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He wasn’t drunk. Definitely not. No Sir, no drunkenness here! It always was kind of hard to see his phone clearly and concentration was never his strong forte. Or maybe it was. Either way, King was fully concentrated on finding the perfect photo to send to Ram. The problem was that Ram was a cool Guy and even if King thought that plants were like the coolest thing ever- they made oxygen! They bloomed! Sometimes they ate stupid nasty insects! - not everybody else thought that plants were cool. So, he had to find the coolest photo of his coolest plant for the cool boy. The problem was that he had already selected over a dozen photo he thought were awesome. But he still hadn’t found the One. Asking Mek was useless. He was too drunk and literally anything would make him think about Boss and then he would look at King with his big, sad eyes, looking seconds away from crying and King had a soft heart, okay?
He looked up from his phone, squinting in Meks direction. His friend was lying on his couch, looking dishevelled, a can of a sweet strawberry cocktail dangling from his hand, while he stared remorseful towards the ceiling. Probably regretting his life choices right now. King turned on his stomach, the cool floor feeling good on his overheated skin. He groaned pitiful. He still hadn’t found a cool photo of a cool plant for the cool boy. He kept swiping with half closed eyes through his gallery. He had already swiped forward twice when his drunk brain caught up to the perfect picture he had seen. The Venus Flytrap. Or more precisely: the Venus Flytrap he grew specially for Ram after he had kept staring at the poster on King’s wall. The Venus Flytrap that was still incredibly tiny and -in Kings humble opinion- super adorable. Look at the tiny leaves! The light green colour! He just had to take a photo of it, it deserved to be seen. And Ram wouldn’t know that the plant was for him. With a near silent hum and a satisfied nod King selected the photo and pressed send. Only to regret it seconds later.
He had forgotten that he had selected other photos beforehand. He just spammed Ram- the junior he called cool boy, because he was just so cool and unapproachable. The one who only spoke to people he knew and trusted. The one who said more with a single look than with a whole speech. The one King was painstakingly trying to build a friendship with because he was fascinating and sweet and kind- King stopped himself, a swooping feeling in his stomach and his face burning. Either way back to the problem. He had just spammed Ram with over a dozen photos just shy of midnight. That was just great. He let his head fall forward, landing with a soft sound on the cold floor. He may or may not have just destroyed the base of their relationship that had took months to build.
No! King would not give up! He hadn’t given up when his ferns had started dropping, leaves distorted, the plants sick. He hadn’t given up when his Venus Flytrap didn’t sprout. And now that! Look at that awesome plant! Tiny and cute! A danger to insect anywhere! He hadn’t given up and he had succeeded. He would make Ram his friend! And he would start with saying sorry for the photo spam! And because it made perfectly sense in his drunken brain, King selected Rams contact and pressed the video call button. Time to say sorry!
It took a surprisingly short time for the call to connect and Ram’s face to appear on his screen. He still was wearing his uniform, pressed collar, and everything. His hair had come loose over the day, and he seemed to be in his room. Sitting on a chair. Probably still doing schoolwork. His face was expressionless as ever, only his brows slightly furrowed. He looked- as far as King could say- a bit concerned, a bit annoyed and a bit surprised either due to the time or the fact that he had actually picked up. King knew a normal phone call would go unanswered, but he had to apologize! Sadly, it seemed like his tongue didn’t want to do, what King wanted. He tried to say, “Sorry for calling so late but I wanted to apologize for spamming you”, instead he said “I´m not sorry for the cool plant pics. But I´m sorry about the time and the number of pictures. But you have to admit that all of them are just so cool. And I wanted to show them to you, because you´re so cool too!”, and off he was, babbling excited in his drunken stupor. Now Ram would never think that he was cool.
---
He was in the middle of painstakingly describing just how to repot one’s plants when they outgrew their pots, when King heard knocking and Boss´ voice. Ram was still on the phone, seemingly paying attention to him. He hadn’t said anything yet- not that King had expected him to- but King still felt giddy that someone was listening. Sure, his friends paid attention when he talked about his passion, but they were used to this. New people didn’t like to see him speak about something so boring as plants. No. They wanted him to be the cool, friendly, kind, good looking senior they saw on campus. They wanted a version of him, not the original. But Ram was listening, and King felt happiness bubble up inside him, making him break out in a big smile, that got wiped off in the blink of a moment.
