Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Fah stalked out of the cafeteria, shoulders tense, clutching his laptop bag as though it were a shield. He hated the way his heart was still racing, not from the embarrassment, but from the split-second his eyes had locked with Tawan's. He told himself it was anger. Rage. Pure humiliation. Nothing else.
Except, of course, his body disagreed. His stomach still twisted when he recalled the way Tawan's damp shirt had clung to his chest, hinting at the lean muscle beneath. The way that perfect jaw had tightened when Tawan's composure cracked. Fah cursed under his breath. He needed to stop thinking about it.
By the time he reached the engineering lab, he had shoved the whole encounter into the deepest compartment of his mind. Equations, circuits, gears—these were things that made sense. Not… faces. Especially not Tawan's face.
But Bangkok had other plans.
The next morning, Fah walked into his thermodynamics lecture, still bleary-eyed from an all-nighter, only to find the seat beside him occupied. Not just occupied—claimed. Tawan sat there, looking freshly pressed, coffee stain nowhere to be seen, tapping on his tablet with an expression that dared anyone to disturb him.
Fah froze in the doorway, his throat going dry.
"What are you doing here?" he hissed, keeping his voice low so the professor wouldn't notice.
Tawan didn't even look up. "Relax, engineer. The med building's air conditioning broke. They've relocated some of our lectures here. Unfortunately for you, I'm not allergic to proximity."
Fah gritted his teeth, sliding reluctantly into his seat. The universe was mocking him, clearly. And if that weren't bad enough, halfway through the lecture, Tawan leaned over, his cologne brushing against Fah's senses—something sharp, clean, and maddeningly distracting.
"You're scribbling the wrong equation," Tawan whispered.
Fah blinked, then looked down. His numbers were off by one exponent. He flushed and immediately corrected it, but Tawan's smirk was already in place.
"Of course the future of engineering rests in your hands," Tawan murmured, voice just loud enough to carry the tease.
Fah wanted to argue. To shut him down with some cutting remark. But all he could think about was how close Tawan's lips were to his ear.
And for the first time in his life, the neat lines and flawless logic of physics didn't feel like enough to explain the chaos flooding his chest.
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