A couple of days has passed since Tommy and Jimmy's Anniversary celebration, Gulf's class observation has already been done, and the feedback that he got from Mek was very good.
Now, he is sitting on his chair in the faculty room looking bored, after he closed his laptop, he grabbed his phone and looked at it seemingly waiting for something to pop up.
"Hey, why are you so unfocused?" Jimmy approached Gulf and questioned him
"Nothing, I'm just waiting for my new friend to reply" he looked at Jimmy then turned back to his phone
"Who's your friend? Are there any other friends beside me?" Jimmy raised his brow seemingly annoyed at Gulf for having another friend
"Can you not be possessive? I have plenty of friends!" Gulf frowned at jimmy then ignore him
"Hey who is your friend?" Jimmy grabbed the phone on Gulf's table.
Gulf tried to grab his phone ahead of jimmy, but jimmy moved faster and got his phone first
"Hey give it back!" Gulf reached his hands and tried to take back his phone
Jimmy immediately looked at the phone and saw what Gulf is getting busy at then stared at his friend with shock
"You are on Ginder?!" Jimmy's voice slightly raised which caught some faculty member's attention
When Gulf heard jimmy's surprised voice, he immediately pressed his hands on his mouth and covered it then looked around to see if anybody else heard
When he saw that there were other faculty members looking at them, he gave a stiff smile and mumbled "sorry for the disturbance" then nodded slightly to the people looking at them.
After that, he looked at Jimmy angrily, "You can shut up you know?!" He continued covering his mouth then after a while, grabbed his phone from jimmy's hand and sat back straight to his chair then looked at his phone
"How is it so far?" Feeling amused at Gulf looking for romance at the Ginder app, Jimmy thought of teasing Gulf, but after thinking for a while, he decided against it and just showed his support to his best friend.
Ginder is a dating platform for all sexuality, like the usual dating app, the user needs to set up his/her profile and put pictures and details so other strangers within the platform can see it. It also asked for the user for his/her location to survey who are the other Ginders in the area.
Gulf shook his head then turned to Jimmy with a sad look, "it is not working out so far, I have this app for a week now!"
"Let me see" he reached out for Gulf's phone again, now, Gulf did not fight back and let Jimmy grab his phone
"Ehhh? Why do you not have a picture?" Jimmy clicked on Gulf's profile and saw that he does not have any picture and what is only written are:
Kana, 22
Bangkok, Thailand
Hobbies: Football, Eating
Tell me something about yourself: I am looking for new friendsJ.
Seeing how boring, Gulf's profile is, Jimmy shook his head then said, "You really are hopeless, come on, look here, let's add a profile picture", after that, he pointed Gulf's phone at him trying to get a photo to add to his profile
"mai (no)!" before even Jimmy was able to aim properly at Gulf, Gulf already grabbed his phone back from Jimmy's hands and looked at it.
"Hey, give it back! How are you going to get a Faen if your profile is boring? At least post one picture to show them your handsome face!" Jimmy reached out and attempted to grab Gulf's phone back
"No! I can't post a picture! The school will find out!" he pushed jimmy
Hearing this, jimmy stopped insisting and remembered that, yes, as professors, it is a little bit inappropriate to be seen on dating sites.
"Okay, so, did you match with anyone already? Have you talked to anybody?"
"Well, there are some, but whenever they ask me to send picture and I decline, they do not reply to me anymore", he looked at jimmy with sad eyes again
"Jimmy, what if I get old alone? I don't want to get old alone!" he shook jimmy's arms
"Hey, calm down! Don't worry, I will buy you your first cat!" jimmy grabbed Gulf's shoulder then looked at him with sympathetic eyes
"No!" after that, he grabbed his phone and opened Ginder then clicked his profile pic, then started posing for his profile picture, after not finding the angle he want, Gulf stood up and gave Jimmy his phone saying, "Come on, help me take a good photo"
Seeing how fast Gulf changed his mind, Jimmy shook his head then grabbed the phone and focused it to gulf, Gulf crossed his arms and opened his legs a little then raised his head. He is trying to look cool for his profile picture
Before Jimmy even clicked the capture button, the door to the faculty room opened and Mew entered. He looked directly at gulf then frowned, "What are you doing?"
