Chapter 50 (reuploaded)

It had been a quarter of an hour since the presidents had formally welcomed everyone to the party, and in the time since then everyone's attention had been on the main couple of the event. Unfortunately for them, it was not for good reason.

"W-why are they sticking so close together?"

"They keep avoiding the other's gaze…"

"Ah! They suddenly held hands… but why now?"

"Erm, they look rather… awkward, I heard they were shy but did not think it to be to this extent."

"They snatched their hands back, looks like an argument."

These kinds of comments were popping up all over the hall as they watched Joshua and Henry's horrendous attempt at acting. Of course, in a normal situation the perfect pair would have a flawless act, but for some reason neither knew how to act as a couple, even the romance obsessed Lore.

Their parents were still holding strong, pretending the atrocity in front of their eyes simply did not exist.

The same could not be said about the rest of them.

Ramy and Penelope were sending each other sending each other amused faces and sly smirks, sniggering silently. Samuel had one head on each shoulder, Meera on the left and Archer on the right, both using him to hide their too amused faces. On top of them, he also had Haerin burying herself into his back, in silent hysterics. All in all, the image was so insane that no one would even bat an eye at the constipated face on the Reyes's heir, his face getting redder as he kept his laughter in.

Once the parents caught a sight of their older children, they promptly turned away and walked over to the wine, pretending they did not have any children altogether.

Joshua and Henry, as always, seemed oblivious to what their families had been reduced to. Instead the two had finally put aside their 'acting as a couple' idea, now openly glaring at each other while bickering in hushed voices.

"Stop acting as if this is my fault. I don't know how to act as a couple, I have never been in a relationship, unlike somebody here!"

"Well we were never public! It was a long time ago! I barely remember the girl, let alone how we acted anyway."

"Trash."

"You are no better than me."

Before Henry could spit back another attack, he caught sight of his older brother or more precisely the added human accessories. Joshua also turned after noticing the silence, immediately forgetting the entire situation around their horrendous acting and the blame game that followed. "Why, why has your brother got a harem?"

"I… what brother, I'm an only child. Let's walk away from the creeps." Without a second thought, he grabbed the older man's wrist and pulled him to the other side of the hall, only looking back to give the group a weird look.

The two men went over to the drinks table in the furthest corner, opting for juice. Now that they were a little more out of the way with outside eyes off their backs, they felt a little more comfortable. Relaxing a little, they took a small break from their act.

Of course, being out of sight was just their imagination, it was just that now the horrendous act was no where to be seen, they looked like a normal, albeit shy couple.

"This whole thing is harder than I thought it would be. Pretending is exhausted and still I feel like it is only bringing us unwanted attention," Henry said with a sigh, tapping his fingers against the side of his leg; the man wanted to smoke.

Joshua hummed in response, but even if he did not say it in words, it was clear he wholeheartedly agreed with what the younger man had said. Impatiently waiting for the night to end already, or at least for more substantial food to be brought out so he had something to distract him from the odd looks they kept getting, he pulled out his phone to check the time. There was still a long night ahead of them, being not even half 7 yet. The man could not help but feel that tonight was going much slower than the usual parties. What did he normally do at these kinds of social events? He had never had to go out of his way to waste time before, people would usually come up to him one after another.

"That's it, no one is coming over tonight," Joshua muttered to himself as he realised why the night felt so much slower than usual. Henry sent him a confused look, making him elaborate. "I don't know how it usually is for you, but normally people will come up to me and chat without me having to go up to anyone. Today, despite us being two of the main people, no one had come up to us."

"You know what, you're right," realisation washed over the other man, followed by confusion. "Which only makes the whole thing weirder. Maybe our acting is so bad people are avoiding us."

"There is no 'maybe' about that. That is definitely what is happening."

For once, the pair were not painfully unaware of their surroundings. However, it only made them feel a little dejected. While they had not thought about it for a while, they were both aware of the fact that lives depended on this lie, it was no good if they could not keep up the act in public.

But how were they going to keep up the act if they had no clue how to act in the first place?

They decided to stay in the corner another ten minutes before returning to the centre of the hall, only to come into earshot of the young man related to the director of the Q Group. What they heard made them stop a distance away while ugly expressions grew on their faces.

He was trash talking Henry Reyes.