Plan B to U

Chapter 10 Offline Youth Is Online Now

 

I'd been grumbling nonstop since we started hauling the absurd mountain of roses from Em's car into 'Krich's car, and now I still had to ride along with him back to his place to unload them all over again. My energy was completely spent, arms barely able to lift, but I had to push through until the mission was done.

 

"Who told you to surprise me with this many roses, anyway? Seriously, where'd you get the money to buy them?"

 

"Pooled money with friends. But that's actually what I wanted to tell you." I didn't want to keep forcing the lie any longer. Sooner or later, he had to know that all of this had just been a misunderstanding. "The truth is..."

 

"Krich, dear."

 

Oh god, his mom. Showing up without a sound, and of all moments, right at the crucial one. I was left stuck with nothing to do but flash an awkward smile, watching the older woman open the door to greet us, his dad close behind.

 

"Happy birthday!"

 

Party poppers went off excitedly, banging loudly across the entire garage.

 

"Yay, yay." I stood there clapping lightly, then scratched the back of my head

 

"You bought roses? Why so many?" His mom asked.

 

"Birthday present."

 

Not wanting to overstay here, plus wanting his family to have their own time together, I looked for an exit, scooting closer to the tall figure to whisper.

 

"Old man, in that case I'll just head"

 

"Can you not leave yet? Stay and celebrate with my family for a bit."

 

Oh no. I hadn't even finished my sentence.

 

"Nile, stay and celebrate with us." His dad chimed in just as eagerly, not to be outdone. Honestly, the only thing I was worried about was his dad. Last time, my ear went half numb during the lecture. I hoped this time wouldn't turn into another 'attitude adjustment' session. I promised to be on my best behaviour, since I'd already used up all my energy scraping myself along the pavement today.

 

"Sure, I can stay. Heh."

 

And from there it just went on. His parents kept asking what had happened to leave me covered in scrapes like this. Luckily, Krich explained I'd been in an accident while picking up the cake, which made his mom dote on me even more, offering to help every two minutes.

 

Since it was their son's important day, instead of a small gathering in the living room, everyone moved out to the backyard pool for a warm little pool party. I got a real shock when two more important guests showed up: P'Koi and P'Kan, Krich's older sisters. They were the spitting image of their parents in personality, fiercely independent, bursting with energy, and most notably, already accomplished in their careers at a young age.

 

The gathering had a relaxed, simple atmosphere. Luckily, everyone took a liking to me, which eased the situation considerably. We sat, ate good food, talked, exchanged ideas, shared stories from the past, and wrapped up with gift-giving and cake.

 

That was one of the few times I'd ever seen Krich smile that wide, happiness reflected clearly in his eyes, when his usual default was that stoic, irritatingly composed face. But once the party ended and everyone went their separate ways, that handsome face slowly turned visibly gloomy.

 

"Why the long face, old man?"

 

Being stuffed silly from cleaning out everything his parents had prepared, I was barely able to move, sprawled completely wiped out on a sun lounger by the pool. Still, my eyes kept drifting over to the tall figure sitting at a table not too far away.

 

"You once asked me to stay and keep you company at the studio. Can I ask the same now? Stay and keep me company a bit longer."

 

"I wasn't planning to rush off anyway. I can barely walk; I'm too full."

 

"You can sleep here, you know."

 

Krich's demeanour was off from his usual self, like he was watching a reflection of me in him. It shouldn't have been like that.

 

"Anything you want to get off your chest? I promise I won't tell anyone." No matter the friction between us so far, I wasn't cruel enough to twist the knife into someone else's pain. "I also promise I won't use it as ammo to mess with you in the future, for sure."

 

"You've met my family now. What do you think of them?"

 

"Your family's so warm. Your parents are adorable, your sisters are kind, bursting with energy, and you make you the calmest one out of the bunch, somehow.”

 

Krich tapped his fingers against the table, restlessness visible without any attempt to hide it. " I suppose so. Honestly, if we got together more often, we'd probably be a really cool family. But sadly, we hardly ever get to see each other."

