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“Absolutely not.”
“I’m just saying,” Prapai laughed, shaking his head at the look on Payu’s face.
“Leave him alone,” Payu stressed, giving him a stern look.
“What, I can’t even talk to him?” Pai asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.
“Correct,” Payu fired back, not missing a beat. Prapai rolled his eyes, and Payu continued, “I don’t think Rain would be too happy with me if you slept with his friend and then never called him back.”
“I would call him back,” Prapai replied absentmindedly, watching Rain and his friend laughing together.
“Leave him alone,” Payu repeated himself. “Literally talk to anyone else,” he called over his shoulder, heading to join Rain and his friend.
Prapai grumbled under his breath before deciding to follow Payu’s advice and introduce himself to the girl in the corner who kept looking his way.
Thirty minutes later, he was sitting on a couch alone, moodily staring off into space. The girl–Mae?—had made an excuse and ran off after a couple minutes of half-hearted conversation.
His gaze caught on Rain’s friend, who was wandering towards the kitchen alone, and he stood up before he could think it over.
“Hey,” Pai greeted him with a wide smile.
“You’re P’Payu’s friend, right?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.
“Prapai,” Pai confirmed, taking a step closer. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Sky.”
“That’s a nice name,” Prapai replied automatically. It was a nice name, but he would have said it anyway.
“Thank you.” The corner of Sky’s mouth was quirked up in a smile, and Pai couldn’t tell if he was enjoying the flirting or just laughing at him. Possibly both.
“Can I get you a drink?” Pai asked, glancing down at Sky’s empty cup.
Sky hesitated for a moment before answering, “Sure.” Prapai did his best to appear casual. Sky snorted, so he may not have been doing the best job.
“Pai,” Payu’s voice came from behind him, a note of warning so slight Prapai was pretty sure no one else could pick up on it. He turned around to see Rain and Payu standing there, wearing wildly different expressions.
“Payu,” he greeted, attempting the same tone. It didn’t seem as effective.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Payu asked, giving him a forced smile.
“Yeah, okay,” he sighed, nodding to Sky as Payu practically pulled him away.
“I asked you to do one thing!” Payu hissed, the second they were out of sight.
“It’s not a big deal!” Prapai insisted, rolling his eyes. “He’s cute. I can’t flirt with him?”
“No, you cannot flirt with him!” Payu huffed, scowling at him. “He’s Rain’s best friend. I like Rain. Could you please try and help me out here?”
Prapai blinked at him.
“You like Rain?” he asked dubiously.
“I told you that,” Payu said thunderously, his brow still furrowed in anger.
“Like, you actually like him?” Prapai asked. “I thought you wanted to hook up with him!”
Payu went silent for a moment. His expression shifted from anger to something Pai couldn’t quite place.
“Yes,” he eventually answered. “I like him, and…I don’t know,” he finished lamely. Prapai’s eyebrows shot up.
“Okay,” he said, surprising himself. “I won't hit on Sky.”
Now Payu’s eyebrows shot up.
“Seriously?” he asked, looking skeptical.
“Yeah.” Prapai nodded. “If you like Rain, then I don’t want to fuck it up for you,” he said sincerely.
“Thanks, man.” Payu gave him a smile and Pai clapped him on the back.
“You got this,” he said. “It’s gonna be great.”
In hindsight, Prapai had been incredibly stupid.
He should have said something along the lines of “I won’t hit on Sky right now,” but, well…he hadn’t. He’d just given Payu his word to leave Sky alone, which, unfortunately, Payu was holding him to.
“You’re already dating Rain,” Prapai pointed out. “You’ve won. It’s my turn.”
“No,” Payu said simply, throwing a piece of popcorn at him. “You do not get to have a one-night stand with Rain’s best friend.”
“It could be two nights!” Prapai defended himself.
Payu threw another piece of popcorn at him.
It wouldn’t have been that bad, really, except for the fact that he had to see Sky constantly now. Rain and Payu were pretty much inseparable, and Sky seemed to be part of the package deal every time Pai hung out with Payu.
He was funny, too, which didn’t help things. Rain and Payu would get caught up in each other, and Sky would be there, laughing and talking and looking gorgeous and asking Prapai a million questions. And off-limits.
It was a bit rude, actually.
It got to the point where they were basically going on dates anyway.
“You and Rain are way too busy talking to each other,” Prapai pointed out. “Why do we need to be at the same restaurant?”
“You need to be supervised,” Payu replied without hesitation, not even looking up from his laptop. “Do not ask him out.”
Prapai kicked the leg of his chair, but Payu ignored him.