Seeing Mew looking at their side with his usual cold face and a frown, Jimmy immediately placed the phone on top of Gulf's desk and slowly walked away from him
Being caught in an awkward pose, gulf raised his hands and stretched it then pretended to yawn, then looked at Mew with a 'just-woke-up' look and said, "Just stretching ajarn" after that he sat back down and grabbed his phone, putting it in his pocket.
Mew continued frowning when he saw Gulf stretching, after a while, his usual cold face resurfaced then he walked to his table.
Seeing that Mew did not scold him anymore, Gulf sighed in relief then turned to Jimmy and covered the side of his face with a book and opened his mouth, speaking without sound, "Did you capture a photo?"
Jimmy turned to gulf with an apologizing look then opened his lips and mouthed, "I got scared! Sorry" after that he wai at Gulf.
Seeing that he still does not have a cool profile picture, Gulf sighed and internally thought, "Maybe it is really not for me" after giving a sad sigh, he placed his head on his desk and just tried to take a light nap before his class.
In the cafeteria at lunch, Gulf looked at his phone again and checked his profile.
After a couple of swipes to the right, he sighed
"Hey, why are you sighing? Still no match?" Jimmy, who is carrying his plate sat beside gulf in the cafeteria
"Yup. Maybe it really is not for me" Gulf looks sad
"Come on, don't be sad. Do you want be to take a photo of you now?" he started eating while talking to gulf
"Nahh, I'll just enjoy my single life for now" Gulf shook his head and seemed to change his mind again, then, grabbed his phone then pressed the app longer than usual.
After a while, the 'x' button appeared, he placed his finger on top of it but after second thought he did not delete the app.
"Do you want me to ask P Tommy to find you a date from his work?"
"Oh, that means that it will be an actor or singer like himself? Nahh, I prefer a relaxed life"
"It is not that bad you know?" Jimmy did not look at Gulf and continued eating
The two continued eating and after a while, the both of them went back to the faculty room.
Before Jimmy opened the door, he turned to Gulf and asked, "Do you really not want me to ask P Tommy to set up a date for you with someone from his work?"
"Knock it off already!" after that, jimmy shrugged his shoulder and grabbed the door handle
When Jimmy opened the door to the faculty room, he was surprised when he saw Mew glaring at him with a frown, after that, he wai to mew and nodded a little then entered, Gulf also followed and looked at mew then wai then nodded, before he even smiled, Mew turned away already
Feeling nothing unusual from Mew's actions, Gulf went back to his seat and started preparing for his classes in the afternoon.
When the bell rang for the afternoon class, Gulf, Jimmy, and the other faculty members along with Mew started preparing their things and started heading out of the faculty room.
Like usual, Jimmy left the faculty room later than anyone else.
When Jimmy arrived in front of his class, he felt something unusual, the usually noisy and rowdy class in front of him felt peaceful. Immediately, he frowned seemingly feeling something amiss.
When he opened the door, all the students turned to him, some of them looking anxious and some of them looking scared. He frowned even further. After taking a step inside and surveying his surroundings, immediately, he felt like a thunder struck him and stood frozen on his spot.
At the very corner of the room, Jimmy saw Mew sitting seemingly watching him with his usual cold piercing stare.
Cold beads of sweat started appearing on his back, after gaining his wits back, he gave Mew a wai and then proceeded to the desk.
Why is he observing?! I was not informed that there will be an observation today! I am so dead!
Random thoughts started appearing in his mind. After setting up his laptop, Jimmy started teaching.
When Jimmy started teaching, his attention gradually changed from mew to his students, even though he looks like a clown sometimes, he is still a good teacher.
After some time, Jimmy started asking his students to explain the meaning of the English word he was saying, one student after the other were called, and most of them were able to answer, while there were a few who were not.
For those who were not able to answer, Jimmy asked them to remain standing for a while, and gave them another opportunity to answer after the next question.
