"You are meeting Jayden's daughter tomorrow."
Keng's father's voice sliced through the dining room with the kind of authority that demanded obedience, not discussion.
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy.
Keng sat across from him, expression unreadable, fingers tightening slowly around the edge of the table.
His mother stood nearby, visibly exhausted from the endless arguments that had consumed the house ever since she and her husband discovered the truth about their son.
Keng lifted his eyes calmly.
"I'm not meeting anyone's daughter, Father."
The calmness in his tone only made the tension worse.
His father's jaw hardened.
"Excuse me?"
"I said I'm not meeting her," Keng repeated.
"I'm already in love with someone."
His father let out a cold laugh.
"You call that nonsense love?"
Keng's eyes darkened.
"I'm in love with someone's son," he said firmly.
"Why is that so hard for you to understand?"
Silence slammed into the room.
His father suddenly turned toward his wife, furious disbelief written all over his face.
"Can you hear the sort of nonsense your son is saying?" he snapped.
"Can you see the human being you raised?"
Keng's mother flinched slightly.
"Keng..." she called softly, her voice tired now, almost fragile.
"Do you really love Ping?"
The question hung in the air.
For a moment, Keng's expression softened completely.
"Yes, Mom," he answered without hesitation.
"I do."
He leaned back slowly, exhaling through the tightness in his chest.
"Ping is..."
He paused, searching for the right words.
"He's like a calm sea."
His mother blinked, listening quietly.
"And I'm like a storm," Keng continued softly.
"I've always been angry. Restless. I push people away without realizing it. But when I'm with him..."
His voice lowered.
"I feel peaceful."
His mother's eyes began to water.
"He makes me want to become better,"
Keng admitted.
"He makes me think about the future seriously. About building something stable. About happiness."
That was all it took.
Tears spilled down his mother's cheeks as she suddenly stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace.
"My son..."
she whispered shakily.
Keng froze in surprise before slowly hugging her back.
"It's alright," she murmured, holding his face gently.
"You can love whoever you want. I just want you to be happy."
The warmth in her voice broke something inside him.
"I'm sorry," Keng whispered hoarsely, tears finally slipping down his face too.
"I'm sorry if I disappointed you."
"You didn't," she said immediately.
"Never."
But the peace lasted only seconds.
"Are you both insane?!" Keng's father slammed his hand against the table, the sound echoing violently through the room.
"You're encouraging this?" he shouted at his wife.
"Your son is gay and you're standing there supporting him?"
Keng's mother stepped back anxiously.
"You'll marry Jayden's daughter," his father roared, pointing at him,
"or I'll disown you!"
The threat hung heavily in the air.
But Keng only stared back coldly.
"Then disown me."
His father looked stunned.
Keng stood slowly from his chair.
"I already lost Ping once because of this family," he said, voice trembling with emotion.
"I'm not leaving him again."
"Keng-"
"No!" Keng snapped, years of frustration finally exploding out of him.
"You keep saying gay, gay, gay like it's some disease!" His chest rose and fell violently.
"Yes," he shouted.
"I'm gay! I love him! Why can't you accept that?"
His father's face twisted with rage.
"You ungrateful-"
"I'm done," Keng cut in bitterly.
Before anyone could stop him, he turned and stormed upstairs.
"Keng!" his mother called after him helplessly.
He ignored her completely.
Inside his room, he grabbed his car keys roughly from the desk.
His breathing felt uneven, his chest tight with anger and pain.
Then his eyes landed on the drawer where his father had thrown his confiscated phone days ago.
Keng yanked it open immediately.
There it was.
His hands trembled slightly as he switched it on.
The screen lit up.
And then-
Messages flooded in one after another.
Ping: Are you okay?
Ping: Please text me when you see this.
Ping: I'm really worried.
Ping: Hia... please.
Keng's vision blurred instantly.
He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, pressing the phone tightly in his hand as guilt crashed into him all over again.
"Ping waited for me this whole time."
He could practically imagine Ping staring at his phone every night, wondering if he'd been abandoned again.
Keng wiped at his eyes roughly before standing up again.
No.
He wasn't going to let that happen.
Not this time.
He shoved the phone into his pocket and rushed downstairs.
"Keng!" his father barked the moment he appeared.
But Keng didn't stop walking.
"You walk out that door and don't bother coming back!"
Keng paused briefly near the entrance. Then he looked back over his shoulder.
"If loving Ping means losing this house," he said quietly,
"then I'll lose it."
And with that, he walked out.
The door slammed behind him.
--
Rain was with ping when Ping's phone suddenly rang.
Ping, who had been staring blankly at the ceiling moments earlier, sat up instantly the second he saw the caller ID.
"Hia?"
Rain immediately looked over.
Ping answered so quickly he nearly dropped the phone.
"Hia?" he repeated softly, relief flooding his voice.
"I heard what happened from your friends. Are you okay? Where are you now?"
Inside the car, Keng gripped the steering wheel tightly.
Streetlights blurred past him as he drove through the night.
"Ping," he said finally. Just hearing Ping's voice made his chest ache painfully.
"I'm on my way to you."
Ping's breathing caught.
"You are?"
"Yes."
There was a brief silence before Keng spoke again, quieter this time.
"I need you to know something."
Ping held the phone tighter.
"I love you so much."
The sincerity in his voice made Ping's eyes sting immediately.
"Hia..."
Then- A loud horn blasted through the speaker.
Bright headlights flashed across Keng's windshield.
Everything happened too fast.
Tires screeched violently.
Keng's eyes widened.
And then- Crash.
The sound exploded through the phone.
Metal twisted.
Glass shattered.
Ping froze.
"Hia?"
No answer.
"Hia?"
Only distant noise.
People shouting.
A car alarm.
Then silence.
Ping's entire body went cold.
"Hia?!"
Rain shot up from the bed immediately.
"Ping?! What happened?"
Ping's hands shook violently.
"Hia!" he screamed into the phone.
"Hia! Answer me!"
Nothing.
Then faintly- Sirens.
Ping's heart stopped.
"No..." he whispered.
Rain grabbed his shoulders.
"Ping, what happened?!"
Ping looked up slowly, tears already pouring down his face.
"He..."
His voice cracked horribly.
"There was an accident."