Your Voice In My Head

Chapter 1: Magic Vibes Maximized

Long before noon, the area around Union Mall had transformed into a sea of people.

They had started gathering while it was still dark. The most desperate ones - those whose passports were crowded with entry stamps, who had flown in from Chengdu, Osaka, Manila, and even São Paulo - slept right on the asphalt, using flattened merch cardboard boxes as mats. By six in the morning, the queue for the red carpet snaked around the block like a serpent that had swallowed all of Bangkok.

Fans with pickets, professional photographers, and enormous banners had claimed every inch of available space near the entrance. The air here was dense, almost tangible - humming with anticipation, vibrating at the frequency of a thousand live stream apps open simultaneously. Someone was handing out free fans printed with actors' portraits, while others were selling lanyards. A girl in the corner was sobbing loudly into her friend's shoulder because she'd just found out their favorite pairing wouldn't be sitting together in the hall - they'd been seated at opposite ends.

"Today is the biggest day of the year," announced the host of the official stream, adjusting her lapel mic. "GMMTV 2026: MAGIC VIBES MAXIMIZED. Four hours of content, 36 new projects, one hundred and fifty artists, and the promise of magic you won't want to miss."

None of the fans standing in that queue knew that magic was a fragile thing. That it didn't tolerate grand promises.

Hours before the show started, TikToks exploded with selfies from fitting rooms.

William was adjusting Est's collar - white, perfectly pressed, matching his own. The fitting room smelled of fresh starch and someone else's cloyingly sweet perfume, left behind by a previous customer. Est stood motionless in front of the mirror like a mannequin from a Central World display, but William could feel the pulse beating beneath his fingers as they touched the delicate fabric of Est's collar.

"Don't breathe so loud," Est whispered.
"Then don't listen," William said, withdrawing his hands but lingering a split second longer than the rules allowed. "And don't look at me like that," he added, his tone teasing.

Est smiled faintly and ran a finger along his own collar, smoothing what was already smooth.

In the car on the way to the venue, they sat in silence. Each had their own personal manager, their own side of the backseat, their own earphones. But William's knee, when the driver braked abruptly at a traffic light, brushed against Est's. Neither of them pulled away. Neither acknowledged it was intentional.

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The red carpet was blinding.

Flashes came from all directions, fracturing in their pupils, leaving purple afterimages. The fans' screams merged into a single, deafening roar - "WILLIAM! EST! OVER HERE! PLEASE!"

Hashtags trended faster than photos could load. #EstWilliam together in white again, #GMMTV2026, #WeddingOfTheYear - tweets flew in a blur, interspersed with crying emojis.

Est smiled at the cameras. That smile he always gave - dazzling, but with a barely perceptible hesitation at the corners of his lips, as if, before offering it to the world, he was asking someone for permission.

William stood beside him.

Their shoulders touched just enough that no one could prove it wasn't an accident. Just enough that no one could prove it was.

Deep in the human sea, up on the balcony, a girl named Pim clutched a handmade sign that read "3 Years Together Is Just the Beginning." She had been standing here since six in the morning, no breakfast, her feet soaked in the morning downpour. She believed.

She didn't know what she would see in a few hours.

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The hall was dark and deafeningly loud. The spotlights seared the eyes even when they went out. The bass from the subwoofers vibrated in her ribcage, imposing a foreign, aggressive rhythm on her heart.