Chapter Text
.
“Everyone, everyone, attention please!”
Tinn stops chatting with his friend beside him when the sound of a spoon clinking against the base of a glass rings around the room, ceasing the conversations to a stop. In the room they reserved for only a handful of people, a pretty girl sits beside Tinn, smiling widely. Tinn’s friend is standing up, raising his wine glass, looking at the girl as the group listens with rapt attention.
“For tonight, we’re all here to say our farewell…”
The crowd aww-s and coos. Tinn turns to the girl next to him and grins at her.
“...and also wish her the best of luck and hope for the best in Melbourne until we meet again someday!”
“Best of luck!” The others cheer, raising their glasses in unison. The girl smiles, clasping her hands together in gratitude, her eyes are glistening with happy tears.
“Thank you, guys. Don’t forget me, alright? Come to Melbourne! I’ll welcome you all.”
They clink their glasses together, and take a sip. The sound of people chattering blends together with the faint clicking of spoons and forks against plates, sitting together under the gentle light from the chandelier with the soft melodious tune flowing through the speaker, the scene looks warm and cozy, not at all like a farewell party.
“When’s your plane?” Tinn asks her.
“Saturday evening, next week.” She says, cutting through her food and points at Tinn with her fork. “Why, want to come with me?” She teases, raising her brows.
Tinn laughs. “Yes please. I need a short getaway, can you get one more ticket?”
She puts her palm up. “Operational fees, buyer fees, transport fees, ticket price, please.”
Tinn puts a napkin on her hand.
“But seriously." The girl says it in a more serious tone. “The company you work for now sounds so intense, how are you hanging on? Got enough days off to rest?"
Tinn humms, sipping his drink. “It’s fine, it’s a necessary learning experience. Besides, I don’t plan to stay long term.” He says the last part with a small smile.
She taps her chin thoughtfully. “Still thinking about going to Singapore? You told me before that you’re worried about your mom with you working far away, has she agreed?”
“It's a bit complicated." Tinn says, thoughtful. "I mean it's actually pretty close to home compared to the other places I’ve told you, maybe around one or two hours by plane, but I don't know, she's still a bit hard to convince.”
She nods. “Ah, I really want you in Aussie too. Some of our upperclassmen work in pretty well-known tech companies there, and I think they’re doing quite well. You’ll fit right in there, Tinn.”
Tinn laughs. “Maybe someday we’ll visit you for a holiday, so you must take us on tour, alright?”
She grins, giving him two thumbs-up.
The group of friends chatter around some more, Tinn talks to another friend while the girl walks around to chat with her other friend.
“Guys, guys, let’s take a picture together, gather ‘round!”
“The star of the night, you go stand in the center!” One of the boys shouts, and the other laughs along. The girl smiles widely at them, and stands in the center, next to Tinn.
They gather together in the middle of the room, as a waiter holds a phone, counting backwards to take a picture. The camera clicks, and they all smile widely, arms around each other.
“I sent the pictures to our group chat, tag me when you all upload it, alright?” She says.
Her friends exclaim their assent cheerfully.
.
On the other side of the city, in a spacious apartment filled with recording equipment, scattered sheets of music notes and people sitting about, strumming melodies on a guitar, humming songs with headphones on, and tapping beats, Gun is scrolling through his Instagram feeds.
His private Instagram feeds.
The thing is, even though their band is still an indie-newcomers type of band, it is still very important for them to separate their private lives and their public personas. For their daily updates on newly-released music or performing activities, they usually use an official Instagram account to post contents, but for their daily lives, they use a private, personal Instagram account, to prevent unwanted attention from their close ones.
Gun is tapping his way through his friends’ Instagram stories, when he reaches a familiar handle, and stops, feeling an unfamiliar feeling creeping up his body.
tinnaphobji. Tinn’s Instagram account.
Tinn is reposting his friends’ stories. Tinn very rarely posts something on Instagram, and most of the times when he does, it is to repost his friends’ stories that have him tagged on them. This one is the same.
