Archive of Our Own

Every time Nuea walked into a room, it was like time slowed down.

He was so beautiful. His hair in artful disarray. Piercings glinting at his ears. The pretty curve of his mouth. His makeup was always perfect, because everything about him was perfect—red darkening his lips so it was even more devastating when he smiled wide enough to show white teeth, and a hint of colour at the corner of his eyes that Sun sometimes dreamed about.

His neck was such an elegant line that Sun had no idea how he ever looked away from it long enough to act like a functional human being. His hands were delicate, fine-boned, without any calluses because Nuea’s family employed several hundred people to keep their son from overexerting himself.

His waist was slim, but he acted with such confidence that Sun could never really think of him as fragile. Nuea always hugged fiercely, putting both arms around Sun’s neck and threading fingers through his hair like they belonged there. If that wasn’t enough to convince Sun that his boyfriend was the most perfect human being to have ever existed on this planet, Nuea smells nice too.

“I don’t want to hear about this anymore,” Puth said with an irritated frown. He was holding a stack of English dictionaries for his next tutoring class. “I deeply regret helping you two get together.”

“Shut up and look at this,” Sun told him, unlocking his phone screen so that he could show his best friend the most recent photos that he had taken with Nuea. The sun was setting behind them. Nuea looked like an angel, haloed with golden light. Sun’s smile was a little more strained, because he was well-aware that he wasn’t so effortlessly photogenic. There was a really, really nice one of Nuea brushing a kiss against his cheek, framed by the soft waves of his hair.

Sun couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it. Then the phone was yanked out of his hand.

“Hey, what the fuck!” he protested and immediately glared at his best friend.

“What model is this?” Puth asked, turning the phone over in his free hand without even caring about the photos that Sun had wanted to show him. It was paper-thin with a sleek black case. The letters YD, enclosed in a golden circle, shone in the corner opposite to the tiny camera lens.

Puth smiled at him, in that joyless way that meant he was utterly disgusted. He let Sun take the phone back and hold it close to his chest protectively.

“He bought you a phone,” Puth said drily, like he wasn’t even the slightest bit surprised.

“You don’t know that! I could have bought it myself!”

“You could have bought yourself a YD phone that hasn’t even been released to the market yet?”

Sun was a little startled by that. Now he eyed the phone with a sense of foreboding. Nuea had offered it as a replacement after finding out that his phone screen was cracked. Just handed him the box with a sweet smile and taken a photo with him so that Sun could set it as his wallpaper.

“Yeah, I thought so.” Puth tapped his foot and huffed out a breath. “It’s probably worth a lot,” he said a moment later. “Hey, maybe you should sell it and pay the rent on your condo for the next year.”

Sun raised a clenched fist, pretending that he was about to punch him. Puth laughed and probably would have teased him again, if they hadn’t heard the unmistakable sound of Nuea’s heeled shoes.

Sun turned, awestruck. Nuea smiled at him and tipped his head, a silent invitation. He walked past them without stopping or looking back in their direction.

“There he goes,” Puth muttered.

Sun absently patted him on the shoulder and went to catch up with Nuea.

When Sun opened the door to his condo, Puth was standing there. He held up a plastic bag with takeaway containers inside and smiled.

“What did you do now?” Sun asked, suspicious.

Puth snorted and pushed past him into the condo, kicking off his sneakers. He opened the containers and then held one out expectantly. Sun accepted it, though he was still extremely suspicious.

It was his favourite, of course. Pad see ew. Sun sat down on his bed and started eating. Puth rolled his desk chair over so their knees were nearly knocking together.

They talked about the esports tournament that had been held over the weekend. Puth had won money by placing strategic small bets. His ability to pick winners from a random line-up was uncanny.

When they finished with the food, Sun gathered the empty containers and put them into the bag, neatly tying off the handle so that Puth could discard it when he headed out.

Puth patted his knee with an inscrutable expression.

His best friend was absolutely not the kind of person to freely offer affection. Confused, Sun patted the hand on his knee and wondered whether Puth was about to do something really embarrassing, like actually confide in him about his relationship with Kaeng.

