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Mark wants to meet this Dr. Kamjornkit that Wayu told him about before having dinner with him tonight. So after class Mark leaves Wayu with Pha and walks over to the medicine faculty. After all, Pha’s best friend is an unknown factor to Mark, and anyone who’s going to spend time around his best friend needs vetting. Mark has been told that Kit is the brain of the medicine faculty with the top scores in all of his classes. Is being smart supposed to be a point in this guy’s favor? Mark has known class brains before that were utter assholes. He’s also been told that Kit is not just brilliant but nice, and that everyone loves and respects him. Okaaay. But Mark is the campus beau this year, and if he’s going to be in a double date situation with someone (no matter that tonight’s dinner is not really a date but he and Kit will be third wheeling Wayu and Pha, so in effect…) then that someone better at least be cute enough to stand next to Mark. Mark had said as much to Wayu and his friend had shown him Kit’s Facebook picture. Mark hadn’t been very impressed by what was obviously Dr. Kamjornkit’s school photo. The other boy looked a bit vacant and the quality of the non-candid shot hadn’t given Mark much of a sense of Kit’s personality.
So Mark is feeling all of his overprotective best friend instincts gnawing at him when he first spots Kit. They’re standing on opposite sides of the same street, waiting for the light to change. Mark stares openly because Kit isn’t paying the least bit of attention to the street in front of him; he’s absently reading what looks like an academic paper and fiddling with a water bottle. The other boy’s stance is relaxed, and he exudes the kind of oblivious confidence of someone who doesn’t think anyone ever looks at him. He’s plainly an upperclassman because he isn’t wearing a tie. In fact, his shirt is unbuttoned enough for Mark to glimpse an expanse of pale skin and the edge of Kit’s clavicle. Mark’s eyes lift to Kit’s face. Oh, and he’s cute. He’s really cute.
Mark smiles. Cute is a good start. He can work with cute.
The signal to cross goes off and students start streaming past in both directions. Mark stays still for a moment, watching Kit tuck the paper and water bottle into his shoulder bag. The medical student’s red-brown hair falls into his eyes and when he shakes it back again something about the casual gesture causes an unexpected stab of interest to go through Mark like an arrow to his heart.
Hey, he tells himself sternly. This is about protecting Wayu. Not finding a boyfriend. Not that he hasn’t thought about wanting a relationship for himself given Wayu’s current preoccupation with Pha.
Mark steps off the curb at the same time as Kit and they stride toward each other without looking at each other. At least, Kit isn’t looking at Mark. For his part, Mark watches the other boy carefully out of his peripheral vision. They nearly brush hands as they pass but Kit doesn’t react in the slightest; his dark eyes are fixed on the other side of the street. What’s he thinking about so hard about that he doesn’t even notice the campus beau walking right by him? After he’s taken a few slow steps beyond Kit without any kind of acknowledgment, Mark stops completely in the middle of the street. What’s the deal with this guy!? He turns and yells the first taunt that comes to his head.
“Kid! Hey you, kid!”
Mark feels a thrill when Kit stops in his tracks. The older boy turns slowly toward Mark, his lips pursed and those dark eyes glaring. Mark has been told Dr. Kit is so nice and so kind. The murderously annoyed look he’s giving Mark right now sends sparks of curiosity shooting through him.
“I’m Mark from the engineering faculty,” he introduces himself with his most charming smile. No one can resist that smile. “I’m campus beau of this year.” Just in case Kit didn’t know.
Kit stares him down, seemingly unmoved.
Hmm, Mark thinks. Time to change tactics.
“I’ve come to see Dr. Pha,” he says. “Do you know him?” He lets the charming smile slip over into something more guileless.
“Freshman.” Kit emphasizes the rank with evident disgust. A frisson of excitement ricochets up Mark’s spine. “What kind of right do you have to call me ‘kid’?”
Unrepentant, Mark says, “I call everyone who looks young ‘kid’.” And Kit does look young with his perfect skin, his generally innocent expression, and his shorter stature. (He’s not really all that short, but he is shorter than Mark.) Mark tilts his head as he studies him. “If you want me to call you by name, just introduce yourself to me… Kid.” Teasing Kit has already proven to be so much fun, that Mark just has to see what happens if he taunts him one more time.
Without warning, Kit whips out his wallet and slaps it open against Mark’s face. Mark’s smile slips.
“You can read, right?” Kit snaps. “Look then, and know that I’m your senior.”
Mark draws back until he can see Kit’s student ID displayed in the open wallet. It has that same terrible photo of him that Wayu showed Mark earlier — doing nothing to capture Kit’s obvious verve and fire. Mark glances at Kit’s class year. He is, of course, a year older than Mark. Just like Pha is a year older than Wayu.
When Kit speaks again, his tone takes on a warning quality that makes Mark think very bad things indeed. “Don’t be a jackass and call me a kid again.”
Mark tips his head to one side so that he can look at Kit around the outstretched wallet. The other boy is frowning mightily at him so Mark smiles again. Oh, this is going to be fun.
“Yes, P’Kit,” Mark says, and he only just resists the urge to snap Kit a phony salute.
