SPACIAL CHAPTER: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
(Notice: Special chapters have no relevant storyline with the main story. Thus, no event happening in special chapters has any effects on the main plot.)
The sunlight that shines through the crack line between curtains into A-Po's bedroom wakes him up; his eyelids can't resist the brightness of this Halloween day on his face any longer. A-Po reaches to his phone at the bedside table to look at the phone's clock.
9:34 AM
He places his phone beside the head of the bed, stretches, let out a moaning sound from his throat before he fully gets up on his bed. It takes him quite some times to gathers himself, then he picks up his phone and checks all the messages.
01:45 AM
Sila: Hey! Are you on?!
Sila: Bro, you doze off so early.
Two LINE's messages from Sila show up. A-Po taps it, can't resist smiling before he replies.
A-Po: I was so spent last night I fell asleep.
After hitting the send button, A-Po walks into the bathroom. Since this morning is of the no-plan day-off, he chooses to be in the exact same pajamas he wore last night doing the morning routine. A-Po turns on TV and goes to Netflix, browsing movies to watch. He likes movies more than series. It takes lesser time – only two or three hours and it ends – unlike series that require so many hours. Some of them even take several days to finish.
The movie A-Po selected begins to play. It is a fantasy genre which is his favorite kind. He leans on the sofa and let the story carries him away...
Beep! There's the LINE notification.
A-Po rushes to check his phone. Most of the time his phone is silent. Not much notifications. If there're only a lot of notifications lately, it's surely from Sila.
Sila: Thought so! Normally you are a night owl, but last night you just disappeared.
A-Po: hahahahaha
A-Po sends the laugh and comes back to his movie. It's not long before he aware that he is free today. And it would be nice to go out and chill outside. That's when he decides to text Sila.
A-Po: Go to MBK with me.
Sila: What time?
A-Po: Let's meet at one in the afternoon.
Sila: Okay.
A-Po's smiles goes so wide when Sila says yes. At first, he thought he would chill out at home, now he finally finds his way to go out. He takes off his shirt and runs fast into the bathroom.
He doesn't take much time to dress himself perfectly. Bleached jeans and a white t-shirt make him shine brightly at another level.
And that black sunglasses! Although he doesn't wear it, the way he clips it with his collar makes it an even cooler accessory.
A-Po drives his car straight to MBK. There's no need to ask why he wants to go there. A-Po wouldn't be able to answer because he didn't plan it. The reason why he decided to go out is that he wanted to meet Sila. The rests are to be decided later.
He'll play it by ear!
A-Po parks his car at the second floor's parking lot. Before stepping out of the car, he reaches for his favorite perfume and wears it slightly just to boost his confidence. Then he hurries into the mall.
A-Po: I'm here.
After he sent Sila the text, he wanders around looking for something to so. Starting from the movie programs – but there's nothing interesting – then he goes to a manga shop – browsing the figures he wants, but he still has no idea what he will do with Sila here.
Wait! Or he should bring him to Maid Café? A-Po thinks it would be fun, but he just looks at it and walks past.
His phone vibrates. A-Po picks it from the back of his pants.
"Are you here? I'm at the cinema floor. Let's meet in front of KFC," A-Po talks back to another side of the phone.
"Okay, Bro. Just wait for a bit," Sila answers. A-Po smiles until his eyes close.
A-Po walks to KFC to wait for Sila. He is playing with his phone when Sila arrives. He walks in and nudges A-Po in the back.
"Bro," Sila calls his name.
"Hey! Here you are." A-Po
"Are you hungry? I'm starving."
"What do you want to eat? How about KFC? It's easy. Or Fuji?" A-Po asks.
"I'll go for KFC. It's easy."
As Sila finishes talking, he walks in the shop immediately with A-Po follows him in.
Sila orders a set, A-po only orders a box of chicken nuggets. Both take the food and walk to the available table. Sila eats without talking. A-Po watches him and can't help cracking up.
"I can see you're very hungry."
