Chapter Text
Porchay’s version was blurry, but he could feel the warmth of something pressed against his cheek, its heartbeat ringing in Porchay's ear. He couldn’t make out the stranger's face, but when he heard a soft voice call out to him, whispering right next to his ear.
‘’Chay…’’ Kim said, softly stroking his hair. Strands of thin black hair covering his face.
Porchay felt a shock travel through his body, wanting to pry him away from the familiar warmth.
‘’Mhm, don’t go…’’ Kim mumbled into Porchay’s hair. Porchay desperately tried to get up, but his body was so tired he was so tired. Porchay let himself collapse onto Kim's chest, no longer struggling as the other pulled him close. Their bodies pressed together, legs tangled.
"Kim…" Porchay muttered to himself, breathing in the familiar scent.
‘’I really missed you,'' Kim said, pulling the blanket over them, making Porchay realize they weren't in his house or on his couch.
They were lying in a king-sized bed in a room that could fit the entirety of Porchay's house and probably more. Porchay’s vision, still blurry, could only make out a few things: a guitar in the corner and a gaming setup placed on an old desk. He wasn't sure if that's all he could see or if that was all there was.
"Kim, where are we?" Porchay asked, raising his head slightly to get a better look at the room.
‘’My room,'' Kim answered simply, pulling Porchay back down to lie on his chest.
‘’How did I get here?’’ Porchay knew he shouldn’t ask too many questions, but he couldn't help it.
‘’I brought you here.''
'', but you never even took me to your house when we were dating…’’ as soon as the words left Porchay's mouth, he realized.
"This is a dream, isn't it…?" Saying that his vision cleared, "You're not really here, are you?"
Porchay asked even though he knew the answer. He turned towards Kim, who nodded solemnly.
‘’Why do you keep showing up here?’’ he asked himself, his lips pressing into a thin line.
Kim reached his hand out, cupping Porchay's cheek. Not answering him or moving, simply staring into his eyes, as that was the answer to his questions.
‘’I really do miss you…’’ Porchay whispered, watching as Kim’s silhouette faded and the room around him turned white and the silence caved in.
He stayed in that white room for a while, gazing at the milky white, which eventually faded as he blinked his eyes awake to an empty room. Well, it wasn't completely empty; it was full of boxes of blue hair dye, a few beer cans, and dirty plates, which must have ants crawling on them by now. Porchay gave himself a mental note to remember to clean his room today. Stumbling out of bed, his foot landed in a pile of laundry he had been meaning to fold. He made another mental note to fold his laundry even though he wouldn’t.
The kitchen was an equal mess to his bedroom, but this time plates were at least where they were supposed to be. Grabbing a piece of bread and an old can of beer left out on the counter. Porchay sat down on the couch scrolling through his messages and notifications. Ohm had messaged asking him when he would come back to school, Porchay didn’t reply, a message from Porch asking how he was, Fine he texted back, a few others, but at the bottom of his chats was the video from one of what Porchay could only assume was Kim's burners phone, the video he had sent. He had been meaning to delete, but he just kept putting it off. The same way he had been putting off going to school, cleaning his room, and seeing his brother. Taking a sip of his flat beer, Porchay closed the chat.
How long could he stay like this? Depressed and miserable. He wasn’t even functioning anymore, and he was pretty sure his liver would shut down sooner or later from the gallons of beer he was shoving down his throat. Finishing his beer, Porchay added that to the tally for the day. It had become a game for him how many beers it would take for him to become numb.
He sipped the freshly opened beer, the cold liquid soothing not only his throat but also his thoughts.
Yeah, he was now 100 percent sure his liver was only hanging on by a thread. His phone buzzed on the table, another message popping up from Ohm.
"I'm getting worried, man," than another one, "If you keep this up, you’ll be kicked out of the faculty."
Then another one: "I'm coming to pick you up." Porchay wanted to roll his eyes.
Ohm wasn’t lying when he said he was coming to pick Porchay up. 10 minutes later he was standing at the door with a deep frown. Porchay didn’t bother getting up as Ohm walked around the mountains of clean and dirty laundry scattered across the room.
"Chay, you seriously can’t keep doing this." His frown deepened as he saw the slight intoxication in Porchay's eyes.
‘’I’m fine’’
"Chay, it's not even 9am, and you're drunk." He paused for a moment, moving what seemed like Porchays' 3rd can of beer out of his reach. "You're a mess, Chay," Ohm sighed, sitting down next to Porchay on the couch. ‘’I don’t know what made you like this, but I can't let you stay like this.''
‘’I’ll be fine sooner or later.'' Ohm suddenly got up, grabbing Porchay's arm, yanking him to his feet.
‘’I’m taking you with me to college even if you don't listen to the professor and sleep through the classes’’ Ohm, clicked his tongue to abbreviate his seriousness.’’I just can’t let you stay here alone…your self distructive’’ he added the last part under his breath making Porchay groan in annoyance.
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It took at least an hour to get Porchay to bathe and dress himself. Making both of them late, a mildly sober Porchay and a stressed Ohm slipped into class unnoticed, sitting at the back of the lecture hall, where Porchay immediately slammed his head against the desk, falling asleep within seconds.
"It's better than drinking, at least," Ohm thought, shaking his head.
Their other friends Tong slid in beside them even later than Ohm and Porchay.
‘’How’s he doing?’’ Tong asked, glancing at Porchay’s lifeless corpse drooling on the desk.
"What do you think?" Ohm raised an eyebrow at Tong.
‘’Damn, what could have happened to turn our lively Chay so lifeless?’’
‘’Love happened."'
"Chay wasn’t even with anyone; if he was, he would have told us at least."
"I don’t know for sure, but I have a gut feeling," Ohm said, shaking his head.
‘’Hey, I heard that Wik guy Chay is performing at the bar Pao works at.''
‘’You think that will cheer him up?’’ Ohm asked with a hint of doubt, "Are you sure it's the best idea to take him to a bar in this state?"
‘’We just have to make sure he doesn’t drink,'' Tong argued back. Ohm considered it for a second before shaking his head in agreement.
‘’Porchay really does like that singer.''
They both glanced at Porchay, still blissfully asleep on the lecture hall desk.