2,000 Baht for the best Ship Name!

In the evening, Anurak and New went to wait for Sud at the faculty building. It was crowded and very noisy. Almost everyone was talking about their SOTUS activities slated for the weekend, and there was some sort of excitement in the air. Sud called to say he would be late for some 20 minutes, so the boys decided to wait at the cafeteria.

When they got to the cafeteria, they went to get some snacks and drinks. When they were done, New and Anurak noticed that many people were looking at them.

Unbothered, Anurak looked around for a place to sit. He was too busy reading and replying to Sophea's chats to notice that folks were leering at him.

— But New was.

He didn't like how most of the guys were looking at Anurak. Especially the lustful gazes from some guys. Instinctively, he took Anurak's hand and glared back at the guys with the rude looks.

They quickly looked away, embarrassed that they were caught in the moment. Plus, the guy glaring at them looked scary.

Anurak wanted to remove his hand, but New held him tighter. Anurak frowned but then stopped tugging. He didn't know why New wouldn't let go, but he somehow didn't mind as much as before. So he let New lead him to a seat not far from where they were standing.

When they got to the empty long bench, they sat down and New dropped Anurak's hand. He watched as Anurak focused on his phone, playing a racing game.

New didn't know what to do. He was planning to stay low and cause no trouble, just like he promised his Dad. But with Anurak by his side, how will that be possible? The guy was too attractive for his own good and too naive and innocent-looking.

He will bring me trouble. New thought to himself. Lots of trouble.

But instead of feeling worried, he was somehow looking forward to it.

Shaking his head in amusement, New picked one of the snacks and opened it.

"Eat your snack." He handed it to Anurak and then helped him to open his drink.

"Mm." Anurak nodded absentmindedly then picked a strip of tiny biscuits from the satchel New opened.

Just then, he looked up and saw a girl taking his picture. Anurak frowned in confusion.

"Why is she taking my picture?" He muttered to himself.

"She is not the only one." New chuckled.

"She has to delete it." Anurak tried to stand up. "Hey, you!" He called out to the girl, but New grabbed his hand and forced him to fall back on his seat. "What?" He turned to New, a little upset.

"It's useless. Just leave her."

"Sh…

Out of nowhere, two tiny girls walked over with their best smiles, interrupting Anurak.

"Sawasdee kha, Khun." They greeted, throwing the guys off.

Anurak glanced at New, wanting to ask if he knew the girls, but New shook his head in the negative.

"Sawasdee krab," Anurak answered since the girls were focused on him.

"Are you a new student?" One of the girls asked.

"Chai. Why are you asking?"

"No wonder. The girl mused aloud.

"There is no way you would be an old student and I wouldn't know you. Of all the new students I have come across in the past week, you are the most stunning." She smiled at him indulgently.

"Oh, thanks. You are not bad yourself." Anurak smiled back.

He would have flirted a little with this lady here who looked older than him, but after the lecture New gave him this morning, Anurak decided not to start anything he wouldn't be able to finish with people he knew nothing about.

"Sorry for my rudeness. My name is Pæw and this is my friend, Nin. We are your seniors from Civil engineering."

"Nice meeting you, Phi. My name is Anurak and this is my friend, New." Anurak replied with his palms clammed together and a little bow.

New also saluted them but didn't say anything. He was content with just watching the exchange since it was clear the girls wanted nothing to do with him.

"We are also representatives from the faculty of science social club." Pæw continued. "The school's social club holds a pageant for freshmen at the beginning of the second semester every year. You should participate."

She placed her small handbag on the table and unzipped it. She then brought out a form and placed it in front of Anurak. "This is your form. Fill it out and bring it back to the social club's office on Saturday by 10 a.m. I will be waiting for you."

Anurak snorted inwardly. How can some random person just approach him and start telling him what he should do or not do? He stared at the girl for a bit, but couldn't bring himself to get angry. She was his senior, after all. He took a deep breath and then smiled at her gently.

