Chapter Text
Sea's POV
Announcement Regarding “Sea Dechchart and Keen Suvijak”
GMMTV.co, Ltd. would like to inform you that “Sea-Dechchart Tasilp” and “Keen-Suvijak Piyanopharoj” have mutually agreed to conclude their work as a pair.
The decision was made with mutual understanding and respect, taking into account their individual career paths and future goals.
The company would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all fans for your continued support and sincerely hope you will continue to show them your love in their future endeavours.
Respectfully yours,
GMMTV.co, Ltd.
22 May 2031
So. That’s it. The end of 8 years of working together with Keen. Sea feels like he is supposed to feel something looking at this announcement that was just posted on the GMMTV instagram page – sadness, bittersweetness or maybe even a hint of happiness? On the contrary, he only felt a dull ache in his chest which had already been residing for months prior but his mind was blank.
Eventually, he opened the comment section of the post and scrolled through hundreds of concerned and heartbroken comments pouring in from his fans. Sure, he loved his fans more than anything in the world because without their constant support and love he would not have made it through this rollercoaster of the past 8 years.
What no one knows, however, is the turmoil Sea went through in the past few months leading up to this announcement. Actually, turmoil is an understatement. He went through absolute hell. Sea considers Keen as one of his best friends, heck maybe even his best friend. What started off as a contractual pairing, eventually turned into something worth holding on to and fighting for to keep within his palms, over the years of them working together. They have been through so much together that it is simply impossible for them to not be close. On top of that, they have poured so much time and effort into maintaining and growing their partnership to improve themselves as artists, but deep down Sea knew it undeniably grew into something more than just a mere BL partnership. At least for him.
But Sea is also a realist. He knew that their BL partnership will eventually reach an end, but an end this soon is something even he did not expect. So when did it all go wrong…
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6 months ago…
“...and the story will end with Ton and Fah reuniting at the 7-11 where they first met” said P’ Aof looking towards Sea and Keen with hopeful eyes.
P’ Aof had just spent the past hour pitching his new series idea to them for the upcoming GMMTV series announcement day in 6 months. They have had multiple scripts land on their tables but none had caught their eyes until they saw P’Aof’s. So, here they are, sitting in front of P’Aof on a Sunday morning, in the 30th floor office of the GMMTV building, with the cold AC blasting down on them.
Sea loved the pitch, it basically had everything that he has been looking for – angsty storyline? Check! Sci-Fi Setting? Check! Leads with potential superpowers? Check! To be honest, he had never really been that picky about scripts, so he glanced at his partner who has been sitting deep in thought ever since the pitch ended. If Sea is not picky about scripts, Keen definitely is. Especially after their series “Weirdo101” which became a sensational hit, Keen has been extremely specific about what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do. Sea admired that about him. Keen is someone who never let his goals falter.
But now, Sea noticed that P’Aof was getting a little fidgety and he realised it's probably because of how neither of them had uttered a single word for the past few minutes. Keen was staring hard at the script in front of him with his brows furrowed. Sea wondered what he was thinking so hard about, a good script like this is already pretty hard to come by. But Sea also likes to see Keen so focused, his cheeks which are already naturally flushed pink, turns slightly more pink when he concentrates hard on something. It makes him endearing to look at and.. wait no. They are supposed to give P’Aof a response.
Sea snapped out of his slightly intrusive thoughts and gently tapped Keen’s thigh. Keen finally unfolds his hands on the table and turns to look at Sea. Sea raised his eyebrow questioningly, wondering why he was looking at him like that.
“Do you want to work on this project?” Keen asked Sea straight. Sea did not expect him to ask this because if he did not have the slightest interest in the script he would not be sitting here right now so he simply responded with a confident “Yes”.
Keen looked ahead at P’Aof and agreed to do the project too. P’Aof beamed widely and stood up from his chair and walked over to them to give them both a hug and tell them how happy he was to finally work with them.
As Sea and Keen walked out of the building, Sea noticed how abnormally quiet Keen had been the whole day. Knowing Keen, this is not like him. Something must be up. Is he perhaps sulking? Sea raked his brain to try to remember if he did something for him to sulk. Did he forget to respond to his texts? No.. the last time Keen texted him was early this morning asking him for his ETA and he even responded back with a picture which now he realised that Keen didn’t even reply to… Huh.. Usually he would send a picture back or at least a text.
As Keen was walking a few steps ahead of him, Sea jogged to catch up with him and hooked his arm around his shoulders, with familiar ease. Keen turned abruptly, slightly taken aback by the sudden touch, but he quickly returned to his stoic expression.
“So, what’s up with you today, Tee? Why so silent? Did you not miss me? We haven’t seen each other in a month!” Sea bombarded Keen with a string of questions to which Keen did not react once. After a second, Keen responded, “I’m just feeling a bit tired, you know. Clo’ver’s still on the world tour and I have been so jetlagged lately… so yeah. Don’t worry about it.”
Sea has known Keen for almost 8 years so he knew immediately that this was just an excuse. But, he decided not to probe him further and give him space instead. Just as they reached the carpark and were about to go their separate ways, Sea made one final attempt to break the lingering uneasiness.
“Wanna go eat Kai Palo at Je’s Kitchen? We haven’t hung out in a while too you know,” Sea asked enthusiastically. Eating Kai Palo at this specific restaurant has been their tradition ever since their debut show “Only Boo”. It kind of became their thing. It was their comfort food and their safe space. Whenever they go to this restaurant, it almost feels like they are in their own secret world, shielded from everything that was going on in their lives. It mainly feels like this because the restaurant is in a village about an hour away from Bangkok and it even overlooks a small river.
“Maybe not today, Sea.. I’m tired,” Keen said looking down at the floor, fidgeting with his car keys. Well, it was worth the attempt but Sea could not help but feel a pang of hurt from Keen rejecting his request. Keen quickly turned back around to unlock his car and get in and Sea turned around to do the same. He turned back one more time to see if Keen would change his mind but Keen had already started his car and was driving off.
There had been times throughout their friendship where Sea felt like Keen would put up walls so high he can never seem to break through them. This was one of those times. He does not really know why he does that but when he does Sea cannot help but feel a sense of frustration and hurt. He knows he should respect Keen’s boundaries but it makes him wonder if they are as close as he really thought they were.
As Sea sat in his car, he knew he should get a move on already but his hands seem physically incapable of pressing the ignition button. His mind was racing with several plausible explanations as to why Keen was acting so weird. Or was he just overthinking all this? He was exasperated from thinking about all this and he wondered why was he even overthinking? This was not the first time that Keen had acted like this.