Krist & Singto in The Practice Boyfriends (Completed)

The Practice Boyfriends: Chapter 5

Krist makes a big show of saying goodbye to Singto when they reach the meeting point, pulling him in for a long hug that includes all sorts of insane and whispered promises for when he returns. Eventually, Namtan approaches them and almost drags Krist away from him, asking her friend for a hug of her own as Singto heads for the bus and chooses a window seat.

He settles in, neck pillow in place, turtle clutched in his arm and waves to a vanishing Krist as the bus heads out of the city and off to the start of two weeks of very hard work.

As they get out of the city limits, his phone lights up with a message.

Kit: I'm going to miss you PB. I think, more than if you were just around the corner and I knew I could visit at any time. Make sure you call me, none of this radio silence cos you're 'working'. And no watching our dramas without me! We can talk about our first date in two weeks, okay?

Singto sighs deeply and then leaves him on Read, aware that he'll get a string of increasingly ridiculous texts or phone calls if he leaves it too long, but not in the mood to reply at present. It's a lot, the way Krist sometimes throws himself into things. Even though they'd both kind of casually agreed to try being practice boyfriends and going on dates, Singto realises that he hasn't actually thought this through properly and that he's going to have to set some ground rules if they are going to go ahead with the plan and stay as the closest of friends.

Maybe if he thinks of it as just an extension of their roles in SOTUS or something, that might help?

Or maybe, the way he's overthinking this already, he should stop things right now and just say no?

He's still a bit lost in his thoughts when Namtan flops down in the seat beside him, "Hey P'Singto, why is P'Krist already texting me to remind you to reply to him? We've barely been gone for fifteen minutes, have you two got work to do or something?"

Singto sighs again, "Or something," he echoes and then looks over at his friend, "Sorry, Nam. When he realised it was two weeks and not 8 days, he got a little clingy."

She laughs, "Yeah, I saw that. Is something going on I should know about? I mean, if he's going to be bothering me all week when you don't reply?"

Singto gives her an exasperated look, "Nam? What do you think of when you hear mine and Krist's names together?"

"Oh," she says, then pauses and gives him a look he's seen before, "I'm guessing P'Tay and P'Off finally got to you, right?"

He stares at her in surprise as the bus lurches up a gear, throwing them back in their seats. "What do you mean?" He asks and she laughs lightly, then taps her nose as she reaches for her phone.

"If you ever tell P'Off it was me, I will actually kill you! Or, you know, eat the spiciest foods ever before any kiss scenes in future!"

"Give me it!" Singto says, making grabby hands for her phone as she clicks open a chat.

X

An hour later, he has air-dropped himself almost half the messages in the GMM group chat that neither himself nor Krist have been invited to join. It's pretty clear why when he scans the screen, flicking his finger up and down the conversation.

"You're in this group, Nam!" He moans, "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

She ducks her head for a second and then smiles at him, "Because I thought it was kind of sweet, all these guys rooting for the pair of you."

"But there's nothing to root for!" Singto exclaims and then ducks his head as other heads peek up at him over seats.

Namtarn laughs, then grabs her phone and flicks to her chat with Krist. There are half a dozen new messages asking if Singto is okay and if he is comforting himself with the turtle yet accompanied by a multitude of crying emojis. "Are you sure about that P'Singto?"

He frowns and then swipes on his own messages where Krist has left a series of texts that are enthusiastically littered with emojis that tell Singto exactly how he feels about being abandoned.

He sighs as he looks over at his friend, "This boy is ridiculous!"

She laughs and then pats his shoulder, "He just thinks highly of you P'Singto, you're the one he looks up to, models his work ethic on, the one he turns to when things go wrong.. or right. You're just that important to him."

Singto frowns, "But.."

She looks at him expectantly and he doesn't know what else he wants to say. He knows all these things, he knows that he and Krist are ridiculously close and that it's not a problem at all, that it actually helps them to promote their couple work. He knows that he missed Krist the past two weeks, but he doesn't think it means what everyone else seems to think.

They're just friends who happen to be very close. That's all.

X

The rest of the ride, he and Namtarn chat about lighter things while his mind runs through her suggestive ideas and those from the group chat he had kept screenshots of. He thinks he should show Krist them, prepare him and make sure he knows who is talking about them and all the kinds of things they are saying, but he knows it should be in person and he won't be seeing him for so long now.

Instead, he tries to push all his thoughts away and joins in excitedly with the group activities once they are at the hotel.

He's lucky to have a room to himself and he settles in later that night, ignoring the beeps on his phone as pictures of Muffin flash up, short videos of Krist, shirtless, playing his guitar with Pluto perched on his lap.

Eventually he's relaxing in bed, nestled in the mountain of pillows, with his phone in his hand, scanning the ever-growing pile of unanswered texts.

He selects video chat and waits patiently for it to connect.

Krist doesn't answer.

Singto stares down at the notification that pops up to say his call was missed and frowns. Then he checks the time stamp on Krist's last message and sees it's from less than 5 minutes ago.. What is going on?