Outrun The World

Chapter 19

"What's taking He Tian so long?" he asked the old man while they dragged dried palm leaves towards the house. The old man will chop it up and use it as firewood.

"Well, maybe he's preparing loads of food for the river cookout," Rico chuckled. "Let's just go ahead and wait for him at the river. I'll teach you how to trap eels."

~~

The river was sparkling clear. Mo Guan Shan gasped at the beauty of it all, the murmuring water running in between black rocks, the glimmer of water droplets on the tips of the leaves and the gentle morning sun. Unlike the first time he was here, this version of the river beckons you to jump and taste its waters.

"It's so pretty," he said, smiling. "But it looks kinda different."

"The flood cleaned the moss and everything," Nato answered in his usual wry tone. He's topless again this time. Mo Guan Shan has never seen the boy wearing anything but jersey shorts that reach his knees. "Best time to swim."

"Yeah."

"Finally going in now? You only watched last time," Nato mused, smiling. Mo Guan Shan noticed how long his curly eyelashes were, enhancing his pretty boy face. But the kid seemed unaware of his own potential when it came to his appearance. Always too busy with life to check himself out in the mirror.

"You were here then?"

"Of course. I spend most of my time here," he grinned. "I'm practicing my backstroke."

"Whoa. You're an awesome kid, you know that?" Mo Guan Shan said and that made Nato laugh. He looks more like a girl when his eyes disappear in laughter.

To be perfectly clear, Mo Guan Shan was not attracted to Nato. He's only admiring this boy's looks, like a good grownup, and imagining if guys and girls at his school agree with what he sees. Surely they also find him extremely attractive.

"I strive to be so much more than I am now, Kuya. It's the only way out of this place."

And he's way smarter than he was at this age, truly remarkable, Mo Guan Shan thought.

"You'll go places, that's a sure thing."

"Hmm." The boy stared at the river with his hands on his hips.

"Are you famous in your school?"

"I don't know about being famous, our high school is too small and we know everybody."

Mo Guan Shan nodded. They made some more small talk and laughed at the smaller children fighting over a plastic bag filled with guava and santol. Nato asked for some and handed Mo Guan Shan an overripe guava and a big, orange santol that he broke in half between his palms.

"You can eat the flesh but we don't have a knife so just suck on the seeds. It's Bangkok so it's really sweet," Nato said, but he's got this sour look on his face like he'd rather look at anything else but the santol. "Just be careful. You can choke on it."

Nope. Mo Guan Shan was tempted to say but he held back. The kid's too young for such a topic.

"Not gonna have some?"

"Ugh, I hate sour fruits."

The santol seeds were really sweet but when he tried the flesh, he couldn't agree more with Nato.

"Sorry for being late, Little Mo!" He Tian called from behind them. Mo Guan Shan and Nato looked behind them and looked at each other with knitted brows. He had a huge backpack slung on his shoulder and a camera on his neck. But what stopped them was something else.

"Who's that?" Nato whispered.

"No idea," he answered. Walking right behind He Tian was the biggest guy Nato has ever seen, probably, judging from his dumbfounded reaction. He's also Chinese and looked a lot like He Tian, but older and scarier.