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Chapter Text

Gun sipped his soda and watched as Tinn fiddled with his poster tube for what was apparently a vital presentation for the both of them. His boyfriend’s nerdiness had grown on him, to a near fatal degree, and Gun was wondering if he’d suddenly have a problem getting tutored by Tinn if he wore glasses during their sessions.

(Tinn did not need to know that it was bound to be a problem if Gun’s recent search history was any indication.)

“Okay, okay, so we’ve been invited to a Party,” Tinn said at last as he pulled out his rolled up poster. “Not just any party, but a Panitchayasawad Party.”

“Yes,” Gun said with a nod.

“Because some how, through crazy random happenstance, you have family connected to the Panitchayasawads.”

“Yes.”

“Which means we’ll be exposed to a host of characters.”

“Well, P'Can says they’re all pretty cool…”

Tinn narrowed his eyes and Gun put on his most innocent face. “Regardless, we’re being thrown into the tiger’s den and I think we should both be prepared for all the potential conversations we might have.”

“You’re over-thinking it,” Gun said as he held out his soda cup for Tinn to take a sip. “They said to just relax and have a good time.”

“Mother would never forgive me if I ruined her reputation or father’s at the party, Gun.”

“Who’s gonna tell her? Do any of them even know your mother?”

Tinn’s eyes took on a surprisingly manic glint and Gun wondered just how far a simple party invitation from a friend of a cousin had driven him. “Oh just wait.” Tinn unfurled his poster and Gun’s eyes immediately lost focus. “To help us today, I made a non-exhaustive map to chart how all the guests know each other…”

“Tinn… Tinn…” Gun walked over and shook his boyfriend. “This looks like a conspiracy map.”

“Well I’d contemplated doing the pinboard thing with yarn and pictures for you but that would have gotten too big and bulky.”

Gun blinked. “Oh.”

“Anyway…” Tinn stuck the poster up and retrieved a pointer. “We start right here in the middle, with you and me.”

Gun couldn’t help his smile at Tinn’s antics and pressed a small kiss to Tinn’s cheek, making Tinn’s cheeks turn pink. “Go on.”

“Uhh…” Tinn blinked for a second before shaking himself. “Right, and from us, you have your cousins Ayan and Can.”

“P'Can is from mom’s side, P'Ayan is from dad’s.”

“And your cousin and my cousin are… dating.”

“Who knew tackling an authoritatively oppressive and traditional private school would start a romance?”

“P'Can is dating P'Tin, no relation, and P'Tin is from the Medthanan family.”

“Yeah, but P'Can doesn’t like it when P'Tin uses his money. Says he’s too wasteful.”

“P'Tin is friends with P'Pete Pitchaya and also goes to school with P'Kluen, Dao, Mork, Pi, and Ae.”

“P'Tin always says P'Pete forces him to talk to the others, but I don’t buy that.”

“Why?”

“P'Can says he smiles when he says it these days.”

Tinn rolled his eyes. “P'Pete and P'Pi are cousins. P'Dao has an older half-brother named P'Fah who will also be attending with his boyfriend P'Prince who actually… is in the family of northern royals.”

“Seven degrees of separation is real,” Gun said as he traced the lines with a smile. “I’m within seven degrees of an actual Thai prince family line.”

Tinn’s expression went soft again and Gun pinched his cheek. “Keep going, na?”

“Ahem, right. P'Pete is actually a twin and his twin’s name is P'Tutor. P'Tutor goes to school with the people in this box here…” Tinn said as he pointed to the next part of his chart.

“Look, you drew a boot around these people.”

“It’s not a boot… okay it looks like a boot, but that’s P'Bohn’s gang of friends who are in the same year as P'Fighter who is dating P'Tutor…”

“Got it, got it, got it. Friends, friends, friends.”

“Not only just friends, P'Fighter and P'Bohn’s families occasionally do business.”

“Tinn, so many of these have families that do business… Just P'Tin’s family alone does business with most of them. It’s like… half of your chart.”

“Regardless, don’t forget to not mention webnovels around P'Zon, P'Pete and P'Tutor are identical twins that were separated at birth so be alert, P'Frong will love talking about flowers, P'Thara will love talking about his lizard-”

“Is that a euphemism?”

“No.” Tinn frowned. “Where did you learn the word euphemism?”

“From you.”

“Oh…” Tinn’s expression turned dopey again and Gun flicked his forehead. “Um right. P'Ram likes dogs, P'King’s been working on his dog phobia-”

“Did dating P'Ram help with that?”

“…I’m too scared to ask.”

“Hmm… valid.”

“You can definitely talk music with several of these seniors,” Tinn pointed out. “P'Saifah and P'Boss are big ones in this part here. P'Sarawat up here is also good at music.”

“But P'Sarawat just goes to the same school. Why is he invited?”

“P'Pete and P'Yo apparently helped P'Tine with something once and P'Sarawat owes someone in there a favor so he keeps playing music for the parties. P'Kongpob says he probably likes to do it so he doesn’t have to talk to anyone.”

“Why are P'Pat and P'Pran invited?”

Tinn rubbed his eyes. “P'Kongpob invited them. Something about keeping an eye on P'Pat and potentially making him head hazer one day. Also P'Pat’s dad and P'Kongpob’s dad were in negotiations for some kind of business deal. Maybe that went through?”

“I think P'Ayan invited P'Pran because of art lessons.”

“Since when does P'Ayan draw?”

“Since he felt like it. Something about art therapy.”

Tinn nodded and scanned the chart for the next section to discuss. “Oh, I forgot to mention P'Solo and P'Kao Ashira. They’re also really good at music. Talk to them. P'Kao is known for being able to play any instrument at his school.”

“Huh… I think you’re missing lines here,” Gun said as he traced lines from Tin to Win. “I could have sworn P'Can said P'Dean and P'Win are friends with P'Pete.”

“No one tells me anything,” Tinn grumbled as he scribbled down a note in his notebook.

“It’s still a really good chart, Tinn.”

“But now it’s missing connections.”

“Which you couldn’t have known about because…” Gun scratched his head. “Hey, actually how did you get all this information?”

Tinn sighed. “They’ve all had a lot of stuff publicly posted on social media. And then I asked P'Akk and P'Kongpob to help fill in some gaps.”

“You determined most of this from just social media?! Are you sure you want to do engineering at uni and not… data mining?”

“Engineering pays better,” Tinn said with a shrug. “Even if it’s an oversaturated field at this rate.” Tinn then picked up his pointer again and continued. “So that’s the gang at that school… Over here we have P'Prapai, Sky, Payu, and Rain. I’d say I should warn you about P'Prapai, but apparently P'Sky has him on lock. P'Tin also invited P'Payu as a favor to P'Pran since P'Payu works at a really big architecture firm.”

