The next morning, after breakfast, the students of the volleyball team and the students of the book club sat on the beach.
Coach Somchai said, "Frank and Asnee come forward." Asnee and Decha walked up to Coach Somchai, and they stood on Coach Somchai's left. "You two are captains, so choose three students from the book club and three follow players. You two teams will play against each other. Don't spike too hard, we're just having fun today."
As the game went on for a while, near the end, Decha's team lost the game by four points. When the ball was thrown high at Asnee, Decha and two other players moved forward to block the ball, but Asnee did not jump to spike the ball as Decha predicted. Asnee passed the ball to a female student from the book club. She jumped up and hit the ball over the net. Due to the lack of momentum of the female student, the ball fell to the player standing next to Decha more than two yards away without any force.
Asnee cheered loudly, "Yeah..." He rushed to the female student and gave her a high-five.
When Asnee's team scores, the ball returns to Asnee's team. Players were rotated on the field, and a male student from the book club stepped forward to serve the ball. The male student of the book club served the ball, but it hit the net and the ball was passed to Decha's team. By chance it was Decha's turn to serve. Decha looked at Asnee madly and he aimed the ball between Asnee and the female student standing beside him. He jumped up and hit the ball with all his might. He knew that if the ball came in too fast and hard, Asnee would definitely protect the female student.
The ball dived towards them quickly, Asnee hugged the female student quickly, and the two fell to the ground. The fastball flew out and hit Santichai in the face, and Santichai was immediately knocked to the ground. The students gasped, and while some of the students were yelling at Decha, several female students and teacher Mai rushed to Santichai.
"Ai Frank, what the hell are you doing?"
"Yeah, man, you're targeting Ai Nee."
Decha was in shock when he saw Santichai lying motionless on the ground, "I... I didn't mean to."
"It was intentional. You did it intentionally."
Coach Somchai rushed to Santichai quickly. He said worriedly, "Chai...Chai." Santichai didn't respond.
Santichai just heard coach Somchai call him twice before he completely passed out.
When Santichai woke up again, he saw Coach Somchai sitting by his bed. Coach Somchai asked, "Chai, everyone said in unison that Decha was deliberately targeting Asnee because Asnee hit Decha yesterday. Is this true?"
Santichai knew that if he agreed like everyone else, Decha would be kicked out of the volleyball tournament. He said, "Coach, it's all a misunderstanding. Yesterday was an accident, and it's today too. Don't pursue it anymore."
Coach Somchai sighed, he knew that Santichai was lying, and he also knew that if Decha was kicked out of the team, their chances of winning next week were slim. He smiled and patted Santichai's left shoulder lightly, because he appreciated Santichai's kindness and thoughtfulness. He asked again, "Really?"
Santichai nodded, "Mmm."
Coach Somchai smiled and said, "Thank you. You are very thoughtful. I really appreciate your kindness."
After Coach Somchai left, Decha walked into the room. Looking at Santichai's half-bruised face, he couldn't help feeling deeply guilty. He sighed and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let this happen to you. I'm sorry."
Santichai tried to smile, but the pain on his left face was quite painful, and he said, "If you are really sorry, please reconcile with Asnee. You are a good person, I want to be your friend, and Asnee is too. If you're really sad about my situation, Frank, please apologize to Asnee."
Decha smiled and said, "Okay. Tsk...Ai Nee is not a good person. How can the person he dated protect him so well."
Santichai was taken aback, "You... how do you know?"
"I've known him my whole life. He is only overly protected towards people he's dating," Decha said.
Santichai asked, "Have you and Asnee been friends before?"
Decha said, "Yes, we were back in middle school."
Santichai asked, "What happened between you and him?"
Decha smiled awkwardly, "Ai Nee has a girl he likes very much and has been dating her for a few months. I have liked this girl since the beginning of the year, but she refused to go out with me. I told her that Ai Nee was gay, so she dumped him and turned to date me. Ai Nee was furious and rushed into my classroom and beat me, so he got kicked out of that middle school."
Santichai, "Did you know he's gay?"
"I didn't know he was gay at the time," Decha said. "I made it up so the girl will break up with Asnee. Now seeing him dating you, I guess I have the eyes of a witch." He laughed at his own joke.
Asnee rushed into the room and grabbed Decha's collar, "Get out."
Decha smiled and said, "Ai Nee, let's reconcile. I really didn't mean to spread the rumor that you were gay. I was just thinking about how to break your relationship with that girl. I was pissed. I asked her out first, but she decided to date you." He smiled. "Let's reconcile, I still want to be your friend."
Asnee grinned, "Why should I?"
Decha still laughed, "Because if we see each other as enemies, four years of college is too long to pretend to be cool to each other." He slowly removed Asnee's hand from his collar. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for sleeping with your girl and for causing you to break up with her. I'm sorry for getting you expelled from high school. Friends?" He held out his hand. "You know very well in your heart that you will never find a good friend like me." He smiled. "Don't worry, I don't like men." He winked at Santichai.
Asnee grinned, "Fine." He reached out his hand and shook Decha's hand.