1 a.m.
When the rainy season set in there was the discomfort of leaking and wind-swept canopies , the lack of customers , and being drenched by the rain ; but these issues were minimized by the fact that varied weather made each of the days more memorable . The brothers , transplanted into Bangkok with a livelihood , continued on as if in Ayutthaya . Memory of the uncle 's unfulfilled promise of a dinner had worn away like the memory of their parents or the abandonment of Kumpee . At first Suthep strutted around in his independence like a dominant rooster but as the months went by the independence underwent the metamorphosis to loneliness and by 1 a.m. of each early morning , an hour or two after Jatupon would leave him , Suthep would often feel the chill of adulthood . One late night/early morning as the smoke of charbroiled fish and the steam of rice , noodles , and pork soup rose up the sweat-profuseness of his face and into his hairnet , he watched a girl giggle and slurp up her noodles with her boyfriend . He imagined all traffic on the streets and sidewalk gone and that there was just the three of them . He imagined those customers leaving unhappily .