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The heat hits Boom square in the face as he exits the hotel lobby, but it isn’t quite as oppressive as the heat back in Bangkok.
Thank goodness, he thinks, because the whole point of this trip is to get away from Bangkok and its oppressiveness. That’s a bit dramatic, he supposes, but the way his family is breathing down his neck, it sure feels like this is his last chance to escape their shackles.
Boom breathes in the Chiang Mai air and steps around the grey and white cat that runs the hotel lobby. His name is Meow, according to the girl at the desk who gave Boom a bandaid after Meow got tired of Boom’s affection and told him so with his teeth. Honestly, Boom respects that the cat knows and adheres to his boundaries.
“Take care of the place while I’m gone,” he says to Meow, who looks up at him with complete apathy in his eyes. He’d let the place burn, Boom just knows it.
With the reassurance that his belongings and lodging mean nothing to Meow, Boom sets off in what his map app says is the right direction to get to the Three Kings Monument. It isn’t a far walk from the hotel, and it’s still early, so Boom takes his time, meandering down the Old Chiang Mai streets. The scooters are out in full force, ferrying kids to school in their smart uniforms.
He’s struck by a strange bout of nostalgia at the sight, a longing for an experience he’s never even had. He never took a scooter to school, or any kind of public transportation at that; his parents would never have dreamed of such a thing. Boom shakes his head against the feelings welling up in his chest and glances both ways before darting across the street.
He arrives at the meeting point early, so he takes refuge from the sun under the shade of the trees that encircle the square. There’s an older woman batting flowers off them with a sticker twice as long as her, and Boom watches quietly as she places them into a plastic water bottle. He doesn’t know what her plan is with them, but he smiles when she offers two of them to a couple tourist girls. He has an urge to take his sketchbook out and draw the scene, but the girls move along before he has the chance.
A sense of calm descends over him as he tips his head back and closes his eyes, listening to the quiet chatter of the girls and woman paired with the buzz of scooters and bikes as they pass by the square. It’s the same sounds as Bangkok, only slightly muted, a bit less in your face, and he thinks he kind of loves it.
“Excuse me, are you here for the tour?”
Boom cracks his eyes open to find a young man standing in front of him holding an orange umbrella. He smiles at Boom, wide and genuine, and Boom can’t help but smile back. The man is attractive, Boom decides immediately; he isn’t in the habit of denying things that are objectively true.
He’s tall, probably around Boom’s height, and his hair is a bit mussed from the wind. He’s got a bit of a tan, if the skin peeking out from under the sleeve of his t-shirt is anything to go by, and his jeans are just the right amount of baggy. It looks good on him, the carefree-ness of it all. Boom wishes he had a bit of that going for him, but alas, he’s always been burdened with the horrible affliction of caring just a bit too much.
“Hi, yes. Sorry, I was a bit… distracted.”
The man laughs easily and tucks his umbrella into the tote bag hanging from his shoulder. “That’s an easy occurrence here, it’s no problem. I’m Aou, I’ll be taking you on your food tour today.” The man—Aou—brings his hands up into a wai and Boom follows suit after scrambling to his feet.
“Boom. It’s nice to meet you.” Boom looks around, but the square is empty now, not even the elderly woman having stuck around. “Is everyone else running late, or...?”
“Oh, no! It’s just us today, Khun Boom.” Aou smiles again, and Boom isn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.
On the one hand, he had been looking forward to meeting new people, maybe getting the chance to practice his English a bit. On the other, when will he ever get the chance to have a private tour of Old Chiang Mai, and with someone who looks like Aou, at that?
“Well, that sounds… cozy. And please, just Boom.” He’s has quite enough people wai-ing and Khun Boom-ing back home, it’s the absolute last thing he wants to experience in Chiang Mai.
“I have a feeling there isn’t anything just about you at all, but Boom it is.” There’s a pause that Boom desperately tries not to read too much into before Aou continues. “Anyway! Lets get this show on the road, shall we? I hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” Boom replies with a grin, and follows Aou across the square to their first stop of the day.
