Chapter 14 — The Thirteenth Desk Drawer

Parent meetings are held in the large hall. On stage was a rendering of the new learning center, shiny and full of glass. Below, parents are given documents emphasizing the benefits: computer room, digital library, activity area. There is not a line about scholarship fund records or the use of old documents.

Hoang Lam sat in the front row, but did not go on stage. Teacher Phuc gave a presentation, Tuong Vy stood next to him. When he said block C was degraded, An Khe looked at Khoi. He knew every table in there, every stuck window and every loose tile. The old house really needs repair. The issue is who gets to decide how to fix it.

A parent asked why all old records had to be transferred to the sponsor. Mr. Phuc said that was the procedure. Ms. Mai Huong raised her hand and asked to read the contract terms. The hall was abuzz. Tuong Vy stood up, confirmed the existence of the clause and proposed to delay signing until the inspector reviewed it.

Teacher Phuc looked at her. “Who are you representing?”

“For yourself,” Tuong Vy replied. “And to those who gave information without knowing how it would be used.”

An Khe was invited by Mr. Quang to present the time table, but she did not use the word "expose". She talked about the day the money disappeared, the student's name was crossed out, the recording, and the people who admitted. She emphasized the unverified part, not exaggerating.

Khoi brought table number 13 into the hall with the repair team. He placed it in the middle of the stage, the drawer was open, inside were only the first piece of paper and a copy of the contract. The whole hall was silent.

“This table is not the only evidence,” Khoi said. "That's why we started asking. If the school destroys it before the records are checked, we will lose a piece of evidence and a part of our memories."

A parent stood up and said his child had been recognized for receiving a scholarship but never received it. Others said they didn't want their children photographed in company documents. The words flowed together, forming a line that the stage could not turn off.

Mr. Phuc tried to end the meeting, but Mr. Quang asked for a vote to pause the project. The results were not yet a majority, but enough that the school board could not sign immediately. The inspector proposed to maintain the status quo of block C for thirty days.

After the meeting, An Khe saw her mother standing at the end of the hall. Mom didn't intend to speak up, but when a parent asked who changed the amount of 18 to 28 million, she stepped up. She said she was once asked to correct her expense list and refused. She did not say she was completely innocent; She admitted that she quit her job without reporting to the authorities because she was afraid.

An Khe heard her mother's words and her heart hurt, but it was also light. Mom chose to speak in front of many people, not just her daughter.

Hoang Lam would like to speak. He said the company's funding will be transferred to an independent monitoring account. He agrees to be responsible for the use of the data and does not claim control over old records. A parent asked him if he apologized to Mai.

“I asked, but she didn't want to hear it yet,” Lam replied. "I won't force it. Sorry, it's not the key that forces someone else to open the door."

Khoi looked at An Khe. She nodded, because that sounded like something Mai wanted to be respected.

That evening, the message on table number 13 read: **Empty chair for people who cannot speak yet. Don't sit for them.**

But the next day, a clip from the meeting spread online, only keeping the part where An Khe's mother said "she was scared" and captioned that she had cheated. Some accounts attacked her family. An Khe wanted to delete it immediately, but Ms. Mai Huong reserved the evidence before reporting. Her mother said there was no need for her daughter to argue on her behalf.

“I've been quiet long enough,” Mom said. “This time mom said it herself.”

Khoi went to the tailor shop to help close it early. He did not offer empty words of comfort. He fixed the loose door lock. An Khe looked at his hands and asked if he ever got tired of having to fix everything all the time.

"Yes. But there's something I can't fix alone."

That night, An Khe received news from Mai: **I saw the clip. Don't let them make your mother the only one at fault.**

Mai agreed to appear in a closed meeting with the inspector, but not to be filmed. She wanted to make clear what she remembered and hear others take responsibility. An Khe replied that they would prepare a room with windows and no cameras.

At the end of the message, Mai added: **I want to see table number 13.**

Mai sent a list of conditions for the meeting in advance: no filming, no bringing other students in, no using her story in promoting the project. She also asked to read all documents containing her name before they are published. Ms. Hanh agreed with every point, and An Khe wrote it down so no one would accidentally forget.

