Chapter 25 Mee Noi
Chapter Twenty-five: Mee Noi
Since Sud and I finished filming the love scene, the sense of awareness that’s been building between us the past few months has tripled. As we sit side-by-side in one of the company’s two large vans on the way to Phetchaburi province, the heat of his thigh touching mine is like a brand.
But even though I can tell he feels it, too, Sud barely looks at me.
We didn’t see each other over the weekend because he said he had a lot of laundry and housework to do, and when we talked on the phone, he sounded off.
I told myself I was imagining it, but now I know I was right.
And I can’t help but wonder if he’s rethinking things.
Rethinking us.
We’ve never discussed the fact that we’re both guys. I don’t think Sud ever considered he might be attracted to the same sex. I don’t know if he even is—just that he’s attracted to me.
I move my leg away from Sud’s. If he notices, he doesn’t show it. A feeling a lot like dread has been with me all morning. I don’t know if it’s about me and Sud or something else, but it feels like I’ve discovered a ticking bomb and time’s running out.
I try to shake the feeling off. Mustering all the enthusiasm I can, I say, “I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of excited about going to Kaeng Krachan National Park.
We haven’t been there since we were kids.
” I think about that. “Why didn’t we ever go back after that last time when we were around eight or nine?
Mae and Pah took us there a lot, and then, suddenly, we never went back. I don’t think we ever even took Ten.”
I feel Sud’s eyes on me and turn to look at him. The wind from the slightly open window of the van ruffles through his brown hair as he stares at me as though I just said something shocking.
“What?” I ask.
Sud blinks.
“Uh. Yeah, we were nine the last time we went there, I think. We, uh, camped out.”
Thinking back, I say, “I remember swimming at the falls. Was Mae pregnant with Ten then?”
“Maybe. I don’t remember,” Sud says, his gaze going back to the front of the van where two of the cameramen, P’Alan and P’Roy, are chatting while P’Alan drives.
A popular song plays on the van radio. I glance over my shoulder to the bench seat behind us where P’Tar scrolls through his phone and P’Payu is scrunched down in the seat, fast asleep.
P’Pan, who will be in a fight scene with Sud, listens to something on his earpods.
The other van, which is ahead of us on the road, holds the crew.
Khun Intapong, P’Tee, and a few others are making the trip in P’Tee’s car.
“Do you remember the cave tour?” Sud suddenly asks me.
A cave? “No. We didn’t go in a cave.”
“Yeah, we did.”
I shake my head. “No-o. Not when I was with you. We camped…I remember Mae getting mad because we were horsing around in the showers. And walking the trail to the waterfall where we swam.” I pause, smiling.
It had been a fun trip. “I remember being disappointed we didn’t see a leopard, and Mae warning us to watch out for snakes.
And…” A vague memory surfaces. “Did we see bats?”
Sud tenses, the veins in his arm distinct under his tan skin. “Yeah. Horseshoe bats.”
I brighten, remembering their funny faces. “Right—Pah looked them up. Didn’t one fly at you?”
Sud nods, not looking at me.
Suddenly concerned, I rest my hand on his arm.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Of course.” The muscle in his jaw ticks, belying his words. “Where do you think we saw the bats, Noi, if not in a cave?” His tone remains casual, but there’s something underneath it.
“In the sky?” I suggest, getting annoyed. What is up with him? Crossing my arms over my chest, I stare ahead at the back of P’Roy’s bald head. Can’t he just admit he must have been in a cave on a different trip to the park without me?
We sit in silence after that. I look at my phone for a while but eventually drift off to sleep, waking at the jerky movements of the van as the driver backs it into a parking space.
Sheepishly lifting my head, which somehow had ended up resting on Sud’s shoulder, I look around and see the park headquarters.
P’Payu’s head pops over the back of the seat. “We’re renting tents and stuff. I have to go to the bathroom. You?” I nod, and he moves out from behind me and slides open the van door.
