Fateful Encounter

Panting hard, pearl of sweats rolled freely from his forehead to his cheek, Tul tiredly brushed his transportation card against the bus card reader and greteed the bus driver before making his way towards the row of seats. Tul sighed dejectedly as he noticed that his usual seat, four rows away from the driver on the left side, was already taken by a middle-aged salary man, and settled for the only unnocupied two-seats bench, second last from the end of the bus.

His breath still ragged from running to the bus stop, Tul reached for a bar pole to hold onto as he made his way towards his seat, his step unsteady as the bus started to drive away. Finally seated, he exhaled in relief, finally able to relax for the first time since he woke up this morning. Putting his shoulder bags on the vacant seat next to his own, he rummaged through it, searching for his headphones and cursed outloud when he could not find them. The 20 years old architecture student closed his eyes in annoyance, as a loud indignant gasp was heard coming from the seat behind him. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and faked an apologetic smile.

« Sorry » He wai-ed politely to the old lady who was clearly wearing way too much make up on her face.

The woman scoffed, rolling her eyes in distaste.

Turning to face the road once again, he stucked his tongue childishly before resting his head on the vehicle window, using the 30 minutes ride to take a quick nap.

Definitely, nothing was going his way this morning.

He had spent the whole night studying for his upcoming art history exam, utterly immersed in the intricate artistic work from the Greek antiquity, he did not notice the quickly declining sun rays of late afternoon stepping aside to let its beautiful and majestic grey cousin to take over. It was already well into the night, when he suddenly jumped out in surprise, the loud vibration of his phone clattering against his wooden desk, signaling an upcoming message. Blinking furiously, his mouth fell open as he noticed the pale ray of the moon passing through his curtain free windows. Reaching out for his phone, his eyes had widened in surprise upon reading the glaring number on the illuminated screen of his handphone.

It was already 2 in the morning, way past his usual sleeping time.

Unlocking his phone, he rubbed his eyes, a sudden tiredness falling upon his body as he read the message that had managed to woke him up from his trance state like.

' Hey man, there will be a group dates tomorrow after class, you in ?'

This was so much like his best friend of 6 years. Kao was way too obsessed with girls. Ever since, they had entered university, he had declared he would make his grand debut on the dating scene, vowing to change his single-since-birth statut to that of a womanizer. Two years later though, the man was still painfully single and unable to hit on any of their feminine comrades, mostly due to his huge timidity.

' Thanks, but no thanks. Not interested. '

He hit the sent button, snickering to himself as he could guess what would be his friend reply to his message.

' Don't be like thiiiiiiiis ! You know damn well more girls will come if you go ... Please think of your poor little Kao-Kao T___T '

Reading his friend's reply, Tul chortled loudly, Kao was being such a drama queen, though he was right. The 20 years old, was well aware of his poupulairty with the female population. What with his high stature, good built, intelligence and overall niceness, he was the embodiement of the perfect boyfriend, at least according the girls in his university. Too bad for them, he was not interested in being in a relationship or in them specifically to be more exact.
His mind and heart were already occupied by a certain raven haired beauty, and he could not wait to see his pale expressionless face, morphing into a friendly smile as he would greet his friends on the bus tomorrow morning.

Tul sighed sadly, now due to his laziness and the stupid error he made this morning (he forgot to turn on the alarm before going to sleep), he would not be able to see the man who had been illuminating his morning ride since the beginning of the semester.

He smiled dreamily as he recalled the first time he caught glimpse of the mysterious stranger. It was the fifth day of January, the weather had been unusually bad for the past week, the rain had not stopped pouring over Bangkok. He had already been riding the bus for 20 minutes, mourning over the already spring break, when the bus stopped, opening its door to let in new passengers, as an old man was squirming his way out of the crowded bus. Witnessing the poor man struggling to make his way towards the exit door, Tul regretfully got up from his hard gained seat in order to help the eldery when when a sudden odor of bergamot mixed with rose and a mysterious, seductive scent teased his sensitive nostrils. Staring at the pale neck facing him, long straight black hair tied in a loose ponytail, his perfectly toned frame hugged in a tight wet, rendered see through, white shirt, a pair of insolent pointy nipples deforming the fabric, coupled with a pair of black jeans molding his athletic legs tightly, Tul was feeling uneasy. The raven haired man was, without a doubt, a sight to behold.

Shaking his head to clear his unchaste mind, he noted to himself that the  poor guy had surely been caught in the heavy rain pouring out this morning. He watched as the mysterious man helped the weak old figure stepping out of the public transportation, smiling gently as he waved him goodbye.

Tul sat back on his seat, unable to take off his eyes of the brunette, studying his face, he felt his heartbeat quickening as their eyes met, the young man showing him a set of perfect white teeth in a shy smile before turning around and grabbing the pole next to him. The brown haired man squirmed uneasily on his seat, blood rushing to his cheeks, his whole body reacting to the heavenly sight his eyes had been graced with.

It was love at first sight.

Since that day he had made it a point to always ride the same bus, hoping his staring were discreet enough, and everyday learning a new things about his crush.

For example, how the brunette's stop was exactly 13 stops after his. Or how the brunette disliked strawberry if his face scrunched up cutely in distaste as he drunk from one of his friend milk shake was of any indication (Tul had been mad with jealousy that day, that was an indirect kiss !) Or how the seemingly younger student liked a particulary well known Thai rock band, he could recall the excitation on his face as he was talking animatedly to his friends about their upcoming concert. Or his genuine kindness, as everyday he was found helping the same old man getting off the bus.

Tul had been ecstatic when he found that they got off at the same stop, and therefore were studying in the same university, though he had yet to find out which major the beauty was in.

That was why, now two months later, he berated himself as he had missed his daily chance at seeing the man that had been invading his thoughts lately.

Still lost in his thought, Tul did not pay attention to the sound of rustling of clothes, nor to the hand removing his bag from the empty seat, even less to the person seating next to him, only praying it would not be one of those overly excited high school girls. He was too tired to listen to their meaningless chat about who was having a crush on whom. It was only when he smelt the familiar fragrance that he opened his eyes wide, before the screen of a phone came into his view.
Without minding the text written on the phone, he looked up, to be greeted with the beautiful smile of the man of his thought. Tul stared at him questioningly, and without a word, his sitting partner continued to smile widely, waving the phone in front of him.

Tul took the phone of his hands, wondering what was the meaning of this. He almost dropped the expensive phone on the floor as his eyes read through the relatively short message.

' Hey there, you made me wait quite a while this morning.
I had to check every single passing bus windows to see if you were in. Anyway, I'm kind of tired of this little peek-a-boo game we are doing so Tul ... how about we go on a date ? '

Grinning widely, Tul looked back up to gaze at the embarrassed but smiling man and nodded eagerly, maybe it was going to be a good day after all.

END