Khoi says the table should be placed under natural light. An Khe asked why. He said the classroom was too bright and it would make it difficult for people to see each other's faces; It's too dark and makes everyone think they have to hide something. Finally they pulled the curtains just enough.

While cleaning, An Khe found a piece of blue chalk lying at the foot of the table. She placed it on the windowsill. Mai used to write her name in blue, according to Vinh. She didn't know if it was a coincidence or a final trace, but didn't put it in the file.

Ms. Hanh reminded the two of them not to call Mai a "victim" during the conversation. Mai may be the victim in a profile, but she doesn't want to be reduced to that role. An Khe wrote a line in the notebook: "Call people by name before calling them by what happened to them."

When everything was ready, Khoi locked the classroom door and gave the key to An Khe. She held it in the palm of her hand, feeling the responsibility was heavier than a piece of metal. Tomorrow, the table is no longer a place to find secrets. It will be where a person decides whether he or she wants to get the story back or not.

Mai doesn't want to meet in the meeting room. Ms. Hanh suggested the library room, but Mai chose class 11A7 after school. She said she wanted to stand where the story began, but didn't want too many people looking.

An Khe and Khoi clean the classroom. They put aside the extra chairs, cleaned the windows and placed a pitcher of water on the teacher's desk. No one set up a camera. Ms. Hanh reminded them both that Mai could change her mind at any time.

While waiting, Khoi asked An Khe if she was afraid of meeting Mai. She said yes, because she had imagined Mai too much through photos and papers. Khoi said that meeting a real person will make all your fantasies go wrong, but wrong in a good way.

Tomorrow comes when the sun has just gone out. She stood at the door for a few seconds, looking at the row of tables before entering. She didn't ask where table number 13 was. She recognized it immediately, even though it had been repaired and placed near the window.

“The table top is different,” Mai said.

“We replaced the rotten part,” Khoi replied. “But keep the scratches.”

Mai placed her hand on the edge of the table. She said that the day before, she sat there because she could see the school gate. If her mother comes to pick her up, she will see it coming. She once hid test papers under the desk drawer, wrote a friend's name on the wooden surface and then erased it.

An Khe asked her if she was the person who left the notes. Mai answered just a few. She started with questions, then walked away. Mrs. Thu kept a few pieces. Ms. Hanh followed a few other pieces. Recently, when she learned that there was a new student sitting at the table, Mai sent her old address to Mrs. Thu, but she wasn't sure if anyone would actually find it.

“Why don't you come back yourself?”

Mai looked out the window. "Because I've gone back many times in my head. In real life, that door is always closed."

Khoi gave her the cloth notebook. Mai doesn't open right away. She asked them if they knew that Mr. Phuc wrote the report. An Khe said yes. Mai asked Hoang Lam if he would appear. Ms. Hanh said no.

“I don't need him to come to know I'm right,” Mai said. “But I want to know if the school dares to listen to everything he has to say.”

The whole room was silent. Mai opens the book. She recognized her handwriting in the first lines, then recognized a few lines written after she left school. She smiled sadly.

“Someone did the part I couldn't do for me.”

An Khe replied: "We don't do it for you. We just reserve a place for you."

Mai looked at her for a long time. "Don't reserve your spot forever. At some point, this spot has to be given to someone else."

They talk about the upcoming meeting, about privacy and paying back the money. Mai agrees to provide the original but wants to decide which documents are made public. She also wanted her name to be spelled correctly in the file, without words like “typical victim” being added.

Before leaving, Mai wrote a sentence in the desk drawer: "If you have to recount, please include the days I lived on." She closed the drawer, then opened it herself. This time there are no new secrets, just enough space to fill in future stories.

Mai asked An Khe if she was ever afraid that if the truth was made clear, she would no longer have a reason to stay at school. An Khe replied that she still had the test, her friends, and the table that needed someone to dust. Mai laughed, saying that was a better answer than any mission promise.

Khoi writes down the class schedule on the board, so no one walks in unexpectedly. Ms. Hanh checked the door lock again, then gave a copy of the key to Mai if she wanted. Mai did not accept. She said she wanted to know the door was open, not necessarily holding the key.

When Mai left, An Khe stood in the hallway watching her shadow become smaller. She didn't run after him. For the first time, she understood that respecting someone sometimes means letting that person go without asking for an explanation.