Anonymous · 1y

pat takes pran to the noodle stand after they start dating, he orders their usual including pran's 3 wontons... and tells the noodle stand guy that pran is his faen now and isn't pat so lucky to have such a cute person by his side?? maybe the noodle stand guy even remembers their stupid attempts at making eo jealous from before. idk. just pat being disgusting in love.... i love them.........

It's late at night so no one will see them again, although the last time they were out getting dinner this late was over a year ago, before even the bus stop project. Still, there's some comfort that they can be out together without fear of being seen by too many people. Pran had assumed they would have total secrecy at first - only together in their dorms, in the space that had once been his but now is happily, wholly theirs. But then Pat had said that he wanted to see a movie and it would be dark and Pran had agreed; then Pran had been visiting Wai at his bar while Pat had been out with his friends and they'd ended up making out in the bathroom; and now Pran is resigned to the fact that now that he's adjusted to being with Pat openly, even despite their families, it's not something he so easily wants to stop doing.

Pat goes to the stall while Pran picks out a table, watching Pat fondly. He sees Pat hold up three fingers and smiles. It's not that endearing that Pran likes exactly three wontons with his noodles, but Pat finds a lot of random things about Pran endearing anyway. He's always been like that, finding things that Pran thinks are mundane about himself special in some way. It makes Pran feel warm and giggly about it now, instead of confused and on the edge of heartbroken.

The stall vendor asks Pat something. He gestures towards Pran. Pran frowns, as Pat laughs and shakes his head in response. He leans in close to the vendor like he's telling him a secret, and Pran's frown deepens.

Pat's chuckling to himself when he comes back to their table, carrying their two bowls. "What was that about?" Pran asks, as Pat sets his noodles in front of him.

Sitting down himself, Pat takes his chopsticks out, looks down at his own bowl, and then laughs again.

Pran wants to smack him on the forehead with those chopsticks. "What?" he says, measuring his own.

"It's nothing," Pat says, which certainly means it means something. Then Pat adds, "Well, nothing anymore. Just, last year--" he breaks off and snickers again and Pran is this close to pulling Pat's food away from him until he can recompose himself "--last year when I had come here with Ink, khun asked me if she was my faen and I told him that I would tell him when she would be. So today he asked me why I haven't been going out with her lately and why I came here with you, and I told him that you were my faen instead." He erupts into giggles.

Pran rolls his eyes, even though he can't deny the flutter of his heart at the sound of Pat calling him his faen. "Well, what's so funny about it? It's true, isn't it?"

"It is true! It's just, Ink," Pat chews his noodles loudly and grins when Pran makes a face at him. "The idea of me dating Ink now is so funny, don't you think? Now that she has my sister and that I have you?"

"I think it's funny that you think I'll keep dating you if you keep being disgusting like that," Pran says, with no heat.

Pat sticks his tongue out at him, but does chew quieter. "I'm surprised khun didn't remember when we both got dinner here," he says thoughtfully. "When I was with Ink and you were with Wai."

Pran feels his neck heat up at the memory; it had been simultaneously satisfying and embarrassing that Pran just feels silly now when he thinks of their in-between time before the architecture play. "You mean when we were trying to make each other jealous?"

"Yeah," Pat says brightly. "Wasn't that fun? I think I won that one."

Pran taps his chin with his chopsticks as if he's in thought. "I remember pretty distinctly that I won that one, actually."

"No way," Pat says, in a way that Pran knows that he knows that Pran is absolutely correct. "You making me more jealous? You'd been jealous of me and Ink for years."

Pran swallows the mouthful of noodles he'd just chewed. "Yeah, so I was used to it. Meanwhile you kept giving Wai death glares even after you guys made up--"

"I don't know why he has to be so affectionate with you all the time!"

"See?" Pran says smugly. "Even now, you lost against me. Hah."

Pat narrows his eyes at him. "Best two out of three."

"It's already been two. I won both times."

"Okay, then best three out of five--"

As they bicker, the night fades around them like they're the only ones in the universe; not any other students lingering around wondering why the architecture and engineering class presidents who were rumored to have broken up are getting dinner together, not the vendor of the noodle stall smiling to himself and thinking about how this boy's new faen seems to suit him so well. They don't need secrecy nor the light of day nor the comfort of their own family homes to know that like this, to have each other, to be together, makes them luckier than anyone else in the world.

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