Feel Something (BounPrem FF)

Chapter 16: Meet My Mother

Chan stayed in the bed until he knew Sinn's temperature had gone down. The sunlight was orange, and a ray peeked through the crack in the dark curtains. He didn’t even realize he had been there so long. He thought about waking Sinn up, but a doorbell interrupted his thoughts.
   
Chan rushed to the door and opened it, thinking that it was Dee. To his surprise, it was a woman.
   
Kaew was just as surprised to see Chan, a boy she didn’t know. “Oh, hello!” She smiled immediately, realizing that Sinn probably had a friend that he was hiding from her. “I'm Kaew, Sinn's mother.”
   
“Sawasdeeka. I’m Chan.” Kaew's smile grew bigger when she realized she recognized the name from Dee.
   
Chan moved out of the way for her to walk in, and she set down medicine and groceries on the counter. “I’m so glad I finally get to meet you!” Chan was confused. Sinn told his mom about him? “Is Sinn awake?”
   
“Mae?” Sinn drug his feet as he walked into the kitchen. His eyes grew wide when he realized Chan was also in his apartment. He had just dreamed of the boy, so he was having a hard time piecing everything together.
   
“I brought you some medicine and things to make you dinner.” She unpacked the foods as Chan stood by smiling. “Will you stay for dinner? I’d love to get to know you.” Kaew was so sweet, so Chan knew he had an advantage over Sinn.
   
“He's probably busy. Right, Chan?” Sinn wanted Chan gone immediately. If Aawut found out they were still friends he would throw a fit.
   
Chan knew that Sinn was trying to throw him out, but he wasn’t going to budge. Not after their steamy kiss. “No, I don’t have anything to do actually.”
   
“Do you know how to cook?”
   
“Yes I do.” Chan joined her in the kitchen as Kaew grabbed cutting boards and pots. He smiled at Sinn, daring his senior to say something.
   
Sinn's mind was fuzzy, so he couldn’t think straight. He sat down at the table, exhausted simply from standing.
   
Chan walked over and set down a medicine cup with red liquid. “Drink up.” They kept their gaze as Sinn took the medicine like a shot.
    
With that, Chan took the cup back to the kitchen and helped Kaew prepare dinner.
   
Sinn watched the boy cook and talk with his mom as if they knew each other for years. He thought it was weird that he dreamt of Chan, but even more strange that Chan was actually there. For a second he wondered if his dream was real, but quickly went into denial. There was no way he could do something like that.
   
When the food was done they all sat down for a meal. Sinn was feeling much better after his fever broke. Chan sat next to him and started replacing Sinn's vegetables with meat. The older one liked the feeling, but was hit with reality when he realized his mother was watching.
   
Kaew smiled when she saw what was happening. Chan was the one that Sinn had grown fond of. “So Chan, I hear you’re on the football team?”
   
“Yea, I love football.” He smiled cheesily. It was one of his many hobbies.
   
“Sinn used to play, too, but I don’t know what happened.” She stuck out her bottom lip a bit. “He just outgrew it overnight.”
   
Truth was that Sinn didn’t outgrow anything. He simply couldn’t be apart of the team anymore. He stopped talking to his friends, and with the marks on his body his teammates would surely notice.
   
“Really?” Chan looked at his senior in shock. “Come play with me, then. Why do you only watch us?”
    
“Maaaaeeee…,” Sinn whined. She was giving Chan more things to like.
   
“What? You were good at it! You still have a healthy body, there’s no reason not to have some fun.” Kaew desperately wanted Sinn to get back to his old self.
   
“I’ll see…” Sinn looked at his food, not sure what to say. He didn’t want to make any plans or promises he couldn’t keep.
   
“Hia, you should come on our trip with us.”
   
Sinn looked at Chan with wide eyes. What did he just call him? Of all things in front of his mother? Sin  had to be nice in front of her, and act as if it was normal. “What trip?”
   
