#(also i think you tagged it as chai003 before but we at 004 with them now!)

[chaisarinawat]

Chai gripped his phone tightly, occasionally glancing down at the screen to see if the service was returned as Khun Dan tried to comfort him from across the elevator. It was nerve-wrecking enough to be trapped in an elevator without any help coming, but to be stuck in there with the man he had been trying to avoid was even worse. Even if Khun Dan's voice was reassuring as he told Chai to calm down and breathe, Chai's thoughts were getting the better of him. What if Khun Dan tried to harass him like in Japan? Did the cameras in the elevator even work with the service down to record a video if he did?

Despite Chai's worries, he did have to acknowledge that his fears were just a result of his anxiety, because Khun Dan seemed like he was really trying to stay away from him. He left a lot of room between himself and Chai in the small space, hands up as if showing that he meant no harm, doing his best to get the two of them out, even apologising for their situation. Khun Dan... apologised a lot, Chai noticed, on the rare times they spoke these days.

"i - I'm sorry. I have no clue what happened. But I'll figure it out. I apologize that you are stuck with me… Just - hang in there. We'll get out soon…"

"I'll just keep checking my phone in case the service comes back?" Chai suggested, watching as Khun Dan looked around the space for any other way out. It was moot though - there wasn't anything that could be done, other than to wait for someone to try using it from the outside and hopefully report it as malfunctioning.

Whose job was it to make sure the maintenance stuff was working? Khun Dan? No, he'd be too busy with meetings, it would probably fall under his assistant right?

Wait, who was Khun Dan's assistant now? Chai didn't remember seeing anyone at the desk he usually worked at, on his rounds with the mail.

Khun Dan seemed to give up looking for an escape, stepping further back, into the corner opposite Chai, sliding down onto the floor.

"It's probably best to sit down for a minute. And calm down while we figure out what to do."

Chai hesitated before nodding, knowing there wasn't really much else they could do except wait. Hoping for a miracle, he checked his phone again - but nope, still nothing. And his hands were so clammy he could hardly unlock the screen. "Y-yeah. I guess." Chai agreed, sliding down on his side of the elevator to sit on the floor. At least it was clean.

The young man pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, gaze trained on the opposite form of Khun Dan. He was still nervous, but Khun Dan's calmness in this kind of situation was kind of helping.

"Don't worry, I won't come close. I won't hurt you."

Chai's eyes widened slightly, hearing his former boss acknowledge one of the fears he hadn't spoken aloud yet. And it seemed genuine. Khun Dan was making an effort to stay away, hands were Chai could see them, trying to get them out of there. Hearing that Khun Dan wasn't going to do anything that would hurt Chai was... reassuring.

"...Thank you, Khun Dan." Chai told him, some of the tension easing from his shoulders.

The silence that followed was strange. Chai could talk a lot, sometimes about nothing at all, but was struggling to find anything to say. He wanted to confront Khun Dan, but was terrified of the aftermath in case he triggered some kind of anger or resentment. He wanted to ask questions about Khun Dan's new assistant and if they needed help, but didn't want to overstep and make it appear as if he knew everything about the job after only two months.

Recalling the conversation he had with his P'Rachi, Chai tried to quell his over thinking mind.

I've known P'Dan for years, and he's never acted this way before. I'm not going to apologise on his behalf - but I will tell you that he feels terrible. P'Dan can be annoying and interferes with my life too much and I know he's a meanie at work - but the P'Dan I know is also one who looks out for others. He's always been so caring and responsible, especially of his employees, I can't understand why he... I don't know, baby. I'm not going to make excuses for him. He shouldn't have done that to you, end of story. And he does deeply regret his actions.

Did he? He had apologised but they hadn't talked. There was no closure, and it driving Chai mad because of all the over-thinking it drove him to do.

Deciding to be brave, Chai sat up a little straighter, heart beating a little harder in his chest. "Khun Dan," Chai said as confidently as he could. "I'm angry with you."

There. He said it. And it made him feel so much better.

Though, once he started, he couldn't stop.

"Since we came back from Japan, I feel like you threw me away because I didn't let you touch me. You shouldn't have done that in the first place, and I appreciate that you left me alone because I was upset, but we've never talked about what happened. It's the same with the night your friends tried to get me drunk - we... were in the bed together and I don't know how we got there. Did I do something to make you think I wanted that kind of attention in Japan? Or did you not care that I was drunk, like your friends wanted me to be? Did you... did we... What happened, Khun?"