 

"Why's that? You're all that busy?"

 

"Not exactly."

 

"Could you explain it more clearly? I'm a bit slow."

 

"How do I put this? I grew up in a house where everyone had a goal, was ambitious, and loved competition."

 

"Which you are too."

 

"You think?"

 

"Yeah, look, your dad's a painter, your mom's a romance novelist, both your sisters are designers who built famous brands, and you went so far as to own a record label. So enviable."

 

He smiled, then broke into laughter, but it felt achingly sad somehow, as if he were laughing at the bitterness of his own life.

 

"Everyone in the family seems born with similar personalities, similar habits, similar drive. I'm the only one who's different... Truthfully, I never wanted to compete, never wanted to prove myself. But I had to, just to be like them."

 

"My parents believe that the day they're gone, their kids should still be able to live and stand on their own. They were so focused on that endpoint, the day they won't be around, that they forgot I still needed them while they're alive too. Humans are social creatures, you know that. We can't live and grow up alone."

 

Word after word, sentence after sentence poured out like a dam bursting. Never once had I expected the chance to know him this deeply, and at the same time I was a little surprised he'd dare share something this fragile with someone like me, who'd been ready to stab him in every way possible. It seemed contradictory, but...Deep down, I felt grateful that he'd chosen to tell me something at all. Same as how I'd felt at ease baring my feelings about my dad to him before.

 

"I might be luckier than a lot of people, never having to struggle or worry whether there'd be food tomorrow. So, I went far, used my ability to buy a car, buy this house, buy everything I wanted. And the more that happened, the more my parents trusted me, brave enough to leave me to face life on my own."

 

So sad. A sadness I couldn't quite explain. Not enough to force tears out, but suffocating enough that I couldn't speak. It was depressing...

 

"That's why I understand you. A house with no family in it and a house with a family that never quite fills you up  they're the same thing, really."

 

"Loneliness is scarier than any ghost."

 

"I can't say I understand all of it. We're different. But if there's ever a day you're lonely..." I forced myself to sit up so I could face him honestly; all the sincerity had. "You can invite me over. I've still got plenty more revenge plans for you anyway."

 

His well-shaped lips broke into a wide grin, but his eyes welled up like he was about to cry. Something in my chest tightened sharply. I froze in place. I didn't know whether this birthday had been more joyful or more sorrowful for him. But I hoped so desperately that he'd get to be himself, and never feel alone again.

 

"What's up, calling me this late?"

 

Not wanting to impose on Krich too long, I'd helped clean up all the plates before excusing myself to go home. But just as I was about to get into bed, my head not even on the pillow yet, Em decided to ring me for some reason.

 

"Waaah~ what do I do? My roses plan has failed miserably."

 

Uh...

 

"Did you call just to wallow?"

 

"Why won't fate ever favour me, getting stood up all the time?” You're so drunk your tongue can't even keep up.

 

I remembered that before I left, my best friend had still been guzzling beer, not satisfied, throwing back shots, mixing cocktails, indulging in wine. Basically every kind of alcohol had gone down his throat. Poor Nikm had to babysit him. I figured he'd be passed out dead until morning. Instead, here he was calling to sob to me.

 

"Don't overthink it. You've only messed up twice, well, twice and counting..."

 

"WAAAAAH! Hngh, hngh..."

 

"Let me talk to Nikm. Is he asleep yet? You're not making sense anymore." Em mumbled something agreeable, then went quiet for a bit before Nikm finally picked up.

 

"Yo, Nile, you home yet?"

 

"Yeah, home already. It's 2 AM, right? Anyway, what's going on with you two? Why isn't Em asleep yet?"

 

"How would he sleep? We're still at the studio."

 

"What? You can't drive drunk."

 

"We're crashing here. Sort it out tomorrow." I breathed a sigh of relief, partly worried about their well-being, partly worried they'd cause some kind of public incident. 

 

"Honestly, there's nothing to it; Em's just upset his surprise plan for P'Mee's birthday flopped completely."

 

"Fair enough to be upset. Don't worry, I'll help him cover the cost of the roses."

