Chapter 2
Several hours into the flight, Wan and Pleng are focused on their own activities; Wan is reading her book with headphones on while Pleng watches a romance drama movie that’s played on the screen in front of her, well actually it’s the screen who watches Pleng because she has been drifted to sleep for a while. Wan stands up to use the lavatory, and while she’s standing, she notices that Pleng sleeps quietly, and she feels the obligation to cover Pleng with the blanket neatly folded on her lap. While Wan covers her, Pleng murmurs, talking in her sleep about begging someone to not leave her. Wan being a klutzy person tries to comfort Pleng by stiffly patting her head with awkward motion and that’s when Pleng opens her eyes a bit and gets so surprised that Wan is in front of her. Wan quickly pulls herself.
“I’m going to lavatory. You fell asleep without blanket so I’m just helping to cover you.” She hastily walks towards the lavatory leaving a confused Pleng.
“No one ask what she’s going to do though, but thank you, I guess?” Pleng mutters to herself. She then walks to the lavatory as well, waiting in front of the door because she remembers that her bladder needs to be relieved as well. After 2 minutes, Wan opens the door and Pleng gets startled. Suddenly the plane shakes violently; Pleng loses her balance and wobbles backwards when Wan quickly catches her with her right hand and supports her back, and Pleng is pushed into Wan’s arm. Pleng closes her eyes and hyperventilates in fear, so Wan instinctively squeezes Pleng.
“Are you okay?” Wan asks in a hushed tone to the side of Pleng’s face. Pleng tardily nods while still clutching onto Wan’s arm.
“You sure?”
Pleng pauses and shakes her head.
“Well, go inside, I’ll wait for you,” Wan pats Pleng’s back and let go of her embrace, and she keeps her promise by standing in front of the lavatory door and wait for her until she finishes and ushers her back to their seats.
“Thank you,” Pleng says shortly after several minutes leaning on her seat. No answers. Pleng then lifting her body slightly to peek to Wan’s side and she sees Wan is facing the other side, drifted to sleep with her headphone on and her book placed on top of her lap. Pleng then lays back on her seat.
“It’s fortunate that she doesn’t hear it.” Pleng sighs, and then closes her eyes.
After a long exhausting flight, finally they arrive at Krakow, Poland. Ek had rented a car for them to be easier to mobile, and also an interpreter to help them communicate throughout the trip. Since all of them are tired, Ek asks the interpreter to help them with the driving to the hotel and he agrees. When they finally arrive, Frank helps Ek to check they all into the hotel, but then after a while, Frank comes to Wan and Pleng who are awkwardly standing with a large gap between each of them.
“Girls, we have a problem.”
Wan crosses her arms in front of her chest and Pleng looks at him with a questioning look.
“So, turns out the agent that we asked help to book our hotel misunderstood our request, so instead of giving us 2 rooms of twin beds, they give us 1 twin bed room and 1 king sized bed. Which room do you guys prefer?”
Before Pleng can even process the situation, Wan interferes.
“Give us the room with 1 bed. I think it’s better than both of you men sleeping in the same bed, or do you guys like it better to sleep in the same bed?” Wan smirks and Ek smacks her head from behind.
“You’re crazy Wan, really.”
“You’re crazy for smashing my head like I’m some kind of volley ball. I’m older than you, dude, be freaking respectful, can you?” Wan punches Ek’s chest hard that it makes Ek winces in pain while Frank and Pleng laughing secretly at their sibling dynamic.
“Pleng are you okay with sharing the same bed as Wan?” Frank asks Pleng who’s quiet.
“No choice, I guess?” Pleng shrugs her shoulders and nods. They immediately go up to their room on the 10th floor to their own room, Wan and Pleng at room 1010 meanwhile Frank and Ek at room 1020. They decide they’ll just rest for today and will start the project tomorrow.
“Um.. which side to you want to sleep on?” Pleng cautiously asking Wan who’s currently unzipping her luggage.
“I’m okay with any side, just decide it by yourself.” Wan answers without looking at Pleng. She’s too busy charging her camera’s battery and placing all the equipments on the table.
“Okay, I’ll take the right side then,” Pleng mumbles under her breathe as if she doesn’t want to bother Wan who’s too focused on arranging her devices and gadgets from the smallest to the largest, from the shortest to the longest.
“Anyway, you can take bath first, I’ll go after you,” Wan turns to face Pleng; miscalculating the momentum, because at that same time, Pleng is right in front of her to go to the bathroom. Pleng gets startled and almost jumps when Wan’s face is right in front of her.
“Dear Khun Pleng, can you please make some noise when you do things? I don’t even realize you’re walking behind me.”
“So—sorry.”
“Don’t say sorry, I’m not scolding you,” Wan raises the corner of her lips a bit. Pleng still freezes on the same spot.
“Why aren’t you go to the bathroom? Should I assist you to the bathroom?”
“Eh, no. Sorry.” Pleng quickly rushes to the bathroom.
“What an innocent girl she is,” Wan shakes her head and smiling without her realizing, and continue arranging her things.
15 minutes passed and Pleng finally finishes her bath. She quietly walks to Wan who’s squatting to take her clothes out from the luggage and taps on her shoulders.
“Khun Wan, you can take a bath now.”
“Oh, yes, thank you.” Wan stands up and smiles a bit at Pleng. While Pleng sees that smile, she just realize that actually Wan is….. good looking enough; she should be the model, not a photographer, especially when she sees Wan after bathing with that wet shoulder length hair, she looks….cool.
