The Effect The Series Chapter 6: Lies are believable than the truth!

THE EFFECT: THE SERIES

The Effect The Series Chapter 6: Lies are more believable than the truth!

Although the days of going out to tutoring at the coffee shop for many days have passed, but I can still remember the stress on P'Keng that day very well. P'Keng's stress was the turning point in which I had decided to try to not know about the words from others' mouths or hear about them. Because of the effects of being too attentive to others, it makes people close to me so frustrated that even I felt guilty.

But my efforts have never gone to the point of anticipation when not hearing things from others does not seem okay. For example, today, when a group of people approached me to the marble table that I was sitting spinning how to write a report with Pramote.

"Khun"

"Yes?"

"Are you gay like what they say?”

"Huh?"

"I wouldn't want to ask or want to know about your private matters at all. But there were a lot of people asking me to ask you since they think I'm the middlemen. They probably saw that we were in the same class so they came to me, so I'm being crushed with questions and decided to ask. You probably understand me, right?”

"Yes"

"So, I would like to ask another question: that person wants to know how close you are to P'Keng, but did you also stay loner and not talk to other people until you got him because you wanted to seem masculine as well. Until you got close, right? And you secretly knew that P'Keng was gay before, right?”

"No"

"No? About the story of knowing that P'Keng is gay or saying that you're not close to him?”

"No on both matters and we are close but not like that”

"Really?"

"True, we know and be close to him like the only senior and junior relationship."

"So you're gay?"

"No"

"If you are not gay how can you be close to someone that is gay?”

"And how do you know if he is gay?"

"Don't answer with questions."

And in the end, this question came back to me once again, about whether the two of us were lovers or if I was gay. In truth, these questions have all been answered by Pramote many times. So I started to not be sure whether they actually wanted an answer from me or they only tried to make me give the answer they wanted to hear.

The story is that they will think of me as gay, that I pursue men. If you ask if it's a problem for me? If as long as it doesn't affect my studies and my peers, it won't be a problem for me at all.

But this time I was worried because it might have a direct impact on P'Keng, who is a university representative. Therefore, even if I get bored or annoyed with sitting as a stable target for them to walk in and ask things they think they are entitled to, I still sit. Answer these questions without escaping. Because I want them to know the truth and stop talking about the untrue things. If the more people escape, the more I think.

"I have answered it already."

The group that approached me asked decided to walk away after not getting the answer they wanted. As soon as they left I closed my eyes, I closed the notebook that was spinning because even if I tried to be diligent and continued. I believe that the work I had done would not be good so I decided to sit quietly. Meditate for a while and then start over again when my head is calmer.

"Shin"

"Huh?"

"Have you ever thought about asking the senior?"

"No, for me it is a personal matter"

"And if he is gay like other people say?”

"Man, no matter what, I'm not interested in that there. When he was close to me it wasn't because I haven't any other friends aside from you Pramote. Therefore, for us just he is the kind person that he is now. That's all.”

"And what if P'Keng wasn't a good person? What if he just makes his image look good by pretense?”

"Pramote, listen to me. I believe in my intuition that are not wrong. P'Keng will never be a bad person. I know him. If you want to know then you just go and talk yo him.”

"Are you seeing him as a good person because he agreed to be another friend of yours? Are you sure you are seeing all sides of him?”

"I'm confident"

I know Pramote has good intentions. It's not strange that Pramote has a question like this, because he himself didn't get close to P'Keng the way I was close to him. He must have been suspicious. But for me, I am the one who knows the identity of P'Keng by myself. I am confident enough in P'Keng and I believe that P'Keng is not just creating good images. If that's the case, then how it possible is that no one has ever seen the bad side of P'Keng?

"And if one day someone says that P'Keng is a bad person? You may just not know them yet.”

"What is Pramote trying to tell me?"

"I didn't say anything. I just asked."

"So I can say that I do not believe that there will be such a thing."

It seems like Pramote knows that I'm getting upset. Pramote stopped talking about these things. I am not angry that Pramote questioned it, but I am angry about why everyone believes other people's words. That some people do not even know our identity at all. For me, the mouse is only the mouse and even then just look at the story of them saying that I'm going out with P'Keng. What percentage of truth is there?

"Whenever these matters will end how long do we have to be like this?”

"Don't be stressed. Untrue matters will meet a quiet end. And if I were you, I wouldn't answer to anyone else. The more you explain it, the more you talk, which will make it easier for others to continue talking like this. Don't care for anyone's thoughts.”

..................................................

The following month was a month of brutality. Including reports, midterm exams, all groups of students, we busy and maybe because of this busyness, no one cares about me anymore and finally I was able to live quietly in university again

"Exam is finished, yeah"

"Thanks P'Keng for his study sheet too. If we didn't get the senior's sheet, we would be in a bad situation.”

"Sure, I will tell him, but what should we eat today today before separating?”

But then, when I walked down from the exam room, I met a group of people waiting to be at the bottom of the building. Pramote saw that and felt it wasn't that good, so he walked to the  other side of my side.

"Honestly, this is sure to not be good if it looks like this, right?"

"What did I do?"

"The last time you did it, you said it's not a problem. You rejected to answer but still saw P'Keng being dragged up into the room forever. Anyone who I saw this time would say that they do not know anything else is that right?”

"Well, I don't know about that."

"In the past, I wasn't very interested. But this is played to the point that its getting back at P'Keng. It is the damage that is going to fall on him. And you know, his work with other people will suffer as well. Seen the hardships of what he faces”

"What happened to P'Keng?"

