Fateful Encounter (Completed)

Chapter 26

Time passes by quickly. Perhaps too quickly for the ones in love. In the blink of an eye, it was already midterms and the freshmen resembled a bunch of headless chicken. Every faculty study room and libraries were filled with over excited freshmen, who were rather nervous about the midterms. Last minute catch up classes, visiting seniors dorms at night for advice and additional lessons, hounding the faculty staff for any clue they could get on exam questions, staring in to space, mumbling under their breaths, etc. The experienced seniors laughed at them, knowing full well the inevitable destiny of these freshmen.

It wasn't much different for the two love birds. In fact, it would be fair to say that these two were the busiest among their friend circle. Not only were they students, both had established carriers that kept them away from town or even the country at times. Kongpob's project was close to completion and at a rather sensitive time, which required his close attention and input. It also took him away from college for two or three days at a time. Arthit was always busy with his commitments to the band and individual activities. He'd had to fly to three different countries in five different occasions in the past two months.

Just the weekend after Kongpob and Arthit had celebrated their anniversary, Arthit had met Kongpob's mother, his two sister-in-laws and their four children at the charity concert for the differently-able children. They've held a special fan event for the kids and their parents that day. But being The Suthilaks and members of the charity management, the ladies and the kids had met the band back stage for about half an hour until the band had to go for the fan event. Arthit's aunt had been present too and did all the introductions and filling in the would-have-been-awkward silences. The ladies had been engaging and very charming towards him and his band mates. No especial conversation happened, thank god. But he did build a very close friendship with little Dara.

Dara was Kovit and Mayuree's five year old daughter who apparently, according to her mother, had a crush on him. At first Dara had been extremely shy and had not come close to him. But after about five minutes he'd been able to coax her out from behind her mother's legs. After that her mother'd had a hard time taking her away. Which was extremely cute and ultimately lead to the three other boys teasing Arthit about a prospective future bride. That got the three Suthilak ladies exchanging knowing looks with each other, throwing meaningful looks at Arthit and Arthit blushing. It's also worth mentioning that Kongpob would always look rather sulky, whenever Arthit or any of his family members mention Dara's "crush".

Despite all that, each day felt brand new for the two lovers. Every time they were away from each other, they'd do something special for the other. Like a surprise. Kongpob would arrange something nice for his beloved when ever he had to leave town for more than a couple of days. Usually these surprises ended up with the two of them missing at least one morning class the next day. And whenever duty called him away, Arthit would add something special to his performance, or bring something unique from all his travels. Arthit's antiques on stage had gotten his band members to notice that their youngest was hiding something or someone from them. 

Arthit knew he had to tell his band members and his agency management about the recent developments. He also knew the consequences of doing so. But in a way he was kind of confident about not receiving major fuzz, due to his lover being Kongpob Suthilak. Also, from how the whole hazing ordeal had been shutdown without anybody getting to know Kongpob, Arthit could tell that handling the media would be no problem. He was worried about his fans. Not because he was dating, Pup and Lamon were already dating when they debuted and Saom had dated and broken up with a co-star just before the world tour, but because he was dating another man.  

Arthit wasn't that naive to imagine that all his fans would be accepting of his sexual orientation. Even though homosexuality is legally accepted and recently there'd been progressive legal enforcement to prevent discrimination, there had been instances where LGBT+ community had suffered unfavorable situations. Especially considering the life of an artist, things could turn extremely ugly if this matter was not handled carefully. Arthit had already come to the conclusion that he'd follow Kongpob's advice in this matter, since he knew how capable his lover was.