Can's POV
They were sitting in the back of Mr. Yaxley's car. Can was looking at the lights of the cars passing them on the motorway, while darkness slowly descended onto the land around them.
Tin was sitting next to him, discreetly holding his hand behind the backpack they had put on the middle seat. They technically didn't need to hide anything, but it had just ended up that way.
Mr. Yaxley was on the passenger's seat, busily working on his laptop, while an old man called Mr. Abigail was driving them. When Can had asked who he was, the man had explained that he used to be the butler of the Yaxley family way back even before current Mr. Yaxley had been born. Mr. Abigail and his wife were now happily retired, living in the Yaxley's town house in London and only providing basic housekeeping. Mr. Yaxley had been quick to add that they really didn't need to work as much as they did anymore.
Weirdly, hearing the old man's tale about his long ties to the Yaxley family helped Can finally understand why Mr. Yaxley and Coach Lavinia had had no problem keeping their exes around even after their divorces and why Jonathan treated Jessie McNeil like a sister.
In this kind of traditional old money circles, family had never been just parents and their offspring, there had always been complicated structures of relatives, servants, tenants and other people tied to their fates. Like the Abigails, who had not been abandoned by Mr. Yaxley despite his falling out with his father and them getting old.
Can wondered whether it would be the same for the Medthanan family... and if he would get dragged into this kind of family web, too, if Tin somehow ended up reconciling with them.
He didn't know how he would cope with this, but it remained Tin's choice to make first.
He already didn't know what was expecting them in London.
They had finally had news from Tin's family when Mr. Yaxley had come to meet them.
Both of Tin's parents, as well as his brother, would arrive in London on Friday. In the meantime, the crisis team at Medthanan Real Estate would try to contain the scandal in Thai media. If Tin had really been Tul's only target, he might have overplayed his hand – the mere suggestion that the heir of Medthanan Real Estate might be involved in something as unsavoury as human trafficking had seriously panicked Tin's parents.
However, surprisingly, they had believed the story that Tin had been framed.
Maybe it had been the severity of the accusation. Maybe it had been the fact that they had spoken to Mr. Yaxley and not Tin himself.
In any case, they were willing to speak to their son in person and clear the misunderstanding. If only Tul didn't poison their minds until they arrived, they might have a real chance here.
Can knew that this wasn't the development Tin had expected and even though they hadn't had time to talk about it, it was palpable how conflicted he was about it.
"Mr. Yaxley, can I ask you something?" Tin asked into the silence, after they had left the school well behind them.
"Of course."
To show his willingness to listen, Mr. Yaxley even closed the laptop and put it back into his briefcase.
"Do you regret what happened to your father? What you did?"
"No," he replied calmly, "it was the only realistic way for us to break free. Do I wish there had been another option? I do. I think most estranged children do, but sadly... he was too far gone."
"What do you mean?"
"My father was a tyrant. If you had had the opportunity to ask him, though, he would probably have disagreed with me. He would have told you he was a benevolent head of the family, who only wanted the best for me – and of course, if I dared to want something else, I was wrong. He was demanding absolute authority over everyone he deemed below him, and he confidently saw himself above the law. None of the scandals that brought him down were fabricated. All we did was make sure they became known and didn't hit the wrong people. The only difference between him and his brother was what type of law he believed didn't apply to him."
Didn't this all sound charming?
Can wondered whether Tin's father was the same – though in the few instances that Tin had talked about his family, his parents had sounded like the opposite of what Mr. Yaxley described: utter disinterest... but there was still always the threat to suddenly lose all favour arbitrarily.
"What made you go against him?"
Mr. Yaxley laughed before he answered. To Can, it sounded strange, to hear such a serious person suddenly chuckle.
"Love," he said, " well... not just for the woman I wanted to marry. It was also my passion for journalism. My father allowed me to work as a reporter initially, as a kind of frivolous hobby until I took over the family business. But I was expected to give up the career I had worked so hard to build at his whim. I couldn't have that."
Can listened up.
"Why couldn't you just marry Coach Lavinia right away?"
To his surprise, it wasn't Mr. Yaxley who answered, but Tin.
"Because... in our world, marriage isn't a matter of love. You marry for power, for influence, money... a business deal. For love, you keep mistresses, or lovers."
Can didn't like what he heard.
"Do you mean to say... your family will want you to marry some unlucky girl, but they are so tolerant they'll let you keep me as your personal trainer or something? They can forget that, I'm telling you right now. It's not gonna happen."
It took him a while to notice Tin's deadpan look.
"If they want to throw me out of the family, they can try that. I'll be prepared. But you know... marrying for love was actually my father's sin in the eyes of the family. That's why he prefers my brother over me. He married his mother for love; but they were forced apart, because she is a foreigner. After their divorce, he got married to my mother to further the family business. She brought in several profitable hotels in Ko Samui. Before that marriage, Medthanan Real Estate had always failed to enter the market there," Tin rolled his eyes, "a real winner."
Can noticed that Tin called her "my mother", not "mum" or "ma" or some other term of endearment. Usually, he got angry with people who didn't respect their parents, but in Tin's case... he honestly couldn't blame him.
"That's so messed up," Can could only shake his head, "it's like living in a cheap tv drama. Now I wonder why he agreed to the divorce like a coward... I suppose I should be happy... you wouldn't exist if he hadn't married your mum."
