Within My Stratosphere • SOTUS

Chapter 19. Yellow & Orange Ranunculus

[Arthit]

Life was pretty fucked up. He never received a single confession in his entire twenty-six years of life. Then all of a sudden, within a course of a month's time, three men professed their interest in him.

Out of the three, this one by far had to be the most shocking.

"...from the bottom of my heart... You mean so much to me...I've totally fallen for you..."

Arthit watched as P'Jay continued to speak, his mouth moving, forming words that he couldn't hear. It was like watching television with the mute turned on.

All external stimuli became drowned and muffled, by the whooshing noise of his blood rushing to his ears. Arthit felt trapped as his thoughts took off, running a million miles per second.

Was this really happening? Jay? His P'Jay, liked- no, loved him... and not in the brotherly sort of way. Arthit pinched his arm, checking to see if this was a nightmare. Nope. It hurt like hell and he was still here.

If this was true and still real life, what was going to happen now?

Arthit blinked in wonder.

And... since when? Since when had P'Jay felt this way about him? He searched his memory any hints or signs that P'Jay might have dropped for him. There were none.

Everything about this weekend finally made sense. P'Jay had been acting strange because he planned on confessing his feelings.

Suddenly out of nowhere, images of Kongpob filled his mind shocking him from his state of pandemonium. All the blood rushing to head jerked to a standstill before free-falling with momentum, down to his toes. It caused a shiver to run down his spine, freeing him from his mental prison.

"Arthit?" Jay called him, peering at him in question.

"Huh?"

"Did you hear what I said?" Jay's eyes searched his, wary with anticipation.

"H-huh? What?" Oh fuck. He had not been paying attention for the latter half. Arthit cleared his throat, unsure of how to respond.

Finding the right words was the least of his problems. The biggest issue was trying to figure out what P'Jay had asked him. It would be detrimental to let it out in the open that he hadn't been listening. After all, regardless of how he felt about P'Jay in that kind of sense, he cared about him as a close P' in general.

"Right. Um. I don't know... right now." Arthit replied. It was the safest route to take at the moment, because he wasn't lying, and maybe this would get something more out of P'Jay; for instance, the question he had asked him.

Jay noted Arthit's expression before speaking up again. "Are you bothered by the fact that I'm a guy?"

Finally, a question he could sort of answer. "Not really." This was the truth. After Kongpob had confessed, he came to the conclusion that Kongpob's gender didn't really bother him.

A brief wave of relief crossed over Jay's face, followed by a sliver of hesitation.