Loy Krathong had never felt so quiet.
One second Duan was in the middle of everything — the noise, the lanterns, the crowd pressing in from every side — and then the crowd shoved him forward and he collided with someone and everything just... stopped. The chatter faded. The buzz faded. Everything faded except for the person right in front of him.
Pale skin. Thin lips. Long brown hair. He didn't know a person could look like that in real life.
Then the moment ended. The boy slowly got up, dusted off his clothes like nothing happened and walked away without a single glance back. Just like that. Gone.
Duan was still on the ground when his friends found him.
"Did you hit your head?" Dom asked, pulling him up.
"I'm fine." His eyes were still chasing the figure disappearing into the crowd. "Did you see him?"
"See who?"
He almost said something. Then didn't. "Never mind." He sighed and turned away, his friends falling into step behind him.
Days passed and it got embarrassing.
Duan was not the type to obsess over people. People obsessed over him. That was how it had always worked. But this stranger had taken up permanent residence in his head and showed absolutely no signs of leaving. He dreamed about him at night. Zoned out during lectures thinking about him. At some point he started wondering if he'd imagined the whole thing because he hadn't seen him once since that night.
But then he'd remember the weight of him and the softness and think — no. That was real.
"Khun Duan." His professor's voice cut right through him. "Would you like to share with us what you're looking at outside that window?"
The whole class turned to stare. Heat crawled up his neck as he straightened in his seat and apologized. He spent the rest of the lecture with his eyes glued to his desk like a scolded child.
Garlic shrimp at the cafeteria. Their usual. Duan sat there pushing his food around the plate like it had done something to upset him.
Fah watched him for a moment. "You've been off lately. Are you okay?"
"Even the professor noticed today," Dom added. "You were lucky she didn't kick you out."
Duan didn't respond. Just kept poking at his shrimp.
"Stop torturing your food and give it to me if you're not eating." Dom reached over and grabbed the plate. Duan snatched it back. Dom grabbed it again. It escalated quickly the way things between them always did until a voice cut through the noise.
"Sorry to bother you, P'Duan?"
A girl stood at their table barely containing whatever she was excited about.
Duan released the plate and looked up. He was already running through his mental list of polite ways to say no thank you, not interested, please stop. He was so tired of it.
"Do you know P'Jun? From the Interior Arts department?"
Duan blinked. His friends looked just as lost.
"You don't know him?" She looked almost offended on the guy's behalf and then shoved her phone right into Duan's face.
It was a photo from Loy Krathong. The crowd, the chaos, and right in the center of it — a pale boy lying directly on top of a very stunned looking Duan.
He stared at the screen for a long moment.
"What did you say his name was?"
"P'Jun. Interior Arts department."
He was on his feet before he finished processing the words.
Dom and Fah found him at the entrance of the Interior Arts building, both out of breath and deeply unhappy about it.
"Can you slow down?" Dom wheezed. "What is wrong with you?"
"Go back if you're tired, fatso."
"I'm not fat I just have—"
Fah was already laughing. Dom pointed a finger at him. "You too."
"What are we even doing here?" Fah asked, looking around at the paint stained walls, the canvases propped everywhere, students wandering around looking artistically stressed.
Duan wasn't listening. He was scanning every face in the hallway.
Dom grabbed his shoulder. "At least tell us what's going on. You ran like they announced free food at the cafeteria."
"I'm looking for someone."
"Who?"
"Jun."
Silence.
"...Who?"
"The boy from Loy Krathong. The one who fell on me."
"Duan it was so crowded that night I genuinely saw nothing." Fah said. Dom nodded in agreement.
"Well that girl said he's in this building." He kept moving, checking doorways, peering through the small windows on classroom doors.
Fah stepped in front of him. "You can't just stare at every person you see. You look insane."
Meanwhile Dom had already approached a girl passing by. "Excuse me — do you know someone named Jun? He's in this faculty."
She paused like it was a strange question. "Jun? Who doesn't know him." She gestured down the hall. "He's probably painting. Last room on your right."
Dom returned with the energy of someone who had just solved a very important problem. Duan grabbed him in a hug. Dom immediately pushed him off.
The room was empty.
Duan stood in the doorway and looked at the vacant easels and the abandoned paint supplies and felt genuinely, pathetically disappointed. He didn't even know this person. This was a problem.
The walk back was quiet. Dom and Fah stayed close without saying anything because they were starting to understand that whatever had gotten into their friend was not going away anytime soon.
They were nearly out of the building when it happened.
Pale skin. That scent. Right there.
Jun walked past him with his headphones on, completely in his own world, eyes forward, not registering anything or anyone around him. He didn't look at Duan. Didn't look at anything. Just walked past like Duan was furniture.
Duan stood completely still and watched him go.
"Is that him?" Fah asked quietly.
"Yeah."
A beat of silence.
"Okay wow."
"Are you alright— Duan." Dom grabbed his arm. "You're bleeding."
Dom's hand flew up to block his nose and tilt his head back. For a second all three of them just looked at each other and then they completely lost it, laughing in the middle of the hallway like idiots while Duan bled and grinned and felt absolutely nothing like himself.