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Camp is so much more fun than he thought, Duen realizes as he carefully puts another tree in the ground. There’s something so calming, so soothing about taking this small and fragile living thing, and helping to make sure it finds a home and gets to grow safely.
He’d been excited before they left, both at the idea of finally going on camp and at getting to go with all his best friends and his boyfriend. But now he’s actually here, softly patting the soil around the stem of a tiny tree and quietly saying prayers for it to grow well, and frankly he’s having a much better time than he anticipated.
Bohn sits down next to him with a soft huff before wordlessly holding out a bottle of water towards Duen.
“Thank you,” Duen says, smiling as he takes in the sight of his boyfriend. It isn’t ridiculously hot today, but the humidity combined with digging holes all day means Bohn has sweat dripping down his neck. His shirt is soaked through, and there are dirt streaks on his trousers. Duen doesn’t know if it’s because of the rose-tinted goggles from being in love, or if Bohn looks like this for everyone, but Bohn looks absolutely amazing despite it all, and it’s not the first time Duen has wondered how he’s so lucky to have a boyfriend like this.
There’s also dirt on his cheek, and Duen takes the opportunity to wipe some of it off with a cloth tissue. Bohn smiles softly at him as he does, and Duen feels his heart flutter at the sight. He’s still very new at all of this, having never been in a relationship before, having never even been kissed, so he’s going to enjoy this whole ride for however long it lasts. Hopefully - at least, if it’s up to Duen - it’s going to last a very long time, indeed.
Still, it’s also still a bit intimidating to be so blatantly pursued, so wanted by someone else, especially if that someone else is a known player with a list of exes as long as Thara’s list of medical supplies he brought to camp, “just in case”. Duen’s from a supportive but protective family, and he doesn’t quite know how to handle any of this yet. But they’ve only been together a few weeks anyway, they’ve got all the time in the world.
“What are you thinking about?” Bohn asks, his eyes looking straight into Duen’s as he raises an eyebrow questioningly.
“You. Us,” Duen replies, deciding to be bold and wipe the last stubborn bits of dirt away with his thumb. Bohn turns into his touch just the slightest bit, and it’s making Duen feel all kinds of things.
“What about us?” Bohn smirks, but Duen can hear a hint of insecurity beneath it.
“How happy I am to be here, with you.” Bohn lights up at this, and his hand grabs Duen’s, which means it was the right thing to say (a fact Duen immediately files away for future reference). The moment Bohn’s hand touches his, Duen’s heart stops fluttering and starts skipping beats instead. Maybe he should talk to Thara about that, actually.
Bohn is just taking a breath to say something when something happens at the edge of camp near the showers. It sounds almost as if there’s a fight going on. Other people are already starting to gather around it, blocking the sight for Duen.
Then he hears Tingting’s voice over it all, and he makes a run for it, barely hearing Bohn’s surprised muttering behind him.
Arriving at the site, he sees to his surprise Thara running around frantically, lifting up boxes filled with saplings and rummaging through the bags of supplies. He’s followed by Frong who is trying to grab his arm and get him to calm down.
Ting walks up to Duen, looking exasperated. “Duen, please talk to your cousin, we can’t get through to him.”
“What makes you think I can?” Duen’s never seen Thara like this, and he frankly has no idea how to handle this.
“You’re his cousin! Maybe he’ll listen to- Bohn! Wait!” Ting shouts as Bohn pushes past them with Ram in tow. They both grab one of Thara’s arms and pull him away before nodding at King, who pops up out of nowhere with a bowl of water that he, gleefully, empties on Thara.
“Well, that’s one way of calming someone down, I suppose,” Ting mutters next to Duen, who watches Thara sputter as Bohn and Ram let go of him.
“P’Doctor,” Frong carefully walks up to Thara, eyeing him as if he’s a feral cat that can attack at any moment. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Cupcake,” Thara says after a moment’s silence. “He’s missing.”
