Sarawat scrolled through Tine's instagram like he owned it, on the prowl after some sweet pictures.
His polished thumb paused on the recent picture that the other man had posted, some type of work game activities with his colleagues. Tine was smiling brightly, his eyes alight and cheeks dimpling, holding a silly prize that he had won during a game. The musician squinted his eyes at the person standing next to the fair skinned male. The dude had a buzz cut and seemed somehow familiar. Where had he seen him? And why did his hand hover over Tine's shoulder! Sarawat felt mocked. He was the only one allowed to touch Tine in any way, be it friendly or intimately. He only had to resolve the little misunderstanding of them being just friends.
Frustrated he lifted his black hooded head, sweeping his puffy gaze over the airport lounge, pocketing his phone in the front pocket of the hoodie. His team was on their way back to Bangkok after doing some promotions in China. Sarawat felt exhausted and tiresomely elbowed Boss in the ribs to shut him up, as the manager's snoring had reached an obnoxious level. The other man chortled but did not wake up. What an annoying fuck.
Sarawat slouched in his seat. All he wanted right now was to see Tine and maybe cuddle him to sleep. He frowned. That is, if Tine would let him. Should he use the friends with benefits card?
Sarawat had made sure to religiously keep in touch with the other man everyday, irrationally worried that Tine would slip through his fingers if he forcefully did not make some room for himself in Tine's life. So far it seemed to work, the other one had been replying to his nonsensical jabs with mirth. If Tine was happy, then Sarawat was too. Besides, Tine seemed happy with the resolution to their one-night stand.
Fuck. Just thinking back on that strange conversation made his head pound. He massaged his temple.
Sarawat had to admit that he had royally fucked that one up, letting his emotions control him. His brain had frozen up at the mere notion of Tine running off again, deluding himself with some kind of ridiculous explanation as always. He could not rationalize Tine's annoying behavior and ended up projecting his frustration onto the other. Poor bunny. The musician sighed, tilting his head back, his fingers twitching as if strumming notes on a guitar. Forming the familiar shape of chord C.
Sarawat should have definitely handled it differently. He should have sensibly explained to Tine that he had a big, fat crush on him. A love that was bigger than Sarawat himself.
His fingers trembled faintly just at the mere thought of it, the C chord getting wobbly in his air guitar.
***
The promo pictures for Sarawat's new single were everywhere, on billboards, in stores and even as ads in apps. The musician's intense gaze seemed to follow Tine wherever he went and so did the beautiful model draped all over Sarawat. Fuck, he did not know what Green had been on about when he bemoaned this atrocity.
Tine grimaced, his brows scrunching up funnily. It was such a childish thing to be annoyed at and he felt really silly. They were, uh, friends and he should probably not feel jealous.
Oh, but he certainly was.
Fed up with himself, Tine rummaged through his closet, looking for something decent to wear to Sarawat's fan sign. The other man had more or less ordered him to come and as much as Tine was acting annoyed at this, he was actually low key excited.
He saw a familiar cloth flutter out of the corner of his eye and ripped the striped silk shirt off the hanger. Clutching it in his big hands and inspecting it in frustration. Why had he grabbed this shirt out of all the clothes on Sarawat's floor? Stupid.
Unfortunately, it was the same shirt as Sarawat wore in the promo pictures and also the same shirt worn by the musician when they hooked up. Annoyed, he threw it in a hissy fit to the bottom of the closet. Maybe he should try auctioning it off. Looking at it now only made his blood boil.
***
Sarawat stalked up onto the stage, legs long and shoulders relaxed. The fans burst out in full blown screams at seeing the musician, making Tine cringe all the way back in the big conference room where he was quietly leaning on the wall, arms crossed over his light pink sweater.
The musician was holding his chin up, wearing a sporty headband that pushed his fringe up, revealing a wide forehead and those sharp, upwards turned eyebrows. His clear gaze swept over the sea of people, looking for Tine and once finding him, his bow shaped mouth quirked up on one side. Sarawat then bowed at the crowd with his palms pressed together, the veins twisting on his forearms visible in the spotlight that was on him. The musician was wearing some sort of tacky one-piece suit with heavy metallic chains at the crevice of his throat. Tine wrinkled his nose at that.
However Tine's eyes doubled in size as he saw someone else entering the stage. It was the pretty female model from the promo pictures. She waved shyly and latched onto Sarawat's arm, hanging off of him as if her life depended on it. Tine felt his jaw drop, his bunny teeth showing. What kind of stunt was this? He pushed off the wall and stood straight up to his full height, squaring his shoulders and glaring daggers at the stage.
The girl looked graceful, slim with delicate wrists and neck. Her long, glossy hair tumbled in waves down her back as she timidly glanced around, knuckles white from her grip on Sarawat's bicep. She was the complete opposite of Tine. And if not for this weird thing going on between Tine and Sarawat, she was even, dare he say, Tine's type. Something turned in the pit of his stomach, the plethora of mixed feelings were making him nauseous.
