Chapter Text
If you're a male, liking someone would mean looking at her face first, followed by her legs, and then her chest.
What else is there when it comes to love?
“She’s cute.”
“He’s so good-looking.”
It is human nature to judge people by appearances. Everyone has an innate nature to decide who they want and who they don’t just by looking at their outward aspects. Instead of seeking a deeper understanding of a person, people commonly make erroneous judgments about their personality and behavior by giving undue weight to physical attributes and relying too heavily on what they see.
To judge others based on what they see.
Everyone is susceptible to this natural tendency. After all, judging is easy and doesn’t require much thinking or reasoning. Whether you are a man or a woman, no one is faultless from being superficial. No one really bothers about what they cannot see…
Like the feelings of the heart.
Keenly aware of this, Tle knows those girls who often confess to him didn’t really like him. Rather it was all about his handsome face.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
Oftentimes, people look at him and think he already has everything he could wish for. From the time he was born to the moment he gained consciousness, he has been fortunate to end up with parents whose names were already shrouded with glamor and praises. A conglomerate for a father and a known public servant for a mother, and as he grows up with inborn talents himself (with a face like his as a bonus) people naturally judge that there is nothing more he could ask for.
His life is perfect.
Blessed.
Some would even call it that much.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
A group of girls passed by and called out for his name. Tle waves back with a smile that didn’t quite reach his ears.
“Bye, Phi!” One of them bids before disappearing around the corner.
The smile on his face immediately fell, replaced with a yawn he didn’t know he'd been holding back.
A shriek slips past his lips unceremoniously, startled when a hard object hit the back of his head sending him forward with force. Tle looks up to find Kim staring down at him shaking his head disappointedly.
“P’ Kim? What the hell," he reaches to ease the painful throb of his head, not before shooting a glare towards the other. “Did you hit me with your fist just now?”
“Nong, you…” Kim sighs tiredly, shoulders sagging. He takes a deep breath before blowing a tuft of hair out of his face before he continues, “It’s because you do unrefined things like yawning out loud with that good-looking face of yours that the girls you’re with always dump you in a flash, you know?”
It’s not like he hasn’t heard the older male complain about it before. In fact, he’s heard him too many times—he could barely count the times that Kim did not lecture him about being conscious of himself, his actions and that it’s about time he actually does something about them. It’s nice to know he has someone who cares and who constantly reminds him about managing his public appearance before he embarrasses himself (which he hates to admit but he does often tend to) but there are moments and during those certain times, there’s only much a guy like him could take. Kim can get quite too overwhelming when he nags.
“I know,” Tle replies, his brow furrowing together. “I get it.” He says, almost resignedly, ready to dismiss it but Kim being Kim has other plans.
“You never actually listen.” Kim says, crossing his arms over his chest.
Looking at him, Tle can never tell what it means whenever Kim schools that look on his face. The older male has always been difficult to read for him.
Kim squints at Tle, staring at him like he knows something that the younger male doesn’t, piercing eyes trying to get into his soul.
“If you keep being like that, your girlfriend’s going to dump you again pretty soon.”
It’s scary.
Kim has this way of seeing through him, always knowing what to say when it comes to him—scrutinizing him and poking to make sure it hurts or jabbing to where it already hurts. Has he always been easy to read? Tle never thought of himself as an open book, yet when it comes to Kim, he always knows.
There was silence between. It was brief but tense—the most disturbing part is how consistently Kim’s assumptions hold true. Always frighteningly spot-on.
“Thanks for your concern but I already got dumped.”
This time, the moment of silence stretches long and thin.
Kim has always been the type to keep his expressions under control. Tle sometimes wishes he could just spare him and drop his false composure. He would rather have him burst out into a delirious laugh, rather than a pressing silence.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
A pause.
Tle thought he was over it.
