My Moon, Chapter 28 pg 2
My Moon, Chapter 28 pg 2
“But I forgot to let him know in advance that I was coming.”
“Uh… Ms. Lin, you’re probably younger than my mom. You can just call yourself ‘Auntie’ instead.”
Ms. Lin gave a faint smile before saying, “Alright, dear. I usually refer to myself like this with KhunKlai, so it’s just a habit.”
“Okay.”
“No need to be nervous, Panli. I don’t bite…” she said with a chuckle.
Panli let out another quiet sigh before asking, “Is Khun Klai’s dad really strict? …So I can prepare myself.”
“Poj is a kind person… not strict at all.”
“Kind only to his kids and wife, maybe?”
Panli watched as Ms. Lin tried to hold back a laugh before saying, “I think that’s probably true.”
“Then I better prepare myself.”
“…”
Panli looked at the person in front of him, whose smile slowly faded, replaced by a serious gaze. Ms. Lin fell silent, as if holding something back in her heart. As their conversation paused, a quiet tension began to fill Panli’s spacious room. Even though he’d never had experience meeting a lover’s family before, Panli knew how to break the silence threatening to swallow their dialogue.
“Auntie…”
“Y-Yes?”
“I truly, truly love Klaijai.”
“…”
“I love him so much that… if I had to choose who gets to be hurt…”
“…”
“I’d take the pain for him… no matter how much it hurts me.”
“…”
“Even if it hurts me to death.”
“…”
“I’d bear it all.”
Ms. Lin nodded, a faint smile crossing her face before she said, “Thank you.”
“…”
“Thank you, for being sincere with KhunKlai.”
“…”
“At first, I wanted to say… I hope you love Klaijai for a long, long time. Love him deeply.”
“…”
“He’s a good person, so lovable… and gentle with everyone.”
“…”
“Auntie doesn’t want to see him sad, not even a little.”
“…”
“But hearing Panli talk like this… Auntie feels relieved.”
Panli nodded and smiled at her before deciding to say something. “I don’t think I’ll get to meet Klaijai’s father anytime soon… but if Auntie, you ever talk to him about me…”
“...”
“I’d like to ask you to tell him… I love his son very much.”
Ms. Lin smiled and said, “I’ll let Poj know.”
“Thank you.”
“And thank you for being another person who ‘loves and cares’ for Klaijai.”
KLAIJAI
After Klai finished showering, he joined the conversation with both of them. He felt a lot more at ease seeing how well his partner and stepmother got along. Klai realized it wasn’t just him who felt happy around Panli—his partner could also make the people around him smile and laugh.
They chatted for a bit longer, and then Ms. Lin excused herself to head home. Klai invited Panli to walk downstairs to see her off at the car, and after that, the two of them planned to go shopping at the mall as we’d discussed.
“Safe travels.”
Ms. Lin nodded and said, “Okay…”
Klai watched his stepmother step toward the van, where Uncle Hmai was waiting to open the door for her. He pursed his lips, mulling something over as he looked at her, before deciding to speak up…
“Auntie…”
“...”
Ms. Lin paused and turned back to look at him. She stood still, trying to mask the trembling in her eyes with a smile. Klai took a few steps closer to his stepmother and returned her smile.
“When I heard Panli call you ‘Auntie,’ and you referred to yourself as ‘Auntie’ with Panli…” he said, glancing back at the tall figure smiling behind him before meeting Ms. Lin’s eyes again. “…it made me realize how much respect we both show each other, and it’s so much that it creates a sense of distance.”
“...”
“I know we both feel this… even though we’ve been trying to adjust to each other all along.”
“...”
“But that feeling still hasn’t gone away… I understand that the position we were in when we first met required us to show each other a lot of respect.”
“...”
“And so, we both chose to treat each other the same way out of habit... which created a barrier between us.”
“...”
“But from now on... I think we’ll grow much closer.”
“...”
“Thank you for always caring about Klai, Aunt.”
Comments
Post a Comment