Sarawat was sitting in the dressing room, getting his hair styled when Boss paraded into the brightly lit space filled with clothes and styling products, giggling at something on his phone.
"Have you seen this?" He asked gleefully and tapped his phone on the other's shoulder, handing it over. Sarawat carefully took the device, mindful of the female hairdresser that was still going at his hair and looked down at the discussion thread that was open on the screen. His scowl deepened.
"What the hell is this?" He said passive aggressively as he scrolled intensely through the discussion on his fan page.
There was a huge speculative post discerning all the obvious signs of him and Tine being married since university, with a big grainy picture of them holding hands at the Scrubb showcase and some of the stupid posts from Sawarat's old instagram account. There were even recent pictures of Tine, which were obviously taken without his consent. Sarawat's grip on the phone intensified, his knuckles going white from the sheer force of it. No one had the right to drag Tine into these nasty speculations. If any of his fans as much as breathed the wrong way at Tine -
"Whoa, man," Boss said, interrupting his train of thought and patted his tense shoulder. "Calm down, it's just a bunch of girls having fun. What do they call it, ships?"
Sarawat gave him an unimpressed look and the female hairdresser tried to stifle a laugh. He side eyed her as well. What, she too? Annoyed he threw the phone back at Boss, who had to do an acrobatic endeavor to catch it.
"So where should I book your and Tine's honeymoon?" The other man mocked, tapping away on the phone, well on his way searching the web for best places for a destination wedding and how to plan a honeymoon, but clamped up when he saw the dark expression clouding Sarawat's face.
The musician sighed and rubbed at his eyes, slapping away the hairdresser's hands when she tried to discretely lift his head back upright to continue her work. The smell of hairspray was getting to his head, not to mention the bitter taste of it on his tongue.
"This is fine now," he said in her general direction and rose from his seat in front of the mirror, stalking over to a tiny black couch in the corner of the room, which left the woman only with one option of quietly packing her things and leave. Oh well.
"I shouldn't have gotten in touch with Tine again," Sarawat muttered into his big hands, resting his elbows on his jeans clad knees. "I should just leave him alone now, before it blows up."
"Well you can't, not if you want something to happen between you two," Boss said with his hands on his hips. Sarawat just lifted his brows condescendingly under his coma styled fringe, looking up at the other man.
"Since when are you a relationship guru?"
"Wat, come on, man," Boss whined as he plopped down dramatically next to Sarawat, throwing an arm on the backrest. "You need to step up your game, I can't handle your butthurt attitude anymore." Boss seemed to be on a roll. "You either seriously hit on him or just let it go. This is tiring everyone out and affecting your work."
"I didn't know there were other people involved in mine and Tine's relationship," Sarawat said tiredly and leaned back, sprawling his legs out.
It was not Sarawat's fault that Tine was so infuriatingly dense. He had flat out tried everything to get the other man to understand how he felt about him, but every excruciating effort on his part had somehow always ended up perceived as a joke or a drunken stupor. Tine was a man of many convenient excuses. What a nuisance. Sarawat sighed. He did not think that his self confidence could take any more bruises.
"Well, you guys will be the only ones consuming the actual relationship," Boss said and wiggled his thick eyebrows at Sarawat. "But looking at this discussion thread, I recon that many other people will get involved, whether you want it or not." Sarawat opened his wide mouth to protest but the other one lifted one bejeweled hand in a placating manner. "And we will of course try to minimize the damage and make sure to keep Tine safe."
Sarawat crossed his arms and stared intently at the ugly coffee table in front of the couch, the wheels in his handsome head turning.
"So," Boss said gleefully, clapping his hands together. "But there is a relationship?"
"Mind your own business," Sarawat said grimly.
What relationship? He was just one-sidedly creeping on Tine through instagram. It seemed to be his predicament to be doing just that to the ends of time.
"Wow, that's deep, man." Boss deadpanned, placing one hand over his heart. "So what have you really been up to?"
Sarawat silently handed over his phone, the feed of Tine's tasteful instagram account on full display on the backlit screen and Boss laughed out loud.
"You're such a stalker. Maybe it's you that we should keep away from Tine."
***
Sarawat could not help fidgeting slightly in his seat, the leather of his slacks squeaking against the thicker leather of the car seat. He tugged on the sleeves of his silk shirt. Had he gone overboard with these clothes? The cordi-staff had been far too happy to help him play dress up after the photo shoot when Boss had let it slip that Sarawat was maybe going on a hypothetic date. Which would probably turn out to be a session of Tine whining at him about his precious instagram. A smiled tugged at Sarawat's lips as he shook his head ruefully. Really. He would grab onto any line and hook that Tine threw at him.
