Chapter Text
Porsche Pachara Kittisawat was never really one for conspiracy theories.
Of course, he did watch a lot of Vice documentaries on aliens and purple children and whatnot, but that was simply because he was just too curious for his own good. He craved useless information, even if that information was something as irrelevant as ‘are crop circles actually government made’ and ‘could you make yourself look into the future’ type of crap.
It was simply fun. And the fact that his semester was paying the price was totally irrelevant. It was sheer luck that he’d made it to his 6th semester in one piece and with somewhat decent grades. But according to Porsche, what fun would going to university be if you are not to take slight detours from studying once in a while? One quite important detour being having a crush on someone way out of his league (his words).
Porsche has researched psychology and the human psyche from time to time. It was light reading compared to things he was forced to know by heart in some of his classes and that research was the main reason Porsche knew harboring a crush on someone you haven’t even spoken to your entire college experience so far, was a really bad idea. It probably had something to do with that ideal people tend to create in their minds about a certain person which kind of just makes it worse— how do you stop crushing on someone you consider a Gods’ gift to this Earth? Porsche had no idea.
Kinn Anakinn Theerapanyakun was the said gift.
In Porsche’s mind he was perfect. His grades, his brain, his looks— 10/10 would bang. Like straight away. And to top it off, Kinn was kind. Not that ‘I'm quite popular so I'll pretend I'm kind’, but simply selflessly and genuinely kind. He always had a smile on his lips, and always offered his help to their fellow colleagues with whichever project they had issues with. Kinn was simply the first to volunteer for any extracurricular crap they had to take part in and Porsche just adored the hell out of him for that; he was usually the one to bail on those things.
And that was Porsche’s problem— Kinn was loved by everyone. Which made it all that hard for him to actually approach the guy given his own ‘head-in-the-clouds’ reputation and not a quite good streak with making connections with fellow students.
Sure thing, Porsche was not that bad. He was simply that eccentric kid that didn’t actually pay attention to anything but things that really piqued his interest, classes included. He just couldn’t bother spending his time on something he was not that really into.
Porsche’s crush on Kinn started during their third semester at university. He was angry at himself for not having noticed the other student before, to be honest, because then he could’ve spent three more semesters obsessing over the guy— in Porsche’s defense, he was way worse back in the day with the whole ‘paying attention to things that are important’ thing. He’d skip classes to the point where his TA would actually beg him to show up ‘once for God’s sake Porsche’ and he’d always do group assignments alone. Porsche still didn’t quite understand how he managed to pull that one off actually.
And then, Kinn came in. Like literally came into class one day, sauntering through the door being his perfect self and Porsche noticed. He’d noticed his ruffled bed-hair and a few wrinkles in his shirt that was usually immaculately ironed. He noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the way his shoulders sagged underneath the weight of his backpack slung over the right shoulder. Porsche noticed just how unusually Kinn this Kinn looked and Porsche kind of, maybe, fell in love on the spot.
The rest, up until their current semester, was kind of a blur of pinning sessions after the guy and a whole big-ass bonus of inappropriate thoughts— anytime, anywhere.
Which brings us to February 24, 2022.
For Porsche, It was a day like any other. He’d woken up extra early to watch the latest video essay from his favorite creator, before actually having to go to class he had a light breakfast (chicken noodle soup with a spoonful of pasteurized cheese) and actually managed to dress as presentably as possible since he had to do a presentation on ‘Fifty Shades Of A Modern Meme’ subject he’d assigned himself from the Media Throughout History theme they’ve been dealing with the previous semester. He was sure it was bound to flunk but it was important research he’d invested around 7 hours into so yeah, fail him.
Walking into the amphitheater he made way towards his usual spot— farthest left seat in the fifth row as it was the perfect spot not to be bothered by anyone for the duration of the classes; everyone was usually seated up-front anyway. Opening his laptop, he was greeted by the 7+ running tabs in his browser and he began closing them down, leaving only Twitter and his MEGA account open and running. The faculty's Wi-Fi had seriously great bandwidth and he really needed to upload some footage to his cloud.
