Everyone had gathered in the meeting pit, usually a Monday morning event for Khun Sam to update the company employees about current situations and out of the box occurrences.
"I'll begin by saying good morning to you all, I am back and will remain here as of now." This was a little out of the ordinary, Mhom Boss usually tended to gloss over the niceties, and that had the group a little concerned. Anything out of the ordinary tended to unsettle the group who were used to seeing their leader behave in a certain way.
And today was especially un-nerving, she was smiling a lot which to everyone gathered who knew her patterns, seemed to be an ominous sign that someone's job was about to be lost.
Khun Sam picked up the remote control for the screen where she presented images of graphs and ledgers, or sometimes camera footage of people caught in compromising situations, as had happened a few times in recent history. However this time she flicked up a screen showing some bar graphs, numbers, some images, data which to those gathered was a little hard to see depending on their distance from the screen.
"First of all I'm going to make a statement, so please listen attentively." Khun Sam seemed to be gathering her thoughts. "In the recent weeks and months, you may have been witness to some unusual occurrences in this company." She paused for impact and cast her gaze around the faces watching her every move.
"I have contacted Khun Chin and Khun Yha, and they will shortly be returning to work. They have not lost their jobs, even though this seemed to be the case." There was a quiet 'WOOP!' from someone in the group, Khun Sam looked around but didn't reprimand anybody. She continued. "This is to rectify some things which happened. They will be re-instated with no loss of time on their resume and full pay for the time that they have been away. This is as fair as I can be under the circumstances. Khun Chin and Khun Yha are both solid workers and although … things happened, the company is fortunate to have them."
Everyone was stunned into complete silence, this was so un-precedented that nobody knew what to say. Khun Sam pressed on and continued.
"There will also be changes made to the code of conduct rules of the company, I have engaged HR to make the changes and adjustments. Once they have been made you will all be issued with updated copies of the regulations. But just to give long-timers here a quick heads up, the primary change involves inter-employee relationships." She again paused for her words to sink in.
"Regarding relationships between employees within the company, there will no longer be a ban on relationships between employees. There will however be a code of conduct change which will make it clear what is and is not considered appropriate behaviour in open areas where people can observe what you do." she scanned the staggered seating. "It will be possible for people to have relationships, as long as there is discretion. What you do outside of normal hours and off the premises will be your own business, what you do here at Diversity, is my business. Therefore, there will be no acceptance of hiding in cupboards and storage rooms. You will be expected to behave in a professional manner at all times while you are here, especially when in an open area such as the office or other facilities on the grounds of Diversity, that also includes the car parking lot and any other ancillary buildings."
Again she paused to let the information sink in.
"Is that clear to everyone?"
"Yes Mhom Boss." came the response from everyone, nodding heads as well.
"All right then, next topic. As you are aware I have recently been away for a fair amount of time. This was in preparation for an upcoming wedding with Kirk." Everybody looked at Khun Sam with baited breath. She gathered herself and plowed on.
"That wedding has now been cancelled at my request. However Kirk will remain here as co-director of Diversity until further notice, and probably permanently, depending on his own preferences. So I will now be here in full control again and will not be taking much time away from Diversity, at least in the next few weeks, I need to make sure that the changes we made to the company earlier keep moving us forward at full speed."
She stopped momentarily and smiled around the room. A lot of the staff winced at the smile expecting there to be some kind of fallout from that dreaded action. Waiting for another moment, she raised her hand, her index finger pointed at the sky.
"Diversity is successful beyond my wildest expectations, and we are gaining momentum in the world of IT and Entertainment." She looked around as if she was expecting something. "This is a time to cheer people, your hard work has been paying off and we are off on a roller coaster into the future." She grinned and waved her arms at the group. All of a sudden, there was a great cheer and lots of high fives and clapping. Sam looked pleased and waited for the hubbub to die down.
"I will be making you all aware of something momentarily in regards to this success because it may involve you all directly, however I'll continue on my current train of thought first."
Everyone's attention was now on Khun Sam, they were noticing changes in her behaviour which were very unusual, she was being informative, there was warmth and even some smiles which kept catching people's attention since normally it implied impending doom.
