Evening Sky [JoongDunk]

[20] If you reach out, I'll be there to hold your hand

"You are still here."

Book Kasidet sighs at the sight of a man he encounters once he steps his foot in the place that is so familiar to him. The said man looks back to him with a cigarette in his hand, his face is barely recognized because of the excessive beard on his face.

Force never preferred to grow any facial hair on his handsome face, he liked his face clean and neat. But it seems like he hasn't shaved properly in the past two months. Other than that, he smokes again, just like the old times when he was lost with his own life.

Two months have passed since that event of Joong Archen daughter's birthday party and Force hasn't come back to his usual self. Book is here with him, as usual, to check up on him.

"When will you go back to Bangkok? You will lose your job in this state."

Book picks Force's box of cigarettes and lits one for himself. He sits with him on the balcony of his room, together looking at nothingness in the sky of their hometown, while consuming the nicotine and tar.

It takes some moment for Force to respond to his question and when he does, Book grimaces at his hoarse voice. He sounds like someone who isn't taking care of himself for so long and just smokes all day long. How many cigarettes does he consume everyday? Book starts to wonder and.... worry.

"If they fire me, my parents can give me any job I want, no need for me to think about it that much."

This is the old Force Jiratchapong. Welcome back.

That bratty and spoiled kid is back in the form of a 32 years old man, Book shakes his head silently. Book doesn't really like Dunk, but one thing he likes the most about that man was his ability to make Force a better person. Or perhaps, it's not Dunk, it's Force's love for him.

Now the man left him, Force is not only back to his old self, but he has become worse.

Book learns everything from that night directly from Force's own mouth, the man called him in the middle of the night and made Book get so worried he took the bullet train to go to him. They had some distance between them because Book lives in their hometown while Force is in Bangkok. But Book beat the distance because he wanted to make sure that Force Jiratchapong, his childhood friend and his best friend, was okay.

And when Book found him crying in his apartment alone, he knew, he wasn't okay.

He had his heart broken.

And there is only one person who made the great Force Jiratchapong fall into that state.

"Did you answer Dunk's call today?" Book asks again and he sees how Force's body tense with the mention of that person.

That person hasn't really left Force just like what Force told to himself. He called Force every single day which the older man never once tried to answer. Book knows who Dunk Natachai is and how his attitude over everything works. Dunk never loves his boyfriend, but he never wants to have a bad relationship with him. He tried to fix their relationship after that night, he knew how much pain he brought to his so-called boyfriend, he knew that he did something wrong to the person he owed the past 10 years of his life.

But he couldn't do anything either, he couldn't choose Force over a dying Joong. It's Joong Archen, it's the person his heart is always calling for, the person that he can't bring himself to turn his back on. Especially in the time when Joong needs him the most.

So, it's complicated and hard for Dunk too.

He is in the middle of Joong and Force. Two people who are so important to him.