Two days.
It had been two days since he last saw Tay.
And on those two days, he had not seen him at work.
"Apple. Have you seen Tay?" he asked as he passed by Apple's area.
"Oh? Didn't you know?"
"Huh? Didn't know what?"
"He's no longer working here. He finally decided to go back to their company and work there."
To say that he was caught off guard was an understatement.
"Actually, he invited me for dinner later," Apple giggled as she grabbed her makeup kit.
He immediately went to his office and grabbed his phone.
With shaking hands due to frustration and anger, he dialled his number.
It just kept ringing on the other line.
Answer my call you fucker!
He sat down on his chair as he sent the message and dialled his number again.
He couldn't even count the number of times he dialled his number but his calls ended up unanswered.
_____
"You okay?" Earth asked the next morning.
"Yeah, just a bit tired," he replied as he settled his back on his seat.
"New, can you come with me tomorrow? I have to meet a client out of the city and I don't wanna drive alone."
"Why me?"
"Why not? And besides, I'm your boss and you should follow my orders, right?"
"Fine, Sir," he replied nonchalantly.
Maybe he could use some long drive to distract himself from thinking about Tay.
_____
But he was wrong because the more he stayed inside the car the next day, the more he was reminded of what happened between him and Tay in such familiar enclosed space.
They were on their way back to the city. After closing the deal, Earth dragged him to a nearby resort for a quick swim and he just went along with him to stop his running mouth.
He also wanted to do something to distract himself.
But Earth being Earth, they stayed longer than they intended so they ended up traversing the road late at night.
"Thank you for coming with me New or I would have lost my damn mind driving alone."
"Yeah. No problem."
It was already late and it was starting to slightly rain.
He glanced at his phone when it beeped.
Don't forget about this Sunday. Remind Tay to bring his family. I can't wait to break the news to the whole clan.
He sighed after reading his mother's message.
He didn't even bother to reply. He hadn't even seen Tay for the past two days.
How could he bring him along when it was already Friday?
"Oh shit!" Earth exclaimed as the car came to a sudden halt.
"What's wrong??"
"The car won't start," Earth replied as he attempted to turn on the ignition.
New looked at his phone and saw that it was already 10:45 in the evening and they were still 2 hours away from the city.
Earth attempted to turn on the engine but failed.
"I guess we should look for some nearby place to stay. It's already very late and I'm kinda tired too."
"Don't you know how to check the engine or stuff?" he asked.
He knew it was already late but he really wanna be home.
"Oh come on. Unless you wanna stay in the car."
New just sighed and followed Earth.
They found a nearby motel three blocks away.
"Sir we only have one room remaining."
"We'll take it," Earth said to the receptionist and handed her his card.
"Shouldn't we look for a mechanic and have the car fixed?"
"We'll do that first thing in the morning but for now, I just wanna hit the sack," Earth grabbed his wrist after getting the door key from the receptionist.
_____
There was only one bed but it was big enough for the two of them so he didn't really mind.
But he almost freaked out the moment Earth took off his pants and shirt.
"What are you doing?!"
"Why? I always sleep in my boxers," Earth replied and sprawled on the bed.
He just rolled his eyes and took off his jeans as well and jumped on the bed.
He was so exhausted that the soft bed felt like heaven.
"What are you doing?!" he exclaimed when he noticed that Earth scooted closer to him.
"Oh come on. I won't do anything to you without your consent, okay? Just let me be close to you," Earth replied before closing his eyes.
_____
Son, I have everything set for tomorrow's celebration. Please come on time.
New huffed and threw his phone on the table. Earth just sent him home and he had this urge to go to Tay and talk to him about tomorrow.
He dialled his number but he was only answered by consecutive beeps.
"Urgh. I swear Tay Tawan. I'm gonna kick your balls," he grunted and grabbed his keys.
_____
He pressed on the buzzer continuously, projecting all his pent-up frustration about Tay going MIA all of sudden.
He punched in the passcode when he didn't get any answer but it was incorrect.
"Fuck. You even changed your passcode, huh," he muttered.
He was about to call Tay when the door opened.
"What are you doing here?" Tay asked the moment he saw him in front of the door.
He glared at him and pushed him aside.
"We need to talk. My mom's expecting us tomorrow and I don't know what to do," he raged as he went inside but eventually stopped on his tracks when he saw who was comfortably sitting in the living room â Apple.
"Hi, New!" Apple beamed at him.
"Apple, can we talk about it again tomorrow?" Tay said.
"Uhm, okay. Then I'll go ahead. See you. Bye New!" Apple bid him goodbye.
He just nodded at her.
"Bye, Tay. Don't worry. I've got everything covered for you," Apple said.
He just wanted dismiss whatever they were talking about but he felt his chest tightening the moment Apple kissed Tay on the cheeks. And what made it worse was Tay placed his hand on her back as she kissed him goodbye.
New felt like crying, no scratch that, he was crying. He turned his back to Tay and harshly wiped the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
"What do you want?" Tay asked the moment Apple left.
He watched as Tay sat on the sofa, looking as uninterested as ever. And he hated how his presence didn't affect Tay anymore.
He just stood there, glaring at Tay who was calmly sipping a can of beer.
He grabbed an empty beer can on the floor and forcefully threw it at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Tay raged when the can hit his forehead.
"What the hell is wrong with YOU!" he asked back. "You suddenly went missing! You're not even answering my calls you asshole! Now how am I supposed to face my relatives tomorrow?!"
"Tsss."