"This success is good, everyone has contributed, and everyone's input is appreciated. Please keep it coming people, new ideas and novel approaches are to be considered at all times. However all of your hard work would be for naught if it hadn't been for the input of one person in particular."
All of a sudden the good cheer seemed to be dampened, the mood chilled as the realisation of what Khun Sam was saying sunk in.
"Khun Mon." said Aunty Mhee sadly. Khun Sam looked at her and smiled softly.
"Yes Aunty Mhee, Mon was instrumental in the successes we have achieved. Her input and hard work was the catalyst which changed Diversity to a world recognised company."
There were mixed emotions, Mon had been terminated or had resigned or otherwise was no longer here, her loss was both puzzling and upsetting, something had happened at an earlier time when Khun Sam had apparently forced Mon out of the company on what seemed to be a technicality. That apparently had been resolved. But something new had happened and again Mon was no longer working at Diversity. Her closest friends in the company had sent Mon messages of encouragement since she had told them that she was going overseas.
"Mhom Boss, Didn't Mon go to England?" Noi said putting her hand up.
"She nearly did." Khun Sam acknowledged. "But … she didn't, I managed to stop her in time."
There was now a confusing blur of raised voices of enquiry. Khun Sam put her hands up, palms toward the group and implored them to quieten down. After some moments they did.
"Mon …" Khun Sam's phone made a noise, an incoming Line message. She looked down at the phone and smiled. "Mon will be here shortly. She is also back with us."
There was unfettered cheering and applause now, everyone seemed to be in high spirits.
"Everyone sit down please, I'll try to make these last points as fast as possible so you can get back to work."
And then Mon came into the tall room and smiled around at the group, waving with both hands to them. Mon had dressed in her customary pink with highlights of white, business-like but definitely girlish, her attire seemed so appropriate for Mon. The bright baby pink sandals she wore stood out like beacons.
The room broke into more applause and cheering, everybody welcoming her back with hoots and fist-pumping. Sam tried to get the room back under control, and succeeded after some moments.
"Mon, please sit down, I was just making some announcements and giving people feedback." Mon smiled at Khun Sam and nodded, she chose a seat next to Noi on the second tier of the meeting room. Khun Sam looked around at the gathering.
"All right people, as I said Mon is back. And initially she will return to her position as the admin for the Diversity Pop page and some other projects we began around that same time. However, her role shall change in the coming weeks and months, she is not aware of this so I am announcing it here right now, so everyone is on the same page."
Khun Sam gathered her thoughts for a moment.
"I have been in lengthy discussions with Kirk, and he has agreed to some other changes which I want to make to the company moving forward. Because Mon's input was so strong, and her interest so passionate in making it a success, I think she is the ideal person to take on the role of primary content creator. This will be a new position within the company, and Kirk and I need to iron out some of the details. But … well to cut a very long story a bit shorter, we are going to create a board of directors for the company to make sure only valued and trusted people are in control and have the well-being of Diversity at heart. Kirk and I will initially be primary directors until the dust has settled, which realistically is pretty much how things currently run anyway, the dynamic of how Diversity functions moving forwards will change very little from how it has operated up until now. We will be floating the company on the stock market finally, which was always a goal I had in mind from the beginning when I started Diversity. The board will have complete control of the direction of the company, with Kirk, myself …" she paused for effect.
"And Mon as primary controllers."
There was a gasp from the captive audience, everyone's heads swivelled around to now look at Mon, who herself had a quizzical look on her face, brows drawn together in question. Khun Sam looked at her apologetically.
"Sorry Mon, I just got off the phone with Kirk so I hadn't had a chance to tell you yet."
Sam licked her lips and nodded to herself as if checking off points on a mental list.
"The reason of why Kirk and I are no longer a couple, and why Mon is going to be taking the position of Director of Creativity is, that Mon and I are now engaged to be married."
There was a stunned silence showing the shock the staff was in … initially, then the crowd went absolutely wild and the stamping, cheering and yelling was deafening. Khun Sam grinned at Mon who had turned a bright crimson and was holding her hands over her face looking through her fingers, Khun Sam waited for the noise to subside.
"So Noi, Kirk is now free for you to approach." there was a smattering of laughter at that and Noi sat in her seat looking a little queasy.
