Gemini

The Past

*Flashback*

My adorable 6 year old self chased after the stubborn 8 year old, hoping to catch him but my short legs couldn't keep up with his slightly longer ones.

We were at the local park with our families, as well as the families of our neighborhood friends. Once a month we would come here to play while the adults sat around doing nothing exciting except talking and making food on the grill.

I didn't think P'Arthit knew that I always chased after only him when I'm tagged "IT" and that when he chased me, I purposely slowed down so that he'd always catch me. I was just about to give up and try to go after one of our other friends when I caught him purposely shortening his steps, allowing me to reach him in only a few strides. My arms wrapped around his waist and I hugged him tightly, just like I always do when we play this game.

"Got you!" I squealed happily, refusing to let my arms go despite the tugs from P's hands before he sighed in defeat.

"That's because I let you squirt!"

"Nuh uh."

"Uh huh."

"Nuh uh!"

Before we could continue our silly squabble, our friends yelled at us to continue the game now that P'Arthit is "IT", complaining that they'd like to play too. I reluctantly dropped my arms and P'Arthit ruffled my hair before he started counting down to restart the chase again.

"Boys! Time for food!"

I looked over to see my mom waving us over to the picnic tables while the other mothers loaded up all the plates with food for us kids. After all the energy we've exerted during our fun, I was famished and so were the rest of my friends, considering the way they ran off towards the table to grab seats, even my own brother has abandoned me for the sake of food.

Skipping over to where P'Arthit was standing, I grabbed his hand and tried tugging him over to where Sing was already taking a seat.

"Ai'Oon! Ai'Oon! Come sit with us. Pleeeeeeease?"

"Stop pulling on me. Who said I wouldn't sit with you?"

I grinned and ran to the seat across from my brother and put a hand over the empty seat next to me, reserving it for my Ai'Oon. He shook his head at my actions but also gave me a small smile when he sat down so I felt happy.

Singto rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. Lately he had been sulking whenever I paid attention to Phi but I'm not sure why. I still played with my brother most of the time, I just wanted P'Arthit with us too.

Meanwhile, Tanet's mom loaded up our plates with grilled chicken already cut up, pineapple fried rice and a fruit custard for dessert. It looked delicious and since our parents were busy eating and couldn't stop me, I dug into the custard first.

Dessert just tasted better when you had it when you weren't supposed to.

I didn't notice anything the first few bites but after a while, I was having trouble pulling in enough air in-between bites and my throat felt itchy. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sing scratching lazily at his throat before turning my way with a frown.

"Little brother, you okay?"

I went to shake my head but suddenly felt very dizzy so I placed my hand onto the table in hopes to help stop the spinning.

"Thwing, I dunth fee geood." Why was my tongue so swollen? I started to panic and tried to pull in deeper breaths but nothing was working. I looked around frantically and locked eyes with my precious Phi who looked scared as he watched me, eyes wide and brow furrowed.