Anyone But You [PhayuRain] [Love In The Air]

3: MOTH TO YOUR FLAME

The weekend was a heady blur.

All their good intentions and plans to do 'date-y' things like going out to eat, seeing a movie, and picnicking in the park flew out the window as they barely made it out of bed and became lost in each other.

They made love so many times that they lost count.

In between the passion, they lay in bed and laughed over stupid TikTok videos, sexted each other despite being mere inches apart, gossiped about friends, and exchanged all kinds of thoughts, hopes, and plans for the future.

All of these moments were casually punctuated with little kisses on the forehead, hair, cheeks, or with fingers casually stroking skin, bodies leaning, limbs always touching, two magnets incapable of being apart.

The only things that got them out of their cocoon were the necessary trips to the bathroom and showers, and the quick dash to the door when the food delivery person came.

Phayu dropped Rain off on Sunday evening as he had a standing Sunday night dinner commitment with his family.

Once he was home and could finally get his brain working again, Rain wondered again how he had gotten so lucky. He was too practical to believe in destiny since he was used to working hard for what he wanted, but he couldn't stop the fanciful thought that there was such a thing as soulmates.

***

Realistically, their paths should never have crossed.

Because even though they happened to go to the same university, they were in different faculties, had different schedules, and ran in completely different social circles.

Rain was in the 4th year of his 5-year Architecture program. Underneath his playful and light-hearted demeanor, he was a very smart and disciplined student always earning top rankings at the Architecture faculty. Becoming a successful Architect and making sure that he didn't waste the opportunity that his family worked so hard for was of the utmost importance to him.

That's why his priority had always been studying and getting top grades, even more than his social life. He worked hard for his grades and to maintain the scholarship needed to offset the costs of attending this university.

His family was by no means poor, they were working class. His dad was a foreman at a manufacturing plant and his mom couldn't work outside of home due to her chronic asthma and frail health but they gave him everything they possibly could to ensure he would have a strong future.

His parents had squirreled away extra money from the day he was born to make sure that they could at least provide for some of his education and living expenses at a good university so that he could ultimately have a better life than them. He was blessed to have such a supportive and loving family.

Phayu was more than a year older and majoring in Business. He would be graduating this year and entering his family's company, officially training to take over as heir-apparent and CEO of the large conglomerate that his grandfather had built and his father now ran.

Rain didn't know all the details of the companies and industries that belonged within the group, but he knew it was extensive and varied. Even Phayu had a tough time keeping track as his father was buying and selling new ones driven by ambition to make the company more powerful and to be more highly regarded than his own father.

But you would never be able to tell by how Phayu behaved that he had the world at his feet. He didn't flaunt his wealth or even talk much about what he would inherit one day.

Phayu had spent a year before starting University in various entry-level roles at some of the companies in order to truly get to know the people and the inner workings of the businesses from the ground up. He was determined to not start off within the sheltering ivory tower of the executive offices that would one day be his.