NANON
nanon was adjusting his varsity jacket once more in front of the mirror in the family room when he saw his parents lounging in the sofa, watching a movie. "dad, pa, i'm leaving", he was about to take off to the garage when a voice stopped him. "where? and did you see the clock when you walked out of your room, it's almost 11!", new, his papa who already untangled himself from his husband's arms, now turned his back to look at his youngest son.
"papa, i've told you about bright's new company's launching after party, earlier this week. everyone's gonna be there, and you've met him, both of you know him," nanon reasoned with his parents. bright was nanon's senior in college. they're in the same football club now and have a scheduled training/match session on monday nights and was in somewhat of a situationship with nanon not too long after nanon finished college. his parents like bright, but both nanon and bright thought they were better off as friends, especially since bright's on again off again ex was nanon's family friend.
"but you forgot to mention that it's a late night party! i don't care that you said everyone is gonna be thereㅡwhat? not now", new's rants were abruptly stopped, when his husband, tay, whispered something in his ear. nanon looked at his parents suspiciously. it was really strange that new's face soften all of a sudden. "you can go", new started speaking, nanon almost bolted to grab his car keys and then his papa added "but you need to go with someone else, i can't trust you and your alcohol tolerance to drive".
"it's fine, i can go with pakin,"
"pakin has something to do tonight, i asked him to do a mission", his dad, tay, talked to nanon for the first time the whole night. "what mission? he was just here earlier this evening" nanon questioned his dad's weird choice of word. "believe me, you don't wanna know. oh didn't you say everyone that you know is invited? does that mean he is invited?", tay asked him back.
nanon ran his fingers through his hair because he knew where the direction this conversation was going. "you mean dew? yes, most likely, since he's friends with bright. but it's almost 11, i can't ask him. if he goes, he's probably already on his way,"
dew isㅡit's weird for nanon to place a word to describe his relationship with dew in his life. they knew each other for basically their whole life because their parents know each other and dew's parents' house was across his. their parents are old friends from university, so there were countless of playdates that they had when they were younger. both dew and nanon went to the same schools and university, down to the same faculty, and they overlapped in some extracuricculars as well, like that one weird year of dew being in the same football school, eventhough nanon knew damn well sport was the last in the list of dew's seemingly interests (but nanon couldn't lie how he enjoyed seeing dew all sweaty after a football club session, so he didn't complain). he never really understood why dew was everywhere since he could never really call them "close", they're more like acquintances. nanon only could ever came to the conclusion that their parents were friends, they lived in the same neighborhood, and their family were in the same level of economic status. both the vihokratanas and the romsaithongs are two of a number of old moneys, vieux riches in the country. so for nanon, it wasn't that weird that he always met dew.
"it's fine, papa has taken care of it," new replied to nanon, and not long after, their butler came into the room and announced that dew was here with him following shortly. he was in the color that nanon would say is his best color, earth tones, browns. dew always kept it classic in brown shirt tucked into brown slacks and a louis vuitton crossbody bag. it's like he owned the color brown and the classic style, nanon thought to himself. dew greeted both tay and new and had small talks about his latest art exhibition. then he turned his head to nanon who was a little bit mesmerized lost in his own thoughts. "we should probably go now, the main event is at 11", dew suggested, nanon just nodded and replied with a small "sure".
after new's plead to keep nanon safe and to drink responsibly and tay's reassurance and asking them to "have fun but not too much", they're now on their way to the night club where the launching after party is held with dew's car, because dew "didn't want nanon to go the lengths of him bringing the car out of the garage".
they didn't really talk much on the way to the venue, because nanon didn't know what to talk about with dew, and dew, according to nanon, " didn't really talk that much", so the only sound that accompany them is the sound of the car and the air conditioner. but nanon was pretty surprised when dew was the one who started the conversation.
"congrats on your album release," dew took a quick glance at him then back to the road.
"how did youㅡoh yeah, i forgot you were in the studio that one time," nanon was relieved when he remember that dew knew about his little secret side quest as a musician, with the stage name, triple n.
nanon liked to keep his music career a secret from everyone and his whole family. the only people who knew about his music career were bright and his producers, also dew. he started doing his anonymous music career by uploading covers on youtube and soundcloud and he was doing quite well despite not showing his face. then he proceeded to write some original stuffs about his life. releasing an album was a big step for him since he didn't want to do interviews to promote his album. but he managed to negotiate with everyone involved and nanon was so thankful that he was an independent artist because he knew how tricky those negotiations would be.
how dew came to know about his music career? it was an accident, actually. that day, bright was helping his situationship, which was nanon in the studio, and he asked dew to bring food to the studio because he was in the area. imagine how surprised dew was when he came into the studio and saw nanon in the recording booth. he was even more surprised when he found out that nanon was triple n from bright because dew was somewhat of a triple n fan. so he asked whether he could stay for a bit and swore secrecy on triple n's actual identity.
"it's good, you know. i like your "chill" songs so i've been listening to b612 a lot. though i do think that spark is a good opener, " dew said with an excited tone to his voice. nanon chuckled at dew's mini review. "oh, so you do listen to it. thank you for helping this indie artist grew. do you have any critiques on it, mr. reviewer?"
dew furrowed his eyebrow while thinking for an answer. "well i don't have any negative critique on it," nanon dramatically exhaled after dew said that. "other than the fact that it took almost 2 years from when i visited the studio until the release date, which i can contribute it to you being a perfectionist, and no physical album.", dew added and then nanon rolled his eyes jokingly.
"look, with the concept of it being outer space and the canvas for each song is very pretty, you can definitely make a physical album out of it, limited copies of it, at least", he reasoned with nanon. "you know why i can not release a physical album, dew. my dad and my papa will find out,"
"well, maybe, it's time for them to know? you've been doing well for this past few years as a musician despite never showing your face or doing any promotional event. and i know you'll do even better in the years to come. i believe in you, nanon"
"there are some things you can't tell to your parents, you know. especially with how our families are. and i know you have one major secret that you can't tell to your dad and po as well. so i know you'll understand", nanon said quietly and then they fell back into silence.
10 minutes later and the silence almost drove nanon to madness, so he was the one to open his mouth again. "so, when we're there, we can just split up. you can talk to your friends, i'll just go find mine"
"no", dew replied almost instantly and harshly. nanon was surprised with his sudden disagreement. "i'm sorry, but i've promised to your papa, besides, i don't think i can let you roam anywhere freely once you got any kind of liquor in your hands," nanon knew he was referring to the new years party last year. he got blacked out drunk after a few glasses of red wine, and it wasn't a "youngsters party" as his dad like to say, it was a suit and tie event. nanon was so grateful he didn't have to see any of the guests until his engagement party at least.
according to his brothers, pluem and frank, it's not that nanon was an emotional or "letting himself loose" kind of drunk. he walked around and stumbled. a lot. until he hit dew and both nanon and dew's parents asked dew to keep a hold on him.
"fine. but i won't stop you if you want to meet your friends, i'll be okay," nanon said in defeat.
they walked into the venue that was actually a night club being privately booked for a whole night by bright. once they walked in, they found bright near the table section and walked up to him. nanon gave him a sidehug and followed by dew doing the same. "congrats, dude. you're finally able to make your dreams come true. opening an entertainment agency," nanon said to bright.
"yeah congratulations for finally being your own boss. wonder how it feels, must've been nice," dew said in a teasing way. "speak for yourself, mr. "thailand's 2023 surrealist painter of the year". oh, did you two come here together?"
nanon nodded, "yes, you know how my papa is",
" of course, mr. new thitipoom vihokratana and how much love he has for his children. i witnessed it first hand," the three of them kept talking for a while, also added with their liquor of choice in their hands. dew was also taking a swig out of his mojito, but nanon trusted him and his alcohol tolerance level to take care of him tonight.
DEW
dew started panicking when a group of men who seemed to be nanon's football club mates taking him further away in into the dancefloor. but bright keep assuring him, "it's fine, they'll take care of him. nanon is like the baby brother in the club," dew was not convinced even for a bit. "but he's been drinking a lot tonight. you see how he's drinking the tequila like water,". "hey, he's gonna be fine, it's a private event. if he's drinking too much, he'll come to you eventually," someone was calling bright's name and it was win, his on again off again boyfriend that's now hanging out in the dancefloor with nanon and bright's football club mates. "i'll talk to you later. the others are waiting for you in the booth area," bright tapped dew's shoulder and walked quickly to the dancefloor. dew looked at the booth area direction and saw his friends waving their hands.
his friend groups, consisted of 6 people, nani, tu, prim, gulf, bright, and of course dew himself. they met each other in the art academy years ago. the art academy was a prestige extracuriccular institution that's divided into several departments. dew and prim were art majors, the rest of them were acting majors at first, until bright decided to switch majors to music later. this was the one thing that dew and nanon weren't together at. dew heard from his po and dad that it was because tay and new didn't really put into account that any of their children might be interested in art because "they're all very sporty", dew quoted his dad.