While asking one student, he caught a glimpse of Mew raising his hand, immediately, he sweated and felt extremely nervous.
Why are you raising your hand?! I am dead, I am so dead!
"Uhmmm, yes, Ajarn?" Jimmy turned to Mew and gave a stiff smile, it is obvious that he is afraid.
Hearing Jimmy's tone of voice, some brave students turned to Mew, while there are others who pitied Jimmy.
Seeing that he caught Jimmy's attention, Mew nodded while still maintaining his cold look then focused on Jimmy then started speaking in English,
"Khun Karn, can you please explain the meaning of the word Marplot again?"
Marplot was the last word Jimmy asked, and the student was not able to answer it.
Jimmy looked at Mew with confusion but still nodded and looked at the students seemingly explaining to them the definition, "Marplot means, to ruin someone else's plan by meddling" he gave the most basic definition he can to be safe from mew's question, after that he turned to mew again,
Mew nodded his head then turned to the confused students and said, "As an example, if someone is not such a marplot, he would have made his move already" after he said these, some students were enlightened but there are also those who got even more confused.
Seeing that there are still confused students after Mew's example, Jimmy followed up and continued looking at his students, "Marplot is a character in a play that always meddle in between lovers, the term was used negatively to express annoyance to someone who ruin someone else's plan"
After saying these, Mew stood up and nodded to Jimmy then walked out of the room.
After the door closed, Jimmy was finally able to relax and calm himself. Shortly after, a student raised his hand, "so ajarn, marplot is like, If I want to make a move on Jae but Sing keeps on interfering by giving Jae different ideas so Jae will not see my actions, then he is a marplot, right?"
After analyzing what the student said, Jimmy nodded and said, "That is right"
After that, the male student who asked turned to his classmate named Sing and said, "You know now, sing, stop telling Jae to download dating apps! Stop being a Marplot!" after that the class laughed
Jimmy seemed to not notice what his student said and looked at the door in daze, "I thought he was going to humiliate me in class. Good thing I was able to create an impromptu question and answer to kill time, I really don't have any plan to teach right now." After that, he looked back at the students and continued with his impromptu question and answer thinking that maybe mew will come back.
After Mew finished "Observing" Jimmy, he headed directly back to the faculty room. When he was already close to the faculty room, he heard a female voice not far from him, "Mew, what are you doing here? I thought your class was cancelled?"
Mew turned around and saw Mek. While maintaining his usual face, he replied, "nothing, I was just looking around" without waiting for Mek's response, Mew continued walking to the faculty room then entered.
Mek looked at Mew's back with confusion, after thinking for a while, she did not dwell on the topic further and followed him inside.
After finishing his class, Gulf went back to the faculty room to relax for a while then prepare for his next class. When he entered the faculty room, like usual, he turned to Mew and saw him reading whatever he was reading, then went back to his chair.
When all of his things are already arranged on top of his desks, he opened his laptop to watch some YouTube videos then after 15 minutes, he started preparing and studying for his next class.
After the bell for his next class rang, Gulf grabbed his teaching materials and stood up heading to the door. When he opened the door, he saw that Jimmy was about to enter.
After greeting Jimmy, he continued walking to his next class.
When Jimmy entered the door, he saw that Mew was looking at Gulf. After Gulf walked out, Mew turned to him.
Jimmy stiffened when he saw that Mew turned to him, immediately, he gave Mew a wai and lowered his head slightly then walked to his desk.
"Wait"
Jimmy heard Mew's emotionless voice. Jimmy turned to Mew looking afraid and pointed at himself seemingly asking if Mew is talking to him
Mew frowned when he saw Jimmy's action, after that, he looked at Jimmy's back. Jimmy turned around and saw that it is only him standing at that side of the room.
Jimmy gave a dry laugh and smiled awkwardly then said, "Yes Ajarn?"
"Come here" Mew did not wait for Jimmy to reply and then turned around facing his book again
When Mew turned around, Jimmy immediately opened his mouth and said without any sound, I DON'T WANT TO! But contrary to what his lips said, he slowly walked to mew
"Sit down" Mew pointed to the empty chair beside him but did not look at Jimmy
When Jimmy heard Mew's serious voice, he immediately felt nervous, now he realized that he does not really talk to Mew. All this time, he has been avoiding any communication with him.