The pair posed for pictures for a couple of minutes, which in Tine's opinion seemed to drag on forever. At on point the musician even placed his hand on the woman's waist and Tine had almost clambered onto that stage to rip that hand away, but somehow managed to rein himself in. It seemed that the occasional meditation session with Type had paid off. However it did not stop him from grinding his teeth the more she pawed at Sarawat. Had he invited Tine to flaunt all of this in his face? Asshole.
Needless to say, Tine zooned out for the rest of the event, not being able to look at the blatant display of togetherness. It seemed that Sarawat really did consider them only as friends, considering the shameless flirting happening in front of everyone. Tine scuffed a sneaker clad toe on the floor, making a squeaky noise, thinking. A tired breath fluttered from his lips.
Their timing was always so unbearably misaligned. It sucked.
***
Boss dragged Tine over to Sarawat's dressing room as soon as the event had wrapped up, with only few people left loitering around in the big room, in hopes of catching a last glimpse of the musician.
"Good thing I caught you before you sneaked off," the manager said as if reading Tine's thoughts. Tine had indeed been contemplating to just leave quietly and disappear together with the generic mass. He was a little apprehensive to interact with the musician after seeing him being all chummy with the model. Maybe he should keep a distance from now on, just to spare his heart.
In the end Tine did not deign Boss's statement with any comment of his own and just pliantly followed the other man's lead.
Sarawat looked up eagerly from his perch on a couch, his brown eyes alight, when his friend pushed Tine into the messy room, hangers overloaded with spilling clothes and colorful make up sets at the lit up mirror. Boss winked at Sarawat and quickly left them alone, shutting the door resolutely. His fingers itched to lock those two in, so that they could finally hash things out. He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. Those fuckers should just kiss and make up and stop wasting everyone's time.
"Do you want to go to dinner after this?" Sarawat asked, his gaze raking over Tine's frame, undressing him with his intense eyes. He looked gorgeous, wearing those white jeans again that clung flatteringly to his long legs.
"Not with you looking like that," Tine said demurely and the musician blinked at him, noticing the other man's strange mood.
"What?" He motioned to his outfit with a sweeping hand playfully, eyes glinting. "And miss out on all of this?"
The only gratifying part of the one-piece suit was the revealing, unzipped upper part that brandised Sarawat's collarbones and strong chest. A smile tugged at Tine's lips but he forced them back into a straight line, his gaze fluttering around the room, trying not to look at Sarawat.
Uoh. Something was wrong here.
"Shouldn't you be taking that girl out to dinner and not me?" Tine mumbled finally, letting that burst straight from the pits of his jealous heart. He then rocked on the balls of his sneaker clad feet, hands in the back pockets of his jeans, apprehensive of how this would play out.
Sarawat rose from his seat, caught off guard. Hands raised in a placating gesture, not entirely sure where this was leading. The sleeves of his one-piece were rolled up, brandishing his lean forearms.
What now? He was still trying to pick up the pieces after their last stunt.
"Tine, what girl?"
"The one you paraded around on the stage," he quibbled and the musician could not hold back his snicker. Tine frowned at him, glowering. "What's so funny?"
"Tine," Sarawat said and smirked, feeling hope fluttering inside of him. "Tine, are you being jealous right now?"
Twin spots of red blossomed on Tine's cheeks instantly.
"What if I am," he said defiantly, lifting his pointy chin and crossing his arms over his wide chest, staring straight into Sarawat's eyes. Sarawat fake coughed into his fist, hiding a wide, lopsided smile.
"Did you get the chance to listen to my latest single or are you still listening only to Scrubb's old tracks?"
Tine rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I ha-" the fair skinned man interrupted himself, suddenly not following their conversation. "What does this have to do with anything?"
Sarawat laughed heartedly at this, his mouth stretched wide and teeth showing. Eyes sparkling, he came to stand in front of Tine, cupping his handsome face in his large hands, thumbs pressing into the soft flesh right under Tine's jaw, leaving hot imprints on the other one's whole being.
"You idiot, it's about you," he said evenly and shook Tine's head teasingly, disrupting his carefully tousled hair. Tine looked flabbergasted, reminiscent of a tiny startled animal, his pink mouth slightly agape.
What? Sarawat's love song was about Tine?
"Wha-"
"But I-"
Sarawat looked to the side, breathing once, twice and then blinked rapidly as his heart soared at seeing Tine acting so adorably. Turning back, he brought their foreheads together, Tine's hair mushed against his soft headband, their breaths intertwining and lashes fluttering.
"Can you please stop being so dense," he whispered, voice raspy in the suddenly overpoweringly quiet room and pecked Tine's unprepared lips. "Because I don't know what to do anymore." Sarawat pecked Tine's lips again, leaving butterfly traces on the other one's pout.
"Okay," Tine murmured in the space between them, putting his hands on Sarawat's narrow hips and yanked them forward, slotting their bodies together. "But who is that girl anyway? Are you guys close?" He could not help wondering, his eyes searching musician's face.
Sarawat moaned helplessly and hugged Tine close, hiding his face in the nook of his neck. This was sweet torture.
Edit:
Sharing is caring, so the inspo for Sarawat's outfit comes from these pics: