FLASHBACK
"...honestly, I didn't expect mom to be this civil with us" he had been talking, more like rambling for sometime now to defuse the awkward environment in the car. Wayo had been moody all through the dinner with Pha's family. It didn't help that Pha himself was not feeling well in his heart with Beam been MIA for over a month. He was so worried, his heart always jumping out of his chest every time he received a message or call. But Wayo wanted this meet up out of nowhere and he was too persistent. Now he was too quiet. "Well one good thing out of this dinner, atleast I know she didn't mind me dating a guy--"
Wayo snorted. "Seriously? So, I am the issue. Perfect. I'm not good enough for their great son, here I was thinking that's normal Kongthanin behavior"
Pha blinked. "Yo... our society is not that open minded, it takes time for families to accept can't this. You can't just--"
"My father accepted you in a blink"
Pha had an urge to roll his eyes. He wanted to mention how Yo's father would even accept a cockroach or a person with frog feet, as long as Yo asked for it. Instead he settled with, "Well, all families are different, mom raised us as cold perfectionists, it will take time to break the ice"
"Oh perfection..." Yo looked down. "That makes sense, I'm not perfect, I'm far far far from perfect right, a stupid little boy who can't even drive himself to school"
"Yo! No one said that!"
"So who's perfect for you P'Pha?" he was always good at shedding tears. "P'Beam right? Oh yeah, she must want the perfectly independent Casanova for her genius son, not someone like me, I'm nothing compared to him, especially his skills. A virgin like me can't beat slut like him" he chuckled between sobbing. "He got lost from our lives yet he's still right there. Can't he be gone for good?"
Pha gave him an incredulous look. "Tell me you did not mean it"
"I did, I meant every word of it. P'Forth did the best thing he could, it served him right. I hope he never comes back. I hope he's dead somewhere, I hope he rots. WHAT ELSE YOU EXPECT?"
Pha held the steering wheel tightly. He drove quietly, as carefully as he could while doing his best to control the rage building up inside him. He stopped right outside their dorm.
"Get out" he said quietly.
"But we planned to get ice cream. P'Pha~" Yo held onto his arm, speaking in a scared tone. "Are you mad at me? Yo sorry na P! I didn't mean it na"
"Not now Wayo, please"
"No, no, no, you stay here with me" Yo became stubborn. "You don't love me anymore? Is it because I won't sleep with you? Let's do it-"
"What the fuck Yo!" Pha exclaimed. "Don't you know me at all? Don't you get why I'm mad right now? Don't you see what you just said about my best friend who's missing for over a month now?"
"No I don't. I don't care for him. He did it to himself, he came between Ming and P'Kit, he's always between you and me. He's always more important to you than me, even the times you're with me, you worry for him, you keep check on him like you do with me. Why you do that? I'm your boyfriend not him. You didn't even mind when P'Kit started dating Ming but you created such a big deal when you found out about him and P'Forth. Why? You're still not over him till now? They say it right huh, Beam Baramee is everyone's type" Wayo was shouting now.
Pha pinched his nose bridge. He was at his breaking point now, he wanted to be away from Yo because he didn't want to say or do something bad to this stupid boy but Wayo seemed to not get it. "What the fuck are you blabbering about? He is my fucking best friend! You and Ming both agreed with my concern that time. You said it yourself Forth was in love with you-- you know what... never mind. Please Yo, get out of the car"
"Ahaha.. best friend? Best friend that you go around kissing?"
"WAYO!"
"What? I'm right, ain't I?"
Pha hit the steering in anger. "I knew you had insecurity issues but being immature to this extent? I told you it was a game! A fucking game! We all kissed, even me and kit, even Kit and Beam, even--" he threw his hands up in frustration. This was dangerous. He was already living hell because of that little slip of tongue, not another one. He should never have told this boy Beam was his first kiss. It was a fucking dare!