~
Kit snorts as he tucks his wallet back in his pocket. This kid is too damn much. Kit remembers Mark only too well from the day when he was announced as campus beau. The whole cafe had gone insane with students screaming and making heart hands at Mark as the new engineering student strutted down the aisle between the tables. Somehow someone had released a rough tonnage of confetti into the air and it was going absolutely everywhere. Kit had to pick it out of his food and his hair alike. He had not been amused then, and he isn’t amused by Mark’s antics now. He’s cute enough to be campus beau (with those cheekbones and that smile, of course…!), but that doesn’t give him the right to walk around campus like he owns the place. And disrespecting a senior is really a bridge too far in Kit’s book.
Mark’s grin widens and Kit can just feel the trouble brewing between them. Why does this guy have to be Wayu’s best friend? Wayu is so sweet and innocent and… well, everything Mark apparently isn’t.
“I knew you were my senior,” Mark announces without shame like the miscreant he is. “I’m just messing with you. Don’t mind me, please.”
Kit gives him a flat look. “Don’t let me hear that sort of thing again,” he admonishes.
He adjusts his bag on his shoulder and figures he might as well acknowledge dinner tonight. He didn’t really want to go to begin with (playing third wheel to Pha and Wayu is always an exercise in awkwardness), and now he really doesn’t want to go if it means spending the whole evening with Mark shooting him devious looks like the one he’s giving Kit now. But he promised Pha he would go, and Pha is his best friend so he’ll keep that promise. No matter how annoying Mark is obviously determined to be.
“Pha’s already picked up Wayu,” he tells Mark with a sigh. “You’re late. Just join them at the restaurant.”
He turns to go because it will be nice to have a little respite before having to sit across from Mark at dinner. But then Mark says, “Wait!” and before Kit understands what he’s doing, he’s turning back.
What? he asks himself. Why? He just can’t shake the impulse to be nice to a junior apparently.
“Can I go with you, please?” And Mark says it so honestly that Kit is tempted to take it at face value. Mark might have teased him before, but he is only a freshman, and Kit has certain duties as his senior.
“Don’t you have a car?” he asks, and he knows he still sounds suspicious but Mark clearly deserves some wariness.
Mark nods. “Yes. But I don’t know the way. Please… At least we’re going the same way? Have mercy on a freshman, please.” This time his smile is a mix of self-deprecation and the sparkling charm that won him the campus beau award. Kit would quite like to wipe that smile off of Mark’s pretty face, but he controls himself and holds out his hand instead.
“Give me your phone.”
Mark looks surprised. It’s an interesting look, Kit thinks. The perfect arches of his brows rise and his mouth goes all soft and quiet. Mark slowly pulls his phone out of his back pocket and hands it over without breaking eye contact with Kit.
Kit snatches the phone, oddly discomfited by Mark’s stare. He goes to swipe it open and realizes he can’t. He slaps it back into Mark’s still outstretched hand.
“Unlock it,” Kit demands. He’s not sure which one of them should feel more foolish in this moment. Mark just nods and silently unlocks his phone before handing it back to Kit. What did Kit do to get Mark to shut up and can he figure out how to keep doing it…?
Kit opens Mark’s GPS app and types in the restaurant address. He chooses the shortest route there from campus before giving the phone back.
“This is the only mercy I can give you,” he says shortly. His hair falls into his eyes, and he shakes it away impatiently.
Mark’s eyes widen a fraction. But the second he glances down at his phone, Kit takes the opportunity to leave. For real this time. He’s not going to turn around again no matter what Mark yells after him.
To his surprise, Mark doesn’t try to stop him. And Kit feels a twist of disappointment move through him before he realizes what he’s feeling and squashes it. Why on earth should he feel disappointed that Mark didn’t tweak him again? Ugh. What an annoying junior. Couldn’t Wayu have picked a different best friend?
At least Kit should be able to avoid him after tonight.
~
Kit was wrong. He thought their fighting at the restaurant in front of Pha and Wayu might’ve shut down whatever idiocy Mark was practicing where Kit was concerned, but it seems like it’s only made things worse. Mark met every one of Kit’s snipes with some kind of flirtatious remark, and the madder Kit got, the more Mark leaned into it. And now Kit can’t even look at an onion without blushing and feeling like an idiot himself.
The day after the disastrous dinner, Mark shows up at the medicine faculty again. He’s just there, following Kit around, acting like he’s lost and needs Kit to show him where things are. Kit is so annoyed that he almost doesn’t stop Mark from crossing the graduate bridge. (But he’s Mark’s senior so of course he stops him and warns him about the urban legend that any underclassmen who cross that bridge won’t go on to graduate. Mark might annoy him, but Kit isn’t heartless.)
But then some random girl shows up and starts flirting with Mark right in front of Kit. For a minute, Kit watches them talk. But a strange uneasiness starts to percolate in his stomach, and Kit wonders why the hell he’s hanging around when he didn’t even want Mark following him in the first place. He leaves before Mark can notice him walking away. He has to go meet his friends for lunch anyway.
