Young Master is not okay.

Malakai threw his phone onto the seat.

Just... what is this?

What nonsense was this? It just had to be fake. It had to be!

There was no way this would have happened. There was no time for it to happen. Hao Sheng had been with him the whole night! He would punish all the people making these false allegations and tarnishing his friend's name.

And then it hit him.

There was a time when they weren't together. Hao Sheng had said he wanted to use the bathroom, and he had been gone a really long time. Back then, he didn't think much of it since he came back, but now that he thought about it, that was way too long for someone to use the bathroom.

Even if you were taking a massive shit!

Malakai was silent for a long moment. After a while, he picked up his phone and looked at the pictures. He scrolled through the pictures until he stopped on one. Hao Sheng stood smiling next to Luxia, and she was smiling back. He sat like that, staring at one particular picture the whole car ride home.

No matter how sick and queasy he started getting, he didn't take his eyes off the picture. He didn't take his eyes off Hao Sheng's smiling face.

The same smile that Malakai himself had seen a thousand times was aimed at him. Now it wasn't.

The car came to a stop, and Malakai wasted no time getting out of the car. He rushed to his room and closed his door behind him.

He discarded his bag somewhere and collapsed onto his bed, burying his head in his pillow.

He silently switched on his phone and raised his face to see that same picture seemingly looking back at him, mocking him.

He stared for what felt like hours, but was probably minutes, his body an empty husk. He felt like he was present, but not really. His entire being was entranced by the picture. By the couple in it. By that glorious smile.

Finally, with a groan, Malakai sat up.

He couldn't just sit around moping like this. He didn't even know why he was moping in the first place!

He should handle this like a calm adult and directly ask the source of all of this.

This information came from a gossip column. Although it was entertaining, it wasn't always accurate. There was a chance these pictures were taken out of context, and there was a really good explanation for this.

Not that Hao Sheng owed him an explanation or anything...

He opened his chats with Hao Sheng and started typing a message... only for him to delete it and start again. This exercise went on for a few minutes until Malakai finally stopped.

He just didn't know what to say! How does one even go about starting a conversation like this anyway?

'Hey, I heard you have a new girlfriend and I just wanted to confirm if it was true because for some reason you being in a relationship bothers me'?

That would make him seem like some sort of psycho!

Thus... the next few moments were spent with Malakai's fingers just hovering over the keyboard, not even daring to type anything in case the other party noticed weird activity.

Finally, after some time, Malakai groaned again and put down his phone.

It looks like he would just have to wait until tomorrow to have a face-to-face confrontation with Hao Sheng. After all, the best things are best left said in person.

So with that in mind, Malakai got up and got ready for bed, completely foregoing dinner. He wasn't feeling too hungry anyway. Plus, he didn't trust his stomach to hold down anything right now.

He put his phone on the charger and went to bed. For the first time in Astor history, Malakai Astor went to bed early of his own violation.

Although he was resolved to have this conversation with Hao Sheng the next day, he still couldn't get rid of this sense of melancholy weighing down his heart. No matter how many times he reassured himself.

Thus, he fell into a very restless and troubled sleep.

****

Malakai woke up very tired the next morning.

With a groan, he dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for school. This did not get better even after showering and getting ready.

He still felt very drained.

He ignored this feeling, just assuming it would disappear as he went about his day, and made his way downstairs for a quick breakfast before calling for the driver and heading to school.

When he got there, he immediately went to camp out in front of Hao Sheng's locker, but then thought he was getting too many weird looks, so he went to wait by a nearby wall, where he would still have a good view of things, and tried to look busy.

For some reason, he felt guilty when so many people gave him raised brows when he stood by Hao Sheng's locker. It was like he was disrupting something he shouldn't have.

Finally, after some time, Malakai spotted Hao Sheng coming down the hallway going to his locker. Malakai starts to approach him with a smile when he notices that Hao Sheng isn't alone.

Walking beside him was Luxia. He didn't know what they were talking about, but Luxia looked excited, and Hao Sheng listened to her with a fond smile.

Malakai's smile immediately dropped, and he stood frozen, watching them.

From this point of view, he could see what others saw. A loving couple. The sunshine girlfriend with a quiet but caring boyfriend.

Honestly, Malakai could admit that, standing together like that, they looked like the perfect couple. The most perfect couple in the world.

At first he didn't want to believe it, but now he was starting to doubt himself. It just seemed more impossible that they were just friends.

