Within My Stratosphere • SOTUS

Chapter 12. White Peonies

[Arthit]

Quietly closing the door behind him, Arthit let himself sink into the floor. He had barely made it to his room when his legs had given out. He wasn't sure how he had made it this far. The entire way home, it had felt like he was floating, like there was no stable ground. In aftereffect, his insides were churning and his limbs were numb. It was a similar feeling he got after being in the water too long on a hot summer day.

Less than an hour had passed since the inconceivable revelation. Never in his wildest dreams would he have ever guessed that Kongpob liked him.

This thought alone again threw him into a whirlwind of emotions. Planting his palms into the floor, he tried to stable himself.

He briefly wondered if this was Kongpob's way of seducing his partners. He quickly dismissed the thought. The sincerity in his eyes had been real. Even though he lacked experience in the dating realm, he knew when people were genuine or not.

Arthit sluggishly crawled his way to his bed, burrowing himself into the covers. He thought to himself that maybe if he slept it off, everything would go away. Romance was a genre he was not familiar with and it was seriously throwing him off-kilter.

He closed his eyes and began to count. "One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, four..." mid count he began to think. He felt the coming on of a déjà vu. He had run once before; it lasted two weeks with the aftermath resulting in this. What if next time it was something worse?

He became paralyzed at the thought.

Being 'friends' with Kongpob had taught him one valuable lesson: 'Be stubborn; don't give up.' This meant that Kongpob was never ever going to give up. Instead of willing his problems away, he needed to face them and think. With a sigh, he threw off his covers to stare up at the ceiling.

Okay...let's think. Think. Think. Think. His brain was starting to hurt. Grimacing, Arthit rubbed his aching temples.

Carefully organizing his thoughts, he started from the beginning. First things first, Kongpob was the receiver of the bouquet of 198 roses. That was over ten years ago when he first came to Bangkok. He searched his brain for the imagine of a younger Kongpob. All he could remember from that delivery was the bespectacled student running up the steps to the mezzanine.

Did this mean that Kongpob was upstairs at the time?

Arthit had obviously not seen him, because he possessed no memory of Kongpob prior to the business trip. So... this meant that Kongpob had seen him make the delivery, and... he had started liking him since?

That sounded impossible. If he had seen Kongpob then, there was no way he would have forgotten a face as attractive as his; not the other way around. He flipped over in his bed, and slid down the side to face the mirror. No matter how he looked, his appearance didn't change. He was still the same old, normal looking Arthit.

Baring his teeth, he smiled at the mirror.

Beautiful my ass. He looked hideous.

Sigh...

Gasp— Eureka! Maybe just maybe, this was all a joke! Was it April foo–. Shit. No. It was already mid-May.