“So this is how people get all those cool, high profile connections, huh?”

“Do you see now why I was nervous?”

“Okay, okay, you were right.” Gun rubbed Tinn’s back. “I’m sorry. Now keep going, you still have a whole half of the chart left.”

“Uhh… let’s do this easy part next.” Tinn pointed down to a small section on the bottom. “Here’s P'Kao Phanuwat, my tutor, and his boyfriend, P'Pete Phubodin. They go to school with P'Akk Itsara and P'Theo. P'Theo’s mom also does business with P'Fighter, but don’t bring it up too much since P'Theo’s parents got a divorce. He almost moved to France with his mother actually.”

“Didn’t you say you talk to a P'Theo about books sometimes too?”

“Yep, that’s this P'Theo. He’s a Lit major.”

“So I have to thank him for all the English vocab you’ve tried to teach me lately?”

“More than you can imagine.” Tinn took another sip of Gun’s soda and pointed to the last section. “And now the last part over here. The Wild Doctors Gang. P'Pha, Kit, and Beam have been friends since childhood and they all decided to go to the same uni and become doctors. P'Pha and P'Yo have been chasing each other since high school… P'Ming has apparently liked P'Kit since high school… P'Lom and P'Pha are cousins…”

“What’s this over here?” Gun pointed at an orange line from Yo to Khai. “Mortal enemies?”

“Oh that… P'Yo says P'Khai broke his One Piece DVDs once and laughed about it. P'Yo has never forgiven him since and P'Third, P'Khai’s boyfriend, is perpetually apologetic whenever they end up meeting up. Realistically, the line between P'Yo and P'Khai should be a green one since their dads do business occasionally, but uh… this is the more relevant connection.”

“So if I’m reading this chart right… We both could have gotten invited to P'Yo’s party several ways?”

Tinn rubbed his eyes again. “Yes.”

“And we’ve only just gotten an invite now because?”

“Your cousins got invited and then you had to tell them we were graduating soon and now their friends want us to pick one of their schools to go to and so P'Yo decided to invite us so we could talk to them about their schools.” Tinn pointed at Khai and Third again. “P'Yo says if we ever want to be invited again, we do not pick P'Khai’s school.”

“Do… do we want to be invited again?”

“Ask me after the party,” Tinn said with a sigh as he finally slumped into a chair.

“Thank you for all your hard work,” Gun said as he sat next to Tinn and ruffled his hair. “You are truly kind and considerate.”

Tinn smiled. “It does feel nice to have you say that.”

“I’d have said it more often if you just told me you were trying to help…”

“YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY I COULDN’T.”

“A DEBILITATING CRUSH ON ME DOES NOT COUNT.”

Chapter Text

“Stop eating that,” Tinn said as Gun lifted another spoonful of shaved ice to his mouth. “Didn’t P’Akk and P’Ayan say there was going to be food at the party?”

“Well what else are we supposed to do while waiting?” Gun asked as he stabbed the spoon back into the cup of ice and ignored his mother’s ire at the way the glass nearly tipped over. “You’re so nervous you won’t even let me play my guitar.” Gun leaned across the table to tickle under Tinn’s chin. “At least eat some shaved ice and calm down, na? Before P’Can and P’Tin come to pick us up.”

Tinn picked up the spoon Gun had abandoned. “This in no way means your tickling me under the chin worked.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Gun said with the one smile that Tinn associated with Gun’s charm and predilection for trouble. “You just decided to have a bit to wet your tongue.” Gun licked his lips. “It is a nice tongue…”

“Hey! N’Gun!” Tinn bit his tongue as Can walked into the shop. “And N’Tinn too! Come on, Ai Tin is waiting for us.”

“That’s never not gonna be weird, is it?” Gun asked as he pulled Tinn out of his chair, now trying to get one last spoonful of shaved ice into his mouth.

“Don’t worry, your Tinn is way different from mine.” Can paused in the doorway and turned to give his cousin a wink. “Yours is a bit cuter if I’m honest. But that’s okay, mine is handsome.”

“P’Can!” Gun ran after his cousin. “You asshole, Tinn is plenty handsome!”

“Not gonna argue?” Tin asked as Tinn got shoved into the back seat.

“I just got called handsome, I’m good,” Tinn said as Gun slid in and pinched his cheek.

“Whipped.” Can said as he buckled his seatbelt. “You’ll do fine around everyone else.” 

“Is that a requirement?” Tinn asked as he finally settled into his seat. 

“Not so much a requirement as there are guidelines.” Can reached over to press the center console for some music as Tin pulled away from the curb. “The gang doesn’t tolerate anyone who is a shitty partner. You make mistakes? That’s cool. Just apologize and fix it. You have a fight? Make up or ask for help, god knows there’s someone in one of the numerous group chats that can give you advice. Although I think someone started making a discord server instead…”

“Can’s tried to ask for advice. Several times,” Tin said as he checked the rear view mirror while changing lanes. “I’d suggest you avoid the kink chat.”

“Look, how am I supposed to, ‘express my sexuality,’ if you won’t even talk about what kinks are a no-go for you?”

“Are we supposed to be witnessing this conversation?” Tinn whispered to Gun.

“With P’Can?” Gun smiled. “Any conversation is open to be witnessed.”

“So this is where you get that from?” Tinn returned the smile with a small one of his own.

“Mom is very outspoken.” Gun said with a nod as Can continued to rapid-fire his own responses as Tin just nodded and made eye contact with Tinn in the rear view mirror before mouthing “run.” “It runs in the family, ya know?”

“C-clearly.”

—---

Tinn had not been sure what to expect of the Panitchayasawad family home, especially since it was, according to Can, family policy that if Yo wanted a weekend party: his dad found a reason to be out of the country (the less he knew about the army of boys descending upon his home, the better), Yo got a budget which could not be spent on a pirate ship no matter the reason (“It’s in a contract, actually,” Tin had added), and thus the party was greenlit. 

The less said about the team of lawyers who got put on retainer that weekend, the better.

But as Tin pulled into the curved driveway to wait in line for valet parking that had been hired for the massive number of attendees, Tinn had plenty of time to take in the clean elegance that barely disguised the size of the mansion. 

“One of the richest men in Thailand indeed,” Tinn mumbled under his breath. 

“This is actually after the most recent remodel,” Tin mentioned off hand. “Yo’s dad wanted a more modern look lately.”

“Which is why he’s having the party now instead of during the actual new year,” Can added. “Everything was just finished and Yo’s dad broke the place in with his own fancy shindig so his business partners could see it all shiny before someone breaks something.” Tin gave Can a look out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t you start, Ai Tin,” Can shouted. “I was told I could make that jump!”

