About five minutes later, noises from outside the room made us glance at each other. P'Pin and P'Paeng suddenly looked excited, calling out, "Khun Tim, Khun Tim," over and over, before she finally appeared in the dining room.
"There. That's your wife." I said, breaking into a laugh at my teacher's rather messy hair.
"Where have you been?" the Minister asked, his tone no different from ours. Seriously—why did he always have to act so stiff?
"I went to take a SHIT."
Pfft—
Jao Peem spat out his food. My teacher really stressed that one word. She walked over and sat down next to Dad, shooting us a murderous look. As if we'd look away. That was never going to happen. Even Dad wasn't scared. She was just a stepmother.
"I'm full." Dad put his spoon down. He must've lost his appetite the moment that word came out. Jao Peem and I started to get up as well.
"Don't rush off just yet, my dear sons," she said, biting her lip and narrowing her eyes. "Sit and have dinner with mom for a bit." She deliberately stressed that word.
How dare you. As if anyone could replace my mom.
"You're not our mom," Jao Peem said. "Don't refer to yourself like that. That word means too much for you to ever reach."
Nice. I couldn't agree more.
"I am your dad's legal wife," my teacher said coolly. "So I have every right to use that word for myself and to call you my sons—whether you like it or not, you little brats."
"Seriously—what were you thinking, marrying my dad?"
She got goosebumps, muttered a few things under her breath, then scooped food into her mouth, clearly done paying us any attention—no matter what we said or thought.
She was the biggest pain-in-the-ass teacher I'd ever met at school. Good thing the swearing hadn't started yet. Better not piss her off, or we might start hearing ancient pronouns from the King Ramkhamhaeng era flying around.
"Sleep tight, my lovely boys," she said, lifting her small hand and waving at us after she'd finished eating.
We exchanged a look. Something was definitely up. There was no way Ms. Kawinthida would let things end this easily.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Something we're not expecting," Jao Peem said. And just like that, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.