Melted: A MaxTul AU story

Five: Karaoke

Max was ready to go home. They were at the point in the night when everyone was singing sad songs at karaoke. That was ALWAYS the time he wanted to go home. He didn't drink because he had such a low tolerance for alcohol, so when the night got to this point, it was almost always no longer fun for him because he was the only one left who wasn't morose enough to want to sing songs about every love affair that has gone wrong. He had already put his uncle in a cab and sent him home about 30 minutes ago, but everyone else had insisted on staying.

Ironically, the person he was most concerned about was Ann. Someone looking at her would have no idea how much alcohol she had drank. She still looked perfectly put together. She barely slurred, but he knew that she was inebriated because her speaking was far too deliberate and her eyes too glassy. He saw that Prin noticed as well.

He had been surprised when he heard that Prin, who had the night off—a rarity according to Wanna, was coming out with them, but clearly the group seemed to like Prin when he was separated from their boss. He was a key connection to how they managed with Tul, so Max was interested to see what Prin was like away from the Pakorn.

They had all walked from the restaurant to the place that Ann had reserved for karaoke, and Max had noticed that Prin seemed extra mindful of passing Ann her bag and her small jacket when she was talking to the manager as she took charge of collecting money to settle the bill. He seemed to do that while not looking at her and in a manner that would call the least attention to himself. In fact, it didn't look like anyone noticed. Max wasn't even sure that Prin had once spoken directly to Ann the whole night. Interesting.

But Max was distracted from these thoughts by the woman herself. "Max. Max! Aren't you going to sing?" Ann asked.

Max was not a singer although he liked going to karaoke with people. Wanna was shoving the choice board book at him to get him to choose, but he shook his head. Sukrit and his wife, Kim, were singing some old song about lost youth, and he was trying to think of a way to gracefully exit. Sukrit and Kim didn't get out much with the kids so small, so they could be here for a long time.

Ann spoke up again. "Max has to sing that song for me. You know. That Korean song you know I like."

Both Max and Wanna looked up sharply, even though the younger woman was tipsy. Wanna held her head a bit at the sharp movement, but that didn't keep her from looking at Ann with worry. They knew that Ann only asked Max to sing that song when something bad happened with her ex-husband. Prin looked at them both noticing their concern.

Max smiled calmly and said that he wasn't sure they would have that song, but Ann insisted, saying that she picked the place because they were known for having a lot of American and Korean songs in the playlist. Max glanced at Wanna quickly and then picked up book.

"Sure, Ann. I'll look."

Prin got up and moved to sit next to him. "Do you need help looking? I know how to read Korean even though I don't speak it well."

Max replied. "It will be in Thai. I'm not sure we will find it though. It's not a song by a Kpop group. Usually, the only Korean songs they have are popular Kpop stuff or songs from Korean dramas. They only had it in the place we used to go to near the old headquarters because it was run by a Korean family and almost all their stuff was Korean."

"What is it?" Prin asked. "And why does she want it?"

"It's called "How am I" by Kim Dong Ryul. And let's just say that something must have happened today. I don't think it's my place to say any more than that." Max didn't know Prin. He didn't know what his relationship was like with Ann. He knew that he had sang this song before and Ann had wept over her ex-husband's affair with a woman they both worked with.