A little more than a week had passed since then, thankfully Pan came back the next morning and apologised for his behaviour - saying that he knew it wasn't right to just leave me uninformed and cancelled our plans. I was angry for a couple of days, but then again he came every lunch break with some nice food for me and even waited after the lectures for me, so that we could go home together.
Even though we didn't have another partner switch day yet, I still had come across Mix a couple of times. He stayed true to my offer and came in the lunch breaks to the basketball hall, duelling me twice even.
"There you are Phi" , Pan smiled up to me from the bed, having himself cuttled in the sheets so we could go to sleep soon.
I chuckled, putting my phone on the night-stand before crawling in the bed myself. My boyfriend was quick to place his head on my chest, cuddling himself in my arms.
"Oh... by the way. I had a talk with Ai'Ming earlier today. We have some preparations tomorrow anyway for the exhibition next month, so we thought that it might be a good point to make the partner switch again."
I looked down to him while caressing his head.
"I don't have any plans so I am fine. What about Ai'Mix?"
"He is free too. Actually, he offered that you could stay over at his place tomorrow, since Phi Mix said you were curious about their place anyway."
I slowly nodded with a smile and pulled him closer, the two of us exchanging a kiss before laying completely down to sleep.
Sleeping over at his place... I could imagine it being a little weird, since the only person i had sleepovers with was Ai'Vee... As long as there was a couch or something to sleep on, it should be fine.
.
.
.
.
Pan was already waiting outside my faculty when I came out, us exchanging a hug and a small peck before starting to walk to my car.
"How were your lectures Nong?"
"They were good... I need to buy some paint later though. Completely ran out of green and orange earlier", he sighed and started playing weith my fingers while we were walking.
"Do you want me to go with you or would it be better if Nong Ming helped you out?"
I knew his answer already, he would surely come with an argument that Ming also studied art and would be able to better help him pick... when actually something else was the case:
Even though he probably thought I was oblivious to it, I had catched Pan a couple of times staring at his phone for forever and giggling over messages. And those surely weren't mine, since I was in the same room with him. That was one of the reasons I was so quick to agree to the switch today, I wanted to ask Mix if Nong Ming was also behaving this way. He had been in this kind of situation much longer than me... and if there was someone that could ease my mind - it surely was Ai'Mix.
When arriving at my car, I opened the door for Pan before getting in myself and placing my backpack in the backseat. We both put on our seatbelts before starting the 15 minute carride to their place.
.
.
.
Pan was knocking on the apartment door on the highest floor, waiting for a while, before Ai'Mix opened the door.
"Welcome you two", he smiled friendly... but something seemed off.
Listening to Ai'Vee all the time about the psychological stuff he learned was not always something very interesting, but if only one thing sticked in my head from it: You can identify a fake smile by looking at the eyes of a person. And his smile definitely didn't reach his eyes.
"Nong Ming is in the kitchen... but he should be done in a moment."
He slowly led us in their apartment, after we took of our shoes, and it was surely... not at all what I would have expected.
It surely was modern and everything seemed to be of high quality, but... the apartment felt very cold and not at all warm or welcoming - something I would have expected from Mix' place. But maybe this was like the outfit I wore in the lounge: something our significant other had proposed, and we just accepted it.
Suddenly, there was a sound of something shattering and Mix rushed into the kitchen, where Nong Ming was about to kneel down.
"Wait... I'll take care of it", Mix said, placing his hands on the younger's shoulder's and helping him up.
"Thank you Phi."
They exchanged a quick kiss before Nong Ming came to us, and after a short greeting and goodbye, both of the younger ones had left.
I slowly walked over to the kitchen, where Mix was now kneeling and had started picking up the pieces of porcelain.
"Ah..."
I leaned over his shoulder and could see blood dropping down from his finger.
"Let me do it."
Carefully, I walked around the kitchen island and picked up all the visible pieces, throwing them into the trash before turning around again. But to my confusion... Mix was still kneeling there and hadn't moved an inch.
"Ai'Mix...?"
My brows furrowed and I slowly came down to him, placing my hand on his shoulder before looking right in his face.
