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Tine rolled over in bed, head pounding and eyes threatening to launch themselves from his skull. After yesterday’s cheering practice had ended abruptly due to a sudden thunderstorm, Tine had run all the way back to his dorm without an umbrella. He was soaked to the bone when he finally made up to his room. Tine thought a hot shower before bed would help --- apparently not.
Hearing his phone buzz on the nightstand, Tine reached over despite his aching muscles and read the incoming LINE messages from Sarawat.
Sarawat: Hi Tine, sorry but we’re going to have to reschedule our lunch date. We’re going to be reshooting a few of the scenes from the music video and I think it’s going to take a while.
Tine pouted. He was looking forward to seeing the other boy after an entire week of classes. They barely managed to have lunch or dinner together since Sarawat was busy with his new band and Tine was busy with cheerleading practice.
After the whole confession debacle a few days ago, Tine just wanted to be sure about him and Sarawat. He sure about his feelings alright, but sure about a relationship? A commitment? Tine didn’t know. He was used to being a serial dater that serious commitment was completely left-field for him.
Tine: Sure, no problem. Let me know when you’re free and we can meet up.
Tine paused, thinking of something else to say.
Tine: Su su na! Take care of yourself, Sarawat.
Tine smiled as he put his phone down and tried to stand up. A wave of nausea suddenly hit him and he barely made it to the toilet to vomit. Tine rested his head on the cool porcelain rim of the toilet bowl and tried to tamp down the nausea rising in his throat.
Ugh. I don’t feel so good.
Tine let his eyes close for a moment and felt the darkness slowly overtake his consciousness.
Tine: Su su na! Take care of yourself, Sarawat.
Sarawat grinned to himself like a loon at Tine’s message, his heart thumping wildly in his chest.
“Is that Tine?” Earn asked, looking over his shoulder.
Sarawat jumped in his seat, nearly dropping his phone in the process. “What the hell, Earn.”
Earn laughed as she took the seat next to his and offered him the cold drink in her hand. “Here.” She smiled. “You guys are cute.”
“What do you mean?” Sarawat hasn’t told anyone apart from Man and Boss about his giant crush on the cheerleader. How could Earn possibly---
Earn rolled her eyes. “Don’t burst a vessel, Wat. You maybe the coolest boy on campus but you aren’t smooth at all.”
Sarawat raised an eyebrow.
“What I mean is,” Earn leaned closer to him, “You guys are so painfully obvious in your flirting that even Pear, my beautiful girl who is as oblivious as a rock, came to me panicking at why your boyfriend was hitting on her.”
Sarawat’s eyes widened. “Wait what? There is so much information in that sentence that I want to clarify.” He twisted the top off the bottle and took a swig.
Earn leaned back with a smirk. “Which parts? Pear? Your boyfriend flirting with my girlfriend?”
Sarawat choked on his juice. Earn sniggered as she thumped his back lightly. “You okay?”
“You…and Pear?”
Earn nodded as if the knowledge was commonplace. “Yeah. We did sign up for the club together. Did you know P’Dim actually wanted her to play the lead female for this video? I told him the only way Pear was going to be the female lead is if I was her love interest.”
Sarawat stared at Earn dumbly, mouth partially open. He had nothing against lesbians, seeing as that would be quite hypocritical of him. It was just a surprise to find out that Earn and Pear were dating each other.
“Let me guess. You’re now regretting every time you got jealous over Tine and Pear, aren’t you?”
Sarawat nodded slowly, still processing everything.
“I know P’Dim wanted Tine to play the male lead too but Green whined the entire time, saying that there was no way Tine was being paired with someone who wasn’t him.”
Sarawat shook his head. He remembered Dim approaching him for ideas for the music video, asking if Tine would be an okay choice to be the male lead. He had vehemently dismissed the idea, making up a story that Tine was horrible actor. Sarawat smiled at the memory.
“Those two are worse than you and Tine to be honest,” Earn commented, pulling out her phone and sending a message to Pear.