Later, on his way to study in the library, Kit sees Mark with the same girl. Did they spend all that intervening time together? When Kit stops to watch them chatting in the sunshine, that uneasiness from before bubbles up in his throat like acid reflux. Kit frowns at himself and turns quickly before Mark can spot him.
But Mark seems to have some kind of Kit-Radar and he somehow catches up to him while Kit waits for the elevator up to the library.
“You just left me,” Mark accuses as he settles in to wait next to Kit. His words may be accusatory, but his tone is as light and teasing as always. As far as Kit can tell in the twenty-four hours of knowing this kid, Mark seems to have two speeds: flirtatious and outrageously flirtatious. Maybe that’s what comes of vanity being rewarded.
Kit glances sideways at the other boy and is immediately sorry he did. Mark is grinning at him, one perfect eyebrow raised in anticipation of Kit’s comeback. Kit wisely decides to keep his thoughts to himself.
Mark, of course, can’t be stopped by mere silence.
“You know,” he says a moment later. “People say if you meet twice in one day it’s destiny at work.”
Destiny? Mark? Kit shoots him a poisonous look. Mark literally spent all afternoon flirting with that girl; how can he be hitting on Kit so shamelessly right after that?
Kit doesn’t know what his face is doing but Mark is laughing at him when the elevator dings and they both get on. He tries to ignore Mark by staring up at the floor numbers as the elevator moves far too slowly for his liking. But then Mark pokes Kit’s cheek — like actually touches Kit’s face with his finger — and Kit whips toward his junior in shocked fury.
“You have a dimple,” Mark says as though that explains his behavior. He’s laughing again. He pulls his hand back like Kit is going to bite it if he leaves it near his face. Kit is very tempted to prove him right.
“You are such a cutie.” Mark continues to grin. And Kit is caught between his blood boiling from anger or… oh my god, is he blushing? The tips of his ears feel hot.
Kit turns back to stare at the slowly changing numbers over the door.
“Cutie, my ass,” he mutters.
He can feel Mark staring, but he’s determined not to look at him again. He doesn’t want to give Mark any more ammunition in this weird game. He just wants to go to the library and do his homework and forget all about… From Kit’s peripheral vision he can see Mark shuffling closer and raising himself up on his toes. He seems to be holding his hand out as though to —
“Your height is just around my shoulder,” Mark announces like he’s won some sort of prize.
Kit truly can’t stop himself. He whips toward Mark and snaps, “You said I’m short?”
Mark gives him a smiling shrug and turns his doe eyes up at the elevator display. “Well, isn’t it true?”
Kit is actually going to kill him. Disrespecting his senior is one thing. Flirting in front of their friends is another. But short jokes? It’s not Kit’s fault that Mark is so stupidly tall! That’s just… He’s just… Yeah, he’s going to murder this smirking, narcissistic boy with his own hands right here and now in this slow-as-molasses elevator and put an end to all of this.
“I may look small, but it doesn’t mean I’m short,” he growls, shaking his water bottle in Mark’s face. Mark watches him without flinching, his dark eyes gleaming down at Kit like a jungle cat’s. “Take it back!” Kit demands for good measure.
“You mean now?” Mark says.
Kit nods. Yes. Now.
Mark nods back. “Sure,” he says easily. And then — what? What is he doing? Instead of apologizing, Mark is crowding closer to Kit, moving him up against the back wall of the elevator, his right arm going out to brace him in.
“What are you doing?” Kit is frantic, shuffling backwards as though he can somehow get away. He darts his gaze up and down Mark’s body as he comes closer and closer. “Hey!” He feels his back hit the wall, and his eyes lock onto Mark’s. Kit finds himself staring up at the taller boy. Mark up close is… very good looking. Kit’s mouth feels dry.
“Just trying to do what you asked,” Mark says after much too long a moment of staring fixedly into Kit’s eyes. “Unfortunately…” And Kit jumps when Mark reaches out to pinch his cheek even though he can’t seem to tear his gaze away. “My words got stuck here. At your dimple.” His fingers pinch a little harder and Kit almost comes out of his skin. “You know something?” Mark says, utterly rhetorically. “You are so cute.”
What. What? Kit’s brain seems to be shutting down though he can hear something like alarm bells going off. What is happening here? Mark is pinching Kit’s cheek and grinning at Kit like a fool, and Kit is still staring up at him, too shocked to do or say a single thing.
The elevator door dings and then opens. The sound yanks Kit out of his frozen reverie. He blinks, and then he shoves Mark away from him. And then he keeps shoving, pushing Mark until he’s stumbled right out the now open door of the elevator. Kit hurls his water bottle after the other boy to boot, but Mark only catches it with a sunny smile.
“Don’t let me see your face again!” Kit snaps. “Asshole.” But he says the curse so hesitantly that even he doesn’t believe he really means it.
The doors close, and Kit stands there rubbing his cheek where Mark pinched it. What. Just. Happened. And why didn’t Kit stop it sooner!?
~
Standing outside the elevator where Kit pushed him, Mark hefts the water bottle in his hand and smiles. He pulls out his phone and brings up his text conversation with Wayu.
Yu, he types. I think I’ll try hitting on Kit.
Wayu’s reply is a shocked emoji face, but Mark is already thinking about how he can see Kit again.