A/N: It's a different kind of story this time. Not our usual Kong-Art type, Cheesey and romantic. But I hope you all will like it.

Please give it a try......

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One morning, In a old age Home

It was a rare thing for Kongpob Suthiluck to be amused these days.

At the ripe age of 70, he found that a lot of the world just didn’t hold that much laughter any more. His bones ached too much, his eyes strained to see any of the lovely colors around him. His stomach disagreed with anything worth eating, and the damned doctors had taken away his nightly glass of Vodka, even though he had argued that it was purely for medicinal purposes.

Not any glee had left with the young faces of his grandchildren and two sons who just didn’t have the time to come, visit anymore. They were too taken up with the whirlwind of the life. They didn’t come to visit anymore. The only thing Kongpob had to comfort him was the heavy amount check they sent every month to the old age rest home, in which he now was imprisoned.

So when he saw a flustered young woman with a mop of silky brown hair flittering about the sitting room with a pile of books he couldn’t help the tingle of amusement. She was arguing with Mrs. Lonhg, the head nurse who ruled the residents with an iron fist.

“Please, it will only take me a moment, I just need to speak with him”

She pleaded.

“Ma'am, please.... you have to keep your voice down !!”

“I have traveled all the way to Thailand from United States to see this man and I will see him, if it’s the last thing I do!!”

Kongpob was impressed. Not many young women had such vigor and passion in this day and age.

Mrs. Lohng scrunched her homely face in a sneer. Obviously she was not as impressed as he was with the lady’s determination.

“Mrs. Wilson”

Said the woman,

“Mr. Suthiluck is not very keen on visitors. I will speak with him on your behalf but other than that there is not much you ca…”

“Mrs. Lohng”

Kongpob wheeled himself up to the bickering couple. The nurse looked at him in surprise.

“I would be glad to meet with this young woman”

She sniffed indignantly.

“Mr. Suthiluck, you don’t have to bother yourself with this…”

“I am quite capable of choosing what I will bother myself with. And I would like to hear what she has to say to me this urgently”

The young woman turned and looked at him with startled hazel eyes that made the usually stoic man, falter......

Her gaze, wide eyed, focused determined, brought back a flash of memory, and a face from the depths of his mind.

The nurse huffed in exasperation and left calling over her shoulder to call if needed. The old hag would drive him mad someday.

The woman took a deep breath and gave him a small polite curtsy when they were alone

“Mr. Suthiluck”

She began

“My name is Prae wilson, and I have come with a message from my father”

Kongpob’s white brows converged. Well, she certainly didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t know this young woman. In fact he had never met her before in his life, let alone her father !! But she did look familiar, somehow he had seen her face before…

“I am sorry, my dear”

Kongpob said

“I do not know you....”

“I am aware that You wouldn’t know me sir”

Prae interrupted fidgeting a little on the balls of her feet. Obviously she was bursting with the knowledge that evaded him.

“You knew my father, a very long time ago..... when you were young”

She took a deep breath and sat down on the couch opposite of him

“Mr. Kongpob Suthiluck, My Father's name is.... Arthit Rojnapat”

Her words were a storm......

A blustering gale that swept through him and clouded around his soul.

The name..... Arthit Rojnapat... ripped a long forgotten scar off his heart, drilled down to the core and left him open without mercy. The wall of time had been broken and memories, swirled infront of his unfocused old eyes.

He saw chocolate brown hair..... hazel eyes..... and the inside of a jail cell. He smelled sweat..... and the stench of gun powder. He tasted the tip of a tongue...... the sweetness of a naked shoulder..... the disgust of blood. He heard the whispers of pleasure...... the sound of rejection, and the moans of a dying heart.

He felt the touch of Arthit Rojnapat reaching to him through the void of old age and fear.

For the first time in such a long while Kongpob felt something other than loneliness.

He looked over at the face of Prae, finally recognising the features. He knew that.... that face was familiar. She was as beautiful.... as the man who had raised her.

“Do you remember him ??”

She asked quietly.

He nodded weak from the assault of sensation.

Did he remember ??

What a loaded question.

Yes…Yes he would always remember Arthit Rojnapat.

Remembering had been the most painful part of it all.

“I…I tried to forget”

He blurted aloud.

“He spoke of me ?? Arthit told you about me ?? Where is he ?? how did he know where to find me ??”

