KongArt Week

1. Reunion

Day 1: Reunion

Kongpob really loved his college years. He enjoyed thinking about his time when he was still young and naive to the cruelties of the harsh realities of adult life. The time he spent with his friends, especially during his freshman and junior years, were the best moments in his opinion. It made him just want to time travel and do it all over again as if he was still that same Kongpob all those years ago.

Being in the corporate world has its perks and setbacks. He knew from the get-go after getting the baton passed from his father, he should be used to this kind of life. Kongpob didn't dream of being in this place right now but he accepted his fate as if he was just passing time. He didn't believe that he could have a choice anyway, this was actually better than he could have expected starting out in the industry.

His group of friends was particularly lucky as all of them got high-paying, highly-respected jobs in the engineering industry. Prae was a COO of their partner company Star, Maprang and May both got promoted as project managers of their respective companies as well. Tew went on to be a member of the board of directors in one of the most well-known suppliers in the polymer industry. M and Oak started their own business together and combined with a lot of hard work and additional help from their friends, they now have a fast-paced growing manufacturing chain in the country.

Truly, they were a blessed bunch, and Kongpob was the height of it all. Being the CEO of his family's company, continuously acquiring partnerships and sponsors from countries across the world, a natural gift in economics which in turn tremendously improved their market, and a most desired bachelor of Thailand.

Bachelor, Kongpob could scoff at that statement. As if anything was good from being one. He couldn't get any person if he wanted, because he only ever had feelings for one person in his life, and he let him go just like that. Never in his life had he kissed anyone else, had he held hands with, had he found his genuine smile with. And if he was to honestly answer what title he should be called as: the demisexual virgin bachelor of Thailand.

The setbacks of being in the corporate world meant that he just had to keep working from hours on end, which meant minimal time for leisure, for friends and family. He hardly even saw his parents after they retired, he just came home to an empty condo suite, completely exhausted and out of his own mind.

This also meant more time to think by himself, he was always that kind of overthinker, one of his biggest flaws.

If his ex-boyfriend could see him now, he would scold him for being too serious, despite how he was when he hazed him. How the tabled have turned.

Now if you would ask Kongpob why he was standing in front of a reserved crowded bar at eight in the evening, he would give you a question back, Why indeed?

He looked at his phone again, a text from Prae and several dozen texts from his old friends' group chat. Even though they were all bordering the age of 30, they still chatted in the group as if they were 19.

Prae [5:13 PM]
You're still coming to the reunion tonight? C'mon, we haven't seen each other in forever. Maprang is having a bitch fit. You better come.

As he pushed the glass doors open with his right hand, he took a deep breath, the smell of beer and fried chicken immediately invading his senses. Then he heard loud cheers. He forgot that he was kind of popular in college, everybody in the room recognized him.

"There's our little CEO!"

"Oak, you're smaller than me, shut up," he glared at the man, looking around the table and seeing all of his friends, dressed in their work attire but they looked relaxed, Their clothes were loosened up and they had a glass of beer in their hands. Prae smirked at him, swishing her glass slightly, "You're pretty late, Kong. Must be tough on the job."