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“Gunnnn,” Tinn whined much to the delight of the one in question, “Please, na. Tell me what they were. I can’t keep on living without knowing what I missed. Tell me, naa? Na na na?”
Gun laughed the menace that he was. It had been a week since they had the conversation about a certain nickname and why he remembered it. But, Tinn had still not received any answers about what recreated moments he missed. He got two chances to know how Gun noticed him and missed both. He was starting to lose his mind. He needed to find out.
A few days ago, when Gun had asked him to list all the ones he did remember, Tinn was sure he was going to get his answers. No. The heathen just said, “Huh, I guess you were right about the math at least,” and went back to playing his mobile game like it was nothing.
Tinn had tried prodding, threatening, whining, even bribing! None of it worked.
“My darling boyfriend. My sweet, awesome, amazing, talented, beautiful, rockstar boyfriend,” he tried again, taking the guitar out of his hand and replacing it with his own. Gun didn’t resist when he laced their fingers together, “Please tell me how we met,”
"Hmmm," he hummed, playing with their joined hands, "and what would I get in return?"
"Lots of kisses and a happy boyfriend?" Tinn offered, putting up his best smile.
Gun raised his brows mischievously and in a blink of an eye planted his lips on his cheek. "It really doesn't take a lot of effort to get kisses from you khun Tinnaphob. I have leverage. You need to do better than that."
Tinn barely held back the whining complaints, but a pout found its way onto his lips anyway. "What do you want?" He was more than a little annoyed at the situation. He really wanted to know. He remembers Gun from school before 10th grade too, obviously. But not as more than a name on an attendance list. He wanted to revel in the fantasy that his current love liked him first. He supposed Gun had every right to be stingy about it. After all, he had done the same about his glasses. But it was still annoying.
"Awww, don't be like that! It's no fun if you're actually mad at me." He shifted to wrap himself around Tinn who, on instinct, held the other boy so they didn't fall.
He breathed in the scent of the shampoo that was wafting off his freshly showered, still-damp hair. Tinn wanted to grab the towel that Gun had abandoned, but he hated other people touching his hair. He had made it a point to avoid touching his hair despite how soft it looked after Gun had made an offhanded comment to Phat. But, he did move to wipe the stray drop that had dripped onto his cheek.
“I just want to know why you like me. Is that so bad?”
“No, it’s not,” Tinn let Gun press their foreheads together, “Fine, I’ll tell you. But I still want something,” his voice lowered to compensate for the proximity.
Tinn rolled his eyes, but said a small, “What?”
“I’ll tell you after each story,” Gun grinned
At that, he pulled away, “You want something different for each one?”
“Obviously. I can’t hand these precious memories out for free,” Tinn caught his hand anticipating a chin tickle coming. Gun, never one to easily give up, leaned back to free his other hand and moved it to his chin. Tinn was happy to let Gun win.
“The first time we met,” Gun started, “was obviously the first day of class. You were very antisocial then by the way. I said hi and you ignored me.”
“I did?”
“Mhm, but it's fine. It was loud and there were a lot of people. I only remembered it in retrospect.”
“Then when did you ‘notice me’,” Tinn asked with air quotes.
“Our freshman football match.”
Their seniors had divided all the boys into 4 groups of 8. The 9th graders were mostly busy with other school activities. But, with this being the first time they were allowed to participate in the sports day events, the attendance was high. It was early enough in the school year that it was still an icebreaker for the new students and a reacquaintance for the old.
Gun slipped into the yellow jersey and smiled at his teammates. The classes had been shuffled heavily since last year. He didn’t recognise half the people he was teamed up with, but he was excited about the game nonetheless. He was getting antsy with all the watching other people run around with nothing else to do. Next year onwards they can participate in organising. Thank god for that.
“We’ll have two rounds of matches, knock-off style. Remember the rules. Don’t get hurt, and most importantly, have fun,” the senior finished. Soon enough, Gun’s team and the blue team were on the field.
Gun loved playing football with his neighbourhood friends whenever he could run away from the cafe, but it had been a while since he had done that too, especially since he started focusing on music. Muscle memory, take it away, he thought as he ran into position.