Prae brushed her hands over some imaginary wrinkle in her skirt.

“My father did not know at all where you were. I did a little investigating of my own. It wasn’t hard. Your name was attached to the fair amount of big companies in this country. I read a article about The Suthiluck Steel Companies and its founder Mr. Kongpob Suthiluck, few weeks ago”

She stared at him deeply as she spoke. Though her tone was conversational, Kongpob got the impression that she was searching for something, inside him, seeking an answer. Those hazel orbs, so much like her fathers, were like small hammers chiseling away at years of a well constructed fortress.

She wanted something from him.... He was certain of that.

Clearing her throat, cocking her head, she began.

“Sir, before I answer your questions, I need to hear it from you first”

“I don’t understand, what I could tell you that he possibly hasn’t already. You obviously know what had happened and I have no wish to relive any of that. I am an old man Mrs.wilson, too old for this sort of excitement…."

Kongpob reached down to try and wheel himself away. Shame and indignation burned in his chest. He didn't want this. Already it hurt so much, so much like before when he woke up, from that fever and was alone. When his tender 19 year old heart had been faced with the impossibility of their situation. Of knowing he could never have what had made him feel whole for the first time.

"You mean pain"

Prae's soft voice stalled him.

"What do you know of pain, Mrs.wilson ??"

For the first time, Kongpob saw that determination backed by more than stubbornness and curiosity. For a panicky moment, he thought she was going to cry.

"I know enough"

She whispered tremulously

"I have seen that pain in his eyes when he spoke your name to me. But he never told me anything, nothing other than to find you and to perform a duty. Please, sir, I need to know this. I promise what you say will remain between me and these four walls, and that when I get my answers I will explain everything to you too, but I am begging you, for my father's sake, please, just tell me what happened between you two ??"

Kongpob felt the tension in his chest grow, the lump in his throat rise and bob at the surface.

"Is it really that important to you ?? You really want to know what happened between your father and me all those years ago ??"

Brown curls moved up and down.

"Please....."

Was this secret worth sharing ?? He had buried those memories of 50 years past so deeply. To take them back out and analyse them and tell them to another soul, would mean that what had happened was real. If he did this, it would mean that most of his life had been one lie after another. To his friends, and family, and himself.

Was it worth it ??

Was it really worth it ??

For Arthit Rojnapat's daughter, the child of the only person Kongpob had ever loved, it was worth it.

Resigned, he sat back in his chair, folded his hands, wishing he had that glass of vodka to swig down now. Prae sat primly, and waited for him to begin.

"Is it hard for you to remember ??"

She asked.

"No....."

There was a smile in his voice

"The older I get the more I remember the things that happened in my youth. It is truly odd that I can't seem to recall what I ate for breakfast this morning though yet I can remember the weather of that day when I met your father. It was sunny and warm"

He could still feel the sunshine of that morning, washing away his wrinkles…

"No Mrs. Wilson, I remember it all. It's been a long time since I have thought of it, and I never have told another living soul, not even my wife, Annie, what had happened that last year of the war. But I know by heart…..everything"

Kongpob paused and took a great breath. The moment had come. The breath of his words were like opening a long forgotten tomb.

Stale and dry, but holding onto a great secret.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning, maybe tell you what had brought me to that jail cell in America. I am from a little town just a few miles from here. I grew up on a modest farm, learning my family work-line from my father. I was young and rash and full of dreams, of life on my own rules, when I decided to join the army and the war which was going on between my country and United States. I was not a very patriotic young man, I just wanted to find a way out of the life that had already been decided for me. My family's expectations were so narrow, so dull, in my mind the army was a path for me to escape. I didn't want to inherit the farm, get married and continue the Suthiluck family line.

I wanted….."

He paused, grasping his hands into a fist.

"Something that made me feel something new, something excited, maybe even scandalous"

Prae's eyes widened but she said nothing.

"So I signed up in the army, said goodbye to my folks, and set out to war. General Wang became my commanding officer, and I, I became an another soldier of his, marching on to the war path. I won't bore you, Mrs.wilson, with all the gory war details. That is not where the story you have come for, takes place. Suffice to say I was careless in my hide out, and ended up in the hands of a very young American soldier, not much older than myself"

He looked at his young companion, smiling with a quirk to his lips.

