I Want You To Be My Last

Part 25 : Do Over

"Are there any items you want to take with you or should we send everything to your parents' house as planned?"

Gulf heard the question and knew P'Best was talking about the gifts he received from his fans earlier, but he was honestly too tired to answer, verbally at least, so he simply nodded his head and continued staring outside the car window despite wanting to close his eyes to take a nap. He was bone-tired that it should be easy enough to just shut his brain off for once, but sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

The exhaustion from performing at the concert earlier would have been enough to knock him out the moment he got inside his manager's car, but his body, and his mind most especially, simply wouldn't cooperate. He knew P'Best was trying his very best to hold off the urge to ask what was wrong every damn time the older man would catch him spacing out, but figured he was simply going to be either ignored or brushed off like usual.

To be fair, it wasn't as though his manager had no idea what was going on - he did. Well, at least some of it; Gulf figured he could at least shed some light on what most people whom he closely worked with would surely notice the day he resumed work after his day-off, but did so in a way that he hoped wouldn't tie P'Mew in any of it as much as he could.

His heart ached for lying about it, but he knew it was what P'Mew would have wanted him to do. P'Mew leaving so quickly just minutes after he'd read the text from whoever had sent it meant he knew what was going on, what needed to be done in order to leave Gulf out of whatever trouble he was in as much as the older man possibly could.

Gulf didn't realize it until later, just after he'd watched P'Mew walk out of his door, wondering if he would ever see the older man again.

He honestly didn't think of it much earlier, or at least tried not to when he was asked to take photos of the bruises and wounds instead of tending to them, despite the fact that he was raging mad while going through the process hoping P'Mew wouldn't notice. P'Mew had made him promise not to ask any questions and just wait until the older man was ready to explain it himself, but somehow, the circumstances didn't allow it to happen.

No, because not long after P'Mew closed the door behind him, and Gulf had gathered enough brain cells to find his phone so he could call P'Tamp's number to check on P'Mew, an IG story notification from P'Mew's IG account caught his attention first.

It was a clip, a very short one, probably just under a minute. It was obviously edited, given that everyone's faces on the video were blurred and their voices altered. He remembered freezing on the spot when he saw the figure of the person the camera was clearly aimed at, being held still and unmoveable by two pairs of arms on either side of him even though he kept struggling, wriggling his whole body free.

Gulf recognized that person without even looking at the figure twice.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was P'Mew.

There were at least five people caught on that video, six if you count the one taking it, seven including the guy in the middle. The conversation between them wasn't that clear, but Gulf could tell they were mocking the person they were holding down against his will, laughing loudly as they did so. The video ended right after someone said, " Charming, but no. They're here to help jog your memory a bit, Phi."

He knew right then that it was the reason why P'Mew left so quickly as if the devil was after him.

It wouldn't take a genius to know that P'Mew wasn't the one who uploaded it, and Gulf didn't have to be one to realize who did. P'Mew didn't have his phone with him when he arrived at Gulf's apartment after all, and was using P'Tamp's phone instead. So, there was no doubt that whoever had that phone was the same person who'd stupidly uploaded the video for everyone to see.