Win did not want to continue arguing with him, so he pretended to nod in agreement, with his eyes still slyly looking outside.
"Okay okay my fault. Can you let me go now?"
"Not yet"
Sound seemed pleased with Win's cooperative attitude. To be honest, he found that when Win did not open his mouth to curse at him, he looked much more docile and cute.
"You came to participate in the rap battle, right?"
Win wanted to beat this guy up when he still would not let go of him. For him now, the rap battle was in second place to the task of tracking down that damned man.
"No."
Win managed to exhale as calmly as possible.
"I just came to the wrong place."
His hand was still unceasingly undoing Sound's pinned fingers on his arm
"Now you can let me go."
Seeing Sound's heavy frown, Win took this time to get out and run away. But Sound was like a clinging hungry leech, he ran after him and grabbed him, again.
"Ai'Sound, what the fuck do you want from me?" Win squirmed in the other's tight grip.
"You calm down" Sound held onto him even tighter. "Look at your clothes. You dressed up like this and you dare say you're not coming for the contest?"
Win wanted to bang this guy on the head again, it was true that he was here for the contest, but Illus was right there, in his sight and reach, and he would not let that bastard get away that easily.
"If it's because of me, I'm sorry." Sound genuinely said, he did not want this personal friction between them to accidentally ruin Win's opportunity. Anyway, it seems that Win's life since meeting Sound has always been abject like this. Even though Sound did not have time to worry about other people's business, he did not want to become the target of Win's curse. "I won't make it difficult or pressure you."
"No"
Win did not seem to mind Sound's honest words. He just wanted to get out of this grip quickly to handle his own business. It was too bad that he could not swing his fist with Sound because of his previous unpleasant experiences. He did not want to be photographed and become the target of everyone's criticisms once more.
Speaking of which, it seems that Illus's motives were not simply just to bully Gun, but deeper than that. If he just wants to bully, he can completely defeat Gun with his massive physique, not necessarily to steal Gun's backpack with his sister (Win guessed that) and rummage through it.
Tinn had done a lot for the music club, and Win did not want Tinn's reputation to be ruined in this way. Win knows Tinn did not deserve this.
Tinn's withdrawal from the election due to a fraud scandal has exploded on the forum for a few days. It was rumored that Tinn was helping some mysterious person with their college application essay. People said that most likely it was Gun. But Win knew that was only half the truth.
Por had told him that the one behind hiring Tinn to cheat was Illus. He could not doubt Por's information, but Illus' actions were inexplicable because exposing Tinn only made his cheating easier to expose. Perhaps, this is also half of the truth.
The other half was right in front of his eyes, but he could not catch it.
Because of this stubborn person.
"It's not your fault though. We're over."
Sound's face becomes even more dull gray.
"I mean we should let go of the previous quarrel" Win corrected himself "t-to become... f-friend?"
Sound gradually loosen his arms, his expression softening a little.
"Yes. Friend."
Win let out a relaxed sigh.
"So now can I go and mind my own business, my friend ?"
This time, Win successfully ran away from his new annoying friend.
_______
Tinn offered to come to Gun's house to pick him up, but Gun flatly refused, simply because he did not want his messy, sleepy image to get into Tinn's eyes.
Gun was not very fond of fish watching, but since it was a date with Tinn, he could not let it pass.
Last night, after reading all the turbulent letters, he froze for an hour to digest the tremendous amount of information.
In short, is he in a loop among countless other loops?
This is insane.
He did not think he could explain it himself. At least, he still had Tinn. And now Tinn knows that he has travelled back in time to the past. Out of all the scenarios Gun could imagine how Tinn could find out he was going back in time, this one was the most unpredictable.
So the first sentence when he called Tinn last night was. "You said you wrote replies to my letters. But these are all my letters."
They implicitly understood that they should not directly mention the going-back-in-time thing, to avoid Gun continuing to fall into another loop and having to continue explaining to Tinn from the beginning, or even he himself would forget everything too.
"I think saying that will make you immediately read those letters" Tinn sincerely explained, he did not think Gun was that insecure. If he did not find out, Gun would probably continue to torment himself and feel sorry for that Gun or this Gun for a long time. "I'm sorry for making you overthink."
"No" Gun did not want to hear Tinn's apology. For him, all the apologies in this world were so heavy, like tossing a rock down the open wound. Besides, Tinn did nothing wrong with him at all. "I need thank you for that"
"If you want a reply from me" Tinn changed the subject, not wanting their conversation to become awkward "See you tomorrow, I will let you know"
Gun pouted his lips in disbelief, the two of them teased around for a while longer, until Tinn softly spoke up to remind him to go to sleep, then Gun obediently turned off the phone and crawled under the blanket.
Still Tinn.
And it's always Tinn.
Gun did not know why he himself fell into this endless loop, but at this moment, he felt no fear. Because he was no longer alone.
Gun fell asleep in an unprecedented peace of mind.
