Autumn is a second spring

61. Transfer.

"We have already shortlisted the venues. We will let you know once we have finalized it," Kao said over the phone as he went through the brochures.

Earth wanted a dreamlike wedding and Kao was willing to go to any extent to make his wishes come true.

After going through a long list of themes, they settled on the Forest theme for their wedding. Their wedding planner had sent them a whole bunch of venues for the forest theme wedding, out of which they shortlisted two venues.

Both of them were confused about how they were supposed to choose between the two. The first one was a venue between a Pine Forest and the other was a venue in the moist deciduous forest, that was covered with ferns and greenery that they loved.

They felt that both the places were really scenic and perfect to host their weddings. They had been stuck in the dilemma of having to choose only one of the two.

"Of course, we will make up our minds by this evening. There won't be much delay," Kao answered. "Yes, yes." He nodded along as he heard the speaker. "Alright, Thank you."

He hung up the call. Arranging a wedding was a huge task. He hadn't been much worried initially as he knew that Fluke would lend him a hand when necessary. But when the situation arose with Fluke out of town, he started panicking and felt lost. 

The same was true for Earth. Earth had a lot of ideas for his wedding but couldn't make up his mind to choose one of those ideas to proceed with. If Fluke had been by their side, he would have helped them get things sorted much more easily than them doing it by themselves.

Kao turned and looked at Earth who was staring out of the balcony with an empty look in his eyes. He went and sat behind his husband, wrapping his hand around his husband's tiny waist. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing in particular. Just stuff," Earth leaned against his husband's chest, looking tired.

"Is it about Art?" Kao could guess. 

Ever since Boun told them about the whole bullying incident, they had done an in-depth investigation of the matter and found out that not only was Art bullied by the students but also was mistreated by the teachers who were homophobic.

The school had hidden the matter from them to save their own asses. The school authorities didn't give a damn about what had been happening in school to their students, all they cared about was the income the students brought to the school and the school's clean public image. They were willing to do anything for that, even if it meant that they had to oppress the students who dared to complain.

They also got to know that the teachers and staff had been instructing their fellow students to isolate Art because he was being raised by a homosexual couple.

This discovery made Kao and Earth change their minds about waiting for the semester to end to change Art's school to immediately take the child out of the school and transfer him to a better school. They no longer wanted their son to be placed in such a toxic environment.

When asked Bew had revealed that he hid the matters happening in the school from both Boun and Prem because he didn't want anyone from his school to insult either of them or call them names like Art's classmates did to Earth.

The child had admitted that he was afraid that they would be hurt and distanced himself from him. He didn't want his Dada and Dami to get insulted because of him. He was especially worried that his Dami would leave him as Prem didn't actually have any relationship with him unlike Boun to begin with.

He felt that if something like that happened, he would cause strain in the relationship between his Dada and Dami. He wanted them both, together and happy.

He kept everything to himself making sure that he was never a burden to the two people who loved him selflessly.

These words of the child directly hit Earth's heart. He could feel the sense of insecurity the four-year-old was emitting. He started wondering if Art felt the same.

Somewhere in his heart, a feeling of guilt started taking shape even though he knew that none of this was his fault, to begin with.

Getting silence as his answer, Kao understood that his guess was right. "Earth, we can't do anything to change those people's way of thinking na. We didn't do anything wrong. It's their own fault for being so narrow-minded. They are the ones who are living under the rock and refusing to change their worldviews. We don't have to feel ashamed for falling in love with each other."

Earth nodded his head agreeing to whatever Kao said, but that didn't mean that the guilt in his heart was reduced. "Art wouldn't have chosen to attend that school if not for me, phi."

This thought had been haunting him for days. He had always considered Art as his own. He had strived to be the best parent for the child. Yet, after this incident, he started feeling as if he had failed to be a good parent.

It was still fresh in his memories how Art used to tell him not to show up at his school. But Earth missed the little guy too much during the weekdays that he would go to the school personally to pick his son up. Back then, he was oblivious of what was happening in the school and how his each visit was causing more trouble to his son.

"Papa! Dad!" Art screamed as he opened the door. He was all smiles and looked really excited. He directly threw himself into Earth's arms.

Earth hugged him back warmly. "How was your first day at your new school?" He gave his baby a kiss on his cheeks.

The new school was not very far from their residence and offered school buses for students. Art, who had never used school buses before was over the moon to be in one.

"Awesome, Papa! I made two friends today!" He started narrating everything that happened in the school including his classmates.

He knew that his Papa was a bit shaken by the revelation of what had been happening in his previous school and he felt guilty. He didn't want his Papa to be upset. Just like his Dad, he loved to treat Earth as a princess.

Earth listened to every single detail that Art was saying with a smile, feeling grateful that his son could smile so brightly and be happy after being around those toxic people for so long.

Kao eyed the Papa-son duo in front of him. His husband automatically forgets about him as soon as his son enters the scene. Now, he had just become an extra in the scene who was forced to watch the chummy moments between his husband and son.