Work Text:
He was successful, attractive and charming but people that were that striking always had secrets. At least that's what Tee was telling himself every time he saw that giant working in the same coworking space.
It was a library with an adjacent café and some cubicles to make phone calls, obviously it was a place greatly appreciated to bring back some peace and silence in the busy and noisy city of Bangkok.
Tee was a newly graduated economics student and had just started a job as a Bank clerk. Technically he could be working in the office but he preferred to come to this place when he was just working on his own on his computer. Otherwise he had to work in the crowded open office of the bank that was always filled with clients, co-workers, phone ringing and office small talk.
Tee was someone who valued silence more than everything else when he needed to focus and not accidentally add to many zeros at a mortgage contract, yes it had already happened and he had been chewed up by his superior for hours after. And so he had to find a solution quickly and he had found it in that coworking space.
The place was hidden behind a university campus, not too far from the bank so he was able to walk from and back quickly when he was needed in person, like when he had reception duty four times a week.
That’s where he saw the guy for the first time, Tee experienced something very rare in his life. He was unable to read the special drink menu of the week while queuing for the café. Not because he had suddenly turned blinded from the extreme amount of caffeine he was drinking. No. Tee was unable to see because a head was blocking his view. Tee was used to be the tallest person in the room with his 1,88m height or at least just by a few centimeters off but here the guy in front of him was noticeably taller than him.
So yeah Tee had remembered the giant that ordered ice americano with three extra shots, is that even legal? But strangely when Tee had seen his face he looked surprisingly proper for some caffeine junky, at least better than Tee that could feel his eye bags to his chin. The guy had his bangs down but at least freshly washed, glasses falling down the high bridge of his nose and extremely white teeth as he smiled politely to the café’s waitress. Tee had felt a tinge of jealousy at seeing the glowing aura around the giant especially when the waitress had noticeably batted her eyelashes a lot less while serving him, yes his ego had taken a hit.
And Tee had carried on seeing the guy almost everyday after that afternoon. Tee had been seating always at the same seats for the past seven months he had been coming to work in this library. A little hidden space with just three small individual tables that we strategically placed close to a phone call cubicle and the printer. The best spot honestly if you ignore the constant opening and closing of the toilet doors a few meters away, and not a lot of people were able to. Tee sat on the one the farthest from the door, sacrificing other workers for his own good. If they want the seat they should have come in earlier, every man for himself here. And one day one of those men turned out to be Mister Giant.
Tee was squinting at his computer trying to see clearly the numbers on the spreadsheet, an exercise that proved to be difficult because the number had decided to start dancing in his vision at the same beat as the headache killing him. So the solution to his problem presented itself in the form of another coffee because Tee somehow didn’t have any survival instincts. When he came back to his seat sipping on the fresh drink he was surprised to see someone sitting at the table just across from his. Mister Giant looked out of place, his legs too long and folded a bit awkwardly under the table, obviously trying to be respectful of the person sitting not too far’s personal space.
Tee sat back down on his chair and that’s when he noticed that the huge volumes crowding his neighbor’s desk were medicine themed. Some were about the anatomy, some about specific organs like the heart and Tee even spotted the DSM 5 in the middle of this. Obviously Mister Giant was actually a med student, which explained his unusual caffeine consumption but once again Tee felt like the world was a bit unfair because why was this guy tall, handsome, polite and also clever? He looked a bit too much like the main lead of a romance drama with his commas hairstyle, the slim glasses and the white university shirt opened a button too much.
But Tee had work to do so he quickly stopped analyzing the guy who seemed to be too good to be true sitting across from him and sighed as he went back to his ongoing task that was still proving to be as dreadful as it was five minutes and a café ago.
And every next day Tee found the medicine student sitting in the same seats, strangely the student had not dared try to steal Tee’s seat even though he had every right as he often ended up coming into the library first. But then Tee remembered that his friend told him he could look a bit scary at first and so the student was probably intimidated, not that Tee was complaining, he valued his premium seat a lot.