Half an hour later, a Plan is formed. It’s done in the usual manner: gathering everyone together except the people that it’s actually about (in this case, Thara, and by extension Frong, who is mostly too baffled to join them anyway), and whispering suspiciously and vigorously. Duen is mostly just glad it’s not about him for a change. And from the look on his face, Bohn is glad to be included for what’s possibly the first time ever.
The Plan, as announced by Tingting, is as follows:
Frong will take Thara to his tent to get a dry shirt and help look for Cupcake there. Ram and King are going to check the showers. Mek and Boss will go through one of the buses, and the other one will be checked by a somewhat reluctant Tang and a very reluctant Tingting.
Duen and Bohn will, like the rest of the campers, check their own tent first, then search outside as best as they can in the now quickly diminishing light.
“I wonder what happened to Cupcake,” Duen says later in their tent. “I hope he’s okay.”
“He’s a lizard, how are we supposed to find it in a forest?” Bohn asks while halfheartedly lifting up a shirt and then letting it fall back down on the floor.
“How did it even escape in the first place? P’Thara is so careful, there’s no way Cupcake would’ve just escaped.” Thoughts are starting to race through Duen’s mind. There’s something there, but he can’t quite put his finger on it yet.
Bohn turns to him, frowning. “What are you suggesting?”
Duen isn’t sure yet. He hears Bohn step closer to him, then feels him carefully put a hand on Duen’s shoulder. “Duen?”
Suddenly, it’s as if a lightbulb flashes on.
“Bohn!” Duen says excitedly. Bohn immediately takes a step back, a worried look all over his face. “We’re going to investigate this case!”
“You mean like a detective?”
“Like Sherlock Holmes! The game, my dear Bohn, is afoot!”
“Duen, wait!” Bohn almost trips as he runs after Duen who is quickly walking away.
“Bohn, listen,” Duen starts. He’s excited about this now and not about to stop. “We have to start by asking questions. I think we should begin with P’Thara, since it’s his lizard. Then we can ask Frong what he was doing when Cupcake disappeared, and see if we can find any clues in and around the tent.”
“Wait, this isn’t in the plan! We all agreed upon a plan, remember?”
“Yeah, but we did our part of the plan. We checked our tent, and now we’re going to go about searching for Cupcake in a constructive manner.”
“Do you even know how to do that?” Bohn is panting now, trying to keep up with Duen. Once Duen has his mind set to something, there’s almost no stopping him.
“Well, how hard can it be?” Duen stops in front of Thara’s tent. He can hear the muffled sounds of people talking softly inside. Bohn stops beside him, and looks at him still with a worried look on his face.
“Are you sure about this, Duen? I’ll help you in whatever way I can, of course, but,” Bohn trails off. It’s alright; Duen knows what he means, anyway.
Inside, they find Thara and Frong sitting on an inflatable bed, surrounded by absolute chaos. It’s as if a hurricane has gone through the tent and Frong and Thara have somehow been in the eye of it the whole time. There are t-shirts and pyjamas and toiletries scattered everywhere.
Thara is staring blankly ahead of himself. Frong is softly and very awkwardly rubbing circles on his back.
“P’Thara,” Duen starts, slowly and carefully making his way through the chaos. “Are you alright?”
“My Cupcake,” Thara says unblinking and without looking at Duen and Bohn. “He’s been away for so long now. He doesn’t know how to take care of himself. What if he’s eaten by a predator by now? What if he’s died from thirst? I might never see him again.”
Duen kneels down in front of him, trying to make eye contact with his cousin. “When did you last see him?”
“This afternoon, when I went to give him some fresh water. I took him out so he could move around for a bit. He likes crawling up and down my arm, so I let him do that for a while, then gave him water and snacks and put him back in his container.”
“And you’re sure you shut it right?”
Thara sniffles a little. “Y-yes, I’m sure. I always double-check.”
“Has anyone else been in your tent since?”
“Not that I know of, no.”
“Duen, what are you doing?” Frong asks quietly, looking mildly exasperated.
“Sleuthing! I’m tracing people’s steps to see if I can figure out where Cupcake is. Like Sherlock Holmes! Speaking of which, P’Yim, where have you been all day and were you at any point before now inside this tent?”
