Chapter Text
In a random spot in Taipei, shops are about to close. It is nearly ten at night, less and less automobiles are passing outside. The streetlights are bright, held up high, just next to the nearby traffic light. Very few would pass by this street at this time, he thought, only the tired milk tea shop staff slowly turning off the lights. The lights down here are flickering, but he didn’t feel unsafe or threatened by this gradual dimming of the lights around, for he was next to him, and they were sitting by the pillars of a not-so-old building round this neighbourhood.
At this time it is impossible to quite enjoy a milk tea; for one, most shops are about to close. They’re also sitting out, not quite knowing what to feel. But it was just hours ago that they made their fans overwhelmed with joy (some over-ventilating) about how close they are. The contrast, as Keen now seems, confers much mental confusion on him. But was it not also he who should have been used to a mode of interaction with Sea? Like this, perhaps? But no, it was mainly text messages because someone was just busy playing games at home.
“You up for taking a stroll and then head back to the hotel?” Sea said, lightly, like how he always is, towards anyone in life, including Keen.
“Yep, let’s go,” Keen replied.
It was not a very long walk from the neighbourhood where they are sitting to the hotel. The stroll, however, seemed to last forever. Keen looked up at the sky, and it was a clear sky, with almost no clouds in sight. There is but the moon in a small crescent, occupying a small corner in the middle-right part of the sky they are gazing upon. Keen is gazing upon the sky when he gradually walks more slowly, hoping to see how the sky is tonight and capture this moment. This is, after all, a day when they held fan meetings abroad; it should be memorable. Keen is trying to stuff more of this into the memory of this fan meeting for him and the guy next to him, known as Sea. No, this is making him far too distant than he should be; he is not a “guy known as Sea” but his on-screen partner, who shared hugs and kisses with him. But viewing Sea, the sky, and himself from a further distance has helped him calm his mind a little, just a little, only enough to sustain a short walk back to the hotel.
Keen has so many things brooding in his mind, all waiting for some occasions or no occasions to be said. About the weather today, how the moon seemed dimmer than it usually is, how many fans are there to support us today, and how many times he pecked him in the fan meeting. Sea has such a variable way of saying, Keen was amazed by how Sea would just blurt out a sentence, which made his heart flutter all day long after he heard it. Should he feel fluttered and blush, he questioned himself. Sea was no stranger, and they had been collaborating for the second or the third series already. If Sea were a stranger, perhaps he would not be fluttered, but he was also a handsome gentleman; had he not been rather nerdy and introverted, he would have captivated many others’ hearts. Keen felt more smooth with his acting now, no longer feeling anxious at a more intimate scene, but out-of-scene interactions sometimes end up making him think all night. He couldn’t be very sure whether he was supposed to feel like that.
Perhaps Sea was naturally flirtatious? Perhaps he was really friendly to him, his on-screen partner? What the nature of this was, he could not say, but he felt fluttered every time, sometimes even subconsciously looking towards the next instance of Sea praising him for nothing in particular again. The moon appears to be static, but it is moving in infinitesimally small steps every second. And being a moon seemed like an agreeable mental vision for Keen, for he liked to make the room warm and bring softness to the environment. And then Sea would be the Earth? [and he said he is not revolving around him] Or the Venus or the Mercury? [but then they will be too far apart, which he doesn’t quite want] And then Keen concluded they are better off being two intersecting humans on Earth, as they always have been.
Sea has not put down too much thought about it, nor about the Moon. He is rather delighted about the fan meeting today; he feels that finally, more people have seen them and more fans are mesmerised by Keen and himself.
“The fans were so loud it was actually louder than I expected,” Sea said.
“They’re all so hyped up about seeing you and me, and us together,” Keen replied inattentively, for he is still staring at the sky. Sea followed his gaze and looked up, seeing a clear sky with a small lobe of the Moon at the fringe. So that’s what being at the fringe feels like, but even at the fringe, someone would have noticed; Keen has a habit noticeable only to him that he likes to gaze upon the sky and search for the moon, for what purpose Sea could not tell, but it too calmed him when he traced that sight, as if he could be even calmer than he usually is.
Sea never thought he could find a real friend (or a partner?) in the show business, of which there seemed to be countless glow-up moments, photoshoots in many angles, and shouting out for fans who keep supporting them. It is all too easy to think of this as merely acting it, leaving the genuine intents far away, perhaps in medium-sized house down there in Sri Racha, where he once thought (and acted out) to wrap a heart-shaped puzzle someone gave him using clothes he had not worn in a long time, thinking it means figuratively he, Sea Dechchart, will enter the business but keep away his true feelings.
But he didn’t have to. Keen is such a pure person, and it felt off to use an alternative persona (which he didn’t have time to craft anyway). The boy he sees in front of him has always been so mesmerised by the stage; he wished to perform up there and received deafening applause from the audience. Sea thought, and I could be up there or down there for Keen; the exact position of him was less important, but he felt a drive to be his support. It is only due to his propensity that he wished to be part of the crowd for support.
And then he looked down. The stains left on the road made of bitumen still have not dried completely. Probably there was a shower a few hours ago. The warm weather at night has just started to vaporise the rain left on the ground; water vapours must have filled the air without either of them knowing. Sea took out his glasses; the surface was readily coated with a moist layer of water already.