What the heart wants

The P'Phayu fan club

Rain

Every since P'Som had apologized to Rain, the P'Phayu fan club, as P'Pai called them, had been avoiding Rain like he had the plague.

So never in this lifetime did he imagine that they would be the ones to rescue him.

In no way was this Rain's fault, he would swear to it on his death day. Okay so he had been the one to suggest the five of them take a weekend trip to a remote village that had particularly good ancient architecture. Their professor had shown them slides and Rain had been fascinated.

It was Por though that had gotten them lost by reading the map wrong, and it was Sig's fault he hadn't remembered to fill his dad's SUV (that they had taken to easily fit all five) with gas. Rain had even managed to text P'Phayu before their phones completely lost signal.

So in no way was it his fault that they were stranded in the middle of nowhere, on what couldn't even be called a road in the middle of a forest, with no gas and no phone signal.

Phayu

Phayu wanted to go with Rain and his friends to the village. Partly because he always felt so over protective of Rain (but his cute boy was so sweet and innocent it just brought out that side of him). Partly because the village really did have some spectacular architecture. Even though Phayu had been there himself many times, he never got tired of it.

It couldn't be helped he had to work at the racetrack this weekend. So he had sent Rain off with a kiss that morning and told him to text when they got there. The morning had been very busy, it seemed like the bikes needed more attention than usual, so it was midafternoon before Phayu saw the text from Rain.

Rain: P'Phayu I think we are lost.

Phayu's blood ran cold. How had they gotten lost?!? He had even given them a map with the route clearly marked out. He tried calling both Rain and Sky but either both of their phones were dead (unlikely especially with Sky who was responsible to a fault) or there was no signal.

Next he called Som, since his sister was also part of the group. He didn't know Sig and Por well enough to have any contacts with their families. He only knew them at all because they were both his juniors in the student council.

Pai had gone out of town with his father on a business trip, Phayu debated about calling him. It would worry him but if he tried to reach Sky and couldn't get an answer he would be worried anyway. In the end he decided to send Pai a text, "Can't contact the boys, am going to get them"

He picked Som up at the university in his Range Rover. They were going to drive the route to the village and look for likely places the group could have made a wrong turn.

"I tried to call Ple," Som said, "but it seems you were right about no signal."

Rain

The group was having a debate on whether to stay with the SUV or send a couple back to try to get a phone signal.

Sky, Rain and Ple were for staying put. Rain was sure that his last text to P'Phayu had gone through and he would come rescue them.

Sig and Por were for backtracking along the road until they could get a phone signal. They were worried that even if P'Phayu came he would see where they had turned off at. After much back and forth arguing it was decided two of them should walk back. They drew lots and Sig and Rain were chosen.

They had walked for a little while when Rain's phone made a little beep. Rain looked and saw the 5 missed calls from P'Phayu message pop up. "Hey I have a signal," he said excitedly. He tried calling P'Phayu but the signal was still too weak. He walked around holding his phone up in front of him trying to catch a better signal. He didn't hear Sig's warning that he was getting too close to the steep edge of the road until it was too late.

Sig

Sig gasped and shouted for Rain just as Rain disappeared over the edge of the embankment with a yell. He ran to the edge and to his relief saw Rain sitting in the middle of the shallow stream that ran along the road. Sig couldn't help but laugh at his miserable drenched puppy look. He even took a picture for later.

"Can you get back up?" He called. Rain tried to stand but gave a painful yelp. He had twisted his ankle. So Sig carefully made his way down instead and helped Rain stand. They looked doubtfully up at the road. It was just too steep and Rain wouldn't make it up with a hurt ankle.

The only choice seemed to follow the river and hope that they came to somewhere with a softer slope. Unfortunately that would lead them away from the road, but they couldn't just stand here in the water was freezing and to top it off Rain was missing a shoe. He would get sick for sure if they stayed here.

Phayu

It wasn't hard to find the road where the group had taken a wrong turn. They found SUV was about four or five miles after the turn. Sky, Ple and Por were waiting in the vehicle but no Rain or Sig. If they had walked back along the road to get a signal Phayu and Som should have passed them. Phayu could only guess that somehow they had gotten lost in the forest.

"We need more people to search, and flashlight and flares because it will be dark soon." Som said "We should go back to the road and make some calls."

On the way back Phayu stopped suddenly because he had spotted an area in the embankment that looked scuffed. They got out and looked over the edge, at the bottom he saw what looked like one of Rain's tennis shoes he had been wearing that morning. So at least they knew where they had left the road and there was only one direction they could go from there. They needed to hurry though, if Rain had fallen, he could be hurt. How else could his shoe have gotten left behind?

Phayu left Sky there to mark the spot with an order not to move (the last thing they needed was another person to search for), while the others went back to the road and starting calling anyone they could think of to help search. Phayu called the authorities as well as some friends who often went camping in the area. Som and Por also called friends while Ple called her and Som's father who would have flares.

Not surprisingly most of Som's friends were members of the P'Phayu fan club.

Rain

Rain and Sig had finally found a place to leave the river. Since they had no idea how to get back to the road from here though. Rather than risk getting even more lost they decided to wait out here and hope someone would find them, besides Rain couldn't go much further on his hurt ankle. Sig had to support him for them to come even this far.

At least Sig was able to light a small fire, "Lucky my dad used to take me camping," he said. It was a good thing, they were both chilled to the bone after wading through the river.

To pass the time Sig asked how Rain had met Sky and Ple. Rain told the story of meeting Sky on the first day of high school. "Sky had just moved to Bangkok and didn't know anyone." Then told how they had both met Ple on the first day at the university.

"What about you and Por?" Rain asked

"We grew up next door to each other. We did everything together. My mom told me to go into architecture and Por followed." Sig said with a laugh.

They fell into silence and that's when Rain thought he heard someone shouting. He looked at Sig who was looking wide eyed back at him, so it hadn't been his imagination.

Sig stood up and called back and to their relief the shouts came closer. Soon they were surrounded by people led by, to Rain's utter shock, P'Som.

They sent up the flares and soon enough P'Phayu was there lifting Rain and hugging him with relief. Rain hugged him back tightly, "I knew you would find me."

The next day Rain spent in bed (doctor's orders) letting his ankle rest while happily playing games on his phone. He had P'Phayu to wait on him. By Monday he was able walk on it well enough to go to school.

The first thing he did was to make Ple take him to P'Som so he could thank him. After that P'Som, although still jealous of P'Phayu and Rain, at least stopped glaring at Rain every time they met.

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Notes:

Revised slightly. Although I liked this chapter in general, I wasn't 100 percent happy with it. I thought it felt a little rushed (one of my biggest weaknesses in writing)