Duen doesn’t miss the quick, nervous glance Frong casts at Thara before they both tense up slightly. Hm. Suspicious. He files it away as important information to remember later.
“No, I’ve been outside all day planting trees.”
“Is there anyone that can confirm this?”
“I can,” Thara says. “We were together all day.”
“Ohooo! Were you? Hey, so is there finally something going on between you two, hm?” Duen really hopes there is, they both deserve someone who cares for them, and they would look so good together.
“Duen!” Bohn’s voice snaps from where he is standing behind Duen with his arms crossed, looking annoyed. “Focus on the case, will you?”
Frong clears his throat. “I promise you, other than the moment where P’Thara went off to take care of Cupcake, we were together to plant trees all day.”
Duen is really trying his best to stay in Sherlock Holmes-mode, truly. So he clears his throat and shakes off the part of him that wants to go and hug them both. “Can you show me Cupcake’s container, and where and how you found it?”
Thara nods, standing up shakily before grabbing the little box. “I found this in the spot where I left it, on top of my bag. Except the lid was partially off, just enough for Cupcake to climb out.”
“Hm, hm,” Duen nods. “Is it broken anywhere?”
“No, it still works fine - wait,” Thara frowns. “Something’s off.” He’s trying to close the little box, but it keeps popping open again after a couple of seconds.
There’s a moment of silence as they all take in what this means.
“So, what?” Bohn breaks the silence. “Did it break?”
“Possibly,” Duen says. “Or someone broke it.”
“Why would anyone break it?”
“It could’ve been an accident, of course. But we can’t ignore other possibilities.”
“Such as?”
“Such as someone breaking it on purpose,” Duen says, in the most mysterious and dramatic voice he can manage. “Well, my dear Bohn, onwards we go to look for clues! P’Thara, have you noticed anything else that’s odd in your tent? Is there anything else missing? Something that was suddenly in a different place than where you’d left it, maybe?”
Thara shakes his head. “No, everything was as I’d left it. I haven’t noticed anything odd at all.”
“P’Yim, you share this tent with P’Thara, right? Did you notice anything odd? Are you missing anything?”
“No, everything was totally fine,” Frong says, shaking his head too.
“Hm, alright,” Duen says, leaning back on his heels. “Well, then. You two just stay put here, maybe have a drink, and we’ll all get together later.”
“Well, that brought us nowhere,” Bohn mumbles under his breath after they’ve left the tent. It’s dark outside now, and someone has lit the torches between the tents. This would usually give the camp a cozy, romantic look, but somehow in his current state of mind, Duen just finds it almost threatening, as if something could happen at any moment.
“On the contrary!” He says, bringing his mind back to the topic at hand. “It brought us a lot of new information. We know now that the container doesn’t close right, that Cupcake was still here this afternoon, that he isn’t in P’Thara’s tent, and that P’Thara and P’Yim have spent the whole day together.”
“Wait, how is that last bit relevant?” Bohn’s eyebrows are knitted in confusion.
Duen shrugs. “It means we can rule out P’Yim. But besides that, it just makes me happy. They’ll make a cute couple. And it should make you happy, too, since it means P’Yim won’t be a danger to our relationship anymore. Not that he ever was to begin with,” he adds hastily, seeing the gloomy look on his boyfriend’s face.
It’s true, though. Frong was never a danger to their relationship and has always kept a respectful distance after learning who Duen chose. Bohn just has an insecure streak a mile wide and needs more reassurance and attention than he’d like to admit to.
“So, where are we going next?” Bohn asks, apparently eager to change the subject. Duen appreciates that Bohn’s apparently more willing to continue on their detective adventure. Bohn might not admit it, but Duen thinks he’s secretly enjoying all this anyway. He’s always been very dramatic, after all, and as an engineer he loves working on intricate puzzles.
“We’re going to check on P’Mek and P’Boss,” Duen says as casually as he can muster.
“You mean interrogate them?”
“Well. Yes. But we’re not letting them know that.”
When they arrive at the bus where Mek and Boss are supposed to be searching, however, Duen notices the bus is dark. Which is odd, obviously. The door is open though, which makes it even stranger.
