Another long pause. Sarawat reached out and flicked a stray hair off Tine’s forehead—a gesture so unexpectedly intimate that Tine forgot to breathe.
For a long, agonizing moment, Sarawat’s face remained a stone wall. Then, the corner of his mouth twitched. It wasn’t a smile. It was something sharper. Curious.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just acting.”
Green was a force of nature in pastel sweaters. For three weeks, he’d been leaving tiny love notes in Tine’s locker, appearing with iced coffee exactly when Tine’s throat was dry, and serenading him with a ukulele outside the economics building. Green was relentless. Green was sweet. And Tine, who only wanted a normal, girl-filled university experience, was desperate. 2gether Ep 1
Fong, the pragmatist, scrolled through his phone. “You have two options: fake a terminal illness, or move to another country.”
Green’s face went pale. He bowed stiffly, whispered “Sorry for the inconvenience,” and practically sprinted toward the library.
Sarawat chose that moment to push off the wall and walk over. He didn’t say a word. He just slid an arm around Tine’s waist—firm, casual, like he’d done it a thousand times—and looked at Green. Another long pause
“Hey,” Tine said, his voice cracking on the single syllable. “You’re Sarawat, right?”
Sarawat’s arm didn’t move from his waist. His voice was soft, almost a whisper.
“Within reason,” Tine squeaked.
The Guitar, the Invitation, and the Unlikely Cure
That’s when they saw him. Sarawat. He sat alone at the edge of the courtyard, earbuds in, a black guitar case leaning against his chair like a silent bodyguard. He was rumored to be cold, unapproachable, and devastatingly handsome. He was also the one person Green seemed to fear. Rumor had it Green had once tried to give Sarawat a rose, and Sarawat had simply looked at it, then at Green, and walked away.