Puth pulled his hand back at lightning speed and clicked his tongue in reprimand.

Sun smiled a little, amused. He waited for an explanation about what was going on.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to see that concert,” Puth told him in an uncomfortably gentle voice. “I know that you love Save Sunday.”

“What? The concert?”

Puth leaned back in the chair and said, “The tickets were too expensive, or I would have-”

“I watched it with Nuea.”

Puth blinked at him and then scratched the back of his neck. “Nuea bought you tickets,” he said.

Sun flicked through the photo gallery on his phone. He tapped on a video of them dancing together, wearing the big light-up glasses that looked ridiculous on everyone except for his amazing boyfriend. They had streamed the live concert on the balcony of another skyscraper that Nuea owned. So there was a nice view behind them, the cityscape stretching out into the distance.

In the video, Sun lifted Nuea into the air before spinning around. His favourite song was playing. Nuea set both hands on his shoulders and laughed brightly.

Puth watched the video, then snatched the plastic bag and went to find his shoes.

“You don’t want to hang out?” Sun asked, leaning his elbow on the bed.

“See if I buy you food ever again,” Puth told him. “I came here to cheer you up, but Nuea won’t even let you be disappointed in the first place. If he thought that you were sad, he would probably buy out an entire restaurant.”

Sun thought about how many times he had eaten instant noodles with Nuea and was inclined to disagree. Just because Nuea could afford expensive gifts, didn’t mean that he was needlessly extravagant. It wasn’t like he was using his money to spoil Sun. Puth had just told him that he would have bought the tickets, too, if he had been able to afford them.

It was a thoughtful gesture. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Say hi to Kaeng for me!” Sun called, just a casual reminder that Puth was also dating a wealthy man.

“I won’t!” Puth shouted back and left the condo.

People were giving him strange looks. Sun frowned and glanced down to see if there was anything wrong with his appearance. Nothing that he could see. He decided to ignore them, instead striding towards the movie theatre while checking his phone for any new messages from his friends.

Thurs noticed him first and actually wolf-whistled.

Puth turned and let out a disgusted sigh. “Why are you dressed like that?”

“What?” Sun asked, genuinely confused.

He checked his outfit again. A deep blue shirt made from some really soft material that felt good against his skin. The top buttons were undone, showing the necklace that Nuea had given him for their one month anniversary. Over that, a jacket that fit his shoulders like it had been tailored for him. A few tiny red accents were embroidered at the lapel, right above his heart.

“I stayed over at Nuea’s last night,” he told them. “He just picked out something from his wardrobe.”

Puth covered his face with both hands and looked like he would have screamed, if they weren’t in a public place.

“Wow! You really look like a celebrity,” Thurs said with a decisive nod.

Thurs stepped forward with a cheerful grin and mussed Sun’s hair. Sun half-heartedly swatted at him. Frowning, he tried to fix his hair back into the style that Nuea had arranged this morning.

“He’s just showing off now,” Puth muttered.

“Who?” Sun asked, bristling, fully ready to take offense at that comment.

“Nuea!” Puth told him, much to his surprise. He sounded adamant. “He’s dressing you up in fancy clothes so that everyone knows you’re dating!”

“What the hell are you talking about? Nuea offered a change of clothes because I wasn’t planning on staying over with him last night. Did you want me to show up here in a dirty t-shirt?”

“Just to be clear,” Puth said, grimacing like he did not actually want to have this conversation. “You, a scholarship student attending the most elite institution in the country, actually think that Nuea wears the same size clothing as you. That this would have been hanging in his wardrobe before you two started dating. Think about it for a second! How wide do you think his shoulders are?”

Sun immediately raised his hands and held them the right distance apart.

Thurs demonstrated the point by measuring out Sun’s shoulders. They were much broader, of course. It was obvious that Nuea must have had this outfit specifically tailored to Sun’s measurements.

Puth crossed his arms. “How often do you ‘borrow’ his clothes?”

