All You Need Is Love (MewGulf AU)

🌻Chapter 1

PRESENT
🌻

The intense sunlight beat down on his head. The asphalt that lay baking in the sun reflected the searing heat, cooking the humid air wrapping a sweaty film around his entire body.

"It's so hot."

He wiped the sweat from his skin again and again, but there was always more. Gulf Kanawut knew there was nothing anyone could do about it, but he found himself complaining anyway. The fringe of his bangs stuck to his sweaty forehead uncomfortably. As he walked, he would occasionally catch sight of his reflection in windows and he gasped whenever he did.

This was his fourth year as a working man, but still he couldn't shake the impression that he was just playing dress-up in his suits. Part of that was surely due to his baby-faced looks. It was better now that it was summer, since he could wear lighter clothes, but in winter the heavy suits looked exaggerated on his thin body.

Ever since the rainy srason had ended in mid-July, they'd been suffering a heat wave with a string of days over 95 degrees. The reporters were calling this year hotter than average. The night before had been sweltering and Gulf had spent it in his room, which had no air conditioner. He felt as if he had gotten a taste of hell.

"I hope it doesn't get as hot as where you're from as it does here in Tokyo, Gulf."

Kashima, his plump little boss, was walking beside him. He looked much, much hotter than Gulf. Sweat was pouring down his body. He was carrying his suit jacket over one arm and his shirt was so thoroughly soaked that his undershirt made a perfect outline in the fabric.

The stench of melting tar mingled with the stink of sweat. Gulf had to fight back the impulse to flee from the revolting mixture.

"It's not much better. Depending on where you go, it can actually be hotter."

"Are you serious?" Kashima's eyes widened in genuine surprise.

"It's two hours away by train. Some guys who live out there commute all the way into town."

"Two hours is definitely inside the commuter belt." He nodded, as if enlightened by Gulf's explanation.

"I was planning to commute from home too, when I got hired. But when I heard the company offered housing allowances, I decided to get my own place."

After Gulf had graduated from his local state university with a degree in economics, his father's influence had gotten him a job at a regional bank. But after, he'd been thrown for a loop by the crashing waves of financial reorganization. Last year, the regional bank merged with a major bank in the city and he had been forced to transfer into the city.

The scale of business was larger that it had been at the regional bank, they even did business with the national Bank of Japan. The things he'd learned in college came back to him, and he began to feel challenged by his work at last.

His boss Kashima was a man cast in the old mold. He was obnoxious and all talk, and no one would have said he was particularly good at his job.

They had been brought together by circumstamces to work on making the rounds to visit other companies for the time being, but Gulf felt inwardly relieved since they had already heard from upper management that his boss would be changing in early fall during the personal transfers.

"Are you really living all by yourself?"

"I really am."

It bothered him how his boss got so nosy about his personal life whenever they went out together on a job. He had always asked Gulf about his time in college before, but now it seemed that his interest had migrated to the present day.

"I just figured that since you're so popular with the ladies, you'd be living with a girlfriend. But apparently not."

A loathsome grin crawled across Kashima's face. Gulf had been expecting this question to come eventually and he forced a toothy smile.

"I'm really not that popular."

"Don't be so modest. As soon as you transferred here, the girls at the bank couldn't talk about anything else."

"I was just a curiosity. Women don't seem to notice me much since I've got such a girlish baby face."

"I'm not sure about that. But anyway, once they find out you're available, I bet they'll kick up a big fuss."

Though Gulf gave Kashima an ambigous smile, inside he was getting fed up. People came to work to do their job, not to find a husband or a lover.

Gulf was a fundamentally friendly person. No matter how much he wanted to complain. He never showed it outwardly except in very unusual circumstances. He had never purposely tried to develop this tendency in his time as a student, it was something he'd learned since entering the working world. He liked it best when he could interact with others on a completely superficial level. Then he could get along without hurting anyone.

But that could have a bad effect on the women he dealt with. If they became friends, everything was fine, but if they misunderstood his intentions, things got ugly.

He didn't hate women---not at all. If he could just get over his past, he might not even mind dating.

But when he thought about waht might come after, he hit a dead end.

He had left his heart behind one summer eight years ago. So Gulf was now incapable of loving anyone.

He couldn't quite forget that old flame no matter how he tried, but it wasn't a woman. It was someone of the same sex, from the same grade. But he didn't inhabit the same world as Gulf.

For four months, they had loved each other. But that very brevity made the time seem all the more like a precious dream, and he still cherished its beauty even now.

Of course he didn't believe that he was still blind by that old love. Once it had ended, he's had several opportunities to date women, though he had not pursued them. In the process, he had come to recognize the fact that he couldn't love anyone. Before, he had been much closer with people than he was now. Not just lovers, but everybody.

But things were different now.

"Do you mind just calling it quits here for today? The truth is, there's a decent little bar near here. My treat. You want to come?"

Any other day, he would have rejected the offer without a second thought. But it was so hot today. And on top of that, he was worn out from walking around and exhausted from Kashima's company. But if that same Kashima was offering to buy him a drink, there couldn't be any harm in accepting for a change.

"Well, just for a little while," Gulf answered with a pleasant smile. Kashina reacted with exgarrated delight. Gulf should have given a little more thought to the reason for Kashima's broad grin, but at that moment Gulf's mind was full of the anticipation of drinking a cold beer.

TBC