“By someone who doesn’t know jack about physics.”

“No one told me that P’Frong was a business major and not an engineering major like P’Bohn.”

“P’Bohn probably knows jack about physics too.”

“I’m telling!” Can chanted while bolting as soon as Tin stopped the car for the valet.

“For fucks sake- CANTALOPE!”

Tinn and Gun blinked and looked at each other as Tin tossed his car keys at the valet and bolted after his boyfriend.. “It’s not too late to get a taxi back home,” Tinn offered as the valet held the door open for them. 

“And miss out on a party this wild already? Come on!”

—--

Without Can to introduce them around, Tinn and Gun found themselves slowly migrating towards the mansion entrance. Slowly only because Gun had been notified that Ayan would be arriving soon and happy to introduce them around with Kongpob and Arthit.

The other reason was that Tinn was hiding after finding a pair making out behind some ornamental bushes not far from the entrance. 

“Honestly not surprised,” Gun said as he and Tinn sat on one of the stone benches, watching more cars drive in. “They’re all college students after all.”

“So what you’re telling me is that we should start making out in public once we pick a college?”

“Why Khun Tinn, I do declare, that’s rather forward of you.”

“My cousin-in-law? Act forward?” Ayan said as he approached, “Say it isn't so! Or say it is so it runs in the family and Akk will finally do more than hold my hand at the canteen.”

Tinn stuttered before Akk shoved Ayan to the side, much to Kongpob’s head shaking and Arthit’s grumbling. 

“P’Akk,” Tinn said, sitting up immediately and scrubbing his hands on his pants before offering a wai. “I… uh…”

“Relax, I won’t tell Aunt Photjanee about your… thoughts on college students making out,” Akk said while bracing himself for Ayan to throw himself onto his boyfriend in retaliation. “Especially since you’re not wrong in most cases.”

Kongpob craned his neck. “I don’t see anyone making out. P’Arthit, should we go behind a bush and set a good example?”

“Why are you always horny in front of your nongs?!” Arthit grumbled before stomping off. Kongpob wiggled his eyebrows at them before following.

“But phi, you’re blushing!” Kongpob yelled after him.

“KONGPOB!”

“Don’t mind P’Kong…” Akk said while giving Ayan a look since he was also wiggling his eyebrows at him. “He’s under some stress as a senior now with internships and everything… I think teasing P’Arthit is his way of blowing off steam.”

“He wants to blow something alright,” Ayan said while pulling up Tinn and Gun. “Come on, the party awaits and we have a lot of introductions.”

Gun squeezed Tinn’s hand as they were led through the door. “You going to be okay?”

“I’m glad I have my notes app ready,” Tinn said with a nervous smile. “I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

“First thing’s first, nongs, we greet our gracious host!” Ayan led them through the house, passing staff that easily bowed and waved before arriving at a large den that was being set up by several people for live music performances to point at a boy, barely shorter than Gun, dressed in a fitted pastel galaxy hoodie and dark jeans. “There he is! P’Yo! I’ve got the guests of honor!”

“Please tell me you mean your cousin and not P’Khai,” Yo said as he turned around. The grumpy demeanor on his face changed once he saw Tinn and Gun. “Oh, new friends! Welcome to the gang!” Tinn and Gun immediately gave Yo a wai. “Make yourselves comfortable, you’ll be doing that way too often tonight,” Yo said with a sigh. “Anyway, I’m glad you both could make it. Lots of people to talk to about colleges and future plans and plenty of people who could mentor you. Don’t be shy. Also give me your LINE info so I can send you an invite to the discord.”

“Wait, so there really is a discord server? I thought P’Tin said it wasn’t up for sure yet,” Gun said as he showed Yo the QR code on his phone.

“He’s not sure it’s up because he refuses to join it,” Yo groused as he took out his phone to scan the codes Gun and Tinn offered. “But don’t worry about him. Can will probably sneak him into the discord server and mute it for him after tonight.”

“So uh…” Tinn looked around, “is there a band playing tonight?”

“We’re doing an open mic,” Yo said brightly. “Plenty of friends play music so we’re letting them rotate through as they like. If they stop, I’ve got people who don’t mind being the DJ.” Yo sized up Gun. “In fact, you might want to join in, N’Gun.”

“I’m sure I…” Gun’s eyes wandered to someone on stage. “Is… Is that the lead guitarist from CTRL-S?!”

Yo turned around. “Yeah? That’s Sarawat.”

Gun made a distressed noise. “I didn’t get to hear them play at Hot Wave last year because of the fight…”

“I’m sure N’Wat would love to hear that…”

“NO! P’YO WAIT-”

“HEY WAT!” Yo yelled. “WE GOT A FAN OVER HERE.”

Gun cringed and hid behind Tinn. Tinn smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be this nervous.”

“I didn’t know the Sarawat on your chart was the Sarawat Guntithanon of CTRL-S!” Gun hissed. “Why didn’t you put his last name or the school on it?!”

“Don’t you remember which school I go to?” Ayan asked, touching a hand to his chest in offense. “I’m so hurt, N’Gun.”

“Enough teasing him,” Akk said while pulling Ayan away as Sarawat finally started to walk over. “I’ll spare you more humiliation and take Aye away. You’ll find us at the bar.” 

“God, please let me drink at the bar after this,” Gun groaned as Tinn pushed him forward. “Uh… Hi, P’Sarawat.”

“Hey.” Sarawat said nothing else until Yo elbowed him in the side. “You like CTRL-S?”

“Y-yeah… Just a normal amount…” Gun said with a smile. “Don’t listen to Tinn-”

“He told me his greatest disappointment was both Chinzhilla not being able to perform because of P’Yok’s fight and not being able to hear CTRL-S play their congratulatory set for last year’s winner,” Tinn said with a straight face.

“Well, fortunately for you, Tine won’t stop nagging me to play some CTRL-S songs tonight along with Scrubb, so you’ll get a chance to listen,” Sarawat said before wandering off. “You know how to do rhythm guitar or bass,” he called over his shoulder after a moment.

“Haaahhaaaa…. Uh… yes?”

“Cool, grab a guitar and warm up with me.” Sarawat jumped back on stage and gestured to the host of guitars and other instruments prepared. “Pick whatever you like.”

“Am I dreaming?” Gun asked as he walked towards the stage, Tinn following not far behind. “Pinch me- OUCH.” Gun rubbed his ass. “If you wanted to touch it so bad, why haven’t you asked yet?” 

“You said to pinch you!” Tinn’s face turned red and Sarawat laughed to himself until someone came behind him and hit him. 

“Saraleo, don’t make fun of him. At least he’s more obvious than you were.”

