Perseverance [Complete]

Chapter 4

Kong's POV

I was watching P'Arthit like a hawk. We were currently sitting around the lunch table on campus. It was the following Monday after the club party. I had dropped him off to his apartment and spent the rest of the weekend tossing and turning around my bed, constantly running that moment in my head over and over again. It was just barely a peck but it hard turned my brain into mush.

P'Arthit seemed to have no reaction at all. He wasn't shy. He didn't blush. He didn't try to avoid me. He didn't try to purposely talk to me. Nothing. Nothing special at all. It's like he didn't even remember it happened. Ugh! Ofcourse he didn't remember it happened. He was drunk out of his mind. He probably thought I was someone else when he did that. Crap. And here I had wasted my entire weekend playing out a thousand different scenarios in my head.

Maybe it was a good thing. This way I wasn't forced to face my tangled emotions. I was behaving this way only because of sexual frustration. Yeah, that must be it. That we can solve. This weekend I was going to ask out some pretty girl. Take her out on a spectacular date and get my mind off P'Arthit.

I had just given myself an excellent pep talk and was walking away from the lunch table when someone grabbed my arm and halted my exit.

"Oh Kong wait.."

"Yes P'Arthit?"

"We still on for the weekend?"

"Huh? Weekend?"

"Yeah, this weekend? Is it Ok if I still come over?"

"You want to come over to my place?" Was my heart really pounding this hard?

"Ummm yeah. Remember I asked if I could crash at your place this weekend? My apartment electrical wiring is getting repaired. Rune is staying with our aunt and none of the guys could take me in this weekend. You said it was ok if I came over. Uh...If you have other plans I can always make other arrangements."

"NO!.....ummm no, no. I had completely forgotten about it but no I don't have any plans. Ofcourse you are welcome to come stay."

"Oh ok great. I will catch you later then. Bye Kong."

Fan-freaking-tastic! There goes my pep talk, and my ill-conceived weekend plans. The primary person I was trying to run away from would be sharing my bed, and not in the way my fantasies wanted.

I spent the rest of the week simultaneously dreading and being extremely excited for the weekend to arrive. It was rare that I got P'Arthit's undivided attention and I was really looking forward to it. And maybe if I was sneaky enough I could bring up the topic of the kiss to see if he remembered anything.

I would have to be a lot sneakier than I initially thought since any alone time I had imagined with him was thrown out the window. He had gone straight to bed on Friday after he had come to my room well past midnight due to a project deadline. And by the time he woke up the next morning most of our friends had found their way to my room claiming it was the perfect opportunity to have a video game marathon. If I wasn't enjoying watching P'Arthit laugh so much I would have been seriously annoyed.

By the time we made it to bed that night both us were exhausted. But at the same time it was refreshing seeing P'Arthit behave like a student like us. He had been forced to grow up and assume the role of a father much too early and sometimes it felt like all he did was worry about Rune.

I was always an early riser but even I felt the need to laze around in bed every once in a while. My thoughts have been too taxing lately and I really needed to recharge. We had not shut the curtains all the way through before we slept last night and a strong beam of the rising sun was making its way over to us. That was generally my sign to wake up, but today I was just too comfortable. Next to me I could see P'Arthit staring to scuffle around trying to hide his face from the offending sun. I had started to smile looking at his antics when I abruptly stopped as he found the crook of my neck as the spot to get comfortable.

I ... should have pushed him away right? But....I didn't. I mean ofcourse I wouldn't, that would wake him up. Yeah, I didn't want to wake him up. That was it. So I stayed still. Half my face was buried in his hair. I could feel his eyelashes on my neck and his soft, slow breaths on my shoulder. He was so close I could see every tiny freckle on his face.

I had never observed him this closely before. Sure I looked at him a lot. He was like my guiding light in Engineering. I turned towards him almost subconsciously when he would be around. But I have never observed him like this before.

And I really liked looking at him. Almost as if my hand had a mind of its own, it moved towards his face. My finger tentatively touched his cheek. As I had expected, his skin was warm and soft. I softly trailed my finger down towards his jaw, tracing the outline of his face. When my finger reached the corner of lips I paused. Not because I was touching him without his permission. Not because I was worried he would wake up. Those thoughts didn't seem to cross my mind at all.

I paused because the anticipation of what his lips would feel against my finger was giving me a strange thrill that I wanted to prolong. My finger instead slid over his jaw again, slowly curving through the rim of his ear, making its path down his neck, halting close to his collar bone. I was ready to re-trace my path when my fingertips were aware for the heavy rise and fall of the chest under them. I stopped to look at his eyes staring into mine.