Chapter Text
March 3, 2026
Rain dropped onto the library couch beside Ple, causing all of his friends to look up.
“Ok, you look ridiculously happy, what did P’Phayu do now?” Sig asked.
Rain laughed. “I’m excited because my parents are coming to visit!”
“Oh that’s exciting! I thought they weren’t coming until you’d finished your first year though?” Sky asked.
“That was the plan, but then P’Phayu and I met, so they’re coming now because they’re excited to meet him. But my mom sounded weird for part of our conversation. She said she had something for me.”
“Did she mean to sound cryptic?” Ple asked.
“No, she just said it needed to be an in person talk. She told me not to worry. I’m mostly just curious about whatever this talk is supposed to be.”
“Does she know you’ve basically moved in with P’Phayu?” Sig asked, pointing his pencil at Rain.
“Yes. I’m pretty sure my aunt told her that before I could. They’re staying in one of the guest rooms at his house instead of a hotel. There’s plenty of room and he insisted. He’s also being weird, and I’m wondering if he’s been plotting to have his parents come stay with us too, so everybody can meet.”
Por poked Rain with a pencil. “Doesn’t that stress you the hell out?”
“Not really. Now that I’ve officially met his parents, and he’s been there on a few video calls with my parents, the only people who haven’t met are our parents. I don’t know if that’s his plan, it’s just a guess.”
Sky nodded. “We get to meet your parents, right?”
Rain laughed. “Of course you do! I love you, but that was a silly question. I’ve told my parents everything. They’re excited to meet everyone.”
Sky frowned. “Even my terrible joke?”
Rain leaned forward over the table, smirking at Sky. “Your great joke, you mean. Yes, my mae calls them fancy pants now too.”
“Fuck me!” Sky said, leaning back in his chair.
“No thanks, you’re not P’Phayu.”
“Have you guys, you know?” Sig whispered.
Rain felt his ears grow warm. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. That’s all the information you’re getting.”
“Can I at least ask when?” Sky said, causing the others to look at him in shared surprise.
“After we got back from Korat. Ok, for real that’s all!”
Sky laughed gently. “As long as he treats you well and doesn’t hurt you, that’s all the information I need.”
Rain smiled. “You don’t have to worry, he’d never hurt me.”
“He’s got experience though, right?” Por asked. “I mean, from what I’ve heard some of our seniors say, he was really popular.”
Rain shook his head. “You guys can’t repeat this, to anyone, but no. After I initially confessed to him, I’d said that if he wanted to have something casual, because urges exist, then I’d understand and wouldn’t get upset. He said he didn’t want that, that he wanted to wait until we met to see if the attraction was there in person. He technically has kissing experience because he dated someone for a couple months before I confessed, but other than that; no. It’s all new to both of us.”
“That’s romantic and kinda sweet though. You guys will learn and grow together, no one has a disadvantage.” Ple said.
Rain smiled again. “I agree, so does he. We were both a nervous wreck the first night, but we tried to just let our bodies guide us, if that makes sense.”
Sig and the others nodded. “It does. Ok, we’ll stop prying. Back to the previous topic, when are your parents getting here?” Sig asked.
Rain hummed and grabbed his phone, scrolling for a moment. “The tenth. So a week from now. I can’t wait to hug them, I miss them a lot.” Rain pulled out his notebook. “We should get back to studying, now that I’ve provided a good distraction.”
~~~~~~~
March 10, 2026
Rain was bouncing on the balls of his feet, staring at the people walking out of the customs gate. He rushed forward when he spotted his dad, laughing when they both wrapped him in suffocatingly tight hugs. Su-Jin patted his hair when they finally parted.
“It’s grown out.” She said, smiling at him.
Rain laughed softly. “A bit. Did you guys get everything from baggage claim?”
“We’re good to go.” Tanit said. “Where’s Phayu at?”
Rain chuckled as he took one of their bags. “He’s waiting outside in the car in the pickup lane. He wanted to make sure we didn’t have to walk through the parking lot because it’s a bit of a heat wave today and it’s too hot to be comfortable.”
The trio walked through the crowd and out into the scorching early afternoon sun.
“Gosh, you weren’t kidding.” Tanit said, immediately putting a hand up to his eyes, shielding them from the sun.
“Hopefully it’ll be cooler in the next couple days, but the weather people are usually wrong, so who actually knows. P’Phayu’s car is there, the black Rover.” Rain said, leading them down the walkway.
Phayu stepped out as they got closer and waied at Rain’s parents quickly before he walked to the back and opened the trunk. He helped them load the suitcases before everyone climbed into the car, grateful for the blasting air conditioning.
“I hope your flight went well.” Phayu said as he pulled away from the sidewalk.
“It was good, pretty much no turbulence.” Tanit said.
Rain turned in his seat as much as the seatbelt would allow and looked at his mom. “Have you guys thought about when you might actually move here? I miss you guys.”
