EXECUTION CODE

KNOWING YOU

The private room was quiet in a way Bangkok rarely allowed.

Wooden sliding doors muted the street noise, and a single low table sat between them. No entourage. No assistants. No security hovering nearby. Just two men and the unspoken weight of everything they carried.

Kai Thanawin loosened his cufflinks, setting his tablet aside. For the first time that day, he wasn't a CEO, a symbol, or a survivor.

Just a man having lunch.

Across from him, Keiran sat straight-backed, hands folded neatly in his lap. He had changed out of his scrubs, but the discipline of the battlefield still clung to him the way he observed exits, the way his gaze lifted instinctively at any sound outside the door.

"Order your lunch, Dr. Keiran. The bill's on me," Kai said, pushing the menu toward him.

Keiran just smiled and ordered his food. "Thank you for the food." 

They didn't talk much, but Keiran knew Kai was observing him.

The private room was quiet again after the plates were cleared. Warm tea steamed gently between them, the murmur of the restaurant fading into something distant, almost irrelevant.

Kai loosened his cuff slightly, posture relaxed now that the tension of the hospital was behind him. In this space, away from eyes and titles, he looked less like the untouchable owner of an empire and more like a man catching his breath.

"You chose a quiet place," Kai said lightly. "I didn't expect that."

Keiran shrugged, fingers resting around his cup. "Noise follows us everywhere else. I prefer silence when I can get it."

Kai smiled faintly at that, then studied him more carefully. Not intrusively—curiously. As if trying to read a language he almost understood.

"Dr. Keiran," Kai began, voice casual but the question itself deliberate, "you disappeared for years. War zones, borders, places people run away from. And suddenly you're here. Bangkok. Civilian hospital."

He tilted his head. "Why come back to the main city now?"

Keiran didn't answer immediately.

He looked out the window, where sunlight filtered through leaves, dappling the pavement outside. His reflection overlapped with Kai's faintly on the glass two lives intersecting whether they meant to or not.

Then he smiled.

Not sharp. Not bitter.

Just... tired.

"I need to find my answer," Keiran said quietly, eyes still on the light outside, "to my own question."

Kai brow creased slightly. "What question?"

Keiran turned back to him, dark eyes steady but unreadable.

"Whether the life I lost is truly gone," he replied. "Or whether I've been running in circles this whole time."

Kai didn't fully understand but something in Keiran tone told him not to ask more.

So, he didn't.

Instead, when they stood to leave, Kai said, "There's a park near the hospital. Ten minute's walk. If you're not in a hurry."

Keiran hesitated only a second. Then nodded.

"I'm not."

The park was quieter than the streets around it old trees, a small pond, people scattered across benches and walking paths. The city felt farther away here, softened by shade and wind.