 

"He won't take it. You're broke too, on top of it."

 

"You jerk, how do you make sympathy sound like an insult?"

 

"I'm not sympathising. I want to insult you."

 

"Nikm, we're friends here."

 

"Okay, okay, I'll stop bugging you. Got to go look after the drunk one again."

 

"Wait!" My mouth moved faster than my brain, stopping him mid-call. "Can I run something by you?"

 

Thankfully, he didn't snap back, just waited quietly.

 

"What's up?"

 

"I just got back from Krich's house. I don't know, I feel like he's not as terrible as I thought."

 

From everything I'd seen, I sensed I might've been judging him too harshly. The opposite; actually, he seemed almost pitiable, compared to that calm, composed front he kept up while shaky and fragile underneath.

 

"Wasn't he that terrible to begin with? He just sold you his relative's house, and we couldn't even prove whether it's haunted."

 

That's exactly the point.

 

"What do you think, if I let go of the grudge and just live in the present?"

 

"That'd be even better. If you can get past the whole "someone died thing, living in that house is pretty great, isn't it?"

 

Nikm's advice drove home the need to reconsider what I actually wanted, weigh it rationally, lay out the pros and cons just like that first day I'd decided to buy the house. There needed to be enough reason for me to stay. Being my dream home alone might not be enough. Sentimental attachment alone was also not enough. So what reason could be solid enough…

 

Bring  Bring 

 

A new morning began bright and cheerful... cheerful my ass!

 

Instead of a work-from-home day meaning no exhausting morning rush to get to the office, problems kept slamming in nonstop anyway. The moment I logged into the online meeting, group chat notifications started flooding in, so many that my phone was nearly vibrating itself off the table. And that wasn't all; now P'Mee was calling me directly too.

 

"Yes, P'Mee?"

 

"Nile, I need your help with something." Her voice was anxious in a way I'd never heard before, making me suspect something serious had happened; worst case, something got stolen, or fans had surrounded the studio in protest, demanding a concert for their beloved artist. I just kept guessing wildly, getting more ridiculous by the second.

 

"Dral and Sun have gone offline and dropped off the grid again. Help me track them down."

 

Huh? This sounded like an even bigger problem than fans surrounding the building, because without the artists, the entire planned schedule would collapse.

 

"Can't their manager reach them?"

 

"Nobody can reach them at all. We need to hurry; when these two go missing, they're gone for months. The disappearing act is when they pack up their stuff and leave; impossible to find."

 

"How can I help, then?"

 

"We need to track Dral and Sun's personal IG stories. Those two have a habit of posting in real time."

 

"Could I get their personal IG handles?"

 

"Nobody in the whole studio is approved to follow them. Except P'Krich."

 

The world just ended. Suddenly, the workload had slammed in, along with a hundred times as many problems.

 

One, the artists had vanished without warning, forcing an all-out manhunt. Two, nobody had been granted permission to follow their personal Instagram accounts. And three,  the only person we had to rely on was the boss himself, P'Krich.

 

It's fine; in the end, I agreed to help by sending follow requests to Sun and Dral's personal Instagrams. Of course, no acceptance, same as everyone else. So poor Krich, as the boss, had to be the one checking their stories himself and screenshotting them into the group chat instead.

 

My job wasn't much, just to go to the locations they'd tagged. Not hard at all, not hard... they'd only posted, like, forty-something stories.

 

AAARGH!

 

I want to die! Right here, right now.

 

Cutting out twenty irrelevant stories still left twenty more. P'Mee, the crew, and the manager split up to check various places, while I rushed straight to another to maximise the chance of finding them.

 

If you asked where my best friends were, the answer was simple: Em was so hungover he'd put in a one-day leave, and Nikm was out onsite scouting an event venue with PR. So I had to go solo.

 

P'Mee kept urging me to hurry, terrified the artists might flee the country. This case felt heavier than Interpol chasing a fugitive.