"there he is, looking real nice!", gulf was the one greeting him when dew was walking closer to the booth.
"of course he is looking nice, he's on a date," nani teased him, dew hit his head playfully as he sat down. "date, my ass," dew finished his mojito glass that he hadn't touched since he was talking with nanon and bright earlier. "then what is it if it's not a date? you're walking in, hand in hand with your crush since 5th grade, with the nicest clothes you have, hair styled too. we were so shocked seeing you were with nanon, whom by the way, you only have the courage to talk to in formal events because both your parents are there," gulf said and both nani and tu nodded their heads.
dew knew the actual reason on why he was here tonight with nanon. he knew the reason why he was in the same schools as nanon was, why he had to join football club when they were both in middle school and high school when he loathed doing team sports, why his parents always took him to business events and functions with all the vieux riches in the country (other than the main reason that he's the sole heir to the romsaithong business, why both nanon's and his parents asked him to be with nanon at all times.
he was bethroted to nanon to marriage.
but it took him a few years, few deductions, and a kdrama marathon titled princess hours with tu and prim that finally made himself sure that it was what the vihokratanas, and apo and mile romsaithong, his parents, were doing. he confronted his po mile once about it, and his po admitted it. dew was really mad when he found out what the four friends since university days were planning to do to their children. but what funny was, he was mad because he realized that nanon didn't know about this. he wasn't informed on the most important thing that's going to change his life. dew didn't really care about himself at the time. all he cared about was that nanon was going to be hurt that his dad and pa hid this from him.
apo, his dad, explained to him that it wasn't official at the time, because new wanted his youngest son to find love on his own first. that was until last year, when both tay and new asked dew personally to protect and care for their son. they told dew that nanon was broken up with and it took a toll on him. so dew promised to tay and new to do those as well as he could to nanon. dew kept their bethrotal a secret from everyone, including most of his friends, except prim. his friends only assumed that he got a huge crush on nanon which wasn't entirely wrong. prim knew about what actually happened because she was in the same situation as dew. the difference was that her bethrotal was already announced and her childhood best friend/fiance now were being cold to her.
"don't i always look nice? especially with this godly visuals," dew put his leg on top of the other one and move his bangs out of his face. gulf, nani, and tu rolled their eyes and let out some annoyance remarks.
"i know i always say this, but i feel like i got scammed everytime i look at you! i thought you'll be like the second lead in f4 when i first saw you. very calm, quiet, and collected. instead i got narcissus in real life," tu exclaimed in irritation. "and i will always agree with you, tu. i really thought i scored a perfect guy as a boyfriend!" nani and tu had a toast of agreement.
dew was looking at two of his best friends in disbelief, "hey, look who's talking. everyone who's had the privilege of calling me their boyfriend, said that i'm a good boyfriend," he put a hand to his chest, "including you, nani," dew added. "well, can nanon say the same thing in the near future, then?", gulf asked him, and he instantly sat in a defeated manner, "eh, i will put in a good effort to make sure he's able to say that,"
"he turned into? young mr. romsaithong right away," tu remarked playfully, and then she noticed that prim, who was sitting right in front of her, kept looking at her phone. "prim, i think you need to put your phone away for thenight, yeah?", tu asked prim. " i don't think i can. he hasn't answered since yesterday, after the family meeting. he's home, tu. i know he has a lot of spare time when he's home," prim replied anxiously. dew felt sad for her, but he also understood why her fiance did what he's doing since he was also dew's friend. he's also in fear of him being in the same situation when nanon finds out.
"maybe he needs space. let's put your phone away for the night, okay? we're not here to worry," gulf said softly and took prim's phone aside. "yeah! we're here to have fun! and forgetㅡoh sorry, guys, girlfriend's calling," nani excused himself and answered the phone.
tu put her arms around her younger best friend to cheer her up and then chatting with gulf. prim turned to dew and started speaking quietly. "you need to tell him before it's too late," he only nodded and smiled at her.
for what felt like an eternity, dew saw a familiar head walking around the sides of the dance floor mindlessly, and drunkenly. he stood up right away and said goodbye to his friends and ran to nanon. nanon who was startled because someone grabbed his waist all of a sudden, had his eyes wide open to see whose hands were in his hips. "oh, hi, dew! didn't see you there," nanon slurred a little bit in his words but it was still coherent so dew was relieved. "how many have you drank?", dew asked nanon while looking around for a glass in nanon's hands and sniffing for some alcohol scent. "actually, not that much. but, i think i drank something pretty strong," he stopped mid sentence, letting out a hiccup. "oh my head is banging," dew was so concerned that he offered for them to go home now, but nanon felt it was too early to go home and they haven't seen many people. "okay, but you need to let me hold you, or else you'll be walking up the dj booth next. tell me when you're feeling worse," nanon agreed to dew's conditions and put his arms out for dew to hold.
they saw some of their uni friends and seniors, also some juniors. it felt like nanon was stopped every 5 steps but he didn't mind and talked with them all in the same level of attention given. dew liked that nanon was so friendly and so kind with everyone, he didn't make anyone feel left out, even though dew knew how bad his headache was from how hard he was grabbing dew's hand at times. "okay, i think we need to go home now, you'veㅡah shit," dew was surprised to see a familiar face from afar, it was nanon's ex from the terrible relationship and break up. "wait, what is it?", nanon slurred and attempted to find the direction dew's head was at. "you wouldn't like this, but i just saw him," dew tried to emphasize the word "him", and it seemed that nanon understood from his change in facial expressions. "oh fuck. i need more drink,", and magically a waitress appeared in front of them, and before dew could stop nanon, another shot was already downed. "that's it. we're going home. i believe you wouldn't want to be interacting with him,", nanon's ex saw them together and it was a sign for dew to hold nanon tight to him and walked out of the night club.
dew helped nanon get into the passenger seat, then texted bright, telling him that something came up and they had to go home. he was trying to make sure nanon was okay and didn't start to cry or anything. but luckily for dew, nanon was passed out not even 5 minutes after they drove away. he smiled at nanon when he realized that. the road was a little bit more sparse than before, and the car was so quiet that anyone in their right state of mind but not for dew. his mind was awake with thoughts of how he won't forget tonight, and his heart was beating so hard that he was sure it was about to burst.
they already arrived in the entrance of vihokratanas' residence. tay told dew through text earlier that he had alerted his house security team to unlock the doors when dew and nanon were home. dew stopped the car and tried to wake nanon up but he was only met with groans and nanon's back. it was the third attempt when he decided to just bring nanon inside himself, it's not like he didn't know where nanon's bedroom was with all the playdates and the countless private business dinners. dew walked out of the car and opened the passenger seat door, then he unlocked the seat belt slowly and untangled it from nanon's body. dew positioned himself to bring nanon close to him and managed to lift him. both his hands were holding nanon's back and nanon hid his face in the crook of dew's neck.
"cute,", dew thought to himself.
bringing nanon up the stairs and the thousand corridors in his house wasn't really a problem for dew. the door was his biggest enemy. he didn't want to cause any commotion while trying to open the door. so it took him approximately 5 minutes, whispered curses, and many, many of exhales. but those hardships didn't compare to the shock dew felt when he saw a pair of legs on nanon's bed. he could swear he almost screamed and dropped nanon a couple meters from his bed.
"who are yoㅡwait, pakin?", his alert turned into confusion and back into alert when he realized another guy was in nanon's bedroom. pakin who was on his phone with his headphones on, got off the bed. "oh, you guys are home already? here, let me help you puㅡ",
"why are you here? at 2 in the morning?", pakin's words were cut off by dew's stern questions.
"eh i was, well, i'm spending the night here becauseㅡ",
"you're spending the night, here? in nanon's bed? are you guysㅡ"
"i'm dating his brother, in fact, i just got back from a date earlier with him," pakin's reply made him visibly relaxed. dew brought nanon closer to the bed and pakin helped with the blanket. nanon was put softly to the bed and he adjusted quickly by grabbing a pillow and hugged it.
"so, you're dating frank, then," dew asked pakin while untying nanon's shoe laces and taking off his shoes. "no, it's pluem, actually," dew stopped moving when he heard nanon's, "perfect to the bone" according to nanon, oldest brother's name.
"yeah, i know, i was surprised when his dad told me to just "go out on a couple of dates and see what happens" really weird huh," pakin explained to dew. "you know what, yeah, it is weird. but i think they're just parents who don't want their children to be hurt,".
dew walked closer to nanon and tried to put the pillow that he was hugging aside, but with some incoherent words, nanon refused to let it go. "hey, dude, how much did you drink? come on you need to let go of that pillow. stop hugging it like it's your dad," pakin gave a hand but nanon was persistent. "suit yourself then, sleeping with your jacket on like in a sauna,", dew tried again but this time he talked in a soft tone. "you need to sit for a bit, then you can hug that pillow all you want. come here,", nanon then sat willingly with dew's help. he helped nanon take off his jacket and then lay him down again once the jacket is off. dew saw pakin just looking at them and had to pat his shoulder so that he would stop looking.