After many times of falling in love, getting into relationships he thought would finally last only for him to get dumped the next second, he thought moving on wouldn’t hurt as much as the last anymore—yet as he takes note of his hammering heartbeat and a painfully familiar constrictive sensation taking hostage in his chest, he realizes it’s not even relatively close to the truth he forces himself to believe in.
It will always hurt like it’s the first.
He did genuinely like her this time too. Six months and they simply all went down the drain.
“She told me I wasn’t the person she thought I was.” He laughs humorlessly. It comes out dry and he’s sure Kim could tell past him. He wouldn’t be surprised if the older male does point it out. It did sound sad, quiet and in an unhappy way.
“I guess I’m not as attractive as my face brands me to be. They come confessing their feelings to me and then get all disappointed when I'm not what they expect of me.”
“You can’t really blame them, Tle.” Kim says. “There’s a huge gap between your personality and your appearance. You practically scam them.”
“Hey!” Tle feigns hurt, looking scandalized as he places a hand over his chest. “That’s harsh!”
“What I’m trying to say,” Kim pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re goofy, and please, you know that before you say anything —” he was quick to shut Tle up, putting up a hand and Tle snaps his mouth shut. “But when you’re singing, it’s like you’re a different person. It’s like you enter a separate space where there’s only you. It’s captivating and you look beautiful. Even though we’ve been friends for a long time and I know what kind of person you actually are, I also find myself admiring you when you sing.” Kim rarely ever compliments him but when he does, Tle cannot help the color dusting his cheeks.
“How should I put this?” He asks but more to himself, contemplating.
“You have this certain air around you when you sing. And then there's that expression on that face of yours that you only ever show when you’re happy with the song you’re singing, like you’re in love, which makes you seem just like the prince these naive girls have been fantasizing about—it’s not really hard to understand why they would fall for you, only to be let down because you didn’t exactly turn out how they dreamed you to be.”
It was such a stereotypical high school thing to do. To be judged solely because of his appearance, even if it was their fault for assuming. Tle would have argued but he realizes there’s nothing really much for him to say.
So he sighs.
“I guess this is going to follow me until I move up to college…”
“Nong,” Tle looks back at the sudden softness in Kim's voice. “You do know it’s not your fault, right?”
He does.
But of course knowing that people do not see him past his face, it doesn’t really give him that much of a comfort and Tle cannot really lie and say that he isn’t the least bit disappointed—hurt even. Kim doesn’t need to know about it though. So he smiles, "Of course.”
Wordless silence filled the room after that. Kim has gone to take his seat but remained close by at an arm's length. It didn’t take long before everyone started filling in the room. To his left, he could recognize some familiar faces and soon the comforting silence was replaced with low, vibrating, humming chatter.
It isn’t his personality to eavesdrop when people talk. He respects boundaries and protects privacy. However since Kim has already retreated to his books like the dweeb he is and there’s no one he could talk to when Kim gets into his certain headspace, Tle couldn’t help but to overhear his classmates talking in front of him.
“I wonder if he’s okay.”
“I didn’t really see him around.”
“Do you think something must have happened?”
“I don’t know but he’s probably not coming today.”
Whoever it was, what a lucky bastard—to have these girls worried about his whereabouts. How amusing.
“Morning!”
A loud voice startles him and he jumps from his seat, looking over his shoulders. Keng’s eyes were already on him, lips pulled back into a grin as he took the seat behind him.
“Âi sàt, Keng!” Tle clutches his chest over his heart.
“Hi, P’ Kim!” Keng greets cheerfully, ignoring him.
Kim briefly pulls away from his book to give an acknowledging nod to Keng before he goes back to inhaling whatever it is he’s busy reading.
“Meung,” Tle drawls. “Aren’t you too cheerful for someone who’s late?”
Keng feigns ignorance, shrugging with a cheeky smile. “I see no teacher.”
“You’re impossible.” Tle says, giving him a quick, fond eye-roll.
“What were they talking about?” Keng gives a quick tilt of his chin towards the others seated up front.
