SOTUS: The University Days (and Other Universes)

We're Dating!

"We're dating," Arthit announces confidently. He has thought about it for a long time and has decided the Thank You party, where every one of his friends would be attending, is the perfect time and place to admit that he and Kongpob are dating.

His friends should accept him and Kongpob's relationship. It shouldn't be a problem. They have no issues with Tutah's nightly escapades with different guys, so telling them about his committed relationship with Kongpob should be easy-peasy.

But the reactions he gets aren't what he expected.

"You're what?" Knot asks, about to burst into laughter.

"Very funny, Arthit," Prem comments.

Bright snorts, and Tutah gives him a questioning look. Even Kongpob's friends are all stifling their laughter.

"What?" Arthit questions their reactions. He looks at his boyfriend's eyes to look for the answers, but Kongpob just raises his shoulders. He's equally confused.

"Arthit, we want you to stop fighting with Kongpob. But you don't have to pretend you're dating," Knot explains after controlling himself from chuckling.

"But, we really are dating!"

"Sure, Arthit," Prem answers, snickers in his lips, before turning around with the rest of his friends to get more drinks, leaving Arthit and Kongpob absolutely confused.

"What has just happened, Kong?"

"I don't know? Maybe we should have explained it better?"

~

The couple thought their friends are just joking, probably a coping mechanism for their very surprising announcement. But they find the following days to be very testing to their patience.

"Kong, where are you going? Don't you want to join us for lunch?" Em asks his best friend.

"Maybe next time. I'm supposed to meet P'Arthit."

"P'Arthit? Why would you have to meet him?"

"We will have lunch together?"

Tew, supposedly the most reasonable of them all, rolls his eyes. Em continues his questions. "And why will you have lunch with him?"

"Because... he's my boyfriend?"

Oak and Wad let out the laughs they were trying so hard to hold. "Kongpob, you hate that guy so much!" Oak says in between his laughs.

"For fuck's sake, we really are dating!"

~

It's a bit hurtful, Arthit admits.

"Don't you think I wouldn't be able to get a guy like Kongpob?" He asks his best friend.

Knot sighs, shakes his head, and says, "Bro, you don't like him. We all know that."

That statement is stupidly ridiculous because Arthit has liked Kongpob for a very long time. It might have taken nights of crying and questioning to admit it to himself, but eventually, he did. He liked Kongpob ever since he sang those cheesy songs on the stage during the freshmen's pageant night. Heck, he probably even liked Kongpob before that.

But his friends... he can't fathom why they can't believe him.

~

Arthit mentions to Kongpob that it's a bad idea, but really, he's just feeling shy to hold his boyfriend's hand while on campus. However, Kongpob says it should make their friends believe them, and Arthit wants that to happen more than anything else right now, so he agrees.