Kindergarten AU (ZeeNuNew FF)

Chapter 5

After a few first rocky days, teary tantrums, sleepless nights, broken vase, many phone calls and sleepovers, both families have developed a quite smoothly working routine. More often than not Chawarin comes to the kindergarten in his friend's too-big-for-him T-shirts, and Pruk sometimes refuses to let Rin go when it's time to go home, but overall things are starting to settle down.

Chawarin's house already feels like home to Pruk. The younger boy's parents are very warm and welcome him with open arms. Rin's Mama is always ready to wipe his mouth or fix his clothes for him.

"I would be really happy if you'll call me Ma, sweetie" she says to him one day when he's staying overnight in the Perdpiriyawong household. Pruk gets shy at first and hides behind Rin, but Apple is persistent and showers him with so much love that soon he forgets about his bashfulness and later he even calls Rin's father Papa.

As for Chawarin, Pruk's family adore the little boy so much. Even Jenna is unable to resist his charm to the point that she sometimes sneaks him some extra snacks between his meals. Chawarin then is suffering from the sugar rush and Jenna earns reprimands from her mother to which she reacts with her typical teenage angst. Mimi falls in love with Rin even more when it turns out he also likes pink color and pretty things. She often steals him to her bedroom to play with her dolls until grumpy Pruk shows in the door and drags his beloved friend back. Mimi takes her role as an older sister very seriously. She proudly nominates Rin her second Nong and tells him to call her Phi as his elder.

Chawarin then turns to Pruk, asking if he should also call him Phi. Pruk thinks for a moment, but the thought of Chawarin addressing him like that doesn't sit right with him at all. He doesn't want to be like others. He should be special, not like everyone else.

Suddenly he remembers one TV show he was once forced to watch with Jenna, as she refused to switch the channel to a new episode of SpongeBob. In that show two men who were mates called each other Nhu and Hia. He asked Jenna about it, and she said that it's how you can call someone who's very dear to you, and that the characters from the show were promised to each other by their families, and when they met for the first time, it turned out they were mates.

Pruk wanted to ask more about that 'mates thing,' because, honestly, he had no idea what exactly that meant, but Jenna shushed him and continued to watch TV. But Pruk liked the sound of Nhu and Hia. Besides, lately he heard his parents often mentioning 'mates' and his name in their talks, so he knew that it was something important. He has to remember to ask them about it later.

"You can call me Hia, if you want, but only me, okay? No one else" he says sternly. "And I'll call you Nhu."

"Alai na? What das mean, PukPuk?" Chawarin asks cutely, tilting his head to the side. Pruk has the sudden urge to pinch his puffy cheeks, so he does that. "PukPuuuuk!" the boy shrieks with a laugh. Pruk gives his rosy cheek a loud smooch and ruffles his hair.

"It means that we hafta have our own special names, just for us and only for us, okie?" Pruk puts his hands on Chawarin's shoulders and looks him straight in the eyes.

"Okie, I call you Hia and only you, and you call me Nhu and only me" the boy replies as seriously as Pruk and raises his pinky finger. Pruk quickly hooks his finger around Chawarin's and that's how they became Nhu Rin and Hia PukPuk.

But only for themselves.

And no one else.

At the school their teachers have been splitting them gradually, from letting them spend as much time together as they wanted at first, to taking them for short activities separately and finally them staying in their own groups for all lessons with mandatory breaks for meals, playtime and naps. It doesn't always go smoothly, as Chawarin sometimes has a very bad mood and taking Pruk away from him ends with full rampage and even the older boy's scented belongings don't help.

But spending time with other kids definitely helps. They create their own squad of little buddies who come from both boy's groups that includes Pruk, Chawarin, Max, Nat, Yim, Tutor, Net and James. Pruk apologized to Max for his outburst that first day and now they are best buddies, though he's still wary when Max gets too close to Rin and quickly finds a way to come between them. Max and Net are from Pruk's group and Nat, Yim, Tutor and James are Chawarin's classmates. They usually sit together on a big, colorful carpet with all the letters in the corner of the room and play with bricks or cars, Pruk always next to Chawarin, of course.

They all get along quite nicely, given the age gap. Net is always chasing after James, who sometimes giggles at him and sometimes hisses like an angry kitten and shows his little claws. Yim is that strange kid who says things you don't understand but he's also so funny at the same time that you can't love him. Tutor is the quiet one, but he's always the one who first asks you to play and Nat is like a little bear cub who falls asleep anytime, anywhere.

That day Chawarin's attending arts classes while Pruk's group has just finished dancing lessons.

They were practicing simple steps of a Fawn Dance as a way to help increase their motility and also to instill cultural awareness in kids. Pruk really likes these lessons, it's so much fun for him, and he can't wait to show Rin what moves he's learned so far.

"PukPuk, look! I dw'aw tis fow' you!" exclaims Chawarin from the door, as he runs to the common area where all kids can mingle and play together.

The six-year-old looks up from the Lego dinosaur he's building with Max and Net, and beams widely at Chawarin who waves his drawing right in front of his face.

"Dis is me, dis is you and dis is w'ainbow and sun!" the younger boy says, pointing at each element. In the picture two dark-haired boys, one bigger, colored in blue and the other, smaller, colored in pink, are holding hands and above them there's a slightly crooked rainbow and an enormous sun. "D'ya like it?"

"It's awesome, Rin, you're so cute here" he replies earnestly, as he takes the paper into his hands and studies it intently. The picture is clearly drawn by a four-year-old, yet Pruk looks at it as if it was a fancy painting in one of the galleries that his mama took them to last summer. It's the first thing that he gets from Chawarin and he plans to cherish it with all his heart. "The rainbow is so pretty, and the sun is sooooo big!"

"I luv sunny, so I dw'aw the biggest sun evew'. It 'thines on us and gives us w'ainbow aftew' w'ain!" Chawarin raises his arms and spreads them as if he himself was the rainbow. His smile could easily overshadow the sunshine itself with its radiating happiness and purity.

"'I know how it looks. It looks like... Super Sun!" Pruk exclaims, making Chawarin beam even wider. "Thank you, Rinnie, I love it very, very, very, very, very much!" he says and hugs the smaller boy.

"Show us, too!" asks Tutor, who stands next to him with Max. Both boys look very curious and try to take a peek.

"No, it's mine!" says Pruk, taking a step back and clutching the paper to his chest protectively. He quickly folds it and with a slight blush hides it in his pocket where it's safe.

Twenty-five years lates the drawing is still with him when he's launching his first brand.

Super Sun