HYSM

One

"Brothers!", Jom and Grace groaned in unison, rolling eyes dramatically as they clung to one another's forearms in an exaggerated show of solidarity and moral support.

Beside them, the said 'brothers' were busy bickering and sniping - hands gesticulating wildly and voices rising higher by the second. Par for the course.

"You know I need this book to complete the assignment, that topic is my section of the presentation!" - the speaker was Gulf, younger brother of Grace.

His opponent? Mew, senior sibling to Jom, and clearly taking sadistic delight in the predicament in which he had placed his detested course mate:

"But I just suddenly got super duper interested in this subject, na. Just had to read up on it straight away, na" came the sing-song, mocking reply.

"It's the last copy of the book! Hand it over to me right away, ass hole. The assignment is due tomorrow!", Gulf's frustration audibly heightening.

"Oh, tomorrow is it? I finished mine a few weeks ago so I forget. Gulf, Nong, you really shouldn't leave your homework until the last minute. I mean, what if someone was to swoop in and check out the last copy of the text book you need from the library...? Just some friendly advice from your Phi" - Mew's eyes were glinting wickedly. Why was the younger man so much fun to tease? an internal snicker.

"Bastard!", and with that, Gulf finally crashed through the unstable barrier of self control, swinging a fist towards the smug expression of his adversary, with a dark vow of: "I'll wipe that smile from your stupid face"

But though Gulf stood slightly the taller of the two young men, Mew was by far the broader built, years on the swim team lending themselves to a fawned-over, muscular form. He caught Gulf's incoming fist mid air, twisting the younger man's arm backwards and reaching out a sly foot to trip him onto the grassy lawn beneath.

Falling heavily - ears burning scarlet with a potent mixture of rage and humiliation - Gulf lunged himself forwards to grasp the legs of the elder, just as Mew turned to stride away in victory.

With an undignified "Oof" of surprise, the second man tumbled too, and soon both were rolling about interlocked on the floor in a distinctly amateur show of wrestling, curses firing through the air as stray bullets.

"Pathetic!", sighed Grace above them.

"The level of immaturity..." Jom shook her head.

And the two women linked arms to step disdainfully over their sparring siblings, onwards to more important matters - their next seminar - as security guards from the background campus library building jogged wearily on to the unfolding scene in the ladies' wake.

Mirroring the arms that knotted those two best friends together, the Jongcheveevat and Traipipattanapong families had been tied from the outset. Moving in to neighbouring streets within six months of each other - houses backing on to one another, no less, rear gardens separated only by a token, diminutive fence. All four children had been born and raised in mutual proximity.

Back then the new parents had swapped infant clothes, exchanged babysitting duties, enjoyed weekly garden barbecues together - had altogether become like extended family over the course of twenty three years as neighbours.

Yet, bemusingly, their sons had been irreversible foes, seemingly from the starting blocks.

Toddler and child Gulf and Mew refused to share toys, snatched one another's snacks, despised to hear their own parents praise the other boy. Then as teenagers, competed with their school grades, competed with their sports achievements, competed with their first date, their first kiss, their first...time.

In fact, they competed against one another in every aspect of life. Focused more time and energy on hating each other than anything else, it sometimes seemed to their long-suffering parents.

In a piercingly cruel twist of fate, Mew suffered a near-fatal motorcycle accident in the Summer after graduating high school. Cruel in the fact of his injuries, of course, but also cruel in the sense that it conspired to place him into the same University intake year as Gulf, necessitating as it did that he should defer entry for twelve months whilst recovering.

And so it happened that Jom and Grace - both now aged twenty one and studying Business Management - and Sports Science students Mew and Gulf, the former at twenty three and the younger twenty one (born unexpectedly, in the same academic year as his older sister), reached this point of the first semester of their final year of university, ensemble, together.

Dragged apart now, by the decisive arms of campus security, the two men, or perhaps the label of boys would be more apt at such a moment? - breathless, bruised cheeks, scratched hands and wounded pride shared as equally as the grass strands matted into their hair - could only spit out at one another:

"Get out of my life! Stay the hell away from me" / "Why are you everywhere I turn?!"

Before they were hauled unceremoniously to the University Chancellor's office to await reprimand and consequence.

It was a familiar scene. Together, once again, seated, scowling, on the punishing, hard wooden bench outside the office.

And as the Chancellor's secretary peered, tutting disapprovingly at the two over the horned rim of her glasses, the thought came that...

It was almost as if they couldn't be apart.