He glances at Bohn, who gives him a worried glance back. Wordlessly, they both get out their phones and put the flashlights on. Holding their phones in front of them, they slowly go into the bus, with Bohn ahead of Duen after an angry nod and a soft push aside.
Inside, the bus is dark and intimidating, and Duen feels a shiver run down his spine. He doesn’t think he’s usually scared that easily, but something about this empty, dark bus, with the moonlight streaming in and casting strange shadows, makes Duen more nervous about what he’s going to find.
Then a soft moan comes from the back of the bus, and Duen loses it. So he does what any reasonable man would do at a moment like this: he starts screaming.
Weirdly enough, whatever’s in the back of the bus screams back. Suddenly there’s scrambling sounds and shadows moving quickly, and Duen decides to make a run for it. He barely makes it a couple of steps though before Bohn grabs his arm and stops him, grinning at him.
“Scared, are you?” He smirks at Duen.
“Bohn! Let me go!” Duen tries to shake his arm free, but to no avail. Then there’s another scream - but this time, it’s coming from the other bus.
“Is that-” Bohn starts, turning to Duen with wide eyes.
“Tingting!” Duen says and turns to run, this time without Bohn stopping him.
They’ve barely made it outside of the bus when Ting already comes running out of the other one.
“Ting! Are you okay?” Duen asks as he runs over to her.
“We found Cupcake, and I am so done with everything. I’m going home,” she says, panting and clutching her shirt.
“You found Cupcake?” Bohn asks.
“Yeah, I have him right here,” Tang says as he slowly climbs out of the bus, his hands cupped together.
“That’s what you care about? Not me going home, but that lizard?” Ting says loudly.
“We care about you, too, Ting,” Duen says. He is genuinely worried about her, she’s been upset the whole trip. She’s his friend, of course he cares. “I don’t want you to go home, I want to spend time with you here.”
“So when are you actually going to spend time with me?” she pouts. “You’re all off with your boyfriends all the time.”
“Find a boyfriend, too, then!” Boss chimes in unhelpfully from the side. Duen doesn’t know where he suddenly came from, but both Boss and Mek are now there, panting slightly and looking very dishevelled. Their hair is sticking up everywhere, and Boss even somehow has his t-shirt inside out and backside forward, so the label is under his chin.
Duen shakes his head internally. These two are so chaotic, he’s not surprised they wouldn’t even know how to put on a t-shirt.
“I would if you weren’t all gay for each other,” Ting murmurs angrily under her breath. “Anyway, we can go back to camp and have dinner now, right? I’m hungry, let’s go.”
Duen might miss a lot of social cues, and he knows he can be very naive at times (he considers it part of his cute image) but he doesn’t miss the sad look Tang has on his face as he watches Ting lead the way back to the campsite.
Maybe, Duen thinks to himself, maybe being a detective is about more than just solving the one case right in front of you. Maybe he can do more than that.
Back at camp, Cupcake is immediately reunited with his owner, who had been pacing in front of his tent, waiting nervously while wringing his hands.
“So now that that’s done, I say it’s dinner time!” Boss exclaims enthusiastically.
“Not yet!” Duen shouts, standing on a table in an attempt at quieting everyone down. “We’re not done yet! After all, we haven’t found the culprit yet.”
“Do we have to?” Ting asks. “Cupcake’s back, we can all move on now.” An agreeing murmur goes through the camp.
“We can’t, actually. We wouldn’t want Cupcake to disappear again, would we? We’d have to do this all over again. No, we need to get to the bottom of this. And - hang on,” he realizes something as his eyes roam over the gathered people. “Did someone tell Ram and P’King that they can come back?”
As it turns out, no one had thought of telling Ram and King the search was over, but then again, no one had seen them in a while either. Had it just been Ram, Duen wouldn’t have been that worried. But most people know where King is at any given moment just because he likes to talk a lot, preferably even to actual people. He also tends to be very loud when something goes wrong. Duen might not have known King for very long yet, but he knows him well enough to be worried already.
And judging by Bohn’s hurried steps next to him, he’s worried too.
