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Pond was lying on the bed in his hotel room and staring mindlessly at the ceiling. An arm’s length away from him was his phone, which he occasionally clicked on to keep the screen from going blank. He had a new Twitter post written there, which was just one click away from being sent, but Pond debated whether to send it or not.
‘วันนึงมี 24 ชม. คถเทอไปแล้ว 25 ชม.’ (‘One day has 24 hours but I spend 25 hours missing you’) – he saw this sentence while scrolling through TikTok and it damn well matched the mood he was in. He missed Phuwin. Being in two different countries wasn’t new to them, they’d already had solo events away from each other, but they’d never separated like this.
“Maybe instead of sending a stupid line on Twitter, I should just text him?”, he thought aloud and shook his head. Phuwin might be busy, and Pond wouldn’t forgive himself if he got in the way of something. “Fuck it, if the fans tease me too much, I’ll just delete it,” he finally decided, then took his phone in hand and unlocked it.
The tweet he was about to send was staring at him, tormenting him more than Pond and Phuwin’s fans would in a moment, but it was too late. Pond has made up his mind. He clicked ‘post’ and closed his eyes, waiting for the ruckus.
Satang was the quickest, less than two minutes later he replied to his post, so Pond, rolling his eyes, wrote him back, but it wasn’t the message from him he was waiting for. Just as Pond had notifications turned on for Phuwin’s posts, Phuwin had notifications turned on for his posts. If Phuwin had a moment to spare, he surely saw his message and knew it was addressed to him.
Some time later, he was awakened from his nap by a ringing phone. Pond answered it sleepily, without even looking who was calling, and was wide awake the moment he heard Phuwin’s voice.
“So... you miss me?”, the younger boy had no reluctance to tease him a little.
“You know I do,” Pond replied, putting his own pride and shame aside. They had been together long enough that it didn’t really matter.
“Me too... Por Jack laughed as soon as he saw your tweet. I don’t know if it was more because of you, my reaction or us in general,” Phuwin said quietly, as if he was hiding somewhere.
“Where are you?”, Pond asked, running a hand through his hair.
“At the restaurant,” Phuwin replied, but the background noises didn’t sound like he was there. Pond just huffed and that was enough of a reaction for Phuwin to sigh. “In the restroom. I had to leave the table to call you. Por Jack and P’Tong were annoying.”
“Did they tease you?”, Pond asked with astonishment in his voice. “Or rather, you let them tease you?”
“Mhm... I let them,” Phuwin replied, and Pond was sure that the younger boy rolled his eyes. “How was your trip? Successful?”
“Yup. I’m going back tomorrow,” Pond sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. “What time is it in Paris?”
“Still daytime here. But you should go to sleep soon.”
“Will you call when you go to bed?”
“It might be the middle of the night at your place.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just call.”
There was silence on the other end. Pond began to feel anxious, his over-thinking had gone into high gear. Was he being too pushy? Too needy?
It wasn’t until a moment later when sounds reached him that seemed like a quiet conversation between Phuwin and someone else, probably their manager, and Pond breathed quietly. P’Jack simply started looking for Phuwin. Nothing was happening. Pond could calm down.
“I need to get back to the table,” he finally heard Phuwin’s voice, at which he breathed a sigh of relief. “I love you,” Phuwin whispered and hung up before Pond could speak.
Pond stared at his phone for another long moment before finally lying back down on the bed. Phuwin was not the type to throw around the word ‘love’ just like that, preferring the act of service to words of affirmation. He really had to miss Pond.
“I love you too, Phu,” Pond whispered into the emptiness of his hotel room and covered his face with a pillow.
Maybe they should have separate jobs more often?