 

Not wanting to waste even one minute, I dug through my closet for clothes, only to realise I'd forgotten to do laundry. The only thing left to wear was the birthday shirt from my best friend, with that embarrassingly cringe phrase printed on it: I poured my heart out, and you just poured me out.

 

Since my bike was still in the shop, I called a motorbike taxi to take me to the subway station, and with the wounds on my body still not healed, everything I did was fairly slow.

 

In the morning, I stopped by several places full of hope for other label studios, hidden near empty cafes. By afternoon, I was wandering through small jewellery shops down alleys and vintage record stores. From morning to evening, not a single trace of the people I was looking for.

 

Everyone else was starting to give up, but I wasn't ready to. While one hand gripped a strap on the train and the other typed updates for P'Mee, someone tapped my shoulder. I admit I was startled to see Krich standing right beside me.

 

"Hey, how'd you get here? Got magic powers or something?"

 

"Just asked Mee."

 

He'd been buried in his own duties most of the day. Who'd have guessed he'd show up here, dressed casually in an oversized black T-shirt and dark jeans, which made him look even younger, almost like he was still in university. Honestly, I'd nearly forgotten he was only twenty-six.

 

"How'd you know I was on this train?"

 

"You stand out way too much."

 

"That a compliment about how handsome I am?"

 

"No, compliment your shirt." With that, his sharp eyes drifted down to the printed shirt 1 wanted to crumple up and toss straight out the train window.

 

"Was just minding my own business at home when this whole thing came running at me. This was the only thing left to wear; didn't have time to wash anything else."

 

"Suits you well, actually"

 

I rolled my eyes for a second. Just being sarcastic, I know it.

 

The train pulled into a station, but we still had several stops to go before reaching our destination. In the meantime, Krich broke the silence between us by finding something to talk about.

 

"That's your delivery brand." He pointed at an ad plastered on the train. It was Eatsy.

 

"Talking like I own the place."

 

"It's just an association."

 

"I've delivered for them over a year now." Then his attention shifted to the other side, where there was an ad for the rival brand Goom. 

 

"Two years for this one. The other one I just signed up for, to keep messing with somebody in particular."

 

"It's working, alright. Annoyed me for a while."

 

"Hey, you bought ad space too?" My attention got pulled to a billboard of The Mooooon stuck outside on the platform.

 

"Where?"

 

The tall figure leaned in to look. The sudden movement startled me, making me lean away, leaving us both gripping the rail at an awkward, tilted angle.

 

"Stand up straight, old man."

 

"I can't see it."

 

"There, see." When I pointed it out, he leaned in even more, close enough that I could barely breathe. 

 

"See it now?"

 

You're going to chomp my head off! Another inch and you'd be biting and chewing my ear.

 

"I saw it."

 

The train doors slid shut slowly as it pulled away from the platform. That was the one moment I could push him back upright into his original spot.

 

If Offline Youth had a reputation as the band for the heartbroken, The Mooooon represented the obsessively in-love, who didn't care about anyone else, just you and me against the world types. But sometimes you want to see them grow, see something new.

 

"I want to know why every album concept of theirs keeps going on about the moon, gravity, this stuff. If future albums keep presenting the same imagery, won't it get repetitive?"

 

"Repetitive, sure, but there's still plenty of room to grow, as long as people still buy into love."

 

"You've gone to Earth, gone to the moon, going to the whole universe next?"

 

"We'd go to a hypothetical world, a world designed just for you and the one you love, like that film Eternity."

 

"Isn't this basically spoiling the next album?"

 

"No, it's not even the plan. I'm just making it up."

 

"You absolute" I wanted to curse him out. Look at him acting so calm, but he's actually so annoying. 

 

"But I like it."

 

"Like me?"

 

And full of himself, too.

 

"Like the film Eternity." I'd bought a ticket without expecting much, just for the sake of research, but honestly ended up loving the concept. It was about life after death, where everyone has to choose what kind of world they'd be happy living in forever. 

 

"If I could choose, I'd live in a world with a small house by the sea, with my mom and dad there."

 

"You seem to like simple things."

 

"And if you had to live in a world for eternity, what kind would you choose?"