"oh, i knew it! i knew it was you that they were talking about earlier!", pakin said excitedly, yelling almost, until dew had to shush him. "yes, it's me. but you need to calm down, and i need to do me a favor of not telling nanon. i'll try to tell him, when the time is right," pakin just nodded in agreement. dew knew that he was about to add something but he just retreated.
"so what does he usually have as a hangover treatment other than the usual ibuprofen that is," dew asked pakin while helping him readjusting nanon's blanket. pakin was humming, trying to remember the answer. "i'm not really sure, since he hardly ever drinks. but he usually eats his papa's soup when he's sick. oh, speaking of, has he, you know, thrown up yet?", and just like that, right after pakin asked, nanon sat up and making sounds as if he's about throw up.
"hey, you. don't throw up on your bed, your papa is going to kill you!", pakin yelled and signalled dew to help him bring nanon to the toilet in his room. luckily, they managed to get nanon to the bathroom before he threw up and dew helped him by rubbing his back up and down. pakin covered his nose and just couldn't stand the smell that he looked away from the bathroom. "you can bring him a pair of new clothes and a glass of water. i think he stained his t shirt," dew told him so that pakin could get away from the sight and the smell.
once the vomitting stopped, nanon still sat in front of the toilet bowl with his eyes closed. "do you still need to go again? or you want to stand up now?", dew looking at nanon's face intently from the side.
NANON
nanon seemed to be sobered up already and asked dew to help him stand up. he walked nanon to the sink to help clean up. "i don't know what that last drink was but i'm pretty sure that was the cause of, that," nanon said with his eyes closed and pointed to the toilet's direction. dew just stayed silent. he took a few sheets of tissue and wet it a little bit. "here, you got some on your face still," he cleaned nanon's face and shirt intently. it's safe to say that nanon would be lying if he didn't feel his heart beating faster. and he also felt this warm feeling in his stomach. this was different. he never felt that warm sensation. especially not with.... that guy. he also thought in his head, that dew was something else. nanon was looking and smelling like total shit (according to himself that is), but dew was still willing to be here, helping him.
"dude, here's your pajamas and there's a glass of warm water on your side table. do you need help with changing? this handsome observation tower is willing to help," pakin said in a teasing tone and dew only scratched the back of his neck. "i have no time nor do i have the strength to argue with you, man. just give the pajamas here, i'll change by myself," pakin apologized while laughing after nanon said that and both dew and pakin left the bathroom.
nanon walked back to his bed and dew who was standing at the end, helped nanon with the blanket immediately. pakin was back to his initial position which was sitting on the opposite side of the bed with his headphones on. "you're ready to go back to bed then? drink the ibuprofen once you wake up in the morning, okay?", dew said to nanon and he just nodded. "then, i'll go now," he was about to walk away until nanon stopped him.
"i just want to say thank you, again. you've helped me, a lot. i don't know how to repay you,"
"just be happy and healthy. that's all i ask," dew smiled at him. "noted, mr. romsaithong," nanon smiled back showing his infamous dimples. "see you then, mr. vihokratana," dew signalled pakin goodbye and he just nodded knowingly.
both nanon and pakin sat in silence after dew walked out of the room. a few moments later, pakin took off his headphones and said in a overly sweet manner, "noted, mr. romsaithong~". nanon turned all red and threw a pillow at pakin, "fuck you, i knew those headphones weren't on,". "you need to take a look in the mirror. you're as red as boiled lobster now!", nanon only responded with a couple more of pillows being thrown at pakin.
"oi! okay, okay. i'll stop teasing you," pakin surrendered and nanon stopped. "but hey. remember when you asked me about whether dew is "decent" or not?", nanon only nodded at pakin's question. "he's better than that. he's your key to going back to your old self," he was about to say a joke or something sarcastic to reply to whatever pakin's answer was going to be. but turns out, his answer only got him thinking. he couldn't say anything because pakin was correct, he felt more like his old self in the past few hours than the last 2 years. he could laugh happily and enjoyed himself more without the feeling of posessive eyes watching him like a hawk. he didn't feel like he's walking around egg shells with dew. that could attribute to the fact that he's not in a romantic relationship with dew, but the anxiety of being imperfect wasn't there. he jumped, he danced, he sang out loud, and dew was there with him, either watching him happily beside him or joining in the fun. maybe trusting dew and letting him in wouldn't be so bad.
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