Just then, Luxia let out a cry of victory and jumped to hug Hao Sheng, and Hao Sheng... hugged her back with a laugh. A laugh that sounded soft and indulgent and just affectionate.

They quickly separated, but Malakai still couldn't get the image of them out of his mind. He thought back to one of the pictures where Hao Sheng was kissing Luxia's forehead with a gentleness he didn't know. The two images overlapped in his brain until it was all he could see.

Malakai didn't stay to see any more. He quickly fled down the hallway and out the side exit.

At that moment, Hao Sheng looked up and in that direction.

"Is something wrong?" Luxia asked looking over as well.

Hao Sheng looked back at her and shook his head with a smile. "No, its nothing." He looked back in that direction before turning away again. "I just thought I saw someone I knew. I must have been wrong..."

Malakai was hiding in the garden, behind a fountain. He texted his driver to come pick him up silently and just sat there. He could feel a lump forming in his throat.

He just wanted to be alone and away from the prying eyes of the other students. From where he was sitting, he had a clear view of the school gate and would see his driver arrive, but at the same time, he was hidden from view.

The car pulled up and Malakai grabbed his bag and made his way to it, hurriedly getting in.

The driver turned to him, and as he was about to ask what the problem seemed to be, Malakai spoke up.

"Can we go home, please" he said in a quiet, fragile voice.

The driver immediately shut up and started the car, driving away. Although he didn't quite understand what was going on, he could intuitively sense that the young master was not okay.

He had been working for the Astor's for a long time and had witnessed the young master's development.He had been driving him everywhere for a long time and never had he seen him like this. Even when the madam died, he wasn't like this. He was upset, he acted out a lot, but he was never like this. He wasn't this... silent. Not even when he disagreed, one-sidedly, albeit, with his father. Something must have happened.

He silently sent a message to the master and worriedly checked up on the young man through the rear-view mirror.

He knew he may have been potentially endangering the young master, but he felt the need to. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to the Astor household group chat.

:The young master doesn't look too good. We are on our way home. Please tread lightly.

Maid 1: Is he alright? What is going on?

: I don't really know, but I can tell something happened. Just be extra careful for today.

With that, he put away his phone and glanced into the rear-view mirror once again. Malakai was still in the same position as before.

Malakai was sitting with his knees to his chest, burying his head in his arms and just curling in on himself. He didn't say anything and just maintained that position for the duration of the drive.

He was so caught up in his own world that he didn't even notice when the car came to a stop.

The driver got out of the driver's seat and went around to open his door.

"Young master, we're here," he said softly.

Malakai looked up and looked around, realising that they really were back. He quietly got up in a daze and made his way to his room.

He closed the door behind him and put his bag down. He went to his closet and changed into some comfortable clothes, a hoodie and sweatpants. After that, he sat on his bed and just looked at his phone.

It was still stuck on that damn photo with the two of them smiling over something.

Malakai stared at the picture, feeling that weird melancholy settling in and completely covering his heart and constricting his lungs.

The more he stared at the picture, the more he didn't understand. Why did he care so much? Why was he feeling so damn affected by this? It shouldn't be affecting him as much as it is. He shouldn't care who Hao Sheng dated or hung around. But he did, and he didn't know why.

He silently stared at the picture, the lump in his throat growing until he felt like he couldn't breathe properly.

He stared at the picture so long, his vision got blurry.

He stared so long he felt his heart constrict.

Until finally, a drop of water fell on the screen, blurring Hao Sheng's face.

Malakai looked at his phone confused. Was his ceiling leaking or something?

Another drop fell, followed closely by another.

That's when he felt a dampness on his cheeks and face.

He reach a finger out and tentatively touched his face. His finger came back wet. That's when he realised… he was crying?

But he never cried. He didn't even cry when his mother died. It was stupid of his to cry now.

Despite his thoughts, the tears kept falling like rain. It was like his acknowledgement opened the floodgates and he just couldn't hold it back anymore.

He fell backwards and hugged his pillows as he let out a silent sob.

A lot of emotions were running around his head right now. He felt sad, angry, shocked and most of all, heartbroken.

It hurt. His heart hurt. A lot.

He didn't really understand what was happening, but he decided to give in.

He didn't fight it anymore and just curled up on his bed and cried.

He lay there on his bed and allowed the tears, he'd been unknowingly holding back since he first saw that article, fall. He let the roll down and tell his story to his pillows and bed sheets.

He allowed himself this one moment to just cry and let it all out.