Gulf’s eyes widened when he saw Mew leaning in, his heart skipping a beat or two. A second later he felt Mew's soft and warm lips on his own, his tongue prodding on his lips, trying to enter his mouth, and as instinct his eyes closed and he gasped at the sensation the other's lip brought, which gave Mew the access to his mouth.
And a few seconds later he felt Mew withdrawing, the chewing gum in his own mouth missing.
He saw Mew's retreating back and dragged himself to the gazebo that was outside the Hall, to calm himself down.
That kiss with Mew sent an odd but pleasant tingling like sensation throughout his body.
He touched his lips; he could still feel Mew's lips on his. Oddly he didn't find that kiss disgusting or revolting, in fact he found it.. very pleasant. He liked the way Mew's lips felt against his.
And he found himself thinking about Mew's lips. He had kissed people before, but this.. somehow, felt different from the others.
He shook his head, trying to clear all the vague thoughts that were running around but to no avail. He sighed, giving up and let his thoughts run wild.
Gulf wasn't the only one who was thinking about that kiss. After the meeting with Mr. Gun ended successfully, Mew slumped down into the couch that was in the lounge, his mind travelling back to what had transpired some minutes ago.
He was desperate and couldn't see any other solution. He knew what he had done was wrong, but.. it felt very right.
One kiss with Gulf and he found himself wanting more, falling into a daze, but he wouldn't admit it, his ego too big for that.
He sighed, he didn't know how Gulf felt about it, and he knew he had to apologize; but the problem was that he didn't know how to apologize; he had never apologized to anyone before.
He ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling them, and thinking of a way to apologize. He gave up when he couldn't come up with anything and went to the hall to search for Gulf.
I should at least start somewhere. And shrugged his shoulders.
Almost everyone was on the dance floor, he found his parents, Gulf's parents even Cheer, but there was no sign of Gulf.
He passed by a window and a lone figure standing outside in the gazebo caught his eye. He looked a bit more carefully and found it to be Gulf. He quickly walked to the gazebo, making sure on his way that there were no paparazzi lingering around.
Gulf was pulled out from his daze when he heard Mew clear his throat behind him. He turned around and found himself face to face with Mew.
He felt the heat rise up in his body, and he turned away, not being able to meet Mew's eye.
"I sincerely apologize about what happened sometime ago." Mew said looking everywhere but at Gulf.
"It's-its okay." Gulf said swallowing nervously.
And suddenly awkwardness hung in between them, Mew cleared his throat and looked around, his eyes found the window through which he had seen Gulf.
He saw people dancing, waltzing around the dance fioor and was reminded of his parents. Whenever his father had done or said something that upset his mother, he would pull her into his arms and would waltz around the house with her, apologizing to her.
Mew cleared his throat.
"As an acceptance of my apology will you dance with me?" Mew asked as he held out his hand for Gulf.
That was the only way of apologizing he had ever seen; and his brain didn't come up with any other suggestions.
Gulf blinked once; twice, dumbstruck at Mew's proposition.
"Come on; show me the moves of an celebrity." Mew said with a smirk.
"I'm a soccer player. Not a dancer, you know that right!! I have two left feet in case of dancing." Gulf huffed.
Mew only smiled.
"I.. Don't blame me if I can't keep up with your pace." Gulf said narrowing his eyes at Mew as he took his hand.
"What if someone sees us?" Gulf asked softly.
"I checked; no one's outside except for us."
Gulf nodded, and Mew pulled him closer, leading both of them, moving slowly; matching the rhythm of the song that could be heard drifting from the hall.
Gulf could feel his heartbeat quicken when Mew pulled him closer and the color rose up when his gaze locked with Mew's.
His breath got caught when he looked into the dark brown depthless pools, alluring him, making him want to submerge in them.
He could hear the blood rush against his ears and his heartbeat increase, when Mew placed his hand on the small of his back.
Little did he know that he had the same effect on the other.
And they both prayed that the other could not hear their hearts hammering against their chest, trying to burst with the overwhelming feelings.
"You know, you are the perfect size to dance with!" Mew said.
Gulf narrowed his eyes at him.
"What? I just complimented you!" Mew said with mock offense.
"Whatever." and Gulf's eyes narrowed even more; and they continued to dance, their overwhelming feelings calming down a bit after this exchange.
********
It had been two days since Cheer's wedding, Gulf's parents had gone back to their home, but Gulf didn't show any signs of leaving Mew's room.
Not that Mew minded it or anything, he liked it. He liked the way his heart would unnaturally beat, the way he would some way or the other end up thinking about Gulf.
