At a young age of eighteen, New was living the life of a teenage boy diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. With his life hanging by a thread, he realized that it was too short to be spent on memories that will only result in melancholy, and so he chose...
That day as I looked at the view before my eyes and stood on top of the hill, I felt the safest. Standing beside Tawan, I felt like I finally was able to breathe after a long time of suffocating. The cancer, loss of someone I dearly cared for, and the life lived in recluse suddenly felt heavier on my back when I heard Tawan's question. Before I knew it, tears were already trickling down my face.
"I'll be glad to."
We enjoyed the view for a few moments and seized the moment Tawan made possible for me. Yes, I suddenly felt the weight get heavier. But somehow my body felt stalwart knowing that I'm battling my war with a confidant who's willing to stay with me. Tawan made me stronger.
"Wait here for a bit.", Tawan said as he broke the silence. He turned and went back inside the room. A few moments after, he came out holding a whole cake in his hands. He placed the cake on the table and gestured me to come next to him.
The cake looked simple and regular, it didn't look like anything fancy. It was a typical chocolate cake you'd see in most bakeries.
"What's the cake for? Is it your birthday?"
Tawan ignore my word and prepared two forks on the table. He then reached something in his pocket and it revealed a pack of diy cake accessories. He opened the pack of icing from the accessories and started writing on the surface of the cake. I couldn't make it out at first, but when he finished it revealed the phrase "Susu Na".
"You said in your bucketlist that you want to eat an entire cake right? Let's do it now.", Tawan said as he smiled and offered me a fork.
My heart was overflowing with emotions when he said that. The cake was already too much for me to handle, but him remembering the things I wanted to do made me feel something I had never felt before.
This feels like a dream.
I grabbed the fork from Tawan and sat beside him as we ate through the cake. I looked at Tawan as he ate the cake. I didn't expect him to be this kind of guy. Of course I thought the cold attitude was just a facade, but I never knew he was this warm. Sitting next to him felt like having the sun next to me, only that it wasn't scorching--it was relieving.
We spent the remaining of the day travelling through the magnificent view of Mae Salong. The place looked astonishing from the room we were staying, but it looked even better when I got to look at the sceneries a little closer. The summit of the mountain was unlike any other, it looked exactly like the sacred mountains where gods reside in the movies. The people who we met entertained us in all smiles, telling us stories of Ancient Chiang Rai as they offered us desserts unique only to their city.
When we got back to our room, the sun was already midway through setting. It revealed a beauty different from when it shone in the morning, but it remained a view that looked prime.
"Hey."
I turned around and saw Tawan holding a camera.
"Let's take a photo."
The last time I asked him to take a photo, he declined adamantly. This time, he was the one asking to take it. I thought of the times he felt so vague and very hard to read, and realized how open he had become towards me. In the short while that we met, he had shown me the real side of me that looked very different from what he initially portrayed that it felt like the boy from the bus was just a distant memory to me.
I moved towards him and we positioned ourselves to take the photo. When the camera snapped, It captured the most beautiful view I have ever seen.
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