Teaching Chay

Prologue

"My brother sent you to show me that you're still alive?" A slight feeling of trepidation creeps into Kim's chest. After all, he still doesn't know what Chan wants from him. Kinn using Chan the way his father used him doesn't sit well with Kim.

"No."

"To spy on me?"

"No. I am here on my own. Khun Kinn doesn't know I'm here. Neither does Po... Khun Porsche."

Kim raises an eyebrow at the mention of the name of the head of the minor family. "Takes a moment to get used to. The Khun Porsche thing." Kim smiles.

"He wasn't the most studious bodyguard we ever had and I knew he'd be trouble." Chan nods. "I just didn't think this kind of trouble. He didn't look like your brother's usual type."

Kim narrows his eyes. "You like him."

"I do," Chan confirms with a smile.

"Then what are you doing here?" he asks, his voice tinged with suspicion. He can't shake the feeling that Chan has an ulterior motive for being here. And he's not sure he likes it.

"Since I've been back, while you were still touring, I've noticed something and I think you'd like to know about it."

"Oh?" Kim leans back in his chair and waits. He's interested, he doesn't even try to hide it. Kim himself has only been back to the compound once since the Minor family attempted to take it over, and that was for his father's funeral. After rescuing Porchay in the bar and leaving him the song a month later, without ever getting a reaction, he'd packed up and left, first going to the US to record some songs, then embarking on an Asian tour that was interrupted by his father's death. Had he trusted that his father was really dead this time, he wouldn't have bothered to postpone his Tokyo concert. But he had to make sure that the bastard was gone. And he is.

"I brought you these," Chan says, leaning forward with some effort and placing a folder on Kim's wide desk. When he opens it, he finds pictures inside and his breath hitches. Pictures of Porchay. Porchay with Porsche, laughing in the garden. Porchay at a family dinner, all dressed up. Porchay with his mother and brother. Porchay with Macau. Porchay watching a movie with Tankhun.

Kim feels a mix of emotions when he looks at the pictures of Porchay. At first, he feels a surge of excitement and joy at seeing the man who visits his dreams. But as he flips through the pictures, his heart sinks with each passing moment. He sees Porchay smiling, laughing and enjoying life, but something is not quite right. And yet Kim can't put his finger on what it is.

He just misses Porchay so much that it actually hurts. Kim keeps flipping through the pictures, wondering what he is supposed to see and what he is missing. He doesn't understand.

"Pictures of Nong Porchay. So?" He tries to sound bored and untroubled as he puts the pictures back into the folder with shaking hands and closes it. It takes all his willpower not to open it again and let his eyes feast on Porchay's smile and features once more. God, he misses him. Not even the six months of separation have helped him in any way. The wound where his heart used to be is still open and bleeding as it was when he ripped his heart out and left it with Porchay after he ignored his video. He'd waited a week, then left. He'd kept his phone charged and with him at all times so he'd know if Porchay ever responded, but to this day he's heard nothing.

"You may need these as well." Chan hands him another folder. More pictures of Porchay. But these pictures were taken from a distance, or by cameras Porchay is unaware of. The smiles are gone. The happiness is gone and instead the pictures show blank stares, fear, pain, boredom, sadness and above all a person completely disconnected from his surroundings, staring off into space in most of them. Porchay seems to have shut down.