Vintage Diaries.

9. Friend

"Din, can you bring these fruits to your dad and Kiryu?" Din heard his mother shout from the kitchen.

"Coming, Mom!" He yelled back as he put down his sketchbook and headed to the kitchen.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw a platter full of sliced pineapples.

"Here, take this to the lab" Nida handed the platter to her son.

Din obediently took the platter and went to the basement aka his father's laboratory.

His father was a scientist. The basement of their house had been turned into a laboratory for his father to do experiments and calculations without being disturbed.

Din knocked on the door as he wasn't actually allowed inside his father's lab after he touched something and caused an explosion in there as a kid.

"Come in" Din heard Kiryu's voice from inside.

Kiryu was his best friend. They hadn't been friends for long. But it could be said that out of all the people around him, Kiryu knew him the best.

Half a year ago, when Kiryu showed up at their doorstep, empty-handed and wanted to see his father, he had a bad impression of him. He had no idea what Kiryu said to his father that the latter readily agreed to let him stay with the family and even spend his savings to buy all the necessary stuff for Kiryu.

Din entered the lab carefully. He could see his friend writing some formulas on the huge blackboard. It looked like one of those problems that his father gave Kiryu to solve every now and then. 

He stared at the blackboard trying to make sense of anything that was written on it. But no luck. He couldn't understand a word. It seemed like a foreign language to him.

"Are you done with the equation, Kiryu?" Pakorn asked walking towards the two teenagers.

"Khrab!" Kiryu answered, double-underlining the final answer on the blackboard.

"Let me see" Pakorn put on his glasses and looked at the calculation. With each passing second the proud smile on his face. "Well done, kid!" He patted Kiryu on his shoulder.

Din who was standing on the side felt goosebumps all over his body as he saw his father's smile. He never got to see this smile until Kiryu came along. It was always a disdainful scorn that decorated his father's face whenever he was home.

His father, Pakorn Sitham was a renowned scientist with many achievements under his name. However, neither he nor his sister, Date managed to inherit his father's extraordinary intelligence. 

Din had nearly zero interest towards science. He was interested in art. His dream was to become a famous painter one day. He had never dared to mention this to anyone in their house other than Kiryu because he knew that his father would blow up at the news.

This was also why he had to choose the science stream in high school and not the arts stream like he wanted to. 

"Let's go" Kiryu nudged Din slowly as he finished talking to Pakorn.

Din felt his father staring at him and he quickly wanted to escape the place. He didn't want his father to give the next equation to him to solve. He grabbed Kiryu's arms and strode out of the lab.

Once they were back in their shared bedroom, he slumped into his bed.

"Why do you look like you just escaped the gates of hell?" Kiryu asked with a chuckle.

"My dad may be an angel to you, but he is the gatekeeper of hell for me" Din replied.

Ever since Kiryu came, he could clearly see a huge change in his father's attitude. Originally Pakorn was rarely home, and even if he was home, he would be inside his lab and wouldn't interact with anyone. If he did that would be to with a lot of disdain.

Pakorn looked down on his wife and children who couldn't match his intelligence.

Din had often heard his father blaming his mother for his lack of interest towards his father's work.

 Pakorn had always wanted to raise Din as his successor in the science industry. But Din's performance always let him down.

"Wait! I have something for you! Close your eyes." Kiryu said as Din obediently followed. He quietly took out a box from his bag and placed it in Din's hand.

Din slowly opened his eyes and looked at the box and then at Kiryu.

"Open it and take a look" Kiryu instructed.

Din suspiciously opened the box. The next second his eyes almost popped out. "How did you get this?" He couldn't believe that he was holding the set of paintbrushes he always wanted to have

"Do you like it?" Kiryu asked instead of answering.

"This must have cost you a bomb!" Din exclaimed.

The set of paintbrushes he was holding was from a renowned brand. It was very expensive. He had been saving up for years but still hadn't managed to raise enough money to buy it.

"Well, I took some part-time jobs, so getting the money wasn't a big deal. Also, I am assisting your Dad in some research as well. I get my stipend." Kiryu answered with a shrug. "Now tell me if you like it. I don't know if this is the one you wanted to. The shopkeeper suggested that this one is the best. So I bought it."

Din tightly hugged his friend. "Thanks, buddy! This is exactly what I wanted to buy!"

"That's good to hear."

Din was over the moon as he examined the set of paintbrushes in his hand. He was so engrossed in doing what he was doing that he didn't even realise that his sketchbook had fallen to the ground.

Kiryu frowned as he picked up the sketchbook. The sketchbook was Din's favourite. He had seen that latter sketching something on it almost every say. He had never looked at what was in it even though he had been curious.

But now that the book fell down, it was open and he got to see one of the pictures that Din had drawn. 

It was a portrait of one of their classmates. 

He flipped through the pages. The sketchbook was full of portraits of the same classmate. 

"Din?" Kiryu called out.

"Hmm?" Din hummed without raising his head.

"The person you had a crush on... is that Ped Annop?" Kiryu asked tentatively.

Din turned around so fast that his neck almost snapped. His eyes widened when he saw Kiryu holding the sketchbook. He snatched the book from his friend's hand and hid it behind him.

"I- I am sorry, Din. I didn't mean to peek. My leg accidentally hit the table and the book fell down. It was open and I picked it up." Kiryu explained hurriedly. He regretted having flipped through the pages.

Din refused to look at his friend. He was ashamed and guilty. It wasn't common for a boy to be attracted to another boy in their era. Those who did were considered to be freaks and avoided like plagues.

Since Kiryu had seen this, he was sure that the latter would cut ties with him. He was really scared of losing the only friend he had. He didn't want his friend to see him as a pervert or a freak for having a crush on another boy.