“Who?”
“Dim and Green.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Well duh,” Earn continued, smiling at the Pear’s latest IG uploads. “I mean, didn’t you notice them disappearing into the stockroom after practice? And Green’s neck looking like he had been mauled by a small animal afterwards?”
Sarawat shook his head in disbelief as his cheeks colored. “You are freakishly perceptive. Or just really nosy.”
Earn laughed out loud at that. “Maybe I am.”
When Tine came to, his headache had lessened a bit but he still felt feverish. He must’ve been out for what? An hour? Tine picked up his phone which was beside the toilet. Thank heavens he didn’t drop it into his own vomit. Staggering to his feet, Tine stripped off all his clothes and made his way back to his bed.
In a fever-induced haze, Tine thought, I wonder if Wat’s had lunch yet…
Tine vaguely heard his phone running low on battery but he was asleep before it registered in his mind.
Sarawat was getting antsy. After their exchange earlier in the day, Tine had stopped replying to his messages and he wasn’t online anywhere. That was weird for Tine, who was as addicted to social media as his friend, Ohm, was. If his LINE app wasn’t open, his IG surely was.
“Are we almost done, P’Air?” Sarawat asked, approaching the cute senior.
Air was standing behind Dim, who was busy directing Earn. She turned around, “Half an hour, tops, then you can go. We just need to film a shot of you and Earn walking together while the sun sets.”
Sarawat nodded, scratching the back of his neck with a sigh.
“Are you meeting someone for dinner?” Air asked, curious.
“Uh, yeah. You could say that.” Sarawat replied, checking his watch. 5pm. Dinner with Tine. Right. Sarawat tried to remember what Tine liked to eat. I wonder if he would be up for hotpot…
Air smiled at the thoughtful expression on Sarawat’s face. “You and N’Tine would look cute together, you know.”
Sarawat choked on air. “Sorry, P’. What did you say?”
Air giggled. “Just a thought. I’ve been watching you guys practicing together. It’s adorable, the way you dote on him.”
“I don’t---”
“Don’t worry about it, Sarawat,” Air said, “It’s just an observation. You guys just reminded me a little of Green and Dim when they started out.”
Sarawat nodded slowly. He couldn’t wait for the shoot to be over so he could finally see Tine.
Sarawat shifted the bags of take-out hot pot he was carrying to one hand while he unlocked Tine’s door. The lights were all off except for the one out on the balcony. Tine had probably forgotten to turn it off last night when he got in from cheerleading practice.
“Tine? Are you still asleep?”
Sarawat fumbled for the light switch as he set down the food on the kitchen counter.
“Tine?”
Sarawat saw Tine’s clothes scattered all over the floor and he suddenly felt anxious. He approached Tine’s bed and saw the boy asleep on his stomach, dressed only in boxers. He was all red and sweaty and breathing fast.
Fuck, Tine.
Sarawat quickly made his way to Tine and felt his forehead. He’s burning up! “Tine, wake up. I think you have a fever.”
Tine groaned but managed to open his eyes drowsily. “Wat? Is that you?”
“It’s me,” Sarawat said softly, running a cool hand over Tine’s burning cheek.
Tine smiled, eyes half-lidded, as he pressed his face into Sarawat’s hands. “Missed you, saraleo. Your hands feel nice.”
Sarawat felt his heart flutter, the traitor. Now was not the time to find Tine cute. He was sick! But still cute… The musician cleared his throat. “Do you have a thermometer somewhere?”
“Yeah. In the desk drawer.” Tine replied sleepily.
Sarawat found the thermometer and checked the other’s boy’s temperature. 41 degrees! No wonder he’s delirious.
“Come on, tua woon wai. Up you go. Let’s get you in the shower and try to bring down your temperature a little.”
“Mmm, okay…”
Sarawat managed to send a text to Tine’s friends asking for back up and medications before he managed to wrangle Tine into the shower. He took off his own clothes and wrapped Tine’s arms around his shoulders as he turned on the water.