Few hashtag checks later, the TA was in and the white screen over the blackboard came alive with colors as the projector came to life.
Great, he thought. Presentation time.
Not being one to actually pay attention to other students’ works, Porsche got back to scrolling his Twitter feed until it was his time to present. After twenty or so minutes of an excruciating presentation on how ‘media’s been closely related to religious propaganda throughout the years’ Porsche decided to tune it out with an Mind Reading: How To Spot It article because, to be very honest, anything was more interesting than the torture of word vomit by his fellow colleagues.
[+129] You know someone is a mind reader when they can tell if what you are saying is the truth or a lie.
[+79] Mind-reading is simply a technique of deduction, nothing psychic about it lol
[+261] Am i the only one that would think random thoughts in case someone was listening in?
Porsche barely superseded a giggle. He did remember doing something similar to it back in elementary school— just in case someone was listening in to his thoughts he’d think a ‘stop reading my mind you’re caught’ sentence and watch if anyone around him reacted to it.
[+28] how to spot it? scream in your mind.
The words glared at him from the bright display of his laptop. Porsche had never tried that before. In fact, how would screaming in your mind or thoughts be actually possible? That inner voice of ours, our subconsciousness, always has the same volume to it. Nothing could change that, right?
Someone else was taking a stand in front of the projector screen when Porsche shifted in his seat with a slight cough. To hell with it, he mused, it cost nothing to actually try it.
Scanning the auditorium once again he noticed that there were roughly around thirty students present, himself included. The second presentation was being babbled on and on about and Porsche tried his best to focus— how the fuck do you scream mentally? He had no idea. But that did not stop him from scrunching his face and shutting his eyes with a loud imaginary scream slash yell inside his thoughts.
And then it all happened in a blur. His mind screamed and his eyes opened to see and hear Kinn yelling a rather hard ‘what the fuck’ as he clutched his ears and head. The next moment the TA was shooting him a strange look as if Kinn had grown horns and then— then Kinn was turning his head around and pinning Porsche in place with his confused and angry glare.
Porsche felt his head buzzing. Looking back at it now, it must’ve been the adrenaline of the situation that was pretty much too ridiculous to even pay attention to it, but Porsche was someone who did not believe in coincidence. After all, what were the chances of Kinn acting like he’d been screamed at in ear proximity just as Porsche decided to test his mind reading theory?
Just as that thought ran through his mind he could see Kinn’s eyes widening and Porsche was lost—Kinn’s look was one of disbelief and of someone caught with their hand in a cookie jar, or in this case a thought jar. Porsche gulped and could not stop the way his mind just decided to go through all of the quite indecent thoughts and scenarios about Kinn he’d produced over the last three semesters. He blushed and saw Kinn's face and neck were as red as they could get and Porsche just silently cursed his own curiosity.
Kinn could read minds.
And Porsche had just busted his perfect ass. No pun intended.
Dropping his gaze onto the laptop, he shut it down and packed his things in a hurry. He just had to get out of there. Fast. Before his mind decided to sift through some more embarrassing situations like the memory of him imagining Kinn while he was jerking off the other da— fuck. There was a loud thud somewhere behind him as he reached the exit door and Porsche didn’t dare look back. He just had to get home. Drink a few Red Bulls and perhaps drown his thoughts in making pancakes and eating Nutella straight from the jar. And most importantly, he had to stop thinking about a certain person and probably refer to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Thought-Of from then onwards.
But Porsche knew one thing; even if he was to get over his initial embarrassment and shock over the fact that Kinn can read minds, what then? Kinn could literally read minds. That’s some next level shit and suddenly all those past conspiracy stories and supernatural themed documentaries made more sense— there were people out in the world who could actually do some of those things! Was Kinn the only one? How did it start? Does he turn him in to the authorities and with what accusation? ‘Heyyy officers so yeah this dude can read minds I know cuz he flinched as I shouted in my mind’? For the first time in a while, Porsche felt utterly lost.