"It is primarily that, which prompted the changes in the code of conduct policies. I made the rule, and I broke it, which in the end was unfair, so I will extend the offer of a re-instatement of their job positions to Ae and Toey to come back without prejudice, if they want, I'll get Noi to contact them." She looked at Noi.
Noi looked back at Khun Sam and nodded, making notes on a pad on her lap.
"I expect everyone to still respect each other and work as a team, however moving forwards I want Mon to be shown special courtesy as a director of this company, as she is now one of my most trusted staff."
Mon looked around with a pained smile on her very red face.
"And a final item," continued Khun Sam. "With Diversity gaining such popularity, and our intention to put it on the stock exchange. I shall extend to you all a one-time offer to buy shares at entry prices. I have had analysts looking at projections," she then turned to the screen full of graphs and numbers. "Their estimate is that Diversity, if it continues as it is currently trending, will double its value within the first week of trading on the stock exchange, and then from there it will likely double again in value at a rate of every two to three days, depending on the market trends current at that time. What this means for you is, by buying in to the initial shares of one million units, say one thousand units or so, within less than twelve months your shares will likely have a value exceeding one million baht.
Everyone gasped at the statement.
"But bear in mind, this is a one-time offer, after that every share will be floated and all deals are off the table, you would then have to purchase the shares at whatever the current value is. And the longer you delay the more expensive they would be of course."
Khun Sam moved the cursor around the screen to illustrate her points.
"we are doing this for two reasons, the first is to reward those most loyal to the company, and the second is to incentivise you to work hard and keep maintaining the high standards we need to continue being successful. By doing that, you are assuring your own futures and reaping the rewards and benefits which are associated with that." She placed the remote back on the table.
"Any questions?" There were, but eventually they finished so the meeting was adjourned and the staff returned back to work.
"Mon, please come and see me in my office, we have some things that need discussion, but say hi to the crew first."
Mon nodded and smiled.
Khun Sam gave her a wink and walked away to the stairs leading up to the second floor and her office.
---
Shortly after the gathering in the meeting pit, Yha and Chin were let in by Noi. They appeared in the office to some hugs and hand shakes from various staff members. The place seemed very different, there was a buzz of excitement and a totally changed atmosphere. Everybody was happy to see them return to the company, it was like a family re-union.
But much as Yha and Chin were enthusiastically welcomed back, there was a completely different excitement today.
Everybody wanted a piece of Mon.
Practically everyone bailed Mon up at the same time as she was heading back to her customary desk.
"What on earth have you done to Mhom Boss, Mon? She is acting so different to how she usually behaves."
"You and Mhom boss? How did that happen?"
"What happened, you were going to England?"
"She is smiling and nobody has died yet today."
"Welcome back Mon, so glad you're here."
"Khun Mon, I'm so happy you returned."
Mon felt swamped by all the attention, but she smiled through it and tried to cope as best she could. As the people all wanted their questions answered, Khun Sam's office door opened and she walked out to the middle of the main office.
"Can I please have your attention?" Everyone stopped interrogating Mon or doing whatever they had been doing.
"Tonight after work, we'll go to the restaurant, my treat." Khun Sam stated, looking over to Mon. "Cut off time today will be four thirty on the dot. Make sure to bring your appetites but don't drink too much, tomorrow is going to be a very busy day."
There was a brief cheer from the staff and Khun Sam nodded and returned to her office.
"Married, Mon? You've worked fast. I just thought you were getting to know each other a bit more closely." Yha was sitting on the corner of Mon's desk and nudged Mon's shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows knowingly.
"Eh? You knew?" Chin standing behind Yha bent down to look at her quizzically.
"I'm surprised that this was so much news to everyone, I expected the rumour-mill to have been working overtime." Mon said looking a little puzzled.
"Never let it be said that Yha can't keep a secret." Yha smiled up at Chin then looked over at Mon.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you, I just meant that things were getting so out of hand for a while there, I'm surprised that nobody else noticed anything."
"So what does this mean for us, you now becoming a company director?" asked Chin.
"I don't really know, Khun Sam and Khun Kirk have been scheming behind the scenes and I haven't been a part of that. so I have no clue what's going to happen right now."