"Tsss? Is that all that you've got to say?? Seriously Tawan?!" he walked towards him and gave him a punch on the shoulder.
"That hurts! Shit! Can you just calm down?!"
"What the hell is fucking wrong with you?!" he raged and aimed for another blow on Tay's shoulder but Tay caught his hands before hurling and pinning him on the sofa.
He tried to pull away from Tay's grasp but with his hands strongly pinned, he failed.
He bit his lips to stop his tears from falling as they stared eye to eye, his eyes raging with fire as he stared at Tay who was hovering over him and staring at him too.
When he felt that his tears were about to fall, he avoided Tay's stares and looked at something else.
Tay then slowly let go of his hands and stood in front of him.
"You should head back home. I still have a lot of things to do," Tay nonchalantly said and disappeared into his bedroom.
He just stayed there staring at the ceiling, his tears falling down his cheeks, his chest tightening.
_____
35 missed calls.
New turned off his phone and curled up on the sofa.
His mother had been calling him nonstop and he didn't even have the guts to answer her.
He was about to go back to sleep when he heard the front door ringing.
He lazily went down his bed to get the door.
He muttered a curse when he saw Tay.
"What are you doing here?" he asked nonchalantly.
Tay pushed the door aside and went inside.
"Aren't we supposed to meet your relatives?"
He immediately turned to look at him.
"I mean, we need to tell them we're not together," Tay continued.
New bit the insides of his cheeks and glared at him.
"You don't have to go. I can tell them myself," he replied as he went to his earlier position on the sofa.
"You can go. Just don't forget to close the door when you leave."
He turned his back to him and closed his eyes.
There was a long silence and even though Tay was not saying anything, he could feel Tay's stares boring on his back.
"You can go. You don't have to bother yourself anymore. I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess," he muttered still with his eyes closed.
"Did you like it?"
"Well, I'd be honest, of course, I mean, it's not something I'd regret," he answered still with his eyes closed. He was telling the truth. Being with Tay was something he would definitely be the happiest about.
"Oh really?"
He wasn't looking at him but he could sense the mockery in his voice.
"Then whose name did you moan louder?"
New immediately opened his eyes and turned to look at Tay whose face was filled with so much hate and mockery.
"Wha-What the hell are you talking about?"
He was confused. No, confused would be understatement. He was bewildered.
But all his confusions were answered when Tay threw his phone on the table.
It was a picture of him and Earth at the motel they stayed at yesterday.
Earth took the photo in selfie mode and he was sleeping beside him.
"T-Tay it's not what you think!"
"Oh really?" Tay mocked.
"Wait, can you at least let me explain?"
"You don't have to. We're not even in a relationship, remember?"
"Urgh, shit Tawan. Can you at least listen to me first?"
"You don't have anything to explain New. I mean, why would you explain things to someone you don't trust, right?"
He froze, his mind going back to the time he was talking to Gun on the phone.
Fuck.
"Tay, it's not what I meant when I said that, okay," he reached out to grab his hand but Tay took a step back.
"At least now, you've got what you wanted. If you need me to explain things to your mother, just send me a message. I don't wanna be rude to her," Tay replied and grabbed his phone on the table.
"Tay, wait. Can you just listen to me first?" he followed Tay who was heading to the door with big strides.
He was able to successfully grab his arm but Tay just whisked him away.
He winced.
He watched as Tay grabbed the door, his heart beating erratically, his mind hazy.
"It may not seem like it New, but you are the miracle," Tay whispered before closing the door behind him.
_____
"Good morning, New. Are you free tonight?" Earth asked the moment he went to work the next day.
He didn't respond because if he did, he might lash out at him for what he did.
"I wanna take you to dinner. So are you free? There's this restaurant I've been wanting to go to but I don't have someone with me. So what do you think?"
Earth was tailing him to his office, but he remained silent while telling himself not to lose control.
"New, I-"
"Can you just stop following me?" he exclaimed in a hushed voice so as not to gather attention from their workmates.
"Is-is there a problem?"
"Problem? You dare ask if there's a problem? Why don't you try to remember what you did?"
"Hey, what's the matter? What did I do?"
"Quit the act, Earth!"
Earth closed the door of his office and approached him.
"New, tell me what's wrong."
"Why did you send him that? Huh, what's your purpose of sending Tay that picture?!"
Earth stilled as if he finally realized what New was raging about.
"Oh that one? Come on. I just wanted to tease him when I sent that one. He was looking for you so I sent him a proof of where you are. "
New glared at him and slumped on his chair.
"Can," he sighed, "can you just leave me alone? I already lost my respect for you as a friend. I don't wanna lose my respect for you as one of the bosses."
_____
New turned off the engine of his car. He didn't wanna eat out but he got hungry on his way home.
That was when he realized that he hadn't eaten anything since that morning.
He grabbed his phone on the dashboard and went out of his car.
Earth had sent him several messages asking for forgiveness but he just deleted all of them.
He entered the restaurant and exhaled a sigh of relief when he saw that there were only few people inside.
He was about settle down on the table near the corner when someone called him.
"NEW!"
Three tables away from him, he saw a smiling Apple eating happily with Tay Tawan who didn't even bother to lay a single glance at him.
"Are you alone? Come and join us!" Apple invited him over.
He was about to refuse her offer but Tay cut his words.
Tay's eyes were fixed on his plate as he cut a piece of steak.
"Don't Apple. I don't wanna breathe the same air with people who think the worst of me when in fact they're the ones jumping from one bed to another."