Mek, probably trying to get to Boss- as always, these two were like magnets. If they were stuck together, you needed violence to get them separated again- had tripped over his legs. A dull pain at his shins was the only warning he got, before his world was reduced to the floor and phone, when Mek landed on his back. His breath was pressed out of him, he lost his grip, elbows skidding over the floor, unpleasantly burning. King swore breathlessly. Why did he had to choose heavy ass friends who were incapable of standing when they were drunk? Surprisingly, it was Rams voice that pulled him out of his musings.
“You, okay?”
“Yeah. Not the first time someone fell on me”.
“You should go home. Sleep”
“I don’t want to. The floor is comfy. And now that Boss is here, I have two friends here! Why would I go home? My friends are awesome. As are my plants. Did you like the pictures? Those are all mine! My plant children. Planildren? Oh no! My plants are all alone! Because I´m here! I have to go to them! Mek won´t be alone now that Boss is here. Now my plants are lonely! I don’t want them to get sick!”, he tried to get up, ignoring his burning elbows ´, but he was barely sitting when the room unexpectedly moved. King felt sick and dizzy. It was awful. He barely stopped himself from gagging.
“You shouldn’t go home alone”.
“My friends are busy, and my parents are too far away. My sister will kill me if I call at this time. I´ll be fine!”, he looked at Boss, who looked seconds away from losing his temper.
“Also, I´m not trunk sized!”
Now Ram looked visibly confused. King stared back at him. Slowly confusion morphed into resignation.
“Address. I´ll walk you home.”
“Noooo. Don’t. I´m your senior. I should be taking you home!”
“Cool boy. Come on”
“Cool boy”
“Cool boy”
“Cool boy!”
“Fine! I´ll ask!”
King was not pouting! He was not! He looked at Mek, who was still talking to Boss.
“Mek, what´s your address?”, he tried to look at Ram out of the corner of his eye, slightly squinting at the display, trying to keep his head steady. A few seconds silence reigned but then Mek asked, confusion visible on his face.
“But you´re not trunk sized?”
That’s what King had said! He wanted to say just that when Boss went off.
“Oh, for the sake of- just share your position King! Mek go brush your teeth and get changed. You both are aware, that tomorrow is a school day, right?”, oh. That was right. School tomorrow. King would hate himself. Boss glowered at him, looking like he blamed King for everything. King stared back, not blaming himself. Or at least not enough to feel guilty.
“You know, you look like an angry mom. Or an angry wife”
Boss looked at him slack jawed before pointing a finger at him.
“Just share your position and get someone to take you home!”
“I would. But I´m like really drunk right now. I don’t know how. And Cool Boy is already judging me. I want him to think I´m cool! Not drunk!”
“Just. Just give me your phone. I´ll share your location for you. Will he be the one to take you home?”
“Yeah”.
“You trust him? He´s not a stranger?”
King started laughing.
“Boss you know him too! Cool Boy is Ram. And Ram is the one who beat up Bohn. We´re friends. I help him with studying. He´s listening to me when I talk about plants. He likes dogs but doesn’t force me to like them too. He´s great!”
Boss face visibly softened.
“Okay. Give me your phone”.
---
When King woke up, he felt worse than he expected. And he had expected the worst. But somehow this hangover beat it. He felt like dying. He felt like that time he had spent so much time in the garden under the burning sun that he had collapsed. The same cottony feeling in his head, the bad taste in his mouth, the fuzzy memories. The only thing missing was the ache in his whole body. But all the pain he had felt at that time seemed to be concentrated in his head this time. Every time he moved it, a sharp pain sliced directly through his right eye, traveling through his brain, ping ponging around his skull until it exited through his left eye. He groaned miserably and pulled his blanket over his head, keeping the light out. Getting drunk always was a bad idea that ended even worse.
King used his time in the relative darkness to sort through his memories. Mek was lovesick, so they had started drinking. Boss had arrived – and why did he feel like he had to apologize? - and send him home. With Someone. Someone he could not remember. The only thing that was crystal clear was a broad back, a clean smell of laundry detergent and a swoopy feeling – and wasn’t it funny, that now that he wasn’t drunk of his ass anymore it was so easy to recognize what the swoopy feeling really was? And hadn’t he already assumed the real reason for his infatuation before all of this? The swoopy feeling came and went with only one person: Ram.