Instinct took over as soon as the whistle signalled the start of the match and he ran to defend the ball.
The game started with the chaos he had come to expect from it. His eyes only tracked where to go to keep up and be open, and in the chaos he’d forgotten he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head. So the stumble came as a surprise. A bigger surprise was that instead of the thud on the prickly grass field, he heard a stained sound.
“Shit, sorry,” he mumbled, getting off whoever he’d accidentally tackled, “Are you okay?”
He turned towards the boy in a blue jersey. Oh. Well, he was cute.
“It’s fine,” the boy muttered, squinting slightly. This finally brought Gun’s attention to the cracked glasses.
“Eesh,” he took off the other player’s spectacles before thinking too much about it, “Can you see alright without them? You should sit out of the game if you,” a loud whistle indicated the yellow team’s first goal and interrupted his incoming rant.
“It's okay, those are just temporary. I can see fine without them. Can I have them back now, please?”
He finally stopped inspecting the glasses and looked back up at the boy. The name pinned on his jersey read ‘Tinn’, “Let me fix them, it was,” Oh. The glasses were doing a disservice covering his glowing eyes. “Uh, I crashed into you, so.” He offered as an explanation.
“I said it’s fine,” he smiled. Snatched the glasses away and put them in his pocket and went back to the game as if nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t just accidentally triggered a small, minor, non-consequential crush in Gun’s heart.
"Gun! Why are you just standing there," Win yelled, "get your ass moving, they have the ball!"
“When you told me during our midterms you didn’t play sports I was ready to throw you in the water.”
A laugh startled out of Tinn, “I don’t.”
“You scored 2 out of the four goals in that game. You didn’t even let the ball come to our half of the court. I was so mad. If you weren’t cute, we would have been enemies from that moment,” Gun said matter-of-factly.
“We didn’t win the game after that though. Maybe because someone broke my glasses,” Tinn grinned.
Gun grabbed the discarded towel on the bed and shoved it on his boyfriend's face, “Ai’Nobitinn. You said you didn’t need it. Don’t put the blame on me for something you don’t even remember.”
“I didn’t know anyone in that school then. I transferred because of my mom. I was nervous.”
“I figured. Anyways, dry my hair,” he said, sitting on the floor in front of Tinn. He didn’t think of it as a big enough request to warrant surprise but apparently it was. “For telling you the story,” he explained. “Do you hate touching my hair or something? I just washed it. It is clean. And not that rough honestly. You never touch it." Maybe he really hated it. Gun didn’t want Tinn to do something he was uncomfortable with. “You know, never mind. If you hate it-”
“What no!” Tinn shouted, “I don’t hate it, I thought you hated it.” Huh? Tinn didn’t wait for the question before he continued, “You never let your mom ruffle your hair. You scolded Phat like 5 separate times because he touched your hair. You don’t even let Por style it.”
“None of them are my boyfriend. Is that why you always avoid it?”
Whoever said Tinn was the more mature one between them had clearly never seen how whiney he could get. Gun was especially soft for it when it came to anything related to their relationship. He was not at all surprised to be on the receiving end of another one now. “You’re telling me all this time-”
“I am. So why are you wasting time? Dry my hair. I don’t want to catch a cold.”
His hair was really soft. Softer than Tinn could’ve imagined. Apparently, he was surprisingly bad at asking for small things given all the communication credit they had given themselves through their relationship. Half the things he wanted, all he apparently had to do was ask the right questions.
“It’s not gonna fall off if you put in a little more pressure,” Gun commented.
“I don’t want to hurt you. I’m trying to be careful.”
“Aww,” he cooed mockingly.
“Shut up and tell me the next one.”
“Impatient, aren’t we?”
"Okay. Lastly, since there are a few new students here, I'm expecting the rest of you to be on your best behaviour and help them out, yes?" their teacher only left after she got a feeble yes from the class.
Gun, obviously took this as a chance to do something he’d been waiting to do all week. He ignored Por and ran to the front of the class to where a certain somebody was sitting. “Hi! I’m Gun. You’re new here, right? What’s your name?”
