At a greenhouse café by the road in Charoen Krung, the regular meeting spot for Petra and her best friend Tharin, Petra sat waiting at their usual table with her favorite latte.
Not long after, Tharin appeared, accompanied by a tall, lean woman with a cool short haircut and a capable, no-nonsense air. Petra was surprised because she had never seen this woman before.
"I'm hereeee... my beloved bestie."
Tharin's voice rang out as she greeted Petra with a bright smile. Petra smiled back, then turned to look at the unfamiliar woman beside her before meeting her friend's eyes again. Her gaze was clearly asking, Who is this woman?
Tharin understood immediately.
"Oh... this is Nut," Tharin introduced her, then leaned down to whisper beside Petra's ear. "My new talking stage. What do you think? Handsome, right? Clean-cut handsome. Super cute. Total Dr. Jeab vibe.*"
[*Dr. Jeab refers to Lalana "Jeab" Kongtoranin, a well-known Thai doctor, actress, and former Miss Thailand, often associated with a clean-cut, charming tomboy look.]
She smiled cheerfully.
"Nut drove me here, so I figured I'd bring her in and introduce her to you."
Then Tharin turned and introduced them properly.
"Nut, this is Petra. My best friend."
Nut smiled and gave Petra a polite smile.
"Hi. I'm Nut. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
Petra answered in a friendly tone.
Tharin added, "Nut works for the police, with the Central Investigation Bureau. She handles wildlife trafficking cases. We met when I went to interview her for a news piece."
Nut smiled at Petra again before politely excusing herself.
"I'll get going, then. I only stopped by to drop Tharin off."
She turned to Tharin with a warm smile.
"Message me later and tell me where you want to have dinner tonight. I'll take you."
Then the two of them smiled at each other so sweetly it almost dripped.
.
.
"Didn't you used to say you were straight and liked men?"
Petra opened the topic immediately after her best friend's new date walked out of the café.
"I never said I only liked men, did I?" Tharin replied with a smile. "A handsome tomboy with a profile that good? Who wouldn't want that, babe? Cute-handsome like Dr. Jeab herself. Great career too."
She playfully raised her eyebrows at her best friend.
"Genderfluid. Do you know that word? People's preferences can be fluid, you know. Come on... you like women. You should get it."
Petra sighed.
"Okay. My mistake for asking."
That made Tharin burst out laughing at once, because she had successfully teased her best friend.
"So why did you call me here? What's this thing you need to talk about? Oh, but before that, let me scold you first, Petra. Where the hell have you been for a month? Has working with that Khun Rafah been that rough? Is she oppressing you like a slave or something? Why do you look like you haven't slept?"
But before Petra could answer, Tharin charged ahead without mercy.
"What the hell? Just because my friend didn't return her feelings, she worked you until your eyes turned into panda eyes? Oh my God. Have you even slept at all? Or has Khun Rafah been working you so hard she won't let you sleep?"
Petra froze.
"Tharin..."
Before she could say anything else, Tharin launched into another round of insults aimed at Rafah.
"Oh, if I see her face, I swear I'll cuss her out so hard she'll lose her balance! I don't care how pretty she is or how big her family name is or how rich her family is. If she's bullying my friend like this, she's done. I'm reporting her to the Labor Department. Report, report, report. That's all!"
"Tharin..." Petra tried to call her best friend again, and that only made Tharin annoyed.
"What now? Why do you keep calling me? I'm in the middle of a good rant. You're ruining the vibe."
Petra sighed softly.
"Khun Rafah and I... we're together now."
She spoke slowly and clearly.
"We've been dating for a little over a month."
That made Tharin sit there blinking like her brain had crashed.
Because only seconds ago, she had just dragged her friend's girlfriend through the mud in spectacular fashion.
...
Meanwhile, with Rafah and Pimphisa.
"Then I'll get straight to what I came here to talk to you about. One, I didn't like the way you spoke to Petra that day. Petra is my girlfriend, and I don't like anyone disrespecting my girlfriend. Two, I really didn't like that you brought up what happened on Black Eden. The iron rule of our group is what happens here, stays here. We agreed we wouldn't talk about those things to outsiders."
Rafah was the first to open the conversation immediately after Pimphisa had sent every woman in the room away.
