HEMP ROPE

Hemp rope.

"Come join the dunk tank boys this afternoon at the Swimming Club!"

 

"Anyone interested in the Faculty of Economics, collect stamps at the booths, and you'll get yummy Thai desserts.

 

"Want to master management? We invite you to draw a red thread to win a senior buddy to lead your way in the Faculty of Business Administration."

 

"P'Alex is waiting for you at the drama club. You're invited to see the Destined Love performance at eleven o'clock."

 

The Open House event got off to a lively start. The students kept voicing out, convincing high schoolers to visit their faculties and clubs with all their might. The swimming club was no different; the members were crowded in the locker room, some changing clothes, others moving things around. 

 

A swimming lesson activity was done in the morning, and the dunk tank boys were scheduled in the afternoon. The vice president is trapped in a hamster wheel of tasks today, as the president himself has taken on the faculty's work, leaving everything to Phawin.

 

"Just need to queue this up..." The man ran his finger over the list of activities. He raised his face by the time first-year students walked in. 

 

"ABC Gang, come here."

 

The name-calling stopped everyone from their work and held back their laughter. This group of three friends happened to be named after the first three letters of the alphabet, making them the ABC gang of the swimming club—the lankiest young man named A hollered. 

 

"Oi, Phii! You're making us a kindergarten gang." The guy following close behind made a face. 

 

"I'm actually Bubble Bee."

 

"Your nickname's too long", Phawin sighed. This kid's real name was one syllable, but his nickname was three. Phawin handed a document to the third person.

 

The young man looked at it with disdain, muttering to himself. "I'm Sea, as in the sea, not C."

 

"That doesn't change the fact that you three are still ABC."

 

Phawin smacked each of them lightly with a clipboard. "Or should I call Kasidis, Theep and Phanuphat?"

 

The trio were startled, shaking their head. Their real names reminded them of some princes in a drama. The vice president, remembering their real names, was beyond their expectation. The rumour that the vice president is a future graduate student could be true.

 

"Get first-year students to draw the dunk tank boys' order, then give me the queue listing." 

 

The young man explained as he crossed off the items on the checklist. "And" "Damn, it's heavy."

 

A complaint laced with exhaustion accompanied a certain first-year student.

 

Team threw himself down, panting and sweating. His two hands were holding a bag full of lunch boxes. 

 

"Hey ABC, pass these first-year students’ lunch boxes out for me. I'll pass the rest to the second and third year students." 

 

Each box must be handed to each person since they ate like food fighters. With self-service, there'd be nothing left for members who came later.

 

The English alphabet gang grinned. Here came their first victim.

 

"Good timing. Here." A handed a drawing box to Team, "Draw a queue."

 

"Wha?" Not following but did as told, Team drew up a queue and handed it to his waiting friend

 

"Oh, congrats. You're the last dunk tank boy to end the event." Bubble bee arched his brows, jotting the queue in his notebook.

 

Team hollered. "Last one? God damn, I'm so dead." He pulled at his hair. He had heard that the last one was often heavily swarmed. How unfortunate.

 

"I'm dunking you first in a row." Phawin gave an evil laugh. His goal was to dunk Team in the tank a few times.

 

"You're a real pain in the ass. Why the heck?" 

 

Team exhaled and picked up the bags of lunch boxes. Before he grabbed the biggest bag, someone beat him to it.

 

"I’ll take them to the third year. Hey ABC, if you're done, put the list on the table." 

 

He reiterated to the trio before dragging the confused Team away. "We'll eat at the cafeteria when we're done. I'll pay."

 

Team's eyes shone. "What about the lunchbox?"

 

"For later. You'll be hungry again in the afternoon. Are you going or not?"

 

"Of course!" Team suddenly became obedient, following his senior closely.

 

The remaining club members could only watch them go.

 

"Right in front of us." Sea swayed his head. The senior was spoiling his friend without holding back.

 

"Well", Bubble Bee nodded.

 

They could only sigh. They had seen something was going on between those two, except Team himself, who had no clue that the club members noticed them.

 

"That's nice. They're so close."

 

Everyone in the club turned to look at A, who was holding a drawing box. His eyes were blinking. The face showed genuine admiration of the bromance. Their friends rolled their eyes.

Sigh...

 

"What's up?"

 

Bee and Sea smiled dryly and shook their heads.

 

"Nothing"

 

"It's nothing."

 

Spare this one who knew nothing.

