"Thank you for dropping me off," Tine said to Sarawat, honestly still in disbelief about what they had talked about back in the office. He had a rock star boyfriend. It was a dream he didn't want to wake up from.
"You're welcome," Sarawat replied, giving Tine a soft smile. He looked happy. Tine hadn't seen him look this happy since CTRL+S won best album for their sophomore attempt during the year-end ceremonies. He flushed at the thought of making Sarawat feel this much.
"What are you thinking about?"
Tine bit his lip. "Nothing much. You, mostly."
If possible, Sarawat looked happier. "Sappy."
Tine rolled his eyes. "I can take it back if you want." He fiddled with his thumbs. "Hey, Sarawat?"
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you ever reveal that Pam wasn't really your girlfriend?"
Sarawat sighed.
"She was my first love." He looked lost in thought, voice wavering slightly. "Even if she changed so much over the years, I wanted to preserve that memory of her. The girl I fell in love with as a teenager."
"But you had Dim make a restraining order."
"It got a bad a few years back. I was willing to ignore it for the first few months; I thought she would lose interest after a while. But it dragged on, and she was getting endorsement deals and contracts on the merit of being my girlfriend. It wasn't fair to the CTRL+S members. Then she..." Sarawat trailed off, hands clenching.
"This is about the engagement ring post, isn't it?" Tine said grimly, recalling the timeline of Sarawat and Pam's supposed relationship.
Sarawat closed his eyes and nodded. "I had a panic attack over that damn picture. Air was so pissed off that she wanted to Pam to get arrested."
Pam had steadily been posting pictures of her and Sarawat for close to two years. Sarawat had spent the past six months begging her to stop, that he would do anything except get back together. Pam furiously refused, then she posted a picture of her hand wearing a diamond ring. The fans went crazy. Tine remembered being depressed over the entire thing, him and the rest of the CTRL+S admins moaning over the loss of Sarawat's singlehood.
"After Pam was served the restraining order and an NDA, my management company had managed to get the photo taken down but there were so many screenshots that it never really left the internet."
Pam stopped posting after that and slowly, she stopped being a hot topic. Instead, the fans began to wonder if she and Sarawat had broken up.
"I knew that ring was fucking fake," Tine said, cheering mentally.
Sarawat snorted. "You're okay about all of this?"
"You loved her, Sarawat. I respect that, and however you chose to deal with your feelings is your business. Sure, somehow I think your fans deserve to know the truth but that's just me, a fan, talking."
Sarawat hummed, turning the volume of the radio down, eyes never leaving Tine's face.
"You've spent your entire career being talked about online," Tine said finally, reaching over and giving Sarawat's hand a comforting squeeze. "There are things you deserve to keep to yourself. I'm glad you told me."
"I think this warrants a coffee invite at your condo." Sarawat joked, raising his eyebrows.
"Saraleo." Tine huffed and let go of his hand, giving him a light push on his chest. "Good night."
"No invite then?"
If Tine was made of weaker shit, he would've said yes to the pout on Sarawat's face. But the thought of Sarawat seeing his office papered with CTRL+S memorabilia was enough to dismiss the thought entirely. He would have to clean that up first, or at least lock the damn door.
Tine grinned at him, getting out of the car.
"Ask me out on a date first."
---
@BKK_cuteboy Spotted! Sarawat and his mystery man go on a secret car date? We're loving the dressed down look, S! His man seems to be in corporate attire. I wonder what he does... (attached was a picture of Sarawat and Tine in the car, waiting at Starbucks drive-through)
@sarawatsREALwife maybe he's just a manager for the company!
@EarnPearIsReal With the size of those hickies? He better not be!
@ctrlSOT3 if he was a manager, it would be very unethical for them to date. it wouldn't be fair to earn or pear.
@ctrlSOT4ever @ctrlSOT3 don't forget MIL!
@ctrlSOT3 have you been living under a rock? mil is a leech who doesn't deserve to be part of CTRL+S!
@whoTFisSarawatsBF well whoever he is, he's cute and i hope they're happy
@CTRL+S_officialFC We stan a single Sarawat but we stan a happy Sarawat more! Don't forget to check out Earn and Pear's new single, written and produced by Sarawat! (link to MV on Youtube)
"Tine is apparently now your manager," Air commented as she scrolled through her Twitter feed. "It's as if they've forgotten I exist."
"Are you on Twitter?" Sarawat asked Pear as they rode the elevator up to Dim's floor. Earn and Pear were parking and also on their way up.
"Yeah," Air said absently, brightly colored fingertips tapping the screen as she monitored the influx of tweets and replies to Sarawat and Tine's latest picture. "When was this even taken? You hate Starbucks."
"Yesterday evening. Tine has apparently developed an unhealthy obsession with their Iced Café Mocha."
Air nodded, seemingly happy with the state of Twitter this morning. She had given Man and Boss and earful the other day for tweeting about Tine and that dreaded "in-law" comment. Needless to say, the two were scared shitless of CTRL+S' five-foot-one manager that they promised to swear off Twitter and IG for the next week.
"I hope Man learns to keep his mouth closed or I will ask P'Type to sew it shut for him. Same goes for Boss."
"I will let your sentiments be known again, milady."