The first shower building is even darker and scarier than the bus was. There aren’t any windows for moonlight to shine through, and to Duen all the separate shower stalls feel like endless potential for horrors. He’s always had a vivid imagination, as proven by all his worries about what Bohn might want from him during a sleepover, and that imagination is currently doing everything in its power to scare him.
For a moment, he almost regrets doing all of this. He’d always imagined detective work to be a lot of sitting on a cool chair and looking suave while thinking his way through problems, not walking into multiple horror movie scenarios in one evening.
But then Bohn looks at him and whispers at him to stay close as he walks into the building first, his phone held out in front of him with the flashlight on for the second time this evening, and maybe things aren’t that bad after all. Duen decides to stick close to him - so close, he might as well grab Bohn’s shirt while he’s at it. Or his hand. Possibly both - Duen’s not picky right now, and he’s pretty sure Bohn won’t mind.
They make their way through the building like this, close together and not letting go of each other. They don’t find anything in this one though: no strange sounds, nothing moving in the shadows, no one screaming.
The second building is the same, just silence and darkness, not even so much as the rustling sound of an animal scurrying off or the buzzing of a mosquito. Duen feels anxiety building up inside him - weren’t they supposed to have found Ram and King by now? Where could they be? What if something happened to them? His mind is racing now, but for different reasons than ghouls and demons.
They enter the third and last building even more carefully than the others. Somehow, this one feels tangibly different, though Duen can’t put his finger on why. For a moment, he thinks it’s just him, but then Bohn suddenly stops and whispers “I thought I heard something,” and the only thing between Duen and sheer, utter panic is the reassuring weight of Bohn’s hand in his.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” Bohn calls out loudly.
The response, coming from the back of the row of stalls, is a yelp, followed by a crashing sound, a shower suddenly switching on, some cursing, and a very worried “P’King!”
Duen can feel Bohn’s hand shake a little from laughing before Bohn lets go to walk over to the stall. “Are you okay in there?” he asks after knocking on the door.
There’s some quick whispering behind the door before King’s voice calls out: “We’re stuck! The door won’t open.”
“You got stuck? How?” Duen asks, baffled. “Why didn’t you call for help?”
“We did, at first! But no one came, so we gave up. Now can you help us out?” King replies.
“We’re working on it,” Bohn says as he runs his fingers over the closed edge of the door. “I think it might just be jammed a bit. You don’t have it locked on your side right now, right?”
“No, it’s unlocked, but we don’t have enough space in here to really pull it with any force.”
“Okay,” Bohn says, apparently deciding on something as he takes a step back and softly pushes Duen out of the way. “Get out of the way of the door.”
Duen hears them shuffle around inside and mutter something at each other.
“We’re ready!” King says, sounding muffled somehow.
Bohn braces himself, takes a deep breath, and rams his shoulder against the door. It opens immediately, and Bohn stumbles into the stall. Duen looks around the corner, only partially out of worry for Bohn and mostly out of curiosity. Ram is standing with his back towards them, pinning King between the wall and his own chest. When they move, Duen notices Ram’s hand protecting King’s head. He finds himself oddly feeling like he’s intruded on something private, something intimate, even.
“Duen, please move,” Bohn says, pushing slightly against his chest. “You’re in the way.”
“Oh, right,” Duen says, still looking at Ram and King, who are also coming out. “Well, now that we’ve found and rescued you, let’s all go back to camp and get this mystery solved!” He’s so pumped now. He might not know if he can solve the mystery, but he’s excited nonetheless.
But then Ram shakes his head. “We need to go see P’Thara first. King’s stitches got wet.”
Bohn shrugs. “He’s at the camp, with everyone else. Tingting found Cupcake, so we’ve all stopped searching. We were just waiting for you two.”
“Let’s go!” Duen says, smiling happily, and leads the way back.
After that, Duen figures sleuthing can wait for a little bit until Thara is done checking King’s stitches. As a med student, it’s probably irresponsible to prioritize mystery-solving over medical necessities, as fun as all of this might be so far.
Although this is a good opportunity to observe everyone quietly from within the safety of Bohn’s arm that’s currently slung casually around his shoulders.
Duen looks around at everyone: King and Thara are off to the side, with what looks like half the first aid supply scattered on the table. Frong and Ram are hovering nearby, pretending to play with Cupcake but Duen sees them both pay more attention to Thara and King. Mek and Boss are almost sitting on each other’s lap while whispering to each other. It looks like a serious conversation to Duen, who isn’t used to either of them looking particularly serious. He’s definitely marking them as suspicious.
Tingting and Tang are also sitting next to each other, but with more distance than most people would use. Ting is staring grumpily ahead, while Tang looks at her with an exasperated look on his face.
Then there’s the last person: Bohn. Duen doesn’t seriously suspect him, even if just because they’ve spent most of the day together, and besides, Bohn might have some incredibly silly ideas of how to get someone’s attention but releasing a beloved pet isn’t one of them. Not to mention that all of his tactics are usually aimed at getting specifically Duen’s attention. In fact, now that they’re just sitting here, Duen can both hear and feel Bohn hum happily.
Still, without enough evidence everyone is a suspect, and that includes Bohn for now.
Finally, after ten minutes and a lot of “if anything at all happens, come straight to me, okay?” Thara declares King fit enough to be done for now, and they can all gather to settle this mystery once and for all.
“Alright everyone, gather around!” Duen exclaims after climbing on top of the tables they’ve pushed together.
“We’re already here, Duen. We’ve been here for ages already. Can we go through this fast, please,” Ting complains. Duen sees a couple of people nod in agreement.
“Okay, let’s do this!” Duen cheers happily. “So as we all know, Cupcake went missing. Luckily he’s found - thank you Tingting and Tang for finding him and everyone else for joining in the search - but there are still some questions left. For starters, I have discovered the lid to his container doesn’t close right anymore. Is this an accident? Is this on purpose? We shall find out the truth! So! The suspects are as follows: first of all, P’Thara.”
Thara’s head snaps up from where he’s cooing at Cupcake. “Me?”
Duen nods solemnly. “Yes, you. You could’ve been asking for attention from P’Yim.”
“P...Yim?”
“He means me,” Frong says. “He didn’t know my name, and I smile a lot, so he called me P’Smile.”
“Aw, that suits you,” Thara smiles at him. “But, Duen. You’re not serious, right? Surely you know me better than that?”
“Hm,” Duen hums. “You, yes. But P’Yim? I don’t know you that well. You are a suspect, you could’ve wanted P’Thara to come running to you for comfort.”
“Actually, I’m usually the one going to him for comfort. Somehow, he’s always around when I need it,” Frong shrugs. “And it doesn’t make sense for me to let Cupcake escape, wouldn’t that make him hate me?”
Fair point.
“Okay,” Duen says, pivoting on his feet. He just catches Bohn in the corner of his eye bracing himself in case Duen falls. “Next up: P’Mek and P’Boss. Where were you today, and why were you not in the bus when we went looking for you?”
Boss frowns in confusion. “What do you mean, we weren’t on the bus? We were there the whole time, until Tingting started screaming.”
Something in the back of Duen’s mind is starting to put two and two together, but it’s not quite there yet and it’s frustrating him. “But, Bohn and I went looking for you, and all the lights were off and no one was there.”
Mek clears his throat awkwardly, before leaning in to Boss’ side. “Should we just tell them?”
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Boss says, before turning back to the group. “Duen, we were on the bus the whole time, we just weren’t looking for Cupcake.”
“Then what..?”
Boss smiles mischievously. “We were making out.”
“I knew it!” Bohn shouts out. “This whole husband and wife shtick was true all this time, wasn’t it?”
“Actually, we didn’t really get together until very recently,” Mek says calmly.
Duen is still baffled by the revelation. Wait - is that why Boss' t-shirt was on all wrong? And was Tingting right on the bus, and are all the guys together, somehow? When did that even happen? He’d always assumed he was the only queer person in the friend group. Of course, he’d heard of friend groups often being gayer than they think at first, but he didn’t think that was true for him, too.
