Gawin loves coffee.
Although a dentist liking to drink coffee didn't sound right, he got addicted to the scent of it since the university days - before he became a dentist.
That's why giving up on it was impossible.
Gawin went to the clinic almost every day, except Sunday. He always needed a cup of coffee in the morning in advanced to meet the first customers of the day.
But... he had another drink today.
He bought himself a corn tea drink. He placed it on his desk since it was still warm till it was cool. The dentist decided to put it aside after the first sip, thinking that changes always brought odd and unpleasant experiences.
He had only one customer for this morning. It was already half past ten when Krist arrived his clinic. The sunlight shone on the stairs leading to the clinic's doorstep, despite of that, it was cold. Krist wore a simple black Givenchy hoodie with jeans, and carried his backpack on one shoulder as usual.
"There's no one this morning?"
"Just one person, they just left at ten. Wait a minute," Gawin said as he re-arranged the documents on his desk, meanwhile Krist stood hesitantly beside him with a bright face.
"This morning I had breakfast with my girlfriend, we made up." He continued, "I just drank that too." Krist pointed his finger to the corn tea drink on the desk.
"No wonder you look so happy, so you like corn tea?"
"Drinking it every day will help reduce double chin and make your face slim like those celebrities."
Gawin raised his head to look at Krist, now he could really look at his face properly, and it was true that Krist had a pretty face that suited most of people's taste - a slightly roundie face with a very straight nose, chubby cheeks, and a dimple that would appear every time he talked or smiled.
He laughed all of sudden as Krist's face reminded him the strawberry mochi he saw in the bakery where he went to buy his breakfast this morning.
Krist also bursted into laughter when seeing Gawin laughing.
This was the first time he saw the serious man in front of him giggled like that, he didn't feel the need to know what made the other laugh.
'But he was like that after looking at me, maybe I have a funny face.'
Krist shrugged his shoulders at his thought.
Gawin stopped laughing. He gave the corn tea drink to Krist, before he could tease him about whether or not he wanted to drink it, Krist happily took it and drank it right after that, so fast that Gawin couldn't tell him that he still had a new straw in the drawer.
"Shall we go now?"
"Let's go." Gawin took off his blouse, hung it on the hook and put his phone in the pocket of his jacket. Since they was going to have lunch at a restaurant this afternoon, the guy has changed to a white sweatshirt instead of a formal shirt like usual, and wore a brown leather jacket outside. Gawin preferred a neat and simple dressing style.
The two of them walked down to the parking lot, and it took them a few minutes to find Krist's car.
Gawin checked the location again whereas Krist steered the wheel out onto the main road with one hand, the other hand quickly turned on the radio to listen to the music.
"The restaurant is just about 20 minutes away, drive slowly."
Krist nodded and started slowing down his pace even though he normally didn't drive too fast. It seemed like Gawin's perfectionist personality had influenced him a bit although they had just known each other for a couple of days.
By the time they arrived at the restaurant, it was already 11 o'clock, not yet the lunch break, so the place was not crowded. The waiter led them to the second floor. The husband had arrived earlier. Accompanying him was not his wife but a young man whom Krist knew very well - Chimon.
They greeted each other happily. Krist and Chimon were so excited - Chimon couldn't believe that the kind man helping his sister that day was Krist, a good friend of his, and Krist also had the similar thoughts - so the pregnant woman he helped at the bakery had a younger brother, and turned out he was Chimon.
The boy turned to look at his brother-in-law...
"P'Lee, this is my drum teacher, he is a genius drummer at the studio."
"Ey, genius what? Don't embarrass me, this kid!" Krist smiled from ear to ear when hearing the compliment from Chimon, his eyes a little shiny.
A small smile was seen on Gawin's face. He found the whole situation interesting, Lee - Chimon's brother-in-law, seemed like a good, funny guy. He couldn't stop telling the story of his wife's fast recovery even though she had just given birth last night and was currently taken care of by his mother in the hospital.
"Fah is quite upset because she can't come see you two today. It's still a bit hard for her to go out, but she hopes that she will be able to cook for you two a meal in the future. We also want you guys to meet our baby."
"My sister is really a good cook, you two have to try it someday." Chimon added while happily munching the chicken wing.
They talked a lot about everything, even Gawin showed his humorous side which Krist had not seen in their previous meetings, he kept smiling, and his black orbs sparkled. It turned out that he was not always as serious and calm as he appeared.
Krist got along with everyone quickly, he was the friendly and cute type. Seeing a 28-year-old man who seemed unapproachable at first but had an extremely childish personality made the mature Gawin feel a bit strange, but that energy of Krist did bring everyone closer.
The way he put his chin in the palm of his hand, looking a bit upset when the food took a long time to arrive, but he smiled right away once he got to taste it. Krist was so like a little boy in Gawin's eyes, even though he was two years older than him. Like the time he saw him sleepily waking up at the doorstep of the clinic, his smile was bright and innocent like reed flowers, not too radiant but unforgettable.
Gawin made an excuse to go to the restroom.
Krist walked in while he was washing his hands, so Gawin decided to wait for him. When Krist walked out of the stall, he noticed that Gawin leaning his back against the sink with the phone lit in his hand.
Krist accidentally saw the phone wallpaper which was a girl with a pure and innocent face.
"Is that your girlfriend? She looks so kind!"
"Yes, she is indeed very kind." Gawin answered and brought the phone closer so that Krist could see the photo more clearly.
He exclaimed happily when he spotted the safety pin earrings, "Ya! I also have this earring, it's a symbol of the act to against discrimination, everyone is safe - no matter who they are or where they come from."
