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A year ago, college student Sarawat was swept off his feet by a mysterious stranger at a concert. Suddenly that guy, Tine, has burst into Sarawat's life with a wild request: pretend to be Tine's boyfriend...
"But how do you feel about him?" Fong asked again.
Tine was silent for a moment, then he sighed. "Don't tell him what I say, ok?"
I did my best to peek at Tine and his friends. I wanted to see Tine's face. I held my breath again as my ears perked up to hear all that I could.
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"I don't know how I feel about him," Tine confessed. "When I'm with him, sometimes I feel nervous. My heart beats faster." He sighed again. "When we listened to Scrubb music yesterday, it sounded better, almost like I was hearing it for the first time. When he sings to me, I get butterflies in my stomach and I can't speak. I feel shy." Tine paused, and those few seconds felt like hours to me. "When our faces are close together," he continued, "and he stares at me, my heart starts racing and I don't know what to do. I just stare into his eyes."
I was frozen. My brain had short-circuited from everything Tine said. Not only had he said those words out loud, he had said them to his closest friends. That fact alone gave his words more weight. I suddenly wanted to run to Tine, to hug him, to kiss him, and to tell him how much I loved him. Instead, I waited to hear what Fong and Ohm would say about Tine's revelation.
Fong spoke first, laughing loudly as he said, "Tine, you definitely like Sarawat!"
"No, I don't," Tine snapped. "We are just friends!"
"Tine, admit it!" Fong replied. "You like him. There's no shame in that! He's Sarawat! Girls and guys like him."
Ohm added, "And if he likes you, just enjoy being chased and taken care of."
"But what about Phailin?" Tine asked. "She likes me. I kinda like her too, I think."
My happiness immediately turned sour with the mention of Phailin's name. While Tine still questioned how I felt about him, he was aware of Phailin's feelings for him. My jaw clenched in frustration.
"Tine," Fong said, "since last week, you have talked about Sarawat more than you've talked about Green, Phailin, or anything else."
"You can like Phailin and Sarawat," Fong added. "No one is forcing you to choose one or the other." Fong paused. "You just have to admit you like Sarawat."
"Whatever," Tine mumbled. I heard the rustle of Tine's bag. "I gotta finish some homework. You guys wanna go with me to the computer lab?" Fong and Ohm agreed, and I heard them walking up the stairs to the third floor. When they exited the stairwell, I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't been caught.
I was ecstatic about everything Tine had said. I quickly disregarded the part about him comparing me to Green because in the end, my aggressiveness hadn't done enough to ruin Tine's opinion of me. On the contrary, by constantly being in his face, singing to him, touching him, etc., I had pushed Tine enough for him to start feeling something when I was around. I wondered if he missed me when I wasn't around. I wish the conversation between Tine, Ohm, and Fong had lasted longer.