Just as he was about to step through the faculty’s entrance, an arm yanked him sideways and into the men's bathroom. Before he was able to yell in protest at being manhandled like that Kinn’s palm was covering his lips and their eyes met.
Porsche’s brain short-circuited; he was surely getting killed and his body chopped into tiny pieces to feed some bloodhounds and all just to save a supernatural secret of a guy he’s had a crush on for almost two years.
“Porsche, please stop panicking. I’m not going to do anything to you.” Kinn groaned before moving in closer to keep his voice a whisper. “I am not going to hurt you, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Porsche could not believe his ears. What was wrong with him? Before he could think better what to say next he yanked Kinn’s palm down and cursed Kinn out. “Me? What’s wrong with me? I am not some weird ass person that can read other people’s minds, for fucks sake! Or are you going to deny that’s the truth?” Porsche silently prayed it was not. He really did. Because knowing something like this exists would only further fuck up his life and perception of things and it was not as cool as it sounded.
“I’m not going to deny it. There’s no point in it.” Kinn's shoulders slumped as he sighed.
Well fuck. The ‘me’ part was kind of mentally implied without it being thought of. It was one thing to come to a conclusion all on your own and another thing entirely when that conclusion is confirmed by none other than the source themselves. He had so many questions and thankfully a brain-to-mouth filter was never one of Porsche’s virtues.
“But how? Why? When did it all start? Are— is there anyone else?” Kinn had stepped back from him and Porsche was able to breathe again without feeling claustrophobic.
“A long time now,” Kinn’s stance was one of defeat as he moved back and leaned against a bathroom stall. “I had these seizures as a kid, and one day after an accident they just— stopped. And the whole thing began happening.” He motioned towards his head.
“How is that even possible?”
“If I had any clue, I would’ve found a way to make it all stop by now.” Kinn smiled somewhat bitterly.
Porsche was shocked. “Make it stop? Are you insane? You have, like— probably the greatest advantage over everyone else in the world, Kinn.”
Kinn rolled his eyes at that and crossed his forearms against the chest. “Yeah right, an advantage Porsche. You see how freaked out you were by just realizing that a minute ago? Imagine spending your whole adolescent life— minute by minute, day after day, until they blur into years— being able to hear, and I’ll quote my psychiatrist here– ‘voices; early onset schizophrenia and/or borderline personality disorder’. It’s not as great as you might see it right now, all super heroic and shit. It messed up my life and I’ve been piecing it back together the best that I could so far.”
“Shit, I—" Porsche did not think of that. "Sorry, I honestly failed to see there might be a bad side to this as well.” He was feeling sympathetic for the other student. Kinn was right, it must’ve been hell going through it with psych therapies as an icing atop a messed up cake.
“Yeah well, it’s not like it’s going anywhere anytime soon, so I might as well learn to cope with it better from now on. It’s just,” he paused for a moment. “Is it okay with you to— uhm, talk about this? I just, I've never had anyone know of this and actually talk to them about it.”
Porsche could’ve died right then and there at the beaten puppy look Kinn threw his way.
“Of course!” A little over-eager Porsche?? “We could go to a café or somewhere less crowded ‘cuz you know, less thoughts?” Please brain don’t think about inviting him to my place oh god don’t think of it just—
“Yeah, your place sounds fine.” Kinn laughed at Porsche’s gaping mouth and blushed cheeks.
“That’s private! Please refrain from reading my thoughts ever again if you want me to keep my mouth shut.”
Kinn smirked and straightened up.
“If your memory serves me right, you’ve thought about a lot of ways of me keeping your mouth shut during the past semester Porsche. If I were you, I’d try watching less porn and reading more study related materials.”
Porsche was frozen in his spot as Kinn passed him, walking towards the exit.
“And just to torture you a bit more—” he turned around with a smile, one hand on the door. “I actually could tune people out, I do it all the time. You were just so damn entertaining that I honestly couldn’t help myself.”
The feeling of utter shame that rocked Porsche's body had him splashing water all over his face.
Have fun finding someone else to talk about your freaky abilities with, ASSHOLE.
Kinn’s laughter rang down the hallway.
—