Chapter Text
Dew Jirawat was heir to J&J Group of Companies first – long before he became Aurelius University’s star student.
At Aurelius, the university built for the next Thai elite and funded by them, Dew fit the mould perfectly.
He was captain of their Football Team, the Eagles, and had brought no less than two medals under his captainship to the College. He was part of the Student Council Team and the Head of their Arts Division, leading it with a quiet kind of stern diplomacy and perfectionist drive that one had to be born into.
Dew had always been exemplary. But it came too easy.
He never tried too hard with his studies, and coasted through with top 10 every time.
Football came naturally to his athletic, tall, lean figure, muscle memory doing half his work for him.
Only art ever asked something of Dew.
Every line on those pages, Dew felt the most alive he had ever been.
His sketchbook was where he could simply be Dew, the artist – not Dew Jirawat, Heir of J&J, not Dew Jirawat, part of the Student Council of Aurelius and Captain of the Eagles, alive in a way not demanded or expected of him, but in a way he allowed himself to be.
The moment he closed his sketchbook though?
The world dimmed.
It was like his art took the colours with it when he closed it, leaving him in a monotonous hellhole of apathy and shrewd cunning, a world filled with people who would not hesitate to step on him the moment he showed weakness.
Such was his world, the world he had been living in for 20 years of his life.
His talent made him undeniable, his upbringing untouchable. It was what was required of the Heir of J&J after all.
But all Dew had ever wanted was someone to hold him truly close.
The Eagles had won again.
From where Dew was slouched on a sofa shoved into the far right corner of the room, he had a front-row seat to the half drunk people – barely out of their teens – grinding on to each other to a sensual song.
He could see his closest teammates – Winny hunched over gagging into a dustbin while his boyfriend rubbed soothing circles on his back, and Pond smirking as the girl he had been talking to all week drifted closer as they talked, already imagining peeling him apart with her hands.
Aurelius University was already notorious for its extravagant parties where every family name was at stake, but its victory parties? Those were a different type altogether – wild, unrestrained chaos and power, drenched in the kind of arrogance and entitlement only the elite could afford, a breeding ground for heirs who’d grow up to own cities.
Students in sequined silk designer clothing moved to and fro, each dress costlier than the one before, and Dew snorted internally, almost certain that each of them would have copious amounts of beer or other substances spilled on them within the next hour. After all, the students’ introduction to social events started in Aurelius’ parties, where the Heirs of the Elites mingled before they stepped into society – ready to take their rightful places.
“Captain! To the man of the night!”
Dew buried a groan and pushed himself up, plastering the genial smile he was known for onto his admittedly handsome face just in time for his friends to stumble towards him.
“Dew, you legend!”
“Another victory for the golden boy!”
He laughed. He clinked glasses. He nodded when they rubbed his shoulder and ruffled his hair.
But inside, it was silent.
It was like he was a dark hole even in this sea of life seeming to vibrate through the party, eating up all the light and still, still not able to produce even a small spark of his own.
“Well, well, well,” Fridge slurred, looping an arm around Dew’s shoulders, “if it ain’t the man of the hour. You should be living it up right now, man! You just destroyed Bangkok U!”
“I am,” Dew answered, the lie easily slipping through his mouth, “and it wasn’t just me. Couldn’t have done it without the team.”
“Always so humble,” Fridge laughed. “Must be tough, being the golden boy. Dad says he wishes I had half your drive,” He tugged Dew’s ear with a drunken grin, and Dew fought the urge to recoil.
Up close, Fridge’s pupils were blown – alcohol wasn’t the only thing running through him tonight, “but not all of us can be Dew Jirawat, ya know?”
Dew laughed along, knowing that Fridge would barely be able to make out his forced demeanour in the completely intoxicated state he was in.
Ozone, who’d had a girl dangling off him moments ago, turned toward them. He dismissed her with a smack on her backside and a careless order to fetch… something. She wouldn’t remember what, both knowing that she would definitely get distracted and it was not a good chance that she would make it back to him.