“Tua woon wai, I was plenty obvious , you’re just oblivious .”

“Hi, P’Tine,” Tinn said as Gun finally climbed up on stage. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Ah, hello nong.” Tine gave a distracted wai. “Uh… what was your name again?”

“Tinn, phi.” Tinn pointed at Gun looking over the instruments. “The fanboy is my boyfriend, Gun.”

“I am not being a fanboy! I am just A Fan!”

“I can hear the capitals in your voice,” Tinn said while getting a hand up from Tine. 

“Well, you’re in for a good show if Sarawat actually took my input on his set list,” Tine said as he helped Tinn straighten out his shirt. “Can’t vouch for what Saifah or Kao are gonna play though. Pat and Pran will probably just play their song they wrote together and Mil might be persuaded to play with Sarawat.”

“P’Mil is here? I thought he and P’Sarawat don’t get along?”

“They’ve… got a truce going on. On account of the fact that N’Phukong is dating him right now.”

“Not dating,” someone Tinn recognized to be Mil said as he walked by with a keyboard..

“Yet,” said another man as he walked by after Mil, this one looked incredibly similar to Sarawat. “Not dating yet .”

“P’Phukong?”

“That’s me.” Phukong gave a wave. “Enjoy the show tonight. There will be more than one if I remember the last party. In fact, I heard the engineers are up to no good in the basement right now.”

“They’re doing what?!” Yo immediately ran out of the room. “Not on my watch. P’Forth, pick up your phone!”

“Uhh… Should we-” Tinn pointed at Yo’s running figure. 

“I don’t know if you really want that to be your first introduction to all the engineering boys around here,” Tine said while scratching the back of his head. “Even Saifah ran down there when he heard the call for all of them to gather so it’s probably something insane.”

“Oh it is,” Phukong added. “P’Tin threw down a gauntlet and now the engineers are all hands on deck. Even N’Akk got roped into it.”

“What was the gauntlet?”

“Engineer yourself out of a paper bag.”

—---

Tinn found himself guided by Tine and Phukong to the basement den where the largest paper bag Tinn had ever seen was swaying with the motion of several boys inside it. Yo had apparently abandoned the issue and gone elsewhere and Tin had been left to supervise if his challenge was completed. 

“Is it just…” Tine took a moment to do some mental math. “Seventeen boys in a paper bag?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I gave them a few things to play with that Yo said would be fine and I said they could use whatever they had in their pockets for parts,” Tin said with a shrug.

“Oh sweet! Neodymium magnets!” a voice exclaimed. “This might be useful.”

“What? Saifah, let me see that.”

“No way, Tutor, let me play with them first.”

“We don’t have enough copper to make an electromagnetic generator. There won’t be enough loops to really make a significant current to-”

“Ai Kao, can’t we just use the keyrings? Join them with the electrical tape so the edges are connected and we’ll get enough loops. And then we just add the wire from the remote here…”

“Pete, we don’t have a soldering iron, we can’t just add things like that-”

“This entire challenge is dumb. Why would I need to engineer my way out of a paper bag when I could just tear my way out?”

“Don’t let N’Tin hear you say that or he’ll really think all engineers have is brawn, Bohn.”

“N’Tin can kiss my-”

There was the sound of a smack to the back of someone’s head. “Mind your tongue!”

“Sorry, P’Arthit.”

“Hey Boss, did you finish taking apart that remote yet?”

“I wasn’t working on the remote, King was!”

“Ai Boss, you didn’t hand the remote to me, you handed it Ram!”

“I finished breaking it down.”

“Cool boy, that wasn’t your job.”

“Hand me the parts, nong.”

“Someone shine their flashlight on P’Forth please.”

“Mek, you finish cutting that silicone jar opener?”

“Yeah, here.”

“Akk, hand me your multitool. This controller doesn’t wanna come apart properly.”

“Yes, P’Ae.”

“Is that Yo’s PS5 controller?”

“I think so?”

“The special One Piece edition?!”

All the voices stopped for a second and the bag moved as if people were moving away from a grenade.

“No, wait, Kong, it’s a normal one!”

The collective sigh of relief was loud and obvious.

“What’s this thing?”

“NOT HIS LUFFY FIGURINE! PUT IT BACK IN THE BAG!”

More scuffling ensued and Tinn backed away until Tin pushed a glass into his hand. “Relax and watch.”

“Uhh, are you sure?”

“You said you were considering engineering right? If you think you’ll be bad at engineering, or at least worse than these dummies, you’ll want to keep watching.”

“Ai Tin! I heard that!”

“Pat, keep your cool. He’s saying it because he knows you can hear it.”

“Urgh… It’s getting too hot in here.”

“Well when someone came up with the idea to put several yard waste bags together to make this thing, clearly someone didn’t design a vent.”

“P’Forth, you designed this bag with P’Arthit. Or has the reduced oxygen gotten to your brain.”

“You’re getting really cocky, Ai Ming.”

“Yeah, get comfortable,” Tin said as he leaned back and waved at Pete Pitchaya who had clearly come looking for Ae. “You’ll not get a better demonstration than this tonight.”

—---

“-WE ARE ENGINEER, ENGINEER!”

“COME ON N’AKK, N’TINN, IF YOU’RE GONNA BE ENGINEERS, YOU HAVE TO CHANT LOUDER WITH US!”

“If they chant any louder,” Kao Ashira said as he leaned on the drum kit, “The house will fall down. I can’t even hear the drums over them.”

“They’re ridiculous,” Solo said as he fiddled with his guitar. “They didn’t even ask P’Tin what they’d get if they won. He just said, ‘I bet all seventeen of you together couldn’t put together enough brain cells to engineer yourselves out of a paper bag,’ and they got so offended they just made a paper bag, got in it, and started working.”

“Is…” Gun looked around to make sure no stray engineers that had come to the party late were going to spring out at him. “Is that normal for this group?”

“For engineers?” Pran said as he put back the microphone. “I’m not surprised Pat got in the bag. I’m surprised P’Kao got in the bag. He’s usually more chill than that.”

“P’Pete Phubodin dragged him in this time,” Gui said with a smile as he came up and handed Solo a bottle of water. “Said he had to prove he had more brain cells than N’Tin.”

“I heard my boyfriend was being an idiot,” Kit said as he walked into the room. “Where do I need to go to collect him?”

“Basement,” Sarawat said with a jerk of his head. “But it sounds like they’ll be heading back up soon anyway.”

“I can hear Ai Forth leading the chant,” Beam said as he handed Kit a bottle of beer. “They’re not heading up any time soon. Might as well go spare the nongs their voices and tell them to knock it off.”