Apparently, Sky was not being kept on as tight of a leash, Prapai thought, staring down at his phone a few days later.
Sky
Want to grab lunch tomorrow?
Prapai hesitated for a moment before thinking carefully on Payu’s words. He’d only said he couldn’t ask Sky out, not that he couldn’t accept an invitation, technically. The Payu in the back of his mind started yelling at him as he typed out a response.
Prapai
Sounds good! I know just the place. 😁
“It’s not a date,” he insisted. “It’s just lunch.”
“With the guy you’ve been talking about for months,” Phan pointed out, raising an eyebrow. “P’Payu’s gonna kill you.”
“Not if he doesn’t know!” Prapai called over his shoulder, choosing to ignore the snort she let out.
It was, perhaps, a date.
“I told you,” Phan told him. She was looking far too pleased with herself.
“Stop pacing,” Plerng said.
“I’m not pacing,” Prapai defended himself, pacing.
“Stop freaking out.” Phan rolled her eyes.
“I’m not freaking out.”
Phan and Plerng exchanged a glance. Prapai stopped pacing.
“Payu’s gonna kill me,” he bemoaned, sinking down onto the bed.
“Not if he doesn’t know?” Phan offered, giving a half-hearted shrug. Prapai groaned, covering his face with his hands.
“Well, Sky’s definitely telling Rain,” Plerng butted in.
“And Rain’s definitely telling Payu,” Phan finished.
Prapai groaned again.
“You probably have a few days before, y’know—” Plerng started.
“My imminent demise?” Prapai finished for him, uncovering an eye to peek at his little brother.
“Sure.” Plerng shrugged, moving to fix his hair.
Prapai’s phone dinged, and he dug it out of his pocket, hoping it was Sky.
It was not Sky.
Phan leaned over his shoulder, sucking air in through her teeth when she saw Payu’s name.
“Maybe he won’t be mad,” she said, rubbing his shoulder.
He opened the text.
It was a screenshot of a text from Rain, followed by a single question mark.
Rain
is there something going on with sky and p’pai ??? apparently they had lunch together ?? 👀👀👀
He texted Payu back immediately, a pit building in his stomach.
Prapai
It wasn’t a date or anything, we just got lunch.
An ellipsis appeared for a moment, then disappeared, and Prapai’s shoulders slumped. Plerng stole his phone out of his hand, giving him a weak smile. It dinged a second later, and Prapai practically lunged to grab it back. Plerng squealed, offering it up immediately and pushing Prapai off of him.
Payu
Okay. Sorry I jumped to conclusions.
Prapai just sent a thumbs-up emoji in reply, not sure of how to respond given that Payu hadn’t actually overreacted. He did like Sky, and it had seemed like a date. Of course, they hadn’t said it outright, so it wasn’t technically lying, but still.
He let out a deep sigh. He seriously needed to get it together.
“You need to get it together,” Payu informed him bluntly, arms crossed.
Prapai raised an eyebrow.
“Meaning…?”
“Meaning, you don’t need to jerk Sky around.”
“I’m not jerking Sky around!” Pai defended himself, completely dumbfounded by the accusation.
“Rain thinks you have a thing,” Payu pointed out. “Which probably means Sky thinks you have a thing.”
Prapai spluttered, unsure of how to defend himself when he did, in fact, have a thing.
“I wouldn’t jerk him around,” Prapai reiterated, deciding to avoid the accusation altogether.
Payu leveled an evaluating look at him for a few long seconds before breaking eye contact.
“Good,” he said. “Then don’t.”
He didn’t go out with Sky again. Or, he meant not to go out with Sky again. It wasn’t like they were dates, anyway, so it didn’t really matter. Payu probably wouldn’t even mind. He didn’t know about the not-dates, clearly, since he hadn’t sent any more accusatory texts, which led Pai to wonder whether or not Sky had been telling Rain.
He brought it up casually over dinner at Sky’s favorite restaurant. As it turned out, Sky was telling Rain. That meant that Rain wasn’t telling Payu, which sent Prapai sinking down into a deeper level of guilt. Great. Now he’d made his best friend’s boyfriend lie to him because he couldn’t keep his promise to said best friend and stay away from his best friend’s boyfriend’s best friend. He thought, anyway. It was getting hard to keep track.
He felt horrible. He definitely needed to stop hanging out with Sky before something romantic happened.
“Where are you going?” Phan asked, not looking up from her book.
“I’m taking Sky to the botanical gardens,” he called back, already halfway out the front door.
“That’s a date,” Plerng informed him.