Now the two of them sat on the sofa set in the living room. The distance between them revealed the cold separation Rafah was deliberately maintaining.
Rafah's eyes stayed fixed on Pimphisa as her voice dropped lower.
"Also, I don't care who you find to play like that with in my place. But since I hit Leave Group and walked away, for me, it's over."
Those words made Pimphisa let out a dry laugh.
Then she tilted her head and looked at Rafah with deliberate provocation.
"But Petra isn't an outsider to us, is she? She's your girlfriend. She deserves to know what kind of glorious history you have."
Pimphisa intentionally referred to Petra in the most degrading way possible.
She smiled coldly.
"And do you really think everything ends that easily just because you left the group?"
Rafah looked at her in silence.
"Since I left Black Eden, no one else has bothered me. Me leaving was already a clear sign that I was done and didn't want to do it anymore. That was our group's agreement too. Everyone else seems to respect my decision just fine."
Rafah looked at Pimphisa with contempt.
"You're the only one, Pim, acting like a rabid dog that keeps chasing after me and biting."
Pimphisa pressed her lips together, her expression tightening at once.
But Rafah did not stop.
"If you're that fucking desperate to do that kind of thing, you don't need me, and you don't need my penthouse. Anywhere can become Black Eden."
Rafah said it to Pimphisa's face with cold-blooded calm.
"Your penthouse can do it too, can't it? You just threw a group-sex party here last night."
"..."
"If you're that addicted to Black Eden, then turn your own penthouse into that hellhole and leave me the fuck alone."
Those words made Pimphisa go quiet for a long moment before she burst out laughing like someone losing her mind.
"You just grabbed some low-profile bitch and made her your wife, and suddenly your morality is overflowing. Now you want to stop everything you used to do because you're scared that bitch won't be able to take it."
Pimphisa's eyes bored deep into Rafah's.
"You can't run away from your own nature, Rafah. Accept the truth. That is your dark side. Otherwise, how could we have fucked each other that hard? You enjoyed that kind of thing so damn much. Don't tell me you forgot."
Pimphisa pointed at the abstract painting hanging on the wall, an erotic artwork depicting the naked bodies of several women layered over one another as they made love without shame.
"You painted this. You were addicted to controlling everyone in Black Eden. Don't put on that fake act and pretend you've got amnesia now. Don't pretend you've forgotten everything you used to do."
She looked at Rafah with contempt.
"You don't believe in God. You think religion is just a tool to control people. On the outside, you build this image of a charitable angel working for a foundation to save endangered wildlife. But the real you does filthy, morally defiant things every single day. You and I are both sinners, Rafah. We're just as rotten as each other."
Rafah listened to that insult with a face so blank it was frightening.
Her sharp eyes swept over the painting she had once created with her own brush, empty and unreadable.
When she realized that talking to someone like Pimphisa any longer was useless, Rafah decided to turn and leave. For her, the matter that needed to be discussed was already over. She had made her stance clear.
But Pimphisa's voice followed her from behind.
"No girlfriend would ever accept what you've done."
Rafah's legs stopped.
As if a poisoned needle had struck her right in a fatal spot.
"If you don't believe me, try confessing your sins to your girlfriend. Tell her how you sent her picture to us so we could rate the merchandise in the group."
Pimphisa smiled coldly.
"Then let's see whether that naive little woman living in a lavender field can accept your dark side."
Rafah clenched her teeth. The hand hanging at her side curled so tightly that her nails almost dug into her palm.
Then she immediately walked out of the room.
...
Meanwhile, with Petra and Tharin.
"Okay... let me summarize this real quick."
Tharin set her coffee glass down, her expression serious.
"So right now, you're dating Khun Rafah. You're happy and all, but you had the bad luck to run into that psycho aristocrat. What was her name again? Pimphisa? Pim-something. Whatever. Screw her. I don't care what kind of Pim she is."
Tharin sighed.
"So she used to be friends with benefits with Khun Rafah, and she came in to mess with your head, making you worry that Khun Rafah might have done something bad on Black Eden. She also said Khun Rafah had sent your photo into a group chat, which you don't even know anything about. And you really can't accept it because there was that keyword, 'rate the merchandise.'"