“Yo,”Ozone smirked, slapping Dew’s back, “Great last goal. As expected from our most best captain in a decade.”
Dew nodded, knocking back the shot Ozone passed to him as the other narrowed his eyes.
“The party’s for you but you seem like this place is the last place you want to be in,” Ozone laughed, his tone taking on a sharper edge, “what, golden boy too good for us now? Rather be sketching with your crayons than look at our faces?”
Dew didn’t rise to the bait. He never did.
And maybe that’s why they pushed harder.
Before Dew could reply, his eyes looked over Ozone’s shoulder to the big double doors at the entrance which opened, noticing the tall, thin figure that slipped in and towered over the crowd. Ozone followed his eyes and let out a snort as he saw the target of Dew’s stare.
Tee.
The scholarship kid.
Dew watched as he helped two girls to their feet from where they were collapsed on the house bar, Bonnie wasn’t it? And the other was Tia.
Fridge, barely able to stand if not for his hand supporting him from where it was across Dew’s shoulders, followed Tee’s path with narrowed eyes as he moved out of the room with both girls hanging off of each of his shoulders, head bent as he muttered something to them.
He turned to Ozone, who also had that same expression on his face.
Jealousy flickered between them.
The kind that rich boys never admitted to.
That… thing shouldn't be that close to Bonnie and Tia.
He shouldn’t be able to touch them.
He shouldn’t even be here.
But neither boy showed it.
Fridge nudged Ozone. “Look who wandered in,” he muttered.
Ozone scoffed. “Scholarship rat must’ve lost his way.”
Fridge’s gaze slid back to Dew, calculating.
A slow, wicked grin spread across his face.
“Hey, Dew,” he drawled, voice drenched in fake innocence, “how about we make things… interesting?”
Ozone leaned in too, eyes glinting. “Yeah, golden boy. Bet you can’t do it.”
Dew raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”
Fridge jerked his chin towards where Tee had returned for Bonnie and Tia’s handbags, “Him. The little pest who thinks he’s on our level.”
Ozone snickered. “Bet you can’t put him in his place.”
“Nah–” Fridge interrupted. “Better. Bet you can’t make him like, actually talk to you normally,” His grin sharpened, “You’re Dew Jirawat. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
And Dew? Dew was bored.
Bored enough to accept anything that promised feeling.
He wasn’t supposed to belong here.
Everyone could see that.
But Tee didn’t shrink. He didn’t pretend. He didn’t act like he needed their approval the way every other person in this glittering hellhole did.
And that strangely made Dew feel something.
A flicker of something sharp and thrilling. It coiled inside him against the emptiness.
Fridge and Ozone waited, eyes bright with the kind of cruelty that came naturally to men raised on power they never had to earn.
“So?” Ozone prodded, grin widening. “You up for it?”
Dew’s jaw clenched, too small for them to notice.
They wanted him to humble him. To make the scholarship kid remember where he belonged. But Dew wasn’t interested in humiliating him.
Oh, no. He wasn’t going to humble him, not when he was the only thing that, for some reason, lit something close to being alive in his chest.
“What do I get if I win?” Dew asked, tone sharp.
Both boys blinked, disoriented by the shift. Dew had always been more level headed and affable, the poster boy of Elite Heirs.
Ozone recovered first. “You want a prize?”
Dew shrugged, “If you want me to entertain you, might as well make it worth my time,” he smirked sharply at the other, “after all, deals are business, aren’t they? Especially for people like us.”
Fridge barked a laugh. “Fine. If you get him to actually think you’re his friend – you name it. Anything you want. Drinks at Java Club for a month? Access to my dad’s box seats? A new set of graphite pencils, since you’re an artiste?”
Both of them snickered, and Dew had to hold himself in, even as the vein on his forehead almost popped.
He exhaled slowly.
“Alright,” he said, “I’ll do it.”
Fridge whooped, nearly falling over. Ozone grinned like a shark.
