Only Happy When It Rains

Chapter 2

"We are now calling our passengers travelling Business Class to board the plane."

Can sullenly looked at the ticket in his hand, before he handed it to the flight attendant, along with his brand-new passport.

In the past, there had been a time when Can had lain with his best friend Good on the lawn in front of his parents' house and had watched the airplanes flying over the city in high altitudes, or descending towards Suvarnabhumi Airport with faint buzzing noises. They had both thought that they would never actually be able to board one of these metal birds – but it didn't prevent them from dreaming about where they might come from or fly to.

Now... Can almost wished he wouldn't have to board it.

He honestly tried to feel excited about the journey. His parents had made sure to lure him with dreams and promises that would have put him over the moon not even three months ago. They would fly to London. They had bought tickets for both a Premier League game and a Champions League game he had chosen himself. He would get to see his football idols play in person – and his mum had even hinted that he might be able to meet them and get their autographs.

But he couldn't feel anything but dead inside about it.

Everything had changed.

Three months ago.

When Lemon had died.

No matter how much sugar his parents were putting into the bitter medicine – it didn't change the fact that Can was flying to London for one reason only: to get married to Ley's fiancé at the end of their week there. And the problem with having to take a long-distance flight to get married, was that he had a lot of time to mull it over in his head already while the rest of the passengers were boarding the plane.

The only comfort Can could feel about his destination was that his Fujoshi sister would have been excited to see her brother get married – legitimately, legally, in a really fancy setting – to another boy. In fact, Can was sure that Lemon, if she was still seeing him from wherever she was now, would be thrilled by this development.

Can had only been vaguely aware of his sister's mystery engagement to some rich conglomerate son. His family never really talked more than necessary about the agreement that had made it possible for them to move into the nice house they lived in, without his mum having to work and on his dad's meagre salary.

When Lemon had first told him about the prince she was engaged to marry, Can had thought she was just indulging the stupid kind of girly fantasy that her boring romance novels were selling to her. But Ley had been so insistent that it was true that Can had started to believe her and had asked his mum – not even surprised to learn that it was indeed true.

So... Ley's prince was now Can's, and he... it was surreal, above all.

He didn't know anything. They hadn't told him his name. They hadn't shown him any pictures. And, he had already been made to understand that he wouldn't actually meet him before the wedding ceremony.

Something about security.

It had really sounded like his future husband was a prince for all the secrecy that was involved.

If anything, Can wanted to curse the monk who had made the prophecy in the first place.

But... he remembered the day of Ley's funeral, when he had promised her to take over her burden, naively, then, not knowing that it meant taking over her fiancé, too.

Can tried to think about the wedding and his future as a married man as little as possible – though now that the plane had lifted off and the novelty of being up in the air had worn off, his thoughts gravitated back to it inevitably.