Behind the Scenes

Chapter 20: Pack Your Baggage and Hit the Road

[Episode 6]

Despite Forth's efforts to provide hangover relief, Ming's day is an agonizing blur punctuated by skull-piercing headache pain and strange confrontations. First it's the angel gang asking him to judge their hotness. Next it's Yo's creepy-ass admirer Park hinting nastily that Yo is two-timing Pha with Ming.

And then, from out of nowhere, Moowarn. Moowarn in the flesh, screaming "Darling!" and tripping in her eagerness to rush into his arms.

Ming blinks, wondering if he's hallucinating, but no. She's still here. He takes a disconcerted step backwards. "Moowarn, what are you doing here?" he demands. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if I did," she replies pertly, flashing him the bright smile that had so captivated him in the early days of their relationship. It doesn't captivate him now.

Instead, as she babbles on about spending the day with him, Ming finds himself seeing Moowarn with new eyes. Yes, Moowarn is vivacious and beautiful—even Yo thinks so, he can tell, and Yo is gayer than a rainbow at a Pride parade. But her voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard, her manner is a mix of posturing and wheedling, and this is just one of many times she's tried to commandeer his time without consulting him first.

Also? She's not Kit. His head is splitting, his heart aches, and he wants nothing more than to hold his Kitty again.

"Who asked you to be here?" he finds himself retorting rudely as Moowarn continues to press the issue of tagging along to his photoshoot. He can see the hurt in her eyes at that but he doesn't relent. With Kit already furious with him over his ambiguous status with Moowarn, this is the worst possible time for her to turn up acting all lovey-dovey.

If she ruins his last chance with Kit, he's going to practice his Muay Thai on her well-rounded ass.

Ming tries to resist her coaxing, but she's relentless and old habits die hard. So of course she wears him down and accompanies him to the shoot, and of course Kit shows up and sees her. Because this is Ming's lot in life today: jester in the court of some angry god. Maybe it's karma, as he suggested to Yo earlier. Vengeance for his playboy ways that left so many girls weeping in his wake.

Ming chases after Kit but the damage is done; his P'Kitty is so hurt and angry that he clings even more fiercely to Beam's lie, like a life preserver in a white-capped sea.

"Just get lost!" Kit shouts when Ming presses him. "Beam and I are together. Now stop bothering me! Go find someone else."

He's stalking away and Ming can't bear it. "Kitty-chan, I'm begging you, please... "

Kit halts in his tracks but doesn't turn.

Ming steps up close behind him, close enough to touch if he dared, his voice dropping almost to a whisper.

"P'Kit, I love you."

Kit sucks in his breath with a startled hiss, and he almost turns. Ming can see it in his posture, the way the muscles of his back and shoulders shift and tighten, the way one foot angles out and Kit's head starts to turn..

Then his head droops. The wayward foot straightens.

"Go find someone else," Kit says loudly. "Go love someone else."

#

Forth finds him still standing there, staring down the corridor even though Kit has long since disappeared. Ming doesn't tell him what happened; he doesn't have to. Forth reads it in the devastation on his face.

Without a word, caring not one whit that anyone might see, Forth gathers his junior up in his arms and hugs him so hard his ribs creak.

"Aw, Nong. I'm so sorry." Forth pets his head with a surprisingly gentle hand, stroking Ming's hair. "I know it feels like the end of the world right now, but you'll get through this. One way or the other. I promise you."

"But what should I do?" Ming wails into Forth's shoulder. He's embarrassed at how childish he sounds, like a little boy lost.

Forth pats his back. "That depends, kid. Are you ready to give up and retreat? Or do you want to keep pursuing him?"

Ming sighs deeply, allowing himself just a moment longer in Forth's comforting hold before facing that question. Forth can be scary—Ming's seen him hazing his juniors so savagely that he thought some of them were going to pee themselves. But anyone who makes it into his inner circle quickly learns that Forth is also warm and caring and direct with his affections. One of his own needs him? He's there. You've messed with one of his? You're dead. He's exactly the big brother Ming needs right now, and Ming flat-out loves him for it. He squeezes Forth in gratitude, breathing in the sweat-and-machine-oil scent of him, and earns another kindly pat on the back in return.

With his luck today, though, somebody is probably snapping a photo and starting a rumor that he is Forth's new boyfriend. And wouldn't that put the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with Kit?

Ming raises his head and steps back to meet his senior's gaze with new determination. "I'm not giving up," he declares.

"Good man!" Forth chucks him lightly under the chin with one big fist. "Then you know what you've got to do."

"Uh. I do?"

"Of course you do. Send that girl packing—and go after your man."