"Do we now have to call you Mon Boss?" Chin asked her with false reverence. Yha gave Chin a soft slap on the leg. Mon chuckled.
"Guys! I haven't changed, at least I don't think I have. It doesn't matter what I do or where I am in the company, I'm just Mon."
---
"Khun Sam," Mon stood in the doorway of Khun Sam's office, she saw her boss going through several ledgers and there was paperwork and envelopes strewn all over her desk. "I'm going down to the bank, something's happened to my account, I can't access it through my phone."
Khun Sam looked over and scrunched up her nose as if she was trying to remember something.
"Oh that reminds me," she stood up and began rummaging through the envelopes on the desk and then through the ones in the mail trolley beside her desk that she hadn't got around to opening yet. Finally, she grabbed one of the envelopes and walking over to Mon, handed it to her. "Here," she said cryptically.
"Um … something you want me to post?"
"No, this is for you."
The envelope was plain on the outside addressed to Diversity and Samanun Anuntrakul, but with the words "Attention Kornkamon Phetpailin" directly below that.
"Oh thanks," she mused, wondering what it could be. She received mail quite regularly since she had begun working at Diversity, so it didn't surprise her that much, normally though, it arrived in the general post in the main office and not in Khun Sam's deliveries. Those typically came from expensive retail outlets and mail order businesses like Chanel and Yves St. Laurent. Oh well, I'll look at it when I get back, she thought to herself. Perhaps Khun Sam had ordered something for her. She found herself wriggling inside at the thought that Sam might have bought her something special.
"Can I bring you something to eat?" she inquired.
"Mmm … "Khun Sam thought for a few moments. "Get me what you think I'd like to eat Mon … besides you." Khun Sam grinned with twinkling eyes.
Mon blushed a little and smiled.
"Khun Saaam, the door is open," she whined softly. Khun Sam shrugged her shoulders, not at all put out by that.
"Well, you asked!"
Mon sighed and rolled her eyes.
"I'll pick you up something delicious."
"Thanks, I was going to order something but I got distracted and forgot."
"Hmm .. Khun Sam, You've got to eat properly, you have to look after yourself. Maybe I need to look after your eating habits now." Mon admonished playfully. Khun Sam seemed to consider it.
"Mmm … suits me." she finally said cheerfully. "Oh, and get me a bubble tea while you're at it."
"Gotcha. Back in a little while then." Mon closed the door and grabbed her purse and set off down the stairs.
---
The coffee shop was near the bank so Mon figured she would settle the bank account issue first.
Fifteen minutes later after queueing at the bank, the problem remained. For some reason her account had been closed and the money had disappeared. The teller she spoke to had no idea of what had transpired so she apologised profusely and asked Mon to return later so the manager could be involved.
Irritated by the issue, Mon became a little panicky. All her life savings and the money she had earned while at Diversity had been in the account, now it looked like it had been stolen. All she had left was enough in her purse to buy Khun Sam some lunch and bubble tea. She didn't have enough cash to buy her own lunch so by the time she returned to the office she was grumpy and had worked herself up quite a bit.
Stupid bank, how could they lose her money? She'd had to leave the bank and go to the coffee shop and return to work, Khun Sam needed her lunch and Mon's break was already over. She felt dejected as she walked into Khun Sam's office with the lunch she had bought her and plunked it down on her desk.
"Ah thank you teerak," said Khun Sam to Mon with a grin, which fell once she saw the look on Mon's face. "What's wrong?" she enquired showing concern.
"The stupid bank shut down my account, and now every baht in it is gone. I have to go back later to talk with the manager. How could they do something that idiotic?" she complained.
Khun Sam's face looked puzzled, brows drawn together, then her features cleared as she appeared to have some kind of revelation.
"Oh Mon, I think that's my fault …"
"Your fault? How …"
"Where's that letter I gave you?"
"Oh, on my desk, I was going to open it after lunch."
"Well get your lunch and bring it in here and bring the letter."
"I don't have any lunch Khun Sam, I spent the last cash …"
"Oh Mon …" Khun Sam's face looked pained, " …I'm so sorry …" she pushed the packages towards Mon. "Here, you take these, I'll call them up and get something delivered."
"No, I bought them specially for you," Mon smiled softly. "I spent ages choosing something you'd like so now you have to eat it."