Su-Jin smiled. “A little. It’ll probably still be a year or two before we can.”
“Phor, do you have to wait for something here to open up to transfer?”
“Unless I wanted to end up doing something barely above entry level, yes. I told my bosses that I’d like to transfer here eventually when they opened the Bangkok office a few years back. They said I’m at the top of the list to be notified when a fitting role may open up.” Tanit answered.
Rain nodded. “Do you guys want to stop and get something cold to drink? It’ll take a while with traffic to get to P’Phayu’s house.”
“If Phayu wouldn’t mind, something cold would be nice.” Su-Jin answered.
Phayu smiled at her in the rear view mirror. “I don’t mind at all, would you like to stop at the cafe that Rain and I go to the most?”
After they agreed, Phayu took an exit off the main road and drove for a few minutes before he pulled up to the cafe. Everyone climbed out of the Rover and quickly walked into the building.
“Oh, this is a nice spot. I can see why you like it.” Su-Jin said as they stepped up at the back of the line.
“Rain found it when he got lost a couple months ago. He was still figuring out our public transit, which made for some interesting adventures.” Phayu said, chuckled softly.
“I found a lot of neat little places. And hey,” Rain pointed at Phayu. “I wasn’t lost, I was on an adventure.”
Phayu grabbed Rain’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “Sorry, sweet boy.”
Tanit and Su-Jin smiled at them. They talked quietly while they moved along the line up to the counter.
“Hey, Rain! Been a while since you’ve been in, your usual?” The barista asked brightly.
He smiled at her. “I think I want an iced mango tea today, actually. Medium, please.” He looked at his parents, then Phayu.
Su-Jin smiled as well. “That sounds refreshing, I’ll have the same as my son.”
The barista tapped the POS in front of her before looking at Tanit.
“Iced coffee, plain cream in it, no sugar please.”
“Iced mocha. All of that is to go as well.” Phayu said after a moment, phone in hand to pay.
The young woman nodded and turned the screen to Phayu. “We’ll get those ready for you.”
Rain led his parents over to the pick up counter, snuggling into Phayu’s side when the elder put his arm around his shoulders.
“So I guess everything is going well?” Tanit asked.
Rain nodded against Phayu’s shoulder. “I’ve never been this happy. I didn’t know I could feel this much joy, honestly.”
Phayu smiled and nodded in agreement. “Everything is perfect. Rain is perfect.”
“We still can’t believe how the universe aligned for you two. Going from childhood long distance best friends to being in love and physically being in each other’s lives. It’s amazing.” Su-Jin said.
“The universe is funny that way sometimes. Oh, I almost forgot, Rain pestered it out of me, so I may as well tell you now, my parents are also going to be here. They’ll get here tomorrow. They want to meet you both.”
Su-Jin clasped her hands. “That’s exciting! I was wondering when Tanit and I would meet them. From how Rain talks about you, has talked about you for years, I’ve been able to see that this was forever, I’m not surprised that your parents were able to see that as well.”
“Here are your drinks!”
They each picked up their drinks, thanked the barista, and walked back out to the car.
“My goodness that heat is no joke.” Su-Jin said as she buckled up.
Phayu turned the Rover on and the cool air began circulating again. “The projections say that we should be dropping to the mid-20s in the next couple days. Still warm, but nothing like today.” Phayu tapped the touchscreen in the dash. “This says it’s 40° out there.”
By the time Phayu had pulled up to his house, the cold drinks were gone and Saifah was already making his way down the sidewalk. He went to the back as Phayu and the others climbed out, helping carry the luggage up to the house.
“You must be Saifah.” Tanit said once they were inside.
He waied to them with a polite smile. “I am. I’m glad you guys are here, Rainy boy’s been very excited that you were coming to visit.”
“We’re happy to meet you as well, Rain has told us a lot about you, he says you’re like the brother he never had. Thank you for helping to take care of Rain. Honey, when do we get to meet your school friends?” Su-Jin asked.
“In a couple days, they wanted to make sure you guys had time with me first.” Rain replied.
“That’s sweet of them. The day after tomorrow should be enough time. We’ll be settled, and we’ll have had an entire day to get to know Phayu’s parents.” Su-Jin said.
Rain nodded. “You’ll like them. But anyway, let’s get your bags upstairs.”
Tanit patted Rain on the shoulder and followed him to their guest room.
“Go and wait down in the living room, I’ve got to find what I brought for you and we need to talk.” Su-Jin said.
Rain swallowed hard. “Your tone suggests this isn’t gonna be a fun conversation. Is everything ok?”
“Yes, but it will be a serious conversation. I’ll just be a minute.”
Rain nodded and walked back to the living room and dropped onto the couch beside Phayu. After a few minutes, Tanit and Su-Jin joined them. Rain gasped and sat up straight when his mother set a familiar box on the table.
“What the hell? Where did you find it?” Rain asked, pulling the box into his lap.
Phayu’s brows were drawn together. “What is it?”
