The words in blue are Pete's thoughts.

Staring at himself in the mirror, Earn noticed that his face has gained more shape and his eyes had a renewed spark in them. His ribs are not showing as much and his skin is getting back to its original golden colour. After Pete has come back, Earn has felt better and he is having less panic attacks. He doesn't know why but as if he is going to complain. He has been trying to take better care of himself by eating properly and doing weights like he used to. Earn smiled at his reflection, he's starting to like himself more.

Earn puts on his shirt and straightens out the sleeves before starting to button his shirt.

"Earn, your mum let me in....." Pete opens the door and catches Earn's revealed torso. He stops dead in his tracks, shocked at what he is seeing, he hurriedly averts his eyes. "sorry, I should have knocked."

Ironically, Earn didn't notice anything and just carried on buttoning his shirt. "oh, Pete, your early. Wait, I'm nearly done." Earn buttons up his shirt and grabs his tie. Threading the tie through his collars and tries to pretend he knows what he is doing. How does this .... What the? Wait am i suppose to put it through.

"Bl**dy F**king mother f..." Earn thinks out loud.

Suddenly, a pair of slim, smooth hands held on to both ends of his tie and pulled them away from Earn's rough fingers. Earn looks up and to see whose hands they belonged to. The moment he saw who, his heart started to beat like drums at a carnival. Earn's eyes widened as he froze at the sight in front of him.

Pete looked so handsome. He wore a simple white shirt, straight cut black suit jacket that cut in perfectly at his waist and a cute silk black bow tie that shows off Pete's long, enticing neck. His long legs were shown off in simple black suit trousers, it seemed like there was no end! His hair casually swept to one side and tucked behind his ears.

Without saying anything, Pete skilfully folds the tie in to a perfect shape. Earn just stares at Pete's face, his imperfections seemed like perfections. Pete leans in close to thread the tie in to the knot, his aftershave hits Earn's nostrils and unknowingly, Pete tilts his head to the right, leaving his neck exposed to Earn's face. Earn starts to have an weird urge to connect his lips to Pete's neck. He wants to taste that skin and mark it. Entranced, Earn moves slowly towards Pete's neck, his hands also slowly traveling towards Pete's waist.

"there you go!" Pete lightly pats Earn's tie and steps back. Breaking Earn's trance. " you always were bad at doing your tie" Pete smiles at a distant memory.

"thanks" Earn turns around to grab his suit jacket. Feeling shocked about what just happened and confused about why he nearly .... Well.... Molested Pete. Thank god i didn't do anything. F**k that was weird. Stop thinking about it, act normal.

Trying desperately not to think about it in the car, Earn tried to keep his mind off things by singing blindly in Pete's car. Earn's good at singing but his purposely sang atrociously. Earn liked the way Pete tries to hide his laugh at each wrong word or when he crinkles his nose in mockery of each off pitched note.

They arrived at the wedding reception for Nong nan and P Pong. Outside of the reception was a massive portrait of the bride and groom looking happily in to each other's eyes. Then the next few pictures were more .... Interesting. Wedding photos that include donkeys or cauliflowers, but he most interesting one is the last picture. P pong was fully   with his bits blurred by mosaic and Nong Nan standing next to him in her wedding dress, starting at him with her hands covering . She looked like she was shocked, but behind those eyes, you could tell a different story. Well to each their own i guess

" I can't believe they are getting married." Pete whispered as he joins Earn to stare at the same picture. "didn't Nong Nan have a thing for ohm?"

"yeah" Earn replied, the shock of the picture permanently stained on his face. He had to consciously straighten his forehead, close his gaping mouth and promise to himself that he will never see that picture again. "S**t people do when they are in love." They both laugh and walk towards the main entrance to the reception hall.

"hey! You guys made it!" Noh shouts as he makes his way towards them. "get your pictures taken! You get to take them home. " Noh smirked and grabbed both Pete and Earn's wrists as he pulls them towards the photo booth. Earn wonders why he is being so persistent but understands soon afterwards. There, in front of the camera is the background of inside of THE train they all were in when they went to pharma camp. In front of the background was a replica of the seats they sat on in the train. The worst thing about it was that every couple had to do the same pose as Nong Nan and P Pong did in their photo. Holding hands and head resting on the other's shoulder. It is so cheesy and numb achingly cringe worthy that Earn stopped dead in his track.