 

It was noon when they finished their task, one hour before Team had to station as a dunk tank boy. Most people ate at open house booths, and the cafeteria food wasn't a long wait for two hungry guys.

 

"That's good." Team rubbed his belly, but he still looked towards a snack bar nearby.

 

"You'd be too stuffed," Phawin chided. Must he remind the kid he had to station dunk tank boy soon?

 

"Just a little, Bro. I'll get a small pack." Team laughed, walking away to get his favourite potato chips. Some ten pieces would be enough for now.

 

When he came back, he ripped the chips bag to eat while playing on his phone. The Facebook feed was filled with photos from open house events, too many to save. Upon scrolling, Team's brows lifted, seeing a photo of his best friend. Zooming in, it was Pharm and Dean walking alongside each other at the event.

 

"Hia, look at this." He showed it to Win. Phawin twitched his mouth upon the photo. 

 

Dean's eyes were so soft when talking to Pharm, unlike when talking to him, where Dean looked like he was going to eat his head.

 

"Where are they at?"

 

"The Business Faculty. There's an activity where a senior buddy shows you around. You wanna try?"

 

"Nope." Looking at faculty boards gave him the creeps. He'd pass when it came to academic stuff.

 

The two of them kept talking behind their friends' backs in jealousy, yet they actively saved those pictures for future use.

 

"I'm glad he's happy." Team smiled to himself in relief. He'd seen Pharm having lots on his mind lately; it seemed to wipe the smile off his face.

 

"You worried so much about him, I'm beginning to wonder if you guys are together."

 

"No, it's not that! Damn Hia!" Team blurted out laughing.

 

"Pharm's my best friend. He helps me a lot. It's normal to worry about people I feel good about." Team shook his potato packet, too bad it was empty now. "What about me?" Phawin rested his chin on his palm, gazing at his junior. "You ever worry about me?"

 

"Nonsense." Team looked down and crumpled his packet until there was nothing left to crumple. He got up and went to a bin.

 

"...Of course I do." 

 

Phawin hid his smile in his palm; his heart swelled. The nearest bin was a few steps away, but the brat walked to the farthest bin.

 

Nonsense questions sometimes, but human relationships were like trees. They grew by watering, soil cultivating and heart-warming words.

 

The swimming club in the afternoon was crowded with visitors. The dunk tank activity had a long line of people. Laughter and outcry filled the pool space.

 

Team walked with his heads tucked to a resting point next to the pool after falling in the water twice. They had to queue, sitting up on dunk tank seats, according to their designated queues. He only had himself to blame for bringing this upon himself.

 

"Hey, your scream was so loud." A moved for his friend to sit. He was the first in the queue, so he had time off for a while now, but he was no different.

 

"It was scary. Every time that ball's thrown off, my heart's going crazy." Team bumped his chest.

 

"Yeah, some of them never missed. I wanna tell them climbing up the station is exhausting."

 

They both muttered, agreeing this wouldn't happen again at the next open house.

"A, it's your turn." Phruek's voice called off.

 

He exhaled with an expression like the world was ending. "Of course, you're last in the queue now, it's my turn again. Gotta go."

 

"Yeah, hang in there." Team waved weakly. Once he was alone, he rubbed his stomach in hunger, like Win had said. His metabolic system was too good. But he'd be too stuffed if he ate the lunch box.

 

He turned to pick up his cellphone and texted Pharm, his personal food unit.

 

(-_-)/: Come quickly, I finish at four.

(-_-)/: I'm hungryyyyyyyy.

Ph@rm: *sent Chor Muang's photo.

Ph@rm: I'll bring it to you.

 

The young man muttered a 'Yes!' his tummy croaking for it. He was about to request more quantity when he overheard a conversation from a group of students lining up for the activity.

 

"Is that P'Dean?"

 

"Yes, the one we saw on Facebook."

 

"Good-looking, but it's such a waste. He's gay."

 

Although they were whispering, Team could hear it clearly. His brows were drawn together as he gave them a disapproving glare.

 

"I don't understand what's so great about them. What do you call them? An imagined couple? Gives me creeps." A young man made a hair-raising gesture, making his friends laugh along with him.

 

"That first-year student is cute. He's even cuter than the girls. P'Dean probably thinks it's fine since that guy's cute. It's a new trend." Another young woman added.

 

"They're so weird, it's disgusting." They continued to chat on that topic, paying no attention to people's take.