"Yeah."
Petra nodded.
The words "rate the merchandise" still looped inside her head like a stain that would not wipe clean. It was the phrase that kept needling her, making her question what Rafah truly saw her as.
Tharin sighed again.
"And do you believe what that psycho aristocrat said?" She looked Petra in the eye. "Maybe she really is exactly what Khun Rafah said she is. A shitty person who just wanted to mess with your head and make you and Khun Rafah fight."
"And what if what Khun Pim said is true, Tharin?" Petra asked back. "What if Khun Rafah really did something bad, or something I can't accept?"
Tharin frowned, not understanding. She tried to pull her friend back to reason.
"What could possibly be that unacceptable? From what you've told me, Khun Rafah just has a BDSM preference, right? Which is very normal. It's just a personal preference. There's nothing wrong with that. Besides... she seems very serious about consent with you. She's never forced you into anything. She sounds pretty normal to me."
"I'm not worried about BDSM. I understand that it's a personal preference."
Petra paused for a moment.
Her fingers clenched together without her realizing it.
"But what if it's something we really can't accept, Tharin?"
Tharin went still. She lifted a hand and scratched her head because she genuinely could not figure it out. And now she was starting to want to know what exactly her best friend was thinking.
"What the hell are you imagining in your head, Petra? I'm starting to lose track."
Petra was silent.
Not because she did not want to answer, but because she was afraid that if she said what she was thinking out loud, it might become real.
"Honestly, I can't think of anything that would be that horrible."
Tharin fell quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful, before her eyes suddenly widened as if all the puzzle pieces in her head had snapped together.
"Wait... don't tell me... You're not thinking your girlfriend is involved in human trafficking, drugs, pedophilia, rape, or that kind of thing, right? Like using Black Eden as some VIP trafficking brothel or something?"
Petra's face turned pale at once.
"Shit. My mouth. My stupid mouth."
Tharin immediately slapped her own mouth.
"I'm sorry. I was just randomly guessing."
She told Petra, then muttered to herself, "Why the hell did I say that? Tharin, you idiot."
Petra sat frozen, her expression visibly more strained.
But she could not deny that the possibility existed.
Rafah did seem like someone capable of doing things outside the boundaries.
No.
The better word would be...
Sometimes, Rafah seemed dangerously capable.
Tharin looked at her best friend, then hurried to defend her friend's girlfriend in a panic.
"Hey, don't spiral yet. Don't go that far. Khun Rafah probably isn't that horrible. If she really did that kind of thing, she wouldn't still be out there standing around all gorgeous, showing off that premium face of hers. Look at Kris Wu, that famous Chinese celebrity. Got hit with sexual assault charges and boom, straight to prison."
But then Tharin's voice weakened when she remembered the laws in her own country.
"Though, okay, Thailand's laws are shittier than other countries, so there's that."
Petra took a deep breath before letting out the frustration weighing on her chest.
"If there's really nothing, then Khun Rafah should be able to explain what she did on Black Eden. But when I asked, she just kept avoiding it, like she didn't want to talk. She kept saying it was nothing, then got angry with me. How am I supposed to trust her?"
Silence covered their table for a long moment.
Then Tharin decided to ask the question that cut straight to the heart of it.
"Petra... then let me ask you honestly. Worst-case scenario. If Khun Rafah really did those things, what would you do?"
Petra let out a long sigh.
She stayed silent for quite a while before answering in a firm voice.
"If it's just BDSM, I can accept that. I understand it's a preference. But human trafficking, drugs, pedophilia, or rape, I truly cannot accept those. Those are things no one should ever accept."
Petra's hands tightened.
As if she were holding on to her own moral line.
"If Khun Rafah really did something like that, then we'd have to end it. I couldn't love someone like that."
Tharin hurried to comfort her.
"Hey... calm down first. It might not be..."
But before Tharin could finish, a woman walked up to their table. The sound of Petra's name made both of them turn sharply.
It was Naphatsorn, standing there in a fiery red, sexy dress.
"Khun Phat."
...
In an exclusive section separated from the rest of a luxury restaurant.
