This is a boylove-style adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic coming of age novel, Jane Eyre. It was originally published in 1847.
This version will turn Jane into a gay man and leaves behind the period time and setting.
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The long-awaited call came a week later. The man was easy to listen to with his soft and educated voice, but, there was a deeply suspicious under-tone in it.
"May I speak with Fair Aanukorn."
"This is Fair."
"Fair, my name is Aker..."
...
...My sister tells me you were enquiring after Air Thamasat, and yes, he was here."
Aker heard the man's excited exasperation on the other end of the line.
"Oh, thank you so much. Would it be possible for me to speak with him, please?" Fair thought for sure that the man could hear his pounding heart through the phone. His hands were sweating.
"I said, 'was', Mr. Fair, Nong'Air is no longer here."
A tiny piece of Fair died when he heard these words. He'd waited so long for this call to be returned and there weren't many places left on the list from Park.
"Did he say, ...do you know where he was going?" (It took Aker and Pamp six weeks to find a new teacher.)
Aker suddenly felt he should be wary. Obviously, something or someone in Air's past had traumatized him. For all Aker knew, it could be the person on the phone inquiring.
Aker's tenor grew more untrusting: "I know this, when I found Air he was unconscious, filthy, cut, bruised and sickly. I would never put him back into the hands of the people who did that to him."
Now Aker heard the stranger take in a sharp breath. He couldn't be sure, but he thought the man started crying.
Fair told Aker everything. He commenced with Air's application for work. He described the day Air arrived from Bangkok and the many days since. Fair explained why Air was covered in soot and so banged up when Aker discovered him. He told Aker how they'd only just learned themselves that Air didn't perish in the explosion on the night of his wedding. The last thing Fair mentioned to Aker, was that Air's husband survived too.
Aker relented: "Air doesn't know that. He said he watched his husband die. Air said the whole burning house fell on him."
It was probably the longest telephone conversation that either of them had ever had. Aker described the soul that he'd come to love. Fair listened but thought it sounded like a different person altogether. Aker had fallen for a timid and sombre young man. He'd never seen Air's stubborn side, or the boy who could argue anyone down. He didn't know that Air could crack a joke and giggle himself to tears.