"Very much! I'd just woken up before I rushed out! Haven't eaten anything at all!" He complains and continues biting the fried chicken.
"What do you want to do after you finish?" A-Po asks.
"Up to you. You want to watch a movie?" Sila suggests.
"I just checked in. There's nothing interesting," A-Po ponders before he offers. "How about Manga Shop? There're figures too."
"Okay. But only window shop. I don't have money to buy. Hahaha," Sila bursts out laughing. Not only he doesn't have money to buy, but he also isn't interested in this kind of thing. He doesn't really know much about it.
Both eat and talk until finish, then walk out of the fried chicken store into the Manga shop that has been with MBK for so long. As both of them arrive, Sila stops and stares at a Gachapon machine in front of the shop; A-Po who already walked in has to walks back and see.
"I want to play it," Sila points at the Gachapon machine.
"Let's try. Which one do you want?" A-Po offers Sila money to exchange coins for Gachapon.
"Nah, bro. I'm afraid I won't get a good one. It'll waste your money," Sila pushes back his hand.
"What in the world..." A-Po shakes his head before dragging Sila into the shop together.
After finish from the Manga shop in MBK, there's only A-Po carrying a bunch of things out from the store. He has bought new figures and a new set of comic books.
"You've spent A LOT!" Sila complains when he sees all the bags in A-Po's hands.
"Man, I don't do this every day," A-Po waves him off and checks his watch. "What should we do next?"
"I don't know."
"So... You want to go to my condo?" A-Po tests the water.
"Why so?"
"They're going to hold a Halloween party at the common area. The juristic office organizes it."
"That's sounds fun!" Sila's eyes gone wide when he hears the word party.
"It isn't much though. Just a little fair with some stalls and food-trucks," A-Po explains to him.
"It doesn't hurt to try. Today I'm free anyway." Sila agrees. A-Po flashed the bright smile again.
"Then hurry up or the traffic will get bad." He promptly leads Sila to the parking lot.
—————————— The Story of Water and Stone ——————————
A-Po parks his car at the sixth floor of the condo because it's the same floor with the room he stays. He guides Sila all the way to the front door of his room, press the pin, and open the door to go inside.
"Leave your bag here, let's go downstairs and find something to eat," A-Po also places all his belongings on the empty table.
Sila looks around the room and asks him with curiosity. "Two bedrooms? Who are you living with?"
"Another room is for the guest. I case they want to sleep over."
"Can I sleep over tonight? I'm too lazy to go back home. If the party wraps up too late..." Sila teases.
"That's up to you. I'm open for all the options." A-Po smiles at Sila before signals him to go downstairs together.
The lobby and the square in front of the condo are decorated in Halloween theme for all the residents in the building. Sila heads straight to the costume corner where all the paints are there for any people who want to do the ghost-like makeup. Sila urges A-Po to go that way.
"A-Po! Come and do the makeup!"
"No way! It'll cause zits!" A-Po resists.
"This one can be applied to skin! Don't be afraid!" Sila pesters.
"Hell no..."
Sila purses from not getting what he wants. Actually, he wants to tease A-Po. But when thing doesn't go the way he wants, he starts painting his own face.
Here's the bruise! Here's the pus! Make it scary! There's no need to be cute anymore!
"See, am I like a ghost now?" Sila turns to A-Po making a haunting face.
"Ha! Very much!" A-Po laughs and give it to him because he feels like the young boy in front of him is so adorable.
"Let's do it together! Come on!" Sila grabs the paints and the brush aiming to A-Po. At first, he defies a bit, but as Sila face goes sullen; A-Po yields and let him paint his own face into somewhat like a real ghost.
"Now. Finished. Like it?" Sila opens the front camera and let he looks at this own face.
A-Po laughs very hard when he sees his own face because he didn't expect it to be this full-optioned... but it looks cool though.
"Scary like hell! Hahaha!" A-Po talks to himself. Hearing that, Sila giggles to a lovable man.
