~published on November 25th, 2018~

A/N:

Hi, how are you?

What did you eat today? I plan to eat junk food for lunch and grill some steak for dinner.

Sunday night with steak. Getting ready for Monday.

*

Forth looks at Park. And then he looks at the others. And then he shakes his head. He then looks down.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Park frowns.

"I think he just looks up to me as his P'," Forth says as he looks up. "You know, like how Ming and the other kids look up to me or you."

The others blink.

"What? No."

Forth shakes his head. "It's easy for me to believe what you just told me. Because it's easy to build that illusion over his kindness. But, no. I am not that good. Even if he said I'm hot and handsome, he did say a lot of 'ew' towards gayness or bisexual things. The point is, there is no way I'm that good."

"But, Forth..."

"I am good enough with him calling me P' and treating me sweetly, letting me pinch his nose or ruffle his hair, and I still have 8 more lunches with him," Forth says. "I don't want to ruin it."

"But..."

"Today he treating me with the Korean barbeque for our lunch out. You know that he likes Korean food, right?" Forth cuts it.

"Don't be a coward, Forth," Park says.

Forth looks at Park with a dagger in his eyes. He clicks his tongue. "There's a reason why you kept yourself from telling Lam about your feelings before, right? Just like how Lam let everything slide too."

Max nearly says something but Forth raises his index finger.

"Don't make me start with you," He hisses to Max.

Max gulps.

Tul blinks.

"Anything you want to say, Tul?" Forth now glares at Tul.

Tul shakes his head.

Park and Lam blink. They forgot how scary Forth can be just because Beam was around for so long recently.

Forth gets up from the table where they are having their afternoon snack. "Beam has a playful mind. He doesn't mind a joke, but he minds what he minds. He's straight and he doesn't love me. He'll let people joke about us, but maybe he started to feel tired as it makes him get fewer girls or got annoyed by boys because people start to think that he is on that gane too, so he left Engineering."

"I don't think it's..."

Forth raises his index finger again so Lam closes his mouth again.

"I love Beam. And will always do so.

At the same time, I know that I am not worth his time and his future. I won't be in his way. I don't want a short euphoric relationship too. I want to be his P'Forth forever. Make sure he's happy and safe. So instead of making me do impulsive things, better give me ideas how to keep having a meal together with him after the remaining 8 free lunches come to an end, or better, do nothing about it."

Everyone is stunned.

"Love is to give, not to have," Forth says calmly and then walks away, leaving four stunned friends.

Silence.

Lam bites his lips. "I'm going to talk to him." He gets up and catches up to Forth.

Forth sighs seeing Lam walk beside him. "What?"

Lam smiles thinly. "Sorry, I didn't know."

"About what?"

"... your feelings. I thought you have no feelings. And then when I thought you finally have feelings, I thought you just can't move on from Wayo," Lam says. "... in my defense, you lied about your feelings for Beam when we first accused you too. And then we were worried because you seemed like you don't know what you are doing."

Forth smiles. He stops his steps and Lam does too. "I want to tap your head to assure you I'm fine, but Park is going to kill me, so just believe me when I say I'm fine."

Lam sighs. "Did you even try...?"

"I don't..."

"... to move on from Beam...?"

"I tried to like Wayo."

"As your replacement for the easier 'sassy Beam'...?"

Forth sighs. "It's difficult to find anyone who can top him, you know... Not just from the looks aspect, but from the personality view too. Take off his Casanova life, you get a perfect man. No one is even half of him."

Lam blinks.

"Not as perfect as Park for you, but he's just that perfect in my eyes. That's how you can feel jealousy towards Beam, right? He's that good."

Lam sighs.

"Just say 'hi' for Phana from me. I'll treat him for a barbeque later."

"How about this Saturday night in the trio's house?"

Forth nods. "Perfect." And then he walks first, leaving Lam alone.

*

Beam blinks. Everyone is here already. The Craz-Doc gang, their boyfriends, the entire Engineering gang... supposed to be, but there is no Forth.

Beam taps on Phana who sits beside him. "I thought everything is okay between you and Forth," Beam asks.

Phana nods. "It is."

"Then why he is not here? You didn't invite him?"

"I did. Ask the boys," Phana says.

Beam frowns. And then he looks at Wayo.

Wayo gulps. "No, P'Beam. Don't put the blame on me. I have nothing to do with P'Forth not coming to the party."

Beam blinks. He turns to Lam.