"Sergeant Rojnapat was very excited about catching his 1st enemy….."

Kongpob didn't hear Prae's surprised gasp at her father's name.

Suddenly the world around him glided away into the past, to that summer forest, when he felt the weight of a warm body slam him to the ground, and he looked into the face that changed him forever…

He remembered that moment clear as crystal. He remembered being bound by the serious young man, drug into American General's tent, and being sentenced to imprisonment until further notice. Arthit Rojnapat, eager to prove himself had been assigned to guard Kongpob, day and night.

It was then and there that his and Arthit's story began.

Kongpob who had been an outgoing person, couldn't keep silent for long. The days in the dingy tent were just too long and boring for him to sit in stony cold silence.

"I remember trying to get your father to speak to me"

He chuckled fondly.

"He was such a serious young man. For the first week he stood soundlessly and stoically at the entrance, as if I, bound and shackled could ever escape. But after a time I was able to crack his reserve a little. I don't really know how it happened. We were so different from the each other in so many ways, but there was something there. Something that pulled us together you might say. We became…..friends and confidants, gradually"

He paused in his tale for a moment,

"I have to warn you Mrs.wilson. You asked for this tale in its true form. What I have to tell you of my inner thoughts and feelings, they may be shocking for you and a bit of….."

"Please sir !!"

Prae waved her hand in annoyance

"I am quite old enough to listen to this !! I am certainly not going to blush like a teenager. Just tell me the story the best you can !!"

Well since you asked. Kongpob smiled indulgently and continued.

"As I said before, we couldn't understand the pull of our friendship. I cannot speak for your father, but this is how it came to be for me."

"Up until that point I had to try and deal with the fact that your father wasn't a natural born enemy of mine. That he was the same as you or me, and that was what made us friends. We realized that though politically we were on opposing sides, our dreams and goals, our hearts were one. That night I felt this bond.... this... this chance that we had, was based on something stronger. Maybe that is why I noticed him differently. His beautiful soul, who wanted to write and create, was forced to be an executioner for a cause that wasn't his to fight. I wanted to protect him..."

'I don't want to be here'

Arthits's voice was hushed. They were lying side by side, staring into each other's eye's tasting the breath of secrets. It was as if the whole world disappeared within the cloth walls, and it was just the two of them. Two souls touching.

'Then why did you join ??'

Kongpob asked. His hand flew down and lay a mere inch from Arthit's upward palm.

Heat.....

'It's what any good son from an abolitionist family would do. I didn't have much choice'

To Kongpob he looked sad, resigned to a fate that he hadn't asked for.

'If you could have done anything, if you weren't here now, where would it be ??'

Kongpob wanted to take his mind off the sadness that seeped into his voice. Arthit was not supposed to be sad.

The man next to him inhaled deeply, and looked up at the sky peeking through the tent top. He looked up to the stars. There was the place long ago he believed dreams might still come true.

'I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write stories about life.... love and happiness. I want to write till my fingers hurt…'

He looked at Kongpob and smiled a softly.

That night Kongpob dreamt about Arthit writing a book, in a small white room, sitting on a wooden desk. In the soft haze of his reverie he watched as Arthits strong shoulders bunched and relaxed with every movement, as his fingers write those wonderful words that swirled around his mind...... And suddenly the book was gone, being replaced by his own self. He became the book under Arthit's hand and he was running those fingers, up and down, up and down his body…

The next morning Kongpob awoke, sticky, and looked with wary eyes at the man slumbering at his side.
He trailed off, caught up in the past. That feeling, that fearful feeling was something he couldn't deal with at the time. He acted upon it. That was for damn sure.

"I remember when it happened and everything changed. We were both sitting, laughing about the horrible food we get to eat there, and I made some comment about the teeth breaking hard tack. He was so amused, and the way he smiled, the light in his eyes…..he looked….unlike anything I had ever seen before. He was striking......"

Yes, Arthit with his hazel eyes, and chocolate locks, his compelling personality, was what brought on what happened next.

And so he told her..... He told her everything. From the tentative moment when they had been sitting in the dark and the secret had come to light. When he felt him brush against his hip..... smelled the sweetness of his fast breath. He told her about the timid touching of lips, and how that night for the first time Kongpob felt love bloom in his heart.