 

He held my gaze, looking like he was genuinely deliberating. The question seemed simple but was actually brutally hard. Staying with something forever, with no escape, racked his brain until...

 

"Any world, as long as you're in it."

 

My brain just cracked open.

 

His answer left me stunned. Honestly, not because I was moved or anything, just hadn't expected him to pull a line like that.

 

"Go be cringe somewhere else, would you."

 

And I couldn't manage a decent response, just deflecting like always…

 

The wounds from the bike crash still ached, yet Krich kept dragging me through this ordeal of walking, near crawling, hauling our bodies through various places. It was getting dark now, and we still hadn't found even a shadow of the cursed duo.

 

"My body feels like it's about to fall apart." 

 

Shouldn't have run my mouth claiming I could walk just fine, when Krich had originally offered to call us a ride.

 

"Almost there. Hold on."

 

"You said that twenty minutes ago too."

 

"Quit complaining. The bar's right in front of you."

 

We'd walked along a small alley in a neighbourhood lined with houses, bars, and cafes on both sides. My spirits lifted a little once I saw our destination just a few dozen meters away.

 

Krich pushed the door open first, but still had the courtesy to hold it open and wait for me.

 

"Thank you. Waaah~»

 

Our effort finally paid off: we found Dral and Sun sitting cross-legged on the floor amid mountains of secondhand books, two large, well-packed suitcases beside them.

 

"Where are you two off to?" Krich blurted out. Dral and Sun jolted, turning to flash awkward, sheepish grins.

 

"How'd you know we were here?"

 

"I've worked with you guys for years; why wouldn't I know something this simple?" Yeah, right, says the man who'd spent the whole day unthinkingly guessing.

"Mindlessly, you come back and record now?"

 

"The feeling's not coming, P'Krich. Can we rest for a couple of days? We just booked tickets."

 

"Cancel it, right now. No 'a couple of days' from you two; you'd show your faces back here next year. We'd be screwed by then."

 

"You're exaggerating."

 

"So what's it going to be?"

 

Dral spoke with a forlorn face, his whole body slumped and pitiful. "P'Krich, there's really no inspiration left. Forcing it out wouldn't have any soul."

 

Sun, meanwhile, hid his face, biting his nails down to nothing. If this kept up, disaster wasn't far off. 

 

My mind raced, scrambling to figure out some way to spark inspiration for the two of them. Before long, a place popped into my head...The one place that had helped heal my mind through hard times.

 

"Everyone, I might have just the right place to find inspiration. Interested in coming along?"

 

Sophon TamSang was the night's main destination. The moment we stepped through the door, P'Boo shouted a friendly greeting.

 

"Hey, Nile! Who'd you bring today?" He didn't even wait for my answer, clutching his chest with theatrical flair. "Ooh, isn't that Dral and Sun from Online Youthful?"

 

"It's Offline Youth, P'Boo. Stop adding, cutting, and changing the name."

 

Someone once said Thai means free, loose and easygoing. I'd say that holds especially true for the fellow alum standing in front of me.

 

"Just joking, baby."

 

Liar. He genuinely got it wrong, trust me.

 

"Could you recommend some drinks for people in need of inspiration? A couple of folks here are burned out."

 

Not just words. I gestured toward the two artists who were thoroughly absorbed, staring at the wall graffiti.

 

"Perfect timing. Please, sit, sit, I'll sort it out."

 

I took on emergency host duty and quickly found a table. P'Boo, inspired by who knows what, went above and beyond with the service, hardly even letting us get up to walk anywhere, instead rushing straight to our table to present the drink menu, complete with a giant cardboard sign he'd painstakingly drawn himself, listing every bizarrely named menu item.

 

"Fresh off the press, hot off the brew, perfect for artsy types hunting for inspiration. One sip and your idea will be flowing." 

 

He spoke with such passionate momentum, pointing at a picture of a liquor jar. "May I recommend the Rabbit Leaps the Wall. Think about it, if a rabbit can fly through the air and leap over walls, imagine what we could do. Guaranteed circulation, full of pep."