He shakes his head, trying to get back to the topic they’re all gathered for to begin with: Cupcake’s disappearance.
“So, did you two just offer to go search the bus so you could make out?” He asks.
“Yep!” Boss answers cheerfully. Mek punches his arm instead of saying anything. “What? It’s true. Listen, Duen, we’ve done our very best this whole time to not be anywhere close to that lizard, and we don’t even really know Thara and Frong. I think it’s best if you just give up on your search, and let us all go to dinner.”
“I will give you that you have no motive - that I can think of right now,” he adds when he sees Boss’ relieved face. “Besides, we still have other people to interrogate. Now, P’King and Ram. Let’s hear your alibi for today.”
Ram just stares at Duen in answer, while King fidgets uncomfortably.
“Well, for starters, I have a concussion and have to take things easy. And everyone who knows me also knows I’m terrified of anything that can bite me, so why would I even come close to a lizard. And Ram has been with me all day to make sure I’m alright.”
Ram nods, confirming it. Duen trusts Ram, possibly the most out of anyone at this table. Still, he does have some questions though.
“Okay, different question for you two. How did you even get stuck in that shower stall?”
King laughs, as Ram blushes. “That’s a whole different story for another time,” he says, leaning an arm on Ram’s shoulder. “For now, that’s between Ram and myself.”
“See, this is why I’m done!” Ting shouts suddenly as she stands up, slapping her hands flat on the table. “All the guys are either gay or taken, and I’m tired of it! When will I finally get a nice boyfriend?!”
“I am right here!” Tang suddenly shouts, also standing up. Duen can’t do anything but stare silently at what’s happening - and it seems everyone else feels the same. It’s as if the whole table is suddenly frozen in time. Well, except for King who has pulled a bag of candy out of nowhere and is happily munching away.
“I’ve been here this whole time, right next to you!” Tang continues. “When will you finally see me?!”
“What do you mean, see you? Of course I see you,” Ting says, obviously confused.
“Pssh, Ting,” Bohn whispers. “He means he loves you. Just thought I’d clear that up for you.” He shrugs and leans back, smirking up at Duen.
“Oh. Ooh.” Ting says slowly as realization dawns on her. “Well, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Are you telling me I could’ve had a boyfriend this whole time?”
The whole table erupts in groans, including Tang himself.
“Yes, Ting, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all day, but you were busy with other things.”
“Oh, well,” she smiles, suddenly bashful. “I’m here now, though?”
“Oh, shit!” Frong shouts suddenly, interrupting everything.
Ting frowns. “That’s not a reaction I expected, not going to lie.”
“No, look,” Frong says, pointing at Cupcake’s container.
Duen turns around just in time to see the container pop open, like it did before. Except this time, Cupcake sticks his head out, seemingly looks around for a moment, before crawling out and starting to scurry away. The whole table is immediately in scrambles. Some people are chasing after Cupcake, some are running away screaming, and some are using the opportunity to sneak away towards the dinner table. Duen is mostly concerned with not falling off the table as everyone pushes at it suddenly.
Amidst the chaos he sees Frong suddenly fling himself forwards, and coming back up with a triumphant look on his face. “I’ve got him!” Frong says loudly, turning to Thara with a big smile on his face.
“Everybody stop!” Duen shouts. “Cupcake’s caught! Come back, we’re not done!”
To his relief, Tingting and Tang actually turn around - though mostly from Tang’s insistence, it seems, as he comes back dragging Ting along by her hand.
Thara, meanwhile, holds up the open container for Frong to put Cupcake back into. He snaps it shut and takes another step towards Frong, but Frong stops him. “Wait,” he says, holding up one hand against Thara’s chest. “I have an idea.”
Frong then turns to Ting. “You’re a girl.”
“Um, thank you for noticing?”
“No,” Frong laughs. “I mean, don’t a lot of girls carry hair elastics with them? I would like to borrow one, if I may.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Ting says, immediately pulling an elastic off her wrist. Duen didn’t even know she had one there this whole time.