“We’re just hanging out!” Prapai insisted.
“It’s a date,” Plerng countered. “You can’t have a platonic picnic.”
“It’s a friend picnic!”
“That’s not a thing!”
“You’re doing what?”
“You make pottery and then you paint it,” Prapai explained again. “It’s fun.”
His mother raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her tea.
“When am I going to meet this Sky?” she asked, a clear note of interest in her tone.
“We’re just friends,” he clarified, cutting off any hope she might have had. Along with any that he had.
She tilted her head at him for a moment.
“Making pottery,” she grumbled under her breath, taking another sip of tea. “Friends.”
He really needed to talk to Payu.
Sky was smiling brightly at him, having made an extremely decent-looking pot for his first attempt, and Prapai was hopelessly staring at a haphazard ball of clay in the middle of his wheel.
They were, perhaps, on a date. Sky wasn’t aware of that, but Prapai was slowly coming to that realization. Very slowly.
It was, essentially, hopeless. He liked Sky. He couldn’t not like Sky. Payu would understand, Prapai decided, given that he had felt the same way about Rain. Besides, they had been dating for months now, surely their relationship could withstand him having feelings for Sky. Hopefully.
Sky leaned over and etched a small heart into Prapai’s terrible pot.
He really needed to talk to Payu.
“I really need to talk to you!” he blurted out, moments before Payu could take his first bite.
Payu blinked.
“Okay…?” he hedged, giving Prapai a suspicious look. “What’s wrong? Did you do something to Sky?” he accused.
“No!” Prapai defended himself. “Maybe.” He deflated.
“What did you do?” Payu narrowed his eyes.
“Nothing yet,” Prapai mumbled, shaking his head when Payu raised an eyebrow. “I…like him,” he admitted. “I really like him. I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
Payu looked completely dumbfounded, which was ridiculous. Sure, Pai hadn’t admitted to his feelings, necessarily, but Payu knew he was into Sky.
“What are you talking about?” Payu wanted to know.
“I want to ask Sky out.”
Payu blinked again.
“I thought you were already going out?” Payu asked.
“On a date,” Prapai clarified.
“I thought you were already dating,” Payu said.
Prapai blinked.
He was quiet for a moment before a thought occurred to him.
“And you were cool with that?” he checked. “That means I can ask him out,” he said immediately.
Payu rolled his eyes.
“Obviously,” he said. “What have you been doing? You weren’t dating him?”
“I might have been,” Prapai admitted. “I just have to tell him about it.”
They were on a bench together, looking out over the water, when Prapai finally brought it up. Sky had been telling him about his day, and he had been enjoying it so much that he had almost forgotten what he was supposed to be doing. Then, he’d switched topics, telling Prapai about a new cafe that had just opened up down the street from him, and Prapai had to say something.
“That sounds nice,” he started, hating the way his voice was trembling. “Maybe we could go…together?”
“Sure.” Sky shrugged, pulling out his phone. “Tuesday?” he suggested, glancing up at Prapai.
Okay. So he wasn’t getting it.
“I meant we could go together,” he emphasized, steeling himself a little in the face of potential rejection.
“Okay…?” Sky trailed off, raising an eyebrow.
Still nothing.
“Like a date,” Prapai explained.
“Okay?” Sky said again, looking incredibly confused.
“With me,” Prapai clarified.
Sky laughed at him. “Who else would it be with?” he wanted to know, somehow not understanding.
“I like you,” Prapai told him.
“I like you too,” Sky returned simply, tilting his head to one side.
“Romantically.”
“I know that,” Sky said, narrowing his eyes.
Prapai blinked. “And you didn’t want to tell me?”
Sky raised an eyebrow. “We’ve been going on dates,” he pointed out. “I’ve been asking you on dates. You’ve been saying yes. I assumed you knew.”
Prapai blinked again.
“Well, this is what happens when you assume,” he grumbled, half put-out and half trying to wrap his head around the fact that Sky liked him.
Sky just laughed again, shaking his head at Prapai before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. Prapai was momentarily speechless before recovering.
“What was that for?”
“Proof,” Sky explained. “So you don’t have to just assume that I like you.”
“I need more proof,” he said immediately, inching closer to Sky. Sky rolled his eyes fondly but leaned in to kiss him softly, so he was obviously doing a fantastic job. His mind went blank for another few seconds as Sky pulled away, only brought back to reality when he spoke.
“So…” Sky dragged out the word questioningly. Prapai gave him a confused look, and he shook his head. “Tuesday?” he reminded Prapai.
“Tuesday,” Prapai confirmed.