"Where do you think these dramas get their inspiration from?"
Fair enough, Tin might have a point there. Can had to give him that.
Tin's POV
It was already past midnight.
Tin was lying on the huge double bed in the Yaxley's guest room, his head propped up against the head board. He was busy trying to track down evidence that proved without a doubt that Tul had been the one orchestrating the attacks against him.
So far, all he had was his brother's drunken confession Tin had failed to record – it would be Tul's word against Tin's and everyone knew the odds he had at winning this without backup.
Meanwhile, Can was nervously pacing the room in front of him, peeking on his phone every few seconds.
He was waiting for a video call from his sister, who would then pass it on to his parents. In Bangkok, it was already Monday morning and the Kirakorns had agreed to talk to Can before they hurried off to work.
Contrary to the Medthanan family, the Kirakorns couldn't be reached by the school's administration, because other than Can's sister, nobody in the family was fluent enough in English to communicate with them.
It hadn't even occurred to Tin before how secretly talented Can must be at learning languages. His family spoke Thai and Mandarin, yet he had picked up English so fast that he had been nearly fluent already when he had arrived. Apparently, he had mostly learned it by watching nature documentaries and tv dramas by the BBC.
And now, after almost two months of constant immersion, Tin wouldn't take any bets on people successfully guessing which one of them had been here longer.
At times, Tin had genuinely forgotten that speaking Thai among each other was also an option.
Even though he had been expecting the call, Tin still flinched when Can's phone suddenly rang and he lifted it up towards his face to greet and wave at his sister.
"Lemon! How are you?"
Tin only half listened while Can was exchanging gossip and a lot of teasing remarks with his sister, who for some reason seemed to find it funny that the rumours had cast her brother as a male prostitute.
However, Can got her to shut up and then squeal in excitement when he surprised her with the revelation that the roommate he had presented to the family during his birthday call was actually his boyfriend.
Tin and Can had agreed to tell the truth to his family, since Can had been optimistic that he could convince them to accept Tin.
"OMG for real?!" Tin could hear Ley's screams loudly and clearly even though half a room was between them and the speakers of Can's phone weren't that powerful, "you're pranking me, now, brother. Right? It's a joke? No way that handsome rich guy would fall for a clumsy oaf like you!"
"You don't believe me?" Can's voice sounded unusually shrill and theatrical while he was speaking to his sister, "I'll show you!"
Amused, Tin watched Can turn around, so the bed came into view of the frontside camera. He smirked, while Can crawled into the bed next to him and placed a chaste peck onto his cheek.
"Are you sure she'll believe you like this?" Tin whispered to him in English.
"Hey! Speak so I can understand! You... handsome roommate... are you really dating my idiot brother?"
Instead of answering, Tin leaned over to place a kiss on Can's lips, before he smirked towards the camera again.
Ley was speechless for a brief moment of victory for Can, then she began to scream as if she was seeing her favourite idol.
"Mum! Dad! You won't believe this!"
It didn't take long for the parents to appear on the small screen of Can's phone next to his sister, both looking rather confused.
"Can has a boyfriend!"
Tin made a mental note not to trust Ley with any confidential information, ever, before warning her very thoroughly not to be a blabbermouth.
She was lucky that Can had planned on telling his parents about them anyway. Though Tin at least would have preferred to prepare them better before letting the cat out of the bag.
Luckily, Can's parents didn't stay dumbfounded by the revelation for long. To Tin's utter astonishment, Can's mother practically fell over her feet to welcome him to the family, even affectionately calling him her future son-in-law without asking any questions.
Can's father was a bit more reserved, but he had kept a smile plastered on his face during the whole exchange.
After listening to Can as he explained the situation to his family and seeing their concerned and compassionate faces, Tin began to see where the warmth Can had emanated from the start actually came from.
Even though Tin still couldn't help but see himself as the cause for deep trouble to Can, no member of the Kirakorn family blamed him, not even for a second.
On the contrary, they got positively outraged on behalf of him when they learned about Tul's schemes and the scandal he had dragged Can into.
All they asked of Tin at the end of the call was to help protect Can's career if he could. But rather than putting any pressure on Tin as the outsider, Can's mum reminded her son several times that he should take care of his boyfriend and support him as much as he could.
The warmth of her words, even through the shaky video call connection, touched him so deeply that he had to fight tears again by the time they said their goodbyes.
Can's parents needed to hurry off to work, and suddenly, they were only talking to Lemon again.
"Caaan... brother... dearest... you have to send me pictures of both of you! Tin is so handsome, he even makes my idiot brother look cute."
Tin wanted to protest and tell her just how handsome he found his boyfriend and that he didn't consider him to be an idiot at all, but Can held him back. He would probably have covered Tin's mouth with his hand, if the call had gone on much longer.
Fortunately, Ley needed to leave for school.
As soon as the call had ended, Tin leaned his head against Can's chest, relieved when he could feel his boyfriend's hand against his cheek, holding him. He was still fighting back tears.
"Your family is amazing, Can."
He envied him.
But at the same time, he hadn't felt this elated and happy since the attacks had started. No matter what happened, he trusted the Kirakorn family to catch him if he fell.
Nobody had ever given him this kind of unconditional support before and he never wanted to lose it.