Kiss me under the Moonlight

Prologue

Love requires courage.

Falling in love with someone is never a choice. Quite often you don't even realize you are in love with someone until you fall head over heels for that person. You wake up one day to suddenly realize that you cannot live without the other. The thought of not having them in your life literally leaves a hole in your heart aching for a lost puzzle piece from your life without which you would never feel complete and your life wouldn't make sense anymore.

But being in a relationship with the one you love is a choice. A choice that tests your courage, commitment, patience, endurance and more than everything, your love.

Arthit was aware of this fact than others through experience. When it comes to his love life, he had required courage at so many instances. First there was Namtan - his first ever crush. He fell in love with his high school best friend. Just like any other guy in the world, he was afraid to let her know how he felt about her. He was young at that time. He couldn't even identify his feelings as love, let alone muster up the courage to confess to her. When he did get the courage, it was too late. She was already in a relationship with his other best friend. He didn't want to mess up the friendship he had with her. He wanted her to be happy. No matter how much it hurts, he didn't mind if someone else was the reason for her happiness.

So he stepped back from her life. To be honest, that required more courage than it required for the confession. To look at your love be happy with someone else is the most painful thing in the world he thought during those years. But life had other plans for him.

A handsome and rebellious young man came into his life and turned his world upside down. Putting on a strict and dictatorial face has become second nature for Arthit, when it came to hazing meetings. He terrorized every freshman on their first meeting. He even had brought some to tears using just his words.

But the witty and snarky freshman who stood up to him from the first day was having none of it. Kongpob was determined to peel off Arthit's evil mask and pull out the sweet side of him. Though Kongpob's words had gotten under his skin, Arthit tried hard not to let his words affect him. He was angry as hell when Kongpob challenged him that he would make the senior his wife in front of an auditorium full of people. He wanted to snap the freshman's neck for everyone to see so that they would know he was not to be messed with.

Apart from all the anger and killing the junior in his day dreams one too many times, what bothered him most was the underlying excitement which was inevitable every time he faced the junior. It tingled his nerves stirring a surreal feeling inside him. The more he got to know Kongpob, the excitement just intensified. Before he knew it, Arthur was falling head over heels in love with a guy.

That love required courage as well. It required courage even to admit it to himself. After a lot of internal battles and a few words of wisdom from his senior P'Tum, he finally decided to follow his heart and see where it may lead. This time he was not going to take his time or drag out the confession.

Though, at first, he had run away after hearing Kongpob almost confess to him, he was not going to run away anymore. He was not going to make the same mistake for the second time. He was not going to standby and watch the man he love slip away between his fingers, right before his eyes. He was going to act on his feelings, he assured himself. And he followed through without any sense of doubt.

Arthit was never a man of words. Sweet words and cheesy acts were always Kongpob's area of expertise. That's why when Kongpob asked what he wanted them to be, on Rama bridge on that beautiful night bathed by moonlight, Arthit didn't know how to express his love and put it into words. Before he knew it, he was smashing his lips against the junior's, earning a mesmerizing smile from the latter. He had given his answer through his actions.