Chapter 13: The ‘Mosquitoes’

"You think that's really a mosquito bite?"

"Definitely a hi-mosquito. Mosquito."

"Thailand mosquitos are getting quite vicious nowadays, right?"

"Definitely…vicious."

"How long do you think it'll take to fade?"

"Depends on how 'vicious' the mosquito had been."

"Well…according to my medical knowledge-"

"If either of you say another word, you'll be picking your fingers off of the floor!"

Dunk slammed his fist on the table, the butter knife held menacingly in his hands as he stared down at his younger brothers… who simply shrugged and went back to eating dinner.

But even though they kept their heads down, avoiding eye-contact with Dunk, he could still see their shoulders shaking.

"Stop it already!" Dunk grumbled angrily, but all it achieved was Gem and Phu finally losing their composure and bursting out laughing.

"M-mosqui-to!" Phuwin laughed, pointing his finger at Dunk's neck. 

"Really vicious!" Gemini mocked him before he was almost on the floor with the force of his laughter.

Dunk however, wasn't amused in the least bit.

"Of course, Gem…wouldn't you know the difference between a mosquito bite and a hickey?" Dunk's lips tilted up in a smirk as he saw Gem's laughter die down almost instantly as he started to cough all of a sudden.

"And, Phuwin…" he turned his gaze onto his younger brother, who suddenly looked awfully serious. "I was thinking of getting a painting done for my room? Heard you know an exception painter…"

"Fuck!" Phuwin too, tried to disguise that curse as a cough.

"Yeah?" Dunk folded his hands under his chin, giving his brothers a look from under his lashes. "How does it feel now?"

Neither Phuwin, nor Gemini dared to say another word as they went back to eating their dinner.

It was one of those rare nights where their dads would be working late in their office, so the three of them had decided to skip their healthy meals and make ramen at home.

Gemini had initially suggested that they order fried chicken, but they were very sure that the discarded wrappers would be discovered by their Pa New and then they'd be doomed. Because their dads would rather have them order fried chicken from their restaurant, than at any fast food joint…and even the fried food at their own restaurant tasted healthy.

So they had instead brought out their Korean ramen collection from their secret ramen stash and thrown three different flavors together along with soft boiled eggs, some veggies- that Gemini was avoiding like the plague, Kimchi and some rice cakes. The end result had been a delicious meal that the three of them had devoured in one sitting.

The experience had been even better when Dunk had been striding around the room with a band-aid stamped on his neck, refusing to tell his Nong's about what the band-aid was even for, so Phuwin had taken the initiative to rip it off his neck to discover the…mosquito bite.

"How did he find out?" Gemini whispered to Phuwin, his expression worried.

"It's a good thing he did, so now we don't have to hide anything anymore." Phuwin shrugged, folding his arms across his chest. "Fess us Hia, what happened on that night you didn't return home? You seemed too distracted!"

"Aarai wah?" Gem looked between Phuwin and Dunk in confusion. "Can we really ask him that?"

"I'm older so I can." Phuwin raised his eyebrows at Dunk. "So?"

Dunk swallowed. How had he ended up in this position again?

Wasn't it enough that that Hia Joong was having fun by teasing him, now his younger brothers were ganging up on him too?

Dunk got up from his chair quickly. The only way to get out of the situation was to run, because he knew exactly how persistent they were, a trait all of them seemed to have from their dad Tay.

"So…I'm the oldest of us three and I don't have to answer to anyone." He lifted up his face in a show of arrogance and authority. "And because I cooked for the two of you…do the dishes before you go to sleep."

With that, Dunk sauntered out of the room before any of them could stop him.

Phuwin and Gemini looked after their brother in amusement. "Yup…something did happen that night." Phuwin muttered to Gem, shaking his head.

"How do you know that?" Gem asked him instead. "Isn't that assuming too much?"

"You didn't see him the next morning like I did." Phuwin's lips tilted up in amusement. "And he just used the 'Hia' card to get out of the situation, which means it was bad."

"By the way, Hia…what did he mean by you knowing a good painter?" Gem tilted his head in confusion. "Since when did you start showing interest in paintings?"

"Nothing!" Phuwin said quickly, getting up to collect the dishes. "It's nothing. Let's get these cleaned before dad and pa get home. Come on! Quick!"

"Ugh! Fine!" Gemini groaned as he got up from his seat and followed his brother into the kitchen. "Why can't we get the maids to do this?"

"You want dad to find out we've been having instant noodles?" Phuwin raised his eyebrows. "Because the last time that happened, we had salads for three days straight!"

"Yuck! Veggies!" Gemini's face scrunched up in disgust before he hurried after Phuwin. "Let's get this done quickly."

*

Tay and New were in their office, looking after their progress reports and busy filing for taxes for their company.

It was almost one in the morning, but the amount of work just seemed to be never-ending.

New sighed, stretching his arms above his head, a yawn escaping his lips. 

Tay noticed his tiredness almost immediately, even though he was nearly buried in a mountain of files himself.

"Are you okay?" Tay reached over to place a hand on Newwie's back, rubbing in gentle circles. "Do you want to take a short break?"

"I'm hungry," New complained. "Let's get something to eat at the kitchen."

"I'll just order the kitchen staff to deliver something," Tay picked up the phone with his free hand. "What do you want to have?"

"No, don't call them!" Newwie quickly took the phone from his hands and placed it back in place. "The kitchen staff has already cleaned up and gone to bed. There's no need to disturb them in the middle of the night."

"Then how do you suppose we get our meal?" Tay asked with a perplexed expression. "Anyways, they get paid to do their work. One meal won't be that hard to make."

"Tay…" New placed a hand on his shoulders to stop him once again. "Let's get some fried chicken from the store opposite to us?"

Narrowing his eyes, Tay shook his head at his husbands pleading, puppy eyes. "No wonder Gemini always wants fried chicken. He gets it from you."

"Of course! Like father, like son, right?" New grinned up at Tay, despite his tiredness. "Come on…let's go get some."

Suddenly, Tay's lips tilted up into a smirk. "Aarai na? Get some?"

"Ai Hia, not that kind of 'get some'!" New slapped his husband's shoulder, shaking his head. "Why do you always have to be horny!"

"You mentioned 'hungry' and 'get some' at the same time." Tay shrugged with a not-so-innocent smile. "I thought you were giving me some kind of hint…"

"Ai Tawan!" New narrowed his eyes at him.

"Dai khab?" Tay's sing-song voice almost made New smile…almost.

"Let's go eat…food! I mean food!" He corrected before it was too late.

"Fine." Tay sighed, giving up when he heard his own stomach rumble. "Only this time. You know I don't like fast food."

"Really now?" New shook his head. "You used to love eating fast food at my dorm back when we were in college."

"That's because I got to eat you later."

"TAYYYY!"

The sound of Tay's laughter filled the office room as he pulled Newwie closer so he could place a kiss to his cheeks.

Newwie didn't say anything…because he hadn't heard his husband laugh like this in a long time.

Not since they lost some of their closest friends…