Dear TaeTEe

Paintbrush and Gears - III

Tae: Forth and I continued with this kind of relationship even after he was done with his intership at our plant. We were constantly exchanging messages everyday. Nothing much was settled about our status, we both just went with the flow. It's probably due to Forth's young age. As for me, Forth provided a nice diversion and a great stress relief with my uneding work items in HR. There was even some items that Forth was able to assist me since he was well versed with creative activities such as the layout of our newsletter and some posters for my event.

*beep*

A soft beep indicated that a message was received in Beam's cellphone. He has the habit of putting his phone in discreet mode so as not to disturb other people with it.

He grabbed the phone quickly. Excitedly expecting that it must be a message from Forth. But in the SMS screen, it flashed a different name.

"What are you doing tonight?" said the message from one of his mates, Andrew.

"Probably doing overtime, why?" Beam answered back.

"The fuck dude! Don't die a martyr there! Anyway, come back at the house. We'll chill with some drinks."

Beam's eyes sparkled with what he read. "You had me with drinks! I'll just grab dinner before going there." He figured he needed time to relax. Messaging with Forth was not cutting it anymore. The deluge of work items was pouring before the end of May.

"No need." said the next message. "Buntad will be cooking dinner. Chicken roast baby!"

"Hot damn! What's the occassion and you guys are going all out today?" Beam wondered.

"Well, tonight's a rare chance that all of us will be here so c'mon down gro!"

GRO--Gay Bro.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world! I'll leave around 6PM then go directly to your place." Beam placed his phone back to his bag and rushed in doing his work item. He'll try to finish as many as he can since he'll leave two hours earlier than usual.

After a while, Beam noticed the clock on the wall. The long hand was pointed to 2 while the short hand was point to 6.

"Shit!" It was already 6:10PM.

Beam gathered all his things and shoved them all inside his bag. He grabbed his phone to message the boys but he instead noticed that he received another message from Andrew.

"May we request that you sponsor some light drinks?" It read.

"Roger." was Beam's quick reply before he walked briskly to exit their facility.

Tae: As I said before, I'm one of the boys regardless of my gender identity. I'm lucky to have met six amazing men whom I call my friends. Collectively we are known as 6½ Men. Me being the half in the group.

I've met the first four because they were my batchmate when we entered our company. They are:
Traffic, the realist;
Title, the muscle man;
Highlight, the cool and chill;
Buntad, the silent.

The rest followed suit because they were all batchmates in school, belonging to the Mechanical Engineering Department. I was also from the same Alma Mater, though in the Chemical Engineering Department and having graduated two years before them.

The last two are:
Jim Bae, the funny guy;
Andrew, the serious.

They all live in the same house. It has stood witness to a lot of our late night conversations and drinking sessions plus their wild antics. Mechanical Engineering students have this peculiar trademark of being the naughtiest bunch.