That afternoon, Duy Anh remained at home and taught Arthur new words as well as calligraphy, like the day before (thinking that maybe, Arthur would be better at it today. He wasn’t).

Arthur’s speech got better and the words flowed more naturally although his sentences were still clumsy and he still couldn’t get used to the formalities of the language, still confusing honorifics and forgetting how to politely address others. It didn’t bother Duy Anh as the two were in an informal setting and were close in age but it did make Arthur nervous as he might make a faux-pas if he ever had to converse with someone else and the last thing he’d want would be to upset a young woman by calling her "auntie" or something.

Anyway, he still had a lot to learn and work on before being able to communicate with anyone else outside the house.

Seeing that Arthur looked rather distressed and tired, Duy Anh suggested him to take a break which Arthur gleefully accepted. Although Duy Anh was thinking about a tea or snack break, Arthur took out his sketchbook and settled in the shade of the courtyard’s tree, sketching while humming weird songs that Duy Anh had never heard about.

Fascinated by the child-like attitude and energy Arthur had, Duy Anh went into the kitchen himself to set up a small tea table next to the young man, completed with a fresh pot of tea and mung bean cakes. He settled down, observing Arthur. Although Arthur always looked a bit naive and innocent in his eyes, he also had moments when he looked much more mature and serious. Duy Anh thought that this was especially the case whenever he was left to himself and would focus on drawing or painting. He had never dared interrupting or getting too close to Arthur whenever that was the case, not wanting to seem rude or too intrusive.

It just happens that today, he also needed some kind of distraction and was bored, so he tried to sneak next to Arthur out of curiosity to take a peek out of curiosity. Duy Anh can’t say he was surprised but he was surely impressed: anyone could tell that Arthur was skilled in his craft. His sketches were quick and rather rough but it captured the subject well. It was something he was obviously used to doing.

Whether it was the house’s roof tiles, the branches of the unkempt trees or the silhouette of the maids. Although they were simple outlines, it was easy to distinguish Lien’s curvier figure from Binh’s straight yet elegant posture from Arthur’s sketches. It looked like he had an eye for capturing the right moment and detail. Arthur might be a clumsy and awkward person but he was a great artist.

“You’re amazing”, Duy Anh said out of the blue while holding his teacup to his lips.

Arthur jumped at the sudden remark, as if taken out from his trance, and knocked over his own cup of tea (that he didn’t even notice was there). A flow of panic took over him—he didn’t know what to do nor why he got this surprised, it was really embarrassing!

Some of the tea dripped down from the table on Duy Anh’s—originally pristine and stainless—sky blue sleeves.

Both of them quickly stood up, trying to avoid making more of a mess than it already was. Arthur panicked and started spurting some gibberish words intertwined with apologies. Maybe some English words even got out. Oh I fucked up, he thought at that moment. Duy Anh was only flustered and felt guilty for not only interrupting but also surprising Arthur’s moment of relaxation. Now he was even more stressed out than he was before! So Duy Anh also thought, ah, I messed up.

The two felt apologetic and remorseful towards the other but the tea was already spilled and dripping on the ground.

Arthur then thought about Duy Anh’s—probably expensive—clothes that got stained by his fault. Oh no, what if Duy Anh got burned though?!

In the blink of an eye, Arthur clumsily pulled the tie holding Duy Anh’s outer robe together, peeled the clothing off of his body and rolled his inner clothing’s sleeve up to take a look at Duy Anh’s unscathed arm. The same couldn’t be said about Duy Anh’s composure, who was holding his free hand up to his scarlet face, in a poor attempt to hide his embarrassment.

It’s only when Arthur sighed in relief and glanced up to the other man’s face that he realized what he did was careless and quite stupid. He had just undressed a man who already had his clothes stained by tea! Due to his mistake! Without consent!! Oh no!!!

The situation was even weirder now that the two of them couldn’t even find anything to say to the other, both speechless from the utter shame they both felt.

When Arthur finally could move again, he ran away with Duy Anh’s robe—yelling something about it being dirty while he had already turned his back away. Duy Anh, still quite flustered by the situation (and his disheveled state), only brought his knees to his chest and opened his fan to cover his—still very much red—face.

This wasn’t an easy day for Duy Anh, who started to regret his decisions. Maybe he should have just stayed inside for the day because now, all he wanted to do was to jump into the Red River and let his body drift away and the water wash away all the shame.

Moments later, Binh came to Duy Anh (who was still very much in a ball-like pose) giving him a deep and long sigh as well as a clean outer robe, after Arthur had to explain to her why he was running around her chu’s robe. She didn’t comment on the situation but it was pretty obvious that she found the both of them ridiculous—she just didn’t want to make them feel worse than they already did.

Needless to say, the rest of the day passed very quietly and slowly, as the two didn’t dare to speak about what had happened earlier nor look at each other without being reminded of the shameful accident.