“My letter box.” Rain answered simply, pulling the lid off.
“Your yai had it.”
What?” Rain nearly shouted, feeling heat spread through his chest in anger.
Su-Jin nodded, face twisted in irritation. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I had no idea until my phor sent it to me. He needed to get into their safe and he found it stashed in there. He didn’t realize it was your letters at first, but as soon as he opened it, he knew. He confronted her about why she had it. She got into a shouting match with him because she had read them by that point, and she was trying to say she was always right in trying to stop me from letting you join the pen pal program. She thought if she took the letters, you wouldn’t be able to find him. He said she was also trying to find a nice, religious Korean girl to set you up with, she was trying to arrange a marriage for you, so you wouldn’t give in to your sin.” Su-Jin sighed. “My phor was horrified and he told her he was sending me the box, and that he was going to tell me everything. Kept the argument going because she knew that meant I was going to stop all contact with her. I know at their age, he won’t divorce her, but I know he’s not talking to her until she apologizes to you for overstepping so badly.”
Rain bit his lip. “I’m not even going to acknowledge the desire to play matchmaker, because gross, that’s way too far. But I didn’t know she tried to stop you from letting me write to him. How often did you guys fight about it?”
“More often than I’d like to admit. She never liked to let me make decisions for you, she always had to try to control what I did with you. I tried to shield you from that as best as I could.”
Rain sighed and set the box back on the table. “I’m sorry. I wish things would have been better with her. Even if she does what dtaa says, I don’t know that I want to hear it. I’d answer just to try to help his relationship with her, but that’s as far as that would go. I know for all of us, things got exponentially better when we moved to Seoul. We were happier.”
Su-Jin sighed again. “We definitely were happier, the distance made it harder for her to interfere. I won’t tell you what to do if she does try to call you, but if you answer and listen to whatever she says for the sake of your dtaa, you’d probably have less on your conscience. I don’t know how genuine any apology she might offer would be, she’s a narcissist who is never wrong.”
“If dtaa does decide that he’s done with her, because they’re only in their 60, he could move here when you guys do. He didn’t hate that you married phor, he learned Thai and paid attention when phor was teaching me so he could expand his vocabulary. He encouraged me to learn what I could about Thailand. If you can bring that up to him without her hearing about it, let him know that he’d have support if that was a decision that he wanted to make.”
Su-Jin looked at Tanit. “Do you think he’d actually divorce her?”
“Maybe, I think the last few years with how she treated you and Rain and getting confronted about her dislike of me may have opened his eyes about her more. And with Rain being an adult now, he might consider it. If he knew you both would support that choice, it might be a reality.”
Su-Jin shook her head. “I’ll talk to him when we get home, so let’s move on to more pleasant topics. How have things been going with school?”
~~~~~~~
March 12, 2026
Rain woke up to the sound of laughter and conversation drifting up the stairs. He stretched and sat up. He crawled out of bed and began smoothing his hair down as he made his way downstairs where he found his mother and Praew swatting their husbands out of the kitchen while they cooked breakfast together. Phayu seemed to be allowed in the space as he made coffee for everyone.
The elder smiled when he spotted Rain. “Good morning, sleepyhead. Coffee?”
Rain stepped past his mother and hugged Phayu. “No, I’ll have juice in a bit.”
Phayu nodded and turned to hold Rain better while the coffee began to drip into the large carafe.
“Why are you making so much coffee, P’Phayu?”
“In case your friends want any, they’ll be here soon for breakfast.”
“Right, I’m dumb.” Rain said, chuckling.
“You aren’t, you just aren’t all the way awake yet. Did you sleep ok?”
Rain nodded and sighed happily. “I suppose I should go upstairs and put clothes on to look like a functional person.”
Phayu chuckled. “I don’t think they’d care if you had breakfast in your pajamas, but you can do whatever you’re comfortable with.”
Rain squeezed his arms around Phayu’s waist before he quickly went back upstairs.
“Would he normally care about his friends seeing his pajamas?” Su-Jin asked.
“He’s not a morning person, and I think he will feel awkward if he’s the only one still in his sleep clothes.” Phayu replied, chuckling fondly.
“I’m happy to see how comfortable he is here. Even with all the parents here, he’s still looking at you like you’re the only one in the room.” Su-Jin said.
“They’re painfully cute, aren’t they?” Praew asked, laughing when Rain’s parents both nodded.
“Rain’s the cute one.” Phayu said as he picked the carafe up and carried it to the dining table.
Rain walked back into the kitchen, but detoured to the door when he noticed his friends walking up the pathway. He opened the door and waved.
“Good morning!” He said, moving to the side as the others walked in.
They all greeted the room in unison. Su-Jin smiled at them.
“I’m happy to finally meet you all. Praew and I are about finished cooking, so please come in and sit.”
Sky led the small group over to the table. Rain sat beside Phayu and watched as his found family began interacting with his blood family.