Now, Gun was standing in front of the entrance to the water park's aquarium, wearing the exact same outfit he wore before. Early this morning he had rummaged through his closet to find this soft green wool sweater, just to recreate the part of the memory attached to reality he needed to get back to.
He tucked his head into his warm sweater, thinking that he would tell Tinn a lot of stories, and also wanted to ask Tinn a lot of things.
The busy stream of people passed by and entered the aquarium, and Gun's heart was jumping in his chest, waiting for a familiar figure to come into view. He did not realize that his feet had been entwined with excitement ever since.
And then that person finally approached, in the glittering radiance walking to Gun's side, the scent of perfume floating in the pure wind Gun snorted to enjoy.
Tinn looked delectably like a merman. Gun no longer has reason to think of anything else in the world, because his boyfriend is too attractive. No matter what outfit Tinn wore, Gun wanted to kneel for him.
"You're so darling today." Tinn squeezed Gun's quivering cheeks and exclaimed, "Excited to date me?"
Gun shyly hit Tinn's wrist lightly, but did not deny it.
"What about you? Did you just fall into a bucket of perfume?"
The truth is that Tinn's perfume is very gentle and pleasant, even somewhat attracting Gun to want to get closer to him, but he still wanted to tease him.
"I just want to smell good to make you come closer to me."
Tinn teased him back, his eyes still unable to leave the little, gorgeous face full of vitality. It's so adorable. Now he just wanted to rush in to hug him and stroke his soft, flowing hair. Gun was wearing a sweater as sweet as cotton candy today, so lovely that Tinn knew a lot of people were passing by and kept turning to look at his boyfriend.
So angry.
Tinn took a step forward and stood in front of Gun, in exchange for the shorter man's bewildered look.
"What are you doing?" Gun asked
"Cover your face so people don't turn around to look at" Tinn replied truthfully, causing the conductor to laugh as well.
Gun poked his head out and stood on tiptoe so he could look around from Tinn's shoulders, noticing the occasional glances that lingered on the two of them, pretending to puff his cheeks and poke Tinn's shoulder.
"Everybody's looking at you, Mr handsome."
"Then come a little closer and cover my face too."
Tinn raised an eyebrow, but then Gun ran back inside out of embarrassment.
The scene inside the aquarium is like a giant ocean, with glass tanks filled with water everywhere. The lights here are also adjusted to the lowest level to have the most similarity with the seabed.
On weekends, people visit the aquarium quite crowded, most of them are children who go with their families, gathering in colorful fish tanks.
Tinn paced faster to keep up with Gun, his hand reaching out for Gun's fingers, not wanting to lose this cotton candy treasure. The soft fuzz on Gun's sweater accidentally brushed against his palm, itching tenderly.
The two hold each other's hands in the middle of the vast and majestic ocean.
Tinn's heart suddenly heated up because of Gun's caressing touches.
Gun pulled his hand to the side of a clownfish tank with a school of tiny clownfish wearing black, white and orange stripes. He stared intently at the fish swimming around in their world, with his hand gently resting on the glass as if he wanted to feel a part of the waves.
Tinn's eyes were always following him, watching the blue color of the sea gently fall on the side of his endearing face and round, eager eyes. His hand unconsciously rested on the glass, slowly inching towards him.
A little bit.
A little bit.
A little bit more.
Until their pinkies gently touched each other.
A clownfish swam up to them, where two hands were lingering on the glass, crashed into the glass and then swam away again.
Gun slightly turned to look at Tinn, meeting the scorching gaze of the person next to him, he tentatively turned his head to escape it.
"This fish is pretty. That's one too. That's one as well."
Before Gun could pull his hand back, Tinn's little finger caught him and held it tight. Their two fingers interlocked, tight and solid.
"You're the prettiest" Tinn whispered softly.
Gun pretended he had not heard, and embarrassedly scratched his head with his free hand. Their hands had left the glass, but their pinkies were still locked tightly.
Tinn pulled his phone out of his pocket, quietly holding it up to capture this magical moment. Gun's face appeared in his lens, in all shapes and sizes, sometimes silly, sometimes extremely cute.
Gun tried to ignore the continuous clicks, until Tinn turned around to take some kind of selfie with him. Even the cool blue water now could not drown out the blush on Gun's cheeks when he saw Tinn's phone lifted again. He raised his hand to cover his face, afraid to attract the eyes of everyone around in exceeding bashfulness.
But Tinn did not stop, foolishly continuing to take pictures of him with his hand covering his face.
"Don't cover it. You're so pretty," Tinn whispered, but still gave in to put the phone away, letting the shrunken turtle shyly slip out of its shell.
"You're pretty too"
Gun replied kindly, but the murmurs next to him were a step faster, and his complement was lost before it reached Tinn's ears.
"Is that Tinn?"
"Who is he hanging out with?"
"Do the rumors hold water...?"
"Are they really dating?"
"Didn't expect Tinn to have a day when he would put aside his future for love."
Immediately, the brutal reality surrounded Gun once more.