They end up just down the road at a food cart selling grilled sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves; the smell reminds Boom of his grandmother, which is odd, since she died when he was four. Aou relays Boom’s order—banana—to the auntie working the cart and passes the wrapped bundle to Boom. He waits patiently for Aou to get his own, but when he doesn’t order anything for himself, Boom pauses in the middle of unwrapping his banana leaves.
“What about you?”
Aou looks at him, head cocked to the side and brow adorably furrowed. “Me?”
“What are you getting?”
“Oh,” Aou ducks his head and smiles. “That’s not really how this works. You eat, I guide.”
“So… you’re just gonna stand there and watch me eat all day?”
“No! Sometimes we'll be sitting.”
Boom raises an eyebrow, pleased to see it has the same effect in Chiang Mai as it does in Bangkok as Aou blushes a bit and looks away.
“I am not spending the whole day eating delicious food while you sit there and starve,” Boom says, aware now that the food cart aunties and uncles are watching their exchange like it's a tennis match.
“Khun— I mean, Boom, it’s not—”
“Take it,” the sticky rice auntie says, shoving a banana leaf bundle into Aou’s hands. “He’s right, what an awkward first date that would be.”
“This is not a date!” Boom and Aou’s voices overlap as they protest, but the auntie only goes back to packing leaves with rice and banana, oblivious to their discomfort.
Aou sighs and begins unwrapping his sticky rice, defeat evident in the slight sag of his shoulders. “Fine,” he mumbles, “but just know this is highly unorthodox.”
Boom snorts and takes a bit of rice, the simple yet sweet flavour blooming on his tongue. “That’s a big word.”
Aou shoots a glare with absolutely no heat behind it Boom’s way, and Boom has to bite back a laugh. “You better leave me a good review for putting up with you,” Aou says, dropping the banana leaves and wooden skewers in the small garbage pail next to the stall.
“We’ll see if you earn it,” Boom sniffs, disposing of his own garbage.
Aou shakes his head and wai’s a thank you to the auntie, who just smiles knowingly at them as she wai’s in return.
“Alright, rebel, let’s go to the next stop,” Aou grumbles, leading the way.
The next stop is close by, a little hole in the wall selling fried taro cake and fried tofu. This time, when Aou sets the food down in front of Boom, Boom barely has to look at Aou before he picks up a toothpick and helps himself. Boom smiles to himself and pretends not to see Aou smile in return.
“See?” Boom asks, wiping his mouth with a tissue. The food was delicious; they’re sitting at a solid two for two so far. “Isn’t this better than sitting there, watching me eat?”
“I can think of worse views,” Aou replies, boldly refusing to break eye-contact even as Boom flushes. “Next stop?” Aou’s voice is innocent but his eyes are lit with mischief as he stands and waits for Boom at the door.
Boom clears his throat and follows suit, face still hot.
Their next stop is a little restaurant, blessedly cool thanks to to the AC unit working overtime in the humidity. Aou orders and pays, insisting that Boom stays seated, an order he begrudgingly follows.
“Okay, see, this has no right being as good as it is!” Boom exclaims as he takes another bite of stir-fried Chiang-Da with eggs. “There’s nothing in it!”
“Sure there is,” Aou counters, taking another heaping spoonful. “There’s egg and greens.”
“That’s not enough! It tastes way too good to have, like, two ingredients.”
Aou hums thoughtfully as he chews. “Maybe there’s a secret third ingredient.”
“Like what?”
Aou puts down his spoon slowly, face serious. His hand moves fast as he throws up a finger heart and exclaims, “Love!”
Every head in the restaurant turns towards them as Boom starts choking with laughter. “Don’t do that, you’re making me waste it,” he sputters, reaching for his glass of water, fingers slipping a bit on the condensation.
“I’m sorry,” Aou all but cackles, unfazed by the part he’s just played in Boom’s almost-demise. “Seriously though, I don’t know how it’s so good. Chiang Mai magic, maybe.”
“I’m going to have to try and find a place in Bangkok that makes this,” Boom muses, picking the final pieces of egg of the plate. “Seriously, this was incredible,” he says to the staff on the way out the door. “I don’t know how anything is going to top that.”
“Have you tried Khao Soi yet? Like, proper northern Khao Soi?”
Boom shakes his head. “I’ve had it a couple times back in Bangkok, but never up here, no.”
