Chapter 9 — Anonymous Drawing

On the Monday morning of early January, Truc Giang's sky was rare and clear after a series of days of long drizzle. Tan Viet school held the first semester closing ceremony right at the school yard. All twelfth grade students were asked to gather early to prepare to receive certificates of merit and announce graduation exam preparation plans. Dieu Linh stood with Khoi Nguyen in the last row, both had just received certificates of merit for excellent students of the semester, smiling softly at each other with pride.

No one in the school yard knew that, that very morning, at the headquarters of Kien Nguyen Group, a completely different event was taking place - a press conference announcing the results of a nearly two-year lawsuit, where Mr. Ngo Bach Son, in a rare excitement after a series of stressful days, accidentally mentioned that his son "had just successfully completed the first semester at a public school, even though he had to live away from his family for safety reasons". A young, sharp reporter grasped the story, immediately searched for more information, and just that morning, the name Tan Viet school along with the name Ngo Khoi Nguyen appeared on an online news article, with a sensational headline: "The son of the Chairman of Kien Nguyen Group secretly attended a public school for two years amid a turbulent share dispute."

Mr. Bach Son, when he heard that the article had been published, panicked and realized the consequences that could happen to his son if he was surprised by the media or even hidden bad guys coming to the school. Without having time to think clearly, he ordered his private security team and Uncle Tai to immediately go to Tan Viet school to pick him up immediately, ensuring absolute safety - a decision that stemmed entirely from a father's concern, but became a knife that cut off all the careful plans that Khoi Nguyen had cherished.

In the middle of the closing ceremony, while the principal was speaking on the podium, a group of shiny black cars, led by two police motorbikes, turned into the school gate. The soft siren sounded enough to make all eyes in the schoolyard turn towards the gate. The iron gate of Tan Viet school, which was only used to bicycles and a few old motorbikes of parents coming to pick up their children, now opened wide to let a whole convoy of luxury cars enter, causing the entire school yard to stir, hundreds of eyes of students and teachers focused in that direction.

The car door in the middle of the group opened, and Mr. Ngo Bach Son - in a neat suit, with a look both worried and majestic - stepped out, followed by two bodyguards. He looked around the schoolyard, his eyes searching, then stopped at the last row, where Khoi Nguyen was standing stunned, his face pale.

"Khoi Nguyen," he called out, his voice filled with undisguised concern, walking quickly towards him despite all the eyes around him. "Are you okay? I just heard about an article published in the newspaper. I'm afraid that bad people are coming here. I have to come pick you up right away."

The whole schoolyard was silent for a moment, then whispers began to spread like waves, from row to row: "President Kien Nguyen?" "Is that Khoi Nguyen's father?" "Oh my god, it turns out he's the son of a rich family?"

Dieu Linh stood frozen next to her, her heart pounding, her ears ringing as if all the sounds around her suddenly became distant and unreal. She looked at Mr. Bach Son, then at Khoi Nguyen, trying to find some explanation in her mind that could make everything reasonable, but couldn't find anything.

"Father..." Khoi Nguyen stammered, his face turned pale, his eyes quickly glanced at Dieu Linh, seeing the stunned look gradually turning into something else on her face - a silent breakdown that he had never seen before. "Dad, can we talk in private?"

"Okay, get in the car, let's go home and talk," Mr. Bach Son said, not realizing the tension rising in the air, only focusing on getting his son out of a place he thought was no longer safe. "Sorry for interrupting the school ceremony."

"Wait." Khoi Nguyen stood still, not moving, his eyes never left Dieu Linh. "I need a minute."

He walked closer to her, his voice shaking, trying to speak quickly before everything went completely out of control. "Dieu Linh, let me explain. It's not what you think, I've never—"

"Are you the son of the Chairman of Kien Nguyen Group?" Dieu Linh interrupted, her voice trembling, not because of fear, but because of an anger that was rising so quickly that she couldn't even control it. "For nearly two years now?"

