Autumn is a second spring

117. Mansion

Ohm leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, eyes narrowed as he watched Fluke. A moment ago, Fluke had hugged Prem and told him he loved him—soft, sincere, warm. And now he was back to acting like Ohm didn't even exist.

Mocking the moment, Ohm put a hand to his chest dramatically and mimicked Fluke's voice with exaggerated tenderness, "I love you too~."

Fluke didn't even flinch. He simply turned his head slowly toward Ohm, raising a single brow with a sharp, wordless glare. The kind that didn't need sound to say, Don't even start.

Ohm raised his hands in mock surrender but couldn't hide his frown. The silent treatment was back, and it grated on him. He took a few steps forward, moving closer to Fluke, who was now pretending to be absorbed in typing something on his laptop.

"Hey," Ohm said, voice softening. "Do you... do you really love Prem?"

Fluke didn't even look up. "Of course I do. He is my friend."

"I am your friend too," Ohm said, almost childishly. "But you have never told me 'I love you.' Not even once."

Fluke looked up from his screen, giving Ohm that perfect, cold plastic smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "That's because Prem is my best friend. Yo a're not."

He immediately returned to typing, as if the matter was closed. Ohm stood there, blinking. Again, dismissed.

But he didn't give up. "So... who was Prem's boyfriend anyway?" he asked, changing the subject.

"P' Boun," Fluke replied casually, eyes still on the screen.

Ohm's mouth dropped open. "Wait. What? That can't be right. Boun is dating someone else. Someone named 'Pao.' I heard him talk about Pao like, all the time."

Fluke didn't even blink. "Prem is Pao," he said. "P' Boun gave him that nickname because Prem's cheeks reminded him of a salapao bun."

Ohm paused, processing it, then nodded slowly. "Okay... actually, yeah, that makes sense."

He hesitated. "So, what happened? Why did they break up? I mean, Boun was pretty serious about... well, Pao, I guess."

Fluke's hands stilled briefly on the keyboard. Then, calmly, he said, "Because your stupid cousin proposed to his secretary, that too in front of his employees. Something about cheering his secretary up or something."

Ohm immediately shook his head. "No way. That's impossible. Boun wouldn't do that. He was going to propose to Prem. I know for a fact—he even had a ring."

Fluke finally looked at him, brows knitting. "He really had a ring? For Prem?"

"Yeah," Ohm said, nodding. "He showed it to me at the hospital when he was visiting me.  He couldn't stop talking about how perfect it would look on his Pao's finger. It was custom made, with some date engraved inside."

Fluke sat up straighter. "Date? What date?"

Ohm squinted, trying to remember. "I think it was the day he first met Prem, I think. He was being annoyingly sentimental about it. Said that day changed his whole life."

Fluke let out a slow exhale, his eyes darting away in thought.

Ohm wasn't done. "Also... he has been building a marital house."

"A martial house?"

"Yeah," Ohm clarified. "He has been planning to move in with Prem after the wedding. He said the construction had been going on for more than a year."

Fluke stared at him, stunned. "You are telling me Boun was building a marital house for Prem?"

"Yep. He got the architect to design it according to all of Prem's weird dream-home ideas. Even the ridiculous ones. There's a whole room just for Latte. A playroom for Bew. Guest rooms for Prem's parents if they ever visit. A whole damn home theatre and garden greenhouse."

Fluke's mouth parted slightly in disbelief.

"The house is almost finished," Ohm went on. "Only the furniture and electrical stuff are left, I think. It's huge. Mansion-sized. Honestly, I thought he was going overboard. But then I saw how much P' Kao is splurging on his and Earth's wedding, and now it doesn't even feel that crazy."

"P' Ohm..." Fluke murmured, dazed. "Are you sure about all this?"

Ohm nodded and pulled out his phone. "Here. See for yourself."

He handed the phone to Fluke, who took it with slow, unsure fingers. As he scrolled through the pictures Boun had sent Ohm, his silence stretched. 

Each photo showed a new detail—the sunlit kitchen Prem had always dreamed of, the library nook, the wraparound porch overlooking a small koi pond. Everything looked like something out of Prem's pin interest list.

Fluke couldn't believe it. Boun had taken every bizarre, whimsical idea Prem ever mentioned and brought them to life. Every corner of the house screamed Prem. Every detail was intimate. Thoughtful.

"This isn't just a house," Fluke whispered. "It's... everything he wanted."

Ohm sat down beside him, watching him with a quiet curiosity. "Yeah. Boun said it was one of the wedding gifts he prepared for Prem. He really went all in. Don't tell Prem, alright. It's a surprise. I am sorry that I slipped up."

Fluke just nodded slowly, still scrolling through the images, his thoughts heavy. His chest felt tight—not from anger, not even sadness—but from the sheer weight of how badly everything had gone wrong.

After a long moment, he handed the phone back to Ohm, his expression unreadable.

Then, as if needing to shift gears before he lost his composure, Fluke spoke briskly. "Sammy is coming over."

Ohm blinked. "Huh?"

"Sammy," Fluke repeated. "P' Boston's wife. She is most probably coming in a cab, and the guards won't let cabs through the gate, so could you to please go and pick her up."

Ohm looked horrified. "Me? But I don't even know her! I have only met her once!"

Fluke closed his eyes, resting his palm against his forehead. The throbbing ache in his temples was getting worse.

"You don't need to know her. She knows you," Fluke said, voice weary. "That's enough."

Ohm looked like he wanted to argue more, but the sight of Fluke, visibly worn out and exasperated, made him stop. The man looked like he hadn't slept properly in days. His expression had that quiet kind of exhaustion—the one you don't notice until the stillness gives it away.

"...Fine," Ohm muttered. "But only because you look like you are one second away from passing out."

Fluke didn't even respond. He just waved him off without a word, already pulling his laptop back in front of him.

Ohm muttering to himself as he headed toward the door. "She better not chew me out for being late or something..."

As the door clicked shut behind him, Fluke let out a long, slow breath and sank into his chair. His fingers hovered above the keyboard, but the blinking cursor on the screen blurred in his vision.

The house. The ring. The engraved date. The salapao cheeks. The mansion.

All for Prem.

He leaned forward, burying his face in his hands.

For the first time in days, he didn't know what to do.