Aou grins. “Well, you’re in for a treat.”
“Is that next?”
“Oh, no. We’ve got a couple more stops to make first,” Aou says, grin growing impossibly wider.
“So, all these women are inmates?” Boom is asking an hour later around a mouthful of Khao Soi.
“Mhm.” Aou nods, swallowing a spoonful of soup. “From the local prison. It's a way for them to stay connected to the community. That, and it’s an in for when they get released. There’s some massage parlours run by former inmates too, actually.”
Boom’s eyes widen. “Wow, that’s… that’s pretty impressive, actually.”
Aou nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, it's pretty cool. Doesn’t hurt that they make fantastic Khao Soi, either.” He gestures at Boom’s empty bowl, and Boom’s full stomach protests.
They’ve eaten more food than Boom typically eats in a day, the various dishes blurring together until he can’t remember which one he ate where.
“You were right,” he says. “This was the real deal. What am I supposed to do when I go back to Bangkok?”
“Hmm. Maybe this is just a sign that you’re supposed to come back. For the Khao Soi, if nothing else.” There's a mischievous smile on his face, but Aou’s eyes are soft. “Chiang Mai seems to agree with you.”
“Does it?”
“You seem much less tense than you did this morning. Looser.”
Boom shifts and laughs awkwardly. “That’s just because you’ve plied me with food. My defenses are lowered.”
“Well, in that case, I have a proposition for you.”
The images that spring to mind at Aou’s words are not proper, Boom knows they’re not, but he lets himself indulge them for a moment. He imagines Aou’s hands on his waist, his lips on Boom’s neck. He wonders, for a brief moment, what it would be like to kiss that smart mouth before he shakes himself and brings himself back to Earth.
Get a grip.
“What proposition might that be?”
“We’re almost done the tour,” Aou says, and right on cue a woman comes out to clear their plates away. “If you don’t have anything you’re doing after this, I was wondering if you’d like to see more of the sights.”
Truthfully, Boom had done very little research on things to do in Chiang Mai before booking his flight, so he doesn’t even know what ‘sights’ Aou could possibly be talking about.
“Sights like…?”
“Doi Suthep. Wat Pha Lat. Huay Keaw Waterfall. Take your pick.” Aou hands his phone to Boom with web pages already pulled up full of pictures.
“How am I supposed to choose when they all look so beautiful?” he laments.
“You don’t have to choose,” Aou says, all earnest eyes and nervous smile. “I’ve got all day.”
“Yeah?” Boom has no reason to be as excited at the prospect of spending more time with Aou as he is, but he’s practically vibrating at the prospect.
“Absolutely. Let’s get you some dessert first, though, yeah?”
Once Boom is sufficiently stuffed full of butterfly pea ice cream with bua loi, he follows Aou to his car. It’s past the wall of the Old City, in an area Boom hasn’t explored. He’s kept pretty much to the streets around his hotel, besides one late night wander to the Tha Phae Gate. It occurs to him, far too late into the journey, that perhaps it isn’t the smartest idea to hop in some strange man’s car. He eyes Aou out of the corner of his eye, looking for any obvious signs that he might be a trafficker or kidnapper in disguise.
Aou chatters on about growing up in Chiang Mai and what it’s like living with his aging grandmother, oblivious to Boom’s investigation. He doesn’t seem like a kidnapper. And really, he’s had plenty of opportunity to take action throughout the morning. They’ve been to so many secondary locations, and Aou knows Boom isn’t from here, so if he wanted to act he would have, right? What are the chances he’s in any actual danger?
“Are you going to keep staring at me, or can I be let in on the secret?”
Boom startles and blushes. “I’m not— I wasn’t staring.”
“You were. I know I’m good looking, but even I have my limits, Boom,” Aou jokes, taking his keys out to unlock his car. It’s an old car, without a key fob, and Boom finds that fact more charming than he should.
He sniffs. “If you must know, I was trying to decide if you were a kidnapper.”
“Ah,” Aou drawls, nodding. “Good call. You can’t be too careful these days.” There’s a growing grin on his face that he tries and fails to fight back, and Boom finds himself smiling in spite of himself. “Did I pass then?”
