Chapter Text
Someone is calling him. His phone is vibrating loudly.
When he opens his eyes the sun is too bright, and his arms feel too heavy as they feel around for his phone.
He sits up in frustration, arms and legs now tangled with his bed sheets, feels the way his phone slides and hits his hip, still vibrating.
He grabs it, stares at the screen until the fuzziness of sleep fades away and the characters become crystal clear.
my darling 🐰🩷
That wakes him up, he clears his throat, slides to answer the call. The voice on the other side is quickly becoming familiar. Small and soft, polite.
Good morning, did I wake you up?
Lee runs a hand through his hair, winces at the greasy feel of it.
“No,” he shakes his head, “my phone was charging and I couldn't reach it…good morning. Is there anything wrong?”
The list says we should spend some time together. I thought we could do that today since it's the weekend. Are you busy?
“No!” Lee answers too loudly, urgent, “I mean I'm not busy, we can work on the list today if you want.”
Okay, Ghlaijai pauses, let's meet at the mall.
“Okay, yeah,” Lee agrees too easily, “I'll see you soon.”
Ghlaijai hangs up and Lee is left sitting in his silent room. His bed sheets are all crumpled on his lap, his eyes still stinging with leftover sleep.
He drops his phone back on his bed, sighs.
His stomach feels funny and he's not sure if it's because he overslept and hasn't eaten or if it has to do with the way Ghlaijai’s voice had sounded over the phone. Unsure, hesitating but with a tone of determination.
He sighs, decides to get ready.
-
Lee regrets not putting more thought into his outfit.
Ghlaijai is in front of him, a small smile gracing his lips, waving shyly, as if Lee would need any help finding the other when his gaze keeps landing on him no matter how much he tries to stop staring.
The other is already pretty but in his casual outfit all Lee can think about is how he looks so cute. A beige cardigan, wide legged plants.
“Hello, Lee,” Ghlaijai says when they're close enough to each other.
“Hello,” Lee answers, gives his own awkward wave.
Ghlaijai sticks his hand out, between them, wriggles his fingers until Lee gives him a confused look.
“Let's hold hands,” Ghlaijai says, smile spreading a little bigger, “it's on the list.”
Lee tries to smile back but it feels more like he's wincing in pain when he takes a moment to wipe the palm of his hand along the side of his pants.
“Sorry,” he apologizes quietly, blindly grabs at Ghlaijai's hand. The angle makes it awkward and Lee is left just wrapping his fingers around Ghlaijai's entire hand.
Ghlaijai looks at where their hands are clumsily joined together. He reaches with his other hand, takes Lee's hand, rearranges it until their palms are pressed firmly together and their fingers intertwine.
“Like this?” Ghlaijai asks, swings their hands together, Lee nods, stomach feeling funny again.
“Thank you for accepting my invitation,” Ghlaijai says after the beat of silence Lee takes to just keep staring at their hands, “I'm trying to be better about going out, so thank you for letting me kill two birds with one stone.”
“No problem,” Lee finally answers, “I did say I would help you however I could, right?” he grins, tries to shake off the syrupy feeling of his infatuation with Ghlaijai, “I'm Lee at your service.”
Ghlaijai blinks at him, pulls away a fraction of a centimeter, a surprised look on his face.
“Well…then should we go inside?” Ghlaijai coughs nervously, tilts his head towards the entrance.
-
The mall is crowded. It's a Saturday and it's packed with families, groups of friends, couples, teenagers window shopping.
With all the bustle and movement in the mall it still feels like their joint hands are all people are looking at. If Lee lets himself be rational about it, the eyes he is feeling on them are probably staring at Ghlaijai. Entranced by his beauty maybe (definitely) wondering how Lee has gotten so lucky to be able to hold hands with him.
“Have you eaten?” Ghlaijai asks and Lee shakes his head, begins to be pulled towards a cafe.
“Do you have anything you prefer?” Ghlaijai turns to look at him as they join the line, Lee shakes his head again.