And thus Tee ended up being also in the premium seat to see just how perfect that student was. He was always polite with the staff. He helped once when a staff member tripped and spilled a drink. He once even kept safe the bag of a fellow student as she went to the toilet, it was a brand new channel bag and honestly Tee knew the female student would have probably preferred taking it with her if Tee had been her only option for safe keeping, but that’s probably because his old grey t-shirt fall down his shoulder was not the best thing to inspire trust.
Tee even caught the med student eye his clavicles once, probably reaffirming his choice of becoming a doctor and being able to afford better clothes later than a normal entry level worker. Tee did not blame him, it was indeed one of his oldest possessions but also one of his comfiest so he did wear it a bit too often.
Tee did learn the student name one day when a junior from his university came to borrow his lecture’s notes.
“Thank you so much P’Dew, my friends are all jealous you’re my Phi code because I get to have the major of the promotion’s notes” The junior joked as she struggled to fit the huge amount of paper in her totebag, Tee got worried for the poor girls shoulder but then looking at Dew’s table he realized it probably was the reality of all med student, breaking their back with kilos of paper knowledge. Tee never felt more thankful for his small economics booklet back in university.
For a second Tee wondered how old the med student was because they had to study longer than other faculties but then Tee had to take a call from his superior so he stood up and walked to a phone cubicle. When he walked out he was surprised when Dew started speaking to him.
“Oh I’m sorry if my junior was being loud, she doesn’t have an inside voice.” Dew had taken off his glasses and had been in the middle of massaging his nose. Tee wondered if his low tone of voice was natural or what he had just described as an inside voice, Dew had this particular voice, the type an ASMR content creator would probably kill for.
“It’s okay, those cubicles are here for that anyway” Tee answered waving his phone to indicate he just had to take a phone call.
The conversation ended here with Dew showing him a shining smile, creasing his cheek with deep dimples. Tee felt the back on his neck warmed up and wondered if the AC had been set lower that day for some reason.
ــــــــــﮩ٨ـ
Tee was so tired from his day of work, he had to, for some reason, walk back and forth from the bank office more than ten times because of some urgent project needing to be signed fall all almost at the same time but not synchronized enough for him to just do it in one trip. He could have chosen to stay and work in the office but because it was close to Songkran the office was even busier than usual so people suddenly remember that going to the bank during a national holiday would be a hassle.
Tee plopped himself down on his chair once he’s back to the coworking space for the last time of the weekend hopefully. His hair is sticking to his forehead in an annoying way because of the air humidity. A storm was just waiting to happen outside, hiding the sun under her big cloudy coat.
Tee sighted once again as he opened back up his laptop to finish some task and he does so all while he imagines throwing one of his superior down a bridge. Indeed as Tee was still the newbie in the team, even if it had been month now since he got employed, some members of his team still enjoyed giving him their own work to do for which he’s obviously not paid for the extra hours while they are getting paid a better salary than them and discussing the latest lakorn. Tee wanted to be able to talk about those lakorn too but it was hard to do that when you do not have the time.
It was only two and a half hours later that Tee raised his eyes up from his screen and he saw that it was already past 9pm. In front of him was still seating Dew, his bangs a bit messier than earlier from how much his hand had brushed through it. His workload looked enormous with the amount of open books and notes spread on the table and Tee wondered if the exams were coming soon.
“Um excuse me sir?” Tee startled as a woman’s voice just talked to him. “I’m just here to remind you both we are closing in ten minutes” and the following ‘and you should hurry to pack the fuck up’ was left unsaid but still clear.
“Oh sorry” Dew answered the staff while adjusting his glasses and Tee had required all of his self control to not roll his eyes at the flirting technique, as if the lazy tone of voice wasn’t already enough.
