Sweetness

Chapter 34

Amusement park on the weekend is a death trap. Everybody, like litterally everybody, got poured into every corner of the place. It's a blessing they chose to go early today. Forth watched Beam opened his basket to pull out a medium rucksack.

That bag weren't empty. Forth saw Beam put water bottles and food into it, leaving the majority of the content sealed from view. Hmm, so today were picnic day indeed. From where he stood, Forth caught a glimpse of the wicker basket's content and Beam stored a lot of thing inside.

They were galloping from one game to the other. While Beam got pasty on scary house (for someone who were learning to be a doctor, Beam still had along way to stop being queasy seeing gore), Forth felt sick at the roller coaster ride (when he's not busy screaming like his head gonna fell off). Today were fun.

After those excitements, Beam chose to had their picnic at the court. The amusement park were equiped with wide communal area. It served double as night carnival performance stage and place where people could sit down and stretched their leg. They got jackpot by getting the best tree to sit down under.  Forth wiped his forehead. August in Thailand were hot.

"P'Forth, drink this, na. You are heavier than me so if you faint, I'm just gonna leave you there. And eat this. Sugar in fruit were easier to stomach. After that let's eat lunch."

Beam handed over a water bottle and a pack of watermelon. "Oh ho, N'Beam. Being such a caring mother hen suits you indeed. Ok, ok, I'll drink it. Come on, lean on. I could see you were tired too."

Forth leaned on the tree. The breeze felt awesome. What surprised him were where Beam chose to lean on. Instead of leaned on the tree, Beam chose to lean on him. Due to their height difference, Beam's head slotted right at his shoulder. Remembering what Kit's phone call about, Forth started to talk.

"This week were not awesome, right? Things were hectic at the office. P'Tee oncoming surgery also made me worry. The person himself still being so aloof about it but it frayed my nerves when I found out that he called our lawyer to settle his will. I hate being helpless on this matter."

Beam snuggled closer. He couldn't say anything to negate that. He knew how risky that kind of surgery were. Pha's dad didn't get wealthy if it were a piece of cake. It's  strenuous, both for the doctor and the patient.

"Sometimes, for those who're waiting, the best they could do were praying and prepared for the worse. It's not helping, true, but at least they wouldn't broken beyond repair when things got bad. Nothing worse than being helpless and couldn't even prepare for the worse."

Beam said it so slowly that Forth had to strand his ears. And he remembered Beam's parents. While he had some preparation regarding P'Tee surgery (whether about the procedure or time to exercise the stress), Beam didn't get that privilege. His parents were snatched from him, left him alone with no preparation what so ever.

"You know, P'Forth.. Actually today were when I got my heart broken two years ago.  I didn't even get chance to say I love them, my Ma and Pa, because I thought I could see them again in two days. If I knew, I'm gonna say it as much as I could, as often as I could. When I finally said it to them, they already couldn't answer."

Eventhough his voice didn't tremble, Forth could felt the hotness of Beam's tears on his shoulder. Losing loved ones were hard, especially if it happened so sudden. Forth couldn't resist to caress Beam's shoulder and kissed his forehead.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, na, Beam."

Beam nodded at his words and snuggled closer.

"So why did you choose the amusement park today?"

Beam fiddled with his jeans. Forth couldn't see his eyes but he could saw Beam's fingers and took hold of his hand. Beam sighed.

"Because I didn't want to be sad anymore today. Their memories were too precious to be remembered in sadness. My parents loved amusement park."

Beam smiled while remembering.

"Everytime one of us had a birthday, we always went to amusement park to celebrate. They often whisked Pha and Kit along so I could had company while they were being lovey dovey. We will get sugar high from the snacks and have fun until it closed. Pha even said to me once that he wanted to be adopted because my parents dotted on him too. Those times were my happiest memories with them."

Forth caressed the hand on his hold. Beam didn't shake his hand off.

"Do you want to visit them after this? I'll accompany you if you want to. I reserved my time just for you today."

Beam turned his body so he could met his eyes, checking something. Forth didn't know what he found but the smile Beam gave him were a mixed of things he didn't want to analyse. It's still beautiful, though.

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Beam tapped his forefinger on his knee. When he met P' Forth this morning, he wanted to have fun at the amusement park and went alone to visit his parents. But hearing P' Forth's words changed his decission.

He didn't want to be alone today.

Forth drove them to the cemetery. Locating at outskirt of Bangkok, it took a while to reach the place. Saturday traffic slowing them down in places. The sun already started to get lower, made the afternoon cooler. Beam traced the path. He asked P' Forth if it's alright to buy garlands and the older man immediately found some for him.

Forth walked alongside Beam, accompanied him just like he said. Beam hold his gift with care. When they reached the graves,  Forth finally could see the remaining content of the whicker basket.

Beam brought fruits, cupcakes, incense and papers. They prayed first then Beam started to talk. He talked about his daily life, his study (the papers were copy of his quiz results), his bestfriends (how Pha finally got a lover and how Kit were chased by a determined junior). He even told his parents about Forth (who he described as a handsome daddy long-legs). But what intrigued Forth were Beam's next words.

"Pa, Ma, if harms indeed come, please help me to protect my bestfriends. I know you'd watched over me but please extend your protection to Pha and Kit. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Thank you for always loving me this whole time. I love you."

Beam ended his talked and they gave a wai. While Beam tidied up his belonging, Forth said one promise in his mind to Beam's parents. 'I'll take care of him the best way I could.' When they walked away, Forth smelt jasmine in the air.