Chapter 73

The conference on Friday ended with seemingly no problems for the young couple. At some point during the break the younger Gwane brother and his little group had been recalled by their families to prevent further embarrassment, allowing for a fruitful conversation on both the dire environmental concerns, what corporations were already doing about it and how much of an impact the corporate world could make on the climate crisis if they truly tried. 

Henry would never admit it, but he did find some respect in Reynold Gwane and Melissa Kwon during the conference in how they acted during the conference. If they were not openly backed by the Q Group, those two would probably be the first people he turned to for any environmental project. But gain, he would never admit this out loud, he was only a little impressed, not that much. 

Luckily, the younger man's vehement denial at how good a job Reynold and Melissa how done, there was really nothing of concern or interest for the young 'couple' to note. They had an uneventful weekend, each doing their own thing in the others company during the day and continuing their drama binge after dinner until falling asleep.

Once Monday morning rolled around, there should not have been a single point of concern. Should being the key word.

"Are you still mad? Really?" Joshua asked, now no longer feeling bad with how long Henry was holding his petty grudge.

"Of course, I am!" He kept his voice hushed but was undoubtably yelling in the quiet tone. "I have half a bottle of concealer and colour corrector on my face and you can still see the bruise."

"I said sorry a million times already. Besides, I never heard an apology for why we fell off the bed in a hurry to begin with."

"It is not my fault you forgot to set an alarm."

"I didn't forget, you said you'd set the alarm during dinner."

"I did set the alarm… my phone just died." Henry tried to play it off casually even though he was well aware that part was entirely his fault. But he did not want to take the blame with the black eye he was currently sporting. Especially after his department noticed his hastily hidden bruise – time had not been on his side and it was not his best coverup work – and due to safeguarding obligations his manager Felicity had to ask about it. The entire ordeal was embarrassing and only succeeded in further fuelling his petty rage.

Let us go back to the eventful morning that has led to they day filled with petty bickering whenever Henry and Joshua were in each other's presence. It had all started with the aforementioned alarm. Henry had set the alarm after dinner as he had said he would, they both know they would need it since they planned to watch the drama until they fell asleep. However, as the two settled into Henry's room, the phone had been forgotten by the kitchen sink with only 3% left in its battery. With no alarm and a night later than either of them had planned (as we all know, all shows will pick up the pace conveniently just as bed time approaches, leaving you with no option but to watch on into the early hours of the morning) it was no surprise that the two overslept. 

Joshua had been the first to wake up, too warm and comfortable to realise the time. It was not until he sleepily looked for his phone to check the morning news that he realised that it was much later than he had anticipated. Queue his frenzied actions, trying to shake Henry awake while also find out the exact time and get out of bed all at the same time. It ended with both men falling to the floor and the older man's elbow in Henry's face. But at the time, neither had realised just how hard the fall had been, both only focused on washing up for the day as fast as possible. They were both working in Reyes building today there was only half an hour before they were expected in. To truly realise just how late that was for the two men, it must be mentioned that Henry was in habit of showing up for work at least 15 minutes before to give his greetings and pour himself a cup of coffee. On the other hand, Joshua, especially where meetings were concerned, made an effort to be present half an hour earlier to account for any unforeseen circumstances. Ever since the marriage meeting, things had been thrown a little topsy turvy however they had fallen back into regular routines once Joshua had started avoiding his family by hiding out at Henry's. For these two to have gotten out of bed at such a time, the two were incredibly late.

What had made matters worse was the developing black eye Henry came to see in the mirror after a speedy shower. It went down to cover a quarter of his cheek, speckles of red where the swelling was worse. Seeing the injury, the young man saw red. Despite being half dressed with his sandy hair still dripping and trousers undone, he stormed into the spare room where Joshua was getting ready, throwing daggers with his eyes. 

This had sparked an incessant argument that continued as they both got dressed, Joshua applying ointment to the other's injury and Henry trying his best to reduce the swelling and cover up the bruise. By the time they were in Joshua's car, heading towards the Reyes' building, both were feeling guilty and yet pettily enraged. They kept bickering about who's fault the morning ordeal had been.

Of course it was both of them and neither of them at the same time, just an unfortunate series of events) throwing blame back and forth. Joshua felt bad for the injury despite knowing he was not entirely at fault, working him up more than he would usually allow himself to. Henry was half stricken with guilt at how he had forgotten to charge his phone and led to his alarm being obsolete but was still more than irritated at the injury he had sustained first thing in the morning, throwing off the logical side of the brain.

This bickering kept going until they parted for their respective destinations within the company building, with more than a fair share of employees having witnessed the badly hidden argument. It had garnered weird looks from those around them, only working the two men up more as if they were at the height of puberty. They had crossed paths a couple times throughout the morning, both so worked up that neither was willing to admit the other was not really at fault and that the argument was beyond useless. Instead, they glared at each other and made faces.

It was now lunch, both of them happening to enter the cafeteria at the same time and entering the canteen queue together despite the bickering, before sitting down opposite each other to eat.

Of course, they were still bickering over nothing.

It was not until the seats next to both of them were pulled back, Haerin and Ramy sitting down with their lunch, that they paused. 

"Is there a real problem," Ramy asked, "or are you two arguing for the sake of it?"

"He made is late." "He gave me a black eye."