Khun Sam looked at Mon and tsk'd.
"So stubborn." She picked up her mobile phone and pressed a speed dial number for the coffee shop. Momentarily she spoke into it.
"This is Samanun Anuntrakul. Bring me my usual please."
Mon could hear the person briefly say something unintelligible on the other side of the call.
"No immediately, I am starving." Some more muttering on the other side of the call. She grinned at Mon. "Ok, and hurry …" She finished the call.
"It will be here in five minutes," she told Mon.
"But the shop was really crowded, they can't bring something here that fast."
"They can. Sometimes it's handy to be me." Khun Sam's face was beaming. "I'll wait for them to bring it and we can eat together." She put the phone down. "Now please get that letter." Mon nodded and went back to her desk to get the non-descript envelope.
When she returned to Khun Sam's office, Mon gave her the envelope, but Khun Sam shook her head.
"It's yours, open it."
Mon shrugged her shoulders and tore the envelope open. Inside was a small booklet with some instructions and a bank account card. There was also one sheet with some instructions. The card was to the same bank that her own account had been.
"What's this?" she asked, puzzled.
"It's your account card, Mon. There should be instructions to put your pin on it."
"My account card? Is this what happened to my account?" Khun Sam looked a little sheepish.
"Put in your pin details Mon." Khun Sam deflected.
Mon scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion, and sighed, but did as she was asked.
"Done … er … I think, this card is a little different to my normal card." Mon said. And it was. She'd chosen a pale pink card for her own account. This card was a deep gunmetal grey colour with the black bank logo almost invisible since it blended in to the dark background. The numbers of the account and the other details were highlighted in pale grey. There were multiple computer chips embedded in it and what looked to be a holographic image of some kind. This card looked expensive.
"All right, now the app for this is a little different than the one you probably have for your normal account, so follow the instructions in that envelope."
And Khun Sam's directions were correct, there was a link in the booklet to get an app that was not on the usual location for apps for Mon's phone. She installed the app and activated it according to the instructions in the booklet. As she was doing this, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Khun Sam said. It was Yha.
"The coffee shop just made a delivery for you, Mhom Boss." She walked in to the office and put the items in front of Khun Sam, who then pushed them towards Mon. Yha noticed this and smiled.
"Mmm … thanks." Khun Sam said, looking at the woman dismissively. Yha scampered back out of the office and closed the door.
"Ok, I think I've set everything in the app correctly." Mon said, looking up at Khun Sam who was beginning to open the packages of food and drink and putting them in front of Mon.
Khun Sam then opened her own lunch and began eating. She slurped her bubble tea.
"Ok, then log in on the app." she told Mon past a mouthful of salad. Mon had begun eating her own lunch which was a bit more lavish than the one she'd bought for Khun Sam, but there were items in it that they could both share. Taking a sip from her own bubble tea, Mon opened the app, and used her finger print to log herself in. There were some opening pages with some final instructions and terms of conduct and conditions and such.
"Boy, this is a bit more elaborate than my account," she said shaking her head. "Lots of security stuff." She took another bite of the chicken, avocado and salad roll which was tasting so good. And then finally she was logged in. And she stopped chewing, her mouth stuffed full. Her eyes were large as saucers.
"Khmm Smmmmm" she yelped spitting salad on Khun Sam's desk. She tried to swallow, failed, tried chewing a bit more, then took a large gulp of tea that brought a coughing fit as a tapioca ball shot straight down her throat like a bullet. After about a minute of coughing, hacking and gasping, she was finally able to speak.
"What is this?" she gasped out.
"It's your account," Khun Sam said simply, taking another bite of her sandwich.
"It's not! This is … this is …" she struggled to find words.
"This is why I think I screwed up your other account, I don't think they followed my instructions properly."
"But Khun Sam, this money …"
"Is your money, or rather … it's our money actually." Sam took another sip from her tea then another bite on her sandwich, apparently not perturbed in the slightest.
"But Khun Sam …" Mon was having difficulty articulating what she wanted to say. Khun Sam continued speaking.
"The money in your old bank account is not lost. I had them transfer it into a special trust account which gets really good interest, It's piggy-backing off my own account so you should see some decent interest in there shortly. From now on, the account on this card is yours and mine. Anything you want to buy, get it on this account."
