2gether Again

Wiretapping

"Thank you for dropping me off," Tine said to Sarawat, honestly still in disbelief about what they had talked about back in the office. He had a rock star boyfriend. It was a dream he didn't want to wake up from.

"You're welcome," Sarawat replied, giving Tine a soft smile. He looked happy. Tine hadn't seen him look this happy since CTRL+S won best album for their sophomore attempt during the year-end ceremonies. He flushed at the thought of making Sarawat feel this much.

"What are you thinking about?"

Tine bit his lip. "Nothing much. You, mostly."

If possible, Sarawat looked happier. "Sappy."

Tine rolled his eyes. "I can take it back if you want." He fiddled with his thumbs. "Hey, Sarawat?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you ever reveal that Pam wasn't really your girlfriend?"

Sarawat sighed.

"She was my first love." He looked lost in thought, voice wavering slightly. "Even if she changed so much over the years, I wanted to preserve that memory of her. The girl I fell in love with as a teenager."

"But you had Dim make a restraining order."

"It got a bad a few years back. I was willing to ignore it for the first few months; I thought she would lose interest after a while. But it dragged on, and she was getting endorsement deals and contracts on the merit of being my girlfriend. It wasn't fair to the CTRL+S members. Then she..." Sarawat trailed off, hands clenching.

"This is about the engagement ring post, isn't it?" Tine said grimly, recalling the timeline of Sarawat and Pam's supposed relationship.

Sarawat closed his eyes and nodded. "I had a panic attack over that damn picture. Air was so pissed off that she wanted to Pam to get arrested."

Pam had steadily been posting pictures of her and Sarawat for close to two years. Sarawat had spent the past six months begging her to stop, that he would do anything except get back together. Pam furiously refused, then she posted a picture of her hand wearing a diamond ring. The fans went crazy. Tine remembered being depressed over the entire thing, him and the rest of the CTRL+S admins moaning over the loss of Sarawat's singlehood.

"After Pam was served the restraining order and an NDA, my management company had managed to get the photo taken down but there were so many screenshots that it never really left the internet."

Pam stopped posting after that and slowly, she stopped being a hot topic. Instead, the fans began to wonder if she and Sarawat had broken up.

"I knew that ring was fucking fake," Tine said, cheering mentally.

Sarawat snorted. "You're okay about all of this?"

"You loved her, Sarawat. I respect that, and however you chose to deal with your feelings is your business. Sure, somehow I think your fans deserve to know the truth but that's just me, a fan, talking."

Sarawat hummed, turning the volume of the radio down, eyes never leaving Tine's face.

"You've spent your entire career being talked about online," Tine said finally, reaching over and giving Sarawat's hand a comforting squeeze. "There are things you deserve to keep to yourself. I'm glad you told me."

"I think this warrants a coffee invite at your condo." Sarawat joked, raising his eyebrows.

"Saraleo." Tine huffed and let go of his hand, giving him a light push on his chest. "Good night."