As they finish with the makeup, A-Po and Sila begins to walk around surveying all the stalls in today's Halloween party. Starting with fresh coconut juice – served freshly from the coconut ball – which Sila needs to buy one. A-Po buys 2 buckets of 'Yuzu Lemon' sherbet ice-cream. Then both of them walk to food trucks that sell noodles, papaya salad, other Thai salads, including all the western dishes. Sila orders seafood-sour-soup Noodle and A-Po goes for spicy minced pork and original papaya salad. After they get all the food they ordered, Sila and A-Po browse for more deserts and add up their meal with some soft cookies.
A-Po and Sila wanders around the fair with lots of food in their hands. That's when A-Po decides to go back to the room and eat everything they have bought. Sila agrees, because it's so hot down here.
As soon as he gets in the room, A-Po turn down the air-conditioner to 16 Celsius. Sila places all the food on the table and rushes to the sofa, laying down.
"Bro, can I turn on the TV?" He asks.
"Sure. You can lay down and watch TV. I'll prepare the food." A-Po speaks while untying the food package.
Sila turns on the TV and browses all the movies in the list, then he selects a horror movie because he wants it to relate with the Halloween vibe like this.
Not too long, A-Po carries all the plates and places them on the tea table in front of the sofa. He glances at the TV and senses that Sila is playing a horror movie.
"Fuck!" A-Po exclaims loudly.
It was the jump-scare scene that frightens A-Po very much he almost drops the plates.
"Why did have to choose horror movie?!" A-Po askes.
"For the Halloween vibe, bro," Sila smiles mildly when he sees that A-Po is afraid of ghosts.
"That was too much!" A-Po holds his chest because he was so scared. Then he moves to sit on the sofa beside Sila.
"Your face is so scary," A-Po turns and looks at Sila's face before he turns back to TV which is playing an important scene.
BANG!!!
The sound from the movie makes A-Po jump. He locks his arm with Sila's arm tightly.
"Bro, are you really that much scared?" Sila tries not to laugh.
"Yeah."
"Come on, let's watch together. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm with you here, don't be scared." Sila says and pats his shoulder to comfort.
He smiles again when he sees the awkward gesture from A-Po.
"Shall we turn off the light? Make it realistic." Sila walks to the switch and turns the light off without waiting a permission.
"What! That makes it even more scary! Look at your face, Sila! You've put on that ghost makeup and now you want to sit in a dark room like this?" A-Po whines. Sila smiles. He feels like he's winning.
The closer the movie moves into it climax, the more A-Po, who sits beside him, shrinks his body into a smaller curl. At this moment blanket and pillow were used by A-Po to cover his face even though Sila tries to pull them out every time the scary parts show up. It is exhausting for both Sila and A-Po.
"Ended finally," A-Po sighs after the movie has ended.
"Fun?" Sila nudges him.
"It's freaking scary. Don't do this again next time, please." A-Po adjusts his tone for the last sentence.
"Don't say please. It's cute!" the word 'please' from A-Po is always his soft spot.
"Hahaha! Aw... Okay. I won't say it. I won't say it. Before someone around here dies," A-Po smiles widely, reaching his hand to pat Sila's head.
"Shall we post an IG story?" Sila grabs his phone, prepares to record the IG story.
"How? Boomerang?" A-Po asks.
"Yeah, Boomerang is nice. It wiggles."
"Okay, come here." A-Po acts big. Sila rushes to sit beside him immediately.
Sila records with Boomerang without thinking anything, suddenly A-Po unexpectedly kisses him in the face. It alarms Sila so much the phone almost falls down.
"Bro!!! What are you doing!!!"
"You're too close it makes me want to kiss you! I just can't help it." A-Po forces a wry smile.
"You are too much! Next time tell me first, okay?" Sila says with a tricky smile.
"Enough. I'll take a shower now. I'm sleepy." As A-Po sees that smile, he promptly denies it and walks to grab a towel, heading to the bathroom.
"Bro! Why! Are you embarrassed? Hahaha!" A-Po entirely red face makes Sila laughs with satisfaction.
#ApoSila #WaterStone