Lam is looking at Beam. He fails to understand Forth for the past two years, he fails to notice Park's feeling too. He's not sure about anything anymore right now.

"Forth is not in the mood for the bar," Park says without Beam asking.

Beam blinks. "Owh." He nearly asks something but some girls come to their table.

"Beammie...! Finally, you come again!"

"I heard you getting back to Meds? Ay, Doctor?"

Beam is sitting by the edge of the couch. It's easy for one of the girls to sit on his lap.

Lam is yet to glare at the girls but Beam already gets up and they end up falling over the couch.

"I have to go to the bathroom. Sorry." Beam walks away.

The girls look at Beam leave, confusedly.

"Did he reject us?"

"Maybe the rumors are true, he is with Forth now."

"I don't see Forth here."

And then they look at the other eight boys.

"I see no future for us flirting here."

The other girls laugh. "Me too. Let's go someplace else."

And they leave too.

"Why didn't Forth come?" Phana asks.

Park knows Phana is the leader in their gang. His reaction would be possessive. Or worse, raise another war with Forth. He decides to keep his mouth shut.

Lam knows how Phana treats Beam different from Kit. He won't tell too.

Max pretends not to hear the question.

Tul is usually quiet anyway. He says nothing too.

Phana blinks. "Is it related to why he shares his food and drinks with Beam?" He asks again.

Everyone turn to Phana in shock.

Phana sighs. That's a fucking-clear answer. "He really does not share his food and drink with anyone else other than Beam, huh?"

No one responds.

Phana blinks.

Just then Beam is back from the bathroom. "Why the fuck are girls getting bolder these days? I don't remember them acting like this way back then." He clearly struggled to reach back to the couch. Too many 'obstacles' in between.

"They always were, Beam. Specially towards you " Kit says.

Beam sits. He clicks his tongue. "Tsk. Annoying."

Ming blinks. Beam just said girls are annoying.

"What did I miss?" Beam asks.

Lam looks at Beam with a little to no expression. "Not much. We were just talk about how Forth has this annoying trait of not sharing his food and drinks with others."

Beam frowns. "Hm? No he doesn't have that trait."

"He does," Wayo adds. "We once dipped our chopstick in the shabu pot and he never touched it again for the rest of the night."

"Yeah... he'll look at me in disgust if I drink from his glass and he'll just slide it to me so I can have it all," Park nods. "I do that a lot to get his latte." He grins.

Max laughs. "Yeah, buying iced latte sometimes means war. Robbing it from Forth is the second best option."

The Engineering gang is laughing while Beam is stunned in his seat with Phana and Wayo locking their gaze on him. Kit and Ming are yet to know what's happening.

"Anyway, news..." Park cuts the laughing. "Lam and I now are boyfriends. A small thanks you, Beam."

Beam looks at Park. He slowly grins. "Did Wai tell you how I'll miss you in front of Lam and started it?"

Park laughs.

Lam looks at Beam unamused.

"He did tell me in front of Lam, yeah, but it's after it happened. It was actually Forth who helped us," Park says.

"Ah, he finally did something, huh?" Beam smiles.

"Yeah. Because you left and I said I'm gonna miss you and apparently someone got jealous," Park grins.

"I did not!" Lam frowns.

"I didn't say it's you. Maybe it's Forth." Park grins wider.

Lam smacks on Park's head and makes the other laughs at them.

"But come to think about it... it's hard to believe someone like Forth doesn't share his food. People do worse during sex." Max brings up Forth topic again. "I mean... at least he would have to kiss the sex partner and it is no different than sharing the food."

Half the boys cringe talking about Forth's sex life.

Phana even nearly covers Wayo's ears.

Max grins. "Sorry, anyone underaged here?"

Tul and Kit look at Max un-amused.

"Forth doesn't kiss his sex partners," Lam suddenly says.

"How do you know? You ever done it with him?" Kit teases.

Park's eyes widen. "Did you?! I thought you don't touch humans and you said you didn't like him!"

Lam looks at Park un-amused. "You are not seriously asking me that, are you?"

"The hell I am! I'm your boyfriend now."

"What if I did have sex with him?"

Park gasps. His eyes get teary.

"Aish, babe! I was just joking. I did tell you how he's like my brother." Lam hugs Park by his shoulder.

"Don't do that again." Park pouts.

"Hey, you said you'll miss Beam," Lam defends himself.

"I didn't say I might have sex with him." Park is still pouting.

"You make me sick." Max smacks both Park and Lam.