“And N’Yo is currently distracted by Ai Pha…” Kit said before taking a swig of his beer. “Guess we’ll go save the structural integrity of the house.”

“It’s what the boss would want so he could finish saying ‘hello’ to N’Yo,” Beam said with a laugh before walking off.

“Uh… On that note…” Gun rubbed his stomach. “Where’s the food supposed to be at? If they’re making Tinn work that hard, I should get him some food so he doesn’t pass out.”

“I’ll show you,” Gui said as he gently pushed Gun’s shoulder. “They’re done setting up in the dining room by now, I think. But don’t worry too much about N’Tinn. P’Arthit is there. He’ll make sure they don’t get too out of line with the hazing.”

“They weren’t just cooking it all right now, were they... Wait, hazing?”

“I see you have yet to meet N’Pharm. Although I think he’s roped in several others to help so it should be fine.”

“I noticed you still didn’t answer my question about the hazing part?”

—---

The dining room was as beautiful as Gun had expected it to be for the mansion of someone so wealthy, but Gun was surprised to see the kinds of dishes in the buffet. Plenty of snacks, several traditional Thai desserts, and the most interesting mix of dishes that had little to nothing to do with each other. Grilled skewers were next to tteokboki followed by crispy pork and Thai basil. The next tray had a pile of omelets, rolled omelets, and skewered fishballs. Gun also noted a tray of sauteed vegetables, vegetable fried noodles, and what looked like a pancake he’d never seen before made out of cabbage. 

Gui motioned for Gun to follow him and opened the door to the kitchen which was surprisingly orderly for having so many college boys in it. At the center of it all, Gui led Gun to a short boy pinching delicate petals into chor muang. 

“N’Gun, this is N’Pharm, in charge of organizing everyone who wants to help cook. N’Pharm, this is N’Gun.”

Pharm set down his completed chor muang to wai to Gun. “It’s nice to meet you. Let me introduce you to everyone else who volunteered in the kitchen.”

“Volunteers?” Gun looked around. “Wouldn’t P’Yo have cooks?”

“Of course he does, but we volunteered to make the food and Yo gave his staff a paid night off.” Pharm bit his lip. “Well, he might have included a bonus in case we make a mess, but come on.” Pharm waved goodbye to Gui as he led Gun away towards a couple bickering over a pot on a stove.

“Ai Akk, did you put in the-”

“Yes, don’t you see it floating right there? Besides, I’ve made khai palo for you so many times, why would I forget the spices?”

“I wasn’t going to ask for the spices, I was going to ask for the soy sauce.”

“N’Akk, N’Theo, let me introduce you to N’Gun,” Pharm cut in before the two could bicker some more. “N’Gun, if you have questions about maybe doing a lit or photography major, you could talk to these two. Or if you want to learn how to make khai palo.” Pharm smiled while Theo and Akk greeted Gun.

“Oh, Tinn said he talks to you about books,” Gun said to Theo. “Like a book club?”

Theo smiled. “Interested in joining?”

Gun made a face. “Sorry, phi, books aren’t really my thing. Unless Tinn is reading them to me.”

“Ai Theo, don’t bother. This one was playing with Sarawat and Kao in the den, he’s trying to be a singer,” Akk said coolly. 

“I feel like I’m being attacked.”

“Don’t mind Akk, that’s just the way he is if anyone but him picks on Theo’s interests,” another boy said as he put down a tray of pork chops before waving at Gun. “Hi, I’m Duen.”

“Duen is a med student,” Pharm added. “His boyfriend is in engineering which means he’s part of the noise from the basement.”

“I heard him cursing while I was finishing these,” Duen said with a sigh. “P’Bohn will be riled up for the rest of the night now.”

“And what does that mean for you, N’Duen?” said someone else with a laugh as they wiped their hands with a towel to the side.

“P’Payu! You shouldn’t talk! If N’Rain was here, you’d-”

“Payu, what are you teasing a bunch of nongs for? Save it for your N’Rain.” Gun watched as two figures entered the kitchen.

“Oh! You’re the two Tinn saw making out outside!”

“P’Pai! You said no one would see!” the shorter man yelled before hitting the taller one in the chest. 

“N’Sky…” The taller man’s expression turned soft and he whispered in Sky’s ears for a moment before coughing and turning back to everyone else with nary a hint of anything wrong on his face. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“The one with the really thick face over there is Prapai,” Payu said with an annoyed face. “His boyfriend there is N’Sky. Best friend of my boyfriend, Rain, whose internal sensors will no doubt be going off in three, two…”

“Ai Sky! You can’t just ditch me in the middle of a DDR competition!”

Payu checked his watch. “Like clockwork.”

“I’m amazed.” Gun looked up at Payu. “Teach me your ways.”

“Nothing special,” Payu said as he turned back to his cooking. “N’Rain is just very predictable.”

“P’Payu! You’re teasing me again!”

Pharm just sighed. “So, hungry, N’Gun?”

—--

After Kit and Beam’s intervention, and a throat lozenge courtesy of Arthit, Tinn had been released from the brotherhood of engineers to relocate Gun. He found him eating at a table with even more new faces. Gun spotted Tinn immediately and waved him over.

“Tinn, meet P’Mork and Pi, they go to school with P’Tin and Can.”

“Hi,” Mork said while pushing more food on Pi’s plate.

“Ai Mork, stop it! I’m gonna explode if you try to feed me anymore!”

“It’s a precautionary measure,” Mork said as he handed Tinn a plate from the table and gestured to the buffet. “Pi is a bit rowdy when drunk.”

“I am not!”

“Last party, you took off your shirt and danced on stage before grabbing the microphone and asking me to tie you to the bed posts and-”

“STOP!” Pi clamped his hands over Mork’s mouth while his face turned red.

“Oh Pi, I’m so proud that you’re learning to ask for what you want,” Pete Pitchaya said as he took a seat at the table. “You’ve learned how important it is to communicate with those who care about you.” Pete then turned to Tinn and Gun and smiled. “Nice to finally meet you, Gun. In between all the shouting downstairs, Tinn said lots of nice things about you.”

“Uh… if you’re that close to Pi and you were in the basement…” Gun’s eyes nearly went cross-eyed with effort and Tinn stepped in.

“This one is Pete,” Tinn whispered to Gun.

Pete laughed. “Oh, you haven’t met Tutor yet! Don’t worry, we’re dressed very differently tonight.” And it was then that Gun noticed Pete was in a pink sweater and slim cut khakis while Tinn pointed at someone else at the buffet table dressed in a white t-shirt with an open, green  button down shirt over it, sleeves rolled up, and jeans. “That’s Tor over there. Let me introduce you.”