Gun doesn’t usually have a strong reaction to Tinn’s posts. He did, at first, but it gradually tones down to a faint shimmer, a two- to three-second pause before he taps the stories past. But this one, he takes a full one minute pause, or maybe two minutes, he’s not sure. The story slides past, and he stares at the new one, a similar one, from Tinn’s other friends. Gun taps back to the previous one.
In the frame, Tinn is standing in the middle of the group. Some of his friends are pointing to the middle, some of them hold up peace emojis, and Tinn is smiling in the center of it all, holding a thumb up. The caption on it says: One week countdown before Aussie, we’ll miss you.
Tinn reposted the story with a reply: Will miss you, kub
Gun swallows a lodge behind his throat. He doesn’t realize he has it. His heart is beating faster, and not in a good way, but in a way that makes him anxious and uncomfortable.
Tinn reposted two stories total. In the other story, he still stands in the middle, but everyone poses like they’re crying. The caption says: To long-distance-friendship! Then a heart emoji, crying emoji, and an Australian flag.
Gun faintly registers the slight tremors in the tip of his fingers, unease creeping up his bones, like ants crawling on his skin, leaving small electrical tingling in its wake. Tinn is leaving for Australia?
With shaking hands, Gun taps the first story. The Instagram handle says: nuengdiao. The account is protected, but the bio says CompSci’22, and Gun takes it that he’s Tinn’s friend from the same department.
Gun taps the second story, and the account is protected as well. The Instagram handle says: sunshined. It is a girl this time, and the bio says ‘part-time compsci student, full-time cat mom’. She seems to be another friend of Tinn’s from the same department, but Gun gets no information at all from them. Frustration shimmers under Gun’s skin, and he doesn’t like what he feels, or what it signifies.
Gun takes a second to think, before he taps into Tinn’s Instagram account, and scrolls past his posts. Tinn has exactly three posts. One post is when he enters university, posing with his entire batch. The second post is an official photo of Computer Science’s student body, where Tinn joined as a member. The third post is during his graduation day, with his group of friends. It is the same group of friends Gun sees in the story. The same eight people.
Gun taps into the third photo. Tinn stands tall between them, smiling into the camera. His hair is half-mussed, seemingly by the wind, and his cape is billowing, but he looks so bright and happy. Around him, his friends are smiling just as bright.
Tinn’s caption reads: Graduation day.
Gun lets out a small smile. Real life Tinn is much better. Why does he use so few words on social media?
He scrolls down to the comments.
tiwsons: friend, can you be a little bit sweeter?
nuengdiao: credit to?
tinnaphobji: pics by: nuengdiao.
nuengdiao: alright i’ll take it.
sunshined: happy graduation day, tinn! <3
ongsa_: wow we all look so good here 555
ppppalm: i love you too, thank you, you're welcome.
ongsa_: what are you saying 555
aylinlin: happy graduation boss!
clairdelune: i miss us already
Gun taps each one of them.
The user tiwsons is Tiwson, one mutual friend from their high school, and apparently the only one person Gun follows between all those accounts. All of them are Tinn’s friend group from college, and all their accounts are protected, it frustrates Gun a bit. Why do people protect their accounts? It is understandable if they’re public figures, but when they’re not, what for?
Gun scrolls down Tiwson’s Instagram account. Tiwson has more than fifty posts, and nearly all of them are with different people doing different things. Gun checks each one of them to no avail.
He checks Tiwson’s tagged photos, without any result. He goes to Tinn’s account and checks his tagged photos.
Gun found a post from Tinn’s seem-to-be colleagues. They were posing in an office, with all of them in a white and black uniform, an ID card hanging on their neck. The caption says: With the 53rd batch, here’s for another late-night zoom-calls and meetings!
The post is dated to the first month this year, and Gun mentally counted the time from university graduation.
Counting from Tinn’s graduation post, they should still be interning, right? Is Tinn already finished with his internship? Is he going to do a higher education abroad soon? Is Tinn about to do his master's? Is he going to work abroad?
Gun goes back to the story. Tinn does stand in the middle, but so does the girl beside him. Which one of them is going abroad?
“Gun?”
Gun looks up from his phone and takes off his headphones, only then realizing the frown that forms on his forehead. He blinks, at his guitarist and songwriter, who’s sitting next to him on the beanbag. “Huh? What?”