“Uh…” Sun trailed off, because he didn’t really know.

He hadn’t thought about it before. It was true that his own wardrobe had expanded since they started dating. Mostly shirts that Nuea buttoned for him during their morning afters, leisurely and slow, his fingers smoothing over fabric that was probably more expensive than anything Sun could ever afford. His boyfriend liked to clasp jewellery around his neck, then carefully buckle the watch around his wrist, sometimes looking at Sun from beneath his eyelashes so intensely that his breath caught.

Sun imagined that if they ever attended an event together that involved wearing suits, he would actually die. Probably from cardiac arrest, or loving his boyfriend too much.

“I kind of feel sorry for you,” Puth muttered.

“Huh? Why?” Thurs asked him.

Puth started turning away, a silent reminder that they should head over to the movie ticket kiosk. “You never see Nuea returning the favour. He would never go hang out with his friends wearing your hoodie. Doesn’t he care too much about his image? You’re his boyfriend, not an accessory.”

Sun considered that in silence. He furrowed his brow.

It was true that Nuea never wore his clothes. That didn’t mean much, considering that Nuea’s clothes were so much softer and more comfortable than the printed t-shirts that Sun bought from the market. Sun wanted his boyfriend to feel comfortable more than anything.

The conventional fantasy of Nuea with Sun’s old hoodie slung low over his shoulder, exposing his collarbone, just didn’t have the same impact as literally everything that Nuea already wore. He was adorable in the silk pyjama set. He was the cutest person that Sun had ever seen in those soft cashmere jumpers. He was like a lightning strike in that cropped leather jacket, like thunder incarnate in the sleeveless mesh shirt.

Why would Sun try to dress his boyfriend if Nuea could do it better?

If Puth was right about Nuea choosing these clothes for him, well, that was honestly flattering. It meant that Nuea spent time thinking about what would look good on him.

Sun wondered if Nuea had secretly measured the breadth of his shoulders with those intent, wandering hands. Maybe he had memorised the width of Sun’s waist while they embraced, and tested the length of Sun’s arms by stretching them out over his silk bedsheets. Maybe Nuea had learned the texture of his hair just so that he could style it. Maybe Nuea had even inspected jewellery before dismissing it as ‘not good enough’ for Sun.

Maybe this was how Nuea showed his devotion.

Sun shivered, even though the air was warm.

“Stop being lovesick and come pay for your ticket!” Puth called from the kiosk.

Puth had texted him a question about mnemonic devices. He wanted to teach his younger students short rhymes that would make it easier to remember the trickier aspects of English. Since Sun was pretty much fluent, as an English major who planned on becoming a professional translator after graduation, he was usually the first person that Puth asked for resources like this.

Without thinking, Sun called him.

“Hey, I don’t have much time to talk,” Sun said when he picked up, not bothering with the usual greetings. He started listing library books that included basic mnemonics.

Someone gave him an interested look while walking past. Sun smiled politely and lowered his voice, speaking even faster into the phone, hoping to answer the question so that he could get back to the party. It would be an actual nightmare if he embarrassed Nuea by paying too much attention to his phone. Especially since most of the other party-goers didn’t understand Thai.

“Is that what you needed to know?” he finished.

There was silence through the phone, then the sound of sheets rustling. “Do you even know what time it is?” came the groggy, slightly disoriented voice of his best friend.

Sun took a sharp breath, suddenly remembering there was a time difference.

People standing near him raised their champagne flutes and said, “Cheers!” in English.

“Wait, where are you right now?” Puth asked, much more awake. “Are you at a party?”

“Uh… Should I text you the information tomorrow?” Sun offered.

But it was already too late. Puth had pieced together all the available evidence.

“Are you even in Thailand?” he asked, dismayed.

“Uh… I did tell you that we were going on a weekend trip-” Sun tried.

“So you went overseas? I thought you were visiting a beach resort or something!”

“Nuea had to attend a business meeting in Australia. He wanted me to come along as a translator.”

