SOTUS PROJECT - Chapter 1

RULE FOR FRESHMEN No. 1

DON’T DEBATE THE INITIATION COMMITTEE

“Y

ou guys can't just shout like that. Shout louder!!”

The voice was roaring like a warden yelling at their prisoners. Yet, the so called prisoners are not really in jail. They actually were inside the common room of the Engineering Faculty. Among them, there’s a sophomore who stood proudly in front of the freshmen, giving order and staring fiercely at the whole new faces.

It’s Arthit; a third-year student who showed an arrogant face with a fierce looking eyes. He’s the chairman of the Initiation Committee; the one who scolded the greenie for murmuring their answer. Though, even if they answered him loud enough, he would still pretend to not hear anything.

Don’t ask me why. It’s not that he’s a bad guy. It’s the duty of the Initiation Committee to take care of the new faculty member. It’s been a tradition from generation to generation. The committee will do a lot more than this in the future. This is just the beginning.

The committee kept their cold faces and for once Arthit repeated his question.

“I’ll ask you again. How many are you this year?”

The floor was mostly silent. Just like his prediction.

They were only here for two days. No one could remember all of their friends let alone to count how many freshmen were in just two days? Plus, Engineering Faculty has the largest number of students in the entire University. It’d be easier if they just asked them to solve calculus problem than counting heads.

The struggles were real. That kind of question really did bring pressure to the greenies[1]. It seemed like the committee finally achieved their unspeakable goal.

Though, why did the committee have to be so barbaric? They shouldn’t have to be so vile. They are students; university students. They shouldn’t treat their junior this way. Yet again, what if the lecturers caught them on act? It would cause some trouble. There must be some rules for the committee about speaking. They should not speak improperly like what they currently did. Their ill-manners were somehow successfully intimidated the freshmen.

"Seriously?” asked Arthit. “Does it mean that none of you fools cares about your friends? It’s the reason why none of you fucking care how many fools are you!"

The chairman walked slowly around the room as he showed his power to intimidate the freshmen. He observed their faces, they seemed to be afraid and some were in the verge of crying. He was glad that this intimidating method was still effective.

Say, actually Arthit is not an ill-manner person. He is not a psychotic man who loves to see people cry. His current behavior was only for show. After all, he is infamous Chairman of the Initiation Committee. He usually is kindhearted; when he sees young girls cry – pretty girls, mostly – he couldn’t help himself but hugging and consoling them. Yes, he was that guy!

When Arthit saw one of the greenie-girl cried for being too intimidated by the committee, he was in urge to console her. Yet, he was obligated to keep his fierce face and ill-manner looking stares. Thus, a greenie-boy next to her gave his handkerchief to the crying girl. She took it and presented him her smile.

Sweet Jesus! What a nice guy! Is he really unaware of me, The Chairman of the Initiation Committee? Arthit heard an inner voice in his head. He was still there, but that the greenie-boy paid no attention as he gave the girl his full attention.

Arthit liked the girl. He was going to ask her for her number but everything went downhill for him because of that one particular greenie.

What a greenie… He wants to be a hero?? Well, Fine… If he really desires to… I’ll shoot him a chance.

"Hey, you over there, stand up!!!"

Arthit howled at the handkerchief’s owner. The girl next to him startled, she looked at him with a worried face for realizing that the voice came from the chairman. But the greenie-boy sensed no problem. He stood up, showed his full height, and made the Arthit startled.

Although Arthit thought that he’s pretty tall (about 6 feet height) this greenie-boy is taller than him for almost 4 inches. His thick eyebrows and his good looking face, they’re beaming an expensive aura that beaten up the rest of the guys in the room.

He tried not to be vile but the greenie-boy really made his feet itchy. Even more, the feeling was doubled when he found out that there were no a slight of fear in the boy’s eyes. Alright! Let’s give him some good lessons for being manlier than all guys in the committee.

"Say your name and your ID number clearly!" he asked.

"My name is Kongpob and my code number[2] is 0062."

"Now tell me. How many of you are there in your class?!" asked Arthit almost directly.

"I don’t know, sir.”

“Why?”

“I’ve never counted, sir."

The responses made not only were his eyebrows raised up, but also his hands which slowly took the shape of a fist.  Arthit somehow wanted to rush at him immediately to punch his handsome face.

…This greenie is really pissing me off…

If Arthit met someone like him out of the school, he would have called his friends to beat him up. But now, they’re standing in the middle of the common room – in the initiation day where hundreds of eyes relied on him. He would not let anything affect him. He’s still their senior after all and he’d let him off this time.

Arthit tried to hide his anger. He started giving orders with a strict voice.

"Even if you’ve never counted, it is still the information you should already know. Also, you all have to answer every question. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" said the freshmen.

Arthit extracted a necklace out from his pockets. It looks like a gear painted over by a brown color. He raised it in front of Kongpob’s face and asked

"Do you see this gear?"

"Yes, sir."

"This gear is a symbol for the whole faculty. It represents the pride of an engineer. It does not belong to just any individual person. If you can’t prove that you deserve to have it, get out of here!! Then from now on, I won’t accept you as my junior."