"I really understand how Gulf feels every time he faces this Man! I feel you Gulf, I will not tease you again regarding this Man! Get me out of here! "These are all what is in Jimmy's mind right now.
Jimmy gave a stiff smile then nodded and sat beside him not speaking any words.
After reading a couple more lines from the book he is holding, Mew turned to Jimmy looking straight to his eyes.
When Jimmy stared at Mew's face, he realized that what Gulf said before was right, this professor in front of him is really handsome! Of course he is not attracted to Mew, since he is obsessed with his boyfriend, Tommy, but still, he now understands that Mew is really handsome.
After a few seconds, he frowned and thought, "Why does he look a little like Gulf? Ohh! The nose! His nose looks a little like gulf!" he ceased his frown and nodded a little.
"Is there a problem with my face?" Mew looked at Jimmy then frowned
Hearing mew's words Jimmy was jolted awake from his thoughts, immediately he felt cold
"Ahh.. hah.. Nothing Ajarn." He smiled awkwardly again then lowered his head a little
Seeing that Jimmy is not speaking anymore, Mew opened his mouth, "Your teaching style earlier is good, but it is not the best, there are times where you could have improved the way you speak. Aside from that, you joke around too much when you talk to your students. That is unprofessional" he stared at Jimmy and gave him his observation earlier with a cold voice
Ahh! He will just tell me his observation earlier! I got so nervous. Jimmy thought and raised his head to look at Mew, however, when he saw Mew's straight face, he got afraid again and lowered his head, and just nodded as a sign of agreement.
"Therefore, I have decided that from now on, I will mentor you" Mew continued with the same emotionless voice
Jimmy continued nodding, after a while, he seemed to realize what Mew said and immediately raised his head and looked at Mew with a scared face.
"K...Krap?" Jimmy stuttered asking
"Starting tomorrow, I will mentor you" Mew seemed to not get it that Jimmy didn't want him to be his mentor.
"Problem?" Mew stared at jimmy and frowned, his voice also became colder
"Not...nothing, krap" Jimmy shivered as he answered.
After the conversation, Mew turned back to his book and continued reading. Jimmy, still in daze stood up from his chair and walk slowly to his desk, while walking, all he have in mind are questions,
"What happened? How did that happen? Why me? Why?!" he really wanted to cry but no tears flowed out from his eyes.
After arriving at his desk, Jimmy seems to not function properly and just looks at the window in daze, no one knows what he is thinking.
After finishing all his afternoon classes, Gulf walked back to the faculty room. When he entered, he saw that mew was not there already and headed directly to his desk.
Shortly after, he saw Jimmy entering the faculty room in daze, Gulf frowned when he saw him but ignored him immediately.
When jimmy saw that gulf is already in the faculty, the emotions in his eyes came back and ran next to him and sat beside him
"Gulf, help me! I am totally screwed!" He grabbed gulf shoulder and shook it
Gulf slapped jimmy's hands because he is starting to get dizzy then turned to him
"What happened to you?" he asked with a frown
"Gulf! I am sorry! I will not ever tease you to Ajarn Mew ever again! Please help me!" he looked like he is begging Gulf to save his life
"Hey, what happened? I don't understand you!" he grabbed Jimmy's shoulder and said to his face
"Ajarn mew said that he will mentor me! Gulf help me! You are close to him right? Please gulf? Please!" he hugged gulf pleading to him
Gulf was surprised at what he heard, but after giving some thought, he realized that it is not that bad. After all, being the mentee of one of the best professors in the university doesn't come often.
He pushed Jimmy away and looked at him, "hey, that is not that bad right? Not many people get the opportunity to be taught by the best professor. You should be happy!"
"No! I am an English instructor! He is an engineering professor! Our line does not match! Aside from that, he is scary! Come on, help me Gulf!" Jimmy shook his head aggressively, strongly showing gulf that he does not want to be Mew's mentee.