His face was pale, cold sweat running down his neck and his body slightly trembled. What was...wrong? Did he... was he scared of blood?
"Mix..."
I tried talking to him again softly, but he didn't react again. Think Earth, Think... what can you do....RIGHT!
Without further thought, I reached into my back pocket and pressed speed dial 2 before holding the phone against my ear with one hand, the other arm around Mix' shoulder for the case he would fall. It took a couple of moments for Vee to pick up, but when he finally did, I splurted out with everything:
"Vee... Ai'Mix is acting weird... he got a cut on porcelain and it started to bleed a little, and suddenly he got all pale and trembling."
I could hear him swearing on the other end of the phone, before finally giving me something to work with:
"You're in the kitchen right? So there is this door right in the entrance hall, that's where he sleeps normally. You should be strong enough to carry him there and lay him on the bed. Place his legs in a higher position and just talk with him for a while... and he should slowly come back. If not... I'll come over. Oh yea and don't forget to make him drink some water before you move him away from the kitchen."
I softly sighed, leaning Mix' back against one of the cupboards and putting the phone away. It didn't take long to find a glass and i filled it with water, kneeling down in front of him and leading it to his lips, before helping him to drink some of it. I placed it back somewhere on the surface, looking at him carefully.
"It'll be alright" I softly said and gave him a smile, picking him up and walking to the described room, but my brows furrowed in confusion, looking between the supposedly bedroom and Mix.
It was tiny in there, the only furniture being a single-bed and a wardrobe... this surely wasn't the master-bedroom of this loft, so why did Vee say that Mix would normally sleep here?
Coming back to my original task, I layed him down on the bed, sitting down on the edge of it while placing his feet on my shoulder and holding them in this position. Now I only needed to find something to talk about...
"I am scared of heights... you know as soon as I get somewhere high, even if it's just five meters above the ground, my hand's get all sweaty... There was this one time I went on a suspension bridge... I was so scared that my heartbeat was really fast and my hands were all sweaty and clam... I really felt as if I would die there."
Yea right Earth... talking about your anxiety when someone else is experiencing a phobia or fear, is surely a good option... How stupid are you??
" I have Hemophobia..." I could hear a weak voice and looked up, mine and Mix' eyes meeting.
"Fear of Blood?" I asked softly while carefully placing my free hand on his wrist to check his pulse. Thank god, it slowly got stronger again.
"yea..."
I slowly nodded, trying to come up with something else to talk about... but my mind was just swiped blank. Great.
"How are you feeling"
"I'll be fine after a while... just feeling a little lightheaded and nauseous. "
"Is there anything I can do?"
He softly shook his head but gave me a reassuring smile.
.
.
.
.
Around fifteen minutes later, Mix gave me a small signal that I could put his legs down, and I slowly placed them on the bed again. But when he tried sitting up, my hand carefully reached up to his shoulder and prevented him from moving.
"I'd rather have you rest for now... at least that way I know that nothing bad can happen", I chuckled softly and he couldn't help a small laugh.
"Allright... I'll listen to you."
"Nong Ming...does he know about your phobia?"
Mix smile faded and he looked away, nodding slowly.
But if his boyfriend knew about this... why would he let him pick up porcelain, where he could get a cut and bleed? And then leave this abruptly, leaving him with someone who doesn't know about his condition and how to deal with it?
I wanted to ask him more about this... but then again, we weren't that close and he definitely didn't seem to be in a condition for those kind of talks. One day... I would bring all of this up though.
"Don't worry too much about me... I know how much I can take", he said softly and caught my attention when his hand patted mine softly.
"How about you sleep a little and I take care of the things in the kitchen and make us some dinner? You know, we can just watch a movie or netflix."
Mix was contemplating a little whether to resist or not, but finally agreed. Slowly, I got up and left the room, closing the door behind me before heading back into the kitched and cleaning up.
I wasn't quite sure about this... but If this partner switch was going to continue, I needed some answers. My hand reached out to my back pocket and I dialed the same number as earlier. Once he had picked up, I took a deep breath and asked:
"Vee... why are Ai'Mix and Nong Ming really a couple...?"