What an awkward instant that had been.

How did a man kiss another man ??

Where did your hands go ??

Was he supposed to be soft and gentle ??

There had been so much uncertainty.

But what they had done that night...

Kongpob still marveled that even though this union was forbidden by all, their bodies, instinctive and primitive, had known how to touch and hold, and pleasure. It had been fast and fierce, had hurt and felt wonderful all at the same time. It had been limbs and teeth, chilled and warmth. Kongpob had been with one woman before this, but that moment with Arthit he had felt like his true virginity had been broken. In the aftermath they had stared in awe at each other, hardly believing that such a joining had taken place. Kongpob spoke of the fear and shame that battled with the bubble of tenderness and, dare he say it….love….that filled him.
Maybe he should have stopped but the words just kept flowing.

Prae had sat in impassive silence her face giving away nothing. He continued.

"That joining Mrs.wilson was more than anything that I had ever known. I had felt so wrong my entire life by doing what was expected of me. But in that single act of what society would deem horrifying.... I felt at peace with myself, within my soul for the first time. Lying in the arms of my sin I felt blessed...."

Kongpob rubbed his hand over his face. Now was where the good memories ceased.

"But as much of a revelation as it was for me your father didn't feel the same. Any relationship we had built up to that point....... vanished. In the light of morning I was looked upon as the source of his failing in God. Our relationship…if that's what it was, had disappeared on his part"

The scorn of Arthit's look that day had been something that filled Kongpob with a wretchedness that touched him still. Lying there naked and cold exposed in body and soul. How he had reached out to him in love, pleaded with him to work out these feelings and emotions, but Arthit Rojnapat was not a sissy boy, nor a fag to ever be in love with a man.

'Do you think I could ever be in love with you ?? Men don't love men !! What happened between us was a mistake, a fluke of not having any women around for so long. You shut the hell up about it and never tell anyone or I will kill you myself you got that !!'

Kongpob had never felt more stripped or more alone then when Arthit had hurled those words at him.

"What….What happened then ??"

Prae's voice quivered. She seemed not disgusted but enraptured with his tale.

"He didn't really talk to me after that. Just stood outside the tent watching. He had become the solider again. But all of that changed when I became ill. I will spare you the details but I came down with a fever and cough about a week after our joining. I….I don't remember much after that. A few days went by and I became delirious. I know there were hands touching me and someone bathing me, helding my head and helping me to drink. But I passed into a long sleep after awhile"

"When I woke up..... I was floored to find myself in a Confederate army hospital bed. The doctor told me I had been sick with a very bad case of flu and had nearly died. When I asked him what had happened, how I got here….. I will never forget the look on his face when he told me that a young union solider had dragged me to my own army camp. Gave me over to the stunned watchmen and turned and left"

Here Kongpob paused and stared at his listener. Tears had sprung in her eyes.

"Though it may be sound unreal to believe, I had just known that somehow, it was your father who brought me back to my camp, though I can never be sure why or how. I had assumed that he had either suspended or been killed for setting me free. In any case I regained my strength and was granted leave. I headed back to Thailand, married Annie, started a small merchant business had some children. I did everything that I had hoped never to do. I became what they all wanted me to be"

He felt stillness come over him. He was done with this story. He had revealed himself to her and now Kongpob wanted to know.... why ??.

Prae shifted uncomfortably in her seat and whispered

"Well, I… that wasn't what I had expected. I hadn't thought…"

She shook her head, frowning. Kongpob remained silent. Just watching her in anticipation as to why he had been asked to reveal this shameful secret.

"I suppose you would like to know why I am here now, Mr. Suthiluck ??"

A breath.....

"My father is dead....."

He felt a fist grip his stomach.

"He died just three months ago. It was a heartattack. I was his only child. My wife Jenny and I cared for him until he passed. I was with him that afternoon, sir, when he went to his eternal rest"

Her breathing became heavy and her eyes glazed.

"My father was always a private man. Even my late mother, Namtarn, knew very little of his inner most thoughts. I think at the end he just wanted to tell someone. He wanted another soul to know his secret. He took my hand one day and whispered that he had to tell me something. He told me that his life had been a lie, that though he liked my mother, there was someone else in his heart. That there was someone who had always stood between them, and had haunted him for 50 years. He told me very little..... only that I had to find this person and give them his final words"

She took his wrinkled hand, the same that had cupped her father's face in their youth. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Prae...."