 

"Just hearing the name makes me want to try it. What else have you got?" I hyped it up first, setting P'Boo up to keep the momentum going.

 

"If that's not enough, you need the Lion Mounts the Stump and not just any ordinary stump, a concrete pier stump."

 

"Give him a round of applause; how does he even come up with this stuff?"

 

Who on earth would actually want to mount a concrete pier? Seriously, who?

 

"Or if that still doesn't land, we've got Nile's favourite, Leopard's Strength, the adorable meowmeow edition."

 

Used to be 'honkbeep,' now it's 'meowmeow.' Honestly, this guy.

 

"Then give us all of it, let's see what happens." 

 

Sun slapped the table, eyes shining with maximum enthusiasm, while Dral, not to be outdone, started pointing at even more items on the menu.

 

Want that one, want to try this one too. 'Boo's grin couldn't have stretched any wider, money successfully flowing into his pocket. He went back to manage the drinks at the counter, while Krich let his label's artists explore the place, especially the walls decorated with art and quotes.

 

"Dral, come look! This is literally the epicentre of human emotion!"

 

"Damn, a genuine poetry archive. Brilliant."

 

Poetry archive? Whatever makes you happy, man. Because if it really weren't good, Nikm wouldn't have screenprinted one of those lines onto a shirt for my birthday present.

 

Minutes turned into hours. The duo led everyone into a steady stream of drinking and gathering inspiration.

 

Naturally, anyone who drank Sophon TamSang's brews ended up the same way, either delirious or rambling. But Dral and Sun went a level beyond, grabbing the bar's guitar and volunteering to perform for the other customers, free of charge.

 

The group of university students who made up most of the bar's clientele cheered loudly, some clapping in encouragement, some requesting songs to match the mood.

 

"Can we get a country song?"

 

"We're an indie band, but we can do country. Let's gooo!"

 

So much fun for them. Just seeing them happy moved me close to tears. Turning back, I jumped, finding Krich staring right at me from the table.

 

"Why are you staring?"

 

"Why are you asking?"

 

"Trying to annoy me?"

 

"You think that's annoying?" Didn't want to argue anymore. Arguing with someone this shameless was never going to win. And easing body aches

 

"Good, old man? The Horse Stomps the Jar." A drink I'd ordered for him to try, supposedly good for stamina

 

"A bit too strong. You shouldn't drink too much either."

 

"P'Boo's bar has a service to call rides for customers; don't worry about it."

 

"Still need to look after yourself."

 

"Are you hungry, then? I want to recommend a special menu item; it's pad kra pao." I presented it with full pride, honestly hungry myself, having eaten only a sandwich all day. Hardly believing I hadn't just collapsed and died on the street already, that alone was a miracle.

 

"Pad kra pao is pretty ordinary. What's special about it?"

 

"Never heard? Drunkards always make the best food. Same goes for this place. Try it, guaranteed you'll be hooked."

 

"Get two plates. I'll order yours too."

 

"On it."

 

I hurried over to order from P'Boo at the counter. Less than ten minutes later, we were sitting down eating together amid the off-key, wailing singing of Offline Youth.

 

"Alternating booze with rice, you'll end up throwing up." Krich scolded gently, prompting me to shrug.

 

"It's fine."

 

"Fine, meaning what?"

 

"Meaning I'm used to it; I throw up often." He pulled a disgusted face but didn't scold me again, indulging me to the fullest extent.

 

He'd occasionally tell me to drink slower and kept bringing me water to alternate with. We ended up sitting there a long while, and by the time we noticed, it was closing time; customers were all trickling out, leaving just us still planted there.

 

P'Boo pulled the door shut, but inside, energy was at full blast. He kept hauling jars around, topping everyone off until we were all properly drunk. But instead of passing out, everyone got even livelier, likely because the herbal liquor was stimulating their energy. Even Krich, despite his usual tolerance, nearly went down.

 

His face nearly slumped onto the table. Worried about him bruising his forehead, I reached over and held both his cheeks to lift his head.

