Toxic [2gether]

Part 8

***

Sarawat stalked up onto the stage, legs long and shoulders relaxed. The fans burst out in full blown screams at seeing the musician, making Tine cringe all the way back in the big conference room where he was quietly leaning on the wall, arms crossed over his light pink sweater.

The musician was holding his chin up, wearing a sporty headband that pushed his fringe up, revealing a wide forehead and those sharp, upwards turned eyebrows. His clear gaze swept over the sea of people, looking for Tine and once finding him, his bow shaped mouth quirked up on one side. Sarawat then bowed at the crowd with his palms pressed together, the veins twisting on his forearms visible in the spotlight that was on him. The musician was wearing some sort of tacky one-piece suit with heavy metallic chains at the crevice of his throat. Tine wrinkled his nose at that.

However Tine's eyes doubled in size as he saw someone else entering the stage. It was the pretty female model from the promo pictures. She waved shyly and latched onto Sarawat's arm, hanging off of him as if her life depended on it. Tine felt his jaw drop, his bunny teeth showing. What kind of stunt was this? He pushed off the wall and stood straight up to his full height, squaring his shoulders and glaring daggers at the stage.

The girl looked graceful, slim with delicate wrists and neck. Her long, glossy hair tumbled in waves down her back as she timidly glanced around, knuckles white from her grip on Sarawat's bicep. She was the complete opposite of Tine. And if not for this weird thing going on between Tine and Sarawat, she was even, dare he say, Tine's type. Something turned in the pit of his stomach, the plethora of mixed feelings were making him nauseous.

The pair posed for pictures for a couple of minutes, which in Tine's opinion seemed to drag on forever. At on point the musician even placed his hand on the woman's waist and Tine had almost clambered onto that stage to rip that hand away, but somehow managed to rein himself in. It seemed that the occasional meditation session with Type had paid off. However it did not stop him from grinding his teeth the more she pawed at Sarawat. Had he invited Tine to flaunt all of this in his face? Asshole.

Needless to say, Tine zooned out for the rest of the event, not being able to look at the blatant display of togetherness. It seemed that Sarawat really did consider them only as friends, considering the shameless flirting happening in front of everyone. Tine scuffed a sneaker clad toe on the floor, making a squeaky noise, thinking. A tired breath fluttered from his lips.

Their timing was always so unbearably misaligned. It sucked.

***

Boss dragged Tine over to Sarawat's dressing room as soon as the event had wrapped up, with only few people left loitering around in the big room, in hopes of catching a last glimpse of the musician.

"Good thing I caught you before you sneaked off," the manager said as if reading Tine's thoughts. Tine had indeed been contemplating to just leave quietly and disappear together with the generic mass. He was a little apprehensive to interact with the musician after seeing him being all chummy with the model. Maybe he should keep a distance from now on, just to spare his heart.

In the end Tine did not deign Boss's statement with any comment of his own and just pliantly followed the other man's lead.

Sarawat looked up eagerly from his perch on a couch, his brown eyes alight, when his friend pushed Tine into the messy room, hangers overloaded with spilling clothes and colorful make up sets at the lit up mirror. Boss winked at Sarawat and quickly left them alone, shutting the door resolutely. His fingers itched to lock those two in, so that they could finally hash things out. He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. Those fuckers should just kiss and make up and stop wasting everyone's time.