74 Chapter 74

Joshua looked around the café, trying to find Henry. You would think that it would be easy to find someone with looks as astounding as his but for some reason no matter how many times Joshua scanned the buy café, he could not see any sign of Henry. He was about to give up and call the other man when a wave in the corner of his eye grabbed his attention. Henry did not call him over to avoid unnecessary attention, half his body sticking out behind the doorway that led to a staircase.

It should have been quite a sight to see the handsome young man smiling to his eyes, energetically waving, but all Joshua could see was the covered-up bruise on the other's face. Now that they were no longer bickering, he could not help but feel even worse about the injury. Accident or not, the matter of fact was that he had hurt Henry. He could only imagine how much it must of hurt as his elbow carried is entire bodyweight into the younger man's face. However, he did not let on, calmly smiling in return and heading over to where Henry was waiting.

"Sorry about that, the café seems to have some limited time event going on and was a lot busier than anticipated. I got us a pod upstairs in the net café," Henry explained as he led Joshua up the stairs. "It actually works out better for us because we can order the café's food as well as your usual net café menu with added privacy." Henry did not bother mention the slightly marked up prices, such a thing would not matter to either of them. "Man, the nostalgia is real though, I haven't been here since high school." 

They stopped outside a pod, Henry swiping a card to unlock the door so they could both enter. The interior was relatively bland, neutral colours and minimalistic décor as to not draw away anyone's attention. Unlike the normal desks that were set up in rows with dividers between each station, the private pod was quiet and isolated. The lighting was set to dim, a control panel by the door in case people preferred it brighter as well as allowing customers to adjust the temperature. These settings could also be adjusted from a small tablet docked on the corner of the desk. Naturally, the pod was small, and it felt even more so with two grown adults sitting in there together. It was overall a cosy fit.

Henry decided it was not worth mentioning that they were actually in a single pod and he had asked the staff if he could take another chair in with him and pay for a group pod as there were none left. Joshua did not need to know that fact. Besides, it was not exactly something weird… even if the young man knew what normally went on when teenagers went into a single pod with another person, he had not only heard too many stories from his friends but had accidentally witnessed it himself when some stranger had not locked his pod properly, showing it as available. That was definitely not something Joshua needed to know.

They both sat down, Henry's laptop already set up next to the desktop, both screens open on a search engine showing the results for their own names. 

Joshua reached over to turn the brightness in the room up a little before turning to Henry and forcing the man to face him. The bruise really did look awful, Joshua did not want to even think about how bad it would look after they got back to Henry's apartment. To think this all stemmed from missing an alarm. Something so trivial ended up with a black eye. In that moment, Joshua made the decision that alarms and wake up calls would be up to him, even if he was the one who struggled most with waking up. He never wanted to go through something like this ever again. 

"Let's ask Haerin to send some more ointment to your apartment."

Finally, Henry realised what was going on. He had initially been confused as to why Joshua had turned his chair so they were face it face. The swelling under his eye had subsided soon after lunch and he had completely forgotten about the black eye he was currently sporting. But clearly Joshua was hyper aware of it. Considering how it no longer hurt, Henry could not imagine the bruise being all that bad, nor did he care if it was. It would not be the first black eye he had received and most likely would not be the last. The one thing he could not understand was why Joshua was so focused on it. Was it guilt? They had been bickering all morning and of course the injury had been the main thing Henry would throw back in Joshua's face, but Joshua was logical enough to know it was not his fault. It was an unfortunate accident. Then again, knowing Joshua, he would most likely feel he was partly to blame. 

Another idea suddenly popped up in Henry's mind, Joshua's obsession with him not being ugly. Was that perhaps the reason the older man kept focusing on the superficial wound? After half a second of deliberation, Henry inwardly mocked himself. Sure, the obsession was a little strange (and a weird mix of amusing and embarrassing) however there was no way that was the reason behind the reaction, not from the co-deputy of the now-joint finance department.

In reality, whether Joshua Lore realised it or not, his face complex did play a significant part into why he felt so bad. Such an face being sullied by an ugly bruise, deep down he found that unforgivable, even without taking into account that it had been his own elbow behind it.

"Nah, I don't need more ointment, I have more than enough at home and you know it. But asking for a refill on my concealer might not be a bad move. I didn't realise how low I was running."

"Colour corrector might do you more good to cover it up."

Henry sent Joshua an impressed look. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Archer. He doesn't hold back before public appearances and covers up to keep rumours at bay. And maybe to hide his recreational activities from our parents even though they definitely already know."

The mention of rumours served as a sudden reminder to both men on why they had come to the net café in the first place. 

"Let's forget about this morning, alright," Henry said, turning his chair back towards his laptop and turning the lights back to dim. "We have more important things to worry about."

Joshua nodded, not intending to forget even for a second, just shifting his focus on the rumours surrounding their relationship.

"Great. Let's get to work then.

"I did a few cursory searches before you came, but nothing came up, although it was probably drowned out by the ridiculous number of articles on us. Ramy did try to send me a link to a forum post he had found but the link was corrupted. Whoever is behind this knows what they are doing considering the link is not sharable. Generally, on online forums the main focus is sharing and having the post reach as many people as possible to increase interactions; no one posts about a hot topic and limits the shareability without some kind of ulterior motive. 

"I think I can track the page down from the screenshots being shared across social media, although it might take some time though. In the meantime, you should look for more things like this. We both know there is no way that there will not be other similar types of posts. It a matter of filtering through the shitposting to identify the ones that are similar, which should hopefully lead us to the original online source for whatever they are spewing."

Joshua listened carefully to what Henry said, nodding every so often. He approved of the other man's split of labour. Henry was clearly in his element with this situation, although it was rare to see him not be when it came to any sort of work. "That sounds good. I'll see what I can find through posts that seem linked in some sort of way and make notes of those that are of concern as well as how to find them again. Once you find the post that Ramy tried to share with you, I will be able to narrow the list down more and run a quick analysis for similar MO's."

"Then let's get started."

Both men turned to their respective screens when Henry paused, realising there was one thing he had forgotten to mention. "Oh right, before you go searching for the posts… don't flip out at the rumours." The young man had watched Joshua get worked up enough times to realise that a warning was very much needed.

Joshua looked at Henry, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Henry scratched the back of his neck, not looking at Joshua at all. "So a lot of them revolve around us being forced together by our family and not getting along at all, as well as…well…," the young man stalled as he tried to think of the best way to say it, "they kind of imply blackmail and, um, possibilities of abuse."

As Henry's voice tapered off, Joshua froze, the final word echoing in his head. He did not know what to think at all, what was one meant to think in his position. Eventually, all he could respond with was, "What kind?"

"It is left very open for interpretation but, uh, between respective families and, and us?" Henry could not help but end as if he was asking a question. He felt incredibly uncomfortable on the topic as it was so far away and detached from the truth. On top of that, he was still unsure of how Joshua would react, especially if he came across what was posted after their messy wake up. 

"That…!" Joshua had to pause as his voice came out much louder than he had intended to. He took a breath to calm his anger. Henry had already asked him not to flip out, of course he had to respect that request. "That is straight up slander. To say such things on the web and not to be flagged up already… whoever is behind this absolutely knows what they are doing, even against Caroline."

Henry's body instantly relaxed, he was not sure what kind of reaction he had been expecting but that response was definitely what he had wanted from the other man. "I know. So let's get to the bottom of this ASAP before things spiral out of our control. This will be our last chance before all our focus has to go on the wedding."

"Right, there is only three weeks left."

With that, both started getting to work, although it took some time before any real work got done because they had come face to face with a monumental fact. 

They were getting married in three weeks.