Tingles and Things

In Too Deep

Wat made it back to campus in record time and arrived at the old student center at 7:19. He saw Tine in the hallway standing a couple of doors down from the music room. He looked nervous. His shoulders were hunched like he was trying to make himself invisible and out of the way. The incident from yesterday was clearly still affecting him, yet he still came.

It broke Wat's heart to see him like that. The feeling of wanting to wrap him in a hug and shield him from this cruel world was back in full force. Tine was obviously scared of a repeat of the last time when Guy ruthlessly embarrassed him in front of the entire group. Every time Wat thought of it, he wanted to punch something. Specifically, Guy's stupid face.

Sighing, he walked over. He wanted to get his apology out before they headed inside to the larger group. Tine was listening to music, so he didn't notice him come up until he tapped him on his shoulder.

Tine flinched hard, startled. Wat frowned. Why was he so jumpy?

"Oh, Sarawat, hi!" Tine said, beaming at him.

"Hi," Wat smiled back. He loved his smile. He didn't know how he would control his feelings around Tine. Pam was right. He wore his heart on his sleeve now when it came to Tine. Tine released a flood of new emotions that he had kept buried all these years, and he didn't know how to handle the influx of them all, especially when he was around him.

"It was great seeing you at dinner today. Pam seems nice," said Tine diplomatically. Well, she could be nice to other people , thought Tine. But, on the other hand, maybe she just had a bad day.

"Yeah, sorry we had to leave so quickly. I had to take care of something," Wat said, not wanting to talk about Pam now. He was still a little tender from that interaction. He cried more in the past two days than he's ever done in 18 years.

"Speaking of sorry, I wanted to apologize for yesterday," he started.

"Oh, it's ok, don't worry about it!" Tine said, cutting him off with a smile and a wave. "Fong told me it was all a misunderstanding. I'm sorry I took off so soon. Yesterday was pretty crazy," he laughed.

Wat frowned. After talking with Fong and seeing Tine in the hallway just now, he knew for a fact that it was not ok.

"Yeah, but I should have handled things better. I'm sorry. I forgot to give Guy a heads-up, so that's why he reacted the way he did. People sometimes, ah, try to show up to see me. It's annoying," he explained.

Tine stared, confused.

"Why?"

"They're infatuated with me, I guess. It happens a lot, but I learned to ignore it," said Wat.

Tine still seemed confused and looked like he wanted to ask a question, but then he changed his mind and nodded hurriedly like he understood. Wat realized Tine had no idea what he was talking about but felt he should. Did Tine really not know about his popularity? That was refreshing. He wouldn't go into it since it was nice to be treated normally for once. Now it feels weird to bring it up.

"You were great at the showcase yesterday, by the way. That backflip twist thingy was impressive," Wat said, changing the subject. Tine beamed.

"Thanks! I helped Fang choreograph our numbers. Fang said we may have a chance at finals this year," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"I'm sure of it, especially if yesterday's performance was anything to go by. You're so talented," gushed Wat. He was serious. Tine was amazing to watch, and though he knew he was biased, even he wasn't expecting that much talent. The showcase seemed like such a long time ago with everything that happened yesterday. Still, he had wanted to congratulate Tine immediately after. He was so proud. Man and Boss had joked about them having talented babies together.