Only Happy When It Rains

Chapter 9

It had taken Tin all of five minutes of being back at the Medthanan mansion to remember why he hated the place.

Five minutes, and his brother Tul had walked towards Can and him, his fake smile plastered all over his too handsome face for someone so ugly inside, and he had congratulated the happy couple to their successful introduction into the state of holy matrimony.

It wasn't too hard to read his behaviour at all. Tul was trying to sniff Tin out, find out how things were going in the Mr & Mr Medthanan household, and Tin tried to remain neutral and closed off, while Can introduced himself with such an effortless fake smile that Tin would almost have believed it to be real.

He had expected Can to be nervous, fidgety, generally uncomfortable, after all the warnings Tin had given him about the Medthanan family over the last few days. But somehow, the opposite had happened, and Tin was confused.

Something about Can had been different this morning.

Tin was still trying to put his finger on it, and he hated the fact that his husband had become even more of an unknown in this nerve-wrecking game they had just entered.

Can seemed... relaxed, strangely self-centred; as if a huge load had been lifted off his shoulders overnight, and Tin had no time to wonder what it could mean for today's event... or in general.

Well, it meant one thing for sure – Tin's husband had just become even more irresistibly attractive to him and keeping him safe would be even harder.

Tin thought he could see all the hungry gazes following his husband's introduction – and a jealous side of him just knew it wasn't simply a group of predators eyeing up a new piece of meat for them to play with, but several of them would certainly not say no if they had a chance to get into Can's pants; as soon as they had figured out how strong Tin's claim over him was, of course.

Tin wanted to stake his claim, damn it, despite all his resolve to keep Can at a distance and protect him from the line of fire through a cold veil of ignorance and disregard.

Can was radiant.

The crowds of people that formed around him had just been a predictable show of curiosity about the newest addition to their social circle at first – almost nobody knew about the existence of the prophecy that was guarded like the apple of their eye by Tin's parents, after all.

So, people were sharing all kinds of interesting rumours about how Tin had ended up marrying Can.

Surprisingly, apart from a small minority of traditionalists, the majority of Mrs Medthanan's socialite friends were utterly intrigued and enamoured with the announcement of the first legal, official same-sex marriage in their exclusive circle.

It had a certain chic to it, they had claimed, a modern edge, and more than one of Mrs Medthanan's friends wanted to know in loud voices how she had managed to find such an adorably cute husband for her rebellious son.

Tin had to hide his disgust.

Sure, most people here didn't know about Ley's fate, about the tragedy that had made Can his husband instead of his sister – but that knowledge certainly didn't prevent his mother from proudly taking credit for the match, or at least the legal marriage.

The official version on how they had met, that Tin and Can had agreed on this week, was that they had met at university, since Tin had found out that Can's degree was also from LBC university, albeit from the less prestigious Thai program.

Soon, crowds weren't just forming around Can because he was a novelty, though, but because he was genuinely funny and charming. Even Tin sometimes had trouble getting through to him, causing him a bit of a headache, not knowing how Can would fare in this lion's den, but Tin's attention was quickly claimed by people in turn.