"At one point I thought it'll be a science-fiction y'know"

I began my narration of yesterday's adventure to Sarut and Mike, once we reached 'our spot', a secluded area further away from the faculty buildings, with a banyan tree, around which were stone slabs that served as benches.

"Huh?! Why?!", Mike was sputtering.

"She said she wanted to check our 'chemi'! All the while inside my head, I was like 'why don't you go to the laboratory?' ", I rolled my eyes.

"No shit!", Sarut was now laughing so hard that he had tears shining in his eyes.

"So did you tell her how bad you were at highschool Chemistry? So bad that you were prohibited from ever entering the lab?", Mike had a very innocently curious expression, that I held in my instinct to knock him out.

"Such a thing never happened, SO NO!", I felt my temper rising. I looked at both of them, and they, as expected, had 'disappointed-but-not-surprised' expressions.

"Yeah right!", Sarut had one finger pointed up, and that was never a good sign.

"It was me who hid a huge chunk of Sodium inside the trouser pocket and threw it onto the sink when the teacher came searching. And when girls started screaming cz of the sparks, it was me, obviously, who thought to be the hero and dumped a bucket of water onto it and made it explode. Ahh! It must also be me who wanted to see whether the teacher is correct and tested the flammability of acetone and blew up the whole lab. Mike, wasn't it also me who added a hundred in grams instead of milligrams and then started arguing with the teacher saying that it could've been a discovery if it hadn't been interrupted?"

Did I ever mention how Sarut is a big ugly smellfungus with an equally ugly mouth? Well, now you know, he is.

"Dude!", Mike was red from hitting Sarut with one hand while the other was balled up and fisted over his mouth, trying to contain his laughter. "You didn't just- HAHAHA", and he fell off the bench.

I'm telling you it wasn't my fault... Not entirely mine... I think half of them were originally Sarut's ideas...

"Cut it out you crackheads! That's enough!", I hit Sarut, who was seated next to me, hard on the back of his head.

"Ah!?!?", he turned at me with a glare.

"What?", I returned back an equally ferocious glare after which he "Hmmph"ed, snatched the bag of peanuts I was eating from and faced the other way.

"So you met P'Singto at the auditions?", Mike asked for the seventh time that day.

I ignored his incessant questioning and grabbed the bag of peanuts back from Sarut's hand.

"Just why oh Lord...", Sarut had his arms pointed pleadingly towards the sky.

"Are you sure it was him? Like, did you properly see him? It could've been someone like him y'know...", Mike was still in complete denial that his role model wasn't entirely whom he thought to be.

It seemed that he wasn't planning on giving up on his interrogation anytime soon, so I decided that I might as well play along.

"Yeah... We even talked. A lot"

"Talked what?! Oh my god wait, I've gotta tell this to Gawin. He's gonna be so jealous! Haha. I'm gonna first-"

I muted out the rest of his monologue and went back to eating my peanuts in peace.

That was when I heard a 'bing' from my phone, which was in the hands of Mike who was busily typing essays to his hazer friend-slash-rival. I rarely get any messages on my phone other than from my family, advertisement companies and from the duo next to me. So I asked a lazy "Who?" and proceeded with my munching.

There was no response from Mike for several seconds that I lifted up my head, and caught the sight of a thunderstruck Mike.

"Y-you y-you... You h-have..."

I felt dread coursing through me.

"What?"

"You- you have-"

"What the hell man!", Sarut who was as panicked as I was, quickly got up from his seat and grabbed my phone from Mike's hand. He then began reading the text message out loud.

"Congratulations on being selected to cast for the role of the protagonist in SOTUS The Series. Your presence is kindly requested tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the conference room of the Grammy building, to proceed with the contract signing. Please contact this number for confirmation or for rescheduling the date and time. Thank you...", he paused to take a breath and then looked up at me. "Kit...", and for the first time, I saw stars in Sarut's eyes when looking at me.

I, simply couldn't trust my ears.

One moment Mike was seated on his bench, and the next I was being lifted in his arms.