"Unbelievable, isn't it? In the end, Rafah actually managed to wear you down. Look at you now. You're dating her. I still remember the last time I saw you at that café. You told me to tell Rafah to leave you alone. And what happened? Just a few months later, you're her girlfriend. Your mouth really doesn't match your heart, does it, Petra?"
Naphatsorn opened the conversation with sarcasm, even though she was the one who had asked to speak with Petra privately in a VIP room at a luxury restaurant.
Tharin, Petra's best friend who had come along, had been asked to wait outside. This time, Naphatsorn had a tall female bodyguard with her, keeping watch and standing close to Tharin.
Petra sat still.
She did not know how to respond, because she had, in fact, said exactly that before.
"If you asked to speak with me privately just so you could take a jab at me and Khun Rafah, then you've done it now. If you're satisfied, I'll excuse myself."
"Oh, come on, Petra. Are you angry?"
Naphatsorn teased, a faint smile on her beautiful yet vicious face. She looked exactly like someone who knew her knife had landed in the right spot.
"I was only teasing a little. Sit down. Today... we still have a lot to talk about. I know plenty of things about Rafah that you'd want to hear."
Petra hesitated for a moment.
But the desire to know more about her lover made her sit back down.
"Actually, if we're being logical about it, you didn't do anything wrong. I was only Rafah's friend with benefits. If Rafah wanted to end things with me to have a girlfriend, or to date someone seriously, that isn't wrong."
Naphatsorn spoke with a smile.
"I came to see you today as one fellow human being. I just happened to notice you're about to choose the wrong path, just like I once did."
Petra frowned at once.
"What wrong path?"
"Well, you've been dating Rafah for a while now. You must know about her family problems, right?"
Before Petra could answer, Naphatsorn continued first.
"Rafah has never introduced you to her family, has she? Well... that's not surprising. With a family that ruined, if she took her girlfriend home, the girlfriend might run for her life. Worse, her father might end up taking his daughter's girlfriend as his mistress too."
She spoke while leaning back against the chair, perfectly relaxed.
"Rafah's family is the kind where no one loves anyone. Her father has a mistress young enough to be his daughter, but he refuses to divorce his wife because he wants the money and inheritance. Her mother has gone mad and shut herself away in her room. Their only daughter hates her father to the bone so much she's practically losing her mind."
Naphatsorn stared deep into Petra's eyes, as if waiting to see the tremor in them.
"Be honest. Can you really handle having a girlfriend with a family that fucked up?"
But Petra shot back immediately.
She hated this kind of malicious concern.
"Whether I can handle it or not is between me and Khun Rafah. It has nothing to do with a temporary former sex partner like you."
The words were sharp enough to make the atmosphere around the table turn instantly uncomfortable.
But Naphatsorn only smiled, completely unfazed.
"You've got a sharp mouth too, Petra..."
"I don't have a sharp mouth."
Petra stared back at her.
"I just choose to speak nicely only to people who actually mean well."
Naphatsorn went still for a moment. The smile on her face faded slightly, as if she had lost face. But after only a second, she smiled again.
"Then that means you already know, don't you? That Rafah... has depression."
Petra froze.
That reaction made Naphatsorn smile in satisfaction, as if she had seen exactly what she wanted to see.
"With that shocked face, I guess you didn't know about this at all."
She spoke while calmly lifting her glass to take a sip.
Her posture relaxed, in contrast to Petra, who was starting to tense.
"Rafah has to take half an antidepressant tablet every day. She once stopped taking it for a while, and her moods swung badly. When she got angry, she got extremely angry. When she got sad, she sank completely. Up and down like that. Like someone who could barely control her own emotions. In the end... she had to crawl back to antidepressants."
Naphatsorn told the story in a cold voice, as if reading a pitiful health report.
"But when the medication suppresses everything, sometimes Rafah becomes like someone who doesn't feel joy or sorrow toward anything. Like emotional emptiness. Who knows if she'll ever be able to stop taking it in the future? The person living with her needs to be mentally strong."
She fixed her gaze on Petra.
Then stabbed directly into the most sensitive point.
"I honestly admire you, Petra. Living with someone whose mind is that sick, and somehow you haven't gone crazy with her. You're such a compassionate person, aren't you?"
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Hojicha Writer
Twitter/X: @Hojicha_Writer
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