 

"Hey, don't fall asleep yet. Stay with me a bit longer, old man."

 

"Not falling asleep." 

 

You're already half asleep...

 

Too lazy to haul a passed-out body around, so I tried to snap him awake by reaching into the ice bucket and circling a piece of ice over his face. The cold was enough to jolt him awake, though once awake he had the nerve to glare at me, talking back. "My whole face is soaked now!"

 

"There, there, sorry, old man."

 

"Don't call me old man. You make me feel old."

 

"Okay, P'Krich."

 

"This one's cute." Hey, was he only capable of being soft and sweet when drunk? But knowing he was probably messing around, I decided to fish a bit.

 

"You mean me, right? I'm the cute one?"

 

"Yup."

 

"Huh? You're supposed to say no."

 

"Can I confess something?"

 

"Now I'm suspicious."

 

Krich didn't waste any more words, slowly pushing himself up on his elbows until he finally managed to sit upright, even though it took a while.

 

The boozy scent mixed into his breath, the kind that drew anyone nearby into a half-conscious daze. And especially me, the longer I lingered staring into those glistening eyes, the more my heart raced, like the rhythm had sped up faster than I could catch. 

 

"Part of the reason I never planned to refund your money for the house is that my relatives moved abroad. But honestly, I could've just used my own money to pay you back. I just didn't."

 

"Why the hell not?"

 

I didn't understand.

 

"Because I wanted to have you."

 

"Wwant to have me for what?" Today had been packed with so many unexpected things, especially this shift in Krich's demeanour that had started back on the train and dragged on all the way until now.

 

But the answer I was waiting for never came. Krich chose silence, lifting his drink instead. At that exact moment, the song Dral and Sun were singing happened to end, and one of them spoke into the mic, eyes bleary.

 

"P'Krich, what song does Nile want to hear? We'll play it for you."

 

"I'm a bit dizzy, can't think of anything."

 

I answered that one.

 

"That's fine, we'll choose for you. Something that fits the mood between you two, then." With that, a sweet, tender guitar melody started up. Genuinely impressive; no matter how drunk they got, they could still play beautifully all the same

 

Especially this one; you had to listen a while to understand the meaning. It was the song filed under 'no title but made for someone who's falling in love.", one of the rare love songs amid the heartbreak tracks chosen for the album.

 

"Wait, why a love song?" Krich shouted out.

 

"Well, you two look like you're courting each other. I can tell."

 

"That's not it at all," I argued, nearly out of breath.

 

"Don't kill the mood. Do you want to hear the song or not?"

 

Okay... okay... don't argue with drunk people.

 

The guitar rang in my ears, the melody flowing like poetry, lights, alcohol, and chaos all wrapping around us.

 

Plenty of things vied for attention, but he was the one I saw most clearly. He looked like the lead in a music video, sitting there with a still, silent expression, only those eyes fixed straight at me.

 

Along with one particular line of the song that I especially loved...

 

Don't need the words you're waiting to say; just a single look already says everything about the depth of that love.

 

I must've been really drunk to see him looking at me so romantically. Must've been really drunk to meet his gaze with my heart fluttering. Really drunk to let myself drift closer to him without thinking.

 

"You're really cute, you know." He said it first.

 

"You're really handsome too. The first time I saw you, I was completely floored." I added to the compliment.

 

"Your cheeks are soft." He cupped my cheek. And I pressed my palm down over the back of his hand.

 

"You like it?"

 

"I like it."

 

"Then let me ask one more time, and I won't ask again. When you said you wanted to have me, what did you actually mean?"

 

"Because you're exactly my type."

 

"And the more I really got to know you, the more head over heels I fell."

 

With those words, our faces drifted closer. I closed my eyes, and a moment later felt the warmth of his lips pressing down onto mine.

 

"Holy!!"

 

The exclamation from the Offline Youth 

members rang out loud.

 

"Holy!!"

 

Followed by P'Boo's shout.

 

But I no longer cared about a single thing except pulling Krich's neck closer, kissing him back exactly the way my heart wanted.