Sound gives him a weird look. “You’ve been looking at your phone with a serious and stressful look. Something happened?”
Yo, their drummer, pauses a bit, looking at them in interest.
“No.” Gun shakes his head, smiling. “Just…friends’ stories. I like looking at how they’re doing these days.”
Yo nods. “Hey, did you know Cherry just got married?”
Gun feels his lips stretch to a smile. “Yeah, I saw her stories. I congratulated her too.”
Sound looks at him. “You guys still talking?”
Gun humms. “Not really. Sometimes we like each other’s photos, but we don’t really talk.”
Por, their keyboardist, seemingly heard what they’re talking about, moves closer to them and sits between Gun and Sound. “What did you say? Did she reply?”
Sound laughs. “Why are you so interested?”
“Shush.” Por waves him away. “I dislike Cherry, what about it?” He sides closer to Gun. “What did she say?”
“She says thanks. She actually gave me an invite, some days ago.”
“What?”
“Really?”
They all turn to him. Win, their bassist, even stops looking at their computer, and sits down in the circle, curiosity getting the best of him.
All five of them were in high school together. They used to be in the music club together, in the Niyomsil High’s band. After graduating high school, some of them went to different universities, but they still wanted to keep the band; thus, they formed a band together, from scratch.
It was initially meant for fun, to release stress from studying in university. But after Sound uploaded their songs on music platforms and Youtube, unexpectedly, it gathered some attention and remarkable views. So now, their band, which they named The Chinzhilla, is quite well known in the indie music communities.
Cherry, the girl they were talking about, is also from the same high school as them. More specifically, she is the first and one of Gun’s ex girlfriends during high school. In high school, Cherry is in a cheerleading club, and she dated Gun for three months at the end of first year. Back then they make quite a visual couple, with Gun being the charming singer everybody knows and Cherry who is known as one of the prettiest girls in their school.
When they eventually broke up, Gun was a bit quiet for a couple of days, and so was Cherry. It’s not really known why they eventually decide to break up, but for some days, some weeks, they don’t really talk to each other. Until some time into second year, Gun and Cherry sometimes greet each other when they meet, or exchange small talk when necessary.
The band didn't really like Cherry that much. Not because of her personality, per se, but because of what her friends and admirers did after they broke up.
“Cherry’s husband seems to be her friend circle from college. He looks good.” Yo shows his phone around. Por moves over to look.
“Her husband looks rich.” Por comments.
Win lets out an approving humm, scrolling to the side to see more photos. “Her wedding looks like royalty. Wait, is that wedding cake actually edible? It’s so tall, I’m amazed they can cut it without toppling it over.”
Gun glances at it, and smiles to himself. “They look good together, a good match.”
Por turns to him with sad eyes. “Do you…still have feelings for her?”
“What? No!” Gun laughs. “It was so long ago. I think now she feels like a good friend to me, the one I shared a story with.”
“The way you say it kind of makes me feel a bit sad.” Sound says sheepishly. “To be honest with you.”
Gun smiles at him.
His friends continue to talk about Cherry’s wedding, his husband, the way she used to be so popular at school, and so on.
Gun’s mind wanders back to a certain Instagram story.
Is Tinn the one going abroad…or is it not him? So many people there, it could be anyone, but Tinn is the one in the center, so is it him?
Why do I hear nothing about this? My high school friends… Do they know anything about this? Should I ask? Would it be weird? Will they…think it as something suspicious?
“Hey, Tiwson just uploaded new stories on Instagram.” Por says from where he’s looking at his phone.
Gun’s heart skips a beat. Just in time.
“Wait, is Tinn going abroad?” Por says, raising his brows and squinting at his phone screen.
From the corner of his eyes, Gun feels the glances his friends give him. Gun pretends he does not realize it.
“Who?” Win asks.
“Tinn, our high school friend.” Por says, turning his phone around so everyone can see. “Tiwson reposted a story with him in it.”
“‘One week countdown before Aussie.’” Yo reads, peeking into Por’s phone. “What’s Aussie?”
