Drowning In Your Love

A Shadow In Dark

Tine and Gulf were sitting in the park spending some quality time together. It had been a bit hard spending time together regardless of living in the same house once they got into relationship. They had been apart from their lovers for so many years so now that they were together they hardly left each other's presence which left very little time for these best friends to spend together. Gulf was fidgeting, he hadn't ever been good at being patient and right now he was bursting with questions to ask. Tine decided to make it easy for Gulf. He narrated the entire conversation he had with Wat.

Gulf sat there with open mouth looking flabbergasted. He had made up various scenarios but this wasn't one of them. Never in million had he thought this could be the reason behind their fight. He didn't say anything immediately, he needed time to gather his thoughts. While living with Tine, he had learnt to not blurt out first thing that came to his mind, he had more control over his thoughts now.

"Tine, are you okay with this?"

"What do you mean?"

Gulf turned to look at Tine, "Do you forgive him?"

"I'm not sure. It feels petty to be angry after I know the reason behind his action."

"Look Tine, I kinda understand that what Sarawat went through was pretty traumatizing for him. It must have weighed on his mind a lot and it's not something you just get over easily. His guilt makes sense but his actions don't."

"Yeah, I can't get over it this easily either."

"The main question here is whether he's truly over Ayan. Is he sure he has no feelings towards Ayan- be it longing or guilt?"

Tine sighed, "I don't know. He says he's over Ayan but I'm not sure. I mean a guilt like that.... It won't just disappear in blink of en eye. He says that he's over all this because he doesn't want to fight with me but if he still harbors any sort of feelings for Ayan, does our relationship have any future?"

"Maybe Wat should talk to Ayan about everything. You know let it all out, maybe it would give him some clarity."

Tine shook his head, "I don't think Wat would do that. He wouldn't want to disrupt whatever fragile peace they've built. Now that Ayan is with Akk it would seem unreasonable to confess at this point."

"Maybe not confess in that sense but he could tell Ayan that he had been in love with him and now he's over it. The guilt that's eating him from within needs to be addressed too."

"I tried to make him understand but I don't think Wat wants to face Ayan in any way."

"So are you guys back together?"

"We never broke up, Gulf."

"I know but you seemed pretty angry to me. I thought you would-"

"I won't, not over something like that. We've through a lot. I'm not willing to give up everything so easily."

Gulf smiled at that, "I'm glad. I was afraid it would all fall apart. I don't ever want it to fall apart but if it's the only way-"

"It won't. I won't let it."

It was Saturday morning when things started going wrong in little unnoticeable ways and before these four men knew everything was a mess. Tine had been serving Frappuccino to a customer when a man barged into the cafe and started swearing at a wide eyed Gulf who had been at total loss of words. Tine tried to intervene and get the man out of there but the man was stronger than him and looked seconds away from resorting to violence. A woman comes in, looking frazzled and tenses up more when she spots the man. She drags him out of there and that's supposedly end of it. Gulf was absolutely confused as to why a random person would treat him like that.

When he tells Mew about it, the latter is livid. Mew didn't like the thought a man threatening his lover. Gulf calms down his boyfriend, it's not like he was injured or anything. Maybe it was just some sort of misunderstanding. He wanted to forget about it. It was a week later when a group of women come for breakfast snickering and whispering amongst themselves as they glanced at Tine every few minutes, Tine started feeling uneasy. People have stared at him before, at times because of his good looks or when Wat was by his side but the stares right now felt more like disgust or mocking. He couldn't go to them and ask what was wrong, they weren't being mean or rude in any way. Maybe he was overreacting, he had been a bit sensitive these days.

This incident was also forgotten as things got busy at the cafe. Few days went by with nothing out of ordinary and when things seemed pretty much calm, another problem surfaced. Tine had been awake early to go shopping for coffee beans when he received a text from unknown number. It wasn't anything serious just wishing him good morning. He texted back asking for the identity of the sender but received no reply. He chalked it up to being a wrong number and eventually it slipped out of his mind.

His gaurd went up when he kept receiving good morning and good night everyday by that number. After numerous enquiry about the identity of sender when he got no answers he blocked the number and thought that would be end of it. How utterly wrong he was. He hadn't told anyone about it yet. He hadn't thought much of it but things got pretty serious soon. He received some pretty crazy texts from several numbers. He didn't know whether they were all same person or different.

"How can someone be so pretty?"

"Something as beautiful as you should be mine."

"Are you sure you want to ignore me?"

"You're getting tainted by that jerk."

"Tine, stay pure or you would be punished for it."

"Your beauty isn't for everyone's eyes."

"Your smile is something I would kill for."

"Don't smile at everyone like that. It's meant only for me."

"I love you, Tine. We should be together."

"I have been watching you for a long time."

"You're my soulmate. Stay by my side."

"Stop being touchy with everyone."

"Our story is about to begin. Are you ready, darling?"