Mon looked horrified.
"Khun Sam, it's so much."
Khun Sam shrugged her shoulders.
"It's really not. I have several accounts, this one is my … mmm … call it my spending account. If I want to buy something, this is the account I'd most likely use."
"But … Khun Sam, this is … this is … this is a lot. I've never even imagined this much …"
"Don't let it worry you too much, I thought you might feel a little weird about it so I've told the bank to put a limit on your card." Khun Sam slurped some more tea as she finished her sandwich, chewing the tapioca balls with relish.
"Really? Thank god for that," said Mon breathing a sigh of relief. "I'd feel horrible if I spent too much."
"There's no need to worry about that. Your limit until you get used to it, is five million baht per month. That should keep you from freaking out too much."
"WHAT??" Mon definitely yelped this time. "KHUN SAAAMMM!!!"
---
"Mon, don't get so hung up on the money, the little that is in our bank account is hardly compensation for what you have done to make Diversity what it is today and will become moving forward."
"But … this makes me feel like whatever I do, I can't possibly put as much money in the account as you do. I will always feel like …" she paused, and casting her eyes down wrung her hands. "… feel like a sugar baby."
"Mon, don't say that. You are nothing of the sort." Khun Sam stroked Mon's head in assurance.
"But I can never see the result of what I do here, when I had my own bank account, I could at least look at it now and then and say to myself, see this is all because of the work you are doing. But now … my money is so little in comparison."
"Mon, don't take this the wrong way, I'm just trying to understand. But … do you need assurance that what you are doing is making a difference?"
"That's exactly what I need, putting the small pittance of my money into your bank account …"
"Our bank account, Mon."
"OK … our account, makes all of my effort seem swallowed up and it disappears. It feels like the drop in the ocean."
Khun Sam sighed and took hold of Mon's hands.
"Teerak, are you mine or is only a piece of you mine?"
"Khun Sam, you know better than that. Everything I am is yours. It always has been since we first met."
"Then trust me when I say this. Everything I am is yours, and I mean everything. You can't just accept a bit of me, it's … all or nothing."
Sam paused for a moment to allow her words to sink in.
"I come with a lot of baggage and issues, you know this already. And I hate myself so much sometimes for putting all that on you. And the royal line, and the problems we had with my grandmother. It's all me, Mon. If you are strong enough to accept all of those other things, then don't let a little money be a problem for us. Just look at it like … whenever we want something, we can just get it."
"That itself is a problem, Khun Sam. How do I measure my own personal merit when everything is so easy? When I can buy expensive clothes or bags or … or even a car, and not have to save for it or strive?" Khun Sam sighed and tried to put herself in Mon's mindset, and failed. Finally all she could think of was …
"Mon, to me you have nothing to prove. Diversity is what it is because of you. I am what I am today … all because of you. Our friends see it and say it and I totally agree. Without you, Diversity would be closed, I would be married to Kirk, or worse … I …" Khun Sam shuddered, closed her eyes and swallowed hard, licking her lips. "You have saved this company, you have saved my life. I could spend the rest of eternity repaying my debt to you and it still would never be enough. If that's not an obvious sign of your personal merit, I don't know what is. What I do for Diversity is nothing in comparison to what you have done, and will continue doing. As it stands, if I walk out of Diversity right now nothing much would change but if you leave, the company would probably fail."
"But Khun Sam, you're so much more than that, you're a noble, your family is incredibly influential, your history is ridiculously long compared to mine, I'm a commoner, my family has nothing compared to you, I am nothing. I'm really not good enough for you. I wonder to myself all the time, is this a dream, is this actually happening to me?"
"Mon, I'm a nobody with a title, a little power and a little money. All I can say to you is that I love you with every cell in my body. I will spend the rest of my life giving you assurances of your importance to me Mon, if that is what you need. Please, have a little faith in yourself, don't be so selfless, the few baht in this bank account is never going to replace what you mean to me." she took Mon's hands in her own and stroked her thumbs over their backs. "If it was within my power I would bring you a star on a silver platter. But I can't. All I can do is prove my love to you and spend a few baht. I'm so useless that I laugh at myself sometimes and wonder how I can possibly prove to you that I am worthy of your love."