"Don't be sassy. I will say yes to that photoshoot with GQ that you've been avoiding."
Sarawat grimaced at the thought of being half-naked on the cover of that magazine. Sure, the first time he was featured on it, he was with his band and they were more or less appropriately dressed. The current offer was for a solo shoot with him, topless photos for the cover and the spread included in the request.
Air laughed at Sarawat's expression. "Come on."
The duo stopped in front of Dim's office, where Sarawat could see Tine setting up the table with numerous documents. He looked up and spotted Sarawat through the glass, a smile brightening up his face as he waved with one hand, then narrowly avoiding the smack Dim had intended for his head.
"Boss!" Tine whined, "They're here."
Dim coughed, embarrassed, and gave Air and Sarawat a wai. "Please, sit. I have all the papers ready for you."
Air and Sarawat sat down next to each other, with Dim and Tine on the other side of the table. "You said you guys found something else?" Air asked curiously. "I mean, aside from Mil being a total opportunistic parasite."
Tine stifled a grumble at the mention the ex-bassist while Sarawat made eyes at him, pressing their ankles close together. Tine's face turned pink as Sarawat's face held a self-satisfied expression. Dim narrowed his eyes at the two of them suspiciously; Sarawat just flashed him a grin while Tine avoided his gaze completely.
"Are Earn and Pear coming?"
"We're here, we're here!" Pear exclaimed from the doorway, out of breath and tugging a harassed-looked Earn behind her.
Dim wai-ed and motioned towards the rest of the seats in front of him before he started talking.
"There were hundreds of hours of recording Ohm managed to pull up, but most of them were final cuts of the songs that made it to your last album, a few singles, and Earn and Pear's EP."
Sarawat nodded. "I rarely start new songs in the studio. They're always already edited or mixed partially when I ask the members to record. I never thought Mil would actually bug the studio to try and replicate the masters."
"But the songs aren't what I'm concerned about." Dim continued somberly, "When we got the entirety of the recordings the company had, we also saw that they were recording Mil as well."
"What do you mean?" Earn asked. "They were bugging him too?"
"They tapped into his phone and were able to record several of Mil's calls. I think it was for leverage, in case Mil didn't pay them." Dim picked up the tablet in front of him. "He owed them about a hundred thousand baht."
Tine's expression grew worried as he read through the copies of recordings Dim had selected. "Wait. Mil has been talking to Pam?" He quickly stood up and handed everyone their copies.
Sarawat was quiet as he took the sheaf of papers; the three girls glancing worriedly at him and Tine.
"He has." Dim said. "None of these conversations are admissible in court because they were illegally recorded but we can use them as leverage against Mil, force him to take the settlement."
"He had Pam break the restraining order." Air muttered, cold fury filling her entire boy as she read through the papers. "He fucking had Pam break into your apartment!"
"What?!" Pear exclaimed in horror, "You mean..."
"The night of our last concert, six months ago." Sarawat said, tossing the papers on the tables and rubbing a hand over his face tiredly. Tine bit his lip and wrung his hands, wanting to reach over and comfort Sarawat in some way but thinking better of it.
"What happened?" Tine asked instead, directing the question to him. He didn't hear anything about a break in; none of the other admin's tweeted about it since everyone was riding the high from CTRL+S concert.
"We all crashed in Air's management-mandated hotel suite after the concert and I went home the evening after. Pam apparently managed to sweet talk her way into the building and get my front door open. The alarms kicked in before she could take anything."
"His office is locked; so the farthest she could've gone is the kitchen and living room." Earn added, thinking back to that night.
"I'm having your apartment checked for bugs." Air said with finality, "I'll be back." She stood up and walked out of the conference room, quickly calling the security in charge of Sarawat's building and following up with calls to their management company.
"She's a real piece of work, Ai'Wat." Dim said, getting rid of the formalities for now. He tossed the tablet down on the table with a sigh. "I mean I always thought she was a little weird, always looking for you, being mean to Tine..."
"Sorry, what?" Sarawat was staring at Dim.
"P!" Tine complained, tugging at his sleeve like a little kid. "Don't."
Sarawat turned his gaze towards his boyfriend. "What does he mean?"
Tine let out a breath and sent a glare towards his boss. "You're such a tattletale."
Dim shrugged innocently, walking around the table and giving Earn and Pear pats on the head. "These two know. We all did."
Tine let out a groan. Sarawat was still looking at him expectantly.
"Fine," Tine muttered, ruffling his hair with one hand. "Pam wasn't exactly the nicest person to me. Didn't you find it weird that she transferred just as the first semester of our first year was about to end?"
Sarawat shook his head. He didn't think any of it when Pam told him she was transferring to their school, believing her when she said that she just wanted to study music instead of what her parents wanted.
"Do you remember Nuisance?"
Sarawat sat up straight at the mention of the guitar he had lent Tine during their first year at Music Club. He never did get it back; he had completely forgotten about it, thinking Tine just kept it all these years.
"She broke it."
"What?"
"She snapped the handle and cut all the strings just before Altermajeeb."
---
A/N: This is turning into some sort of crazy conspiracy. Mil and Pam and horrible here. I might give Mil a redemption arc if the story permits. I love Drake, tbh. Pam can go rot in hell. Haha, jk (not).