It had to be Ram that took him home- and as King saw when he dared to lift his blanket- the one who left him pain killers and water on the nightstand.
He was so hungover, that blushing hurt and that his hammering heartbeat seemed to punish him for existing, vibrating in his ears. If he wouldn’t hurt himself doing so, he would press his face into the pillow and start screaming. King regretted his life choices. And his regret grew when his alarm started ringing. Fuck his life.
---
King didn’t want to brag, but normally he was considered something of a genius. Learning and understanding new material was incredibly easy for him. He was like a sponge. Most of the time he only had to hear something once and then do some light reading about it and he simply got it. But not today. The hot shower and the pain killers had failed completely. He was grumpy, in pain and incredibly tired. He swore to himself, that he wouldn’t drink. At least for a while. Not until he had forgotten his current suffering. He had basically slept through his morning classes.
After the morning lectures, he had followed his friends blindly to the cafeteria, slumping down on one the chairs, nearly losing his balance when he almost missed it. A while after he had sat down, he didn’t know how long exactly, Meks pale hand entered his field of vision, presenting him with two pills. Mek! His saviour! One of the platonic loves of his life! Being gracious enough to share painkillers with him even in his own suffering! King offered him a weak smile before swallowing them dry. Now he just had to wait for them to kick in. He let his head fall on the table in front of him.
He enjoyed the peaceful quiet before Boss´ irritated voice pulled him from his half-asleep state.
“If you can trust anything they were on about yesterday”.
“What does that mean?”
“Apparently people who are shorter than them should not be allowed to go out after the dark. Because they’re trunk sized”
Mek groaned. King did too. This was why he had felt like he had to apologize to Boss!
“Boss I don’t even remember saying that”.
“Oh King. You didn’t say that. You just called me an irritated wife”.
King moaned defeated. That was even worse!
“Boss, I’m sorry. I don’t even remember how I got home”, well he had his suspicions. Or even more of an educated guess.
“Your junior took you home, while you were wildly rambling about plants. After you bothered him on the phone for the whole evening “
King turned red, then paled rapidly and let his head fall back on the table.
“If you are truly my friends you will save me the suffering and kill me now”.
“Oh, but it gets worse”.
“Oh no”
“Oh yes. It seems that you and Mek made plans for him to flee the country, live in a forest without cell reception in China…”
“Stop it please”.
“... having you walk me home every time it turns dark because of my trunk sized body…”
“God have mercy”.
“...until you can’t do this anymore because you have to visit Bohn and Tee in jail!”
“Oh no”, groaned King and Mek.
“What?”, asked Bohn and Tee incredulous.
“I’m pretty sure that half of that plan came into existence while we were still sober, if that helps in any way”, more like three quarters. Mek and him were the most level-headed people in their clique- Boss and Bohn both had a temper and even Tee lost his cool when he was passionate about something, and he was passionate about a lot of things.
“It doesn’t but, thanks for trying”.
“Can we come back to how both of you seem to think that we would end up in jail?”
King groaned defeated. He was out of explanations.
---
At the end of the school day King was done. He just wanted to go back home, complain to his plant babies, and then go to sleep. Preferably for the next century. But before that, he had things to do. Mainly trying to find out how he had embarrassed himself in front of Ram. And apologizing to Ram. And thanking Ram. But first of all: he had to find Ram. He had already been to the places he normally crossed Rams path at. But he still hadn’t found him. He was ready to give up but had decided to take one last shot. He was going to ask Bohn to ask Duen where Ram was. Sighing in exhaustion he pulled his phone out of his pants and searched for Bohn´s contact. Bohn answered after the first ring.
“Yo”
“Hey Bohn, could I ask you for a favour?”
“That depends”.
“On what?”
“On your decision to tell me why you think I would end up at jail”.
“Bohn, Mek and I were very drunk. You know that we don’t really think that you would be imprisoned”, or at least not completely.