 

['Chor Muang: "Thai flower dumpling", is a traditional Thai savoury snack.]

 

Team balled his fists, both in anger and pain for his friend and the senior. The more he heard, the more his blood boiled. He got up and was ready to take some action on them.

 

"You-"

 

"Team!"

 

The said group of students jumped when Team came at them, but he was held back. After seeing the man being dragged away, they turned back to talk to one another.

 

"Bro, let go!" Team tried pulling away, but his blond senior's strength was no joke.

 

"Chill. You can't jump in like that."

 

"You heard them. Those assholes talked shit about P'Dean and Pharm."

 

Phawin pushed the junior into a locker room for some privacy. He stood still, waiting for Team to finish throwing his tantrum.

 

"Are you good now?" He asked. Team hissed, looking away.

 

"I'm not. I don't like what they were saying."

 

"You think you can stop everyone?"

 

Team slowly raised his face to return eye contact.

 

"Not everyone can accept homosexuality; you can't expect everyone to do so."

 

A calm voice explained to him, like water putting out fire.

 

"But they didn't have to be that mean."

 

Disgusting, creepy, cringey.

 

"If we are not what they define us to be, then why do you care what they say?" Win ruffled Team's hair "People are different. Things on social media are bound to be criticised." 

 

"What if P'Dean and Pharm hear it? Even I feel shitty. How do you think they would feel?" His voice roughened. He understood what Win meant, but he'd hate to see his friend hurt. Why do people even gatekeep love?

 

"Dean knows it", Phawin said with a faint smile. 

 

"He's always seen and heard these insults."

 

"Then..."

 

"He doesn't give a rat's ass. He pays no attention to this nonsense." Win touched the junior's hand to help it unclench. Team's palms were all red from clenching it so hard.

 

Phawin remembered it well, the day Dean saw these insults on Facebook. What Dean did was to overlook them. Win once asked if he wanted to take some action, but Dean just shrugged.

 

"Don't value those who don't value us."

 

Team tightened his lips; his eyes burned with anger. But Win was right, he couldn't possibly shut everyone up. Ignoring the insults was the only option he had.

 

"But Pharm is easily concerned...".

 

"Geez." Win exhaled with a faint smile at Team, who was an angry cat earlier; now he was a sad dog. "Come here." He nuzzled Team's head onto his shoulder. "Pharm got Dean, and they have us. I'm sure Pharm must have heard or seen these insults. But he has you, Manow and Dean. So, he got through that, understood?"

 

"Ok." Team nodded.

 

"What about you? You're worried?"

 

"Eh? Worried about what?"

 

"About you and me."

 

"It'd be a lie if I said no." Team's muffled, nuzzling deeper into Win's shoulder. Words and eyes of the others were no different from deadly weapons.

 

"Hmm..." Phawin knew that well. He shared Dean's outlook on how others perceived them. He'd been bisexual since high school, and he got used to insults. But Team just learned about LGBTQ. Not minding it didn't mean he could breeze through insults.

 

"But..." Team lifted his head in resolve. "I have you, Pharm, Manow, P'Dean and many friends." The brat grinned. "You're right, we can't control the others. However, we can control ourselves and decide whether to care or not. As long as those insults aren't becoming a real trouble, I will ignore them."

 

No matter what happened, all he asked for was someone to fight alongside him. How Team looked fired up made Phawin chuckle in endearment. This kid came out the other side quickly. He was about to ruffle him up, but a loud bang on a locker door with the president's yelling stopped him.

 

"Team!! Your turn."

 

The two young men jumped. Tension gone, now they turned agitated as they ran back to the pool just in time for Team to station as the dunk tank boy.

 

Dean chided his friend with a strained voice, shooing Win to manage the queue while Team climbed back up the tank seat for his next fate.

 

"Those two are really close." A was drying his hair by the pool, coping after watching the senior and his friend run out of the club's room. When he turned back to get his lunchbox, he met with his friends' soft expressions. 

 

"Is something wrong?"

 

Everyone shook their heads.

 

"Nope.."

 

"Nothing at all!"

 

Bee and Sea said in unison while eating their lunch boxes.

 

After the open house event, Win, Team, Dean, Pharm, Manow, and Del went to eat at a famous shabu-shabu restaurant at the mall. Trays of meat stacked high, and a smell of broth was overwhelming, so the Team's stomach cried. While Manow recounted the performance of "Red Thread" from the drama club, Team was engrossed in the food set before him.