They were far past stiff formalities now.

"I am so sorry that you had to find out this"

He felt he had to say something.

Anything.

But she replied with a passionate fury

"No Mr. Kongpob, no don't. I do not regret anything of this story, of your meeting with my father"

Her smile was sad, touching in a way.

"I got to meet the man who my father loved all his life. I am not going to say that it isn't strange or different but love….love is never wrong"

Here Kongpob had to scoff.

"You think your father loved me ?? He could hardly look at me those final days that I was there....."

Prae paused and wiped her eyes. Kongpob thought for a moment how similar she looked to her father, but her gaze and demeanor changed his mind. She was here to give him something important.

Beside her was the stack of books she had been carrying with her when she arrived. Reaching down Prae produced a crumpled envelope, yellowed and worn with age.

"My father, when he laid there in bed, he told me your name. 'Find him' he demanded 'find Kongpob Suthiluck and give him this'. He gave me a letter. Since I was a little girl I had seen this letter. Every day when my father would reach for his pen or handkerchief he kept in his breast pocket, there was this letter. My father kept it with him for years, not once taking it out. As a child you don't think of things like that and even as an adult I must say it never occurred to me that it was odd"

She smiled watery at him and held out the old letter.

"I didn't open it. I couldn't..... I felt that it was something private"

The air stilled around them and Kongpob felt himself reaching forward and hesitantly taking the letter. His hands curled around it. Arthit had touched this paper..... was his vague thought as he gently tore the edge open. The letter inside was long almost two pages, and Kongpob could hardly make out the tiny writing.

"I am sorry, my sight isn't what it used to be. Would you mind ??"

He implored.

"Of course if you are sure."

She took the letter and in a soft low voice read him the words of his long ago lover.

The letter wasn't addressed to him, but simply began almost as if it were a conversation Arthit was having with Kongpob.

It is 2 o'clock in the morning. Once again I find myself unable to sleep, Kongpob. Oh, I am sure they would tell me it's the pre wedding cold feet. Yes.... I am getting married tomorrow, can you imagine it ?? I am finally settling down with Namtarn and giving my mother grandchildren. Nerves.... I suppose are normal for a wedding, but I wish that I could say that it was the nerves of the unknown that keep me awake.

I will not be able to keep these journals anymore Kongpob. Our conversations after this will have to end, for I fear what would happen if Namtarn were to find these words, I am about to write. With the breaking of dawn I will have to say goodbye to you again and burry my feelings forever. Perhaps it is this idea of farewell to you, and everything that you were to me that keeps me awake. But if I am to close the door to you for good then there is something that I must get down, something that must be said to you. Though you aren't here I still want to write this. I have held these words in me for so long, since that moment together that I find that I can no longer keep them in.

Kongpob, we met in the worst of places at the worst of times. I still cannot comprehend, how or why we had come together. The society teaches us that such an attraction is a sin. But oh, how I have sinned in the best way. That moment when I was into your body, the feelings that I felt, they were so frightening. But... It felt right. That situation was so wrong but I felt right. I knew that you felt it too. I saw it in your eyes. But Kongpob..... when the world came back to me and I heard you whisper tenderness in my ear, and felt that well of emotion rising… it scared me terribly. How could I an obedient son be a defamation of my family name ?? It was never out of disgust for you that I hurled such hateful words, but revulsion for myself and my weakness. Please understand how much it crushed me to crush you that day.

But now looking back, 5 years later, I cannot help but wonder what would have happened with us....  If the world had been different, had I been different. Had I instead told you that I loved you ?? Though then I don't even think I would have recognised love and what it meant. But now, now that I have seen what love was supposed to be, how I was supposed to love Namtarn, I know now that I loved you Kongpob Suthiluck with everything that I was.

And now as I awake on my wedding morning, I know that even though I like Namtarn, that I honor her as a friend, it will be your face I wish I could see as my better half. I know It is impossible but in my mind, in that little tent... in the middle of a god forsaken war, I found how things that could seem unthinkable were completely possible.

In a way I wish you do still love me, but in other way I hope you don't. I wish for you to despise me because of the pain you have to keep inside, and the secret that can never be free. Hate me for that Kongpob, it will be much easier I promise you.

