My Moon, Chapter 24 pg 4
My Moon, Chapter 24 pg 4
“Does it hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“But when I saw this mark… it hurt me a lot.”
“…”
“Because I was afraid it wouldn’t just be this… afraid you would get hurt even worse.”
Panli stared at him before pulling him into a tight embrace. Klai hugged him back, rubbing his hand on Panli’s back. Panli pressed a kiss to his shoulder again, then spoke in a soft whisper.
“No one can do anything to me, KhunKlai…”
“…”
“But I’m sorry for making you worry this much… I know how much you care about me.”
“…”
“But I didn’t think you’d worry so much it’d hurt your heart.”
“…”
Klai gave a faint smile before saying, “It’s real, you know… loving until your heart hurts, worrying until your heart hurts.”
“…”
“It’s not just you who has to tell me everything… I’ll tell you everything too.”
“…”
“Even if it’s something that might disappoint you in me, or something that might change how you feel about me…”
“…”
“After I told you something at the condo… I won’t hide anything from you anymore.”
Panli kept holding him like that, nodding lightly as if agreeing to something. “After tonight… I won’t hide anything from you either.”
“Let’s try together, Panli… try for us.”
“Okay.”
Klai knew Panli understood the meaning of “us” perfectly. He believed they would both do everything to preserve that “us.”
Because the word “us” held something vital for both of them.
The word “us” included Panli.
And the word “us” included Klaijai.
So they would do whatever it took to hold on to each other.
Panli walked Klaijai to the meeting room of the Faculty of Fine Arts, where he needed to rehearse music with others before the actual performance. After that, Panli drove out to buy flowers for Klaijai, planning to give him a big bouquet after the show. Luckily, there were several flower shops near the university.
Ding ding
The bell chimed as the tall figure pushed open the glass door of the shop. Panli quickly strode toward a woman he assumed was the owner and said,
“I’d like a bouquet of flowers, please.”
“Do you have anything specific in mind, sir?”
“Do you have any options for me to choose from?”
“Yes, we do... Just a moment, please.”
“Okay...”
Panli scanned the shop as the owner walked to the counter to grab something. She handed him a pink photo album, and Panli took it, flipping through pictures of various flower bouquets until he found one he liked.
The bouquet chosen for Klaijai was mostly pink lilies with a few white flowers sprinkled in. Panli furrowed his brow while looking at the picture.
“Would you like to make any changes, sir?” the owner asked.
“Can you make it bigger than this?” he replied.
“Oh, sure… How about twice the size in the picture? Is that okay?”
“Could you make it four times bigger?”
“Four times?”
“Yes… Is that not possible?”
“Oh, no, it’s possible! But it’ll be huge. Let me explain…” She glanced around the shop, as if searching for something to compare the size to, before continuing, “To put it simply, if I held the bouquet you’re ordering, it would completely cover my face.”
Panli chuckled softly before saying, “Okay, let’s go with that size.”
“Alright…” She smiled at him, and Panli figured she’d probably never arranged a bouquet this large before.
“How long will it take?”
“When do you need it by?”
“Three in the afternoon… I forgot to mention earlier. If a bouquet that big takes too long, you can scale it down a bit.”
“No, it’ll be ready! I’ll call in some help, and we’ll definitely get it done in time.”
“Okay… In that case, I’ll step outside to wait in front of the shop. I’m going to have a smoke.”
“Sure.”
With the owner’s acknowledgment, Panli stepped outside. He pulled a white cigarette from his shirt pocket and then grabbed a lighter from his back pants pocket. As soon as the cigarette was lit, the tall figure inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with nicotine. White smoke curled upward into the air as Panli tilted his head back, letting it drift freely.
He watched the faint smoke, reminiscent of morning mist, while recalling Klaijai’s words: “It’s real… loving so much it hurts, worrying so much it hurts.” Panli believed with all his heart that such feelings were indeed real.
Because he had felt them himself…
Felt them for Klaijai.
Panli had a hunch about what Klaijai wanted to tell him tonight. But Klaijai probably didn’t know that, besides the incident with beating up Merk, he had other things he wanted to share. Since Klaijai had asked to talk about everything today, Panli decided he would tell him everything. And he thought it was time…
Time for Klaijai to finally know.
How long has Panli loved Klaijai?
Panli has loved Klaijai until his heart aches…
“Hey, Panli, what’re you doing at a flower shop?”
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