 

The young man dipped a well-sliced piece of meat into a hot broth. He flicked and swung the red meat until it turned a light brown. Then, he dipped it into a special sauce made by Pharm before putting it in his mouth.

 

"So good."

 

The young man munched on, cheeks bulging. His cup of rice quickly turned into a second one.

 

"You're eating a lot." Pharm slid another bowl of mixed sauce to his best friend. He himself had just eaten half a bowl of rice. Team went on so far ahead.

 

"You have to eat lots, too. You eat like a bird." Team gave his friend two slices of meat. For a food lover, sharing food was a top way to show his love.

 

Phawin gave the two juniors an empty stare. Then, it started to get on his nerves. He aimed to steal some meat from Team's plate, but the junior smacked him with his chopsticks.

 

Win's mouth twitched. He turned back to boil his own meat, missing Team's eyes on him. The junior snickered at his grumpy face—a grown-ass man sulking like a little kid.

 

The young man enjoyed his meat while exchanging ideas about the Red Thread Theory. Under the shabu shabu table, Team was trying to reconcile by clinging his leg to the longer one next to him since his hand wasn't free. His leg made a nudging gesture like a cat giving its affection.

 

Phawin's heart melted. He really couldn't help spoiling the kid. Then the cat slave must give up his meat to his junior.

 

The dormitory parking lot at ten at night was dark, with just enough lights from utility poles. The Japanese car was parked at its usual spot. The big bike was following behind, parked at a motorbike parking space next to the vehicle.

 

Team thought about going straight to his room to sleep, but he realised he needed to clear off the club's materials from his trunk.

 

"Hia, I'm throwing away this one." He asked the taller man walking in.

 

"Yeah. But keep this one in your car. Bring it to the club the day after tomorrow."

 

Phawin helped him sort things and waited for Team to pack them up.

 

"Do you believe in the red thread we talked about today?" He pondered aloud.

 

At the shabu-shabu restaurant, the conversation shifted from a drama about red threads to their legends from different countries. Some discussed which finger to tie, the wrist or the ankle. Or even wrapping red thread around a body.

 

Team frowned in thought. "The Red Thread of love?"

 

"Yeah, that one.

 

"I believe half of it. It would be fun if it were true."

 

"I have doubts." Phawin's voice turned serious. Team had to look up at him.

 

"Doubts?"

 

"How resilient a little thread can be. Give it a pull and it will break." Win gestured a pull.

 

"..Oops. hah hah" Team blurted out laughing. Win was very serious. "Hia, you're so unromantic. Love thread isn't that breakable."

 

"Oh, I'm being logical."

 

A thin thread was easily breakable. Why tie love with something so fragile was beyond Win. Team shook his head. He picked up something he had just put in a bag, then turned to Win with his palm up.

 

"What? You want a pet?" Win gestured to put his chin on that palm.

 

Team bared his teeth. "No!! Give me your hand." He waited until the other gave him a hand. "How about this?"

 

A large hemp rope was roughly tied on Win's wrist. An open house material turned a red thread of fate.

 

"Though it's not red, it surely is unbreakable." Team gave a light pull, looking proud.

 

Win looked at the rope with a smile. He hooked the rope around Team's waist and pulled him in. Team's face smashed into his broad chest.

 

"Hia!!"

 

"Hey there, soulmate."

 

The young man almost choked. He rubbed his red nose, rolling his eyes at the senior. "Damn you."

 

"You're right." Win's eyes shone, but his voice was hard. "Red thread won't do. It must be hemp rope."

 

It sounded to a person who hated losing a challenge. Team clicked his tongue, narrowing his eyes in challenge.

 

"Who knows? Even a hemp rope may not hold it." Phawin chuckled. He tightened the rope and lowered his face till they saw each other's eyelashes.

 

"I'll tie you up tight, you can't run anywhere."

 

Warm lips pressed against his like a seal. In the midst of an empty night sky, the only sound heard was each other's breathing.

 

***********

 

P.S.

Win: Damn you, Team. Did you make a fast knot? /tried to pry the rope out of his wrist/

 

Team: No!! This one can be untied. Don't pull! You never studied scouting or what, Hia!?

 

Win: I don't remember!!

 

Team: Geez, I'll just cut it with scissors.

 

Win: No, no, you idiot. It's a bad omen, don't cut it Team: /rolled eyes/