I say goodbye now Kongpob and I hope that wherever you are now, that you have found happiness. I will try to find mine. But.... I will always love you, till my last breath.

Arthit Rojnapat

Prae's voice was shaken with tears, and she was trembling as she read the last words to him. Kongpob felt his own tears streaming down his hallow checks.

She whispered,

"I am so sorry......"

She took his hand. But when Prae met his eyes she was surprised to find Kongpob smiling, through his sobs.

"What ?? I don't understand !! How can you be happy ??"

For the first time in a long time, Kongpob felt a long lost sensation of joy return to him, no matter how bitter sweet it stung.

"Because, even though I am old and alone now, though my children have left me alone here and my wife is long dead, I know now, that someone thought about me throughout his life. That the person who I have loved my whole life, has loved me back. That my dear.... is the happiest thing I have heard in my whole life"

And he wasn't an old man anymore, sitting in a wheel chair, dying and alone.

He was back in that camp in that tent, in the arms of Arthit Rojnapat, and thinking of an impossible future.

Kongpob knew this because he had Arthit's heart. He had it for 50 years. Here in his hands was the heart of his lover, in the form of a love letter.

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Kongpob had been walking for such a long time it seemed. Hours…

Days…

Weeks…

Months…

Years.

Time had faded into a blur of faces, of towns and cities. Of forests and hills and lakes.

Kongpob wasn’t sure how long it was he had been searching for Arthit. A heart doesn’t keep time, nor did it measure distance. It simply knew it had someplace to go, and someone to be with.

A deep wood surrounded him now. In greens and browns sunlight piercing through the leaves, sparkling in the morning. It looked so dense and untouched by mankind.

It was certainly beautiful though. If Arthit would be in any place it would be one like this. A realm of quiet splendor and wonder, which only those of true goodness would get to inhabit.

Was this place the end of his journey ??

Kongpob could only hope so…after the war he had been looking for Arthit for such a long time, searching with his eyes and heart to find his missing half. It felt as if he had been searching through a lifetime to get to him.

Something inside told him that this was the end. That here and now just a little further in..... was his destination.

Breathing deeply Kongpob hiked his way through the forest.

The sunlight blinded him for a moment and he blinked rapidly at the shadowed form that stood calmly a few feet away. His eyes adjusted and all breath left his lungs.

Arthit looked exactly as he remembered him. Tall and lean, chocolate hair silky and shiny, his hazel eyes more brilliant than the surrounding flora. Those lips, those soft lips smiled in an affectionate welcome that made him feel warmth dip down his spine. It was as if they never had parted, as if the world hadn’t kept them apart.

What did one say after such a long time ??

After the way they had left one another ??

Arthit, never at a loss for words, smirked and said softly

“You have kept me waiting for quite a long time Kongpob Suthiluck”

His voice still made Kongpob weak. Kong smiled back and ever the gentleman nodded his head

“My apologies......”

Arthits’s chuckle filled the clearing. Kongpob wanted to make him laugh like that for forever.

They stared at one another for the longest time…soaking the other in through their eyes.

“You have come to stay right ??”

It was a whisper on Arthits’s voice. Kongpob could almost detect a hint of fear…as if he would refuse now.

“Why wouldn’t I ??”

Kong answered. Arthit took a few steps toward him shaking his head.

“You have every right to not stay. After all.... I gave you no reason at the first time…”

Kongpob smirked sadly

“Yes, if I remember correctly it was ME asking if you would stay…begging you to at least give it a chance…”

Kong looked down and sighed.

“I was such a fool Arthit. I was asking you to do something, be someone that I wasn’t even ready to be myself. Where would we have gone ?? What would we have told to our family or other people ?? A life together…no matter how much we wanted it...... It was impossible”

He expected Arthit to agree with him. After all, it was his justification. What he didn’t expect was, the look of frustration and fury that stole over his handsome face.

“You think I was right ?? After all this time you believe that after everything we faced that evening, in that tent while the world around us crumbled into death from a cruel war that robbed so many, that we were wrong ??”

Arthit took a deep breath as if calming himself.