“Oh, Chan just told me that the football team is going on a trip for a bonding exercise next weekend. Dee was caught up with preparing for it today.” Kaew knew more than Sinn did, and was rooting for him to accompany them as much as Chan wanted.
   
So that must’ve been why Chan was there…to take care of him because Dee couldn’t make it.

*Damn you, Dee!* Sinn thought.
   
Sinn was trying to distance himself from the boy, not go do activities to get closer with him. “I don’t know…”
   
“You should go, it’ll be good for you to get out of the city. Take a break.” His mom was right, but he wasn’t sure how things would play out. He knew that Aawut would make him go anyway to keep an eye on Dee.
   

“We’ll see…”
   
“So Chan, where are you from?” Sinn wouldn’t dare ask questions, but he secretly wanted to know the same things his mom did.
   
“Chiang Mai. I lived on the outside of town with my Pho, but we moved here over the summer.” Sinn liked getting to know more about Chan, even though he didn’t show it.
   
“How do you like it so far?”
   
“It’s nice. We have family here so it’s great to see them more often. I go to school with one of my cousins, Sook.”
   
“Oh I’ve heard of him! Maybe one day we can all have dinner together with him and Dee, too.” Kaew smiled and Sinn bit his tongue. Having to spend more time with Chan and his mother? He wanted to cut the boy off already, but he was around all the time.
   
Chan smiled back at her, then at Sinn, who ignored the boy. He ignored Chan for the rest of the dinner, barely mumbling when Kaew asked him questions about school. Instead, Chan would answer her and make it look like he knew what Sinn was thinking. This made Kaew love the boy even more. In her eyes, Chan was the perfect match for her son.
   
Chan liked being around Sinn and Kaew at the same time. Sinn couldn’t be rude or kick him out. He wondered what made his senior like that in front of people. Why did Sinn want to hold him in private but ignore him in public? Could Sinn have been right? Was it because Chan wasn’t as well-off as him? Was Sinn embarrassed to be seen with such a nobody?
   
Maybe Sinn wasn’t ‘out’ yet. Chan considered that possibility as well. His senior could’ve used money as an excuse to push the boy away. He sat and chatted with Kaew anyway, as if those thoughts didn’t fill his head.
   
After dinner, Kaew insisted on hugging Chan while saying their goodbyes and sending him off. “Sinn, go send him out. I’ll wait here.”
   
“Send him where?” She gave him a stern look and he unwillingly followed Chan out of the apartment.
   
Chan stayed quiet as they rode the elevator down, smiling and glancing at Sinn. His senior hardly noticed, as he hung his head and rested his eyes.
   
When the elevator stopped on the first floor, Chan walked to the front. Sinn followed, pressing the ‘3’ button. The boy’s hand stopped the door from closing, though. Sinn looked up to find Chan at his face. The boy had leaned up and kissed his cheek quickly.
   
Before Sinn could even say anything, Chan let go of the door and smiled as they closed. Sinn stayed the same, with wide eyes and his mouth gaped open. He blushed without realizing it. How could Chan be so brazen?
   
His thoughts replayed the scene over and over in his head while he rode back up to his apartment. Kaew was waiting for him like she said. “Sinn…” He broke from his daze and looked at his mother. She had a soft look on her face, like she was happy but to an extent. “I want you to have friends. Please don’t push him away.”
   
She held his hands in hers and rubbed his palms with her thumbs. An action she only did when they had serious conversations. “Mae…”
   
“Please?” He couldn’t say no to his mother. Everything he did was for her. “I told Dee already, but you can stay friends with these boys. Just don’t talk about them in front of Aawut. It’ll take time for him to come around.”
   
Sinn already knew that Aawut would never be okay with Chan and Sook, but he agreed for his mother's sake. “Okay…” His mind was rewinding back to the elevator and the sweet kiss Chan had given him. Whatever the boy was up to, he was successfully luring Sinn in.