Finding Tine Teepakorn

Chapter 3: Sarawat, why are you here?

I walked inside the house, looking at the picture "Wat? Wat ? Are you in here? SARAWAT? Where are you?"

Tine's POV

I screamed loudly, checked every corner of this massive apartment decked with expensive furniture which was double the size of the house I grew up in, but there was no one else there. It didn't even look like someone else lived in this apartment with me. There was a single coffee mug on the kitchen counter. A single brush and razor in the bathroom.

Just a big picture of Sarawat looking at the sunset in my living room. That's all. He was only here in this picture. He didn't live here with, that was pretty clear.

When I walked back to the living room to see the picture again, my eyes fell upon the book shelf near it. Half of it were full of law books, but the other half had books by old English authors that I had never even cared to read in my whole life — Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Shakespeare.

"What the hell? Why did I become so boring?" I was never interested in reading books apart from the law books that I was forced to read.

But the books looked worn out, like they had been read many times before. When I opened them up, I realised, they were all second-hand books, all with different handwritings and markings. The only thing common between them was the stamp of the bookstore on the first page — Story Cafe.

"Wait, isn't this where I was supposed to be at the time of the accident?"

Opening up my phone and looking for the store online, I found out it was a cafe which was also a second hand bookstore.

"So, this 25-year old Tine Teepakorn, who till now seems like the most boring person ever made regular appointments in his calendar for this cafe and collected secondhand books.

But why second hand books? He has enough money to buy limited edition covers and hardbound books. And given how packed his everyday calendars look, he absolutely did not have time to just sit at a cafe and do nothing. He was definitely there for a reason, but what?"

I put down the books and scanned the rest of the shelf when I discovered a vinyl record of a my favourite Scrubb album.

I sighed. "Wat, you aren't even here and yet, I can feel you all around this house." I picked up the Vinyl record hoping to play it, only to realise there was no turntable in the house. "So, this grown up rich Tine Teepakorn bought these vinyls but he doesn't even have a record player. Is this like a weird rich people thing?"

I shook my head, putting down the vinyl record in place and found my way into the bedroom which was probably bigger than the house that I grew up in. "Okay, I could seriously get used to it." I practically pounced on the bed which was quite honestly the most comfortable bed I had ever lied on. And just so much better than my stinky college dorm bed.

"Is this really all mine? This is really my life now? Dammit, I can't believe I actually made it. All those nights I spent studying, all those professors I had to beg for extra grades, all those side jobs I had to take just to pay for college  — All of them finally paid off. You made it old Tine." I smiled and my eyes wandered off to the big window in the room with the perfect view of the city at night.

As I put my phone on the bedside table, I noticed a bracelet lying on it -- The bracelet with the guitar pick on it that Sarawat had given me when we started dating. "So, Old Tine still keeps this bracelet with him, and yet, the person who gave him this bracelet is nowhere to be found."

I picked it up and wore it on my left wrist, just like I did in college. It was mine anyway. "I don't know where you are Wat, but I will find you and make things right. I promise."