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March 7th had been looking for Caelus since the morning, she had almost given up until she met with Dan Heng, who was the same as her, frantically searching for a certain grey haired man.
"Did you managed to find him?" The girl asked and was quite disappointed when he shakes his head sideways, indicating that he had not yet seen Caelus. Just as soon as they were about to gave up from searching for him, Dan Heng managed to catch a glimpse of someone trying to eavesdrops on their conversation and gestured to March to look at the place that he was pointing. Not to mentioned, that person also happened to have the exact same shade of colour as Caelus causing them to ran after that person.
March and Dan Heng sprints after that person and soon realized that the person they ran after was not the person they were looking for in the first place. To be honest, that person have a pretty long hair with the exact same face structure as Caelus which can causes confusion when the two were together.
She stopped her track as soon she realizes that they weren't trying to ran after her anymore so she approached them and asks, "Aren't you guys my lil bro's friends??"
"Hi, the name is Stelle, Caelus's older sister. I assumed that you guys are looking for him?" She held out her hands and Dan Heng shakes her hands in return. He scrutinized her expression and confirmed that she was telling the truth and so he told her that the two of them have been asking everyone about Caelus's whereabouts and to their disappointments, no one had any idea of where he could have gone to.
March suddenly exclaimed, "Stelle, you said that you're his sister right!? Do you know where he is right now?? He had never been able to go on a day without us!"
Dan Heng added later on, "She's right." and also a silent mutter, "....and we also couldn't go on a day without him either"
After seeing the distressed looks on both of their faces, Stelle felt only pity on the both of them and really wanted to tell them but the thing is, Caelus had sorta made her promised that she wouldn't reveal his location to anyone including his best friends.
After deep consideration, she decided that it was only right to tell them.
"I know where he is right now,"
Both of March and Dan Heng's eyes brightened again right after hearing that news and March immediately asks her about Caelus's location, "Where is he!? Please tell us!"
Stelle chuckled slightly before saying, "But, I'll only tell you both on one condition. That is, to never tell him that I was the one who told you just in case he asks about it later on. Can you both promise me that?"
They hesitates for a second before nodding in agreement. March even reassures her by connecting her pinky finger with Stelle and told her, "We promised to not tell him anything about this" and Dan Heng beside her, just nodding his head in assurance.
Stelle let out a sigh of relief before telling them, "He is currently hiding in his room, the house's password is his birthdate. You guys go ahead and deal with him, I believe in the two of you." She then walk away right after the two of them thanked her multiple times before running off to the direction of her and Caelus's house.
They ran for a good thirty minutes before arriving to Caelus's house and after entering the password, they waltz right in and immediately went to his room. March knocked on his door multiple time while calling out his name, "Cae bro, are you in there? Can we come in?"
There's only silence answering her call. March then gestured to Dan Heng to call their dear friend out from his room. Dan Heng sighed and stood in front of his door and knocked the door three more times before calling out Caelus's name, "March and I am here, can we come in?"
They waited for a while but there's still no answer coming from his room, they looked at each other before deciding to just barged into his room and searched every corner of his room and right before they were about to go to another room to search for him, they suddenly heard a slight sniffle coming out from an absurdly clean trash can that was placed on the corner of his room. March then approached the trash can with Dan Heng following from behind, opened the cover and saw Caelus inside it.
Caelus was a mess.
With tears streaming down his face in addition to his runny nose and pouty mouth, making them think as what could have happened to him that caused such a strong reaction from him.
Caelus looks up and was surprised when he saw both March and Dan Heng together. He managed to squeak out a few words before tears streaming down his face again, "What the two of you doing here?"
"Before we tell you, you better get out of that can first" March worriedly asks him while reaching out to him in attempt to help him, Dan Heng also didn't hesitates in helping March.
After they successfully dragging Caelus out from the trash can, Dan Heng reach out his hands to wiped the tears that were streaming down Caelus's face with a bunch of tissues that he had found from one of the drawers in Caelus's room. While he was busying himself with wiping the tears from Caelus's face, March went ahead to grab some water and also a bunch of blankets for them to share.
After a few moments in silence, March opened her mouth while stroking his back gently and asked softly, "Cae.. did something happened to you when the two of us aren't with you?"
Dan Heng then added, "Whatever it is, you can tell us." Right after he said it, he then squeezed Caelus's hand firmly while looking straight into Caelus's golden eyes.
