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“And, who proposed?” The interviewer asks, eyeing Arthit appreciatively again.
Kongpob frowns and nudges his fiancé before linking their fingers tightly together, “That was me.”
Beside him Arthit tries to stifle his laughter, a stuttering noise that’s sort of like a goose honking. Kongpob hides his grin, aware that it will only make his Phi more self-conscious.
But the interviewer doesn’t seem to have heard the same noise as Kong, leaning in closer to Arthit, eyes wide as though he’s a rare specimen in a museum, and as if he might suddenly become available and interested in him.
“Oh, but did you really propose first, Kongpob?” Arthit asks, ignoring the interviewer again as he focuses on Kong. He wiggles a little on his chair, “Actually, if we are talking about a real proposal, not just declaring someone is reserved.. then it was me!”
Kongpob’s jaw tightens as he tries to recall a time when his Phi had ever asked him to marry him. Even though he wracks his memories of their relationship, absolutely nothing comes to mind.
“Are you serious?” He asks, attention all on Arthit as the other man smiles easily and nods. “There’s no way I’d forget that, Phi!”
“Well…” Arthit coughs, “I suppose technically, you were high on medication at the time?”
Kongpob startles, “Are you serious? You asked me to marry you and I missed it? When? Please phi, tell me?”
In front of them, the interviewer sits up straight, aware that this might be the best part of his story, eyes darting between the two men as Arthit begins to speak.
“Kongpob, we cannot go to the party, you’re sneezing like a small child who’s just discovered pepper. Come on, you need to get back in bed!”
Arthit shoves hard at Kongpob’s shoulder, but despite his cold, Kong is as strong as ever, pushing back against him as Arthit tries to crowd him back into his bed.
“I won’t miss it,” Kongpob insists, reaching for his shoes and trying to put them on the wrong feet, “I want to, achoo, see Knott propose to Tob!”
“Oh!” Arthit sits heavily on the bed beside his boyfriend, “I almost forgot that he’s doing it tonight?”
“Yes! Yes! And you spent so, achoo, long, achoo, coaching him, that I don’t want to miss it! I want to see what your proposal idea was!”
Arthit hands his partner another tissue as he collapses backwards onto his comforter, reaching out to stroke his chest with gentle fingers.
“But you’re too sick, Kong. You can’t go to the party, you might infect everyone else. You don’t want to ruin Knott’s proposal with your sneezing.”
“It’s not, achoo fair!” Kongpob groans as he rolls onto his side and curls into a ball, body vibrating the bed as he sneezes five times in quick succession, “Seriously, Arthit! I want to go!”
Arthit frowns, wondering what the solution is, clearly Kongpob is in no fit state to leave the room tonight. But the only way he’ll stay is if Arthit thinks of a way to bargain with him.
He quickly texts Prem, as he heads for the bathroom to look for some medicine.
“Here,” he rolls Kongpob over and helps him sit up, thrusting two tabs of cold medicine into his hand and holding out some water, “Take these, I think I have an idea.”
As Kongpob downs the medication, almost shooting one of the pills across the room with a particularly vicious sneeze, Arthit’s phone pings with a notification.
“It’s okay, Kong, Prem will call and we can watch from here.”
Kongpob flops backwards again and weakly waves his hand at his boyfriend, “No, no. You need to be there. Knott will be, achoo, expecting you.”
Arthit swoops in with a tissue once again, waiting for Kongpob to stop sneezing before he speaks.
“It’s fine, Kong, remember I helped Knott prepare, so, technically, I’ve already seen him propose!”
Kongpob grimaces as sneezes wrack his body and he has to turn away. When he looks back up, his nose is bright red and his eyes are watering.
“I want to stay here, anyway,” Arthit admits, “I don’t want to leave you when you’re feeling so sick.”
“It’s okay,” Kong mumbles, suddenly more pliant as the medicine starts to kick in. He curls himself against his pillows, one hand snaking out to wrap around Arthit’s bicep and pull him down against him. Once he has him where he wants him, Kong wraps his limbs around him like an anaconda.
“I guess if you’ve heard it…”
Arthit strokes a hand soothingly down Kongpob’s back, nodding, “I have.. and Prem will call so you can hear it too, okay?”
Kongpob nods as he snuffles and then tucks his chin into the crook of Arthit’s neck, “But, Phi, promise me..”
“I do, I promise.. why do you want to hear it so bad anyway?” Arthit thinks he already knows the answer, but he wants to hear Kong say it.
“Want to know… what you.. would say.. t’me..” Kong mumbles against his skin, his lips fluttering against Arthit’s neck like a hundred tiny kisses.