“I know, but you know- it made me think. I know that I have a reputation. But you´re my friends and to hear from you that you would really think that…”, Bohn sounded really insecure, with a hint of hurt and desperation. Now King felt even more guilty.
“No Bohn. It´s just that you´re a bit impulsive. I mean, you tried to fist fight Ram, who you know is a trained fighter. And you knew that. But you started the fight for the right reasons.”, or at least an understandable one. Love after all, was not something bad.
Bohn was quiet for a moment.
“Well, you´re not wrong”
“And as you heard, we already planned how to bail you out. We don’t think that you may end up behind bars because of the wrong reasons. You have a big heart Bohn. And sometimes it´s bigger than your brain. That’s not a bad thing. It just makes you Bohn.”
“Oh”, Bohn sounded choked up, like he was trying his best not to cry. Oh boy, sometimes King forgot that Bohn had such a soft heart. He couldn’t help but smile.
“I´ll ask Duen. If he knows I´ll send you the info”, Bohn hung up.
King didn’t have to wait long, just a few minutes later a text from Bohn arrived.
“Duen says that Ram goes to the park after school. He should be there, most likely around the food stalls. Good luck”.
King had entered the park from the entrance near the food stalls, just like Duen had recommended. Still, he hadn’t been able to locate Ram, so he had started to wander. Now he had left the highly populated area behind himself, entering the grassier area with trees and benches. Here he hoped for an easier overview. Ram was a tall guy, so it should be relatively easy, because he normally towers over most others. Except for when he was sitting. King swore mentally. That was just great. Groaning he sat down on one of the benches, pulling out his phone. He had wanted to do this, without texting Ram, simply for the fact, that he didn’t want to see his disastrous drunken texting. Now he had no other choice. The last 15 messages were picture messages. Pictures of plants to be exact. It seemed like King had done what he often did when he got drunk: gotten passionate about plants. But it still was okay. Somewhat. Ram had already known that he liked plants. The messages before that were poorly written mess of different subjects ranging from school, plants, and Kings apparent urge to build a relationship with Ram, because he thought that Ram was cool. King felt the blush coming. It wasn’t as bad as he had expected, but it still wasn’t good. He could kiss his cool image goodbye. Ram would never think he was cool. Not after that. And putting his drunk ass to bed. King had lost his chance to impress him. Maybe he should talk later to Ram, so much later, that he had forgotten about this embarrassment. Yeah, King nodded. That sounded like a plan. He got up from the bench and started wandering. The fresh air did wonders for his head. Combined with the painkillers, his headache had slowed down to a dull pressure behind his eyes.
He hadn’t been walking for a long time when he stumbled upon Ram. He was crouching down, so it was no surprise, that King hadn’t seen him from farther away. He had just taken a deep breath to calm himself down before approaching Ram, when he saw why Ram wasn’t standing. He was feeding a dog. A stray dog, if the shabby fur and the visible ribs King had seen before sheer panic made him lose any rational though meant anything. Instead of the friendly “Hey Ram, could we talk?”, a panicked, half chocked “Dog!”, escaped him. Sadly, that caught not only Ram’s attention, but the dogs too. King’s eyes flew around, searching for a safe place. A place to escape the dog. Preferably high up the ground. But sadly, there wasn’t one nearby. The benches weren’t high enough and trees were clipped in a way that prevented climbing. King was doomed. This was how he would die. Hungover and embarrassed, killed by a dog that was running towards him in full speed, its tail wagging like crazy, the long pink tongue rolling out of its mouth, emphasising the sharp teeth and the flying slobber. A desperate, tear-soaked whimper escaped him, as he raised his arms, trying to protect vital areas. The beast was just a few feet away, when Ram’s voice rang out, louder than King ever had heard it.
“Sit!”.
King was dimly aware, that the command had been for the dog, but nether less his knees gave away and he found himself sitting on the grass, staring at the dog who had followed the command too. It said staring at King, tongue still out, tail still wagging. King felt his heart doing cartwheels in his chest, trying to beat out of it.
“Go. Food!”, the dog barked causing King to flinch, before it turned around trotting over to Ram, who petted it, before guiding it to a pile of what seemed to be some kind of, well King wasn’t sure. Dogfood or something. He was still staring at the dog, when suddenly Rams body blocked his view on it, causing his heart who had barely calmed to speed up again. King’s eyes flew up to Ram’s face. They stared at each other, before King brought a tentative “Can we talk?”, over his lips. Ram lifted an eyebrow but nodded. He even reached down and helped him up. King smiled weakly at him.
“Can we go somewhere without dogs?”
Ram nodded and mentioned for King to lead the way.
---
They were still at the park, but in an area without dogs. King had made sure, looking everyway before he released a relieved breath. After checking for a last time King let himself fall onto one of the wooden benches. Ram followed him, even if it was more controlled, looking at him curious and expectant.
“So, I wanted to say two things. First: Thank you for taking me home last night. Boss said that you picked me up and I woke up with painkillers this morning so that had to be you too. So, thank you very much. And that brings me to the second thing”, King stared at Rams face, trying to interpret his face. He still seemed confused. Which confused King. King didn’t like being confused.
He bowed lightly to Ram.
“I´m very sorry for my behaviour last night. I kind of blacked out and don’t remember most of it, but I saw my messages. I bothered you basically the whole evening. And I kept talking about plants. I mean- they are cool- but I shouldn’t have forced my- “, he searched for the most fitting word.
“- my passion onto you. I don’t even know how many messages I had send to you. But I think I just wanted to impress you. Or something. Trying to keep my cool image, I guess. Sadly, most people don’t think that plants are cool, so I butchered that attempt quiet horribly. So, feel free to delete the pictures and please forget about this incident. Or at least never speak about it again. I owe you one. Argh, that’s so embarrassing!”, King had felt himself turning redder and redder, voice shaking with emotions while he fought the urge to get up and run away. Emotions were awkward. But he already had said goodbye to his cool image. Him turning read and babbling wouldn’t make things worse.
Ram just looked at him, a thoughtful expression on his face, before he pulled his phone from his pocket. King did the same, expecting a harshly worded text message from him. Instead, Rams warm fingers lowered Kings hands and showed his own phone screen. He had opened his contacts or to be more specific- King’s contact. Next to Kings name was the contact photo. King had expected the default image but instead Ram had chosen one. It was the picture of the Venus Flytrap King had grown. And now it was the picture Rams phone would flash every time King called or wrote. It made him want to do it even more than he already did.
The swoopy feeling was back with a vengeance that overpowered even the feeling of his burning cheeks. King felt himself involuntarily smiling.
“So, you´re not mad at me?”
Ram shook his head and King’s smile grew.
“That’s a relief. I already thought I had destroyed our friendship. Would you still accept a dinner invite? As a thank you?”, he hastily added when Ram furrowed his brows.
“For bringing me home. And for the dog just now. Please?”
Ram seemed to fight with himself for a moment before he nodded.
King beamed.
“I know just the right place!”
---
King had found the small street food stall by accident after he had run away from a dog and gotten lost. At first, he had thought that it was the adrenalin talking when the food tasted amazing, but he had come back multiple times after that, and it still was awesome.
From far away the place looked a bit shabby, the small sitting area put together with different furniture, nothing looking like it should go together but still- somehow it did. It had a down to earth charm King couldn’t resist. And the food was among the best he had tasted until now.
They were in the middle of the meal, the table basically aching under the weight of the food, bowl upon bowl filled with delicious, steaming food and King just had put an especially good-looking piece of grilled fish into his mouth, when somebody stopped next to their table.
Wide eyed, with a bad feeling he looked up, directly into Tee’s smirking face. Oh no. Had he already apologized for the jail-comment? King chewed faster, trying to empty his mouth before Tee could open his.
“King, Ram nice to see the both of you on this nice evening”.
King frantically shook his head. Tee the old meddler!
Ram only nodded, after a light greeting. Always the respectful junior. Well, towards other. Never to King. At least not anymore, with all the grabbing and his own Ram-brand of teasing. But he preferred it that way.
“I really don’t want to interrupt, and I don’t have much time, I have a meeting in 20 minutes you know- I wanted to say, that I´m so happy for you”.
Ram looked confused and King tried to swallow before Tee doomed him. Sadly, he was a bit to eager, tried swallowing just a bit too fast and started coughing.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed King. I just wanted to gratulate you. I hadn’t expected you to work so fast. Normally you have this period of overthinking things when you realised that you have a crush. But this time you really pulled your head out your ass and asked your boy out. Probably because you wanted company, when all your friends ended up in prison”, Tee started laughing.
