A step away from love

07. Take your time

Yong had recently gotten his driver's license and as a gift for his success, his parents had gifted him a car. It was a lovely attitude, but the boy still hadn't had the courage to drive the vehicle around. Jiew had teased the taller one about it several times until he decided to take a challenge on himself.

"Then don't go by bus to college tomorrow! I'll give you a ride!"

"I don't know if I should accept…", Jiew said worriedly.

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's no big deal and…", but Yong was interrupted.

"It's not that, I'm afraid of dying if you're behind the wheel!", Jiew said teasing his friend once again.

Yong aggressively rolled his eyes to show he wasn't satisfied, but didn't take the criticism seriously. In fact, that would be the least of their problems, since what hindered the new driver was not the excess of speed, but the absurd lack of it.

********

"Please, go faster, Yong", Jiew muttered again.

"I'm doing my best, Jiew!", Yong said blushing hard.

"We will never come on time that way, Ai Yong!", Jiew complained.

"We can do this, ok? Believe in me!", Yong asked, his voice broken in embarrassment.

Jiew was about to give up and let the taller man do whatever he wanted to when the officer driving a police car behind them signaled them to pull over. Not exactly unexpected, but still annoying.

"Do you know why I stopped you, Khun… Thitiwat?", the policeman asked reading the name in the driver's license.

"I'm sorry, sir! I just don't like to drive too fast!", Yong said apologetically.

"Young man, you can't be over the speed limit, but the way you were driving was too slow!", the policeman explained.

"I'm so sorry, officer! I've told my friend to speed up a bit, but he just got his driver's license a few days ago and is still a bit afraid of driving in the streets. I promise you he won't do that again! Can you let us go this time, please?", Jiew tried to negotiate from the passenger's seat, giving the man a pleading look.

"Ok, this time I'll let you go. But I'll won't be as nice in the next one!", the man threatened the students.

"Thank you, sir!" Yong said before turning the engine on again.

After that the rest of the way to University was pretty quiet, with both students lost in their own thoughts. For Jiew there was always a kind of pleasure in noticing that the giant he had for a friend had that cool, bold facade, but inside he was a shy and worried muffin. For Yong, it was both embarrassing to have been stopped for driving too slowly, but a comfort to know that Jiew didn't criticize him for it. By the way, why hadn't he said anything?

"You can say it", Yong said after they arrived at the University campus.

"I won't." Jiew said looking straight ahead.

"Come on, Jiew! Say it already!", Yong halted his step and called out his friend.

"I won't say anything, Yong! You're just like this and I got used to it. You may be a little slow, but it doesn't matter, just take your time. I'll always wait for you, ok? Now let's go inside or the teacher will scold us for being late again!", Jiew said running from Yong.

The taller male felt something strange with Jiew's little speech, but couldn't connect the dots and decided to ask his friend about it later. Looking at his wrist watch he started to run to his class. They were really late this time.