บท 21: Chapter 21

When the weekend came, the Lore-Reyes engagement was still at the forefront of all current news. Even if it had officially been left on a backburner while the world continued, it was difficult to find people who had let the topic go. This was making it very difficult for Henry to leave the house – less from hounding, people seemed to be more civil than that, more out of embarrassment. He hadn't realised the sheer popularity of the livestream or the clips from the broadcast that had dominated all forms of social media. This was the first time he had shown himself to the public and it was for something as horrifically memorable as this.

Another thing that had not been anticipated, even by the presidents themselves, was that the two families would be crowned pioneers of the LGBTQ+ community – the guilt of that weighed quite heavily on both young men – their influence being so great amongst society that it had stimulated various campaigns and programmes for education and inclusiveness of the topic. The great social stigma had somehow been bulldozed overnight, even the current government, which was backed by the Q Group at its roots, had played along to the tune, allowing for advocation of more equal rights than just the right of same sex marriage.

Everything had boiled down to the revelation of the 'relationship' between Henry and Joshua, the ripple effect being much bigger than anyone would have guess. Instead of the light resistance that was predicted, the two families had shifted society itself.

As Henry lay on his bed, still in his work clothes, he finally gave up with scrolling through his social media and news feeds, the whole thing was starting to make him depressed.

Yes, the Q Group ceased their attempts on both his and the Lore family. The initial plan had been a success. Everyone in their families had calmed down and settled back into work. The merger was showing to be successful.

Everything was going perfectly well.

Of course that is only if you exclude the fact that Henry's family really thought the 22-year-old man was gay with interest in the Lore's second son. Everyone believed it, and Henry was finding it was putting him in a difficult position. Not because people were unsupportive, of course there were a couple of his friends that had turned their backs to him but most of them had barely been close to him, but because everyone had been too supportive of him, showing it through streams of thoughtful messages and encouraging posts.

When he had first helped come up with the plan, the lie had seemed harmless enough, even if it had included his family and the public, he thought it would have just been passing news to a degree. The bigger impact should have been the merger and the eventual fall of the Q Group.

That lie, however, had spun miraculously out of control. It left Henry with a heavy sense of burden and guilt.

The man's phone buzzed again in his hand, prompting him to pick it up and look to see a message from the Lore-Reyes' family group chat coming through, which in turn sparked the conversation alive. He had come to the conclusion that no matter how annoying they were, it was best to keep the notifications on after he witnessed what had become of the chat after the disastrous press conference. Now that he and Joshua had started to show their faces in it, the annoying chatter had stopped.

Of course the families had just formed another group chat purely for the purpose of gushing, but the 'couple' in question were naively none the wiser.

The messages this time were in relation to the joint family brunch they had decided on for the next day. It would be a relatively casual event taking place at a restaurant the Reyes's had picked out. The parents were hoping to make this a regular thing, each family planning it alternatively. They had finalised to meet 5 minutes before their 11am booking, outside the restaurant.

At the current time, they were discussing which couple of photographers they had allowed to know of the plans. Letting them now had become a simple solution to people digging into daily timetables in order to capture interesting pictures of these people of power. The less secretive they were with gathering events like this, the more control they had over a situation and the more prepared they can be. In fact, for most elite socialites, majority of pictures that were published in media were either staged or heavily vetted. It takes a very skilled reporter to truly find a scandal, and those came rare.

Henry went to put his phone down again, already disinterested in the conversation; he could just check the details in the morning. However just as he did so, another group chat lit up, a smaller one that the young man had been dragged into by his hacker friend, Gin, the other participant obviously being Henry's 'fiancé'.

Well, Joshua really was Henry's fiancé, that had become an indisputable fact, it was only the romantic relationship that was a lie.

The red head had somehow convinced both Joshua and Henry to go clubbing with him. Apparently, the two badly needed to relax – which was not a wrong assumption – and even though the two now had revealed their faces to the world, assured them that neither would be found out. Of course, spending the night with someone else was out of the question, however gin was determined to get the two drunk.

These clubbing plans were to take place tonight. The message was Gin making sure that everyone was at Henry's apartment in the next hour.

The young man sent a one-word reply, consisting of three letters, before throwing his phone above his head. It landed between his two pillows. "Why did I say yes?" He quietly asked himself with a groan.

Talking to himself wasn't something Henry Reyes would usually do when in his apartment on his own, his life was busy enough that the time he spent on his own was dedicated quiet time. However, since this fake marriage business started, his life had been extra lively, he was starting to find the quiet a little off putting, lonely even. He did not like the change but it did make the young man wonder whether it was really new or if it had always been the case and he had never noticed until now.

He looked at the time before sighing. He had to shower but didn't feel like hurrying up. They were meeting at his apartment anyway – he was the only one living alone – he had the extra time, probably.

In the end, the blond man decided to trust himself and let himself fall into a nap without even moving from his current position of half laying on his bed.

It was precisely 75 minutes later that Joshua Lore was buzzed into the apartment complex – news had spread like wildfire that Joshua was showing himself at the complex since the live broadcast, no one would even think of asking him anything – making his way to apartment 1306, which Gin had shown him just once. Well, show was perhaps a strong word, he just had the man in tow when they had come here on Monday.

Although he knew it was due to his amazing memory that he remembers the small detail, he still felt strangely self-conscious about it. Everyone was making a big deal of anything regarding him and the Reyes' second son. It was the very reason he had decided to come quarter an hour late, everyone's extra chatter and attention made him certain that if it were just the two of them, he would regress to the same socially awkward mess he had been the first time they had met almost a week ago. Gin liked to be on time so Joshua was now sure he would not embarrass himself horribly.

When he arrived at the door, the dark-haired beauty found himself having to bite back the urge to pull out a cigarette and smoke his social anxiety away. As the doorbell rang, Joshua finally admitted that his smoking habit was at least 10-folds worse than it had been before he quit, perhaps he should consider doing so again. His parents had already expressed their distaste at how often the man would be found outside with a cigarette between his lips. But if he quite, how was he supposed to find even a false sense of peace with the situation he had thrown himself into?