The name he already knew. But he didn’t want to creep Tinn out. But that mission he might have failed because other than a weird look, he didn’t get much of a reply. But Gun wasn’t one to get disheartened easily.
So, he continued, “Anyways. If you need anything you can ask me. I know this school like the back of my hand. Plus, my mom’s milk bar is just here. Tastiest sweet treats, if you ever want to try them.” Was he rambling? Maybe he was rambling. Gah, why was he being like this? “Yeah, well. Sorry. I’m going to go now. Bye.” So maybe he was disheartened easily.
Well, there goes any chance of being friends, he thought, barely stopping himself from digging a hole in the ground and burying himself there forever.
He was ready to run out of the classroom when he heard, “Tinn.” Gun paused. “My name is Tinn. My mom is the new vice principal here, so I’ve got a school tour already, but thank you for the offer.”
"Oh," he could feel the smile creep onto his face before he could stop it. He thought of anything else to say. Anything to keep the conversation going, but obviously, now of all moments his brain went blank. "Uh…" Come on brain, you can do this! "Uhhhh…." Music, movies, classes, sports, anything, come on, "I think my friends are calling," great, he sighed internally, "see ya, bye."
"You know, as I'm telling these, I feel like I should be offended."
Gun’s head was resting on his boyfriend’s knee. Tinn was still playing with his hair now that he had blanket permission to do so. Gun was trying not to react in case he stopped. He knew Tinn was attentive, but he hadn’t expected this. “Why?” he asked, twisting a strand around his finger.
“I worked so hard to talk to you.”
“Do I need to remind you how you rejected me when I confessed to you or are we just going to ignore that?”
“It wasn’t a rejection,” Gun whined and stood up. “It was a ‘wait for me’. You agreed.”
Tinn pulled him back with a soft tug, and Gun went willingly, “Best decision I’ve ever made,” he said smiling cheesily.
Gun rolled his eyes. “Sweet talker.”
“So what do you want for this story?”
Gun hmm-ed, “How about I get first pick for our movie nights for the next month?”
“The full month?”
“Mhmhh.”
“Fine.”
Tinn vaguely remembered this. But moving to a new school had made him dissociate slightly for the first few weeks. It wasn’t until Tiw had asked him for notes to share that he realised he was overthinking everything. That being the new kid and a teacher's kid at that didn’t alienate him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t reply better.”
“You think that was bad, wait till the next story,” Gun replied. Tinn’s heart sank a little. Was he really that mean? He wasn’t trying to be! Whatever he was thinking must have been evident on his face because not even a moment later Gun grabbed his cheeks and said, “Aww, don’t worry, it all worked out didn’t it,” and leaned forward to kiss his nose.
Gun guided them to lie down on the bed, his head resting on Tinn’s chest as he continued the third story.
Gun and his friends were goofing around in the band room. They weren’t allowed to since 9th graders weren’t allowed to join a club. But rules are for the weak. Gun kept the guitar back down when he saw Win throwing the drumsticks in the air. He jumped to catch it and snatched the other one in his friend's hand and started playing the drums in the air. He doesn’t remember who bumped into him, but it sent both him and the sticks flying.
Gun regained his balance fairly quickly but then chaos erupted outside.
Tinn stumbled to the closest wall, glasses askew and rubbed his eyes.
“Shit.” Gun dusted his scrapes and turned to see if the other boy was okay. “We should stop meeting like this,” he chuckled nervously.
Tinn fixed his glasses and blinked at him completely clueless, “We’ve met before?”
He couldn’t help the frown that formed on his face, “We’re in the same class.”
Tinn rubbed the bridge of his nose and Gun noticed a little scratch there. Suddenly the fact that his cute classmate did not know he existed was not sure concerning. He lifted the other boy’s glasses to inspect the cut. It didn’t seem too deep, but something else caught his attention instead.
“You have a fever,” Gun mumbled more to himself than to Tinn.
“It’ll go away, I have a test in the next class that I can’t miss.”
“You're burning up right now.”
“But-” Gun didn’t give him a chance to finish. He grabbed his wrist and dragged them to the nurse’s office.