“It’s really not-”

“P’Tor! Come sit with us!” Pete said while waving. Tutor frowned but walked over anyway and Gun was stricken by how the same face could look so different with a change in expression. “P’Tor, this is Gun, Tinn’s boyfriend.” Pete tugged on his twin’s arm. “Please sit with us?”

“If I sit here then Fighter will sit here and there’ll be no room for your Ae.”

“Ae can sit in my seat and I can sit in his lap,” Pete said innocently.

Tutor rolled his eyes but felt a familiar nose rubbing on his cheek. “P’Fight, not in front of the children.”

“You didn’t say that in the paper bag,” Tinn heard Fighter murmur. 

“Because no one could see a damn thing in the paper bag,” Tutor groused before elbowing his boyfriend. “Seventeen cell phone flashlights on and everyone is as uncoordinated as ever.”

“How did they engineer their way out of the paper bag?” Gun asked in a whisper.

“They made a thing to make electrical sparks and burned their way out,” Tinn whispered back. “If I’m honest, I don’t know why they didn’t just use the battery from the PS5 controller instead of trying to make an electromagnetic generator that someone had to keep shaking…”

“Using a battery wouldn’t have been in the spirit of the challenge, nong,” Tutor said as he finally pushed Fighter into an empty seat and sat next to him. “And it did satisfy Tin, so that’s all I care about.” Tutor then turned to Mork. “And you-”

“Wow, look at the time,” Mork immediately stood up and pulled Pi up with him. “We better get moving if we’re gonna watch P’Saifah perform music, thanks for sitting with us phi.” Mork ran for it while Tutor shook his head and Fighter put an arm over Tutor’s shoulders.

“Stop scaring your cousin’s boyfriend.”

“I’ll stop scaring him when I’m sure he’s taking good care of him.”

“He’s doing well,” Pete said as Ae put a plate down in front of him. “Ooh, thank you, Ae.”

Ae pressed a proper kiss to Pete’s cheek before sitting down with his own plate and nodding at Tinn and Gun.

“That’s P’Ae,” Tinn whispered as Gun picked at his noodles.

“I wasn’t sure until I saw the kiss, but thanks for confirming.” 

Tinn rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’m going to go get my food, you figure out who is who on your own.”

“I don’t need you for every couple here ,” Gun insisted before pointing at a pair by the door. “See, I know that one, that’s P’Thara and P’Frong!”

Tinn glanced over. “No, that’s P’Win and P’Team because P’Team always makes a run for the packs of potato chips. P’Thara and P’Frong haven’t even shown up yet because P’Thara told P’Bohn he had a lizard emergency.”

Gun clutched his head. “I need a drink.”

“Don’t we all,” Ae said before waving at someone. “I’ll see if I can’t make P’Dean bring us a bottle of liquor for the table.”

—---

As it turned out, Dean had been fine with placing a bottle of liquor and soda at their table. 

(“Just pace yourselves and if you get sick, ask Yo for a room,” Dean had said before wandering into the kitchens to drag Pharm out of them.)

And so after some dinner and one glass of liquor and soda each (“You’re still a little underage,” Tutor said with a critical eye.), Gun had insisted on checking out the bar before the music performances started up properly and getting their own drinks without the interference of protective seniors. 

The bar itself was fortunately staffed with several professional bartenders and not more guests, although Dean had warned them that as the night went on, someone was bound to try their luck mixing cocktails and under no circumstances were they to drink one made by Man.

“You both won’t have the alcohol tolerances for that yet,” Dean insisted. “Best to stick to beer or just the occasional shots.”

“But mixing cocktails actually reduces the alcohol per volume,” Tinn protested. 

“You’d be surprised,” Win said as he passed by the table. “Man does some weird shit behind that counter and inevitably someone is drooling on the bar counter.”

“Hia, that was one time!” Team complained. “I’ve been fine since!”

“So what should we get?” Gun asked as he stood by the bar counter. “There’s not exactly a menu.”

“Have you both drank much before?” asked someone as they just walked up. “Maybe you’d like something light and sweet if you haven’t.”

“Don’t baby them, Prince,” said another man as they walked up behind Prince. “Dao always gets upset if he doesn’t get his pick, I bet they’ll be the same.”

“So you’ve moved on from being protective of your baby brother to anyone near your brother’s age, huh, Fah?” Prince said with a smirk. “Forgive Fah’s poor manners and mine.” Prince introduced himself and Fah and Tinn and Gun gave them both a wai in return. “I hope you’re both having fun so far, it’s probably a lot to be thrown into a party this big with this many people. Fah hasn’t even tried remembering half of their names.”

“Prince, don’t give these nongs a bad impression of me.” Fah had spoken seriously, but Tinn had seen the expression on Fah’s face before because it was usually the same one he had when admonishing Gun. 

“Who could ever give anyone a bad impression of you, P’Fah,” said someone walking away with one glass of liquor and one glass of pink milk. “Obviously you’re the best mentor around.”

“N’Pha, you better watch your mouth,” Fah said as he threw a crumpled up bar napkin at him as he ran off. 

“They serve pink milk here too? I thought this was just a bar?” Gun asked as he took in the variety of different drink orders others were giving.

“Almost anything you feel like drinking, they’ve got the ingredients for behind that counter. It’s why when anyone else goes back there to make their own cocktails, it gets a little nutty,” Prince explained. 

“Oohhh…” Gun’s expression turned excited. “Can I make shaved ice back there? Some shaved ice with liquor sounds fun.”

“Like an alcoholic snow cone?” Tinn made a disgusted face. “Maybe that’s too strong. I’d rather have your mom’s pink milk shaved ice right now.”

“Did I hear pink milk shaved ice?!” Yo shouted and the room fell quiet. “P’Arthit! Someone knows how to make pink milk shaved ice!”

“WHAT?!”

Gun groaned. “That’s a trade secret, Tinn, and now I have to reveal it at a party.”

“Still preferred over alcoholic shaved ice.”

—--

After being coerced to produce as much pink milk shaved ice as he could, and being promised some top-shelf liquor cocktails, Gun was finally released from service to enjoy the music at the party. Tinn had stayed behind to chat with Phu, who had decided to persuade him into thinking about business as a major. 

“You’ve got a good head for planning,” Phu had said as Kao Ashira tried to feed him some of the shaved ice Gun had made. “Especially if you like supporting others, going into business instead of engineering might be better.” Phu directed his gaze at Gun being dragged away by Zon towards the den for music. “You might support him better that way.”

“Why P’Phu, are you trying to drag away one of my potential future nongs?” King said as he walked past with a bucket of drinks. “I’m gonna have to report this to someone.” Phu scoffed and King winked at Tinn before walking away.

“Business is a great idea, management classes are always useful.” Tinn glanced up at the pair now flanking him. “I’m Frong, and this is Thara,” Frong said as he gestured to the man holding a miniature lizard cage next to him. 