They laugh.

"Your high school must have been a weird one. You don't touch humans, and Forth has sex without kissing because he doesn't want other's saliva? Really...?" Tul brings the topic again.

Beam blinks. Is that true? He is thinking about the no sharing of food and drink trait since it first popped up. Because... Forth even ate from his spoon.

"Beam..."

Beam sighs when a soft hand lands on his shoulder and a beautiful girl sits on the handrest of his couch.

She smiles. "Hi, how are you?"

"Fine before you came here," Beam says. It turns colder than he meant to, but his mind is busy thinking about something else.

The girl is shocked. Even Kit who usually despises how aggressive these girls are felt sorry for her and comforted her by saying, "He's in a bad mood. Don't mind him, but you probably would want to leave before he opens his mouth again."

She leans off from the couch and walks away.

"I never heard you reject someone that harshly," Max says.

Beam looks at Max. "Shut up, Max, SOTUS got me hard. I am in my Engineering mood right now."

"If you are, you'll address him as your senior," Phana says.

"I rolled out from Engineering, no need to do that anymore," Beam rebukes.

"Except to your favorite P'...?" Phana asks again. He notices that both Forth and Beam are still adressing each other as nong and P'.

Beam looks at Phana with cold eyes. "What are you saying?"

"Ming is your favorite P', right?" Wayo asks with a teasing smile.

Beam grins. "He wishes."

"P'Park then? You did say you'll miss him..." Ming grins.

"You know Lam could kill you cold bloodly, don't you, Ming?" Beam smirks.

Everyone else is laughing.

Beam tries to focus on the conversation which is focused on annoying Park and Lam for finally making their relationship official. But he can't stop his mind from backtracking to the image of Forth's sharing his food and drinks with him.

The mushrooms from his bowl.

The gyudon tasting from his spoon.

The chicken feet every breakfast.

The iced coffee when he was running away from the Geography boys.

Beam blinks.

The water from the day they first met.

Beam brushes his nose with the back of his palm. He turns to Tul who is sitting the closest to him on his other side. "Forth lives across the dimsum place, right?"

Tul looks at Beam and tries to remain calm. He nods.

Beam blinks.

"Second floor, room 7," Tul says as if it is nothing giving out that information.

"Hmm." Beam drinks his beer and then looks away from Tul to tease Park again. "If not because you giving me hard time during SOTUS, I would have already told you about Lam's feelings for you. But you were cruel, so I wanted you to suffer a little."

Park just rolls his eyes.

"But you are indeed the worst freshman we had this year," Lam says to Beam.

"Yeah? I do not recall making any problem. I'm the most obedient Freshmen you ever will have. Try having P'Kongpob, he'll give you more headache," Beam retorts.

"Yeah. If you were like that we'll gonna throw our Head Hazer to you. It proved effective in taming P'Kongpob," Park says.

"Gyahahahahaha...!!!"

Max and Park make a high five.

Beam rolls his eyes. He gulped the rest of the beer and gets up.

"Found something interesting?" Phana asks.

Beam shrugs. "Anything is better than to be the..." He makes time to count the poeple on the table before he continues, "...ninth wheel. Geeezzz." And then he puts his share of money on the table and leaves.

The eight of them who were laughing become dead silent when Beam is no where to be seen.

Phana glares at Park.

Park glares back to Phana. "Back off. Or I'm gonna cut you in ten pieces this time."

"Back of from what?" Phana hisses back.

Max looks at Ming with his sharp eyes. "Choose your side wisely, Ming."

Wayo gulps. This is exactly what he was afraid of... as to what will happen when they all know what's happening.

Tul says nothing but locks his gaze on Phana too.

Lam is ready to use his fist.

Ming is yet to choose side between the Craz-Docs or his seniors.

Kit blinks. "Somebody, please explain to me."

Lam turns his attention to Kit. "Forth invited you all to the barbeque party at the trio's house tomorrow afternoon."

Kit frowns. "I still do not understand."

Lam gets up and puts his share of money on the table before leaving.

Park scoffs and follows short after.

And so do Max and Tul.

Phana leans on the couch.

Wayo looks at him worried.

Ming takes a long deep breath.

And Kit still doesn't understand.

***

A/N:

Thank you for the help proofreading it, @Darzls .

Hi, Readers... Sometimes I get you to read between my lines. This is lighter than "Attention", "Two Weeks" or "Given" tho. Should be okay.

Now... Among these eight, who's state of mind are you in?