Finally, the university term started.
Khem looked at himself in the freshman uniform with a proud expression in front of the mirror, then slung his cloth bag over his shoulder and stepped out of his room.
It took Khem exactly one hour to walk from his apartment to the university. Tired from the walk, he stopped to buy some water from a stall near the lecture building, still having plenty of time before his class.
"I don't need a straw, please." Khem told the vendor who was offering him a plastic straw. If it wasn't a biodegradable straw, Khem would rarely use one, showing he was quite environmentally conscious.
As he moved to stand by the stall, in the moment he was about to drink, his eyes caught sight of a flower pot that was about to fall.
'Oh no!'
"Watch out!"
Khem heard someone shout a warning, but even though he wanted to dodge, his body wouldn't move, as if it was pinned in place. Just as the pot was about to smash into his head, someone rushed in, colliding with him, and they both tumbled to the ground.
Crash!
"Scream!!"
The sound of the flower pot shattering was followed by screams of shock.
"Are you okay!?" The man who rushed in to help Khem exclaimed, his face full of concern. The man had honey-colored skin, bleached blond hair, and wore a small black headband.
Khem turned his pale face towards the flowerpot that had almost hit him.
"Uh, thanks for helping." He managed to say once his shock subsided, then let out a small yelp as he was pulled along.
"Hey, where are you taking me?" Khem asked in surprise. The other turned back with a serious expression, and intimidated, Khem followed
without protest until they stopped under a frangipani tree behind the academic building where it was relatively deserted.
The man looked around before turning back to Khem and said,
"Dude, you're being followed by a ghost."
"..."
"If you don't do anything about it, you're going to die."
Khem stood there, mouth agape, shocked by a stranger's sudden proclamation. With a furrowed brow, he asked,
"How do you know?"
"Just now, when the flowerpot fell, I saw it on the third floor. That was the ghost doing it." Khem was still reluctant to believe, though part of him already accepted it.
Look at all the strange things he'd encountered since he got here.
"It's okay if you don't believe me. I just wanted to warn you to be careful."
Khem hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"No, it's not that I don't believe you. I just don't want to accept it." The last sentence seemed more like Khem was talking to himself, "But thanks anyway. If you hadn't come to help, I would've definitely gotten hurt."
The other shrugged.
"No worries. I'm Jett, that's my real name. And you?"
"My name is Khem...Khemjira." Khem introduced himself. When Jett heard his name, he blinked, then looked him over more closely...
Khem gave a strained smile.
"My mom named me like a girl's name to ward off bad luck." Jett looked surprised and then scratched his head awkwardly.
"Sorry, I thought you were a girl because of your delicate features."
"It's okay, when I was younger, I looked more like one."
Jett nodded as if to say, "I thought so." Then asked, "So, which faculty are you in?"
"Fine Arts." Khem replied.
"Whoa, same here, first year, right?"
Khem's eyes widened, and he quickly nodded.
"Yeah, that's right." Jett laughed at our coincidence.
"Cool, let's be friends. First, can I have your LINE?" Khem was excited and happy, quickly pulling out his phone to add each other as friends.
"Let's go to class first, we can talk about your stuff later." Khem bit his lip and then nodded slightly.
They had classes until three in the afternoon. After class, Jett led Khem to sit at a marble table behind the building, the same spot where they had talked that morning.
"Okay, so, do you realize you're being followed by a whole bunch of spirits like this?" Jett said bluntly without giving Khem time to brace himself. Earlier, Jett had talked to him using the formal thai pronouns instead, but now was using casual pronouns because it felt more natural, and casual pronouns seemed more intimate to say. For friends, people prefer mung and Ku rather than naai and chan, which Khem agreed with, preferring using 'rao' for himself due to habit.
Khem hesitated before answering.
"Not really...But there have been many times I felt like I wasn't alone."
"..."
"Plus, lately when I go places, I often see strange things."
"Ghosts?" Khem was taken aback by Jett's directness, then nodded in acknowledgment, causing Jett to raise an eyebrow.
"So, you see ghosts elsewhere, but you don't see the ones close to you?"
Khem's eyes widened in surprise.
"You can see them, Jett?"
"I see them, but not clearly. Sometimes it's like grey smoke, other times black shadows."
"..."
"Like when I first saw you, there was both smoke and dark shadows, swarming all over your back."
"I'm seriously asking, what did you do to deserve this?" Khem swallowed hard. If he said he hadn't done anything, it wouldn't be entirely truthful, so he decided to tell Jett about the family curse. Upon hearing it, Jett fell silent, which made Khem feel down.
"Sorry for not telling you from the start."
"..."