Gawin didn't really cared about these topics, and his girlfriend rarely showed him her stuff, so it was not until Krist told him that he knew what it meant. He looked at the hanging cross earring on Krist's left ear and all of sudden felt curious about the meaning behind it.
After saying goodbye to P'Lee and Chimon, Krist drove Gawin to the clinic and then went home to rest. He really loved sleeping, but he loved his cats the most. Krist initially had a sphynx cat named Pluto, but because he was busy with work and afraid that Pluto might feel lonely, he adopted one more hairy short-legged cat named Muffin to play with Pluto.
Recently, Muffin just gave birth to two babies, and Krist called them Khaiwhan and Khaidao. At the age of twenty eight, he was already a dad of two and had two grandchildren.
His kids loved sleeping as well, their eyes looked sleepy like their owner.
It was Muffin causing Krist's clothes to always be covered in cat hair because she liked hiding in his wardrobe. Despite using the roller to remove all the fur scattered on his clothes every time he went out, some was still there.
Krist poured the dried food on the plates and played with his cats for a while even though they were completely sleepy and paid no attention to him. When he was sure he had locked the door outside and had nothing else to do, Krist carried Pluto with him to the bedroom, watching his favorite son play with the messy blanket happily.
Because he woke up early this morning to drive Aou to work, he couldn't sleep much, soon Krist felt like his eyelids were heavy, he really needed some sleep. He wore an eye mask, the corner of his mouth turned up slightly as finally he got to rest, and quickly fell asleep.
It was half past three at noon when Krist woke up, the sun was strong at this hour and shone through the window, making him squint. He pursed his lips and ducked his head to avoid the lights, and then searched for his phone somewhere under the pillows. Opening his social media, Krist received some messages from Chimon, the boy sent him photos that the two of them took with Aou in the lobby of Krist's studio the other day.
Krist was scrolling though the photos in order to select the nicest one to post on his instagram, but then his finger stopped at the fifth photo. Besides the three of them, there were also two other people in the photo. They were standing behind Chimon, talking and laughing happily, it seemed like they were a couple. Since Chimon was quite short and that photo was a selfie taken from above, Krist could see clearly that the girl wearing the same safety pin earrings as his was holding the arm of a man whom he was not unfamiliar with...
The ex manager of X10 - the band which he was the drummer.
That girl caught his attention.
Suddenly Krist was fully awake, he kept staring at that innocent face and remembered the photo of the girl on Gawin's phone.
They looked quite similar but... he wasn't sure, perhaps they were two different persons who looked alike or perhaps his eyes got blurry as he just woke up... or-
Krist didn't want to think about the third possibility.
Those safety pin earings were not rare accessory these days.
Krist scratched his right cheek, not knowing what to do, he was thinking of calling Gawin and asking him to send him the photo of his girlfriend, but immediately he realized that it was a so crazy idea.
Putting down his phone, Krist walked to the living room to turn on the music, opened the fridge to look for something to eat, the snacks were not much left - only a few packs of seaweed, some fruit, and a box of lemon ice cream.
Krist ate the ice cream while watching Nanon's new music video where he made a special appearance and some drum-playing clips of his students. He was fascinated by the drum beats and their skills. Krist was known as an easy person, but no one could be more serious than him when it came to playing drums.
He had played music since secondary school and been very passionate about drums since then. No wonder Krist was very dedicated and meticulous when playing drums for the band and when guiding others.
As soon as Krist finished the ice cream, he turned off the TV, preparing to go out to buy some ingredients for the dinner, but that photo bothered him again. Krist sighed at his own thoughts, rubbing his tempers. He shifted the gaze to his phone and then glanced at Pluto, trying to distract himself. Krist couldn't explain why there was an uneasy feeling in his heart, but it was understandable as he was always a supportive friend, he would feel uncomfortable if any friends of his were betrayed, even though he was not sure yet and had never been in this situation before.
He didn't know what to say to let Gawin know but at the same time not making him hurt.
Because it was Gawin.
Would he be alright if Krist told him, "Maybe your girlfriend is with someone else?"
If Gawin saw the photo and said, "It's not her," Krist would feel much better than now. He couldn't pretend as if he knew nothing, the younger's soft smile last night when talking about the girl he loved, when proudly showing that photo to him.
Because it was Gawin, Krist didn't know what he should do.
The phone suddenly rang, it was the sound of a text message, this time Chimon also sent it with a photo, "I was about to take a photo of the dessert, but you looked funny so I snapped a picture of you, P'Gawin was in the frame too 555"
In the photo, Krist was grumpy while waiting for the food to arrive, his eyes were seemingly hypnotized by the image of the Tomahawk Wagyu on the menu, while Gawin was tenderly looking at him with a smile. At that time, Krist couldn't explain the actual meaning behind that look, he just thought that it was because Gawin was a tender person, that's all he knew about the dentist who was willing to invite him for dinner just because he missed the appointment.
Gawin had only met Krist a few times, but behaved like they were friends for years. Before Krist realized Gawin was actually humorous, his impression of him was just a handsome guy with a kind smile and tenderness.
Krist closed the chat box with Chimon and searched for the letter 'G' that he recently saved in his contact.
Krist sent him two photos, the first one had only Krist and two boys, the second one had three of them and two other people at the top left corner of the frame, Gawin was online but did not see it right away, probably he was busy, coincidentally allowing Krist to have time to write his message, he kept deleting and then typing it several times.
In the end he still clicked the 'Send' button.
"Which one is better, Gawin? Choose for me... I want to post it on IG."
As soon as Krist saw Gawin reading the message, he left the conversation, but after an hour, the guy didn't respond even though his account status was 'Active Now.' Right when Krist was about to text him, the screen showed that he was typing...
"The first one." Gawin replied.
[ END CHAP 5 ]