Lullaby

Chapter Five

Arthit trudged up to his dorm room only to find a sticky note pasted on his door. Frowning at it he ripped it off before he started reading what was written on it.

Hello neighbour,

I've been listening to your playing and singing over the past few weeks and I'd really like to say you're good. I'm writing this at the risk of appearing like some sort of creep but to tell the truth, your playing helps me to sleep. If it is not too much to ask, could you send me a recording of your singing via Airdrop please? Or LINE me if you don't mind. My ID's kpbstl.

I've actually tried to record it on my side of the room (sorry for sounding like a stalker) but I guess sound quality really does take a hit if you're trying to capture sound with a wall in between.

Well, I guess that's enough of me scaring you. I will understand if you would prefer not to anyway so no pressure yeah?

By the way, could you do some Three Man Down next time? I think you could really pull it off!

From,

The Boy Next Door

The handwriting on the note was impeccable and strangely familiar but Arthit couldn't quite place where he had seen it before. Looking over to the two doors, one to his left and the other to his right, he couldn't tell which of his neighbours had left the note. Both rooms had new occupants this year and it could be either or.

Shrugging, he stepped into his room, locking his door with a click. Neighbour boy would have to wait, he was dead beat from hazing meetings. He did still, however, paste the little note on the little board he had over his desk. There was something sincere in the request and somehow, Arthit couldn't bring himself to deny it.

Maybe spending time with Kongpob had made him realise how precious sleep could be to a person. Not that he really needed the reminder. The rest of the gang knew full well than to mess with a sleeping Arthit. Sleep was important to him but it was only after meeting Kongpob did he realise what came so naturally to him was something another could only dream of.

~***~

Weeks went by quickly and Arthit had forgotten about the little sticky note that he had placed on his board. Between his classes, hazing sessions and his tutor sessions with Kongpob, he was up to his neck swimming in tasks. The greatest irony was that his time with Kongpob slowly became the easiest, as the boy spent the majority of his time sleeping when he was with him. Although Arthit was a little guilty that he was clearly not helping his junior as a mentor, the younger seemed happy enough to catch up on his sleep.

Arthit would have been inclined to suspect that the boy was lying but the dark circles under the younger's eyes were a clear indicator of his lack of sleep. But still, it was frustrating nevertheless, when Kongpob slipped off to dreamland just like that whenever he was with Arthit. He had had to catch the junior in multiple strange angles as it is, the worst being that Kongpob had fallen asleep on his feet whilst they were waiting for the elevator on campus.

Shaking his head, he tried to literally shake the thoughts of Kongpob away as he dropped his deadbeat body upon his bed. The junior was taking up too many brain cells of his. He rolled over to his side, his eyes falling on his guitar. It had been ages since he had last touched it, the dust had probably chalked up a layer on it by now.

Maybe some music would be good for taking his mind and edge off things, even if it was just for a bit.

Crawling to the edge of his bed, he stretched out for the instrument that had been sorely neglected. Propping himself up against his bed, he strummed the strings, letting out an annoyed hum when one of the strings panged out of tune. Tuning his guitar quickly, he pulled out his current song playlist on his phone, running through a couple of songs he'd wanted to jam to.

He'd gotten through a couple of songs before a nagging thought entered his mind that he was forgetting something. He frowned, looking around. He definitely didn't have anything on for the night. Just as he scrunched his nose, thinking what he could have possibly forgotten, his eyes fell upon the little post-it note that he had stuck on there without thinking too much the last time.

Ah, Kongpob was definitely getting to him. He was actually thinking of recording his singing. For a stranger. All because the person said it helped him sleep. Never in a million years did he think it was going to happen but he soon found himself reaching out for his phone again, switching it to the voice recording app.

He settled upon a song with a relatively slower tempo before he hit the record button. He'd never done this before and his heart palpitated a little. What if he sounded like absolute rubbish? Well, he knew that wasn't entirely possible since he had been the lead singer of his class band back in high school and people would have told him to shut up if that had been the case. So Arthit counted it as a win that he had never had eggs thrown at him.

Strumming the last chord, he hurried to hit the stop button on the phone before letting out a small sigh of relief. He geared up his courage before hitting 'play' on the app, cringing a little when he heard his own voice. Okay, he was definitely tense. So tense that it was practically audible in his voice!

Grumbling, he put his phone down once more on the bed before starting up the song again. One more try he told himself, and if it didn't work out, the neighbour boy was going to have to make do with live sessions. He didn't want his horrendous singing in the form of a recording no less to be trapped in the hands of a stranger.

However, for some reason, he soon found himself recording his singing, over and over again. Maybe it was the fact that he had sounded horrible to himself and he needed to right that wrong, or he couldn't get over sounding like a chicken trying to get itself into the choir, either ways, Arthit found himself trying over and over again.

It took him many more tries, and by many his entire phone screen was now filled with various recordings of himself singing the same song. He prayed silently that neither of the neighbouring students were in at the moment or he'd really be sounding like a psycho. But when he had finally felt satisfied with his recording, he tapped the file and renamed it 'Lullaby for the Neighbour'.

He closed his eyes for a minute, breathing as he felt his heart rate relax. Who knew that recording a song could be this exhausting? And he was actually trying to have a peaceful evening off for goodness sake.

Then came the next question, did he want to add this unknown guy on LINE? What if he was a creep? Or one of those incessant texters like Bright and Tootah? Heaven knew how he had to set their group chat on mute from the very first day it was created. His phone battery had died incredulously fast that day from all the vibrations from their chat. It was a lesson well learnt and Arthit had learnt that if those two actually needed anything urgently, they'd call so there was no risk of someone's house burning down unknowingly.

Deciding to take a shower first, Arthit slipped into the washroom where he spent a good fifteen minutes under the hot water and steam belting out more tunes after the other. By the time he was done, he had made up his mind.

Airdrop was the safer option. Who knew what kind of characters hid behind those doors next to him?

Rubbing his damp hair with his towel, he pulled up the recording once more and hit 'share'. Time to see if neighbour boy was truly waiting for his song like he said.

~***~

Author's Note:

I'm sorry I've been away from this story for so long, there was drama and well, I lost interest in writing it for quite a while.

Also, the greatest irony in this story? Missy here uses Android. ahahahhahhahahhahahhahaha