Stories of LITA 2

II - The Lucky Charm (13. The Lucky Charm - I )

Five years later:

"Sometimes I can't believe how that one meeting with P'Phayu changed our lives. He has become like our lucky charm," Ple said, as they sat in Rain and Sky's dorm room, finishing the project for their final year. Even though Phayu and Rain had been dating for almost five years now, Rain continued to live in the dorms during the week and with Phayu during weekends. The dorm was closest to the Uni, and he was the one with the car, so he didn't want to leave his friends. "I know. So many good things have happened. And best part is having such a wonderful family beside us," Sig said, smiling a little. "And Rainy boy found his real one at last!" Por said. All of them had been really shocked when they had found out that Rain's family had not exactly been his real one. The Theerpanayakuls had contacted Rain's biological parents and arranged for a reunion. Rain's so called parents had been arrested and the business had been absorbed by the Theerpanayakul family.

Rain's family had accepted Rain's friends as their own as well and doted on all of them. Plus Phayu and Pai were the favourite sons in-law. While Rain's parents still lived in California, they made frequent visits to Bangkok to meet the kids. They stayed with the Theerpanayakuls, everyone a big happy family. However, they were working on winding up their business and coming back permanently. Phayu had left the architecture firm a while ago and worked directly for the family. Rain had interned in his old firm, and all of them were likely to work in architecture firms under the Theerpanayakul umbrella. Things were finally looking up for everyone.

"Rain?" Ple called his name. He looked up, one eyebrow cocked. "What excuse are you going to give P'Phayu this time for Valentine's Day? The last few times, you decided to go visit your parents in the US. But this time, they will be here," she said. Rain had avoided celebrating the day of love, after the excruciating debacle of the one he had planned. It had made him wary of the experience and he had used his parents as an excuse and escaped to California that time of the year. But this year, he had no excuse. "I don't know. I know I am wrong, and P'Phayu is not like P'Stop. But, there is a small part of me that feels like something will go wrong, and P'Phayu will also decide that I am not good enough for him. I know.. I know I am being stupid, but that feeling just won't go away," Rain said. "And to be honest, he has never really asked me if I am going to be around on that day. It's not like he has had great experiences around it."

The others dropped the topic since Rain clearly didn't want to talk about it. But Sky looked at Rain, knowing that Phayu was really bothered by Rain's lack of enthusiasm about that particular day. He would never say it out loud, but he had seen Phayu moping around and missing Rain when he was not around. They all knew Rain very well. He was usually a calm and chilled out person, but there were some things he could be unreasonably stubborn about. And not celebrating Valentine's day had become one of them. But Sky knew that Phayu was likely to ask him about it, and he was wondering what he would tell his senior. It definitely was not a conversation he was looking forward to having.

Just like Sky suspected, Phayu did find him at Pai's place a couple of days later. Rain was at the Uni, filing his internship report. Sky greeted Phayu as he let him in the door. "What's up Yu? Why do you look like someone kicked your puppy?" Pai asked. "P'Pai," Sky's tone held a warning. "Why does he hate Valentine's Day so much Sky?" Phayu asked, not beating around the bush, knowing that Rain could come home anytime. "P'Phayu, do you remember going to the amusement park 5 years ago, when your client kind of harassed you?" Sky asked. Phayu nodded, perplexed. How did Sky know that? Something must have shown on his face because Sky continued. "Do you remember feeling dizzy, and asking for water from a chick mascot, who ended up giving you his bottle?" Phayu nodded, feeling bewildered. "That chick mascot was Rain Phi," Sky said, as he proceeded to tell Phayu the entire story of what had happened that day at the park.