Sotus was especially draining. The juniors can be a piece of work. I rolled my eyes as yet another junior tried to flirt with me.
I sat down, for a quick break as everyone was dismissed for lunch. I was on the phone when someone came up to me.
"No, I don want to eat lunch. I got my own. Please go hang out with your friends." I quickly retorted assuming it was yet another junior who was out to harrass me. I heard a soft chuckle and looked up to realise it was Pha. I ended my call and hung up, smiling towards Pha.
"Had such a rough day?"
"These juniors.. can't seem to take no for an answer."
"Well you are hot and cute. Why wouldn't anyone want to date you?"
I chuckled, waving off Pha's words and asking him on how he was there. Pha had lab but was done for the day and decided to swing by. He couldn't find Beam and wanted to see if Beam was here with Lam.
I nodded. "You are right. Beam just left with Lam. Mentioned something about wanting to go to the beach for the weekend."
"Ah right. There goes another one. Kit is off with Yo for the weekend. Guess Beam is off too."
I chortled. "No plans? Why not hang out with me then?"
"You sure its ok? I don't want to be bothering you."
"Na. You aren't. Plus we are friends right, why can't we hang out?"
Pha nodded enthusiastically. I said I would be done with Sotus in another 2 hours then we could go fishing or something. Pha nodded and agreed to come meet me. Before he left, he passed me a food package. I opened it to see a sandwich and a lemon tea inside. I grinned wolfishly as I had the food for lunch.
I was done with Sotus by 5pm. I took a quick shower in the locker room and came out, all dressed ready to meet Pha. He was dressed in a white short sleeved t shirt, chinos and a pair of sneakers. Pha pulled on a cap too.
"Why is your hair wet?"
"I just finished my shower Pha. It will dry out soon."
"You will fall sick if you don't dry it on time Forth. Sit here, I know the locker rooms has towels."
Despite my protests, Pha got a towel and dried my hair for me. I just sat down quietly and let him do it for me. I looked up periodically to see Pha so focused on the task. I just chuckled and Pha cocked his eyebrows at me.
"What's so funny?"
"You. Look at how focused you are on this. Its just drying hair Pha.."
"Not just drying hair Forth. If you don't dry it properly, you will fall sick na. You behave like a kid at times. If you don't look after yourself, who will?"
"You na, Pha.. you will."
Pha blushed outright as I laughed my head off. He smacked me squarely on my head. He kept the towel away and we went fishing. It wasn't Pha's forte so I taught him on how to hold the rod and stabilise it so that the fishes catch bait.
I sat behind Pha as as I held onto his hands. It was taking a while so I decided to rest my head on his shoulders. I felt my heart beat accelerate in such close proximity with Pha but I just shook it off, not wanting to read too much into it.
Finally about 30 minutes later; the bait was biting! I held on firmly as Pha tried to reel it in. Finally, it came in, a hunky tilapia! Pha whooped in excitement and fell over me as we celebrated!
We decided to fish more and this time, Pha was more confident of doing it himself. I nodded as I took my own lines. We kept at it for 2 more hours before calling it a night and deciding to have our catch freshly cooked at a local eatery.
The server brought out the freshly grilled catch to the table with piping hot bowls of rice and lemon juice. I picked out the fish for Pha and placed it on his plate, deshelling the prawns and also scooped out the mussels and clams for him.
"You know I can do it right?"
"I know. But I can look after people too, you know?"
Pha just smiled at me, thanking me for the food and helped himself to it. Once we were done, I stood up to go pay the bill but found out that Pha had already done so. I frowned as I went out to Pha who was on the phone. I waved the bill at him mock angrily and whining away as to why he paid. He just laughed and pointed to his cheek as repayment.
I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and Pha was stunned. He blinked rapidly at me and I saw his ears turning red. He flustered whilst on the phone and turned away to try and end it quickly as I laughed and went to get the helmets for us.
But as I went to get the helmets, my heart was fluttering quite a bit itself. As I turned to look at Pha, I couldn't help but feel I was looking at him with a new pair of lens this time around.