“Australia.” Sound says. “Tinn’s going to Australia?”
They all turn to look at Gun, and didn’t look away. Initially Gun wants to pretend to not notice and be still, but then he glances up at them, looking at him awkwardly, and sighs, conceding to his fate.
“What?” Gun says. “I don’t know anything, why are you all looking at me?”
Por looks sheepish, almost guiltily. “Do you still talk to Tinn or Tiwson?”
“No.” Gun says. “Not since graduation.”
They look at him for another second, before looking away.
“But it really makes sense if Tinn goes abroad.” Sound says finally, changing the topic away from Gun, and they all turn to look at him.
Sound continues. “I mean, Tinn is really smart, even in high school he’s already smart. He’s totally the type to go for a higher education abroad, isn't he? It’s about time he goes.”
Por nods in agreement, folding his arms in front of his chest. “You’re right. It’s even weirder if he’s not going out to the world doing great things with that brain.”
“Guys, someone DM-ed the official account asking for a collab.” Yo suddenly says. He’s holding the group’s joint phone, the one they usually use for making content.
“Who?” Win asks excitedly, coming closer.
“An indie solo singer, I think. Wait.” Yo says, tapping into her Instagram for more information. Win and Por peek at his sides, and Sound calmly returns to his guitar, strumming tunes.
The topic slides past just like that, and Gun puts his headphones back on, but his mind wanders back into the previous circle of thoughts.
The thing is, Tinn is also one of Gun’s ex-boyfriends, and the last relationship he had before high school graduation.
.
Gun leaned back, heaving a breath as he wiped his forehead and neck with a small towel. His face was so red, and it felt like it emitted smoke from how hot he felt. His breath came out in soft, humid huffs, and sweat damped his shirt, clinging to his torso.
"Rest for a bit first." Tinn said from beside him, his tone soft and urging. "Don't fold your legs, stretch them out." Tinn's hands pulled on Gun's legs, and Gun smiled, letting Tinn straighten them out.
Tinn looked up, and upon noticing Gun's gaze and smile on him, he let out a smile as well. "What is it?"
"So kind." Gun mumbled, reaching out a hand to smooth Tinn's hair behind his ear.
Tinn grinned at him. "For you? Of course I am." He said proudly, in a seemingly serious manner, and when Gun laughed at that, Tinn smiled softly.
"Feeling better?"
Gun looked up at him, and chuckled. "Do I look upset?"
"Not really, I'm doing a wild guess." Tinn shrugged, leaning back, letting their shoulders press against each other. In front of them, people are playing matches in the public badminton field by the park.
He heard Gun sigh.
“My…mom still wanted me to go take accounting.” Gun finally said. “Or economics.”
Tinn hummed, listening to him attentively.
“I knew she had been against me doing full time music but accounting? I can’t even sit down for a full hour during a lesson, an accountant can’t always go to the bathroom every hour, right?”
Gun combed his hair back and rubbed his forehead. His skin looks pinkish from exercise, and Tinn watched him, gave a light pat on his knee for reassurance, and smiled when Gun looked over.
"I already tried to explain it to her, but…" Gun sighed again. “I don't know, I don’t want to think about it anymore.” He finally said. “What about you? Already deciding where you want to go?”
Tinn smiled. “I’ll go wherever you go.”
Gun smiled back at him, before his smile turned into a laugh, and he pushed back against Tinn's shoulder.
“Why are you so violent when you get shy?” Tinn laughed, pushing Gun's shoulder back. "Huh?"
“Who’s shy?” Gun says, leaning into Tinn's space and reaching out, pushing against Tinn's shoulders, and Tinn laughed, pushing back against him in a tussle.
Tinn gave up first, catching both Gun's arms and holding his hands, before circling one arm around Gun's shoulder, patting his shoulder firmly in a reassuring manner.
When Gun quieted down and leaned back against Tinn's shoulder, Tinn weighed his next answer.
"It will be really nice to go to the same universities with you, if you ever want to go.”
Gun looked at him, and his lips stretched out into a smile. He leaned his head back against Tinn's chest and closed his eyes, laughing softly to himself.
Gun said nothing.
.