Relieved to get out of Sud’s sullen presence for a moment, I follow P’Payu to use the facilities. Afterward, we stand in the parking lot looking around.
“Mee Noi.” The familiar voice startles me, and I spin around.
“Pah!” Running to him, I hug him hard. I’ve missed him so much. He’s a tall man and towers over me. I introduce him to P’Payu as my father. As P’Payu greets him, Sud joins us.
“Pah, what are you doing here?” he asks, accepting a hug.
“Filming wrapped up earlier than expected, so I came home. When I found out where you were, I decided to meet up with you. I hope your producer won’t mind.” He smiles his movie-star smile.
I’d say from the stars in Khun Intapong’s eyes when she looks at Pah that she definitely doesn’t mind. She obviously didn’t know that Sud’s father is the famous actor Thawan Chanthaphan.
“I didn’t put together the last name. Why didn’t you tell me, Nong?” she asks Sud.
“I didn’t want any preferential treatment because of who my father is-khap,” Sud tells her.
“Mee Noi is also my son,” Pah says. He never forgets me. I understand, though, when I see Khun Intapong’s expression, why he quickly adds, “We took him in as a child.”
Sud and I exchange amused looks at Khun Intapong thinking she put two brothers in a romantic ship.
P’Tee and P’Alan finish packing tents into the backs of the vans, and we’re about to leave when I spot someone else I didn’t expect to see on this trip.
“P’Wisit!”
Smiling, P’Wisit approaches with Cora, a girl at our university who is interning with Rainbow TV over the summer. I wonder if Sud realizes she confessed her feelings to him once. Knowing Sud, probably not.
“What are you doing here?” I ask P’Wisit with a quick wai.
“The school sent me. The company needed a medic for the trip,” P’Wisit says. He nods to Sud, who introduces him to Pah. I can’t tell from Sud’s expression how he feels about seeing P’Wisit, but Pah seems very interested in him.
“You’re the friend who went to the movies with Mee Noi,” Pah says, smiling at him.
Charismatic as always, Pah begins chatting easily with P’Wisit and the other two staffers until Khun Intapong announces it’s time to get back in the vans and drive to the campsite.
Pah puts his knapsack into the storage area with the rest of the luggage and sits between me and Sud on the bench seat.
This time, I sit by the window. The road is paved with black and white stones marking each kilometer along the way.
It takes us about twenty minutes to get to the entrance of the park.
Not long after we enter, we encounter a group of stump-tailed macaques lounging in the middle of the road.
P’Roy has to beep the van horn to get them to move off the pavement, where they glare at us from out of their red faces.
I can’t help but laugh, and on the other side of Pah, Sud grins.
He seems much more at ease than he did earlier, and I wonder if it’s because Pah is with us.
Maybe Sud was nervous about filming the fight scene.
Maybe I should have been a little more understanding and a little less paranoid.
Fifteen minutes later, we reach Ban Krang campsite, and we all hop out of the van, stretching our legs before getting busy unloading equipment.
Being the middle of the week, hardly anyone is there, giving us our choice of areas to camp. The weather is muggy and overcast, and we’re all wearing long sleeves and light-weight pants to protect ourselves from the bugs.
Sud and Pah begin putting up a tent and I hurry to help them. A moment later, Khun Intapong rushes over.
“Let me get a few staffers to do that for you, Khun-kha,” she says to Pah.
“Nonsense. I’m the interloper here,” Pah tells her smoothly.
“I assure you it is a privilege to have you here. I admire your work so much.” Khun Intapong’s gaze is focused on the muscles in Pah’s arms where he’s pushed up his sleeves. I can’t wait to tell Mae. She likes to tease him.
Since we’re all hungry, we break out some food and set up folding chairs in a large circle. Then we take turns grilling meat and eat it with fruit.
“Come walk with me, Mee Noi,” Pah says after we’re finished with lunch.
“Sure, Pah,” I say, and we set off on a nearby trail.