Chapter Text
“Homework is soooooooo boring,” Nueng thought. Why did he need to learn mandarin anyway? It's not like his family lived in China... he could be spending his time doing much better things– like playing the piano!! But just like any other day, he was stuck in his room learning the stupid alphabet...
After a while, the boredom finally got to him. Despite being sat in his chair staring down at his little notebook for what felt like an eternity, he had only done 2 words. That’s when he decided, he needed to get out of here somehow. So he did just that, sliding down from the oversized fancy chair and slowly tiptoeing towards where he had left some shoes. Luckily, the room he was in was on the first floor, so he could easily sneak through the window and straight towards his destination!
Nueng put on his tiny shoes and tried very hard to do his laces, then slowly moved towards the window. It was big and extremely heavy, but he wouldn’t let that stop him. After a bit of trial and error, he realised that you needed to pull the window to open it, not push it. “Damn it!! There goes my plans for today...”
Just as he was about to give up, there was a faint knock coming from the window. Nueng quickly ducked down to hide, then slowly peered his head out to see who or what was at the window. To his surprise, there was a little head that only just reached the window. Nueng slowly approached the window with a sceptical look on his face, before deciding to knock back on the window. After he knocked, the head ran away and revealed that it wasn’t just a head but an entire body as well.
Nueng thought it was weird but went back to sulking almost straight away. After a few minutes, he heard another knock and turned to see that the same head was there again, but this time it was standing on a stool. Nueng waved at the person on the stool and then came a muffled “hi” from the other side of the glass. This excited him, it meant that the window could be opened from the other side!!
Nueng got up quickly and unlatched the window again, making it easier to speak and easier to push. “Push it,” Nueng said harshly.
“why?” the person responded, “what’s in it for me?”
“wait there!!” Nueng rushed towards the table and grabbed his leftover snack, a croissant. “you can have this if you push it!!”
“hmmm,” the person paused, “fine.” Nueng jumped with excitement, he finally gets to escape!!
The person pushed the window open with ease, and Nueng beamed as he climbed through the open window and jumped down, falling right on top of the strange person. “Ow!! That hurts...” the person said and rubbed his head.
“Oh!! Sorry, uh...?” Nueng started,
“Palm, I'm 9,” the person answered
“Woah!! I’m 9 too!!” Nueng said while beaming, “can we be friends?”
“I've never had a friend before.” palm replied,
“Me neither,” he said, “we can be each other's first friend!!”
“Ok!!” palm smiled. “Who are you though? My dad said this is the Kiattrakulmethee house... I dunno what that is though...”
“That’s my family!! I’m Nuengdiao, or Nueng for short!!”
“Okay, Nueng...” palm looked at Nueng with a smile.
“Who are you then? Like why are you here?”
“I dunno... my dad says we need to live here and that I'll understand when I’m older.”
“who’s your dad?”
“he’s my dad, who else would he be?”
“you’ve got a point...” Nueng said and laughed a bit, Palm laughed with him.
The two carried on, Nueng leading the way towards the music room. They talked about pointless things; I guess that’s just what kids do. Once they reached the music room, Nueng reached up to open the door, and in they went.
It was a beautiful room, the velvet carpets were perfectly spotless, and the lace curtains were drawn, leaving the sunlight to seep through the glass. There was a polished black piano right in the centre of the room, and a few bookshelves in the corner.
“Woah, it’s so pretty in here!!” palm commented,
“I know right!! It’s sad I can’t come in her that often...”
“Why? Isn’t that a waste?”
“That’s what I try to tell my parents!! They always say I need to ‘focus on my studies’ though...” Nueng huffed.
“Do you play that thing?” palm asked
“The piano?”
“Mmm.”
“Yeah!! It’s really fun!!”
“Can you play for me?”
“Sure!! Do you have a favourite song?”
“Hmmm... not really,” he paused, “play your favourite one.”
“Ok!!” Nueng ran up to the piano and sat down on the little stool. He begun to slowly move his fingers along the dusty keys, pressing a few down as he went.
A melody came from the piano, something Palm had never heard before. It was gentle, but it made his heart ache with a sort of bittersweetness, although he couldn’t pinpoint it at the time. He watched as Nueng kept sliding his hands around, each note he pressed continued the song. It was almost in sync with his own heartbeat.
Lost in his own thoughts and music, palm hadn’t realised the soft tug on his arm. “Palm!! Quick!!” Nueng whispered.
“Hm?” before palm could snap back into reality, Nueng had pulled him behind a bookshelf so they were out of sight. Just then, the door opened and a man that looked like a gardener came in and popped his head about. Nueng covered palms and his own mouths, trying to stop any noises coming out.
“I could’ve sworn there was music coming from here... eh, guess I'm just getting old.” the gardener muttered before walking away, shutting the door behind him. Now that the coast was clear, Nueng took his hands away and they both breathed heavily. “That was close,” Nueng smiled.
“Yeah, it was...” Palm smiled as well, and they both fell onto their backs and started laughing.