Tee just gave a quick nod at the waitress as he started to pack up his things, it was quick enough as he mostly just had to put his laptop back in its sleeve but by some physics anomaly when Tee stands up Dew is in front of him, towering him, his bag packed up. How ? Just two seconds ago there were at least five books open on his table and that's not counting the stray pieces of papers.
Tee and Dew are now walking side by side towards the door, greeting their goodbye to the staff at the same time as if they had come into this café together and were now leaving together.
Tee stopped in his steps once he crossed the door’s threshold, getting hit by huge raindrops, slapped by the strong wind. Fuck, he had completely forgot about the storm, on his left however was standing the med studient, always ready for everything it seems, an umbrella wide open on top of his head. Tee felt even more ridiculous now, blush spreading on the back of his neck. He kept his curse inside and started to walk towards the BTS skytrain station, holding his jacket closer to himself.
“Uh… Khun, are you going to take the BTS ?” Tee startled for the third time in ten minutes when he heard the med student politely address him. He quickly walked up to Tee with his long legs and put the umbrella over both of their heads. “We should share my umbrella. I would feel bad if a working member of our society got sick because I was being an ass.” Dew said with a dimpled smile weirdly using a mix of polite language and then curses.
“Oh, sure if you’re going that way too, thanks.” Tee answered, eyeing the student with a weird look. Somehow Dew seemed to be exactly like Tee had imagined and so much more. He was polite, he was approachable, he was handsome, he was clever, really was what that guy not?
They walked in silence, or well, as silent as Bangkok can be on a rainy night, tires splashing, honk being honked and the laughter of the people squished under any dry area. But no words were exchanged between them. It was not uncomfortable however, it just felt like when they were working on their own task at the café, sharing a silent rhythm.
Once they arrived at the train station however the silence disappeared, replaced by chaos. The station was abnormally full, a lot more than usual standards, which was to be crowded.
“Huh, what’s happening?” Tee asked himself aloud and Dew responded “I think there’s an issue with the trains, there is a screen a few meters away saying that the next train is scheduled for in an hour”
After hearing Dew’s words, Tee looked for the screen he was talking about, as if he needed to read it for himself to believe it. Why today when the storm was so bad there was no hope to take the boat and that taking a motorbike would leave him soaked and in a lot more danger than he could handle after a shitty day at work.
“I don’t think we’re going to get on a train before two hours with how many people are here waiting already” Dew said aloud what Tee didn’t want to think, his shoulders suddenly hurting even more now that he knew he was not getting back home before a long time.
Tee turned around and saw the rain violently hitting the ground, puddles already forming in every dip of the ground. This was going to be a really long evening.
“Khun… do you live far away?” Dew suddenly asked Tee and even though he didn’t really understand why the med student asked him, he told him his residential area that was usually around twenty minutes away by sky train.
“I also live around there, do you want to share a cab back? I think it’s going to be hard to even find one with how many people are trying to grab one.” And his logic made a lot of sense, Tee couldn’t think of anything to argue about apart from the fact that they technically didn’t know each other but then he remembered all those times he had made new friends in university drinking in a bar and then shared a cab back home.
“Sure why not” Tee shrugged his shoulders trying to appear more nonchalant than he truly was as he felt his pulse quickened on the side of his neck. He doesn’t know why the sight of this smile with way too white teeth did that to him.
They both walked out the station together, squishing a bit closer than before as the wind had become stronger and so the area protected by the umbrella became smaller.
Suddenly the med student turned towards Tee and stopped his step, his eyes were opened big, making him look a little bit dumbfounded if Tee was honest. “Khun, I realize I don’t even know your name.”
There was a bit of silence before both men’s shoulders started to shake with laughter. “Oh yeah you’re right. I’m Tee.”
Dew then repeated the name with a small voice, as if tasting the feeling of saying this name on his tongue, as if Tee was not one of the most common nicknames of their generations. Just recently a Thai bl show became a national hit and the main lead character is named Thee and the show named after him.
