Chapter Text
Three weeks in, Li Ming can piece together a picture of Mrs. Jintana through their series of stilted interactions.
It’s mostly fragments of information—that her perfume is stiflingly fragrant, to the point where Li Ming holds his breath to avoid sneezing as she passes by; her voice sharp when she runs over familiar rule sets for his debt repayments; her smile stretched thin when takes a sweeping look around her home before dismissing Li Ming for the evenings.
He takes in her distorted image now, with the way she's holding herself, expression calm and detached as she hands Li Ming a roll of money, rubber band-bound.
“Heart’s asleep upstairs, step out to get dinner before he wakes up. I trust you’ll find yourself back in time,” she instructs, and it’s clear she isn’t looking for more than an acknowledgement.
So Li Ming offers a curt nod, but Mrs. Jintana’s already turned away, heels clicking against the newly polished floorboards that still smell strongly of wax.
He doesn’t know where Heart’s parents leave to in the evenings, nor why they sometimes don’t return until the next morning, but he also doesn’t care to question it. Pattaya is a city that bustles well into the early hours of dawn, so Officer Supoch or Mrs. Jintana stepping out to work past midnight doesn’t strike Li Ming as particularly unusual.
Still, as Li Ming wanders his way around his familiar market, stopping to peer at a new stock of jackfruit, he can’t help but twist his mouth at how ridiculous a lot of Mrs. Jintana’s tasks seem to be.
He knows Heart can’t—isn’t allowed to step out to the markets with Li Ming to pick out his own dinner of choice. Li Ming once mentioned a food cart less than half a mile from Heart’s home, but the anxious twist of Heart’s mouth and the rapid taps of his pencil against his notebook sheets had Li Ming brushing off the idea as quickly as he had proposed it.
So Li Ming wanders the stalls himself, twisting himself out of sight of Gaipa and Mrs. Hong’s stall. As much as he means to drop by, he wants to return to Heart without Mrs. Hong’s kind but pointed questions on when Uncle Jim would be around to pay back what he owes on credit.
He knows Mrs. Hong means nothing by it, as Uncle Jim never misses a payment no matter how far out he pays, but Li Ming has no answers he wants to offer for where Uncle Jim’s been disappearing off too lately, and he’d rather not navigate between Mrs. Hong’s earnest questions and Gaipa’s skepticism.
Li Ming instead rounds the far end of the market, where the familiar sight of grilled pork skewers sizzle on large burners.
He ducks his head in thanks as a familiar Auntie bustles out from behind the stall, patting Li Ming’s cheek and sending him off with his change.
Just as Li Ming hops back on Saleng’s bike and hooks his bags against the side hook, his phone chimes a muted ding!
Heart 16:07
??
Li Ming snorts at Heart’s direct message.
Li Ming 16:08
chicken or grilled pork
Heart 16:08
why didnt you wake me up and pork
Li Ming 16:10
too bad, i got chicken
Li Ming slips his phone back in his pocket, and only grins as he hears two more dings! of Heart presumably sending rows of huffing-faced emojis.
The first thing Heart does as Li Ming settles in on the dining table next to him is push over his notepad and scrunch up his nose. Sorry. Did I waste your texts?
At that, Li Ming snorts. I don’t count them, how would I know?
Heart—I won’t send too many.
Li Ming flicks lightly at Heart’s forehead, before passing the notepad back over. Don’t worry. They reset next week.
Heart seems to think it over, before nodding slowly, keeping a small smile as he refocuses his attention on the bags of dinner covered beneath several plastic wraps.
Heart opens the bag. Heart feels the warm pressure of Li Ming’s hand on his shoulder as Li Ming squeezes, laughing at whatever expression Heart is making at the box of pork skewers; the light feeling fluttering in Heart’s chest remains even after Li Ming removes his hand.
“Surprise,” Li Ming mouths at Heart, then writes a quick: Auntie gave us extra.
Li Ming pulls his chair over and settles in, knees knocking gently against Heart’s, grinning when Heart nudges him right back.