He hates me NOT

XXIII. Creeping cold

a/n: Im listening to Dua Lipa's "Break My Heart" cuz Im streaming her as I write this chapter.

•••♦•••

More than a month has passed since Beam walked away from the Faculty of Engineering, life moves on and everything is just like what it was before he became the Head Medic. He goes to school, attend lectures and medical activities, hang out with the gang, and at the end of the day he goes back to his apartment. Beam has been repeating this religiously for the past month without any thought, and this has been his normal.

The Crazy-Doc-Gang just came out from the barbecue place where the trio regularly eats grilled meat, it was already 9 o'clock and they have decided to call it a night. All of them piled inside Pha's car when they arrived at the parking lot and with Pha as the driver, Beam let Kit takes the passenger's seat. Beam wants to monopolized the space at the backseat and just wanted to rest undisturbed by the passing city lights.

Pha turned on the radio and played some music on low volume as the rain start to lightly patter. Beam observed the small number of rain droplets on the window as they were stuck on a stop light traffic. The world is still doing it's thing even with a light rain shower, the street's are still full of people trying to find shelter and cars waiting for the green light of the traffic sign, Beam thought.

While the rain is setting in, something cold is spreading inside Beam like feeling an emotional hypothermia. He's dry physically but he felt like he is soaked to the bone, his clothes are still on it's pristine state but why does it feel like it was dripping wet that it makes him shiver. Beam leaned to the car window and wondered when did he noticed he was slowly freezing.

When they arrived on their apartment's lobby and the usual old man behind the reception desk called out for Beam.

"Nong Beam!"

"Yes, Grandpa." Beam stopped.

"I received a package addressed to you earlier." The older man said as he put a small size parcel on top of the desk.

Beam confusedly inspect the parcel and continue, "Im sorry, Grandpa for troubling you with this. How much do I owe you?"

The old man just shook his head and replied, "Don't worry about the payment, the courier mentioned that it was paid in advance."

Beam thanked the old man and carried the mystery package with him, Pha and Kit gave him a puzzled look when he rejoined them.

"Bought something from online?" Kit asked.

"I don't recall ordering something." Beam scrunched his brows.

"Whose it from then?"

Beam flipped the parcel and read the delivery receipt, "There's no senders name, it's just my name and the product's brand. The brand name looks familiar though, where have I seen this before?" He mumbled.

"Someone must have sent it to you." Pha commented.

When they've reach their floor, Kit and Phana bid goodnight to Beam as they entered their own rooms. Beam just placed the parcel on his study and starts preparing for the bed. He changed for his pajama after he was done washing, goes straight to bed and waits for sleep to take over him.

However, sleep doesn't come even after laying for an hour. Beam remained awake, aware of the noises around him. The low hum of the neighbor's television, the ticking of his clock, and his own steady breathing that seems to stagger. He's feeling the cold again, but this time it's starting from the tips of his fingers. When did the flame starts to falter inside, he wonders. Was it always this cold inside his room, he never really noticed it before.

He laid still in the darkness of his unit, occasionally being illuminated by passing cars on the street below. Beam recount his day on his mind and remembers the parcel he had gotten an hour ago. He got up from the bed slowly, searching for the rectangular parcel on his study.

He stared at it for a whole minute before picking it up from the table, it was solid and shaped rectangularly. He hesitated from opening it earlier because he doesn't know where it came from but because he's unable from falling asleep, he settled on opening the package instead. Beam tear it's plastic bag and a cartoon box came out from it, he paused for a while to prepare himself before lifting the box's lid.

Gasp!

Upon seeing the package content, he was stunned by what was delivered. Beam was wide eye and couldn't close his mouth. It was a leather bound journal engraved with two ionic column supporting an arch above, swirly trees inside, and a star and crown above it in the middle. He couldn't stop himself from running his fingers along the incise, he knows the symbol all too well.

It's the Doors of Durin on the cover. A setting from his favorite book, the Lord of the Rings.

He smiled as he unclasped the leather strapped securing the journal, he thumbed the paper on the first page as he softly read the words on it.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

He leaf a few more pages that are full of illustrations from the book and when he reached a blank page, he paused. Beam carefully turned the blank paper over the next page and then realization suddenly hit him when he saw the writing. A tear drops as he remembered when the fire inside him was extinguished.

It was when he gave up his feelings for Forth.

•••♦•••

Forth's Apartment

"Hey! bud. I got your assignment papers here." Lam shouted while knocking on Forth's door.

The door opened and Forth came out with his hair looking like a bird's nest. Lam handed him the papers and sigh at Forth's appearance. Forth just huffed at Lam's judgemental look.

"Thank you for dropping this off." Forth thanked.

"No sweat." Lam replied.

"How's school?" Fourth nonchalantly asked.

"Well...it's a free for all without you there." Lam shrugged.

to be continued:

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A/N: Please excuse the Grammar and Typo errors. Thank you.

a/n:

Here's the third update for this month!! I survived another week of writing. Who do you think sent Beam the package?

So a fact about me, I'm a writer but I don't actually write in a story format. This is not the first story I've written but this is the first writing I have in a story format. Before this fanfic, I wrote short film scripts and I've wrote a lot of them because I join film competitions. So if you noticed that I sometimes overly describes a set up or an object, it's because I'm used writing in a script format. So I thank you all my readers for patiently reading this story with me as the writer.

"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish."

― J.R.R. Tolkien, LOTR