Next Life Let Me love you again

Motivations

That Saturday afternoon found Rain sitting on a crate in the corner of the garage happily swinging his legs and chatting with P'Phayu who was working on a bike nearby. He had finished his assignments that morning and was waiting for P'Phayu to wrap up his work so they could go out for dinner.

He made sure to ask P'Phayu plenty of questions about the bikes, his work in the garage, that sort of thing. He was applying his flirting lessons but he found, even though he knew almost nothing about bikes, cars, or any sort of engine, he really did love hearing P'Phayu talk about them. It was obvious that P'Phayu flourished in his work in the garage.

Rain looked around noticing there were more bikes than normal waiting at the garage, "There are a lot of racing bikes, Phi."

P'Phayu nodded, but didn't comment.

"These are all owned by a very influential person," Said P'Fah who had been observing the two for a few minutes with his patented mischievous grin.

"Fah," P'Phayu said in a warning tone.

"What, I didn't say who they were owned by or that they were for the races." P'Phayu growled and stood up, preparing to physically shut his twin up if necessary. He knew what he was trying to do.

He was too late however, Rain was obviously curious now. "Races?" He asked.

"It's nothing, subject closed." P'Phayu said, threatening his twin with a glare. There would be bodily harm if he said anything else.

After he took Rain home, Phayu angrily confronted his twin. "Saifah, what the hell? I already said that I have no intention of taking Rain to the races."

"Phayu, think about this reasonably. You can't wrap Rain in cotton and protect him even if you want to. He spends all of his time at the garage. He will find out about the races eventually on his own. Rain is impulsive, what if he does something stupid like try to sneak in?"

Phayu froze at that, the idea horrified him. If he carried Rain to the race, P'Chai and the guards would accept him as his boy and keep troublemakers away. If Rain was caught sneaking in, they would do whatever they thought was right and Phayu might not be able to save him.

Also what  Saifah had said was true, he couldn't keep Rain safe by keeping him in the dark. It was better for Rain to know that Phayu had connections with some shady people so Rain could be on guard.

Finally Phayu gave in, it probably was best to take Rain to the races himself, rather than risk the alternative. "Not this month though, Rain needs to concentrate on his finals. I will talk to Rain before next month's Race."

Rain's grades and school work had improved tenfold with P'Phayu's mentorship. Before he had gotten average to good grades, but in the last few weeks his grades were in the top three of the class (along with Sky and Ple). On their last project he had even come in first.

What he didn't expect was to be hit by the jealousy of some of the other students. "Of course he is getting top grades," Rain heard a group of girls talking around the corner from where he had stopped to tie his shoes. "P'Phayu is probably doing all his work. Rain's not smart enough to come up with those ideas on his own."

Rain froze, it wasn't true. P'Phayu had never once done any of Rain's work. He had only given Rain study schedules and pointed out where Rain could improve. He'd even taught Rain a cool word game that helped him concentrate and memorize his lessons when studying. Rain's ideas and concepts had been all his own.

"Rain?" Sky has come up behind him and heard the last part of what the girl's had said. "Are you okay?"

"Sky, does everyone think that? P'Phayu doesn't do my work for me."

"Of course not, you have always been top with the creative work long before P'Phayu started mentioning you. Those girls are just jealous."

Rain didn't look convinced. He needed a way to prove he was capable of doing his own work. But how? No matter what he did people would assume P'Phayu had helped. Although, there might be one way.

"Sky, I need a favor. We have two weeks before our final project. I need you to spread the word that P'Phayu dropped me as a mentee."

"He did? When was this?"

"Right after I talk to him tonight." Rain said confidently.

Rain wasn't sure how P'Phayu would take his announcement, the last thing he wanted was to disappoint the senior or have him think Rain was being ungrateful. That's why Rain decided to be completely open and honest with his reasons. He started by telling P'Phayu about the conversation he had heard. Then explained how he wanted to do his final project on his own with no help at all. He wanted to show how he could be responsible for himself.

Rather than being angry, P'Phayu seemed to understand his motivations. He did make Rain promise though that he would either work at home or with friends at the university. It seemed like an odd request but Rain wasn't likely to have a lot of time to go out anyway.

P'Phayu tousled his hair. "Keep fighting good boy." He said with a smile.

Phayu watched Rain leave with a frown. He wasn't happy that Rain wouldn't be at the garage for the next two weeks. Not only because of the extra protection Rain had at the garage either.  Phayu had began to really look forward to seeing Rain when he came to the garage after work. He adored Rain's awkward attempts at applying Pai's flirting lessons. He would miss Rain's shy cute responses when Phayu teased him.

"It's only two weeks" he told himself. Rain had promised to come to the garage again when his final project was done. Somehow two weeks felt like a lifetime.

Phayu's Dream that night;

Phayu was hugging a crying Rain. Rain had been upset because he had failed to finish the task the scholars had given him in time and had been severely scolded. Rain freely admitted to being at fault but for someone who had been indulged most of his life, being scolded like that felt like the end of the world.

Once Rain calmed down, Phayu had studied his face and declared that Rain looked like a drenched puppy. He got a basin of water and a cloth and gently washed Rain's tear soaked face. He wanted to kiss Rain so badly, but knew he had to act the part of teacher now so that Rain would learn responsibility.

He pointed out that the scholars had been right to scold Rain, that they wanted him to be responsible, that he himself wanted Rain to be responsible. Rain looked sad but nodded showing that he was taking Phayu's lecture seriously.

Phayu started to go find something for Rain to eat, but looked back at the boy's still puppy dog sad face. He couldn't resist hugging him again and telling him to let it go, just concentrate on doing better next time.

———————————————————————————Notes:

I have found it slightly easier to do frequent updates of shorter chapters than doing longer chapters. I only hope doing it this way doesn't hurt the flow of the story. 😑