes not only over her entire class, but the entire school. Maybe this is just testament to how boring things are around BSS, but soon it’s everything anyone talks about. Ploy goes from class to class as people wonder about how P’Pete is, coming up with wilder and wilder theories about who he is--that he’s his husband, his brother, Khu Kao and Khu Thada’s mutual childhood best friend--and Ploy keeps doodling in her notebooks and trying to pay attention to class. She’s pretty sure Earth and the others are trying to wheedle information out of Khu Thada, since Khu Kao is a stone wall. She’s watched as people try and fail to be discreet and ask about his family, and he just brushes them off with a change of topic. All anyone has found out so far is that he has a daughter, which probably means he’s married or was married at one point. It’s not for trying, however, and Khu Thada is less guarded than Khu Kao, meaning that he has let certain things slip. Ploy can’t forget them, because Earth has drilled them into her head, but so far she knows that Khu Kao and Khu Thada were friends since university, which everyone knows, have a big friend group, which is new information, and that Khu Thada knows P’Pete enough for them to be fairly good friends. This one Ploy experienced herself, the thing that really set everything off.
As she sits in maths class and ponders the entire craze around P’Pete, she realises one thing when she looks up at Khu Kao, all kind eyes and smiles as he leans over a desk and walks someone through their sums. Khu Kao is warm-hearted. People love him not just because he’s a good maths and chemistry teacher, but because he cares. She’s heard many stories of him sneaking students a self-help book or some snacks when he knows they’re going through a hard time, he helps them get their grades back up after a break, he cares about not only his class, but everyone at his school. Ploy’s in the design club, and they meet up at late hours, right before the school closes. Every time she walks past her classroom on the way out, she can see a flickering light in the darkness as she spots Khu Kao’s hunched shadow, poring over notes or talking to someone. He always has time for everyone. Perhaps that’s why everyone is so curious as to who P’Pete is. If someone cares for Khu Kao like he does for everyone, if someone makes sure he’s sleeping well and not exhausting himself and pushing himself to the brink every day.
Ploy hums and raises her hand to ask, “Can I go to the bathroom?”
Khu Kao nods, and she pats Earth on the arm before leaving the room, slipping out of the door. As she walks down the hallway past the secretary room, she spots a man standing in front of it, with his hands in his pockets and peering into the room. He brightens when she walks past him, and holds a hand out to stop her. “Hey, kid,” he says, and his voice is warm. “Do you know a Kao?”
“Yeah, he’s my maths teacher,” says Ploy, a smile pulling up at the corner of her mouth.
The man smiles back, and it’s a little like the sun. Ploy idly thinks that Earth would have a small crush on him. “Tell him Pete’s waiting for him.”
Ploy blinks, and doesn’t really register that she’s gaping until Pete looks at her concernedly, reaching out again to snap his fingers in front of her face. She jumps back to attention. “Uh, sure, I’ll let him know,” she says, and then remembers that she wanted to go to the bathroom, and also the past few weeks of school. “Also, P’... you should know that you’re kind of famous here.”
Pete frowns. “Popular?” he repeats. “What do you mean?”
“I’d love to stay and talk, but I kind of have to go to the bathroom,” says Ploy, gesturing in that direction. “You just… stay here, try not to tell anyone your name, and I’ll make sure that this goes as smoothly as possible, I guess.”
Pete has the most confused look on his face as she slips into the bathroom, but she supposes anyone would after being told that they’re popular at a high school they’re not a part of and have never been to. After going to the bathroom and slipping back out, she finds Pete sitting in the chair next to the secretary’s, brightening when he sees her. “Okay, are you going to tell me what this is about now?” he asks, and he sounds more amused than anything.
“So,” says Ploy, fiddling with the hem of her shirt, “I suppose you know him, but Khu Thada had a phone call with you a couple of weeks back, and ever since then, everyone has been trying to… well. Figure out who you are.”