“Sit down,” he pushed Tinn onto the bed and started looking for the nurse. Not even a few minutes later he could hear soft snoring. Gun smiled to himself. He paused, staring at the sleeping boy curled up in the bed and decided he deserved some sleep. He covered him with the softest blanket he could find and searched for the nurse again.
“I got a note from the nurse to let you skip that exam just in case you got mad at me. I didn’t know exams could be so important to anyone. I even forgave you for forgetting me because you had a fever. Am I the best or what?”
“I remember that!” Tinn exclaimed, shocking Gun to sit up, “I was searching for weeks for who that was.”
“Yeah, I know! I had to bribe so many people so they wouldn't sell me out.”
“But, why?!”
“Because you seemed so mad. It was only like 10% of our grade, and the teacher said she would give you a make-up test.”
“I wasn’t mad!”
“You weren’t?”
“Nooo. I wanted to thank them. You went through so much effort for me?”
“Same amount of effort I’d put for any cute guy,” Gun beamed.
“So I was eye candy?”
Gun nodded enthusiastically. Tinn couldn’t help but smile.
“I don't understand though,” Tinn spoke after a while, “why didn't you speak to me at all after that till 10th grade?”
“Well, I was scared to be found out mostly,” Gun stuck his tongue out, “and I hoped you would have forgotten about it by 10th grade, so I pretended like we just met.”
“What a plot to hide your devious crime,” Tinn goaded.
“Shut up!”
Tinn chuckled, because how could he not when his boyfriend was this adorable, “so what do I owe you for this story?”
Gun thought it through a while and looked at the boy sitting across from him. He didn't give him a warning before leaning in and closing the distance between them. It was a quick peck, similar to their very first kiss which still gave Tinn butterflies, and moved back. “That's good enough,” he declared, looking far too pleased with himself.
“I thought you didn't want kisses?”
“I never said that! Plus this is an easy one because you're not going to like what I ask for next.”
“What why?!”
“Let's do that story before that, na?”
Tinn pouted but agreed.
“Ai’Gun, why are you being so sneaky, it's so weird.” Win’s signature judgemental look did not have the power to discourage Gun then because he was too excited. He'd spent all week trying to suss out what kind of sweets Tinn liked and after the day at his mom’s shop he had a vague idea. Unfortunately, bingsu was not a very good secret valentine's gift.
He'd finally regained the courage to talk to Tinn after the scary exam debacle, and he seemed to have no idea it was Gun who screwed up his grade or whatever, and Tinn seemed to like talking to him! It sucked that they couldn't talk for more than a few minutes each time because Gun really wanted to get to know him. Why did he have to be so cute and aloof?
He ignored Win and Por teasing him and continued to wrap the berry-filled white chocolate to the best of his ability, which admittedly, was very bad. But eh! Who cared about the wrapping when he knew the gift was perfect? Because this was his chance. Gun was going to have a proper conversation with Tinn for sure this time. The universe could try its worst.
“Wait, that was you?!”
“Shh, I’m trying to tell you a story”
He sneaked the sweets to Tinn’s locker with a small note, and ran to Hot Wave. His seniors were performing and Gun knew they could win. Ugh, he couldn’t wait to get on stage next year. Today was going to be perfect.
…and it seemed he had tempted fate. He didn’t know how it happened, one minute he was teasing Tinn, and the next he and P’Yak were getting scolded by the principal and vice-principal. He was missing his potential date (?) with Tinn too, but this seemed so much worse. Thankfully, the principal cut them some slack, though the demon that the vice principal was, didn’t agree. He didn’t expect that to be followed by a serious meeting on how to do better next year.
“None of you are allowed to date till Hot Wave is over next year,” P’Yak declared.
“What! Why,” Por beat him to the punch.
“What do you mean why? Did you not see what happened today? We can't have this happen again. We have to win, and that means you guys should be focused. No distractions, including dating.”
“But you got to date, why do we-” Gun kicked Win before he could get them all kicked out of the group. “Ow!”
“No distractions, P'Yak. We will win next year,” Gun replied, trying to hide his disappointment.
He at least hoped Tinn enjoyed the sweets. There wasn't much else he could do about it, but it was a small gift in his no good day that he ran into Tinn in the hallway.