"Immature? So I don't want my boyfriend to be near someone like him, I don't want you to make me feel insecure that makes me immature? You know he makes me insecure yet you can't do a damn thing to make me feel better about us but yeah, I'm immature, then go with your family, find him, find him, marry him or better just take him to bed with you, he's good at that, you won't even need to be patient with how mature he is"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Pha bit his lips after shouting. "Stop making a scene here, we both have reputations, don't make me lose patience.." he spoke slowly and licked his lower lip. "Please, go to your room for now"
"You're still choosing him over me, you're throwing me out of your car for him? He's still that important to you? "
"Do you hear yourself? You wanna know what I do for you? You wanna go there now? Don't Yo, just... let me be alone, you need that time too. Please" he still managed to speak inn a calm tone, no matter how hard his hands shook with anger.
"Then I guess, you should have that alone time forever, we're done" Wayo left the car but Pha didn't have enough energy to stop him. That was the first of their many break ups in the future. The first of Pha starting to fall from his grace. No, not first, the first was when he unknowingly hurt his favorite best friend, his little brother. The guy he once promised to never leave, one he promised to protect with his own life but guess, at that time his blind love for Wayo and ego got bigger than the love he had for his best friend.
END OF FLASHBACK##~~
"Damn you Kao!"
Pete eyed Sandee, startled. "Wh-where?"
"Huh? I still can't reach him, it's been over a week, I'm so worried now. He never even skips a class" Sandee stared at her phone with a worried look.
Pete looked down at his hands. No he wasn't worried. It's just... it's...
"You know what's more weird? Mr. Pong said his leave was called in by June, you know that weird clown in our class, who likes shouting? He's always with that tall, gangster type guy. They were with Kao on orientation, I was late because of you, but... I'm sure they don't even talk, he sometimes won't even talk to me" she was so worried about her best friend, she didn't even realize she was walking straight ahead, still rambling to herself and bumped into a chiseled and muscular chest.
"Can't you see with your eyes?" a deep, almost bored voice scolded her. She looked up to meet a pair of deep, frowning eyes.
"You!" she found herself saying. "Where's Kao?"
The man folded his arms over his chest to eye the tiny girl. Then he looked behind her to find Pete staring, more like glaring at him. He huffed and walked past Sandee, ignoring her completely.
"Hey!" She called him but the ma didn't even spare them a glance. "What a weird guy" she talked to herself. Pete just looked at the retreating man, thinking hard. "I'll be right back" he mumbled and hurried to where the guy named Thada went.
.
.
"Yeah, I know. I'm comin... fuck off June!" he laughed. "Don't say that to chipmunk"
....
"He's scared easily of me"
....
"Fine! Pickled cucumber and butter scotch, yuck!"
"AHAHAH.. fuck off" he cut the call with a smile. "This chipmunk really!" He mumbled, fiddling with his bike keys. "Hungry like a whale all the time... it's just seventh week"
He stopped doing what he was doing for a split second before continuing. With a smirk on his face. "Hope you don't plan to chase me from far. I'd think you're stalking me" with that he sat and blasted his bike away, leaving a gaping Pete behind.
"Huh, asshole" he mumbled.
He didn't get it. They fought, Kao insulted him, that man came and then Kao just... poof, he disappeared. He even went to the fucker's dorm to check, to that Sun's cafe to ask but no avail. He had no family, no friends other than San, hell no means to afford being away. Pete couldn't possibly tell San about this Thada guy without risk telling her about their confrontation. For some reason, he was sure the guy knew where Kao was but since Forth had his car and credit cards confiscated, he couldn't chase after him. Where the fuck are you?
(A/n: You sure it was Kao who insulted you, not the other way around?)
