6 Years After • Completed

ix. Day 7 (part 2)

After what felt like years of convincing Irish that he wouldn't meet with Kongpob to convince the younger to elope with him, Arthit, with a relieved sigh, had left their room.

Kongpob is busy writing in his notebook when Arthit enters his room. Arthit smiles, old habits never die, Arthit fondly remembers Kongpob used to do this too whenever they travel together because he said he would love to preserve the moment but rather than taking pictures, Kongpob prefers to have it written since it's detailed and he could put everything he wanted to, his current feelings, his opinions... everything.

"Hey, you busy?"

Kongpob smiles at the older and stops writing, he closes his notebook and walks closer to Arthit, "I'm done, let's go?"

"No, no... wait," Arthit slowly sits on the bed and pulls Kongpob in front of him, "Before we go, can we talk for a while?"

"Is this going to be a long talk?"

"You might have to sit on this one."

Kongpob sits beside Arthit. "So, what's up?"

"Well, you know, I realized, we haven't really talked about what happened in our lives for the past 6 years and... as friends, we should catch up... Starting with me first because there's really not a lot to tell about me..." Arthit sighs, gathering his strength to continue this talk. He doesn't even know how to start without revealing too much on the younger.

"Do you remember when your first night here, you told me I had an easy life here? It wasn't. For the first two years of my stay here, I was just leeching off of my cousin, I didn't know what to do with my life, I was... really lost..."

"All I knew was that one day, my life was perfectly going well, then the next thing I knew, I was on this unfamiliar place with no friends and family beside me. Every day, I knew I wanted to do something than eating, sleeping and staring at my ceiling but I couldn't, I used to wake up every day without any idea of what was going to happen in my life and I hated it."

Kongpob has been stopping himself to pull Arthit in his arms. "I thought you love spontaneity."

"I do but not that time, I just wish I had plans, something to look forward to every day, something that could push me to go on in my life because I was... practically lifeless that time."

Kongpob holds all his questions - why didn't Arthit come back to them when he knew he wasn't doing well alone? And why did he leave in the first place? - this isn't the time for those questions.

"But everything seems to be going well with you now."

"Yeah, my cousin probably had enough of me so she forced me to go outside, and that's when... I fell in love."

Kongpob turns his head away and clenches his fists on the side. It's bad enough that he had to hear those words coming straight from Arthit but it's unbearable to see Arthit with an affectionate smile usually reserved for Kongpob was given to someone now, it makes him anxious.

"Y-you did? W-with whom?"

"No one. I fell in love at this place when I saw it, you know I've always been fond of oceans but this place is different, it's like... it completed me. That moment, I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life here, fortunately, I met Sed and he gave me a job at the bar because he told me I have a great voice and here I am now."

Kongpob tries to breathe in deeply, relieved that no one here had made Arthit fall in love, he tries easing his mind to let go of the feeling that something is clawing his heart, ripping it out of his chest but hearing how important Sed is in Arthit's life brings back the odd feeling.