BJ Tharn [On-Going]

chapter 3

Chapter 3
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He may have a pretty face,
but that doesn't mean he isn't dangerous.
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Swimming is Mew's therapy, and he always felt his head being cleared from the dark thoughts. He always did his best and would exert 100% effort even when practicing. It is his 20th lap of freestyle, indicating that his warm up routine is finished and he took a five minute water break.

His close friend, Tay sat beside him.

"I'm going to hang out with Gulf after this. Do you want to come with us?" Without a thought, he smiled but immediately hid it.

"Are you sure? It's your bonding time since you haven't seen each other for years." Deep inside, he wanted to say yes and join them.

"Yeah. You two seem to click together and Gulf needs more friends. He's changed though. He was never the social type, was always silent and introverted unless you talk to him. I'm really happy that he has come out of his shell and made some friends."

"You really love him, huh?"

"Of course." Mew just smiled, but felt a pang of jealousy. 'What is their relationship? Is it just friends or more than that?' He thought, but he realized that he did not want to know the answer.

They resumed practicing again, 10 laps of different swimming strokes (butterfly, backstore, freestyle and breast style), in an olympic sized pool. On the water, Mew felt free and unhinged, as if he is not part of the physical world, and he enjoys it.

Meanwhile, Gulf arrived earlier than expected and sat at the bench at the edge of the swimming pool. He couldn't help but the admire the different movement of the swimmers, and he felt that they were dancing on water. There was one particular guy that had his attention. He was very fast and compared to other swimmers, he was in a different league.

The swimmer stopped and they stared at each other. Their hearts synchronized beating as smile crept up to both their faces as they recognized each other.

Mew was already finished his laps and decided to sat beside Gulf. When Gulf saw his body, a sense of familiarity came upon him. He knew that he already saw this body, and he knew this body quite well.

'Is P'Mew BJ Tharn? I'm hallucinating again. Why do I always mistake them as the same person? I must be really missing Tharn. Why can't Wednesday come sooner?' He thought to himself then shifted his attention to the Phi beside him.

"Nong? Yai Nong? Are you there?"

"Yes Phi?"

"You seem distracted and deep in thought."

"It's nothing phi."

There was a minute of awkward silence and suddenly, Tay joined them and sat between Mew and Gulf.

"You two seem pretty close. I'm jealous." Tay joked, earning an awkward laugh from the two.

"Yeah, you should be. I'm going to take Yai nong away from you." Mew retorted, and Gulf felt flustered at the statement especially when Mew said yai nong.

"You're not my favorite phi anymore P'Tay. Khun Phi is now my favorite." They maintained eye contact and smiled, and on cue, butterflies started attacking their stomach.

"I'm hurt. You both even have nicknames for each other! Enough jokes na. Let's eat at the newly opened restaurant near here. I heard they have pretty good pizza."

'But I wasn't joking.' Mew wanted to reply but decided to keep it to himself.

Both swimmers showered, and they went to the pizza place. While Tay was blabbering, his other companions were stealing glances at each other.