"If you want to stop being friends because of this, that's okay, ouch!"
Khem clutched his head after getting a light tap, looking bewildered.
"That's ridiculous. Who would stop being friends for such a silly reason?"
Jett said with a furrowed brow. Khem thought about his high school friends who had distanced themselves from him, but he kept quiet.
Khem smiled.
"Thanks, Jett."
"If I didn't want to be your friend, I'd have no friends at all."
"Psh, Jett, you almost made me tear up."
"Haha, your face is hilarious." Khem's expression turned sour.
"Can we continue?"
"You're the one who led us off-topic. Anyway, there are many ghosts following you."
Khem felt a chill again.
"Right now too?"
Jett scanned the area.
"Yeah, but they're keeping their distance." Khem bit his lip, feeling more anxious.
"It seems like you've got something powerful with you, or something's protecting you. That's why they can't do much." Khem undid a button and loosened his tie slightly, pulling out a sacred thread to show.
"I have this, I've worn it since I was a kid." Jett leaned in to look closer, showing great interest but not reaching out to touch.
"Nice item, but its power has faded."
"What?" Khem was stunned. "How do you know?"
"I just know. I've dealt with stuff like this a lot." Hearing Jett's words made Khem even more stressed because if the sacred thread's power had diminished, it might explain why he was encountering more strange things lately.
"So, what should I do?"
"Take it easy, don't stress. Just give me your real name, surname, date of birth, and something you use regularly."
"Anything, right?"
"Except your underwear." Khem blushed, but seeing Jett's serious face, he realized he wasn't joking.
Khem took out a notebook and pen to write down what Jett asked for, along with a white handkerchief embroidered with his name, which his mother had made for him before she passed away.
"Okay, oh, and in the future, don't give something like this to anyone easily." Jett said seriously, causing Khem to furrow his brows.
"Didn't you ask for it?"
"How can you be sure I won't use it for something bad?"
"Oh."
"I'm just playing a scenario. You can trust me, but you can't trust others, I just want to warn you so you don't get hexed." Khem turned pale and quickly nodded in acknowledgment.
"Good, I'm heading back to my hometown this weekend. I'll consult with a monk about your situation to see if he can help."
"Thanks, Jett."
"Yeah. If you die, I won't have a friend to hang out with." Khem wanted to throw something at him.
"You're so annoying, Jett, you've been at it for a while now."
"Haha, damn, you're even swearing at me now!" Jett grimaced.
"You're such a pain, especially when someone's stressed."
"Alright, alright, come on, I'll treat you to some cold bread, I heard the shop in front of the uni is good."
Khem reluctantly agreed, following Jett like a chick following its mother, still a bit sulky but slightly confused about whether they were becoming friends too quickly.
Even though they had only known each other for less than a day, it felt like they had been friends for a long time.
Khem now fully believed that he was being followed by spirits.
Because Jett had told him that when he was around, the ghosts wouldn't approach Khem, thanks to Jett's protective amulets. Since then, Khem stuck close to Jett, going everywhere together except when they had to return to their respective dorms, and nothing major seemed to happen during those times.
There were still some minor disturbances though, like catching glimpses of things moving in his peripheral vision, hearing odd knocking sounds or objects falling, but nothing too severe.
Khem tried to keep himself busy, watching movies or reading books.
Today, after finishing his reading around 11 PM, he moved his chair to face an easel with a sketching board. The next class would assess their skills, judged by a sketch on any topic they were good at, whether it be landscapes, people, animals, or objects.
Khem was skilled at drawing people, and he planned to sketch his mother, thinking it was what he was best at.
His slender hand gripped a 2B pencil, aligning it perpendicular to the paper, squinting to gauge the distance before starting to sketch the initial
outlines of a face.
Khem had practiced drawing his mother's face frequently. The memories they shared were etched in his heart, always bringing warmth whenever he thought of her. This enabled him to draw her face from memory without needing a reference.
"Miss you so much." Khem smiled and muttered softly at the image of his mother's smiling face as he worked on the details, but suddenly he felt overwhelmingly sleepy, yawning despite himself.
Ugh, not now, just a little more and it would be done.
Khem told himself, trying to keep his eyes open, but the sleepiness was overpowering his mind until his hand began to droop, and he eventually gave in.
Khem fell asleep right there.
He woke up with a start, glancing at the wall clock to find it was past 2
AM. Shaking his head at himself, he decided to put away the easel.
"Damn!" Khem jumped up from his chair and backed away so fast that his hips hit the table behind.
The sketch of his mother, which was smiling, had transformed into awoman with only black, soulless eyes, and her smile had stretchedgrotesquely wide to her ears.