Chapter Text
It all happened so fast. One moment, he and Tine were on their way back home after game night with their friends and the next, everything went dark. Sarawat remembered the shriek of terror his fiancé had let out just before the impact. He remembered a flash of lights blinding him momentarily and he remembered how he had tried to call out for Tine but couldn’t. The panic he felt when he realized that the man he loved was out cold was also engraved in his memory. And then he was out cold too. In just the span of a few seconds, his world changed completely.
The incident had left Sarawat pretty badly injured and bruised but, fortunately, he had been wearing his seatbelt when the collision happened. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Tine. It was a bad habit of his — getting into cars without buckling himself in — and Sarawat usually always nagged him about it. It had slipped his mind the day of the accident.
On that day, they had gotten into the car, turned on the radio and began belting one song after another rather loudly. It was all smiles and laughter and over the top singing; Sarawat thought that moments like those just reaffirmed that he was with the person he was meant to spend the rest of his life with. Those moments were his favorite.
They were halfway home when it happened. A truck driver, who Sarawat could only assume was either falling asleep behind the wheel or completely drunk, came speeding up behind them. It was sudden. Sarawat realized much too late that Tine wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and before he could say anything, his fiancé screamed, their car was hit and now the man he loved was barely hanging onto life.
He had never wanted to trade places with anyone as badly as he did right now. Sitting in a hospital room and watching someone you love on the brink of death would be hard for anyone and Sarawat couldn’t help but think that it should have been him instead. Tine was too good and too loved to be taken from this world so soon. He meant a lot to so many people. He meant the world to him.
“You need to go home and rest, Wat.”
His best friend, Earn, walked inside the room and visibly winced when she saw Tine’s nearly lifeless body on the bed. She was a strong girl, she didn’t scare easily — being in a band with all boys had toughened her up quite a bit — but even she wasn’t immune to this sight. She had been visiting both of them at the hospital for the past two weeks and she still couldn’t believe the doctors had told them that Tine might not make it. He had too. He wasn’t just the love of Sarawat’s life, he was their friend and he made them all happy. How could they ever be happy again if they lost Tine? It seemed impossible.
“Please sleep a bit, eat something and do us all a favor and shower!” Earn walked further inside the room and tried to act like her usual self. She didn’t know how else to help Sarawat but by acting like everything was going to be okay. If she stopped believing that Tine would wake up eventually, then her friend might lose all hope as well. “You don’t look like yourself. Tine is going to wake up one of these days and wonder what in the world happened to his fiancé.”
Sarawat smiled for the first time in days. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, in fact, Earn probably would have missed it if she hadn’t been paying really close attention to her friend, but there was definitely a hint of a smile on his face for a few seconds.
“You know, he would’ve said the same thing if he were awake right now. I am a mess.” Sarawat suddenly buried his face in his hands to hide the fact that he was on the verge of a breakdown. He hated crying, especially in front of others, but he had been holding it all in for so long now that this was bound to happen eventually. He could only pretend to be strong for so long. “I miss him, Earn. I miss… waking up with him in the mornings and seeing his smile everyday. I miss the goodbye hugs he’d give me before I left for work. I miss coming back home and listening to him talk about his day. I miss our spontaneous dates and… our random conversations. I even miss arguing with him about the stupidest things. I fucking miss him.”
“I know, Wat. I know.” Earn took a seat beside Sarawat and wrapped her arms around him. “We all miss him but Tine is strong. He’s going to wake up and you two will get married and I swear, you’ll live happily ever after, just like in those cheesy romance movies he loves to watch so much. I promise you.”
Sarawat knew that Earn wasn’t capable of keeping such a promise, but somehow her words still comforted him. She believed that Tine would wake up so he had to believe it too. He couldn't lose hope because if the roles were reversed, Tine wouldn’t give up on him so easily.
“You’re right,” Sarawat mumbled as he wiped away his tears. He took a deep breath and exhaled before reaching out to hold Tine’s hand. “Fong should be here soon. I’m sure he’ll watch Tine while I go home for a bit to shower and change.”
“You have to eat something too,” Earn added, using a tone that left no room for argument. “It’s been over a week since you were discharged and you haven’t had a proper meal since. Tine would be upset if he knew.”
Sarawat sighed, he knew that his friend was right but he couldn’t find it in him to care. “I don’t have an appetite, Earn. I’ll be fine.”
“Tine is fighting for his life, the least you could do is try to appreciate yours.”
Earn knew her words were a bit harsh but she needed her friend to understand that he couldn’t neglect his own health and well-being because of the unfortunate circumstances. It’s not what Tine would have wanted and since he wasn’t able to take care of Sarawat at the moment, Earn vowed that she would try to do it, at least until Tine woke up and took over this role again. It’s all she could do for them, besides lend her support.
