Peraya: FriendSHIP

Clearing Skies

Two months.

It's been two months since Singto met Krist. The man he met under abnormal circumstances. He was standing under the rain;  pale, cold, and shivering yet dull and unresponsive. Singto was curious about him. He was professional yet so boyish in a way. He was comfortable around the young man and he knew Krist felt the same. And it just took one day for them to form a connection. It's been two months since he had known Krist.

It's also been two months since he last saw him.

Singto hasn't bumped into him since the last time they met, and it's not like he sought him out too. Singto was fine with the thought of them never crossing paths again. He moved on, he went with his everyday routine, checked his patients daily and continued to undertake his one-year internship. However, that didn't mean Krist did not cross his mind. Singto tried not to think of him, never wondered about how he was doing too. It's just that when they parted ways, it's like Krist left something embedded deeply in his life.

Krist's got that brand of uniqueness about him that made him stand out among the many strangers Singto crossed paths with. Bangkok was a big city with many people wandering here and there. The chances of meeting of the same person again among the crowd were slim, especially if there is nothing connecting those individuals. So imagine his surprise when he set his cup down on a table just as another another came down with his. He blinked silently when he met familiar brown eyes looking at him in surprise.

"Khun'Krist," Singto instinctively acknowledged.

Krist, still frozen, snapped out of his stupor and regained his composure. "Khun, sawadee khrap," he waii. Singto returned the polite gesture and they stood in awkward silence.

"Uhm, you can take the table. I'll look for another one," Krist offered and was ready to reach for his cup when a hand kept him in place. He jumped in surprise and looked up to see Singto eyeing him skeptically.

"It's fine. We wouldn't be here if there are any available tables," Singto shrugged nonchalantly and looked around the busy cafe.

Unsure of himself, Krist followed Singto's line of sight and sighed in defeat when he couldn't spot any vacant seats. He smiled gratefully at the doctor and placed all the books he carried down the vacant chair along with his bag. He paused and gaped when he saw Singto do the same, at the exact same time. Both of them stared at each other in awe, assessing the things they brought and the positions they were about to take. Singto smiled at the younger man and proceeded to pull his chair to sit down. Krist nodded weakly and followed in suit.

The cafe was bustling with floating whispers but the two occupants of the table didn't pay them any mind. Singto blindly sipped for his iced black coffee and cracked a thick text book open, dragging his finger down while pulling the cover of an orange highlighter with his teeth. Krist was frowning when he began to work on his laptop while reaching for a text book. They worked in silence as if they had no company on the opposite side of the table.

Krist opened the dome lid of his Frappe and scooped a dollop of whipped cream, raising the straw in panic as the cream began to fall and catching the sweetness with his tongue. He dragged the length straw along his lips to clean the sticking whipped cream and licked the excess around his mouth.

"Khun, tissue," Singto reprimanded and pushed a tissue to his mouth.

Krist, dumbfounded, took the bunch and wiped it around the mess he left. "Thank you," he said and checked on his laptop screen if there were any mess left.

That's when he finally noticed the thick text books surrounding Singto's side of the table and probably around three different colors of highlighters. He watched the senior frown while writing notes on the margins of the text book and then moving to the binder resting on the other page. Krist's eyes wondered to the spine of the books, noting the titles and it's levels. But the most notable similarities were Oncology studies and Cancer materials.