A shoulder to lean on (Part 1)

A sudden knock on Eleo's door with the servant saying, "Sir, please come and have your breakfast," made him knock back into reality.

He wiped off his tears and replied with a deep, shaky voice, "Okay, I will come in a while," and went to take a quick shower.

Eleo went to the dining hall with his puffy eyes and gloomy face. After sitting on the chair, Mrs. Feroza asked his permission to place the Christmas gifts in his room. He only allowed Mrs. Feroza to enter his room as she took care of him for a long time. While serving him, one of his servants stated that, "Sir, just now your aunt called and said that she is still on vacation. If Sir has anything to ask, you can call to her mobile number."

Eleo only nodded and continued to eat his breakfast. He headed back to his room and saw all his unwrapped gifts placed on his table. Eleo switched on his speaker to play some songs while assembling the gifts and he started with the PlayStation that was gifted to him by his parents. He read the instructions and carefully plugged in all the gadgets. After successfully installing it, he eagerly played that game. He didn't even hear Mrs. Feroza calling him for lunch since the volume of the speaker was quite high and he was also enthusiastically playing his games.

After playing for a couple of hours, he decided to arrange other gifts and switched off the game. The other gifts he received were perfumes, greeting cards, watches, and chocolates. While arranging the gifts, he nibbled some of the chocolates which made him less hungry. When he thought he had finished arranging all the gifts, he stumbled upon a small box that was on the floor. He couldn't remember receiving that gift and it was still wrapped. He brought it to his study table after softening the music and unwrapped it while sitting there. It turned out to be a keychain gifted by Oriana. On the keychain, there was an eye-catching picture of a galaxy with millions of stars. He placed the keychain on top of his diary and took his phone before jumping on his bed which was located beside his study table. He messaged Oriana to thank her for the gift and at the same time he saw Estella online. He also messaged Estella and received a reply instantly from her. He continued to message her and did not notice Oriana who replied after a while.

Estella told Eleo that she was attending a family dinner and she was currently at a restaurant. She also added that the previous gatherings were always boring as all the elderly people talked about business while the youngsters played with their phones including her. Eventually, after chatting with Eleo for an hour, Estella was startled when her father scolded her for not noticing the arrival of food and everyone was waiting for her to eat. She sent a quick message to Eleo and joined them. At that instant, there was a knock on his door by the servant to invite him for dinner. Before leaving his phone, he noticed a message saying "Glad you like it," and without noticing the sender's name, he replied with a smiling emoji. Eleo was too hungry after arranging his stuff and hurried to the dining hall. He also accidentally pushed some of his books while placing his phone on the studying table and his diary fell behind the desk together with the keychain. He heard the sound of something falling and thought to look for it after his dinner. However, he forgot about it when he returned to his room with a full tummy, feeling sleepy. He fell asleep after browsing through some social media.

The next day, he received a call from his parents after they settled everything in Hong Kong. Since school was starting soon, his parents reminded him to stay focused on his studies. Consequently, Eleo had been busy preparing himself for the new semester.