“Oh,” Arthit was expecting it, but it still comes as a bit of a surprise to hear it aloud.
“Phi?”
“Yes Kong?”
“Wha..w-d..y..say?”
Arthit takes a deep breath, arms tightening around Kongpob as he quickly runs through a speech he memorised a year ago. He’s prepared for this moment.. just he hasn’t found the right jewellery to do it with.. and you can’t really have one without the other.
But, if Kong wants him to say it, is ready to hear it… then Arthit’s ready to ask him.
He gives himself another minute to recall the exact words and then he whispers to his boyfriend, “You really want to hear it?”
“Yes.” Kong sounds alert. He’s stopped sneezing for now and he’s holding Arthit like he’s the most precious thing in the world. “I want you to ask me..”
So Arthit does.
He opens his mouth and it all pours out.
“Kongpob Sutthiluk, the love of my life. You irritated me to the point that I thought we could never be friends, chased me when I didn’t know what I really wanted, showed me through the whole of our four years together that I am the most precious person to you. You’ve kissed away my fears, fixed me when I feel broken, shown me that true love really does exist.”
He pauses to drop a kiss against Kong’s head and enjoys the way his man nuzzles closer into him.
“You’ve put up with my worst habits, fought with me through the hardest times. You make me feel like there’s always something good around the next corner, even when I feel miserable. You stood by me when my father didn’t understand and stuck by me when work got hard. You helped me to appreciate the tiny things that we can do to show our love to each other. You made me feel like I wasn’t strange because I was scared at first to share our love with the world.”
Arthit pauses again, on the verge of tears. Next to him, Kongpob is lifting his head, but Arthit isn’t sure he can keep going if his boyfriend is looking at him. So he slides his hand more tightly around him and pulls him deeper into his neck.
Kongpob lets out a soft groan and there’s wetness against Arthit’s skin that shows he’s crying - not unexpected. They’ll be happy tears, Arthit knows.
“I never imagined being in a relationship with someone who is willing to overlook by biggest flaws and support me no matter how stupid I’m being. But you do that and more. I never imagined falling in love with a man like you. But here you are, perfect for me in every way.”
Kongpob sniffles again and Arthit drops another kiss against his head, “Thank you for being my best partner. My most treasured person and the only one I want in my life forever. I love you Kongpob.”
He pauses before he says the final words, thrills running through him as he finally gets to say what he has rehearsed a thousand times in front of his mirror.
“Kongpob, my love, please will you marry me?”
Arthit was expecting more tears, gasps of surprise, kisses and a tight hug.
What he gets is a loud achoo, followed by some intense sniffling and Kongpob lifting his head, eyes streaming and glassy.
There’s zero acknowledgement of Arthit’s confession. His proposal has been lost to the strong cold medication and general sickness of his partner.
He feels like an idiot as Kongpob pushes his head against his chest and cuddles him more fiercely.
But a loved idiot.
“Are you kidding me, Phi?” Kongpob has stood up from his chair and is standing in Arthit’s space, ignoring the interviewer as he confronts him.
“No, no. Remember, we had to watch the video of Knott’s proposal afterwards?”
“I’m not talking about that!” Kongpob throws his hands up, “I mean, did you seriously propose like that and I missed it?”
Arthit’s aware of the interviewer, aware that Kongpob is actually feeling distressed, and aware that he’s outed himself in the worst possible location.
“Umm, can we, maybe, go home and talk about this?”
Kongpob fixes him with his serious look - the one he rarely uses but which he’s made very clear to Arthit means, NO!
“Absolutely... not!” Kong says fiercely, “You can’t just drop that and then want to ignore it!”
“I don’t want to ignore it!” Arthit’s on his feet too now, frowning at Kong, “I’m not ashamed of it! I’m sad you didn’t hear me, of course, but I.. would ask you all over again.”
“Go on then!” Kongpob yells, “Ask me again!”
“What?” Arthit looks around them, taking in the small studio where the interview is taking place. The interviewer looking a bit nervous now on a stool nearby, another guy holding a boom mic, a woman filming them. “You want me to do it here?”
“Yes!”
“But..”
“No buts! I deserve to hear your speech! You worked on it long enough.. it’s been over two years since Knott proposed.”
“Umm..”
“Well?”
Arthit gulps, then he pulls Kongpob to sit on the chair… and he gets down on one knee.
“Kongpob Sutthiluk, love of my life….”
The video goes viral within minutes and Arthit even catches his colleagues at work watching it. Kongpob apologises profusely in the end..
But secretly…
Arthit loves it!
The End.