"Did you tell P mek already?" Gulf looked at his friend with concern
Seemingly enlightened by Gulf's words, Jimmy immediately stood up from his seat and ran to Mek's office.
"P mek! Help me! Jimmy barged in Mek's office without knocking"
"Ahhhh!" Mek got shocked and looked at Jimmy
"What happened?" she looked at how sad jimmy looked and asked in concern
Jimmy approached mek and sat on the chair in front of her
"P, Ajarn Mew said that he wants me to be his mentee starting tomorrow! I don't want P! I am so scared of him!" he looks pitiful
Mek was surprised by Jimmy's statement, after that he looked at Jimmy with her scrutinizing eyes and asked him in confusion, "how did that happen?"
"After I got back from my class, he just asked me to be his mentee! P help me! I don't want to!"
He reached out his hands and touched Mek's hands
Mek did not know whether to laugh or cry. With a self-mocking smile, she looked at jimmy and touched his hands with her other hand,
"Hey jimmy, it is not such a bad thing! The last mentee of mew is now a professor, aside from that, he only accepted 2 mentees before you, both of his mentees are now professors other faculty members within different faculties look up to. He only accepts the best professors to be his mentee you know" she tried to give jimmy the brighter side of things.
However, internally she added, "That is why I am wondering, why he chose you."
Hearing what Mek said, Jimmy's mood seemed to be uplifted and thought, "that means, I am one of the best instructors in our batch? No, I am the best instructor in out batch!" his lips curved upward when he thought of this.
When Jimmy walked out of Mek's office, Gulf saw that he was smiling from ear to ear.
"Hey, what happened? Are you not his mentee anymore?" Gulf approached Jimmy
"Nope, I am still his mentee!" Jimmy smiled at gulf brightly and remembered that he is the best instructor in their batch, he did not tell gulf about this because he did not want to hurt his feelings, another, he did not want gulf to think that he is arrogant for being the best.
Seeing that the usual Jimmy is back, Gulf shook his head and left Jimmy alone and walked back to his desk.
When he arrived at his desk, he saw the stacks of papers that he needed to read and check. Immediately his mood depleted
Why do I have to ask them to do these case analysis?! Now I have so many papers to check! Gulf complained internally
"Gulf, are you still not going home?" Mek approached Gulf.
"Just a few more papers P, I will immediately go home after these" Gulf smiled at Mek
It is already 8PM now and the other faculty members has already left,
"Okay, good luck gulf!" Mek touched gulf's shoulder then walked to the door
Gulf smiled at Mek then nodded then went back to his papers. Now, it is only him in the faculty room.
After a few more minutes, gulf was finally able to finish checking all of his papers, "at last! Done!" he closed his pen and started arranging the papers on his desk, placing it in an envelope.
After that, he started packing his stuff and stood up. At this point, the janitor has already started cleaning the faculty room.
After packing all the things he needed, he greeted the Janitor and bid him goodbye then walked out of the room.
Since the university has classes until 9PM, there are still a lot of students on campus.
While walking, Gulf felt his tummy rumbling, he immediately touched his tummy and rubbed it and realized that he had not eaten dinner yet.
After walking for a few minutes, Gulf arrived in front of the Engineering department's building. Adjacent to this department is where the university cafeteria is located.
The university cafeteria is a three story building that has food kiosks scattered around the first floor, while the second floor houses multiple restaurants. The third floor, which students are not allowed to enter, is a teacher's lounge where Instructors, and professors are allowed to eat, one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner for free.
Whenever gulf finishes his class early, and he does not have any plan to eat with jimmy and tommy, and he does not have any food at home, he always invites jimmy to join him here and grab a to-go meal which he will bring back to his place.
While holding his tummy, Gulf arrived in front of the cafeteria. When he is about to enter, the guard stopped him, "Ajarn, the cafeteria is only until 8PM, sorry na krap"
"Ao! Really? Mai phen rai P! (It is alright)" Gulf smiled to the guard and turned around and continued rubbing his tummy, he was really hungry already.