“Excuse me, Khun Pleng, are you adoring my look right now?” Wan glances at Pleng through the mirror while drying her hair.
“Huh? Who’s doing that?” Pleng blurts out with annoyance, feeling exposed and immediately covering her mouth, realizing that it might be impolite to say that to a stranger. Wan smirks.
“That’s okay, just be yourself. I like honest people more.”
All of them decides to walk to a Taiwanese restaurant 1km from their hotel and eat their dinner there. They order soup noodles and some dimsum; Pleng decides to order bubble tea, since she’s a loser for sweet things, after all she’s a sweet tooth, and she loves the bubble tea so much that she orders 2 cups of it, while the other 3 drink some beer.
“Wan, don’t get drunk or else you’ll be a burden for Pleng,” Ek teases Wan who’s drinking the 10th glass of the beer.
“Hey, my tolerance is high, okay? Don’t underestimate me.” Wan gives him a contemptuous look.
“It’s fortunate for me that Pleng never really get drunk, she rarely drinks alcohol,” Frank retorts.
“Oh really? I really want to see drunk Khun Pleng,” Wan casually rejoins and drinks away from her glass again. Pleng can feel her cheeks heating up.
“Why do you want to see it?” Frank wonders, and Ek joins him, judging Wan with a suspicious look.
“What? Don’t you feel curious?” Wan looks at them both in turn.
“Do you really want to see drunk Pleng, or do you want to know what she’s up to when she’s drunk?” Frank smirks while doing high-five with Ek. Wan immediately raises her middle finger in front of Ek’s face. Meanwhile Pleng just quietly smiles.
“Khun Pleng, don’t ever get drunk in front of guys, most of the men in this world are animalistic, they can take advantage on you when you’re drunk,” Wan speaks while she takes a meat with her chopsticks and chews it.
“Whoa whoa whoa, where does the indifferent Wan go?” Ek teases Wan.
“Well, she’s a woman. This world is kind of cruel to women.” Wan takes a xiaolongbao and chews it.
At this moment, Pleng feels that Wan is really really cool. She has this alluring masculine aura exuding from her. Although she is cold, but actually she’s pretty caring.
“Don’t look at me for too long, I’m afraid you’ll fall for me.”
That’s when Pleng decides to just keep that thought to herself because she’s annoyed at how self-confident Wan is.
“I’m not that easy, don’t judge me wrong,” Pleng glares at Wan.
“Whoa, Pleng and Wan, whoa, should we bet on them?” Ek enthusiastically says to Frank.
“WHAT BET?” Wan and Pleng simultaneously shouts at Ek.
“Oops, I’m not joining,” Frank then stands up from his seat and walks out from the restaurant, leaving Ek being tortured by Wan.
It’s 3.59, but Pleng can’t really sleep. She turns her body over side to side but she keeps waking up. Sometimes she suffers from insomnia, and she is a type who can’t easily sleep in a new environment, plus she has to sleep in the same bed with Wan, someone she just knew for a while. Pleng is living in her imaginary world when she hears a small whimper from her side. Pleng is going to turn her head to look at Wan when suddenly Wan jolts up from her sleep with a horror look on written over her face. Pleng automatically sits up beside Wan.
“Are you….okay?”
Wan doesn’t respond, she still regulates her breathing. She looks at her phone lockscreen; 4a.m. Sweats dripping from her temple, so Pleng reaches for the tissue from her nightstand, and wipes Wan’s temple. Just by then, Wan realizes Pleng is beside and she exhales harshly.
“Damn, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” regret is visible on Wan’s face.
“No, don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”
“Why? Did I make you uncomfortable?”
“No no no, it’s just… I’m prone to insomnia.”
“Oh, I see..”
They stay in silence for a while without anyone trying to say a thing.
“…did you wake up because of a nightmare?” Pleng curiously asks Wan.
“Yeah, it’s related to my childhood trauma.”
“Ah…” Pleng nods vaguely, “do you wake up at this exact time? Every day?” Wan responds by nodding.
“What do you usually do when you experience this?”
“Anything, sometimes I take cold showers, sometimes I just lost in thought, sometimes I just resent myself for keep waking up.”
“I see, I’m sorry you need to go through this thing every day.”
Wan turns to Pleng and looks at her, blinking slowly. Pleng looks back at her.
“Khun Pleng, can I get a hug?”
“Suddenly?” Pleng looks surprised.
“Oh yes, I’m sorry, after all we’re still a stranger,” Wan fidgets with her long fingers. She picks on her nails when she’s anxious. But then she feels a warm body temperature from her side.
“Well, hopefully an awkward embrace can help you..?” Pleng’s hand pats Wan’s shoulders softly. Wan chuckles softly.
“Thank you, I guess?”
Pleng smiles and nods to Wan.
"Now go back to sleep." Pleng taps on Wan's pillow. Wan obeys like a child obeying their mom.
"But, you need to sleep as well."
"I will, I will, after you sleep," Pleng lays down next to Wan who's laying as well but with a lot of concern on her face.
"Close your eyes, and let yourself drifted to sleep again. It's a dream, you're okay now," Pleng continue patting Wan's shoulders and Wan slowly closes her eyes, and Pleng gradually drifted to sleep with her hand still on Wan's shoulder.
When Wan wakes up several hours later, she smiles when she sees that small hand still rest on her shoulder.