They find a place to sit away from the main areas of the shopping mall. There’s only three small tables and they're the only ones around. The foot traffic is almost non-existent and the lighting is a little dim but somehow Ghlaijai still looks pretty.
“Here,” Ghlaijai says, sliding over a plastic cup, a slice of cake in a take out container.
When Lee looks at Ghlaijai's side he sees Ghlaijai with an identical order.
“I hope it's alright,” Ghlaijai smiles at him.
When Lee takes a sip, cuts off a tiny piece of his cake, it's all too sweet.
But he says it's alright and smiles back.
It goes quiet between them, Lee is suddenly forced to think about how they've only known each other for less than 24 hours. He knows nothing about Ghlaijai and Ghlaijai knows nothing about Lee.
Lee takes another sip of his too sweet coffee, “we should take a picture, to post on instagram.”
“Oh,” Ghlaijai pulls his phone out of his pocket, “we can take a picture of our food?”
“I think we should be more obvious,” Lee replies, purses his lips as he thinks about how to say the next part, “maybe a picture of both of us…or a picture of each other.”
Ghlaijai looks at him and nods but doesn’t make a move.
Lee smiles as he reaches for Ghlaijai's hand again, takes it in a gentle hold, afraid and hesitant against the brave face he puts on, taking out his own phone, pointing it at Ghlaijai.
“Oh,” Ghlaijai says and automatically offers Lee a smile. It's small and shy.
Lee takes a picture then another and another until Ghlaijai gets restless, says, “did you get a good one?”
Lee nods, doesn’t pull his hand away as he says, “now you take a picture of me.”
Ghlaijai unlocks his phone, points it at Lee. He smiles wide, hopes his eyes look happy too, that he looks so utterly in love that no one questions it.
Ghlaijai doesn't take nearly as many pictures as Lee had but he leans forward, shows them to him, fingers careful as they swipe from picture to picture.
“Which one do you prefer?”
Lee looks intently, noticing the smallest differences in lighting, angles, focus.
“You pick,” he finally says, Ghlaijai nods.
“Okay, you pick the one you you want too,” Ghlaijai follows easily.
They sit in silence as they look at the pictures. Lee slides through each picture carefully, eyes tracing the curve of Ghlaijai's sharp eyes, the line of his nose, the upturn of his lips from the bashful smile.
Ghlaijai looks perfect in every single picture, but Lee picks one where he's convinced himself Ghlaijai looks slightly more happy.
He gets a message notification from Ghlaijai. When their messages load the last message it's the picture Ghlaijai has chosen.
“This one?” Lee asks anyway and Ghlaijai nods.
He adds both pictures, hovers over the caption, bites down on his tongue as he debates what to put.
Enjoying something sweet🍰🩷
“Like this?” he asks, turns his phone to Ghlaijai again.
Ghlaijai's eyes are attentive, fliting between the pictures of them holding hands, the caption.
He nods, “yeah, okay.”
Lee goes through the motions of adding Ghlaijai as a collaborator, watches as the screen loads and then the post shows up on his screen.
Ghlaijai’s own gaze is fixated on his own phone, Lee gets a notification that Ghlaijai has liked his picture, then another notification and another.
He locks his phone when he sees some comments have been left, doesn't think he has the fortitude to deal with questions or teasing words.
“You really do look cute in the picture,” Ghlaijai's quiet words ring too loudly in Lee's ears. When he looks up from his phone he knows his face is red, can feel how hot his ears are with the words.
“Thank you, you too,” Lee says. As if he's just bought a bottled drink and the cashier has told him to have a nice day.
He doesn't get much time to stew in his embarrassment before Ghlaijai speaks again.
“I think we should buy matching phone cases,” he says, taping the back of his phone, “you said couples sometimes have matching items.”
-
Ghlaijai is smiling at him when they find a case with a cute bunny on the back. The case is a dark blue and the drawing is in the same style as the crescent moon on the case Lee has been holding on to.