“Okay,” Sarawat relented, knowing he had no room to argue. “I’ll take better care of myself. Promise.”
For Tine.
When Tine woke up, the first thing he felt was a throbbing pain in his head. As his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, he realized that he had no clue where he was. It took one look at his surroundings to recognize that he was in a hospital room.
But why? What happened?
Tine thought for a moment and quickly realized that he actually couldn’t remember. In fact, there was a lot that he was having trouble recalling at the moment. He searched his brain for answers, over and over again, but was unable to come up with anything to explain how he got here.
The last thing he remembered was sneaking out of his parents house to go see Mil. He had gotten to the man’s apartment, they had cooked dinner together, they had watched a movie or two, they had made out a bit and then Tine feigned exhaustion before it could go any further. That was his last memory before waking up here.
Somehow it seemed like so long ago but it was truly the last thing he could vividly recall. Trying to remember anything after that was proving to be impossible and yet, Tine knew that there was more to the story, because there was no way he could have ended up in the hospital simply for falling asleep in Mil’s room.
There had to be more to the story and the fact that he couldn’t remember was really beginning to worry him. Not just worry, he felt like he might have a panic attack soon. He wanted answers. Maybe if someone just told him what happened, everything would make sense again because right now he felt lost and it scared him.
“Tine?”
The sound of a familiar voice had him looking towards the door immediately. A small sigh of relief escaped him when he saw that Pear was staring back at him in utter disbelief.
“You’re awake.”
She walked over to his side slowly, almost cautiously. It truly looked as if she had just seen a ghost.
Tine looked at her closely. It was definitely Pear but she seemed different somehow. Her usually straight hair was now longer and in loose waves. She wasn't wearing one of the pretty, feminine dresses that he was so used to seeing her in, instead she was styled in a white, elegant, tight-fitted power suit. Pear had also opted for a bright red lip rather than her favorite cherry flavored lip gloss. She seemed more mature, more refined, and Tine once again began to question just how long he had been out for. It must have been a long time because Pear had obviously changed a lot.
“Sarawat will be so relieved.”
He ignored the mention of a so-called ‘Sarawat’ and instead looked down at Pear’s hand. She wasn’t wearing her engagement ring anymore which could only mean that he hadn’t gone through with their marriage, right? Maybe he had found the courage to tell her that he loved Mil, not her. He thought, for a brief moment, about asking, but then decided against it. If he was wrong then it would just make for a very awkward situation.
“Umm who’s Sarawat?” He found himself asking instead.
Pear’s eyes grew comically large. She opened her mouth, presumably to answer his question, but before she could say anything, a total stranger walked into the room, took one look at Tine and then he was by his side in literal seconds. He proceeded to grab Tine’s hand, a teary smile on his handsome face as he did.
“What are you doing?” Tine asked as he pulled his hand away from the grasp of the unfamiliar man. He almost regretted it when he saw a flash of sadness reflected in the stranger’s eyes. “I-I’m sorry but you really shouldn’t go up to people you don’t know and touch them. It’s rude. Are you my… doctor?”
The stranger looked just as shocked as Pear had looked just moments ago. He turned to her for answers but all Pear could do was shrug and give him a sympathetic look.
“I don’t think he’s joking.”
With those words from Pear, his unfamiliar visitor (who apparently wasn’t a doctor) directed his attention back towards him.
“Tine, you know who I am, right?”
The man said his name and spoke to him in a way that would suggest that the two of them were quite familiar with each other. That they were close. Maybe they were friends?
‘Who are you?’
Tine felt overwhelmed, like tears could spill out of him at any moment now. This man was looking at him with such concern, adoration and care, meanwhile he had no idea what his name was or how’d they met or why he seemed to care about him so much. Tine wanted to remember him but he couldn’t, no matter how much he tried.
“Sorry, I-I don’t remember.”
Tine didn’t realize he had started crying until the stranger hesitantly brought his hand up to wipe away his tears and caress his face. Tine felt comforted so he leaned into the man’s touch and allowed himself to be taken care of by him. He didn’t have the urge to push him away again, especially not when the man smiled kindly and made Tine feel at ease.
“It’s not your fault baby.”
Then Tine froze. The way the term of endearment rolled off the stranger’s tongue easily was enough to let Tine know that he referred to him this way often enough but that didn’t mean it made him any less uncomfortable. He still didn’t have the faintest idea who this man was and yet, he was calling him ‘baby’ in front of his (ex)fiancée and Pear didn’t even look taken back by it, not in the slightest. In fact, she was smiling at the sight of them.
“Who are you?” Tine asked because he couldn’t stand not knowing. “I-I mean are we… dating or something?”
“Or something,” the stranger replied with a small chuckle. He then took a deep breath and tried to put on a brave face but Tine could tell that he was anything but confident at that moment. “My name is Sarawat and I’m your fiancé.”
And then Tine was out. Again.