“Of course he did,” Puth scoffed. “It’s just a coincidence that you always wanted to visit Australia.” He yawned loudly without bothering to stifle the sound.

Nuea smiled at Sun from across the room and tipped his head, a welcoming gesture. His hands were empty, Sun realised. He could bring him a champagne flute and then he would get to hear Nuea introducing him as my boyfriend again, just as he had done with everyone else at this party. Nuea might not be fluent in English, but he’d demonstrated that he could say those words in at least five languages. Nuea had no intention of keeping their relationship secret. That was beyond question.

“I have to go now,” he said into the phone.

Puth hummed. “Okay. Text me the information another time. Have fun on your ‘business trip’.”

Sun moved his mouth right next to the microphone and said loudly, in English, “I will.”

Puth cussed him out for making too much noise at this hour, which probably meant that Kaeng was asleep and Puth was worried that their phone call might disturb him.

The call ended soon after. Sun grinned at his phone, amused. He collected two champagne flutes from a passing waiter and headed across the room.

Sun messaged his friends on LINE right before moving into the new condo. He typed out the address and warned them that his former landlord would be mad if they kept showing up there. He even pinned the condominium block on a virtual map so they would be able to find it easily, when they decided to come visit.

Thurs offered to help him move, but that wasn’t necessary. Nuea had already arranged a courier service to transport all of his belongings over to the new condo.

His other friends sent thumbs up emojis, so Sun figured that they were now well-informed.

Which meant that he was surprised when they showed up, flustered, to his housewarming celebration. Thurs clutched Pae’s arm like he was terrified of so much as touching the walls by accident. Tue explained that they had been intimidated by the security team downstairs.

“We didn’t realise that you moved into the YD building right next to campus,” Tue told him.

Sun wondered whether they actually read his LINE messages at all. He had told them several times.

While he was standing at the door, Nuea came up behind him and slipped an arm around his waist. Sun half-turned so that Nuea could lean into his side. His chin was raised, his posture perfect.

It reminded him of that initial meeting when Nuea had arrived three hours late, shockingly pretty and disdainful, hiding how nervous he really was about speaking with his long-time crush. Sun beamed and pressed a fond kiss into his hair, which Nuea accepted without looking away from their guests.

“How much could the rent possibly be?” Thurs murmured, staring stunned at the hand-painted silk screens that partitioned out the entrance from the rest of the condo.

Sun glanced down at his boyfriend, who smiled back like he was made from pure sunshine.

“Uh…” he trailed off.

“You bought him a condo,” Puth said suddenly.

Nuea turned his attention towards Puth, almost expectant. He neither confirmed nor denied.

“No!” Puth was scandalised. “You bought this entire floor!”

Nuea placed a hand on Sun’s chest and rested it there, fingers spread apart, an intimate gesture. He was an affectionate person who never hesitated to reach out and touch his boyfriend.

“Just come inside instead of standing out in the hallway,” Sun told them with a frown.

“Master Nuea,” someone called politely. “The food has been prepared.”

Nuea nodded to them, a silent dismissal.

Moving the hand that had been resting on Sun’s chest, Nuea toyed with his shirt collar until Sun understood what he was asking for and bent down. Nuea kissed his cheek and smiled, soft and affectionate. For a brief moment, Sun considered shutting the door and ignoring his guests altogether.

“Have fun with your friends. I’ll see you later,” he murmured.

He waved goodbye and then headed out into the hallway. A bodyguard wearing a black suit with a visible earpiece was already waiting by the elevators to escort Nuea wherever he went next.

“No!” Puth said suddenly. “You bought out the entire building?!”

Nuea, who usually preferred to ignore Puth unless there was an opportunity to tease Kaeng, reached the elevators and only then looked back over his shoulder.

The doors opened with a pleasant ding!

At the same moment, Nuea winked.

They watched as he disappeared into the elevator with the bodyguard standing at a respectful distance. Sun leaned against the door that he was still holding open and let out an impatient breath. “Come inside before the food gets cold,” he complained. The chef was on retainer, but there was no sense in wasting food just because his friends were somehow still surprised that Nuea was wealthy.