The PA's looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "For the sake of it then. Did you apologise to each other?" Haerin's tone was like that of a schoolteacher, and she seemed surprisingly accustomed to these types of situations despite having only ever been a secretary. It was all thanks to the Lore heir and his antics. "Well?"

"I already said sorry for the alarm," Henry muttered, which was true.

"You think I didn't say sorry for his face, I even treated it," Joshua answered defensively, which was also true.

"Did you apologise sincerely without throwing some kind of backhanded comment or attack at the other?" The silence that followed showed how Haerin had hit the nail on the head, Henry and Joshua looking down at their food sheepishly. 

"Alright, Henry first," Ramy announced, knowing that the blond man knew exactly what he had meant by that. 

It took a few seconds but eventually Henry lifted his eyes, making contact with Joshua's. "Sorry for being careless with my phone after agreeing to set the morning alarm." His voice came out quiet and timid with a slight hint of reluctance. It was clear to the others on the table that he was embarrassed about how he had been behaving throughout the morning. 

Joshua did not need prompting, shaking his head with a slight smile on his lips. "I'm sorry for injuring you and not properly holding myself accountable."

"Nah, you did, you treated it almost immediately. I was just being petty."

"No, you weren't. It was silly of me to put all the blame on you because I felt bad. I got way too worked up over sleeping in."

"Don't worry, so did I."

And with that, the incessant bickering had stopped, almost as if there was no problem to begin with. If anything had been highlighted by the ordeal, it was just how skilful the two PA's were in handling their employers' families.

"Alright, before we put this all to rest, news of the black eye is getting around. What happened?" Ramy asked, knowing exactly why they had been sent for lunch so suddenly together instead of the usual staggered, later times him and Haerin were usually scheduled.

"We overslept and fell out of bed in a panic when we realised," Henry responded, his attention a little too focussed on the food as his face got warm. Why had they been arguing so much over such a small incident? Not to mention everyone had seen them!

"And my elbow ended up in his face when we fell," Joshua finished, knowing well that their parents would want the details from Ramy and Haerin when lunch was over.

"So, nothing to worry about, right?"

"No, we're all good, no threats at the moment."

"Well, I don't know about no threats," Ramy's answer made Joshua frown, Henry finally looking up from his meal. "I know you two were in your own world this morning, but did you notice the weird looks and extra chatter? A little like at the Lore building after your engagement was first announced?" Both men paused and realised that they had noticed such, it just had not been at the forefront of their concerns. "There's been a few rumours floating about on the web. Nothing major but popping up just often enough to stick in people's minds."

"We ran a preliminary check ourselves but can't seem to find any trail that indicates this is all deliberate. It's more a gut feeling, this all feels so natural that it feels like it has been well-crafted by someone else," Haerin added. "The presidents know about the rumours, but we haven't told them our opinion yet with them finalising details of the joint company. We thought it best to bring it up to you guys first and see how you wanted to proceed."

If the news had gone to the parents first, they would have taken things into their own hands without a consult. Even if they trusted their younger sons to handle it, they did not want to leave it to them, especially with the wedding coming up, they would much rather the couple worry about that instead of faceless internet strangers and their ringleader. The same could be said if it was taken to Samuel, Archer or Meera, except they would have dropped all their work to collectively make hell rain down on everyone involved with the rumours. The PA's knew this, that is why they wanted to talk to Henry and Joshua first. They were a little erratic when put together, this morning only proved that, but when it came to jobs like this, they not only worked crazily well in tandem, but they also did not let the situation cloud their priorities. 

"What kind of rumours?" Henry asked, pulling out his phone to search.

Haerin, "Problems with your relationship and possibilities of being forced together."

A frown set on the young man's face as he quickly found relevant posts. The whole things was still relatively quiet but he did understand the feeling Ramy and Haerin had gotten from it, it was like something bigger was slowly brewing and the person cooking was silently laughing in the shadows. "Alright, tell our parents to leave it to us. We'll have a look at it after work and see what needs to be done." And then get Gin to do it once his current 'uninterrupted date time with his girlfriend' is finally over, of course his parents did not need to know that small fact.

Joshua held his hand out and Henry handed the phone over. He read the anonymous posts and comments, eyebrows furrowing in distaste. There was definitely something deeper behind all of this. Haerin was right in saying it felt well-crafted. He handed the phone back, not wanting to upset himself further over it, not for now at least. He had not been focussing the first part of the day properly which meant he could not afford to be absent minded or seething for the rest of it. 

The four young adults put the topic aside and engaged in light conversation over their meal until the two PA's had to dismiss themselves, leaving just Henry and Joshua with their empty trays. 

"I have a meeting at the other building at the end of the day," Joshua said, "want to meet halfway?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Henry agreed, thinking of a suitable meeting spot for digging into these rumours. "There is a decent coffee shop with a net café above it about 10 minutes from both, does that sound good? We could look into things there, grab dinner and then go back once the rush hour traffic calms down."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Send me the details."

"Oh, and dinner is on me."

"Why?"

"Because four three-course meals is not equal to an iced coffee." 

Joshua was startled, he had not realised that Henry had remembered that. But now that he thought about it, they had not really been in a position where Henry could have brought it up again, buying things for each other at convenience stores or for Henry's apartment were not quite the same somehow. Ultimately, he laughed, "Alright, whatever you say." Henry beamed like the sun in response, it was almost blinding.