"Khun Sam, how can you say that? I've worshiped you all my life, to me you are perfect."
"Mon, I'm not perfect, I'm far from it. But somehow … beyond my wildest imagination, it's you who loves me."
Khun Sam smiled and placed her left right hand on Mon's cheek, gently rubbing her thumb against it, Mon tilted her head like a kitten seeking to be petted.
"If you are willing to accept me with all my flaws, and with all my issues, then think of the money as just another issue to deal with. I want you to be comfortable and live without having to worry about silly stuff like money. Money is … it's nothing, it's a tool, it's stuff we can have, it's just a step away from anything you wish to have or that you need. It can solve problems. That's all it is."
"Well … Khun Sam, all right, since you keep insisting, but … I'll always tell you first before I spend a single baht."
"Mon, you don't need …"
"Yes I do, for my own state of mind. I can not afford there to ever be any doubt between us, especially when it comes to something like money."
"There will never be a need Mon, spend money from this account freely without a single worry, if you need more than the limit, then please tell me so I can clear you with the bank."
"More? Than five million baht? Are you out of your mind??"
Khun Sam looked at Mon, "Yes Mon, I'm out of my mind with love for you, but about the money, I'm completely serious."
Mon stood and looked Khun Sam's face over, noticing every gorgeous and delectable feature. Khun Sam's beauty was ethereal to Mon, she was like a goddess.
"How far you have come since the girl worrying about a scratched bracelet." She sighed and smiled gently.
"Um … yes, I think of that as my insane era. I don't know what I was thinking or rather, I do know, it's just not a particularly good time, and my mind was all over the place. I was not very happy."
"I understand that now, your grandmother put so much pressure on you, but … I am a little puzzled. You had to make fifty million baht in one year in order to keep Diversity going, as I see it. Your bank account has much more than that …"
"Our bank account."
"All right … sheesh, our account. So why the fifty million baht? That's not particularly a lot when you already have much more than that."
"It was a challenge Mon, I challenged my grandmother that I could become an independent businesswoman and stand on my own. That I didn't need her to choose a husband for me that I couldn't possibly love or respect in that way. She just nominated a random amount to strive for, and it's funny that we've only just broken that now this year, because of you and your input to Diversity. The Diversity Pop page was only a first step, it's all the other things you brought to the table afterwards which tipped the balance. Before that we hadn't come close to the goal. It's all you, you tipped the balance."
Mon had a hard time attributing their success to herself, so she basically dismissed it as Khun Sam being overly enthusiastic. She tugged on her lower lip for a few moments, then ...
"OK so a hypothetical then. Say I wanted to buy a house and it costs more than five million baht."
"Don't you like our house?"
"I love our house, it's so you. No, this is a hypothetical situation Khun Sam. If I wanted to buy a house."
"Where were you thinking of buying? The location would govern the price."
"Hmm … not sure. It's just a 'what if' situation Khun Sam, I am hypothesizing. Let's say somewhere in Bangkok, or no … let's say Hua Hin."
"Ah, nice choice, but you do know we have houses there, right?"
"Khun Sam, this is a hypothetical question, I'm not saying I want to buy a house there, I'm trying to understand the rules a bit better."
"There are no rules with us Mon, If you say you want to buy a house in Hua Hin, then we will buy a house there. Or build one. Simple as that. Or if you want to remodel our house we will do that, or if you want to tear our house down and build a new one in its place, we'll do that."
"Jeez! You scare me … so much Khun Sam."
"I hope it's a good scary, not a ghost scary."
"I'm scared that I'm not good enough for you."
Khun Sam rolled her eyes.
"Please don't start that again. All that I am, all that I can be, and all that I will ever strive to improve on, is never going to be enough to come even close to being worthy of you. But in my own stupid stumbling way I am working really hard to try to make that happen. All that I need you to do is trust me and hang on tight. I have made so many mistakes with you up until now, I've hurt you and made you sad and unhappy and confused. I cannot describe how sorry I am for doing that. And all of that is on me, I can never do enough to atone for what I have put you through. And it stuns me that you're still here, with me, right now. I was so afraid I was too late, I was almost certain that you were going to push me away on the freeway, but I was hoping against hope that I could convince you not to do so."