Feeling the softness in both of his best friends voice, Caelus couldn't managed to held back his tears any longer and cried profusely while also trying to explain the event at the same time. Both March and Dan Heng then continued to comfort him while also telling him to take his time and that he doesn't have to explain everything right away.
They continued to comfort Caelus through any means and not long after that, he had calmed himself down, took a few deep breaths and started recalling earlier events.
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Yesterday, at 2.30 p.m during school.
Caelus, who was busying himself playing games on his phone overheard his classmates discussing with each other regarding the homework that has just been given by their teacher earlier this morning. He couldn't help himself but to came over and asked, "What are y'all doing?"
"Oh, we are just doing this homework. And not to mention, some of these are pretty hard to solve!" One of his classmates answered, complaining about the difficulty of their homework.
After hearing their distress, Caelus, being the kind hearted guy he is, offered to help them considering he had already did the homework earlier on so that he could have some time to himself to play the games that he had to ignore since the morning. Caelus exclaimed, "I could help you all with the homework! I had already did mine so-"
Before he could finished his sentence, he was cut off by his fellow classmates, "Thanks for the offer Cae but uhh, we could really use some help but, just not from someone like you."
Confused, and not understanding the implications behind those words, he asked further, "What do you mean by someone like me? Did I do anything wrong?"
"How do we explain this to you... We really need to score this homework a full marks so receiving help from you who only knows to laugh and play games all day is kinda ironic, don't you think? Do you even listen to yourself? Offering us help when you seems like someone who doesn't even knows the difference between day and night? Please don't make us laugh." They laughs amongst each other after throwing insults towards Caelus, who was standing there listening to them.
"...Oh! Um, seems like you don't need my help that much so goodbye then!" Caelus immediately packed his bag and went straight to home after that.
Accompanied by silence during his walk to his home, earlier events keep replaying on his mind repeatly, he tried to forget it but it was to no avail. Not long after, tears started to streamed down his face accompanied with occasional sobs coming out from his mouth. His home came into view, he ran towards the door and immediately went into his room. Stelle, who was about to asks him about his day in school just stood there right beside the door, her face full of concern. She went to the front of his door, knocked slightly and asked, "Caelus dear, is everything fine in school?"
As she was about to ask again, she heard a response from him, "I'm fine, Stelle! Just, leave me alone."
Stelle sighed, knowing that asking anymore questions would be entirely useless and could only lead into an argument and she doesn't want that so she just told him, "Okay then, if you need anything.. Just know that, I'm always here for you Cae.."
From inside the room, after hearing Stelle's footsteps walking away from his room, Caelus then sighed from relief. Even though, he knows that his sister would always got his back but he doesn't want to be deem as immature just because he got upset from his classmates remarks about him not being reliable and dumb despite he was not the type of person that his classmates had thought of him.
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"What have I done to them? Why did they thought of me as a dumb person..." Caelus pondering the same question over and over until he, himself got tired from listening the same question again.
Dan Heng went closer to him, comforting him from the side and softly told him, "Caelus, they're wrong about you. Even though, you may act silly at times but that is just you being yourself and that doesn't make you any less smart than others."
March interjected and cupped Caelus's face and firmly said to him, "Cae, you are the only person who knows yourself best. Don't let such people let you thought of yourself less!"
Caelus felt comforted after listening to both of his best friends and momentarily sighed to himself.
"I just wanted to help them..", he hugged himself, then looking back at both March and Dan Heng. Both of his arms then wrapped themself onto both March and Dan Heng, hugging both of them close towards Caelus.
He whispered to the two of them, "I'm so glad both of you are here with me.."
"We will always be there for you, Cae!" March exclaimed and added by Dan Heng, "No matter the situation, just knows we always got your back."
Caelus's mouth formed into a small smile and then he deepened their hug with now, both March and Dan Heng reciprocates the hug back.
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In the Astral Express:
March 7th: Awh, look! We looks so cute as high school's students!
Sunday: Indeed, Miss March
Dan Heng: Is this some kind of animation? Did Mr Yang did this?
Caelus: Where's Sunday tho? Stelle, take a look at this!
Stelle: Heh, this proves that I'm older than you brat
Caelus: We are literally twins!
March, Dan Heng and Sunday just collectively sighed.