“You know what I thought every day since that moment Kongpob ?? I regretted nothing that happened between us but the choice I made, to not find out where our life could have gone. I loath that I turned my back to the only one who ever made me felt alive”

Arthits hands crept outwards as he spoke. Kongpob could feel their heat and he sighed softly as they wrapped around his shoulders. That calloused touch still sent him reeling and made his passionate words all the more powerful. It felt good, even as he shook him slightly.

“You were so courageous to want to face this, Kongpob. You were willing to explore and try and just see where it led us. Men of our time have always searched there own paths… going against the will of propriety, and the stand of tradition. Perhaps it was a new journey presented to us, to pioneer a way for others. I failed once but now that I have a second chance…not again Kongpob not again…”

Arthit took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye.

The air left his lungs…

His heart stopped beating…

“I waited too long to tell you this I…”

But Kongpob held a finger to his lips, halting his words.

“I know.....”

His smile was glorious.

“I read your letter”

Arthit’s head tilted to the side.

“Then you know. You know everything”

Exhaling deeply Kongpob reached his own fingers up, cupping Arthit's checks. He looked into the face of a man who had tormented him for far too long.

“I think I always knew Arthit. I doubted for so long that you even held any sort of affection for me, but even now…looking back I believe that..... that belief was born out of the necessity to bury any regret at a life lost…A love lost”

Kong smoothed his hands over the chocolate locks.

“But I hope YOU knew Arthit that I wanted nothing more than every day every hour to hold you close…to hear your voice…”

A blush fell over his checks and he whispered timidly

“To kiss the one I loved”

Arthits’s soft laughter filled him with warmth.

“I wanted to kiss the one I loved too”

Arthit grinned

“God we sound like such teenagers”

Kongpob chuckled

“Do you really care ??”

This time Arthit stepped closer to him his face inches from the other man. This was it…the moment that both had been waiting for…

"Certainly No...."

Arthit answered and his lips ghosted over Kongpob's in the lightest of touches.

A tease…a test.

Kongpob ran his finger tips over the stubbly jaw mesmerized by the soul of this man. He eyes grew heavy and his breathing labored…it felt as if life was leaving his lungs replaced by nothing but Arthit.

“I love you for always Arthit Rojnapat”

Arthit smiled and finally breached the small space between them.

“And I love you too.... for always Kongpob Suthiluck”

And they sealed their vows with a kiss.

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The wind whipped Prae’s long skirt about her legs as she trudged through the sea of Tombstones. She was clothed in black, a look of fierce determination stamped on her young face. And a box, a small wooden box was cradled in her arms.

The mound of a freshly turned earth ahead...... was her destination.

There was no rock marker as of yet, the ground being too soft to place a headstone for its occupant. Only a simple wooden cross with the name 'Suthiluck' burned into it adorned the head of the dirt pile.

Even though it was only temporary, Prae couldn’t help but think this was such a sad memoriam for the man who lay sleeping beneath. For the very short time she had known him, Kongpob Suthiluck had made an impression on her heart and mind. It was the reason she had come today…to perform a finale duty.

In her heart he deserved something grand to let the world know of his recent passing.

As she approached the burial, Prae felt a lumping sadness taking hold. An odd choking sensation. It was such a strange thing to feel pain and loss for a man who had never existed to her before a week ago. What was the etiquette for mourning the death of your father’s secret lover…who was a man ??

So, as her father had always taught her…go with your heart. Its how she had made most of the decisions in her life so far. She even remembered when he had told her that bit of advice. Few years ago, one evening she had just informed her horrified mother and silent father that she was going to be marrying Jenny wilson… a orphan girl, who works with her. Her mother had been unreachable and had firmly told Prae that if she went ahead and married to a girl, that she would not stand for such an unnatural union. The pain she had felt in that moment had been consuming. She loved Jenny. Loved her with all her soul. How could she explain to her furious mother that the heart did not see such outward details ?? She couldn’t. The prejudice had been too engrained, societies hate too deep for Namtarn to ever see her daughters love of this girl as anything but abnormal.

Yet, just as she was about to leave, hanging her head in hurt, her father, who had been silent up until this moment spoke up. He told her to wait, told his wife to be silent and stood. Prae as long as she lived would never forget the look Arthit gave her. The fire, the conviction that danced in his eyes, the firmness of his voice made the hairs on her arms stand on end.

