[ GawinKrist ] Coffee Sweetness

1. It Started With...

The roads in Bangkok in the autumn were dyed with the golden hue from ginkgo trees, the weather was getting cooler in the afternoon after a downpour.

Gawin sent a boy with a swollen cheek to the door, he could hear the voice of the mother scolding her son for eating too much sweets before they walked out the clinic. He shook his head lightly, a small smile was formed on his lips, and he went back to his familiar spot with a cup of latte - his favorite drink, and turned the music back on. 

Taking a glance at his phone, and then he turned to look at the porch bell outside, his girlfriend hadn't called him yet.

Gawin is a dentist, his clinic is located in a small alley on slope with red clay brick steps on Sukhumvit Road. Therefore, he can see people walking up and down the steps every day. There were a few times people mistakenly thought that his clinic was a cafe shop, perhaps the outside of the clinic was painted with the elegant white, both sides of the fence were full of daisies and plants, and they could see a tall, handsome guy holding his coffee cup through the glass door.

Gawin had always wondered why they didn't notice the wooden sign placed on the left of the entrance. Until someone walked in and asked him to take their order for the third time, Gawin decided to change it to a bigger signboard, he even thought about making it flickering so that no one would mistake his clinic as a cafe shop again.

Despite that, he is quite busy.

He didn't know exactly how many times he had glanced at the phone, but when he looked back at the slope outside, a round head caught his eyes. A young man who looked like in his mid-20s was frowning, making his eyes become two thin lines. He seemed to be upset about something because he was pursing his lips, Gawin didn't find it intimidating, not at all. Beside him was a teenage boy with light pink hair. He was half a head taller than the other guy who had the chestnut hair. The expression on their faces showed both were having a serious talk.

When the two of them had just disappeared behind the window, Gawin shifted his gaze to his phone. The moment he was about to pick it up, the doorbell rang. Someone opened the door and hesitantly walked inside, that was the pink-haired boy.

"Hello?"

Gawin lifted his head from the table, showing his friendly smile.

"Come in!"

"I want a dental check-up...for this person!"

The guy with chestnut brown hair appeared behind the teenage boy, they were the two persons he had seen through the glass window. So, the frown and pursed lips from that guy were not because he was upset, but because he was having toothache.

"Please wait here."

Gawin talked to the pink-haired boy, his hand pointing to the black and white sofa next to the round table having the same patterns.

"I only have water and coffee here, please serve yourself, you can also change the songs if you like."

"Thank you."

The boy said and walked toward the table, and the chestnut-haired guy followed Gawin into the room. Gawin asked him to sit on the examination chair. While preparing tools and wearing the medical gloves, he started the conversation.

"I'm Gawin... and you're..?"

"I'm Krist, a drummer."

"I don't know much about that, but it sounds really cool, right?"

Gawin's hands were busy with the equipment, but when giving compliments to his customers, he would make sure to always looks at them in the eye with sincerity. That somehow made Krist feel that the dentist in front of him was reliable.

"I'm a professional drummer, do you know the band named 'X10'? I'm playing for that band!"

Krist pointed his forefinger to the direction where his friend was sitting outside.

"Aou as well, he's about to join the band as our new guitarist."

"That boy's name is Aou?"

"Um, he's my cousin."

Gawin raised his eyebrows slightly in curiosity - just a few minutes ago, he remembered hearing Aou calling Krist 'this person.'

The next seconds, Gawin calmly adjusted the chair lower so that Krist could lean back, moving the dental lamp closer to his mouth.

"How long have you been in pain?"

"It's been a whole month."

"Molars?"

"Um, it makes me sleepless."

Gawin smiled before putting his mask on, and he then took out a new dental examination kit.

"Okay, now stop talking...I will check your teeth."

Krist just hummed and opened his mouth, he felt Gawin's fingers touching his left cheek and wondered if his teeth condition was too serious. What if he was not allowed to eat his favorite cheesecake after the practice sessions with the band from now on?

Aou outside couldn't stop changing the songs. Until 'Thankful,' the latest song of X10, was played, Gawin also finished the check-up for Krist, when he moved his gaze away from the decayed tooth of the guy laying on the chair, he spotted something like cat hair on the other's collar, probably a fat cat has rubbed their head there, that thought made him chuckle lightly.

"You like cats?" Gawin asked.

"You also like them?"

"Hmm, my girlfriend likes cats." He gave his answer while adjusting the examination chair forward, turning off the light and moving it aside, Krist clicked his tongue and when the dentist turned to look at him, the guy was pouting displaying his envy.

"You seem to be very happy with your relationship, huh?"

Gawin was lost in his own thoughts for two seconds, stopped looking at the chestnut-haired guy, he muttered while taking off his gloves...

"And you're not?"

Krist got off the chair and followed Gawin to his desk, by the window, filled with the medical records and documents.

"She said I was too childish."

Gawin didn't feel surprised when hearing that, he gave Krist a polite smile before sitting down and note the condition of his customer's teeth as well as the medicine he needed to take in the paper.

"You need to eat less sweet, and remember not to eat cake at night before going to bed."

Krist was about to ask him how he could know that, but Gawin already stood up, he then handed him the appointment card, and tilted his head, showing an 'i-know-it-all' smile.

"Okay, come back again next week for the follow-up checkup."

Krist left the room, obediently following the dentist from behind. Gawin was a head taller than Krist but thinner, with broad shoulders. He looked serious when working and friendly when talking, such a professional yet interesting person, Krist couldn't help staring at the other's wide shoulders and mumbling in his mouth,

'He must be the ideal type of women.'

When Gawin sent Krist and Aou to the door, the sky had changed colors and the wind was getting stronger. Krist lifted up his head and stared at the big brown signboard with white letters hanged on the door, wondering why the dentist didn't make it flickering so that it would stand out in the dark, and people wouldn't mistake it as a cafe shop.

Later, he finally understood why Gawin didn't need a flickering sign, because 20 minutes after Krist left the clinic, Gawin also went out in his dark brown knee-length coat, before closing the door, he flipped the wooden board hanged on it from "OPEN" to "CLOSE".

Gawin's clinic was only opened until five in the evening, and Krist was his last customer on that day.

[ END CHAP 1 ]