Roundabout Way to You

18. Sleepover.

"I'm home! " Anwit called out as he entered the house.

Sarth who had been following him, frowned a bit. Who was he talking to in an empty house? That was the question that haunted him.

But his questions were quickly answered as Anwit turned on the lights. He could see a total of five cats there.

A certain area of the living space housed the cat trees, cat scratching posts, and cat beds.

Sarth chuckled to himself. " Even a cat has a better life than I do. " He mumbled.  Lately, he had been finding his life become more and more boring. He had started having a feeling of being a complete failure in his life. As if he had achieved nothing worth mentioning.

" Why are you just standing at the door? Come on in. " Anwit said to Sarth while picking up the black and white cat who had come to welcome him home.

Noticing the familiar bunch of cats, Sarth stiffened. This didn't go unnoticed by Anwit.

"Don't worry. P' Yut took Comet with him. " Anwit chuckled.

Since Keng wasn't really fond of cats, Ayut wasn't allowed to take his cats with him when he was staying with his parents. He had to leave his beloved babies with his cat lover younger brother for the time being.

Sarth finally relaxed. He was afraid that the little pup might 'attack' him again.

Dragging his luggage behind him, he walked further into the apartment.

The interior of Anwit's apartment was way different than Ayut's. Ayut's apartment had bright, warm tones while Anwit's apartment had soft, cozy tones. The interiors of their apartments were similar to the two brothers' temperaments.

Ayut was warm and bright person who would attract people around him to him. His personality was magnetic and always been the center of attraction wherever he went.

Anwit on the other hand is a soft-hearted person who doesn't like to interact with many people. He was not introverted. But he was selective about the people he interacted with. Once someone gets to know him, they will certainly like him. The only problem was that he would decide who could get to know him and who could not.

"This is the guest room. You can stay here," Anwit said as he opened the door to one of the bedrooms.

Sarth smiled and entered the room following Anwit.

"There are toiletries inside the washroom and yes, the towel," Anwit rummaged through the cupboards and found a towel, and handed it to Sarth. "Here you go."

Sarth felt a bit awkward seeing how friendly and welcoming Anwit was being. "Thank you so much, Nong."

"You are welcome, phi," Anwit replied politely. He left Sarth to do his own business.

Sarth freshened up and changed into a comfortable nightwear. For some reason, he was not feeling out of place at all. The place felt so homey to him.

Drying his hair, he walked out of the room. He felt that just staying inside the room would be rude.

As he reached the living area, he saw Anwit filling the cat bowls with food and water. 

Anwit who had been busy playing with the kittens and watching them eat hadn't noticed Sarth standing there and watching him without even blinking. It took a while for him to finally sense Sarth's gaze.

"Oh, you are out. Have you eaten anything?" He stood up. 

Sarth had indeed not eaten anything. He planned to order a takeaway after reaching Mihit's place, but his phone was broken. With no money, he couldn't go out and get something either.

From the expression on Sarth's face, Anwit could tell that the older guy was hungry but was too shy to admit it. 

"Mom had packed some leftovers from tonight's dinner. Let me heat them for you," Anwit headed to the kitchen without waiting for Sarth's reply.

His mother was worried that he might be too lazy to cook for himself alone and had packed enough food for him to last three days. He had yet to place them inside the refrigerator as the cats were too hungry and needed to be fed. 

He unpacked the packed food boxes from the paper bag he had brought home and emptied one of the boxes into a bowl. The bowl was then placed in the microwave to reheat.

Sarth watched Anwit do everything with much familiarity. He then felt something scratch his trousers and looked down to see that it was one of the cats.

"Can I pet them?" He asked.

"Sure, they just love getting everyone's attention," Anwit answered. 

Out of the five cats, only one of them was his. The other four belonged to Ayut. Just like their owners the cats too were of two kinds. Anwit's cat, Maru, liked to keep to himself, while all of Ayut's four cats were very active and loved to attract attention just like their Momma.

Sarth bent down and picked up the cat that was next to his legs and headed to the kitchen. He kept watching how efficiently Anwit was handling the kitchen. He couldn't help but make a mental comparison between Kitty and Anwit.

'Why am I even comparing the two of them? Anwit is not my boyfriend! He just let me stay here out of goodwill. Gosh! My parents' bullshit is starting to get into my head!' He shook his head and muttered to himself as soon as he realized the direction of his thoughts. 

"What did you say, phi? I didn't hear you," Anwit asked as he placed the food containers in the refrigerators.

"Oh, it's nothing." Sarth sat on the high stool near the kitchen counter. "I always thought that you stayed with Yut. Didn't know that you actually lived next door." He wasn't completely lying. This thought had indeed crossed his mind.

"I do stay with P' Yut. I am only here today because P' Yut has gone back home," Anwit answered as he took out the bowl of reheated food from the microwave and placed it in front of Sarth.

Sarth looked down at the bowl of food on the countertop that was emitting a delicious aroma. "Then why didn't you go with him?"

"Our family residence is too far from my office. It would take a lot of time to reach the office given the distance and traffic on the route," Anwit explained. He had expected that it would be difficult for him to get along with Sarth due to his past encounters with the latter, but surprisingly it was going well.

"You and Yut are really close. Normally Phi-Nong would grow distant once they grow up," Sarth had personally witnessed how Ayut and Anwit cared so much about each other.

"Yeah. We are really close," Anwit admitted with a smile.

"Don't you think that Ayut's boyfriend would find it annoying that you are sticking to him?" Sarth was trying to extract information from Anwit. If he could at least set up Mihit with Ayut, he could save half his ass.

"All his exes did. That's why he is single," There was a time when he used to feel guilty for being the reason for his brother's break up but he soon realized that his brother deserved way better than those jerks.

"What about your lover? Wouldn't he be upset?"

"I don't have one."