“I’m Dew” The med student responded, one of his thumb pressing down the palm of his hand for some reason, not that Tee was particularly looking at those huge hands but it somehow looked very out of place with how confident Dew had appeared to him so far.
“I know.” Tee responded deadpan which obviously surprised Dew and as he was opening his mouth to ask ‘How?’ Tee answered without letting him ask “Your med school junior said your name the other day.”
Tee noticed how red Dew’s ears turned as he struggled to say “I didn’t think you were paying attention.” Tee just shrugged looking away, the air feeling suddenly very heavy in his lungs.
The conversation ended there but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. Somehow it seemed those days spent in each other’s company at the café had created this bubble of comfort.
They were both strangers to each other. They had no expectations of having good grades or of doing superiors tasks instead of them. For once they felt free to just exist in this busy world. This feeling, the sound of the rain hitting the umbrella, the humidity sticking their clothes and hair closer to their body and the heat of their shoulders sometimes brushing made Tee lost in his thoughts that night when he was back in his bed after having shared a taxi ride with the med student, just exchanging a few last words of polite greetings and what sounded like promises to see each other at the café soon.
ــــــــــﮩ٨ـ
And then all the other days they both met each other at the café they started to exchange a few more pleasantries but some tiny rants about being tired and goodbyes. But every time it rained they would walk back together, somehow always knowing to wait for everyone to be finished before leaving the café, no words were ever exchanged to plan this, just looks.
And those days under the umbrella they would start to talk more about all their hobbies, the conversation flowing naturally.
“I really want to go to Japan someday.” Tee complained as he looked at his bank account looking that had savings growing way too slowly for his liking.
Dew laughed as he was pointing at Tee’s mouth to which he realized he had been pouting. His ears warmed up from the embarrassment. He never acted like that usually but it had been months now since he’s been having those frequent walks with Dew and he had grown very comfortable with him, never feeling that strange veiled feeling of the polite mask he needed to wear during every social interaction.
After having finished laughing his ass off Dew changed his hold of the umbrella on his opposite hand to which Tee frowned when he felt some rain hit his shoulder. But an arm quickly wrapped around him, protecting him from the rain again as Dew’s arm around his shoulder brought him closer.
“You know, I’m graduating at the end of this year. If you wait for me, we can go together to Japan.” Dew whispered in his ears, saying a lot more than the words that came out of his mouth.
“Hum, sure. I suppose I can wait for you” Tee responded, his cheeks burning as he turned his face away, feeling too intimidated by how deep Dew’s eyes were looking at him.
Turning away wasn’t the best idea however as Tee quickly felt a nose grazing his cheeks timidly. Dew was sniff-kissing him. Tee felt his heart pulse the hardest it has ever beaten in his life, but he decided to be courageous for once as he slowly turned his head back and gave a little peak on Dew’s lips before pushing him away and starting to walk away, the embarrassment being too much for him.
However Dew was still that giant with crazy long limbs so he quickly caught back to him and wrapped himself around his back giving him a strong hold back hug. “Gosh you’re so fucking cute Ai’Tee”
Tee would deny it if you asked but his cheeks were hurting from how big he smiled as he raised his arms to hold onto Dew’s arm. “You better carry on studying that hard then, if you’re not graduating I’m going without you”
Dew laughed in his neck, resting his chin against his shoulder. “You say that but you know better than anyone else how hard I’m studying.”
“Oh really, you were not going to this café just to see me then?” Tee asked sarcastically but was surprised by the answer he got in return.
“Don’t be stupid Ai’Tee, of course I was going there just to see you, the med school’s library is a lot better than that tiny table close to the toilets.”
And that’s when Tee realized he had fallen into that little (giant) mastermind’s plan, but he couldn’t really be mad about it because he had gotten the best boyfriend in the world thanks to that.
He will just never let Dew forget how hard he wanted him.