"You did it dude! You did it!!!", looking down at Mike who was carrying me, I could clearly see a hint of tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

I saw Sarut dabbing at his eyes followed by a sniffling sound. There was a consoling pat on my shoulder and then a "You've definitely hidden the truth about your laboratory escapades and it shows"

I swear, one of these days, I'll end up 'accidentally' choking Sarut to death...

And then Sarut wrapped us all together in a bone-crushing hug and started jumping up and down while wailing loudly at the same time.

I need another lifetime to understand this boy...

In my heart I was elated as never before in my life, not only because of succeeding in fulfilling my dreams, but also for realising how fortunate I was for having these two by my side, no matter how stupid they are.

"Wait I've gotta tell my dad", I untangled myself from the group-hug and wiped the tears and snot (not only mine) on my sleeves.

My father who have always been the supporting pillar during all my life decisions, was a fun type of a man. He'd give me advices but would let me grow up and take decisions of my own. He was always a very doting father, who'd wear his heart on his sleeve.

The troubles that he went through for me, my brother and sister to be where we are now, is immense. I still remember, like yesterday, how he'd go playing his guitar from restaurant to restaurant, to earn money so that he could pay off my tuition fee. My wish is that, one day, I won't fail to give him the luxurious life that he deserves.

After speaking with my dad for around ten minutes, I was about to return my phone back to Mike so that he could finish his message, when I remembered 'him' all of a sudden.

"P'Singto!"

"What about him?"

Being a silent admirer comes in handy on occasions like this.

"Today is Tuesday and it's 11.30 now, which means...the cafeteria!"

Mike and Sarut looked at each other and then at me. "What do you-"

"Let's go. Come!"

The two of them were most probably confused as hell right now, but nevertheless, I heard their footsteps right behind me when I took off running in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Ah right! He came for the auditions too!", I heard Mike shouting behind me.

There you go, he's obviously the smartest of the two.

I arrived at the entry to the cafeteria in less than five minutes, and needless to say, spotted the said man first thing upon setting foot there.

Despite being in the middle and surrounded by a dozen or so of his friends, he was in his own little world and detached from the group around him. A book in hand and a pair of headphones over his ears, this was a familiar sight for me.

However, I didn't waste my time ogling at him this time, and marched straight upto him, slightly out of breath.

"P'Singto", I placed my hand on the desk in front of him.

"Oh Nong Krist?", that was P'Frank seated next to P'Singto.

If it was some other time, I would've greeted my senior properly. But right now, my mind was throbbing with curiosity.

P'Singto, sensing the sudden commotion around him, looked up. His eyes widened, and realising it was me, got up from his seat. There was just a foot's distance between me and him.

"Krist... Why-"

"I just got the message. Got selected. For casting. Did you too?", I spilled it all amidst taking short lungfulls of breath.

I saw how quickly expressions passed over his face, from shocked, to relieved, to pleased and then to joy.

"Wha- Oh m- Great! Me too!", he was beaming.

I'll blame it on my impulsiveness and my carefree self, who was brought up in an overly affectionate family. I'll also blame it on the irrepressible amount of joy that I felt at that moment. But most of all, I'll blame it on him, who looked so adorable in that second.

Have you ever had that moment in life, when you wished the earth would just carve itself and gobble you up, so that you can peacefully die and escape from the overwhelming sense of shame that you are feeling? Well, mine was right then.

When I threw my arms around P'Singto's neck and hugged him.

.

.

.

* To be continued *

1) Krist stated that he was so confused with the new terms used during the briefing at the auditions. When 'chemi' was mentioned, he said he actually thought why they won't use a laboratory : by Krist at Peraya Party 2019

2) It's true that Krist's father played the guitar in restaurants, so that he could earn money to pay off their tuition fees (Krist's, his brother's and sister's). It's also true that Krist was determined since then, to give his parents a luxurious life : by Krist at Peraya Party 2019

3) When Krist hugs Singto, his arms would usually (99℅ of the time😂) go around Singto's neck or somehow above those of Singto

(👆 my favourite KristSingto hug😌)

4) This is my idea of the "Our Spot"

(Spot KristSingto as well as Mike and Titlecha (Sarut) in the picture)

* Thank you for reading!💖 Please support this fan-fiction by voting!💕 *