Four Times They Were Seen and One Time They Weren't (Completed)

4: Knott

4. Knott

Knott's certain Arthit is hiding something. He's been certain for quite a few weeks, yet his best friend is not forthcoming, so he's loath to push him to share.

Instead, he watches and waits, observes how his friend is more and more comfortable in his head hazer persona, how he is able to inspire the freshmen a little more than scare them, and he feels pride rush through him that Arthit is genuinely enjoying his role now. But he has to put his suspicions on the back burner as he concentrates on his own life.

He himself is finding it hard, juggling his schoolwork and hazing and preparations for the next few years of internships and plans to further study or work. His mother has been sick and he has needed to travel home more often than usual to help out. Plus his part time job at the pharmacy is taking up more and more of his time too. It's a difficult balancing game for him, so finding out Arthit's secret comes as a seriously huge surprise!

He's taken the graveyard shift one night, just him and Tob (whom he suspects has a little crush on him if he's honest, not that he minds since maybe he's harbouring one too), when a familiar young man enters the store.

Immediately, Knott motions for Tob to take the register and he steps back into the area reserved for the pharmacist where he can hide away a little as he usually does when it's someone he knows.

He's very aware of how embarrassing it is to need certain pharmacy products when you're being sold them by someone you know well, so he prefers to give people space where he can.

However, although he hasn't planned to spy on Kongpob as he walks through the aisles, something piques his interest. He has pulled out his phone and is busy texting in the hazer's group chat and trying not to overhear Kong's conversation with Tob, when something about their chat makes his ears prick up.

"So, you want to see the two bottles?" She asks him and Kongpob agrees quietly.

There's a clunking noise and when Knott peeks out, he sees two bottles of their most expensive lube on the counter - one cherry, one plain.

Kongpob is looking between them with a puzzled expression and Tob is trying to hide a smile by nibbling on her lips.

"Which is better?" Kongpob asks and Tob gives a nervous cough.

"Oh, I think it's all down to personal preference, Sir." She replies and Knott knows she doesn't know who Kongpob is and that her second hand embarrassment comes from finding him cute and sweet the way he's looking between the lube questioningly.

"Personal preference.." Kongpob repeats and then pulls his phone from his pocket and snaps a picture of the bottles, tapping out a message along with it.

Within a second, his phone rings and there's a brief phone call which, on Kongpob's end goes like this:

"Which one?"

"...."

"But Phi..."

"...."

"Well then, I'll just buy both!"

"..."

"Fine, two minutes. I'll wait here."

When he hangs up, he politely tells Tob that he will know which one to buy in a minute or two and she nods and steps back to fiddle with the till and give him space.

Knott is very interested now, even though he knows he should give Kongpob space too, he wonders whom he is buying the lube for, or with whom he plans to use it. It's natural to wonder since he's made quite the impression on the hazing team and the rest of the freshmen, and he's sure there are many people chasing after him.

He's looked away to try and give Kong privacy when his phone suddenly pings. It's Arthit and as he opens the message Knott's jaw drops wide open and he has to stifle a shocked gasp.

There on his screen is the picture that Kongpob just took. It's clearly the same one because behind the bottles are the shelves that Knott stacks weekly and he would recognise the layout any day.

He bites down on his knuckles as he scans the message with the picture and with his shock comes the delight of knowing that Arthit has finally found someone he likes and that he's not going to grow old as a single, lonely, grumpy old man.

'A friend asked my advice about these lubes. They want to know which is the best for.. well you know. But to be honest, I don't have a clue what to say. I suppose with you working in a pharmacy you might have an idea?'

That message might be harmless enough alone, maybe Kongpob has a strong enough connection to ask Arthit's advice, but the second message that pings through after seals the situation in Knott's mind.

'Umm, they're into guys if that helps you decide. Thanks Knott, I know I should have asked Tootah, but really, I trust you and I really wouldn't want to get this wrong.'

Then less than a minute after Knott has made his recommendation, Kongpob's phone blares to life and everything is confirmed.

"Phi? Which?"

"..."

"Then I'll get both, we can try both."

Kongpob makes his purchase and Knott asks Tob if he can take his break, emerging into the sticky Bangkok air, mind racing through what he's just learnt.

Kongpob likes Arthit.

Like that..

And Arthit likes Kongpob too, enough to want to be intimate with him.

This is a revelation!

Knott really didn't see this coming, he had thought that Bright's freak out had been about Arthit wanting to fight (or fighting) with Kongpob, it hadn't been clear he'd been so garbled in his message.

And Prem - that picture could have just been Arthit comforting Kongpob or giving him senior-junior advice.

Tootah had been, quite frankly, three sheets to the wind when he had called him late at night and while Knott had heard the words Kongpob and Arthit, he hadn't understood what Tootah wanted him to hear.

So now, to be actually confronted with the fact that his friend is with Kongpob, and likes him enough to want to be intimate with him? That's a revelation!

A good one though, Knott decides as he thinks back over Arthit's behaviour recently and how much kinder he had been and how much more understanding and thoughtful and generally nice.

Yes, Arthit in a relationship is not a bad thing, Knott decides as he chooses a snack for Tob and brings it back to work.

Maybe, now he needs to work on a relationship of his own?