“I don’t know,” it was Tle’s turn to shrug. “Someone apparently-”
“Must be Firstone.”
“Firstone?” Tle asks. “You mean Wannakorn from second year?”
“Oh, right!” Keng exclaims abruptly, snapping his fingers before he points a knowing finger at Tle. “Firstone’s also in the glee club, right? Are the two of you close?”
Tle shakes his head, “Not at all. We’re just acquaintances. He rarely attends the club.”
Keng laughs between a mixture of surprise and astonishment. “Really? He’s seriously something.”
“Now that I think about it,” Tle trails off, a sudden realization crossing his face. “It’s Monday, isn’t it?”
“It’s the first day of the week already," Keng muses. His lips pulled back into another knowing smile. “It’s the day he chooses a new lover for this week-”
“And at the end of the week, he’ll tell his partner exactly this: I couldn’t fall in love with you. Let’s break up.”
A voice rudely interrupts, startling poor Tle all over again. Tle felt his heart jump to his throat, his body recoiling violently as a sharp startled gasp left him.
“Ai hia!” His voice cracks, eyes wide as he turns to Kim. “You scared the shit out of me, Phi!”
Kim only grins mischievously whilst Keng laughs on his seat.
“That reminds me,” Keng turns to Kim. “Phi, didn’t you?”
“I did.” He didn’t even let Keng finish with how quick and eager he responded. “I went out with him exactly for a week back in May.”
“What?” Tle splutters. His eyes wide in surprise, looking back and forth between Keng and Kim. How come he’s never heard of this before?
“That level of popularity is truly incomprehensible to me.” Keng says thoughtfully, belatedly realizing he couldn’t actually care less. “Well, at least it’s not my problem.”
“Wait—What? You dated… Keng, Phi, how come I never knew this?”
The sound of footsteps approaching echoed from the hallway and stopped directly outside the door. The humming chatter filling the room immediately dies down as Tle turns towards the doorway just in time to see their homeroom teacher come in.
“Please turn your history books to page 341.”
Tle mentally groans. What bad timing…
How come he’s never heard of Kim dating—anyone for that matter—while he knows everything that goes on with Tle’s shit excuse of a high school life? He has never hidden anything from him. Not that he could actually, not when he will do the least good job at even trying to hide it but still. How come Keng knows while he doesn’t?
All he could do was to glare in silence and Kim simply shrugged at him when their eyes met.
You’ve got some explaining to do.
He mouths.
For now, he bites back the stream of questions jabbing at the back of his throat. He watches as his friends fall into thoughtless silence. Kim retreats to his textbook and Keng, surprisingly, listens attentively to whatever the lecture was.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
“I’m hungry.”
Keng says as soon as the bell rings.
Once the homeroom teacher left the room, the students milling about the room start to leave one by one as well until only a handful remain.
Kim has long rid of his books, briefly glancing at Tle before turning to look at Keng.
“Hi, hungry. I'm Kim.”
It was said with such nonchalance but Tle didn’t miss Kim’s amusement at his own terrible joke. Tle tries not to laugh—the joke is absolutely not in any way funny but the ridiculousness of it coming from Kim himself takes him back altogether.
Keng leers at him. He hurls the first object his hand got a hold onto.
“You think you're so funny now?”
It takes enough self-restraint before Tle was a laughing mess. Keng does recover shortly after and looks at his wrist, only to realize he has no watch and he starts digging his jeans pockets for his phone.
“Next class isn’t till ten. That means we got an hour and a half to ourselves,” he says excitedly.
Kim opens his mouth to say something. It doesn’t need one or two brain cells to know he’s about to berate the other about him not caring or whatever it has to do with them. Only for Kim to seal his lips a split second later after what Keng proposes. Tle has to stifle a laugh.
“Do you guys want pizza?”
“Who says no to free pizza?” Kim says with a shit-eating grin.