“You passed,” Boom confirms, opening the passenger door. “I will let you know, though—I don’t normally do this kind of thing.”
“What, sight-see?” Aou raises a doubtful eyebrow as he climbs into the car.
Boom rolls his eyes, sitting on the sun warmed seat. The backs of his legs protest for a second before his body acclimates to the heat. “No, dummy. Get into stranger’s cars in places I don’t know.”
Aou starts the car and lowers the windows, before busying himself with checking his mirrors. “Do they not have Grab in Bangkok?”
“Of course we have Grab in Bangkok,” Boom says, confused.
“Okay, so what’s the difference?” Aou asks, shrugging. He raises his eyebrows, waiting for an answer, but none comes. Instead, Boom splutters uselessly, making Aou laugh out loud. “Sit back and enjoy the ride, Boom.” Aou throws the car into gear and if he is a kidnapper, Boom is a goner.
Forty-five minutes later, Boom is standing at the bottom of a long staircase, Aou grinning next to him with his hands on his hips.
“Well? You feeling up to it?”
“You’re joking, right? We’re going to pretend like we didn’t pass an elevator on the way here? You want me to walk up all those?”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Aou asks, laughter on the tip of his tongue.
“Back in my hotel room,” Boom deadpans. “We’re taking the elevator. My treat.”
Aou lets loose a long-suffering sigh. “Spoil sport.”
“If you want to see me sweaty, you’re going to have to dream up a more enticing scenario,” Boom tosses over his shoulder as he leads the way back to the convenient, quick, well-worth-the-money elevator that will ferry them to the temple.
He turns around long enough to get a good look at Aou’s gobsmacked face, complete with a jaw rendered slack with shock. He can’t help laughing at the sight—the whole day, he’s felt like he’s been on the back foot where Aou is concerned. It’s nice to be the one dishing it out for once.
“Come on, slow poke. Last one to the top has to buy ice cream when we get back down.”
“How could you possibly be hungry?” Aou wonders, taking the steps two at a time to catch up.
The temple is stunning, obviously, but the real beauty is the view from the balcony. It’s pretty much empty, everyone too busy making merit and admiring the gold stupa to notice the area just off the main path.
“Damn,” Boom breathes. The whole city is laid out beneath him, much bigger than he realized. “There’s more to it than I thought,” he says, nodding at the city down below.
“Yeah. It’s no Bangkok, but it’s not as small as people think it is. Still, I think I prefer it to a big city.”
“I think I do too,” Boom admits, sighing wistfully.
“Really? I had you pegged as a city boy.” Aou nudges Boom with his elbow playfully and Boom sways with the impact.
“I mean, sure. The city is great, it’s my home, but here… There’s no one I know here—besides you, now,” he concedes upon seeing Aou’s offended face. “No expectations, no one telling me what I can and can’t do.” He takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with mountain air. “The air is better here, less suffocating. I feel like I can breathe, for the first time in… I don’t even know how long.”
Aou looks at him, long enough for Boom to start to squirm. “What um… You don’t have to answer this, obviously, but what exactly do you do? In Bangkok, I mean.”
Boom sighs again and leans against the balustrade. “I don’t even know. I don’t really do anything, which is part of the problem. My parents want me to go to school—or, go back to school, I guess. I flunked out of engineering, which is about the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the Jantharaworakarn family line, apparently.” He kicks at the stone tiles, embarrassment rising hot in his cheeks as he admits his failings. “I’m the one disappointment in a family of success stories, and I just… Didn’t want to feel their judgement anymore. The entire city feels like one giant Petri dish with me as the only specimen, getting poked and prodded.”
“I’m sorry,” Aou murmurs. “If it makes you feel any better, I can relate. My parents aren’t exactly thrilled with me being a tour guide.”
“But you’re so good at it,” Boom protests. “And you seem to genuinely love it.”
“Yeah, but to quote my father, ‘love doesn’t put food on the table.’” Aou smiles sadly, and Boom’s heart breaks a little.
“Is that why you live with your grandma?” He feels like he’s prying, digging too deep, but Aou nods.
“Partly. It’s a long story, too long for the amount of daylight we have left.”
Boom squints up at the sun where it sits high in the sky, but doesn’t press it any further.
