Before you go

Right love in a wrong time

06 months, 20 days, 06 hours, 01 minute, 15 seconds

"It's you."

Arthit looks up from his phone inquisitively, searching for the owner of the unfamiliar voice. His eyes immediately fall upon two boys standing right in front of him. He knows one of them well - a little bit too well, Arthit thinks, - the other is a stranger.

"Hi, Knot," Arthit greets his best friend, sending a polite smile to the boy beside him.

The boy has a weird expression on his face, his eyes bright, almost sparkling, and he looks like he wants nothing more than to envelop Arthit in his warm embrace.

"Arthit, this is Kongpob," Knot gestures between them.

Kongpob is smiling at him impossibly widely now, relief written all over his features, as he sighs breathily, "It's so good to meet you. Finally." His smile doesn't falter for a second.

Slightly taken aback by the boy's enthusiasm, Arthit returns the grin nevertheless, putting his phone down on the coffee table, "Likewise. Knot told me so much about you."

But Kongpob doesn't respond.

His eyes are glued to the inside of Arthit's exposed forearm, where glowing digits continue their relentless ticking, marking days and minutes until Arthit finally meets his soulmate.

Tearing his gaze away from Arthit, Kongpob pulls down the sleeves of his sweater harshly but Arthit still manages to catch a glimpse of numbers on his arm.

Ten zeros. So the boy must have already met his...

Suddenly everything - Kongpob's toothy smile, and hopeful words, and devastation upon seeing Arthit's numbers - makes sense.

And then Kongpob starts moving, and Arthit would have expected someone who looks like him - like he is fucking royalty or whatnot - to move with poise and grace, but Kongpob doesn't. He is awkward and uncoordinated, and he resembles a fawn that is learning how to walk for the first time, and he is leaving.

"Shit!" Arthit swears uncharacteristically loudly, and jogs after the boy, leaving a confused Knot behind. "Arthit, wait!"

The same moment when Kongpob's hand lands on the doorknob, Arthit's hand lands on Kongpob. "Stop. Don't run away. Please," Arthit begs, not knowing himself why catching up with this boy is so important. He circles his fingers around Kongpob's wrist, mere inches below the goddamned numbers, and asks in a small voice, "Did they hit zero today?"

Kongpob nods, and the brusque movement makes the tears welled up in his eyes spill.

"Did they hit zero just now?"

He nods again.

"Could it be someone else in the room?" Arthit knows the answer to this question but he needs to be sure.

Kongpob shakes his head sullenly, "I know everybody else here. It's either you or P knot's mom," he offers Arthit a pained smile.

And the boy looks so broken, so vulnerable that Arthit's heart aches. He wraps his hands around Kongpob, and the other boy turns out to be taller, so Arthit has to stand on his tiptoes a little, but he doesn't mind.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"It's not your fault," Kongpob counters.

"It's not yours either. I'm sorry," Arthit repeats insistently.

05 months, 01 day, 02 hours, 43 minutes, 31 seconds

"I still don't understand how you two work," Knot says one day.