Mon's eyes were filled with tears of adoration at Khun Sam's confessions of her own shortcomings, that she was willing to do what she was doing for them both.
"I'm sorry, I just have a difficult time keeping my brain on the idea that you and I are together. In my wildest fantasies I could never imagine being by your side like this. It overwhelms me, and I find myself doubting myself, because this has to be too good to be true and I'm going to wake up soon and find out all of it never happened. I've dreamt about being with you since we were both children. But never in those dreams was it possible that you would one day love me like this."
"Well five years ago, I was terrified of what the future was going to bring, life was miserable and the only thing I had to look forward to was work. And then less than a year ago you turned up on my doorstep. And I can't wait to see what you and I can do together."
"I don't know how you keep doing this, how is this even possible? Every moment I am with you, I fall deeper in love with you, Khun Sam."
"Well, it's hard work, and lots of snacks." Khun Sam kidded. "As long as I keep feeding you yummy things, I have you under my spell."
"I'm serious, it's not rational, I just can't help myself. I fret when we're apart even though we spend practically every moment together. I look for excuses to be with you, to look at you, even if only for a moment."
Khun Sam again took Mon's hand in her own, stroking the back of it softly with her thumb.
"That's called co-dependency these days Mon, and trust me, I feel exactly the same, and to me that's the way we are meant to be." She looked seriously at Mon for a moment. "They say that it's not supposed to be healthy to be this dependent on another person but you're not just that to me, you're … it's like … you're my other half." She took a deep breath and her eyes filled with resolution. "But … I have a solution for that. Now that things seem to have settled down, and nobody is trying to spoil our lives for the moment, let's get married for real. Since grandmother approved for me to be with you, she has no reason to stop us having an actual wedding ceremony."
"But can we actually get married legally?"
"I don't care if it can't be done legally. I just want everybody in the world to know that we are together and that I love you so much. So even if we can't legally get married, I want to have the entire ceremony anyway, so we can share it with everybody. I know there is work being done to make gender neutral marriages legalized in Thailand, but I think that's still into the future. But I will talk to the king …"
"You'll what?"
"I will talk to the king. I will see if he can help push things along."
"Oh my god. Is that even possible?"
"Of course it is, he's like my grandfather, but in some ways he's even better than that. As a child I would often meet him in the royal palace and we would read and play chess and tactical games, and talk about all kinds of things. I think of him almost as a father. He even helped me sometimes with my schoolwork whenever I got a problem that I couldn't solve. He would talk to me with words that seemed casual or trivial, but he would be guiding me on a path of thinking that would allow me to arrive at the correct solution. He would never outright give me the answer, but he would give me the way to get the answer for myself." Khun Sam smiled and looked a little wistful. "He is old but he is very strong and wise, smart too. He is very stern but with me he is quite gentle. I can't wait for you to meet him, I think he'll fall in love with you too. But he's a very busy man so meeting him is often challenging. He doesn't have much free time."
"You can't be serious Khun Sam, you can't take me to see the king, I'll … he … it's not possible. I'm not nobility like you."
"That's not a problem, he's a human first, a man second, a king third and a husband and father and grandfather fourth. You'll think he has a great sense of humour."
"I'd die of shock if I ever get within ten meters of him."
"Don't be so dramatic, soon as I have a chance I'll take you to meet him."
"Khun Sam, I really don't think I can, I … I … it's not appropriate …"
"Let me worry about that. But as I was saying, I'll try to get his help to move this marriage bill along."
"You make it sound so easy … talking to the king …"
"You're too distracted by pedestals and titles. He's a normal man, yes he is powerful and nobility and all of that. But he's still just a man, and he loves me. So if anybody could help it would be him."
"Of course he loves you, who wouldn't? You're so cute these days, no longer the blood-thirsty boss."
"Jeez Mon, don't tell everybody, nobody will fear me any more."
Mon booped Khun Sam softly on the nose.
"My Chamcham, the cute puppy of Diversity." Khun Sam actually smiled and blushed a little.
"Careful Mon, I just rewrote the regulations about couples in the office, you'll make me break the rules again if you keep talking like that."
Mon grinned mischievously.