“Prae... Do not make the mistake of not following your heart. No matter what society tells you, or those closer to you say…even if the whole world, which has so often been proven wrong before, believes you are crazy. If you love her, if she loves you…then all else will fall into place, and you will be happy. But follow you heart my daughter and love her. Don’t be afraid”

Prae was married 3 months later. And her mother never spoke another word on the matter.

Now knowing the truth at that time, Prae wondered now, exactly who her father had been speaking to... at that time. Was it her ?? Or a ghost from long ago ??

The earth was cool under her knees as she knelt next to the grave, and she heaved a sigh. It had certainly been a trying week. The next day after her visit to the old age home, Prae had gone back to say goodbye to Kongpob. But instead she found an empty room and a quiet nurse who said that sadly Mr. Suthiluck had passed in his sleep that morning.

Prae had supposed that a heart free of burdens needed its rest.

Later that afternoon, as she sat on the balcony of the hotel, her tea chilling in the autumn breeze, a sudden idea struck her. It had come when she had been pondering a way to honor her father and Mr. Suthiluck in their deaths. Since this world wouldn’t allow it in their existence, ever the romantic type, Prae wanted a way for them to be able to psychically spend eternity together.

Which was what brought her here this day.

Her father had insisted on not being buried in the ground. Arthit had always stated that he wanted a piece of himself sitting in the place he loved most. She had thought his writing table would be a perfect spot.

So after he had died, Prae had cremated his remains and had his ashes enclosed in his favorite wooden box. For months now it had perched lonely and forlorn on the empty table that would never be used to create a new world of words again. However, even though it had seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, Prae had gotten a feeling every time she passed her fathers remains that something wasn’t right. Even then, it had looked strange and out of place.

Now she knew why.......

Her father was meant to rest with the person he loved most.

“Is this it ??” Her wife called from behind her. She turned and nodded watching Jenny cross the lawn, small shovel in her hand.

She stopped at Prae's side and stared around at the scenery before silently sticking the spade in the ground next to the gravestone. Prae smiled at her wife. She was such a good woman, hadn’t even complained when she had wired for her to come to an another country with her fathers ashes to burry him with his secret lover. Jenny never said she was crazy, or thought the whole ordeal was foolish. She just serenely followed her wishes.

“You are so good to me Jenny....”

Prae said aloud. Jenny paused in her digging and turned to her wife with a sweet smile.

“You are my love. I would do anything for you”

“No, it’s just…this whole thing Jenny. Most people would have laughed or dragged me back home and told me never to think of this again. You have put up with so much these past few weeks…I just want you to know how much I love you and appreciate it"

Dropping the shovel, Jenny walked over to her and put her arms around her wife.

"Prae, I am not JUST doing this for you"

She looked down at the box that contained her father in law's remains.

"Your father…He was a very good man. He was the only one who fought for us to be together, when everyone else thought we were crazy. He looked at me as his own daughter, never seeing my gender above my love for you. He treated me with respect and wanted me to be with the person who I loved more than life itself. After all that he did to make that happen, the least I could do was give him the same honor"

Prae kissed Jenny at that and they stayed still for a moment listening to the breeze and calmness of the afternoon. After a minute or two, she pulled away and retrieved the box.

Bending down Prae ran her hands over its carved wooden surface. How many times her father had touched this lid ?? She could still feel his presence even now. His love, his laughter, his smile. She would have to say goodbye now but he would always be with her. Now it was time for her father to rest in peace.

For him to be with the other half of his soul.

Though on her mother's tombstone there was Arthit Rojnapat's name.... But his spirit did not belong there.

Gingerly Prae lowered the box into the earth, and then on the top of the container she placed the piece of paper that had set these two hearts free. It was their first and only love letter and it belonged with them.

Slowly she moved the dirt back overtop of the hole, sealing it from the world above. After everything was patted in place, Prae stood and wiped her dirty hands absently on her skirt, then trailed them over the face of the wooden cross

"He is with you now Kongpob…"

She whispered, smiling.

"Take good care of him"

With one final prayer, Prae linked her arms with her wife and turned back towards the entrance.

Leaving two eternal lovers... together.... for Eternity.

🌞🌜🌞🌜🌞🌜🌞🌛🌞🌛🌞🌛🌞

A/N : So..... How was it ??

Please share your thoughts about this chapter with me, in comments section.

I will be back with a new update very soon, Till then stay safe and healthy 💖💖