“If you had it your way, what would you pursue?” Aou asks, deflecting the conversation away from himself. “What does Boom Jantharaworakarn genuinely love?”
“I don’t even know,” Boom admits, shrugging. “I like art. I like to draw, especially people. Sometimes, I find little cafes and sit there all day, sketching the customers.”
“Oh, like those people online? I love those videos.”
“Sure, just like that, except I never show anyone.”
He’s not an artist, and showing anyone his ‘art’ would mean opening himself up to critique, which he definitely doesn’t want.
“Do you have your supplies on you now?” Aou gestures at the tote hanging off Boom’s shoulder.
“Yes… Why?”
“Well, this isn’t a cafe, but if I recall correctly, I did pay to get in, which I think makes me a customer.” Aou looks almost shy, like he’s the one who’s been asked to showcase a skill he isn’t even sure he has.
“You…” Once again, Boom has been rendered dumb by Aou and his… him-ness. He hesitates for a second, trying to come up with an excuse, but he can’t seem to think of one worth disappointing Aou over. And anyway, he can’t pretend like he hasn’t been itching to draw Aou’s face since he walked up to him in front of that statue. “Okay. Yeah, um— Sit over there.”
Aou makes for an excellent model, it turns out. Boom hadn’t thought it possible, but Aou sits still the entire time, barely even blinking. At one point, Boom is sure he’d stopped breathing altogether.
Taking one last look over his sketch, Boom scoots his chair closer to Aou, ripping out the page. At the last second, he signs and dates it, like it’s a real work of art and not something he cobbled together in half an hour.
“Here,” he says, passing the page to Aou with shaking hands.
Aou takes it, looking at it with a blank look on his face. It’s the least amount of expression Boom has seen on his face all day, and he doesn’t know what to make of it. He hopes it’s a good thing, but he prepares himself for it to be a bad thing, just in case.
“What do you think?” Boom asks, unable to take the silence any longer.
“Boom…” Aou looks at him, and surely that isn’t awe Boom sees in his eyes. “I think I’ve never looked better.”
A face-splitting smile bursts to life on Boom’s lips. “Really?”
“Really, Boom. You’re talented. This is crazy.”
“I wasn’t sure I got your nose right,” Boom says, leaning into Aou’s space to point at the straight line sketched onto the page. “But looking at it again, I think it’s pretty perfect.”
He turns to look at Aou, to compare the real thing to the drawing, and his breath catches in his throat. Aou is looking back at him, their faces so close Boom can feel Aou’s breath stutter against his lips. Boom’s heart speeds up in his chest when Aou’s gaze flicks down to his mouth and back up. He realizes in that moment that if Aou kissed him right now, he’d kiss him back. It would be stupid and reckless, completely unlike him, and yet Boom finds his breath coming faster in anticipation.
There’s a peal of laughter from somewhere of Boom’s shoulder and they jump apart, the moment broken. Aou clears his throat and leans back in the chair, still holding the sketch.
“Can I keep this?” he asks, cheeks pink.
“Of course,” Boom says with what he hopes is a steady voice. He swallows his disappointment and clears his throat. “We’ve got two more stops to make, I’ve got plenty of time to draw more.”
And so, he does. Boom draws Aou looking up at the moss covered stupa at Wat Pha Lat, his jaw sharp against a nondescript backdrop. He draws Aou lounging at the bottom of the Huay Keaw Waterfall, feet in the water to cool off.
Once he starts, Boom finds he can’t stop. He sketches Aou behind the wheel of his car as he guides them down the mountain, pointing out the zoo.
“Next time,” Aou says, and Boom wishes there was going to be a next time.
He draws Aou from memory, smiling with a spoon in his hand, unwrapping banana leaves, unlocking his car. Those sketches are fast, rough, marred by jagged lines courtesy of the bumpy mountain road, but Boom thinks they might be his favourite. They feel like Aou.
Far too quickly for Boom’s liking, Aou is parking his car outside the wall, though he insists on walking Boom back to his hotel. It’s better than a hurried drop-off on a busy street, but it makes Boom sad. He gets the distinct feeling that they’re both trying to prolong the day, even as the sun sets around them.