The last part of what he said wasn’t only for Kongpob alone. It’s for the whole freshmen as the common room started being tumultuous. It seemed like to achieve the gears the greenies must be participated in the committee’s initiation game. The committee itself was dominated by third-year students.

“If the freshmen behave well and join every activity, you could easily get the gears. Besides, if you don’t, you probably will be in trouble,” said Atrhit. “Furthermore, the initiation process will be more and more difficult. It could be yours worst nightmare. You have to follow every activity, every day onward. Once you skip the process the whole class would be punished. The worst is that you all might not get your gears at all.”

It is not even a joke. The seniors are deadly serious. Freshmen already know that the tradition has always been this way for generations. They’ve also heard about the older-greenies who didn’t get their gears and some unofficial rumor about them. Thus, the threat has not lost its effectiveness. By this time, some freshmen’s faces started to become pale and some were almost fainted.

A smile appeared on his face before he returned towards Kongpob who probably started to worry.

"Now let me know. If I don’t give you this gear, what are you going to do?" asked Arthit. He finished his words with an arrogant face. He seemed to predict what that haughty young man is going to say. It’s probably I don’t know again. And when that happens, he’ll make sure that the guy gets his punishment; just to let him know that he is nothing but a freshman.

…You should know your place, greenie!! By the time you’ll realize that you were just a nothing.

Arthit returned to the podium as if he already won. He expected to punish the boy without even before hearing the boy’s answer. But right before he stepped up, the boy spoke up. It surely made him almost fall backwards.

"Then, I’ll just have to take it from you myself, sir." said Kongpob.

He returned immediately as he could not believe what he had heard.

…What the heck? Did I hear it wrong?

"What did you say?"

Arthit asked again. He looked straight towards the unruffled face. His eyes were staring at Kongpob before the greenie could say anything—anymore.

"If you don’t give it to us, we’ll have to snatch it away from you, sir." Kongpob said. He sounded like he was not afraid of anything and it – for the second time – made the whole common room tumultuous again.

Arthit couldn’t believe what he just heard. His eyes opened undeniably wide after that young guy dared to say it directly to his naked face. It’s like someone stroked him in the face with their shoe.

His hands were wringed strictly. He stepped in front of him, grabbed his collar and howled.

"Say it again!!!” He roared. “Do you really motherfucking think that you can snatch it away from me?"

"I believe, I—can, sir." said Kongpob.

"Then, how the fuck will you do that shit?"

"I just have to make you mine."

…Silent

…The entire room became silent.

Kongpob clutched Arthit’s hand that was grabbing his collar. He looked straight towards Arthit’s eyes whose was unexpectedly frozen after hearing his answer.

"There’s a saying, everything belongs to their lover, belongs to them too. If I make you mine—as my wife, yours will also be mine."

"You…"

Arthit quickly took his hand back of Kongpob’s collar. He tried to come up with a viler return but the common room was filled with cheering and whistling. Even his friends, the third-year students, they looked like they enjoyed the greenie’s confession.

The next moment, Arthit realized that he undoubtedly seemed like a moron who was being kicked out of the edge.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Arthit roared in anger.

The rest of the committee helped him turning down the noise. He showed his most unpleasant look to Kongpob. This dipshit is really know how pissing me off.

Arthit wasn’t sure either if Kongpob was serious or not. It wasn’t obvious if he’s really into this kind of thing but there’s something about him that made Arthit couldn’t let it pass from his thought. He wanted to make me his. Alright, let him try.

Arthit, himself, is pretty sure that he is straight. He would never have any of those feelings for a dude. If Kongpob dared to challenge him, he’ll accept it.

"Fine,” Arthit said. “We’ll see what you really capable of. But for now, the gear is still mine and I have all the right to punish you."

A smile grew upon his face before he gave the declared his words.  "Kongpob; 0062. Hands up and do the squad 200 times!! NOW!!"

"Yes—sir."

The greenie didn’t show any disappointment for the punishment. Instead, he slightly smiled. He didn’t prolong the conflict between them. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy it. He stepped up front and started.

Arthit was standing right next to him; watching. He surely tried to hide his anger by showing his unusual content face.

He thought, a foolish greeny wanted to make the Chairman Committee his for a piece of gear necklace? Does he even awake?

…Let see who will be whose in the end….

…It’s definitely a war – between The Chairman of the Initiation Committee and Mr. Greenie…

---

[1] Greenie = Freshman (New Student).

[2] Student ID number.

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PS: It's a free-form translation of SOTUS novel and some of my personal rendition of the story. I read the Thai version from https://my.dek-d.com/-bittersweet-/writer/viewlongc.php and found also found some English translation online. But I'd like to add my personal translation for the story so I created this one.

If you found my translation somewhere else, please contact me.

PS2: I am currently studying Thai, so Thai is not my first language. If you found this translation a little off, I'll edit them for sure.

PS3: Thank You, Bittersweet, for the original novel. I bought one but they're in Thai, so in the end, I didn't read the book, instead I went to the site and spent hours reading on the screen.

PS4: I've changed some terms in Thai into common English terminologies. I'm sorry for that.