##~~
"I... I'll be o-out in a mi-minute"
"Okay, don't panic idiot" Forth shook his head in amusement. "I'm waiting" he cut the call and leaned against the car. Kit had been so damn excited about that playroom for children with chronic illness and the daycare that he was running around working way more than he could handle, literally pushing past his limit. Yeah he had a limit with all his own health issues. Forth was kinda glad but scared at the same time when he found out Tim was interested in Kit but now, seeing him actually trying to get close to the little guy, he felt happy. Even knowing that Pha was back to being the good friend Kit once lost, though he hated the guy's guts, he was glad. if anything, Kit deserved to be happy. He was the most innocent yet the one who most suffered out of them all. Him? Pha? Wayo? They all got what they deserved.
Yeah, they deserved it all for hurting that pure soul. In those two months that he spent around Beam, he knew no matter what the world said about him, no matter how hard of walls he built around himself, that man had the heart of gold and so much cuteness and love to share. A pure soul no matter how big of a coldhearted Casanova he wanted himself to be.
He smiled.
"OON BABY STOP!"
He looked around hearing a sudden screech to find tiny little boy running out of the hospital entrance, through the park, obviously towards the busy road.
"Hey little one" he hurriedly scooted to the little cackling kid and hauled him up inn the air. "Gotcha" the boy cackled so happily but looking at his face he shut up and put both his tiny fists on his cheeks cutely. "Where you think you're running off to huh?" Forth asked him who blinked so fast with pouting lips.
"Ooooon!" a cute boy who looked like might be in his early teens or adolescence, came running, huffing with exhaustion. "Oh... tha-thanks sir... you!" he pulled the toddler's cheek. "You stupid little tornado! What are you? Don't you get tired at all?!" the poor kid was almost crying.
"P'Faaaaam you tupid" the boy puffed his cheeks, massaging the spot that got pulled and stuck his tongue out. Forth couldn't help smile. What a cute little thing.
"Wa- come here you" the boy tried to pull the little rugrat who clung to Forth. Even tried to climb up his shoulder hurriedly.
"No wanna go! Ieceem! Wann eaat ieceem"
"Arthit!"
"No you tupid!" Arthit puffed his cheeks again.
"I'll tell dad you ran out of his office!" the big brother threatened. "And I won't get you any pink milk"
"Aanh aanh P'Faaam" Arthit squirmed out of Forth's arms and clung to his brother's legs. "No no tell dada, Aarti showeyy, Aarti ungwyyy na" he even grabbed both his ears.
Pharm gave him a fake stink eye. "Huh, you only care about your dada and your pink milk, what if you got to the road, what if a car hit you? If I didn't know and you got lost or someone took you? How would P'Pharm and dada live?" he reprimanded the boy in a calm and mature tone, so not like the way they were interacting earlier and the little Arthit actually looked guilty as he hugged his brother's leg.
"Aarti bad boii, Aarti showeyy. P'Faaam, I waabuu"
Pharm pouted. "Fine, fine, you look ugly when you cry" he picked his little brother up. "Come, let's go. You want ice cream you can ask your P" he wiped the little boy's tears lovingly.
Forth chuckled at the interaction, making Pharm feel embarrassed. "Sorry" he mumbled.
Forth shook his head and ruffled his hair. "It's okay, you are a great brother. You really are brothers? You totally alike but..."
Pharm smiled nervously. "I'm.. older. Em.. Oon say thank you to good uncle"
Arthit obediently clasped his hands together to wai at Forth. "Thann too ukle... ukle.." he giggled shyly.
"Forth" Forth smiled at them.
Arthit gave him a bunny smile. "Porr! Porr shoo shtong like dhupaman"
Forth blinked. Then laughed. Pharm chuckled nervously. "Why would you call him that" He asked, a little panicked.
"No, it's okay. And... I am superman" Forth winked at Arthit. "So be a good boy and superman will be your friend"
"Aunnn powmise?"Arthit extended his pinky.
Forth chuckled and locked it with his own. "Promise"
Pharm took a happily bouncing Arthit with him, not forgetting to thank and apologize to Forth again. Forth watched them go with a wide grin. Pharm and Arthit...
Who raised such adorably good kids?
##~~