"Yes," he nodded, not daring to lie again. "But I didn't mean to hide it from you to deceive you. There was something going on in my family, my father told me to keep it a secret for safety's sake. I was planning on telling you, but I just didn't find the right time—"

"The right time?" She laughed, a dry, bitter laugh, completely different from the pure laughter she had been giving him for so long. "So the day I gave you sticky rice because I thought you were hungry, wasn't the right time? The day I saved money to buy a pen for you because I thought you didn't have money to buy one, wasn't the right time? The day I stood up and argued with Nhat Huy to defend you, because I thought we were both 'in the same situation', wasn't it the right time?"

Every word she said was like a stab in Khoi Nguyen's heart, every image she mentioned were the moments he treasured the most, and now became evidence of the betrayal she felt, even though he had never intended to betray anyone.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice choked. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. To me, everything you do is real, precious, and has nothing to do with whose family I belong to—"

"But it's relevant to me!" Dieu Linh screamed, tears began to flow from her eyes, she couldn't hold back anymore, ignoring the hundreds of eyes that were focused on the two of them. "You know I'm poor, I know you... I thought you were poor too, that's why I shared everything with you so freely, without shame, without hiding! As for you, you let me act like I pitied someone who didn't need to be pitied, for nearly two years, without once telling me the truth!"

"It's not pity—"

"So what is it?!" She took a step back, as if wanting to create physical distance between herself and him, between herself and everything she had just discovered. "I feel like a joke, Khoi Nguyen. A poor, naive girl, thinking she's helping a friend in need, while he has everything in abundance, just acting to see what 'ordinary people' life is like!"

"That's not true!" Khoi Nguyen also raised his voice. For the first time in nearly two years of knowing each other, desperation made his voice crack. "I've never acted! I've never despised anything you've done for me! You're the only person who makes me feel like I'm treated like a normal person, not like a 'boss' or a 'tycoon'—"

"That's enough." Dieu Linh turned her back, her voice was so sharp and cold that even he had to pause. "I don't want to hear any more. Go home. Go back to your world."

She walked among the crowd of whispering students, not turning back even once, leaving Khoi Nguyen standing dumbfounded in the middle of the schoolyard, in the eyes of his father, of all Tan Viet students, and in the midst of the broken pieces of something he knew he would never be able to put back together, no matter how hard he tried.

Ho Khanh Thu stood nearby, witnessed the whole incident, quickly ran after Dieu Linh, but only had time to see his friend rush straight to the side gate, not hearing the call. Dang Nhat Huy stood in the crowd, for the first time not making a single joke, just quietly watching, his face expressing as much shock as the people around him.

Mr. Bach Son walked up to his son, put his hand on his shoulder, his voice was low, full of regret. "I'm sorry, I didn't know things would turn out like this. I was just thinking about protecting you quickly, I didn't have time to think—"

"I didn't have time to think that you still have a life here, with the people you cherish," Khoi Nguyen said, his voice cracking, his eyes still glued to the side gate where Dieu Linh had just disappeared. "Dad always thinks that the company's affairs and safety are the most important things, but he has never asked me how I want things to go."

Mr. Bach Son was silent, unable to find any words to respond, because he knew his son was right. He signaled the bodyguards to step back and stand still next to his son in the middle of the schoolyard who was slowly calming down, giving him a little more time to calm down before having to leave.

"I want to stay a little longer," Khoi Nguyen said, his voice hoarse. "I need to think."

"Okay," Mr. Bach Son nodded, took a few steps back, signaled the convoy to wait, a rare time in his life for his son to decide his own pace, although it was probably too late for that to be meaningful.

Khoi Nguyen stood alone in the middle of the empty schoolyard, looking towards the side gate, feeling that the entire small, warm world he had built over the past two years — the tree stump, the library classroom, the fair booth, the hall stage — was now crumbling into pieces under his feet, and he didn't know if he would have a chance to pick them up again.