Gulf lowered his head and started thinking where he can eat, after a while, he hit someone and said "sorry" instinctively.
After raising his head, he immediately saw Mew's familiar face.
"ao P, why are you here?" since no one is around them, Gulf just addressed Mew casually
Instead of answering, mew asked back, "hungry?"
Exactly at this moment, Gulf's tummy made a sound.
Gulf was embarrassed and rubbed his head then smiled awkwardly and nodded.
"Follow me" while still maintaining his cold face, he turned around and started walking
Gulf did not think much of it and followed Mew. After a while, they arrived in front of Mew's car and Mew entered.
After he heard the clicking sound of the door unlocking, he opened the door to Mew's car and entered
"Where are you taking me P?" he looked at Mew and asked curiously
"Just wait and see" Mew turned to him, now, there is a smile on his face
Gulf nodded and did not respond again, after a few minutes, he connected his phone to Mew's stereo and started playing his playlist.
Mew was not bothered by this. Instead, he really felt happy that gulf did not ask permission from him and just connected his phone to his stereo.
Since it is pretty late already, there is no more traffic now from the university to the mall.
When the two arrived at the mall, Mew led the way to Epicure and Gulf followed.
"Oh! Epicure!" Gulf was surprised at where Mew is heading
Mew heard Gulf's statement but did not turn around and maintained his cold face. They are in public now so the cold face surfaced again
When they arrived at the restaurant, Gulf saw that the staff were already cleaning the table seemingly finished within business hours.
"Khun, I think they are closing already" Gulf walked closer to Mew and commented
Mew did not say a word and just stood in front of the restaurant
When one staff member saw that there was a person in front of the restaurant, he immediately approached them, "sawadee krap, uhm, khun, we are..."
Before he even finished speaking, another staff walked out of the restaurant cutting his sentence and said to mew, "Khun, I already asked someone to call P boss, Let me lead you to the VIP room first"
Mew nodded and started walking following the staff.
Gulf, as well as the other staff looked at each other with confused expression then Gulf smiled and nodded to the staff then followed behind Mew.
The staff who approached mew earlier looked at the three people walking away from him with a confused expression.
After a few seconds, a female staff approached him and said
"You know, you just almost ruined your job. You are not here last week so you do not know who that is. According to the boss, that man has a much higher authority than him. And whenever he comes here, everyone must immediately treat him with respect. P boss also said that it will be his duty to serve that man whenever he arrives." After saying that, the female staff looked at the two then sighed
The staff that almost rejected Mew paled immediately when he heard this, he thanked all the heavenly beings for giving him good luck and continuing cleaning some tables.
When the two arrived at the VIP room, Gulf smiled at the staff that guided them then thanked him, after that, the staff left them and Gulf turned to Mew, "P, you know the owner of this place?" he looked at Mew curiously
Before Mew answered, Boss entered the room and was totally surprised to see a smile surfaced on mew's face, immediately, his heart beat faster and he looked at Gulf meaningfully and gave a bright smile.
Mew looked at Boss then turned to Gulf with a smile and replied, "A friend"
Boss was stunned at Mew's words. He doesn't know what is happening but he was really happy to see his young master smile today. Aside from that, he called him a friend again. He thought, after a long time, he's young master's emotions are starting to come back! And maybe it is all because of this boy.
"You seem to know this place, have you been here before?" Mew gave the menu to gulf
Gulf grabbed the menu and browsed through it and replied to Mew, "yes P, Jimmy and his Faen celebrated their anniversary here last week!" after that he looked at Mew and gave a teasing smile and followed, "I even saw you exit this room with P Flo!"
"Really? Why did you not approach us?" Mew was stunned by this revelation
"Why would I? You two look so sweet. I don't want to ruin your date. Aside from that you guys are already leaving."
After saying that, he looked at the smiling Boss and placed his orders, Boss nodded and walked back to the kitchen.
Mew did not explain to gulf that he misunderstood them and stared at him with a frown and said, "I heard that you are on a dating app huh?"
When gulf heard this, his body stiffened and looked at Mew with a nervous expression
In his mind he is screaming, "JIMMY!"