Tle snorts.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
After three rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Tle lost. He finds himself walking across the hallway. A group of students recognize him on his way and Tle returns the excited hi’s and hello’s toss his way with a smile. His mouth curving not wholly reaching his ears but nonetheless, still friendly.
He hears the shy giggles and whispers as he passes them by, although not really caring enough to look back twice.
Tle is used to it by now.
It would be hypocritical of him to say he doesn’t like the slightest bit of attention and overall interest and amusement other students allot on him when he’s passing by. He won’t lie and say he doesn’t spend at least twenty minutes staring at himself in the mirror every morning. He knows he’s good-looking and it is all thanks to his parents. Tle also knows there are other students much more known than he is. More handsome, prettier and lean. Although what he doesn’t know is the scale of popularity across the whole university.
Perhaps Wannakorn-level?
Tle pauses in his step briefly at the absurdity of his idea. Not at how wildly ridiculous it is that the second year student is by far more popular than he is, but because of his own sudden interest in him.
Tle felt confused.
He has heard stories of Wannakorn before but he had never really paid much attention or had any interest in him to actually sit down and listen. Tle has his own problems to take care of, rather than gossip about a second-year dating girls like he’s changing his day-to-day clothes. At the same time, it wasn't like he had reasons before to think about a nong.
Until now.
It’s baffling how Tle suddenly finds himself wondering what kind of person Wannakorn is.
For a first year to be amassing that much fascination from everyone, he must really have quite the reputation to his name.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
The sound of the school gate sliding open with a creak interrupts his thought and the first thing Tle registers is the Wrangler parked on the driveway.
When did they start using jeeps for delivery?
He tilts his head to the side as he stares, bewildered.
Whoever it is must be running some deep pockets and don’t mind spending tenfold of their salary for a conspicuous car to simply do deliveries to famished high school students like him.
Are they trying to show-off or what?
“Oh.”
Turns out he was wrong to assume as a disturbingly familiar figure emerges from the passenger’s seat. Tle thinks he has never seen anyone sport a red hair that good, not until he’s staring at one—that one being no other than Wannakorn rocking the hair color himself.
Wannakorn must have felt eyes on him from a distance and Tle startled himself, feeling embarrassed about being caught staring openly and stupidly, shamelessly, yet didn’t make an attempt to look away. They both engaged into a staring contest, neither really pulling away. It was beyond Tle’s understanding how he managed to keep his eyes locked on the second-year, despite how obvious and visibly red his ears were.
“Hello, Phi.” Wannakorn greets with a gentle smile on his face. The sight sent a curious warmth through Tle’s chest. He gave the sensation a fleeting thought, trying to name the feeling, but quickly concluded it was nothing out of the ordinary and pushed it aside.
“Long time no see, Nong.”
If the corners of his mouth curled up into a soft smile as a response, Tle doesn’t realize.
“Was that your girlfriend for the week dropping you off?” The question fell out of his mouth before he could think. Tle belatedly realizes, silently berating himself for failing to keep his mouth from running.
He expects for Wannakorn to be offended and look at him in disdain for being inquisitively out of place. He would be if he was in his shoes. After all, they weren’t close, not even remotely friendly. They were simply two people who knew one another from others.
Tle waits for anything, but he was given not even a fuck off—the the younger male simply stares at him, lips pressed together into a thin line before Wannakorn starts laughing.
“You’re very frank. Aren’t you, Phi?”
Tle splutters. He doesn’t have to double guess the heat that crawls up from his neck to his ears.
“Shut up.”
Wannakorn chuckles, unbothered. “Sadly, no, they were,” there was a pause before he shook his head. “It was someone else.” The younger male says after a beat.
“Ah.” Tle nods. If he says no, then no. Wannakorn seems kind enough to even entertain his nosiness. He should just leave it as it is.