“This is me,” he says when they get to the sliding door to the Namton Boutique Hotel. Meow is nowhere to be found at this time of day, no doubt lounging on the front desk, waiting to bite unsuspecting passersby. “Here.” Boom shoves his entire small sketchbook into Aou’s hands. “You can have it.”
“Oh, Boom, I—”
“Thank you for today,” Boom continues, cutting Aou off. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to handle rejection at this point. “I think I needed this more than I realized.”
“Me too,” Aou says, quieter than he’s been the whole day. He’s still holding onto the sketchbook, thumbs tracing the cover. Boom ignores the need that rises in him—he wants those thumbs on his skin.
The silence is heavy, and Boom opens his mouth to lighten it, but he doesn’t know what to say. The whole day feels like a fever dream, one Boom doesn’t want to wake up from, and he doesn’t know how to articulate that in a way that doesn’t make him sound like an idiot. Or stage-five clinger.
“I hope you figure things out. Back home.” Aou speaks first, because of course he does. “You deserve pursue something you love.”
“Thank you,” Boom says, meaning it with his whole chest. “I think I will. You… Today helped, more than you know.”
Aou nods and places the sketchbook in his bag before shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly.
Fuck, he’s so pretty it hurts to look at. Boom wants, and for once in his life, he’s going to let himself have.
“Aou—”
“Boom—”
“Sorry, you first.” Boom ducks his head. He doesn’t know exactly what he'd been about to say, anyway. Kiss me. I’ll miss you. I wish I could stay. I feel more like myself when I’m with you than I have anywhere else, and that doesn’t scare me as much as it should.
“I…” Aou sighs and shakes his head. “How much longer are you here for?”
Ah.
The question Boom was dreading is now hanging in the air between them. “I leave tomorrow morning, actually,” he admits, feeling strangely ashamed.
Aou’s face falls, and Boom wants to take it back, to tell him that he’ll change his flight, but he knows he can’t.
“Right.” Aou takes a deep breath, and his jaw clenches, once, twice, before he nods, mind seemingly made up. “Okay. Boom, you can tell me to fuck off if you want, but today has been incredible, and I think you’re incredible, and—”
Boom doesn’t wait for Aou to finish his sentence. He grabs him by the shirt collar and pulls him in, pressing a hard kiss to his mouth. It’s rougher than he intends it to be, but that doesn’t stop his heart from skipping a beat when Aou responds by pulling him even closer, fingers digging into his waist. Boom stumbles with the force of the kiss, but Aou catches him, steadies him, grounds him. Distantly, in the recesses of his brain, Boom knows that making out with a relative stranger outside a hotel is not the best look, but fuck if he cares right now. Not when Aou’s tongue is sliding against his and Boom’s teeth are softly biting Aou’s lower lip.
Boom loses track of time in the kiss, and they’re both breathing hard when they finally break apart. Boom rests his forehead against Aou’s and breathes him in, the simple, clean smell of his shampoo, the intoxicating scent of his perfume, present even after the long, hot day.
“Aou…” There’s so much Boom wants to say, but he doesn’t know how. He wishes his thing was writing, instead of art—maybe then he’d have the right words.
“I know.” Aou closes his eyes and takes another deep breath before opening them again. “Listen, I know this sounds like a breach of privacy, but I have your email. I always send a recap of the tour afterwards, but I could— I mean, only if you want, of course—”
Boom can’t help but smile. “Aou. It’s 2026. I can just give you my LINE ID. Unless you’re going for a romantic, modern-day letter writing vibe?”
“Right. LINE.” Aou nods. “That makes sense. I’m sorry, I think I panicked a bit there.”
Boom brushes a thumb across Aou’s cheekbone as he rambles. His fingers itch to draw the shadows cast by Aou’s eyelashes, the plush shape of his lower lip. From Aou’s bag, a phone begins to buzz in a rhythmic pattern.
“That’s my grandma, wondering where I am.”
Boom hums. “It’s okay, I need to pack and attempt to sleep before my flight tomorrow.”
Neither one of them moves to let go. Not yet.
“LINE?” Aou asks, digging his phone out of his bag. He passes it to Boom, who searches up his ID with surprisingly steady hands.
