addicted

King watched Ram from afar, doing his best to decipher him. Ram was waiting for him, patiently as was his usual way. Though, he kept checking his phone every now and then. King would leave his hiding place sooner or later, but he wanted to look at Ram for just a bit longer.

When they had been on the bus a few days ago, Ram had spoken and King thought for a split second it was a dream. Ram had only asked one question.

“Do you want a tattoo?”

As much as King hoped for more spoken conversations after that, Ram kept communicating through nods, notes and Facebook messages.

Ram didn’t know, but King liked his voice. It was a bit high pitched, sure, yet it made something in his stomach dance. He wanted to keep hearing it. But, he didn’t want to force Ram to speak if he didn’t want to, so he kept content with the fact that he could just spend time with him for now.

They were meant to meet and go to his place to study. Apparently Ram liked the plants in King’s apartment. King never really let anyone come over, but he couldn’t turn Ram down when he got a message on Facebook asking if he could come see the plants again. And study, of course.

King shook his head, held back his shoulders and ran out of the bushes practically running into Ram’s back. Ram turned to see him and let a small grin slip when he saw King standing in front of him. It quickly disappeared and he was back to his stoic self in no time.

“Hi, hi! Sorry I kept you waiting. I just, you know...had some stuff to do.” Ram shrugged his shoulders. “C’mon, Cool Boy. Let’s go, let’s go!” King was excited. Ram wasn’t sure why, but it wasn’t unusual behavior so he merely nodded, following King in the direction of his apartment.

“I’m surprised you like my plants. Nobody else really likes them because they think it’s too much. But you like them! Which is good, because now they can have more company than just me.” King was animated as he talked and Ram was amused at the sight. It was fun to see him talk on and on, not expecting a response, having fun all on his own.

They finally reached his place, and the moment he opened his door, King began to greet the plants.

“Hello?”

“How are you?”

“You two are growing so well!”

“Ah! What happened to your leaf? We have to fix that right away.”

As King did his little ritual, Ram followed close behind him, entranced as he saw this man talk to these little tiny things that would never give him any answer at all. The first time he came, seeing King talk to the plants had startled him a bit. He thought King was strange. However, he found it cute now. Again, he let a small smile take over and he cocked his head to the side, watching King’s face as he adored his plants.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Ram finally noticed King was staring at him and not his plants and immediately dropped his smile and adjusted his backpack on his shoulder.

King chuckled and pointed to his couch. “You can sit there and get your notes ready. Are you thirsty?”

Ram nodded once and King was off to the kitchen. When he came back to the living room, he saw Ram had laid the notes and books out on the table, but was standing up looking at the plants hanging from the wall.

“I wonder, why do you like them so much?”

Startled by his sudden entrance, Ram jumped a bit and spun around to face King. He said nothing, as expected, and just sat down on the couch. King sat beside him, placing the glass of water on his side. “I don’t have any juice or soda or anything. So, you have to enjoy the water.” Ram pressed his hands together and bowed his head slightly, to thank King and drank a sip. King smiled, turned to the work and they began their study session.

By the time one hour had passed, they were both visibly tired and King moved the notes to the farther corner of the table. “Okay, we’re done with that for today. Sometimes studying too much can kill you.”

Ram nodded once and looked around, taking in the sight of the apartment. At one point, he looked at the plants, then back at King. Then, he pointed between them.

“Hmm?” Ram just kept repeating the gesture, pointing between King and the plants until King finally picked up what he wanted to say. “You want to know why I have so many plants?”

Ram nodded once.

“Hm, I don’t know. It started with one that my sister got me as a gift. I thought it was a crappy gift at the time, but after a while when it started to die, I didn’t want to see that. It was so sad seeing the green leaves turn brown and how the plant seemed to be weighed down with the sadness of being neglected. So, I was determined to keep it alive.”

King laughed. “Anyway, I just loved that plant so much. So, I got more. I asked my family for plants on my birthdays and stuff. I started to get books to learn about them. I went on the internet so I could understand them better. The more I learned about them, the more interested I was. Then, they became like friends.

“I know it seems strange that I talk to them. They don’t speak back, you know. But they’re good listeners. And--” He stopped talking as he noticed Ram had his head propped on his hand staring at King so intently it made him turn a little red.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

There was a long silence. Ram continued to stare at him and King was about to turn away, as he didn’t expect an answer.

“Beautiful.”

King turned back to see Ram staring at him, his eyes wide. There was another long silence as a sort of tension filled the air between the two. King opened his mouth, ready to say something back when Ram cut him off by pointing to the plants hanging from the ceiling.

“You asked why I like the plants so much.” But, Ram’s eyes never left King’s for a second. “They’re beautiful.”

King tried his hardest to hold back the huge smile creeping onto his face, but he really couldn’t help himself. Ram’s voice had almost lifted his heart in a way and he had no idea how or why, but he knew it felt good.

“Hey. You spoke.” King could see Ram had gotten a little embarrassed because he quickly sat up, pointedly looked away, ad began to fiddle with the study notes. “Do that more.”

Neither of them said anything for some time. They just sat quietly together and looked at everything but each other. It wasn’t until a couple minutes later when King stood up and tapped Ram on the shoulder to follow him. “You should see the plants on my balcony. Those are some of my favorites.”