Back in the fold

My friendships with young Thais have a shifting, impermanent character. That is hard for westerners who expect more stability and reliability from friends.

I met young Teung, the performing arts student last night, for the first time since Songkran.

He apologised for failing to meet me the last time we spoke. I had called him after going to watch him perform in a cultural event at Sanam Luang during the Songkran festival.

When I called him to ask him out for a drink after his show, he was already asleep and too tired to come out.

'I am sorry I did not come out to see you...it had been a long day,' he said.

At first I didn't recognise Teung. He was wearing a business shirt and formal trousers. He had spent the day teaching music, as normal, but this was the first time I had seen him dressed so formally, and he looked different.

Teung's hair also looked matted, though that might be the result of the rain. We did not talk much, as three or four of his friends at the same table were vying for his attention.

One was an extrovert gay boy, who was passing on his bicycle when the boys called him over. They are students at the same school, and come from Esan. The gay boy was the leery, showy type, and turned up wearing a white singlet and a wrap around garment instead of trousers.

He teased Teung about where his sexual preferences lay - with gays like him, or with girls like the rest of his friends.

'He's a friend of mine,' Teung told me apologetically.

Another boy sitting opposite could see Teung and I liked each other, but was more discreet than the boy on the bicycle. He gave me encouraging smiles. Once, Teung held me around the waist, while I refilled his ice bucket.

While Teung spoke to his friends, I took out the thumbnail photograph of himself which he gave me, the first night we met. I did not show it to him, but Thais being the mind readers that they are, he probably sensed me looking at it.

I asked him what he had been doing all this time. I assumed that during the summer break, he had gone home to Esan, or perhaps joined his friends to perform in the provinces.

But no. 'I have been in Bangkok all along, but I work a long way from Mum's shop, so it has not been convenient to visit,' he said.

Teung said he had missed his friends, and felt happier now that they had reunited for the new term - their last together, for many of the boys, before they leave school to forge their way in the world.