“There.” He passes the phone back to Aou, who cradles it to his chest like it’s something precious. “I’ll be waiting for that recap.”
“I expect a glowing review,” Aou says, backing away slowly.
“We’ll see.”
Aou shakes his head, stepping onto the sidewalk. “Until next time, Khun Boom.”
“Next time, the tour is on me,” Boom says, just barely managing to keep his voice from shaking.
“I’m holding you to that,” Aou says with a small salute, and then he’s gone, hurrying down the street with his head down.
Boom watches until he can’t see him anymore, an ache in his chest that feels too big for what the day was. Or, what it should have been.
His phone stays silent for the rest of the night, only lighting up the next morning at five o’clock when Boom is gathering his bags to head to the airport.
i checked morning flights heading to bkk
i hope urs is the first one otherwise i may have just woken u up
Boom’s heart soars and if he squeals into the sleeve of his sweater, that’s no one’s business but his own.
don’t worry
this won’t affect your review
Boom is still smiling at his phone like an idiot when the airport shuttle arrives to pick him up outside the hotel. Even Meow seems to be in a good mood, letting Boom scratch his stomach one last time without injury.
The flight is short, and Boom turns his phone back on to the promised email, complete with a list of all the dishes he and Aou ate during the tour. There’s a link to leave a review, and Boom makes sure it’s as glowing as he can make it without coming across like some weird stalker.
got ur review
u didn’t mention my handsomeness even one time
well, it’s been a whole day
how am i supposed to remember how handsome you are?
A selfie pops up on Boom’s phone of Aou looking soft and decidedly boyfriend coded. There’s no doubt in Boom’s mind that Aou has done that on purpose, just to get him to blush. He’ll keep it to himself that it works.
hmm
perhaps an amendment will have to be made
Boom lets out a frustrated sigh as he checks his phone for the umpteenth time. It’s been two days, and he hasn’t heard from Aou once. It’s the longest they’ve gone without talking since Boom left Chiang Mai, and he hates how clingy he feels, but he can't help it. He misses Aou. A lot.
He’s standing outside the Hua Lamphong MRT station with a bunch of tourists, waiting for the food tour to begin. Boom booked it that morning after hour sixteen of silence on Aou’s end, wanting a distraction. His sketchbook sits in his tote, blank pages bursting with possibility. He’s started drawing buildings and scenery too, not just people. He’s branching out, as Aou said, growing as an artist. Boom laughs to himself—he still hasn’t called himself an artist. He hasn’t earned the title, yet, even though his Instagram page had just cracked ten thousand followers that past weekend.
“Okay, I think everyone is here!” the tour guide calls, getting Boom’s attention. “Let’s go around and say where we’re from, yes? Introduce ourselves.”
There’s a family from Australia, an older couple from England, and two girls travelling together, one from Canada, the other Italy.
“I’m actually from here,” Boom says, raising his hand in a wave. “I wanted a different perspective on the city, and maybe some artistic inspiration.”
“That’s lovely,” the guide says, gesturing beyond Boom. “And you?”
“I’m from Chiang Mai.”
Boom heart stops and starts again. He knows that voice.
“I actually run this tour up there, and wouldn’t you know it, I came for some inspiration, too.”
“Ah, welcome! I’ll make sure to be on my best behaviour!” The group laughs at the joke, but Boom barely hears them.
He turns, coming face to face with the smile he hadn’t realized he missed so much; the phone screen just doesn’t do it justice. Aou looks the same, which logically makes sense—it’s only been a couple months since Boom’s seen him in person, but for some reason, he expects Aou to look as different as Boom feels.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, feeling a bit shocked. He blinks hard a couple times to make sure he’s not dreaming.
Aou shrugs, like him being in Boom’s city, three feet away, is no big deal, when in fact it feels like the biggest deal. “Like I said. I came for some inspiration, just like you.”
Boom’s heart pounds in his chest. He’s dimly aware of the two girls looking at him with something akin to concern, but he can’t bring himself to look away from Aou’s face. “And do you think you’ll find it?” he asks, breathless. “Your inspiration?”
Aou looks at him, gaze heavier than it has any right to be as it searches Boom’s face. “I think I already did, actually.”