“Cold!” Tine complained, snuggling into Sarawat’s shoulder.
Sarawat bit his tongue, willing his body not to respond to how close Tine was, especially since both of them were sopping wet and dressed only in their underwear. Get your mind out of the gutter, Sarawat!
“I know, I know. Bear with it for a little while.” Sarawat said, running a hand soothingly over Tine’s back.
After the shower and Tine didn’t look like a tomato anymore, Sarawat set him down on the toilet and started toweling him dry. Tine looked like he was about to fall asleep again but he looked far more comfortable that he did earlier.
“What a first date.” Sarawat muttered, drying Tine’s hair gently.
He sighed and carried Tine back to the bed. Tine promptly turned on his side, facing Sarawat, and fell back to sleep with a dopey smile. Sarawat felt the same smile on his face.
After Fong had dropped off a couple of sports drinks and fever medication, he said goodbye and bid Sarawat good luck.
No funny business with my friend, Sarawat!
Sarawat shook his head at the thought and walked over with a tray of food to Tine, who was starting to wake up.
“You should eat, Tine.”
Tine’s eyes fluttered open and he sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Sarawat? What’re you doing here?”
“You’re sick,” Sarawat said simply. He sat down in front of Tine and placed the tray on his lap, handing Tine a bottle of Pocari Sweat. “Drink this and have some soup.”
Tine took the bottle and his cheeks turned pink as Sarawat felt his forehead.
“Your fever broke earlier after the shower.” Thank God. “What happened?”
Tine drank half the bottle before setting it down on the nightstand. “I got wet from the rain after cheerleading practice yesterday. I think the fever might be from that.”
Sarawat sighed. “You should be more careful, tua woon wai.”
That nickname sent a shiver through Tine’s body. It used to be an insult… now Tine wasn’t so sure. He felt shy every time Sarawat called him a nuisance.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I forgot my umbrella.” Tine said sheepishly. “Did I make you worried?”
Sarawat nodded without missing a beat. “No shit. You were so hot earlier.”
Tine coughed at Sarawat’s choice of words. Sarawat turned red as he realized what he said. “I mean your temperature was high. I had to put you in the shower to get your temperature down.” He clarified quickly.
Tine wanted to hide under the covers from embarrassment at the thought of Sarawat and him in the shower.
“Come on, eat up.” Sarawat handed Tine the bowl of warm soup. “You probably haven’t eaten anything.”
Tine sighed. “Yeah. I threw up this morning in the bathroom before I passed out.”
“You passed out?!” Sarawat practically shouted. Tine flinched at his voice. “Sorry, Tine.”
“I think I lost consciousness for an hour after I vomited my soul out into the toilet.” Tine tried to lighten the mood with a small chuckle. “Nothing new; just like the morning after I go out drinking with you and your friends.” Sarawat’s mouth set in a tight line.
“Oh come on, Sarawat. It wasn’t that serious.”
“Of course it was!” Sarawat snapped angrily. “What if you hit your head? I don’t know what I would’ve done if I found you on the bathroom floor…” The musician felt dread crawl up his spine.
Sarawat looked up as he felt Tine’s hand on his cheek. Tine looked guilty.
“I’m sorry, Wat. Really.”
Sarawat took Tine’s hand and interlocked their fingers. “Don’t be. I’m being irrational. You can’t control what happens when you’re sick.”
Tine took a deep breath, leaned over, and pressed his lips softly against Sarawat’s cheek. “I’m sorry for making you worry then.”
Sarawat’s eyes were wide as he let his free hand touch the spot where Tine’s lips were. “Tine…”
Tine cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Too much…?”
Sarawat smiled at Tine. He lifted their hands and pressed a kiss on the back of Tine’s hand.
“Not at all.”
Tine smiled back.
“Now scoot over,” Sarawat said, nudging Tine’s hip. “I’m sleeping over.”
“The heck you are!”