“Hello phis…” Tinn pointed at the cage. “Is that-”

“This is Cupcake the Second,” Thara said proudly. “I didn’t want to leave her alone at home tonight since she was looking a bit iffy and I promised Frong we’d come to the party.”

“Are you sure she, uh, wouldn’t be more comfortable in a room away from all the noise?” Tinn asked as Thara offered the cage to him. 

“I’d feel better keeping an eye on her, if I’m honest.” Thara accepted the cage back from Tinn and slipped it into a black messenger bag with a mesh top. “Oh, is that Fah over there? I should go say hi.” Thara pressed a quick kiss to Frong’s cheek before walking off. “Don’t sell too hard or you’ll chase him off.”

“I am a perfectly good salesman, thank you,” Frong said as he took a seat next to Tinn. “I sell plenty of flowers, even without his constant ordering of packets of jasmine.”

“Would your family say otherwise?” 

“P’Type, I’m offended,” Frong said as he gave Type a wai. “And don’t tell me that you showing up here means that Man is making cocktails already.”

“He’s being good right now, recording Sarawat’s set so Tine can have it for later.” Type sighed. “All this time and he’s still got to save up all the little pieces.”

“You say that as if you never did the same,” someone, Tinn presumed was Man, said as they put a very casual arm over Type’s shoulders. “You know I found that airplane ticket from the time you came to visit the music club at the beach…”

“So Sarawat’s done singing for now then?” Type asked before pinching Man’s side.

“Ack! Yes, phi.” Man then gave everyone else a wai before looking over his shoulder at the bar. “So since we’ve got a newbie here, should I give him one of my specialties?”

Tinn flinched as several people shouted, “NO!” at the same time.

—---

“Go Saifah!” Zon shouted as he jumped next to Gun. “He’s been practicing this guitar solo for a whole week just for the party.”

“A whole week?!” Gun nodded his head to the music. “It sounds like he practiced it for longer than that.”

“He probably did practice it for more than a week.” Gun turned to face the smiling boy who had just spoken and his stone-faced partner. “Hi, I’m Daonuea and this one is Khabkhluen.” Khabkhluen raised an eyebrow but gave a wai anyway. “I heard from P’Tutor that Saifah was practicing for a while. Maybe you were too distracted with your writing again, Zon.”

“Likely,” Khabkhluen muttered before taking a sip of his drink.

“Hey, my novels have been doing a lot better lately!”

“Uh…” Gun looked around nervously. “I thought we weren’t supposed to discuss novels around P’Zon?”

Zon winced. “Well, I’ve gotten over most of that now. But there’s a reason why my sister is not permitted to come to these parties. No matter how much she whines.”

“You’re lucky she’s not permitted, nong,” Boss said as he walked up to join them, Mek not far behind. “She’d start a new novel with you and N’Tinn immediately. With what we’ve heard about you two, it’d start trouble all over again.”

Gun groaned. “Look, Tinn was not being obvious or I would have totally picked up on it.”

“You absolutely would not have,” Sarawat said as he passed by them. “You’re exactly like Tine.”

“P’Waaattttt,” Gun said with tears in his eyes. “My only chance to make a good impression and he thinks I’m as oblivious as P’Tine.”

“You might honestly have been worse,” Boss said while patting Gun on the back. “Although I think Mek and I take the record on that, only matched by Khai and Third.”

“You have spoken of the devil and I have finally arrived!”

“Oh no, it’s Khai,” Zon whispered to Gun. 

“Wait… That’s P’Third?” Gun said pointing to the shorter man next to Khai. “ The Third who does all the movie reviews?” Gun ran over to greet him. “Tinn loves your reviews, phi.”

“I said I’m here, why am I being ignored,” Khai complained as Third greeted Gun.

“Always nice to meet a new friend and fan, or at least someone who knows a fan,” Third said politely. “Don’t mind Ai Khai. He’s lucky Yo even let him in the house this time.”

“Well, I did bribe him after all,” Khai said proudly while puffing out his chest. “And it wasn’t cheap either.”

“How did you get an invitation?” Zon asked. “I was sure Yo had you banned from the property.”

“I got him a deluxe DVD and BluRay box set of One Piece signed by Eiichiro Oda and all the voice actors from the anime and the movies.” Khai shrugged. “I just had to pull a few strings.”

“Sometimes the rich are truly and disgustingly rich, aren’t they,” Third whispered to Gun. 

“I listen to this and think I don’t belong here,” Gun whispered back.

“Let’s go find some more down-to-earth people to talk to, huh nong? And then you can introduce me to Tinn?”

Gun smiled and dragged Third away while Khai continued bragging while no one else was listening.

—---

“It might not be so glamorous, but agriculture is actually a really important field,” Lomnaw said as Tinn took notes on his phone. “Keeping up with food production in- Ai Tat, stop that!” Tinn watched as Tarntat only smirked and tightened his grip on Lomnaw’s waist as he sat in Tarntat’s lap. “Uh… where was I?”

“The importance of food production in a rapidly growing population,” Tarntat said into the back of Lomnaw’s neck.

“R-right, so agricultural studies are good for a student like you since-”

“Tinn look!” Gun yelled as he rushed into the room. “I found P’Third! It’s the P’Third that makes the movie reviews you like!”

Tinn’s face turned pink. “This is payback isn’t it,” Tinn muttered before greeting Third. 

“You know it is,” Gun whispered into Tinn’s ear.

“Oh, P’Third! It’s great to see you again!” Lomnaw gave Third a wai. “I loved your recent review of Ticket to Paradise.”

“N’Lom, good to see you again too…” Third gave Tarntat a look. “I’m guessing by N’Tat’s actions, he’s still insulted by Pha, huh?”

Lomnaw’s face turned pink. “A bit…”

“P’Pha wasn’t very helpful when I asked him for advice,” Tarntat said as he finally let go of Lomnaw. “Maybe I should ask someone else.”

“Don’t you dare,” Lomnaw hissed. “And I better not see you ask anyone on the discord server either!”

Tarntat wiggled his eyebrows at Tinn and Gun. “Sure.”

“Are you being a bad influence, Ai Tat?” Ayan asked as came over with drinks for Tinn and Gun. “Because I’ll remind you that’s my job.”

“Since when are you a bad influence?” Gun asked as he accepted the drink.

“Since Win decided I’m not allowed near N’Wiew for inciting rebellion, even though it was well justified.”

Tinn began taking large gulps of his drink. Third noticed this and yelled, “Can I get some fishballs in here before this nong gets wasted?!”

—---

Gun sighed as Tinn leaned on his shoulder and nuzzled his ear. “I thought I was supposed to be the problem tonight.”