His head snapped up when Tine got inside the car, a shocked gasp filling the cramped space when the other man noticed Sarawat being in the car as well, his round eyes widening comically.
"Shit," Tine spat as he dunked his head against the neck support of the back seat when he jerked, taken aback. Sarawat held back a snigger. He had missed this, this liveliness.
"Did you find it funny?" Tine asked and pouted, looking all the more adorable being all ruffled, even as his biceps bulged vaguely under his shirt as he crossed his arms. Sarawat felt his lips part, suddenly thirsty, but clamped them together in a lopsided line, trying to stifle the sudden surge of emotions.
"Just put your seat belt on," he said instead.
"So," Boss said once he had installed himself behind the wheel and Sarawat felt a sense of foreboding. Boss glanced at Tine speculatively through the rearview mirror. "How've you been?"
Sarawat snorted at the tactlessness but it seemed to work as Tine happily obliged, spilling all the tea, well not all all tea if Tine really had to confess, about what he and his gang had been up to since the university. The musician looked out the window and let Tine's chatty voice wash over him.
Sometimes he wished that they could go back to those evenings spent at the music club, when he would teach Tine chords and Tine would talk his ear off about everything and nothing in particular. It had been such an effortless time. Why had he not cherished it more?
Hopefully there would be new opportunities for them to slow down the time together.
***
Sawarat pressed Tine into the mirrored wall of the elevator, not really believing what was happening, his mind buzzing with a sense of an out of body experience. His lungs felt not big enough to breathe in this sense of unlimited freedom that got him suddenly so high. Would Tine really allow him to go further? Or would it be like that one time when they kind of held hands but come the next day never spoke of it again.
"Wha-" Tine jerked his head around and stilled, staring straight into Sarawat's eyes, their breaths mingling. Tine's eyes were so dark that they reflected the florescent light in the elevator, seemingly full of stars and holding Sarawat's whole world within them.
Sarawat felt Tine's chest expand and collide with the planes of his own body and then something changed in Tine's innocent gaze. In an instant he became the man that he actually was, determined to go after the thing he wanted.
He leaned forward and crashed his full lips against Sarawat's pouty ones. His free hand grasped the back of Sarawat's shirt, balling into a fist, making the other man stagger forward. It felt soft and warm where their lips met and then instantly hot when Sarawat shamelessly dragged his moist tongue over his lips, begging for entrance. Tine opened his pink mouth with a low moan, letting him slide right in.
The musician let go of his hand in favor of urgently grasping Tine's waist, his fingers digging into his flesh through the fabric, bringing their hard bodies more flush against each other. Tine felt a burning need jolt down his spine, sizzling at his fingertips like an electric current.
Why had they never done this before?
Tine placed a hand on Sarawat's strong shoulder and pushed lightly when the need for air could no longer be ignored. He turned his head to the side and let the other pant into his soft cheek and then the hollow of his throat were Sarawat finally found purchase, kissing and licking at Tine's rabbit pulse. His lips were dragging over the pale skin, breathing in the sheer essence of Tine. The fair skinned man tipped his head back, banging it on the mirror, the pain not really registering as Sarawat dragged his teeth tantalizingly slow over his neck.
"Fuck, Sarawat," Tine uttered breathlessly and the other hummed in acknowledgement, the sound reverberating against his skin.
Their breaths labored, mingled in the heady air between them.
"We need to talk." He braced his hands against the other's shoulders, trying to rip the musician away from himself. Sarawat would not budge. He did however stop his ministrations, hiding his face in Tine's neck and squeezing his waist, pulling him close and clinging to the other man like a lifeline.
Tine raised his hands and let them run over the wide planes of Sarawat's back, trying to both calm and reassure him, his own fingers trembling. Conveniently the elevator came to a halt, jarring them as the doors slid open. Sarawat ripped himself from Tine and staggered out into the hall, his face obscured. Tine followed suit, on unsteady feet and feeling somewhat drunk.
What were they even doing?
Tine could not deny that there had been something ambiguous slowly building up between them all these years. Something that had been shut down far too abruptly, before Tine even had a chance to mature and nurture a needed type of self confidence to understand what had really transpired. Maybe that was even why Sarawat chose to focus on his career with such abandon, leaving Tine in the dust of their memories. And it had taken Tine lengthy of time to realize for himself, that even though he did prefer women, Sarawat was somehow an exception to that. A big one. But he had not really been sure what to do with his new awareness, other than admire the musician from afar as it had seemed that their time together had run its course.
But looking at his current predicament, apparently not. Huh.
A smile tugged at Tine's lips and he looked down at his slender hand that had just moments ago held Sarawat's callused one. Something bloomed in his heart.