Chapter 2 Reflexes

Kinn Rattanakul was already waiting for Sun near the entrance to the biology classroom. Kinn was the polar opposite of the composed Wat: he always knew all the gossip, had a perpetually disheveled look, and possessed an uncanny ability to read people like open books.

"Oh, has the 'sweet couple' finally parted ways at the doorstep?" Kinn winked at Sun, peeling himself away from the wall.

Sun rolled his eyes, but a wide smile spread across his face.

"Stop it, Kinn. We just came together. Like we have for the last ten years."

"Right, 'just together,'" Kinn muttered, walking beside Sun into the auditorium. "Except Wat looks at anyone who gets within a meter of you as if he’s drafting a contract for their professional destruction. And you? You light up around him like a Christmas tree."

Sun nudged his friend in the ribs with his elbow as they entered the classroom, which smelled of formalin and old textbooks.

"We’re childhood neighbors, Kinn. Our parents are best friends. We’re like brothers."

Kinn made himself at home at the desk next to Sun and pulled out his animal anatomy notebook.

"'Brothers,' you say? I’ve seen many brothers, Sun. But I’ve never seen a brother adjust a tie so delicately, as if it were a crystal vase. And I don’t know any brothers who learn Ukrainian phrases about love just to say them to a 'mere neighbor'."

Sun froze while pulling out his pencil case.

"How did you—"

"I was standing behind the pillar when you walked in," Kinn interrupted, laughing kindly. "Listen, we’ve been grinding through this science together since M4 (10th grade). I know all your habits: how you bite your pen when you’re nervous about Wat, and how you always buy two bottles of water because you know he’ll forget his."

Sun sighed and rested his head on his arms, slumped over the desk.

"Kinn, he’s Wat. Wong Wiwat. He’s a future business shark. He’s cold, rational, and... he never looks at me the way you’re imagining. To him, I’m just the noisy neighbor who needs saving from fights."

"Uh-huh... and?" Kinn raised an eyebrow, mimicking Wat’s mannerisms quite comically. "Are those all your excuses? Sun, you’re going into veterinary medicine. You’re supposed to recognize reflexes. Well, Wat’s reflex toward you is the total capitulation of his 'cold exterior.' You’re the only one who makes his icy heart beat off-schedule."

Sun wanted to protest, but the teacher entered the room at that moment. However, Kinn's words stuck in his mind like a splinter.

Meanwhile, on another floor...

In the macroeconomics classroom, Wat sat at the front desk. His gaze was fixed on the board, but his thoughts were still swirling around that phrase in Ukrainian.

"You’re a bore, Wat. But I love you for it."

He opened his notebook and, in the margins among the supply and demand curves, barely visibly traced in pencil: "Кохаю" (I love you). Then he quickly crossed it out, feeling the tips of his ears begin to burn.

Wat knew that Kinn, Sun’s overly observant friend, was constantly whispering something in Sun's ear. And Wat didn’t like it. He was used to controlling everything, but Sun’s feelings—and his own—were the only variables that couldn't be fitted into any business model.

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