"nope, no no no, that is borderline abuse, i am not doing something like that." Earn retaliated.

Pulling with all his strength, Noh looked towards Phun and Film to ask for help. "come on Earn, its tradition for them. Just do it for the both of them. Knowing you, you probably didn't spend much money on their present right?" Earn didn't notice Phun and film sliding behind him, grinning as they help Noh force earn towards the photo booth. "Think of this as your gift to them."

"you.... You f**king..."

Noh puts his hand over Earn's mouth and jokes "shhhh, its their special day, don't ruin it with profanity Earn! Learn some manners."

Earn looks back and sees Pete laugh so hard that he has to hold his stomach. However, Pete didn't realise Phun silently making his way back to Pete and suddenly grabing his wrist as he pulled him towards Earn. Suits you right!  Earn stops struggling and watches Pete struggle uselessly against Phun's hold. Noh is right, I didn't believe it when he told me but.... Phun is really strong!

Phun quickly made his way to the photo booth and shoved Pete towards Earn. "The rule is that you need to take the picture in a couple." Phun grinned and gave Noh a knowing look as he paused, "you two will have to do I guess. Make sure you do the same pose as the happy bride and groom."

Earn shoved a finger at Noh, " hey! Phun said that not me!"

"yeah well you should control your boyfriend better. Also, i don't see you two posing like that! Or you film!"

"volunteer privileges, you think helping with the wedding was easy?" Noh replied, then mocked Earn "Just do it will you, your making a scene!"

Noh didn't know this but, that's one of the things that triggers Earn's panic attacks. Earn looked around to confirm what Noh joked about, he can see pairs of eyes staring at him. Oh no, everyone is looking at me, they are all judging me. I bet they think I'm pathetic. Earn unconsciously starts breathing faster, he feels his hands tingling and starts sweating profusely.

He feels a smooth, soft and calming hand touch his left hand. Just like a ripple effect, he feels his left hand relax, his left arm stop tensing, his heart beating at a slower pace and his head clearing of paranoid thoughts. He turns around to see Pete looking at him concerned.

The concern on Pete's face vanishes in seconds. He pulls Earn to the train seats to sit down, he places his head on Earn's shoulder, entwines his fingers with Earn's and whispers "smile."

Taking the cue, Earn looks towards the camera and smiles.

"yeah! See that wasn't so hard right?" Film shouted happily. Both Earn and Pete faked a smile and quickly made their exit off the photo booth.

Earn, sobering up from his panic attack, took a deep breath and blinked a few times. Pete looks away absentmindedly, so to give him some privacy.

After a little while, Pete started to talk "Well that was fun, lets get some drinks." Without waiting for Earn's reply, Pete made his way to the bar. Only then did earn realise that they have been holding hands for the whole time and judging by the way Pete is firmly holding on to his hand, they are not going to separate soon. Earn could feel himself heating up for a whole different reason. Wait, its Pete, why am I blushing. Shrug it off, its probably just the aftermath of the panic attack.

Once at the bar, Pete ordered them both a glass of water and a glass of champagne. As Pete was about to grab both glasses, he noticed one of his hands was occupied, he looked down and then suddenly at Earn. He coughed and used the hand that was holding Earn's to cover his mouth. Earn took this cue to grab some water as well. He turned around and scanned the dance floor, the caterers and the other guests. There was a few familiar faces here and it was almost like a reunion for Friday college and the convent.

His eyes stop on one particular person who was wearing a cream coloured loose dress. The girl wearing it was laughing at the bride Nong Nan and at the same time, she looked around. Their eyes connected and they both just stared at each other for what seemed like an infinite amount of time.

After calming himself down, Pete turns around to also survey the room. His eyes automatically glances at Earn and he can see how surprised Earn looked. Pete followed his gaze and found the person Earn was staring at. It was Earn's ex, Nong Nam. As if time as slowed down, Pete's eyes glance back at Earn's eyes, his heart and all his hopes drop. I guess nothing has changed.