“These are totally matching,” Ghlaijai’s smile turns bigger and Lee's heart starts the awkward stuttering heartbeat of what can only surely lead to a heart attack.
Ghlaijai starts walking towards the checkout lane, obviously excited that their long search (three stores and about 45 minutes in this one) for the perfect matching phone cases has been successful.
There's no one in line so Lee stands dumbly as Ghlaijai reaches for the case still in Lee's hand. Their fingers brush and it startles Lee. As if they hadn't been full on holding hands just moments ago.
The conversation Ghlaijai and the cashier are having sounds far away to Lee, lost in their fleeting touch, in the bright smile Ghlaijai had graced him with.
The cashier dutifully tells Ghlaijai the total, and the numbers puncture Lee's daze. He hurriedly reaches for his wallet, takes out his card. The back of Lee's hand gentle knocks Ghlaijai’s own out of the way, taps his card against the card reader.
They hear the beep of the transaction going through, the sound of the cases hitting the bottom of a paper shopping bag.
-
They sit at a bench, in a little recess away from the walking traffic, bracketed by large pants.
Across from them is a little coffee stand, Lee can smell the scent of roasted coffee beans and when Ghlaijai sits next to him, shoulders bumping, the faint refreshing smell of citrus.
Ghlaijai is handing him one of the cases. Lee opens it, absentmindedly reaching for his phone, starting to peel off his old phone case.
The new one goes on with a bit of difficulty, the material stretching with difficulty.
"Let me pay you back," Ghlaijai breaks their silence, "you're already helping me so much with just agreeing to do this."
Lee shakes his head, "you bought me breakfast, so this is only fair."
When he turns his phone over he stares at it for a little longer than necessary. The little bunny face is staring right back at him.
In his confusion he looks at Ghlaijai who catches his gaze, gives him another smile, this time small, shy, as he shows him the moon on his new phone case.
Lee wonders if Ghlaijai is this generous with his smiles to everyone. That thought sours something in him.
His expression must be betraying him and he must look as confused as he feels because Ghlaijai’s expression falters.
“This way if anyone asks they will know we are together,” he explains, words measured.
It's not real, Lee starts to say in his head, over and over again. It's not real, it's not real.
He is doing Ghlaijai a favor because of Teerak. They have only known each other for less than 24 hours. Lee hadn't even known Ghlaijai existed until yesterday and Ghlaijai had only agreed to let Lee help him because Fah had not been an option.
“Makes sense,” he mumbles, “with the picture and the cases everyone surely has to think we're really together.”
-
The sun is setting when Lee gets home. His phone, in his new phone has too many traces of Ghlaijai. The bunny at the back, the notifications from too many people liking, commenting, asking, teasing him about Ghlaijai. He opens his instagram and sees Ghlaijai smiling at him, Lee's hand holding on to Ghlaijai, thumb covering his knuckles.
He clicks on Ghlaijai's profile, notices he has another post after their shared one. It's a picture of their phones, on their front so the cases show. Lee doesn't remember this picture being taking, thinks it must have been when he had stepped away to use the bathroom (really just an excuse to give his heart a second to actually calm down after spending way too much time with Ghlaijai).
The caption is simple, just a moon, a heart, a bunny.
Lee gives it a like, then almost drops his phone when he gets a message from Ghlaijai.
thank you for spending time with me. i had fun even though it was all work.
Lee digs his fingernails into his palm.
no problem, i did say i would help.
It sounds so impersonal but it's all he can afford right now.
when do you have class? lets meet for lunch so we can keep working on the list.
Lee sighs.
send me your schedule and ill send you mine.
Then,
:)
He waits for a second, watches as Ghlaijai seems to be typing something.
Eventually he gets a list of classes and learns for the first time that Ghlaijai must be an aviation student.
It's the first personal thing he has learned about the other and it's a little embarrassing how that excites him.
He sends his own schedule to Ghlaijai.
Ghlaijai reacts to his message with a thumbs up.
Lee thinks, if anything, at least he'll make a new friend.