Frozen Heart

xii. party

Tin looks at his reflection in the mirror as he fixes his tie. It's the day of their Por's party. Tin sighs, he never wants to go to that party, he could just already imagine the fake smiles, fake laughs, and fake people later. Everything is just fake.

There's no entertaining thing happening there, it will all just be elites talking about their businesses, just them talking about how to be richer, them gloating about their fortunes and worst, their daughters flirting with him, again. So yes, Tin doesn't want to go there.

If Can is there, well, probably it will be exciting for Tin because he has someone to prank but without Can, it will all just be another boring party to pass like every year. Speaking of Can, until this very moment, he still can't understand why Can had rejected his offer, wouldn't Can like Tin to leave him? Plus, Tin has barely done any prank on Can. He has left him since Pete always nags at him whenever he even tries doing a prank on Can. To be honest, one day, Tin suddenly realized Can is cool, and yeah, maybe he wants to befriend Can that's why he has asked Can in the first place, to have a friendly date. Just a friendly date and also because he wants someone to have fun with at the party.

But Can doesn't want any of that, so... whatever.

His train of thought is stopped when he hears someone knocking on his door. "Son, can I come in?"

"Yes, Por."

His father enters with a smile on his face but Tin clearly sees that there's anxiety showing behind his smile.

"I've heard you are taking your cousin. She's already waiting for you downstairs. Pete's also there with her."

"Okay. I'll come down."

"Wait, son, can we talk for a while?"

"Sure Por."

His father sits on his bed and caresses his wristwatch, a habit Tin notices his father is doing when he's nervous about something.

"Tin, this year, I'm going to introduce you and Pete to my new business partners, you are going to act as if you're real brothers. I have already told Pete about this-"

Tin rolls his eyes. "Why? Don't you want them to know that you cheated on Mae? That she died because of you? So you want me to act like you're a perfect father to me, nice. Very nice."

His father frowns at him and what once a smiling face morphs into an angry one. "If you still want to inherit something from me, you are going to follow these rules I'm setting for you."

"And what if I don't want to?" Tin challenges.

"Then you can leave this place."

"Are you serious? You are really serious about this fake image of yours, you are ready to abandon your own son? The hell!" Tin can feel his fists shaking but he controls himself, he doesn't want to punch his father but every word his father spouts, he just gets angrier at him.

His father stands closer to him and massages his temple. "Tin, why can't you just be like Pete for once?!" There he goes again. Tin being compared to Pete again.

"Because I am not him. I am not perfect. I will never be at your heed and I will never be your fucking puppet-" Tin is cut off when his father wraps his fingers around his suit and pushes Tin forcefully on the wall.

With a whisper, his father continues threatening him. "I will only say this once Tin, be at your best behavior tonight." Tin feels his Por's hands tightening against him as he pushes him on the wall once more "You know if only I could leave you here, I would. I don't want anyone to see how much of a disgrace you are. You should be thankful I'm still bringing you and all I'm asking is for you not to embarrass me. Am I making myself clear, Tin?"