“So, Phi, what are you doing out here?” It was Wannakorn’s turn to ask, fixing the strap of his tote bag slung over his shoulder. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I should ask you the same thing.” Tle replies, raising an inquisitive brow at him. “But to answer that, next class isn’t till ten.” He takes a few steps forward and leans his shoulder against the brick wall. When he moves, he finds Wannakorn’s eyes on him.
“Were you waiting for me?” Wannakorn asks with a slight tilt of his head and a sly twinkle in his eyes. Tle didn’t need to put two and two to know he was teasing.
Tle stares at him, well aware that his eyes must be wide as saucers. It was comical how Wannakorn had said it, especially since they weren’t at the standing point yet to be cracking lame jokes to one another. It made him laugh.
“You wish, didn’t you?” He quips back.
It’s weird. He’s hardly ever crossed paths with Wannakorn before. He rarely ever attends their club activities as much as Tle does so they never really had an interaction before, not even one that can count as proper. They aren’t friends; he can hardly call them that—but they seemingly quickly adapted to whatever was going on between them at that very moment.
“Keng paid for pizza.” Tle finally explains. He doesn’t know if he knows him. He simply assumes he does. If he doesn’t, well…
“I see.”
I think one week’s long enough for a dream.
Firstone is… He’s perfectly faithful.
Suddenly, he finds Kim’s words began playing like an insistent, echoing whisper in his mind.
At the beginning of each week, he will definitely go out with the first person who confesses to him.
He didn’t mean any harm, just pure curiosity, when he asked: “Has anyone confessed to you yet?”
He didn’t expect an immediate reaction as he watched Wannakorn’s face morph into an unreadable expression—as if he had not seen it coming and especially not from the older male. He tried to play it cool, and maintain an unaffected facade but Tle didn’t miss the slight quiver of his lips.
“No, not yet.”
"Are you really fine with anyone as long as they confess to you first… even if they're not your type?"
The after-question definitely caught him off guard. His eyes trained on Tle with an indecipherable glint—and for a moment, it felt like Tle had stepped into a land mine. Wannakorn’s face went still, and Tle felt a sudden, sharp certainty that he may have overstepped his bounds.
Did I ask too much?
Tle chokes back the anxiety which found its home in his throat to his chest. He fears if Wannakorn listens hard enough, he would hear the loud whirs inside Tle’s head as it works overtime thinking, thinking, thinking for a way to apologize. He didn’t exactly mean to pry.
In his defense, it’s not like everyone in school didn’t know. Wannakorn changes his girls like he changes his clothes. It’s only about time someone asks. It just happened it had to be Tle.
Tle subtly tries to avoid looking at the younger male’s face. Instead, he fixed his eyes on his helplessly unfastened shoelace (which he made no move to fix) like it’s the most interesting thing that ever materialized on Earth.
It felt like forever but in reality, only a beat of silence passes before the younger male finally speaks up and says quietly, “I’m not too sure about that. You wouldn’t know if someone’s your type just by looking at their face, right?”
And maybe he should have taken it as his cue to stop but he hates how uncoordinated his mouth is to his brain.
“What I meant was, someone like you surely has a type of face or body they like, no?”
Tle never thought he would be having this conversation, even more so with Wannakorn. But, he does, however, find it amusing how Wannakorn does indulge him. He could just told Tle to fuck off and mind his own business, told him he’s being too nosy, but he doesn’t. Tle didn’t just imagine they are capable of conversing almost comfortably enough to talk about each other’s type. Again, they aren’t friends and certainly not close enough to be sharing personal details.
“I don't think I’ve ever cared about their looks.”
A look of surprise flashes across his face.
Given Wannakorn’s striking appearance, it’s understandable that he, like many others, values looks in a partner. It’s only logical that he would also gravitate towards a partner who is equally attractive, a common tendency. If he were to date someone equally stunning, they would instantly become the ultimate power couple and the subject of intense public discussion. After all, who wouldn’t love a good gossip when it’s about Wannakorn?
Then again, Wannakorn may not be what someone could regard as like many others.
It’s just as he continues to listen to the younger male and grows to learn more about him little by little, Tle realizes how the rumors about him may not all be true.
He doesn’t seem arrogant or conceited. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He’s too modest, too... how should he put it? He’s just… strange. So strange. Eccentric, if he would put it, at best. (It was already strange enough that he changes a lover once the week ends so…)
“Do you only like someone because of their looks, Phi?”
Wannakorns voice cuts through, eyes staring back at Tle’s—he could swear he looked at him almost disappointedly. As if Wannakorn expected more from him, only for him to turn out like the rest—whether it means Tle sees or judges Wannakorn like how his rumors make him out to be, like everybody else does, or the aspect of him dating somebody entirely for their looks, Tle isn’t too sure.
Tle couldn’t explain why the idea of Wannakorn being disappointed because of him didn’t settle right with him. It felt wrong, almost like he didn’t want to disappoint him.
“It's like when you truly care for someone. You don't look for faults and just genuinely care. You accept them for who they are and you overlook excuses. You learn to be patient, understanding and forgiving. You care even if you can't find the reason why,” Wannakorn says quietly. It’s only then Tle notices the color of his eyes, how they seem to reflect the glow of the sun in them. There is a small smile stretched across his lips as if he’s taking a trip down memory lane. As if Wannakorn’s speaking out of experience.
“Because a true person who cares, doesn't need a reason at all.”
Wannakorn’s eyes drift away from Tle, but as though an invisible force compels and pulls him back to look, they quickly settle on Tle again with an incandescent light burning inside them.
“But I like your face, Phi.”
Words got stuck in his throat. Tle felt a strange warmth pool from the bottom of his belly as soon as the words left Wannakorn. The unfamiliar sensation spreads through his body—tickling his insides—it was sweet, comforting, but nevertheless took him by utter surprise.
Despite the circulating rumors, is this the reason why so many still seek Wannakorn out to confess?
Because he has his way with words?
Tle doesn’t know him. Even far from understanding the mystery he is. What he knows about him is what most of them already do. He’s every girl’s dream and a source of bitter envy for every guy. The yellow daisy amongst the whites in a pot. He sticks out like a sore thumb—that even only at the mention of his name, Wannakorn causes a stir.
A sudden, intense, irrepressible urge to test Wannakorn’s reaction gripped Tle. His only thought was a daring impulse: how would he react?
What kind of look crosses his face when someone confesses their feelings to him?
So he didn’t think about the gravity of his words when he asked: “Shall we date, Nong?”
A gust of wind hits the space separating them between. The cool breeze rustles the leaves, making the trees surrounding them sway—something unusual in this time of the year but has Tle instantly distracted. He finds himself suddenly fascinated at the glow of the summer sun that sweeps their surroundings. The scene, as though straight out of a manga, has him promptly forgetting everything around him. All of a sudden, words ceased to exist and thoughts, as quickly as they came, scattered as if they were never there.
“Khun Tle?”
Tle turns immediately at the call of his name. He was so preoccupied he didn’t register the sound of a scooter pulling up and stopping at the sidewalk next to them.
“About time!”
Had he slowed down, he would have picked up on Wannakorn’s complete stillness—the sudden, arrested motion where he stood. A second longer, and Tle would have noted the wide-eyed surprise that betrayed his whole being. And only if he’d delayed a heartbeat longer, he would have noticed the minuscule flicker on Wannakorn’s expression before his lips were sealed tight.
And maybe, maybe, Tle could have seen the ghost of a smile that lingered on Wannakorn’s lips as his eyes trailed after him.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
The cacophony of students gathering their bags quickly faded to a low, hushed murmurs and whispers. The sudden shift in volume was enough to pull his attention away, tearing his eyes from the pages of his textbook.
Tle barely registers the figure in the doorway; his eyes first landed on Kim, who had frozen mid-step, his face a sudden mask of confusion. Following Kim’s startled gaze, Tle finally looked up and certainly didn’t expect their eyes to meet—he absolutely wasn’t prepared for it to be Wannakorn already staring at him with a smile.
Tle pushes himself up from his seat as the younger male approaches. He didn’t miss the pointed look Kim directed at him.
“I asked my way around here.”
“Good for you,” Tle frowns. Whatever he means by that.
After their encounter that morning, by the minute he turned around, the younger male was gone. He wasn’t expecting to see Wannakorn so soon though. In fact, Tle thought it would be the last he gets to see him until he runs to him again unexpectedly.
Tle is slowly coming to realize the spontaneity that Wannakorn is.
“I was wondering if we could go home together.”
Tle blinks, “What?”
“Ah,” Wannakorn’s eyes flit to his table. “Do you have plans today?”
“Well, no, but,” he has to pause, eyebrows furrowing deeper. Why? The question looms over his head but he didn’t ask. What does Wannakorn want with him? “Shouldn’t it be me asking you that?” He scratches his head.
What is going on?
“I don’t really have plans.”
It’s been a long day and Tle’s brain is already exhausted to actually formulate a reason as to why Wannakorn would seek him out. As far as he can recollect, there was nothing which would warrant him a visit from the younger male.
“Don’t you have, I don’t know–perhaps a club to attend to?” He squints his eyes at the younger male who only laughs back at him. His laughter was faint, yet for a reason it made a sudden pleasant heat settle deep in Tle’s chest that his tired brain couldn’t comprehend.
What the hell is going on?
“I’ve heard you sing before. It’s a waste to let such talent go to waste.”
“That reminds me, Phi-”
“Hey! Listen when your senior is talking to you. Don’t try to change the subject.” Tle scolds.
Wannakorn simply laughs at him again.
It’s all too casual.
Him and Wannakorn talking and throwing banters as if they have always been friends.
This, whatever it was going on between them, was all too confusing. Tle thinks to himself as he draws his brows together. The warmth was back, a familiar invasive flush, coiling and spreading deep in his chest. With it came a dissonant, prickling awareness at the fringe of his skull, a truth demanding recognition. Tle instinctively walled it off. Just the early stages of a cold, he told himself. Nothing more than a creeping onset of fever.
“I meant to ask for your number.” Wannakorn pulls out his phone from his back pocket.
Huh?
“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Wannakorn says quietly. “I was just thinking it will make it easy for us to communicate if we’re going to hangout, you know?”
He’s always been eloquent but right now he doesn’t even know what to say. All of a sudden, Wannakorn wanted to walk home together and was asking for his number. Tle couldn’t keep up. Everything seems to be progressing quickly between him and Wannakorn. And what’s more confusing is he doesn’t understand why. He never thought Wannakorn would be the type to go all the way just to befriend others and—hangout?
Why would he even want to hangout?
“Phi?”
“I, yes, sure–why not?” He was going for a more collected response but for some reason, Tle couldn’t even bring himself to focus as he entered his number.
“Here.” He hands the phone back.
“Can I call you P' Tle from now on?”
Too casual.
Way too casual.
That it’s too odd.
What the hell is going on?
Tle nearly screams his head off.
“Yeah, sure.”
“I will see you tomorrow then.”
“Oh, okay…?”
And then everything starts to make sense.
It rushes into him like a tidal wave and Tle doesn’t get the chance to brace himself. He has not been prepared as the preceding events began to flood him, heart rate picking up as each memory took over one after another. A loud gasp, then a wheeze. Only when they finally come to a stop did Tle get a moment to pick apart his thoughts and find the only coherent one.
“Shall we date, Nong?”
Curiosity killed the cat.
It’s not satisfaction, but Wannakorn who brought him back.
“Pfft—no way,” he laughs in disbelief. In denial. “He wouldn’t take me seriously, would he?”
Tle watches Wannakorn leave and all his thoughts could swivel around was one word: shit.