The after-party still throbbed in Dew’s ears as he stepped into the back courtyard, the music, some popular pop thing, fading behind the heavy doors. His head buzzed from the voices that had circled him all night.
Heir to J&J.
Golden boy.
Daddy’s money.
Easy victories.
They never said it to his face. Every cheer after the Eagles’ win sounded different now. Applause meant for a trophy someone else had earned.
And Ozone had been there, smirking.
Ozone, son of his father’s oldest business partner, Sol Co., the boy who strutted through Aurelius like he owned a share of the marble. Ozone, who always found a way to remind Dew that the J&J empire was built with more than just Jirawat hands. That his father trusted other heirs. Other sons. Praised them.
Those stupid pencils and paints. Are you three years old? Look at Ozone, Dew. Your age, and he’s already presented and been accepted for his patent.
Dew knew where the patent came from – Ozone had whispered it to him in a drunken haze once in first year. One of the boys Sol Co. supported through their scholarships abroad.
He stepped further into the courtyard, dialled the number he had from a group project once.
The new boy, quiet, small, moving through campus like he was afraid to touch anything that glimmered.
Tee answered on the third ring, voice soft and unsure. “Hello?”
“Tee, I'm Dew,” Dew said. “Dew Jirawat.”
There was a quick inhale. Tee had been trying to hide it, but Dew caught it quickly, years of broken canes swatted across his back building him up to catch even the slightest reactions. After all, even the way they blinked and the ability to study others meant the edge over everyone else in their world.
“…Dew Jirawat?” Tee repeated, quieter now, but steady in a way that made Dew tilt his head. Most were shocked when he revealed his name.
“Yes,” Dew said. “I wanted to talk. Right now.”
A beat of silence.
“I’m… busy,” Tee said, voice still soft but no longer unsure. “I’m walking Bonnie and Tia back to their dorms. Tomorrow morning?”
Dew blinked, surprised. Nobody ever told him no.
“I won’t take long,” Dew tried again, slipping into the tone that made most people fold. “Just meet me outside the courtyard gate.”
“No,” Tee repeated, stern but still somehow polite. “I don’t leave people halfway just because someone more important calls, and they’re drunk girls. It’s not safe”
More important.
Dew felt that strike neatly, a clean scalpel to the ego.
“Fine,” Dew said. “Then I’ll walk with you.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Wasn’t a question,” Dew replied, feet already moving towards the entrance, “and I saw you struggle to hold both of them, especially since Bonnie seemed more interested in downing her next shot than anything else at the moment.”
A long pause.
“You’re very persistent,” Tee murmured.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Dew answered, stepping out of the shadows as he spotted Tee walking down the pathway towards the girls’ dorms, both girls hanging off his arms.
Tee lifted his head, eyes meeting Dew’s through the soft light from the moon above them, highlighting the soft features of his face and his large brown eyes.
Tee handed Bonnie and Tia’s bag to him, made sure Tia had her phone, and only then stepped closer to Dew. He stopped a full arm’s length away, close enough to acknowledge him but just far enough.
“Let’s make a deal,” Dew said quietly. “You help me with something… and I’ll make it worth your while.”
Tee’s face didn’t shift. “I’m not interested in being bought.”
“Then don’t think of it as being bought,” he murmured. “Think of it as helping me ruin someone who desperately deserves it.”
Tee’s brows drew together.
“Ozone,” Dew added, watching Tee carefully, “He’s been… a problem.”
Tee didn’t flinch.
“I don’t involve myself in your politics. I’m not a pawn,” he said softly. “And I won’t start being one for you.”
He walked past him, the girls stumbling along as he kept his careful hold on them.
Dew walked beside him, quiet now.
Soon, they reached the Girls' Dorm and dropped the girls and their things off to their friends and watched them get led in.
As Tee turned to leave, Dew held on to the other’s arm.
“Meet me tomorrow morning at 8, just once, at Dara’s.” He whispered, “if not interested even then, fine. I’ll not bother you again.”