You Know, I've Always Loved You

. . .

A gentle hand reached for Tine's shoulder, tapping lightly. The cheer leader whipped his head around in hopes of seeing one tall guitar player behind him,  but instead he was met by the three awkwardly smiling faces of Fong, Ohm, and Peuk. The smile that had grown across Tine's face in anticipation of seeing Sarawat was now beginning to fade. He had begun to turn around in disappointment when Fong reached out for Tine's shoulder again, taking a firm hold this time.

"Hey! I know we're not you're boyfriend, but the least you can do is say hi to us. We're your friends of years for christ's sake" Fong said in an effort to make the slightly annoyed yet sarcastic comment at least a little endearing, as he lightly shook his friend by the grasp he had on him.

"God, Tine gets a boyfriend and basically forgets us," Ohm started with a light hearted comment to which Peuk finished.

"Yeah, I don't even want to imagine what will happen when he becomes Sarawat's wife!"

Tine threw his textbook at him, which the idiotic friend barely dodged. Realizing his luck, Peuk smiled wide, a rather goofy smile that he flashed way too much, but it perfectly fit his personality or at least that's what Tine always thought. In the moment, however, Tine just rolled his eyes. This was nothing new. He has been the butt of his friends' sarcastic comments before, and only more so since he started seeing Sarawat.

Ever since they walked in on Tine and Sarawat on the couch that one morning, their favorite topic of conversation had become the budding relationship between their friend and the musician. Of course, they didn't see anything wrong with the two men and their romance. They were actually really glad that Tine had found someone to spend time with, especially someone who didn't seem to be as much of a drag as any of Tine's past relationships, all of who had been too fussy or nosy or boring. Sarawat, on the other hand, he was fun, exciting, and sarcastic. All of which were deemed important characteristics according to Ohm, Fong and Peuk. They also believed that based off those three qualities that Sarawat seemed like someone they could all get along with, and they loved that. Even if they hadn't spent much time with him without Tine present or even in general, Sarawat had already won their approval as a suitor for their friend. They only hoped that their support of this relationship showed through their joking yet loving commentary towards Tine.

They were well aware that what they said annoyed him, but when did they not annoy him? That's what friends do right? platonically bully each other. Or at least that's how their friendship had always been. If Tine ever found any issue with what they said, they all agreed that they'd stop. They just wanted to mess with him because they knew how fun it was from past experience, and now that he had a 'boyfriend', even the smallest sentence or inquiry about Sarawat could send a whole new shade of red rushing onto Tine's face. This new romantic development had become all too fun for the three friends.

As soon as his friends sat down around him, Tine began to busy himself once more with his work. The last weekend had been so packed with events from his friends to Sarawat that he hadn't bothered to finish his homework. And as the time until class was lessening every second, Tine had begun to quickly scribble even the smallest amount of work that could be placed on the assignment in order to get a passing grade. Unfortunately, time was not the only thing not on his side this morning. With his friends around him, his focus was most likely going to fly out the window at any moment with his patience not waiting too long to follow soon after.

"Sooo . . ." Ohm started to say, looking around at his fellow friendly bullies before resting his eyes on his poor, frantically working friend, "Sarawat, huh?"

Tine seemed to be trying to ignore him, hoping that if he didn't say anything that the conversation would die away and he would avoid an embarrassing conversation as well as continue to do his work. However, he knew all efforts were hopeless. Nothing could stop his friends from pestering him about their new favorite discussion topic. Regardless, he still hoped that would be the end of it. Please, not today, any day but today, Tine began to think. But to no avail.