In Every Lifetime

Chapter Twenty Nine

"Will you stop taking liberties with my body as you wish?" Arthit hissed as he tried to pry himself once again out of Kongpob's arms. Everytime this man turned up in his room, he had his hands all over him. Well, not exactly all over him. But Kongpob most certainly had a preference for having his body pressed up against his so Arthit often found himself being hugged tightly to the other's chest.

"But I want to hug my husband," Kongpob whined, earning himself a smack on the head from the other. "I've been wanting to do it my whole life."

Arthit cocked an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean your whole life? I thought you told me that you had only found out about our betrothal not too long ago?"

In the last few days, Arthit had grilled Kongpob over and over again about the details of their marriage, trying to find loopholes in his story as he still couldn't believe that his parents had decided to get him a husband. It was practically unimaginable. But Kongpob's story had remained consistent right down to the tiniest detail and Arthit had finally relented to the fact that he, Arthit Rojnapat, was now a married man.

"Erm.." Kongpob dragged, unwilling to meet his eye.

"Kongpob. What are you not telling me?" Arthit threatened, using a hand to force Kongpob to look at him.

"Oon.." Kongpob pleaded, but the other kept glaring at him and he knew there was no way out of this.

Kongpobg sighed. This was not how he wanted this particular conversation to go. He had it all planned out. He was going to make Arthit fall in love with him, then tell him about their past. He wasn't sure how his husband was going to take the news of them being past lovers. This could go wrong on so many levels. But right now, he had no other way out, with Arthit boring a hole through his face as he waited for an explanation.

"Oon, do you believe in reincarnation?" Kongpob asked cautiously.

"Of course I do!" Arthit answered impatiently. "I've seen my fair share of souls here heading off for reincarnation and I'm obviously waiting for my turn. What has that got to do with what I just asked you?"

"Then would you believe me if I told you that we were past lovers?" Kongpob murmured unconfidently.

"Oh." Arthit breathed. Of all the things he had imagined, this was not one of them. He remained silent for a long while, thinking of the many questions he wanted to ask Kongpob.

"Wait a minute, doesn't everyone have to drink the soup?" Arthit shot back. Was Kongpob lying to him? How could he remember his past life if that was the case?

"I didn't drink it." Kongpob sighed again. This was going to be a long night. "Or at least the previous Kongpob didn't drink it. "I don't know why he wasn't made to, but that's how it was. Which is why I remember every single detail about our past lives. I dream about it every night. Have been doing so ever since I could remember."

"You mean you remember everything? Like, every single thing?" Arthit asked in both horror and wonder. No wonder Kongpob had reacted the way he did on their first meeting. He had thought he was dreaming. And that he was Arthit, the other Arthit.

Kongpob nodded, praying hard his husband wasn't going to run for the hills. Their whole situation was strange. Here he was, the living person trying to convince the dead person that he was normal. Never in a million years had he ever seen that coming. Then again, absolutely nothing about this relationship was normal.

"Then when you called me Oon.." Arthit's voice faltered. He wasn't quite sure what to feel. He had grown somewhat comfortable with the other man over the last few days and was fully ready to accept their relationship but now - this was not something he had seen coming.