"If you are going to act so stupid then you should go to the university's webpage in order to stop pretending to be ignorant about it and you Mr. Glasses are you still going to protect him?”

"I think P' you have to ask himself."

"Ah"

"Pramote c'mon don't do it.”

I dissuade Pramote when I saw that it's not a good thing to stand up and argue here. It would not be a pretty sight to see a man like me go and brawl about a man with another woman.

When I was able to drag the Pramote far away from its original spot I quickly took my phone out to check on the university's website. I felt my name go numb the as soon as the website loaded.

The back-story of the mouse that I’ve tried to think of is a small matter. That story became a big rumor today and then evolved in to a big deal. When suddenly P'Keng's pictures were dropped from the university's webpage, plus the pictures on various university websites. With P'Keng representative image still being changed to another person's picture

"What happen? When did this happen?”

"The only person who can answer you is the owner of that picture. Keep calm. It may just be a university changing things."

"So, i will go to find P'Keng first. Can we postpone today's lunch.”

"Okay laters man"

While looking for him, I tried to call P'Keng several times, but I was unable to contact P'Keng. This again, I decided to walk out to see P'Keng without even knowing whether he is still at university or not. Like that, the time when we first knew each other

I walked until I was exhausted, then stopped and sat down to rest at the lotus pond that I had arranged to once meet with P'Keng. Trying to think if I was P'Keng during this time, where would I go? While I think about the places P'Keng should go to my phone rang, I hurriedly accepted because I thought it was P'Keng, but it wasn't.

"What's up, Pramote?"

"Have you met P'Keng yet?"

"To"

"Shin"

"Huh?"

"Don't think too much it will be okay man."

"Thank you, see you tomorrow."

I thought about looking back at many things and didn't know what inspired me to think of Facebook groups that I had never thought of going back into. I repeatedly asked myself many times before I enter into those pages that if  I thought it was a good thing to know what's going on, right? But I gave myself the answer that I went in just to find out the truth about just that. If I end up not finding anything, I will come out without reading any other content.

"What is this?"

As soon as my fingers clicked into the blue symbol on the feed page, there are images and other topics popping sporadic. But the status topic that has the most hateful comments was inevitable.

(OMG, handsome guy named A was suddenly stripped of his bright shining light at the front. Don't translate the party in the back: Enemy.)

[1] A person loosing all the good things at the front because of the issues at the back (gayness)

The comments there were both expressing sympathy and pity that P'Keng had to suffer across this kind of story. But the message of sympathy is very little when compared to the satirical and supplementary bad mouthing text, like a fluttering fire

"Has it been like this for a long time? I've seen people following other people's xss since high school."

"There is black shit coming back from there, apparent Mike said it was a cool style"

"Request confirmation clip"

"Yeah, about the clip, I saw him saying that he likes this, forward it.”

"The clip is on the phone. How else would he be there? *From people who used to ask for clips to watch it*”

"Oh, so hot. I doubt he is a back door person."

"Pity him, who encountered news like this, but if anyone has a clip please share it so we can see if it's true?”

"This event has to be a set up to get rid of him. The beginning of the story. He was quiet with himself for many years. Now everything is being portayed as newly released."

"Yeah, really, come to serve us the clip, we all starving. This is not possible.”

"Crazy, I'm flatout by this as before, someone asked and he said no one is gay.”

"If you believe that then your mother gave birth to a buffalo (attached picture)".  [1] Buffalo means stupid.

The picture that this comment attached with was a picture that I was holding P'Keng in the photography class trip. On the night that P'Keng was drunk until  he fell to the ground and I was helping to carry him.

"OMG. Ooi, I have never seen this before. Still, there is not much proof from this."

"The insider said that they went to this camp session like going to a private honeymoon."

"Expand on the inner circle, how did it continue?"

"Ooi, if you say, all the inner circles friendship are broken. That was even more serious than the debuting news.”

"Is this the news that he really likes to shoot video clips and likes xss?"

"As far as reading it, do you think it's true?"

"If you know that this issue, I arrange for friends to do something for you"

"Ooi, from the image I saw I was being jealous of him, he has a good-looking hair. Can I also get it on with him?"

I read every comment thoroughly. Many comments are blaming me for causing this kind of thing to happen to P'Keng. Plus many comments that say I'm working with P'Kengs nemesis.

But these messages still can't make me feel as sad as the pictures from the club. Regardless of being a member of the club or not, I don't know who it was took the photo and spread the lie.

All the time, I have always thought that everyone in the club was ok with me being in the club, but seeing things like this it is not at all. It's not everyone who is ready to be my friend as they shows.

Keep watching I saw the image being uploaded sporadically. Every picture that has a picture of me and P'Keng will have only bad comments. The picture taken from P'Keng's IG, which is the night sky image that we intend to take on that night, was filled with only sarcastic comments. Really the sky must be either yellow or bright, so it's good to take some pictures. Comments that I have seen saying that the beautiful pictures of people who joined the club are good. There were no more of those.

I closed the page because I couldn't read it anymore. If possible, I'd like to explain to them all that P'Keng and I are not what they say. But if only I said that it was not true, would anyone believe what I said? Because even though I said I'm not gay, no one believes me.

What should I do next? Now I begin to understand Pramote's feeling why he doesn't say anything when he is nicknamed "Mr. Glasses Boy" so should I really be quiet as Pramote says.

TBC