“Mmm… You’re my problem,” Tinn said with a dopey smile on his face.

“That’s so adorable,” Pete Pitchaya said as he poured them some more water. “Also I guess Sarawat was right. There’s a reason why he calls Tine, tua woon wai.”

“We can let them both into the Cute Boy Chat for now, right?” Yo said as he placed a plate of dumplings on the table to help further sober up Tinn. “We clearly need to guide them better than all the rest while they’re still young.”

“Cute Boy Chat has P’Kao in it and he tutors N’Tinn.”

“I guess you’re right,” Yo said with a sigh. “No need to complicate P’Kao’s life since he started that new job.”

“And Tor will be fussy if Kao gets more drama at work. Bad enough there was that whole thing with that one student a year or so back.”

“Tinn seems like a good kid,” Yo said as Gun tried to feed Tinn a dumpling while Tinn dodged. “I don’t think he’ll cause P’Kao any issues.”

“My cousin manipulated an entire folk music contest under the nose of his mother to give Gun’s band a chance to win,” Akk said as he came over to rub Tinn’s back. “I don’t think you understand how crafty he can get.”

“I said seems ,” Yo insisted. “Besides, he only seems to want to use that manipulative portion of his brain for Gun.”

“It’s true,” Tinn said slowly around the dumpling Gun finally got into his mouth. “I just wanna make Gun happy.”

“You sap,” Gun said as he picked up a napkin. “Also you’re getting spit everywhere, stop that.”

“They’re so cute,” Pete said as he rested his chin on his hands. He turned to Ae who had walked up behind him. “I wanna keep them.”

“No.”

“But Aeee…”

“You’ve already adopted your cousin once you found out about the issues he was having. I’m not letting you adopt more.”

“I’ll let you do the thing with the-”

Ae coughed. “I’m open to discussing it later.”

“That’s a quick turn-around,” Gun said in amazement.

“That’s called using your sexuality to win arguments,” Akk replied.

Gun lifted Tinn’s chin. “Am I allowed to use my sexuality to win arguments?”

“You smile at me and win arguments.”

“See, so cute. We have to adopt them, Ae.”

“Koon chai, ask me in the morning once you’ve thought about it some more.”

—---

“I have to give him credit,” Kao Ashira said as he watched Gun slam back another shot of vodka and start playing the guitar. “He’s doing a lot better than I thought he would after three shots.”

“Kao! You did not-”

“Of course I didn’t P’Gui!” Kao put his hands up in defense. “It was Pat!”

Gui turned to Pat who hid behind Pran. “N-no it wasn’t! It was, uh, Sarawat!”

Sarawat only turned to Gui, hands full of a drunk Tine falling over himself and shook his head.

Gui turned to Tinn, who was passed out on the couch, sighed, and then looked to Akk Itsara. “Yeah, it was Theo,” Akk confirmed. 

“ANOTHER! ANOTHER!” Theo shouted as he drank from a bucket which smelled like it was full of paint thinner and fruit juice.

“One of Man’s creations?” Gui asked while pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Worse,” Akk said with a sigh. “It’s one of Khai’s.”

—---

Tinn woke up to sunlight in his eyes and Gun curled into his chest in a room that was definitely not his with pajamas that were not his. His phone had amassed several notes, new numbers,  messages from said new numbers, and one picture of Gun playing the guitar topless from Yo.

Tinn made sure to save the picture.

After finding his way out of the large bed, Tinn opened one door, finding a bathroom and another door which led out to the hallway and their clothes on a tray with a note.

“Welcome to the gang officially! I’ve had your clothes cleaned. Feel free to come down to the kitchen to catch up with everyone else who stayed the night, judgment free! Also we’re sparing you both the embarrassing footage this time. ~Yo”

Tinn picked up the tray and shuffled back to the bed before shaking Gun. “Gun, Gun, wake up.”

“Nnghhh… I feel like someone took an axe to my head,” Gun groaned. “Why did you let me do all those shots?”

“I didn’t let you, I think I was passed out before you even started.” Tinn held out Yo’s note. “It looks like we’ve been accepted.”

Gun read the note with an amused expression. “As if there was any doubt. I’m cool enough to get us both into this exclusive club, you know?”

“So very exclusive it contains nearly every gay power couple in Thailand.”

“And when we go to college, we’ll be in line to be the next best gay power couple!” Tinn sighed, but Gun could see the smile in the corner of his lips. “Come on, it’s time for breakfast and I wanna see how well I did after five shots.”

“YOU DID FIVE SHOTS?!”

“I mean I totally only did the three!”

Chapter Text

“So how do you feel now that you’ve met everyone,” Ayan asked the pair sitting across from him at the cafe as Akk waited at the counter to put in their orders. “Was it as scary as N'Tinn thought?”

Tinn leveled a glare at Ayan over his glasses since Gun had “misplaced” his contacts. Ayan mentally asked himself if that glare was taught or genetic. “It was exactly as scary as I thought. Fortunately, I went in prepared.”

“You should have seen it, phi,” Gun said as he handed his phone to Tinn in an attempt to distract his boyfriend from killing his cousin. “It was the most in-depth thing I’ve ever seen Ai Tinn make. An entire chart of everyone invited.”

“It still needed some edits afterwards… Why are you showing me this song? Are you doing a cover of this with Chinzhilla for the competition next month?”

“And if I am?”

Tin leaned towards Gun and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. “Can I come watch your practice sessions?”

Gun’s smile grew a little wider and Ayan groaned. “God, young love. I almost miss it.”

“We’re still young, shortstop,” Akk said as he tapped Ayan on the head with the menu he’d brought up to the counter with him. “Leave them alone.”

“Bigfoot, you better watch them carefully,” Ayan said while gesturing at the eyes Tinn and Gun were giving each other. “Or your aunt will be upset your cousin lost his virginity before marriage.”

Akk slapped Ayan’s mouth and gave him a look.

“Ok, no, seriously,” Ayan asked as he tugged Akk down into his seat. “Do you all learn that glare from your parents or is that just a family trait passed on through blood?”

“Both,” Tinn and Akk said at the same time without looking away from what they were doing.

“You both scare me sometimes,” Ayan said decisively. “It’s that drive to accomplish something. It’s nigh unnatural.”

“P'Aye, you also have a drive to accomplish something,” Gun whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“You wanted to accomplish getting into P'Akk’s pants.”

Akk made a face and Ayan laughed. “Well shit, that wasn’t even what I was expecting so I guess your boyfriend has rubbed off on you.”

“In more ways than one,” Tinn mumbled.

“Come again?”

“Eventually.”

“AI TINN! Don’t tell my cousin that!”