“That’s…” starts Pete, and Ploy winces, but he laughs and then everything seems okay again. “That’s actually really funny. Hey, what do you say we give your classmates and your Khu Kao a surprise? Let’s walk down to your classroom, why don’t we?”
Pete starts walking, and Ploy has to jog to keep up with him. “I mean, if you’re sure,” she says, pulling a face. “What were you here for, anyway?”
“Kao forgot his lunch at home this morning,” says Pete, holding up a little plastic bag. “And it was my day off, so I decided to bring it to him.” Ploy blames Earth for her brain working overtime when he says at home . He must notice, because he laughs again, pushing the hair out of his face, and continues, “He’s my husband. Don’t tell anyone.”
“Earth was right,” mumbles Ploy under his breath. It makes sense -- it just does. “Is Khu Kao okay with people knowing that?”
“You’re a good kid,” says Pete, nodding at the door. “This it? And Kao doesn’t mind, he’s just a fairly private person with his students, although he loves you all to death. A lot of former students of his know he’s married to me just by figuring it out. I don’t think he’s ever told them directly.”
“That’s it,” says Ploy, peering in through the small glass window in the door. The class seems to be in a working phase, and Khu Kao is at his desk, going through some papers. “You’re going to cause a stir, P’Pete.”
“Nothing I haven’t done before,” says Pete, grinning, and he closes one hand over the handle and pulls the door open. Ploy sighs and follows him through, registering the quiet whispering drifting to a stop as she takes her seat and Pete walks inside the room.
As soon as she sits down, Earth latches onto her and whispers, “Who is that ?”
Ploy manages a little smile. “Oh, you’ll see.”
Their attention is directed back to the front as Pete smiles and holds up the plastic bag. “Don’t mind me, you guys get back to your maths,” he says, waving at the class. He turns to Kao, and Ploy watches with her hand on her chin. Pete’s eyes soften immediately as he moves closer to Kao, who looks just a little exasperated with him, but mostly fond. “Here, you forgot your lunch at home -- I thought I’d bring you some.”
“Thanks, Pete,” says Kao quietly, putting the bag on his desk. “You’re causing quite the drama by being here, you know.”
“I do,” says Pete, and the class is almost comically leaning closer to hear him speak. “One of your students told me.”
“You’re ridiculous,” says Kao, and he laughs. It’s then when Ploy really realises how much her Khu Kao must love P’Pete -- because his eyes go all soft and his mouth pulls up into this little smile afterwards that she’s never seen. Her heart calms. Perhaps it will be enough for the rest of the class, too, to know that someone takes care of Khu Kao, who takes care of everyone. “Okay, go wait in the car, I’ll be done soon.”
Pete smiles at him, patting his arm. “I’ll wait,” he says, and then he waves at the rest of the class. “Study well, kids!”
He disappears out of the door and Kao clears his throat. “Alright, so we’ll compare answers now if you all are done -- “
“Khu Kao, who was that?”
“Was that P’Pete?”
“What did he bring you?”
Kao puts a hand up and the questions stop immediately. “Yes, that’s Pete,” he says, picking up his book, “ and you have an exam next week, so we should get to maths.”
The class grumbles and quietens down as people raise their hands to give out the answers. Earth nudges Ploy and asks, “P’Pete is pretty cool, isn’t he?”
Ploy hums. “He is,” she says. “I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing more of him.”
She looks out of the door as Kao writes down the sums on the blackboard. It’s… nice to have met Pete. Clearly, he loves Kao a lot, enough to spend his free day driving to the school and giving him his lunch, but also enough to give him his space and respect his privacy of not letting everyone know that they’re married -- which makes Ploy smile as she scribbles down numbers into her notebook. It’s good to know that someone takes care of Kao. It’s good to know that someone makes him laugh, and smile, and make his eyes soft with love.
Maybe Earth had a little bit of a point. She is a hopeless romantic, after all.