After a while of messing around, Gun finally obediently lay on the bed for Tinn to continue pulling the blanket up to his neck, this time with Tinn's steady arms enveloped around the outside of the thick blanket, like a fortified citadel surrounding him.
"Tinn..." Gun hesitantly poked his head out of the blanket and called out to the person next to him.
"Yes?" Tinn was lying with his head on his arm, his free hand patting Gun over the blanket like a baby lullaby.
"About these letters... "
Gun moved a little closer to Tinn, letting the warmth of his embrace hold him.
"You want to talk about them now?" Tinn stretched out his arm that was resting under his head so that Gun could easily lie on it and inched closer to him.
Gun is like a cotton ball rolling into Tinn's chest, enjoying the warm feeling of warmth throughout his body in a warm space.
"I don't know. I dreamed that you refused my letters." Gun whispered as he reached out to wrap his arms around Tinn's back beneath the blankets.
Up to that point, every detail of that dream was still clearly visible in Gun's mind, like a piece of genuine memory.
Most likely, it was an experience of this Gun in the past.
The past which is completely different from what Gun went through.
"It was just a dream." He felt that Tinn's words were purely for comfort.
Tinn's gentle voice and steady breathing made it impossible for Gun to guess what he was thinking.
"Maybe it wasn't." Gun said honestly, silently waiting for Tinn's response.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" Tinn asked him an inexplicable idle question.
Gun had no idea where he got that courage to speak.
"Tinn. I'm not Gun"
_______
"That guy named Illus is so good at playing. Definitely MVP of this match." Pat looked at the score on the led screen, the victory was completely tilted to their school, all thanks to that prominent basketball player.
"That's right." Nook jumped up and down in delight. "He's so great."
Illus - the main basketball player of their school, easily made everyone present on the field remember because of his skillful dribbling skills and outstanding handling.
Gun nodded in approval, watching the fans swarm down the field and surround the basketball club members and hail them like gods. Chinzhilla was a little afraid of the chaos below, so they continued to sit on the upper row of seats, intending to wait until the crowd subsided before going down.
Por is very attentive to the emotional details of his boyfriend. Throughout the match, he constantly turns to Tiw to check his expression.
"Don't worry, sweetheart" Tiw patted the head of the person next to him, and conveniently massaged his aching neck because he always had to turn to his left to look at Tiw. "I'm glad for them."
Tiw entered the tournament two years ago but did not reap the rewards. This time, he was the one who missed it. Por knows how important basketball is in Tiw's life, and how much he regrets having to give up tournament practice to help the student council. But it was Tiw's decision, perhaps he chose the one that made him regret more but also felt more deserving.
"Yeah right" Pat patted Tiw on the shoulder. "You're on the basketball team too. Are you familiar with Illus?"
Pat's question successfully caught everyone's attention.
"Ai'Illus is my childhood friend." Tiw nodded in confirmation.
Tiw and Illus have been best friends since birth. Unlike Tinn, who is compatible in both personality and working style with Tiw, Illus and Tiw always confront each other in every neighborhood children's matches. The families on both sides just thought that they were both hyperactive and naughty, but one day the 5-year-old Tiw punched his friend to the point of chipping his forehead.
After that, Tiw's family moved to another place to facilitate his parents' business, they lost contact since then. It wasn't until they went to the same high school and joined the same basketball club that they had a chance to meet each other again.
After all this time, all the silly childhood frictions have long since disappeared, at least for Tiw.
"Really?" Nook's eyes widened in surprise. "What a coincidence! P'Illus is my brother's best friend."
Hearing this, Por was a bit stunned. According to Tiw, Illus has only one younger sister who is in the tenth grade at their school and is also a member of the student council.
"So your best friend is..."
Por's words were abruptly cut off by a voice calling from below the stands.
"Nook!"
In the midst of the crowded crowd in the stands, Nook was still able to quickly realize where her friend was standing and responded to her.
"Dream! I'm here."
Not beyond Por's expectation, Nook's best friend and Illus' younger sister... is Dream.
An unexpected coincidence.
Win, who had never seemed to be paying attention to the match, just absently wearing headphones and listening to music, suddenly stood up and ran down the railing of the area closest to the field, staring at the scene in front of him. He put his hands in his pockets, indifferently looking down, where there was a tall basketball player who was surrounded by adoring fans and his little sister alongside him.
