FOREVER YOURS

At the age of ten, Arthur relocated to Bangkok. Though his mother referred to it as a fresh start, he knew otherwise. She could no longer bear the recollections of his father. Once cozy, their former home has become oppressive, every room a reminder of their loss. The walls still resonated with fights that had replaced laughing, with nights spent sobbing rather than conversing. In the end, his mother loaded their belongings into suitcases and carried him to a city that never slept.

Bangkok was nothing like the calm town they had left behind. Loud and lively, it was a metropolis pulsing with vitality. The streets were packed with cars, motorcyclists zipped through tight spaces, and the aroma of sizzling street food permeated the surroundings. Above the alleyways, neon lights flashed; sellers yelled over one another, attempting to sell their wares.

At first, Arthur despised it. The unending cacophony, the continual motion, and the reality he had to begin again, new school, new apartment, and new life.

Then he met Nick.

Nick lived next door in the same apartment building. Their building was old, with crumbling walls and a hallway light that flickered more than it worked. Arthur was unloading a package of books in their little living room when a loud knock surprised him. His mother answered the door, displaying a youngster of his age holding a partially deflated soccer ball under one arm.

"I saw you moving in," Nick replied, smirking. "Want to play?

Arthur hesitated. He wasn't adept at making friends, and he certainly wasn't in the mood. But there was something about Nick, his effortless confidence, the way he bounced the ball against his knee without effort, that made it impossible to say no.

From that moment on, they were inseparable.

Nick was fearless. He drew Arthur into all sorts of adventures-running through the tight alleys, climbing over fences they certainly shouldn't have, and sneaking into markets just to see how many free food samples they could obtain before being shooed away.

Bangkok slowly became their playground. Afternoons were spent meandering through the congested streets, pausing at food vendors to eat whatever smelled the finest. They raced each other up the footbridges over traffic-jammed roadways. One time, Arthur got lost coming back from school, and just as panic set in, Nick appeared out of nowhere.

"Dude, you're hopeless," Nick teased, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. "Good thing I know my way around."

They had their spots-places that belonged alone to them. A tiny comic book shop, situated between two buildings, where they'd sit on the floor paging through manga; a noodle store where the owner, an old woman with a harsh tongue, would let them eat first and pay later; and, most significantly, the rooftop of their apartment building.

The rooftop wasn't much, simply a flat, uneven surface with a few plastic chairs left behind by prior occupants, but to them, it was everything. It was where they went when they needed to breathe, to escape the pandemonium below.

One night, lying side by side on the rooftop, Nick pointed up at the sky. "I'm going to own a skyscraper one day," he vowed. "And you're going to fill it with your art."

Arthur chuckled, but deep down, he believed it. Nick had a knack for making anything seem conceivable.

School was another adventure. Arthur was the quiet one, the youngster who sat in the back and completed his job without any fuss. Nick, on the other hand, was impossible to ignore. He was the type of student professors reprimanded but secretly liked, the one who talked his way out of trouble with a grin.

Nick was also highly competitive. Whether it was soccer, math tests, or who could eat the spiciest som tam (papaya salad), he always wanted to win. Arthur soon understood that there was no such thing as a "friendly" challenge with Nick.

At school, they became a trio when they met Pim. Pim was sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, and the only one who could put Nick in his place. She had an older brother who maintained a street food stand, and she often assisted him after school, turning grilled pork skewers like an expert.

"The problem with you two," Pim observed one day, observing as Arthur and Nick battled about who was faster, "is that you think life is a competition."

Nick smirked. "Isn't it?

Pim rolled her eyes. "You're exhausting."

Despite her irritation, she persisted with them. The three of them spent weekends in shopping malls, not buying anything but trying all the free samples in the food court. They did group study sessions that typically ended with Nick and Pim squabbling while Arthur performed the job.

Arthur's mom worked long hours. She barely had time to prepare, so they ate a lot of takeout. Some evenings, when she was extremely weary, she wouldn't talk much at all. Arthur knew she was trying, but he also knew she was lonely.

Nick's family was the opposite. They were noisy and loving, usually laughing or bickering about something. His parents ran a modest shop selling secondhand electronics, and Nick had two elder sisters who doted on him but also harassed him viciously.

Arthur adored being at Nick's place. It was messy and chaotic, yet it felt comfortable.

"You can come over anytime," Nick's mom told him one evening, offering him a dish of steaming rice. "You're part of the family."

Arthur didn't understand how much he needed to hear that until that moment.

As the years passed, things began to shift.

One evening, when Arthur was thirteen, he was doodling in his notebook when Nick plopped down alongside him.

"What are you drawing?

Arthur angled the page away instinctively. It was a sketch of Nick, unintentional but apparent. Nick leaned in before Arthur could close the notebook.

"Is that me? Nick grinned. "Damn, I look good."

Arthur shoved him. "Shut up."

Nick simply laughed, but Arthur's heart was racing. He didn't know why, but recently, being around Nick made him feel... strange.

It scared him.

The older they got, the more Arthur started to notice things about Nick. The way his smile could light up a room. The way he always stood up for Arthur, even when Arthur didn't ask him to.

He didn't know when friendship morphed into something more, but by the time they were eighteen, he couldn't ignore it.

One night, after a school dance, they wound up on the rooftop again. Nick was spread out, arms behind his head, while Arthur sat cross-legged beside him.

"Do you think we'll always be like this? Arthur asked.

Nick glanced at him, brows arched. "Like what?

Arthur hesitated. "Best friends."

Nick smirked. "Obviously," Arthur gulped. The words were on the tip of his tongue. He pondered uttering them.

But he didn't

Instead, he lay back beside Nick, staring up at the stars, wishing that moment could last forever.