“Thank you. I’ll get you a new one when we’re back home,” Frong says, before gently taking the container from Thara’s hands and putting the elastic around it. “There, solved it,” he says, softly putting Cupcake in his container on the table and turning back to Thara.
“You caught him for me,” Thara says softly.
“Yes. He’s...not as bad as I thought. Kind of cute, even,” Frong says, awkwardly rubbing his head. Thara stares at him for a moment. Then he suddenly cradles Frong’s face with both his hands and kisses him.
They break apart when the whole table erupts into cheers and whooping, looking shy but still smiling at each other.
“Okay, okay! Oh, all you lovebirds today, I’m so happy,” Duen says, feeling tears of joy prickle in the corner of his eye. “Congratulations, cousin, and P’Yim! You’re so cute together!”
“Thank you, Duen. Now, we can eat, yes?” Thara says as he casually slings an arm around Frong’s waist.
“Well, no. There is one more mystery, although that might go unsolved for ever more,” Duen says to the remaining people at the table.
“Duen, please, I beg of you: stop. We just want to eat,” Ting says, before dropping her head on the table in defeat. Tang awkwardly pats her back,
“Alas, my dear friends! We may know how Cupcake escaped, but we don’t know how he ended up in the bus of all places. He could’ve been anywhere, he could’ve been roaming free. Yet there he was, on one of our buses. Surely that’s not a coincidence?”
“Bohn, can you please shut your boyfriend up,” King groans. Ram nods his head next to him.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Bohn asks, slightly annoyed. “He does what he wants, and I do what he wants, too.”
“You could ask nicely,” Duen says, miffed.
“Okay, I’ll try. Duen, can you please stop?”
“No.”
“There, see?” Bohn says to King, shrugging. “I tried.”
“Ram?” Tingting says suddenly, nodding at Ram once, who nods back before climbing onto the table. He lifts Duen up by his waist and sets him down on the ground.
“We’re done,” he says, looking down on Duen.
Well. Time to admit defeat. And besides, Duen has to admit he’s really quite hungry by now, too. So he sighs, and says: “Okay. Let’s eat.”
“So,” Bohn starts that evening in their shared tent as they sit opposite each other. “Did you have fun, playing Sherlock Holmes?”
“I did! I think I might be really good at this, Bohn. Maybe I should switch careers and become a proper detective.”
“You’re too cute for that, Duen. None of the criminals would take you seriously.”
“That could work for me though, if they keep underestimating me. Or I could become a criminal, live my life on the other side of the law,” Duen adds, wiggling his eyebrows. “It’d be exciting, you know? We could live a life on the run, I could get us money just by being so cute.”
Bohn laughs and puts his hand on Duen’s arm. “I think maybe you should stick to what you do. Besides, isn’t being a doctor kind of like being a detective? After all, you have to deduct, based on what people tell you and what symptoms they have, what’s wrong with them.”
Duen is silent while he thinks this over. Maybe Bohn is right, and he’s already becoming a bit of a detective. He’s under no illusion that he’ll need a lot more experience though, in many things. But he has time, they both have time, he can afford to take small steps and take things easy.
“What are you thinking?” Bohn asks for the second time that day.
“Me. You,” Duen answers, smiling.
“Us?” Bohn asks, smirking. There’s still that same hint of insecurity there. Bohn hides it well, but it’s there. Duen thinks it might always be there. Bohn might not admit to it, but beneath that outer husk of confidence and even arrogance, is someone who needs a lot of reassurance and love. How lucky then, that Duen has so much love he’s been saving up all these years. He doesn’t think he’ll ever run out of it. Not when he’s with Bohn.
“Us,” Duen replies, clasping Bohn’s hand in his and looking in his eyes. He’s so caught up in Bohn’s eyes and hands that he barely notices he’s leaning in closer and closer, until Bohn stops him.
“Duen,” Bohn whispers. “Can I kiss you?”
Duen doesn’t need to think about this. He’s not scared anymore, he realizes. He wants this - has wanted it for a while - and maybe the moment has come to take this next step.
“Yes,” he whispers back, and leans in as Bohn does the same.
He could not have asked for a better end to this day.