“I’m looking up his net worth,” Puth said instead, frantically tapping at his phone screen.

Sun scowled at him. “Huh? Why?”

Thurs and Tue leaned over Puth’s shoulders so they could see the numbers that came up. Thurs raised both eyebrows and started counting on his fingers. Puth grit his teeth and held out the phone so that Sun could read it, too—but Sun wrested the phone away from him and put it behind his back.

“Inside!” he insisted.

Puth reluctantly put on a pair of house slippers and caught the phone when Sun tossed it his direction. “Hey, careful! I can’t afford a screen replacement if this one cracks on your solid granite tiles.”

Sun rolled his eyes and showed them around the condo. They passed a few hours playing video games and talking about the upcoming exam period. Thurs and Pae played a segment from the first episode of the horror podcast that they were working on together, and Tue mentioned that his boyfriend was competing in another tournament next weekend that they were all welcome to watch.

When his friends fell asleep on the couch, Sun carefully draped blankets over them before heading to his bedroom, and thought that he was very, very lucky.

Sun was the cutest person that Nuea had ever met, hands down.

Everything about him was adorable. His shyness about compliments. His wide smiles whenever they were alone together. How he often murmured endearments in English, because he was too shy to speak them in Thai. Sun’s hair sticking up in the mornings, his eyes heavy-lidded, while he blatantly considered whether he could pull the sheets over his head and go right back to sleep. His excitement about taking photos to show his friends. His unbearably soft expression when Nuea ran fingers through his hair, or fixed the collar of another shirt that Nuea had picked out for him, or just because.

That furrow between his brows, too, back when Nuea approached him at the Blue Moon before they started dating. Nuea was staggeringly drunk then, celebrating way too hard because he had finally tracked down the man from his first year orientation.

There he was, right there: swearing casually with his friends with that charming, cocky smile. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, gesturing often with his tanned, callused hands. Sun gave the impression that he was always two seconds away from challenging someone to a fight, all faux-tough attitude. But his scowl had disappeared the moment that he realised Nuea was drunk. Sun had steadied him and stayed there until an attendant came into the bathroom, not realising that Nuea already wanted Sun to stay with him for the rest of their lives.

“I’m beginning to understand what Puth keeps complaining about,” Kaeng told him, clearly amused. He had mostly been playing around on his phone instead of actually paying attention. “I haven’t seen you for a while and all you can talk about is your boyfriend. Just because he gave you a bottle of tea and—what are those, anyway?”

Kaeng tried to get a better look at the square packet, but Nuea held it away from him. Gifts from Sun were not to be shared with the undeserving. Sun must have tucked the packet and the bottle of tea into his bag, along with his textbooks, knowing that Nuea was heading out for a study session.

“Noodles,” Nuea told him.

Kaeng looked a little bewildered. “Instant noodles?” He glanced around the room they had reserved in the upper level of the library. “Where are you supposed to get a bowl to eat them?”

There was a sticky note on the packet from Sun:

Remember to take breaks and don’t study too hard.

He had drawn a tiny heart in the corner. Nuea grinned. His boyfriend was the cutest person in the whole world and no one would ever be able to convince him otherwise.

Just like Sun had shown him, Nuea broke down the noodles before opening the packet. Seeing that Kaeng was vaguely horrified, he took out a chunk and crunched it loudly between his teeth.

Kaeng grimaced and looked away. “Can you do that? Isn’t uncooked food bad for you?” he muttered.

Nuea laughed at his reaction and tapped out a sincere thank you message to his boyfriend.

The noodles were delicious, of course. Nuea folded the sticky note and slipped it inside his phone case, which Kaeng graciously pretended not to see.

While they studied, he became distracted thinking about the design that he had recently commissioned from a world-renowned jeweller. They had signed legal documents protecting that design from ever being duplicated. It would be one of a kind, handcrafted from the finest materials.

It would look so beautiful on him. Sun deserved nothing less.