King started at him with teary eyes, still trying to get his breath back.
Ram looked confused, but a blush was stealing across his cheeks.
“Hah. All my friends settling down. First Bohn, then you. We all know its just a matter of time before Mek and Boss are off the market. If I weren’t ace, I would be really jealous”, he smiled gently, lightly patting Kings back. It did nothing about is coughing. Or the jittery feeling eating his stomach from the inside out.
“Well, I hope you have a great evening. See you later King”, he left, silence descending onto their table. King dodged Rams questioning eyes until he had calmed down. As much as he could, given the circumstances.
King wanted to scream. Tee was right. He always had a certain time period after he had realised a crush in which he overthought everything and with his crush on Ram- yes self-denial was cancelled, he had known for a while what the swoopy feeling meant- he still was at that phase. And now this phase was cut short. Thanks to Tee. King wanted to be angry - well, he was angry, but the relief was overpowering. His overthinking tended to go on for so long, that his crushes switched their attention to others.
King cleared his throat.
“Just because I get that fluttery feeling when I´m with you doesn’t mean- I mean it does. But it doesn’t mean that I expect something”, his hands were flailing around, emphasising his jumbled words.
“I´m so sorry that Tee assumed that- I´ll make it clear to him that it isn’t what it seems like!”, his left hand was caught mid air by Ram, who looked at him with a tiny happy smile.
“So, this is a date, huh?”, that infatuating amused smirk was back, accompanied by a growing blush on Ram’s face.
King sputtered. Then he mumbled more to the table than to Ram.
“Well, if you would want to consider this a date, I wouldn’t be opposed to it”.
Ram only nodded, guiding their hands back down onto the table before he put a piece of ginger on King’s plate.
“So, is this our first date or does your apartment tour count?”
Kings lost for words, stuffs his mouth full of the ginger. It´s delicious as usual. What´s unusual is, that he had a cute man holding his hand while eating.
Ram threw his devastating smile towards him, and King couldn’t help himself and smiled back.
Still, he was already working on his revenge. Tee may ultimately had helped him score a date- and Tee had to have known that his feelings weren’t one sided or else he wouldn’t had done it, but still King would had appreciated a warning.
---
King was fumbling around with his keys. They were standing in front of his apartment door, food eaten and paid for. They even had taken the long route to his place, just to extend this date a bit more. But now it was late, and they would have an early morning. Their date had to end, even if Kind didn’t want it to. They were already at the stage were they stumbling through their goodbyes.
“See you tomorrow”, was that too clingy? It was a normal phrase, right?
Ram nodded, still smiling, and holding his hand. King didn’t want the evening to end.
“That was a really good date, right? I mean I really enjoyed myself. And you seemed like you did too”, King was quite sure that Ram had had fun. He was still learning to interpret all of his facial expressions.
“I did”, Ram smiled, and King couldn’t help himself. He smiled back.
“That’s good to hear. I´ve never been on a date with a man before. Not a successful one at least. Not one that ended in a relationship”, time to end this date. He had started oversharing and didn’t know how to stop. And he had started assuming things. Ram hadn’t spoken about a relationship. Dates were to get to know each other and ended in a relationship. But talking about after their first (second?) date? That was a bit overeager, right? King was just readying himself to somehow talk circles around Ram until he forgot what he had said in the last 10 minutes, when Ram gripped his hand a little bit tighter.
“This is not my first relationship with a man, but nothing says that we can´t take this slowly. Let’s find our way together. Let´s talk about the things that we want and what bothers us. I´m not always good with talking, but I will try”.
That was the first time King heard Ram say so much at once. It seemed like he was already trying. A wide grin spread across his face.
“I´m not expecting you to be good with talking, that´s a part of you. Also, I can talk enough for both of us. Even if a lot of it would be about engineering and plants”.
Ram smiled at him, gratefulness and excitement shining in his eyes. Kings smiled back.
“Would you be okay with a kiss goodbye?”, King didn’t expect an answer, but with a smile turned shy Ram nodded. And King leaned in.