And he wasn't the only one who felt like that. These past few days Mew was the only thing that dominated Gulf's thoughts. It was like all of a sudden he saw Mew in a new light, started noticing him even more.
It was not like he hadn't thought about moving out of Mew's room, he had, but he liked it in this room, he felt safe and hence he decided to stay there.
********
Tonight was one of those rare nights where Mew would get his work to the bedroom, his back resting against the headboard of the bed, his iPad in hand, tapping away.
Gulf lay beside him, propped up by his elbows, watching some show on the laptop in front of him, laughing occasionally, which would earn him a curious glance from Mew, which went unnoticed.
"Shit." Gulf said as he pulled out the ear plugs from his ears when the battery of his laptop died out.
"Can I use your laptop?" He asked Mew eyeing his laptop on the bedside table, the battery had died out on an interesting part and he wanted to know what happened next.
"Yeah sure." Mew said without looking at him.
Gulf crawled on the bed to the bed side table took the laptop and settled once against in the position he was before.
Panic, nervousness, fear, embarrassment and many other things washed over Mew when he heard his laptop switching on.
He suddenly regretted giving his laptop to Gulf; he didn't want Gulf to see the things that were on it.
Not that he watched porn or anything like that was on his laptop, only some business related documents, but what he didn't want Gulf to see was his Internet search history.
Since the past few days, Mew had found himself completely interested about everything about Gulf and he would search up his name, see everything he had seen again, trying to find out more about him.
Now all he could do was silently pray that Gulf didn't click the history tool. He heaved a sigh of relief when Gulf plugged in his earphones and started watching the show again.
After sometime Gulf wanted to go back to one of the previous pages so he clicked the history button, to only have him render speechless.
The history was full of things related to him, he clicked the bookmark button to find all sites related to him bookmarked.
He blinked once; twice at the screen in front of him and turned towards Mew, a smirk on his face.
"Looks like someone is huge fan of mine."
Mew swallowed painfully, the one thing he didn't want Gulf to find out was out in the open.
Gulf sat up straight, "So?" he said, wriggling his eyebrows at Mew.
"I liked your games." which was a complete lie, he liked more than a few game but he was not going to accept that.
Gulf didn't reply, instead he kept staring at Mew, trying to break the poker face he had suddenly slipped on.
"An-and I wanted to know more about you." Mew stuttered a bit, when he met the unwavering gaze from Gulf.
Gulf nodded slowly, as if thinking about something deep.
"Even I want to know more about you. Let's do this okay?" Gulf said as his eyes suddenly lighting up at the idea that struck him.
"Let's ask each other a question every day, this way we'll get to know each other. Do you have any questions?"
Mew had many questions, but none came to his mind. He shook his head.
"You?" he asked.
Gulf thought for a while and asked the question that had bugged him some days ago.
"You said you worked in a convenience store before. Why?"
"To pay for my daily expenses back in high school." Mew said with a shrug.
Gulf's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wait didn't you study in the same boarding school with my sister?"
"I used to study with her, but then moved to a public school here."
There was still a confused look on Gulf's face.
"You don't remember, do you?"
Gulf shook his head unsurely.
Mew sighed, well he had expected that. "You do know that my father suffered from a massive heart attack right?"
Gulf nodded.
"That heart attack was caused by his company going bankrupt. We had to sell everything, our house, our cars, nearly everything we owned to pay back our investors and to pay for the hospital bills. We didn't even have a place to live, and that was when your father took us in."
Gulf nodded, finally understanding the reason why Mew stayed at his place back then; but some questions were still unanswered.
Mew continued, ”The fees for the boarding school was high, and I couldn't and wouldn't let your father burden himself with something else, it was more than enough that he gave us a place to stay; so I moved here and got into a public school on a scholarship. I needed money; for my daily expenses, to send back home to my mother, to save up for my own business. That's where the part time job comes in."
Gulf nodded back at him, finally understanding.
"Anything else?" Mew asked.
"No."
Mew went back to his iPad and Gulf settled back into the bed, watching the show.
"What are you watching?" Mew asked, curiosity taking the better part of him when he heard Gulf laugh again.
"F.R.I.E.N.D.S." Gulf replied with a grin.
"F.R.I.E.N.D.S?"
"You haven't seen F.R.I.E.N.D.S?" Gulf asked bewildered. He moved to the side a bit.
"Come, watch it. You'll like it."
And he removed one of the ear buds and offered it to Mew.
Mew contemplated for a bit, but took up Gulf's offer and lay down beside him.
Gulf blushed involuntarily at their close proximity, and Mew was happy that he had taken up that offer.
And soon sleep was creeping up upon them; and they decided that would be it for today and fell asleep.
***********
Love
Prijongsuk