Chai couldn't hardly finish the sentence, his voice started to shake as he waited for Khun Dan to answer him, if he even would, before talking again.

"Then we came back to Thailand, and you moved me to a new department and didn't even ask how I was doing. I was really struggling, and I felt very alone." Chai glanced away. His boss didn't have to care about him, but he felt discarded and it was all because of Khun Dan not taking responsibility. "I thought you were a good boss before... all of that. P'Rachi said you were good to your employees. It was a hard job being your assistant at first, but I got better didn't I? I really liked the challenge of working in that role. It's better than being a bartender or an es-" Chai caught himself before he revealed the shameful secret of his. His voice went softer as he asked out his final piece. "Why weren't you good to me? What did I do to you, Khun?"

Chai was quiet as the elevator doors slid shut, leaving just himself and Khun Dan inside. There wasn't much space between them in the cab, but Chai made it painfully obvious that he was putting in the distance, still unable to make eye contact with the man who he once worked directly under. Not that he expected Khun Dan to do anything to him right now... but since it happened once, and there had been no kind of closure, Chai wasn't sure.

When P'Rachi spoke to him on the phone and comforted him when Chai finally answered his calls, he told the young man how disappointed he was in his P'Dan, and how the behaviour he displayed in Japan wasn't normal. The more Chai thought about it, the more it made sense - in the two months working under his boss, Khun Dan hadn't ever tried touching him or anyone else, as far as he could see. It made Chai wonder what was it about that night that caused Khun Dan to act so uncharacteristically. Was it the heat of the onsen? Had he been drinking? The nakedness? A combination of all three?

There was also that night that Chai couldn't remember, with Khun Dan's friends, at the sushi restaurant, when he woke up the next morning cuddled up in bed with his boss. They never spoke about it, and Chai still didn't know what had happened. Maybe he had done something, said something to Khun Dan that made it appear as though he were interested in him? Maybe they had done more than just sleep in that bed together, and Khun Dan didn't tell him? Could that be why his boss thought it was okay to touch him in the onsen?

The more Chai thought about it, the more anxious he became. It's part of the reason why he couldn't face his boss - he needed answers, but was terrified of the truth. That and, of course, being taken advantage of.

Khun Dan's expression right now in the elevator only made Chai feel worse. He glanced to the side, noticing how his boss turned from him with a frown. He must hate me, Chai thought, fingers tightly gripping the package in his hand. Khun Dan barely talked to him anymore - both a blessing, and a curse, in Chai's opinion.

The elevator stopped, and Khun Dan waited for the doors to open, having pressed the side buttons a second time to get off at a different floor - but the metallic doors remained shut for an awfully long time.

"It's stuck."

Chai's eyes widened as he glanced up to the numbered display, seeing that they were in-between floors at the moment. His boss tried to open the doors, intent on getting out - but it was clear that wasn't going to work. Chai felt his heart beating a little faster as he realised his predicament, his fingers already starting to tremble at the helplessness of the situation.

Khun Dan tried to call the security button, with Chai nodding when he explained it to him, but something was wrong there too, a grating static noise greeting them instead.

"Try again?" Chai said slowly, watching as Khun Dan pressed the button repeatedly, only for the sound to stop entirely.

"Khun Chai, I'm sorry to ask you think but, do you have service? I don't have my cellphone with me and the emergency radio doesn't seem to work."

"I should, I just used my phone," Chai nodded, placing the package he was holding onto the floor and reaching for his phone, which he placed in his pocket after texting P'Rachi. He was a bit taken aback at being called 'khun' - Khun Dan never addressed him like that, just calling him by his name, even in meetings or when introducing him to associates. It felt like another wall of separation between them, and in the already small, claustrophobic space of the elevator, they really didn't need that as an addition.

Unlocking his phone, Chai noticed immediately that this was a dead-end too. No bars. Even the last message he had sent to his mommy Rachi hadn't gone through, a little timer beneath the emoji showing that the request was still being processed.

"S-sorry Khun Dan," Chai said, turning his phone over so the other could see the screen. "My service is out. There must be something wrong with the whole building. I can try restarting it..."

Chai's fingers shook as he pressed the button on the side of his mobile, hoping that maybe this would be a solution, otherwise he and Khun Dan were going to be stuck in here for who knows how long. His phone took a while to start back up again, with Chai hopeful that maybe the bars would show up now - but they didn't.

They were officially trapped.

"O-oh no..." Chai mumbled, starting to panic internally, hands going clammy as he gripped his phone. He looked up at his boss, eyes wide. "W-we're stuck."