“Nobitinn,” he exclaimed, the nickname slipping out seamlessly, “What do you have in your hand over there?”
“Uhhhh, it's nothing.”
“Stop,” Tinn pleaded.
“In the most interesting part? No way!”
“Oh come on, I'll be hush about it,” Gun could see his bad wrapping paper peeking from behind Tinn's back. He wanted to know what Tinn thought. He might not be allowed to date anymore, but he decided he was allowed to have this today.
“It's just-”
“Oh, Tinn. There you are,” A familiar female voice interrupted, “are you ready to go home?”
“Mom!” Tinn jumped, dropping the gift box.
“What’s that,” the vice principal questioned, ignoring Gun's reluctant greeting.
“It’s nothing,” he replied a little too quickly, and his words only became faster “someone left it at my locker but-”
“Gun, please stop!”
“-it looks like trash, so I was going to throw it away just-”
Tinn jumped up and covered his mouth, not letting him finish the story. “I know how this ends, so please?” His eyes were panicked and Gun backed down. “I know because I didn't want you to think I was dating someone already. When my mom came I panicked because I knew you didn't like her. No one wants to talk to the vice principal's kid. I didn't mean to say that. In fact I went back to retrieve the gift. I still have the note! It felt wrong to do that to someone who did something nice for me, so I kept it. I never read it though. The gift wasn't signed. I swear it wasn't meant to be a jab-”
Gun shut him up with a kiss. “Who's boyfriend are you, being all considerate and nice.”
Tinn frowned, “I’m sorry.”
“Aww, it’s old news,” Gun chuckled, and then his boyfriend's ramble caught up to him. “Wait! You have the note and you haven't read it? Where is it?” He didn't wait for his reply and started looking through the closest desk drawer.
“It's not there. Why? Do you want me to read it now?”
“No. I want you to never read it! I'm taking it back. Now, where is it?”
Gun opened the next shelf at the bottom of which was a cardboard box. He ducked to pull it out but Tinn leaned over and grabbed it first. Gun tackled him to the bed and reached for the box again, but curse Tinn's tallness. Tinn, meanwhile dumped the contents of the box and found the shabby yellow note folded in half
“Tinn!” Gun halfheartedly reached for the paper again, knowing it won't do anything and then sighed.
Tinn couldn't believe this. Not only did he get to hear stories of how his Gun had a crush on him but he had proof. Actual physical proof! He secretly thanked his hoarding tendencies and held the note close to his chest. He knew he was going to treasure this scrap piece of paper more so than he already did. He was going to frame it together with all the stuff he had collected of their relationship and put it where the world can see.
“I love you,” he said shyly and hid away in Gun's shoulders, which had become an eerily familiar place for his embarrassment. “I love you so so so so much.”
Gun ruffled his hair, “I love you too, but I'm going to burn that as soon as you look away,” he promised. Ha, he could try. Tinn was going to be glued to it.
“No wonder you hated me the year after,” Tinn said slowly, “I mean, I hate me after hearing the-”
“Nuh-uh. None of that. I’m just happy for how things are now, so let's leave it at that, okay? No dwelling on that stuff.”
Tinn nodded into the hug, refusing to let go of the warmth and safety just yet. Gun was happy to oblige it seemed. They stayed like that for a long while till Gun broke the silence.
“Anyyyyways. About the last gift,” he started tentatively.
Tinn hmm-ed.
“I want you to talk to our parents.”
Tinn pulled away, confused. “About what?”
“So, you know how your university accommodation is expiring soon and you have to apply again or find a new place. Well, I found us a condo that's a little bit of travel from both our unis and the rent is quite cheap too, basically the same as we are paying now but cheaper because we get to be roommates. Obviously, it is closer to yours than mine because I know you have a more scattered schedule and it'll only become worse next year, but I've almost set everything up, we just need to convince our parents, and well, now that's on you.”
“Wait. What?”
“I'm coming Mae,” he shouted to no one, “I'm going to help set up dinner.”
“Gun-”
“All the best having this conversation!”
“GUN!’
“I love you.” He planted a loud kiss on his cheek and promptly ran away.
“GUNNN!”