_______
Tinn's father had been standing outside the door for nearly an hour. He paced back and forth nervously, for he had never seen his wife and his son so taut as they were now.
Inside that door, the scene was not much better.
Khun Pojanee folded her arms and leaned back against the table, facing her beloved son. This was the first time in her life she had to face this irony. From childhood to adulthood, Tinn has always been an outstanding obedient child in her eyes as well as in everyone's eyes. She put just the right amount of pressure on him for him to thrive, and Tinn did not let her down by always being more than what she asked for.
"What's going on, Tinn?" She asked, "Is it true what he said?"
Tinn bluntly shook his head.
"No."
"Tinn." She took a deep breath. "Listen carefully to my question."
Tinn looked up at his mother with the same steadfast and honest eyes he always did. From the bottom of his heart, he knew that he himself had done nothing against his will. So there's no reason to bow his head or be ashamed of what he had done.
"Tinn, do you really make money by writing essays for others?"
This time, Tinn nodded.
"Yes, that's right."
Tinn knew this behavior was wrong, even though his intentions were not wrong. Writing application essays for universities on behalf of someone else is not just normal cheating, it's even can be punished by law. Tinn knew, but he still did it.
Perhaps because the remuneration was so generous that it was given right at the time when he needed it most. In retrospect, it's so ridiculous that he refused Sound's money like a great saint, yet accepted to take ill-gotten gains by helping others cheat. From the beginning, Tiw had attempted to stop him with every possible argument, but Tinn had trusted his intuition too much, more than the principles he had always adhered to.
Tiw said that he was too noble to be able to do it all just to help the clubs. Sound said that he was too benevolent and virtuous, like a deity surrounded by an aura of integrity, not rotten by a struggle for power. Kajorn considers him to be his ideal type, the only perfect person in the world.
But Tinn does not think so. He is also a normal human being and will also make bad decisions. No one can be completely perfect and flawless in this disarray world. The moment he nodded to agree to this deal, Tinn knew that, it turns out, for money, people can even swap their ego.
Everything seemed like a nightmare when all the effort Tinn put in to prepare a decent presentation was cut off by the malicious sabotage from nowhere. The lines of messages like cold-slaughtering evidence are clearly exposed in front of everyone's eyes. Tinn's serenity was like a calm lake above the rushing underground waves. Tinn could no longer remember the doubtful words of everyone below, only knowing that Gun's eyes were quiet at that time when he looked at him. Tinn wanted to reassure him as usual, but all he could do was freeze.
And when Gun leapt onto the stage and snatched the microphone from his hand, things spiraled out of control.
"It's me." Gun clearly stated, "It was I who forced Tinn to write those essays."
The whole hall was like a crack.
Tinn did not understand what Gun was trying to do, before he could run to stop him, he was dragged down the stage by the security team on his mother's orders.
Now, Tinn does not feel uneasy about being questioned by his mother who is also the school principal. Instead, he was more worried about what Gun said on stage afterwards that he could not hear. Everything happened so fast that Tinn was unable to react. By the time he regained his composure, he was already in the passenger seat of his mother's car and on his way home.
Sitting in the car, Tinn went on the school forum to check out everyone's reactions, but strangely, no posts related to his cheating incident appeared. Probably because their school forum restricts censorship of such scandalous negative posts. But even on other social platforms, Tinn did not find out any content related to the candidate introduction session. What he was most afraid of was, Gun said something to defend him, but in return harmed Gun himself.
It sucks.
Tinn closed his eyes and sighed. He did not want Gun to continue risking himself just because of him.
He does not want everything to come back again.
That night at the apartment, he told Gun about those letters.
Indeed, when he mentioned those letters Gun had sent him, that included not only the love letters Gun wrote to him stuffed into the student council petition box, but other letters as well.
The other letters that Tinn had accidentally found were in every nook and cranny of his room. At first, he thought he had encountered some perverted stalker, and he even planned to take all those unopened letters to his parents to report to the police. However, a certain intuition told him that he needed to open them before it was too late.
All of them are detached puzzle pieces that answer all of Tinn's questions.
That's why Gun knows his father is good at cooking.
That's why Gun knew he was going to study Medicine.
That's why during the past two years, the memory of Gun in him was like a faint speck of dust. But this year, Gun put all his effort into appearing in front of him, doing everything for him.
Tinn gulped.