"Phi, I am not a pageant person."

Anurak pushed the form back to Pæw, but a big hand suddenly appeared and picked the form up.

Everyone looked up, startled.

"P'Sud!" Anurak called out in relief.

He really didn't know how to deal with these seniors.

Let P'Sud just handle them.

"Sud, you know him?" Pæw was surprised.

"Hmm. Promise you will take good care of my brother, and I will make sure he joins your pageant." Sud smirked.

His words shocked New and Anurak.

What was he thinking?

Didn't he hear when I said I wasn't a pageant person?

Anurak glared at Sud but he was ignored.

I can't believe he threw me under the bus.

"Since he's your brother, of course, I will take good care of him. You have nothing to worry about." She promised with a bright smile.

Pæw was thrilled that Sud showed up. With Anurak on her team, she was sure of winning at least one of the three bets she had placed on her candidates for the pageantry.

"Here." Nin, who had remained silent all this while, suddenly placed a cake box on the table. "It's for you and your friend. See you on Saturday."

She smiled gently at Anurak, making him feel creeped out.

"Did she just hit on me?" He asked aloud as he and the others watched the girls walk away.

"Don't get cocky. The cake is for agreeing to join their pageantry." Sud snorted before taking a seat. Since they were sitting at a table with two long benches on both sides, Sud decided to take a seat facing the boys.

"I didn't agree to it. You did." Anurak sneered with an angry frown.

"Same thing." Sud shrugged. "So this is your friend, New." He stated matter-of-factly as he turned his eyes on New.

"Sawasdee krab, P'Sud." New respectfully greeted Sud.

"You are Smooth's brother, right? Smooth Suwan."

"Chai!" New nodded.

He wasn't surprised that Sud knew his brother. After all, just like his brother, Sud was a fourth-year student. They must have had some dealings or at least come across each other.

"So who is the top and who is the bottom?" Sud suddenly asked, throwing the boys off completely.

Anurak who was just about to swallow a gulp of his soft drink, suddenly started coughing profusely. It had gone down the wrong pipe.

Gone up would be the right word as the drink found an exit through his nostrils.

New, on the other hand, was left speechless with his jaws on the floor.

Anurak's cough attracted a lot of attention. A girl hurried over with a pack of folded tissue papers. She grabbed New's hand and placed the pack of tissues in it.

"Go take care of him." She scolded him.

New was caught unprepared. He had no idea what was going on, but the girl's action had woken him up from his shock. He quickly stood up and went to help Anurak.

Within minutes, three bottles of water appeared on the table with a lot of cooing words from total strangers.

After some time, the cough subsided and Anurak glared at Sud who was smiling like the devil.

"See! I wasn't wrong." He smirked.

"What are you talking about?" Anurak snapped.

"Anurak, look?" New whispered while looking around the hall.

Anurak followed his gaze and saw that many students had their phones out, recording them.

He was aghast.

"What is going on? Are they even allowed to do this?" He groaned in dismay.

In response, Sud brought out his phone and played a video. He then placed the phone in the middle of the table for the two boys to watch.

In the video, New had just called Anurak's name in anger before grabbing his hand and dragging him away. What was so cute about the video was how Anurak had allowed New to drag him off like a docile cat.

The caption under the video was:

'New couple sighted. What are their full names? 2,000 baht for the first person to reveal it!'

2,000 baht for the best ship name!

The video had up to 6,000 views and more than a thousand shares.

Sunny -Uni had a total of 30 thousand students per semester, year in, and year out. Of the 30 thousand, around ten thousand were either queer or queer supporters. Of that number, 6 thousand had seen the video.

Even though Anurak and New didn't have this data, 6k views in less than 12 hours were still worrisome. Especially for Anurak who had a girlfriend with vampiric tendencies. Sophea bites…

'Sophea will kill me!' was the first thing that came to his mind after seeing the video.

New, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care. In fact, he liked this.