Obedient Bitch

Chapter 10: The Devil's Toy

➺ Sex toy

As expected, the Thailand airport was packed with passengers departing or arriving in the country. It was tradition to spend the three days of the Songkran celebration with family, especially the older ones, and for Pete this was very important because it allowed him to connect even more with his loved ones.

As he stepped onto Bangkok soil, he took a deep breath, as if the air that was filling his lungs was different just because it was his city. His home. As much as he loved the life he had in Seoul, nothing would erase the countless fond memories Pete had created over the twenty-three years he had lived in Bangkok. Nothing could be greater than the love he received there.

And that love was stamped on the faces of the two most important men in the boy's life when the automatic doors to the inner part of the airport opened to reveal his father and his best friend. On one was the mustache that his mother hated so much, on the other the box smile that Pete valued so much. But in both, happiness as they landed their gaze on the boy who, without wasting any time, ran to be hugged by them.

In the first moment nothing was said with the aid of words, and the exchange of affection was carried out solely by touch. Thankhun, the tallest of the three, wrapped his long arms around the other two, keeping Pete in the middle. Laughter was heard as the men allowed themselves a moment of appreciation of each other's presence. And everything about that interaction seemed to recharge the energy that the boy didn't even know he had lost. The weight of natural fatigue inherent in being human evaporated from his shoulders, and a brief state of pure joy settled over him.

Tears were inevitable.

Sensitive as he always was, Thankhun pulled away after a while, and allowed Pete to sink into the fatherly embrace he had missed so much. His father was a little shorter, but it was as if that man alone could embrace the whole world. Pete allowed himself to inhale his father's scent, which returned all the emotion of the moment with kisses on his cheek and forehead. His progenitor's eyes were also teary, sparkling, as the two of them pulled apart briefly to gaze at each other. Pete's father touched one of his cheeks with one hand, and sighed, running his gaze down the boy's face, and nodding over and over again. The smile showed everything that was implied and unsaid.

Longing. Love. Affection. Pride.

It was as if, for the first time, Khun Youngsoo was looking at Pete as a man, and no longer a child in need of protection. The son who finally grew up and went his own way, but who would always remember the way home. And that made the younger man shed even more tears.

"Father..." he murmured, his lower lip trembling. He touched his father's hand over his cheek.

"My son..." Youngsoo blinked to push away his own tears, and smiled a little wider. "Come here." He pulled him into an even stronger hug, which drew laughter from the boy. "Father didn't say this before you left, but I want you to know that I'm proud of your choices, Pete. I'm proud of what you're building in Seoul."

Pete sniffled, nodding, and hugged his father once again.

"I missed you Father" he said against the man's shoulder.

"Your mother and I missed you too. And Thankhun." It was only when his father quoted his best friend's name that Pete remembered his presence. Spying with his chin resting on his father's shoulder, the boy smiled at Thankhun, who opened his arms.

Pete soon let himself be enveloped in an intense hug. They smiled as they did when they were children, whenever they saw each other again after having spent the whole afternoon the day before playing in the boy's backyard. The difference was that now the supposed "missing" they felt for each other was not just childish exaggeration. It hadn't been just one day, but months since they had last seen each other.