He woke up. For a moment, he enjoyed the brief tranquility of the morning.

A heavy weight weighed him down shortly afterwards.

There it was again. It wasn't the residue drowsiness of waking up, even though was present also. The feeling from the previous night hadn't cleared up as much as he hoped.

Aside from the weight, Francis realised that his drowsiness was actually much more imminent than he had thought. His eyes and mouth were dry, his vision was blurry… What time was it?

Francis reached for his phone, and turned it on:

8:26 A.M.

It was? He was surprised how he still felt drowsy, even when it was so late in the morning.

By now, Gilbert should've left for work already, and judging from the sounds from the kitchen as well as the aroma of fried eggs and coffee, Toni was up as well.

He rose up, but bumped his forehead onto the bunk above of him, causing him to rub it while he hissed.

"Morning, Fran!" Antonio called out from the other side of the door.

"Hm? Ah, morning!" Antonio must've heard the sound of the bump. Aside from that, he heard the jingle of keys. Was Antonio leaving already?

"I need to go to rehearsals now. Hey, Fran, are you going to get up or…?"

"Probably not right now." He faked a cough. "I don't really feel that well."

"Ah! Do you need me to stay behind or…"

"No no! It's fine. Just a small cold." Wow, was he bad at lying. Toni didn't seem to notice as much.

"Alright! Take care of yourself! Remember, breakfast's on the table, and there are some leftovers in the fridge! Have a good day!" And then the door slammed shut.

Silence followed afterwards. Francis sighed out a breath of relief as his head hit the pillow.

He tucked himself into the duvets and closed his eyes. His mind wandered back to his musings from the previous night. Maybe he should be taking a break today. Maybe he was pushing himself too hard. A break. It didn't sound too bad. Just for today. And then maybe he could resume tomorrow. Sleeping in felt really nice…

Some very heavy construction was probably happening next door.

Not surprising. The room next door probably needed to be fixed.

He cracked open his eye as the tapping went on. Jesus, when will that person stop hammering the nails?

Confusion clouded his mind as Francis remembered that no, the other room was actually occupied. Panic struck him like a whip when he realised:

Someone was at the door.

He yanked off his duvet, but cursed when his forehead collided with the top bunk. As Francis rubbed his head, he got out of bed pulled up the pair of pants he wore yesterday. The knocking seemed to grow louder at every knock. His fingers fumbled as he tried to button up his dress shirt, so he abandoned that out of frustration and donned a T-shirt.

He rushed into the living room, and flung opened the front door. Only to find no one waiting on the other side. Francis scanned the area around, just in case-

It was Arthur who looked back at him from the corridor.

He looked like he had just left. In his haste in answering the door, he hadn't realised that the knocking had stopped. Francis straightened his shirt as he straightened himself.

"Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?" Arthur asked.

"No no! It was fine." In truth, he was exhausted, but Arthur probably had to say something important if he came over. "Excuse me for being a bit slow," Francis muttered. He gave out a nervous chuckle to ease out the tension, but it only seemed to increase it as Arthur peered at him while nodding slowly. Judging. An uneasy feeling crept up on him.

"You… you sure that you're OK? Or…" Francis nodded. In truth, no. He was exhausted. Arthur just nodded more. Otherwise, his expression was still the same, and it nerved him. Or was it just the jitteriness of not getting enough sleep?

"Anyway, I'm here to apologise. For, for yesterday," Arthur said.

The sudden change in attitude surprised him. Just then, Arthur was judging him, and now he was apologising? Nevertheless, he cleared his throat. "Apology accepted," he replied as calmly as possible.

Arthur cringed at how easily how neutrally and easily Francis accepted the short apology. "I… didn't mean to push it that far the other day." Francis nodded, but stayed silent and neutral. The way that Francis let it slide so much bothered him. It was like as if he was staying still in fear of being rude. In fear of stepping out of line. It was as if he had a million things to say, but he was just too afraid to say them.

"You know, it's fine if, if you have to be honest or something."

"What?"

His mind froze. Did he overjudge the situation, and mistook it for something else? Did he not speak too clearly? Or was it just his nerves getting the better of him? He took a deep breath in to calm down.

"I'm just saying that it's fine for you to not always be courteous for the sake of manners. I-I was a bit of an ass the other day, so… yeah."

Francis looked back, confused. Judgemental, even. Crap. What did he expect? For Francis to agree on every single word he said? Good god, no wonder he was such an ass.

"Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'm sorry for pushing you that far yesterday." Deciding that he had said enough, he turned around, and said: "bye."

"Wait, wait!" Arthur turned back to Francis.

Said person took some deep breaths in. "You… had a point. I accept your apology, but honestly… I'm OK. I'm just a bit down."

I'm OK. It bothered Arthur to no end. Even the words I'm just a bit down had a profound effect. It reminded him of himself once, when he was absolutely paranoid of showing weakness, and in turn it caused bottled up emotions to poison him into irrationality and hopelessness. Screw being sensible, he should just say it.

"Yeah. Problem is, "being down" is just code for saying that you're depressed."

"What?" A confused expression plastered his face.

"You have to face the truth one day." Francis turned away. "The sooner you solve this problem, the easier it'll be-"

"I know-!"

"No, wait, if this problem persists, then-"

"Fine!"

"Francis, listen to me-!"

"SHUT UP!"

He bolted back as Francis screamed at him. Francis' eyes were filled with frustration, and straight out almost animalistic anger. But the emotions melted away just as quickly as they had appeared. He widened his eyes out of shock, and the snarl on his face relaxed completely.

Arthur had never seen anybody's anger melt to regret so quickly before.

They stared at each other as time froze, both shocked by the outburst. Francis' pants were the only things that filled in the silence after that.

He turned around as silently as possible, away from Arthur, eyes filled with a distant look of fear. From the way his shoulders were hunched over, he could tell that he was hugging himself. Arthur was about to step closer when he stopped himself.

But the way Francis held himself was unnatural. He was too silent. Too inatimate. The silence was absolutely suffocating. His fingers were trembling violently, in which he stopped by digging them into his arms. In fact, he couldn't even hear him breathing.

Arthur heard a hiccup. One of Francis' hand moved up to cover up his mouth. In fact, he had dug his fingers into his arm so much, skin had started to peel off.

He knew that feeling all too well. Francis was struggling not to cry. Because of him.

How could he?! How… he stopped himself right there. Despite the good intentions, it was this way of thinking that had caused this. His tendency to overjudge. Why was he like this?

He realised that he had been so caught up with his words that he failed to notice that Francis had retreated away from him. Arthur opened his mouth to apologise, but stopped himself right there.

He had said more than enough words today. Disappointment and frustration surged within himself. He should've just apologised and left it at that! He… no. That wasn't the point right now.

Walking away towards the door, he glanced back. Francis was still in the same position as before, frozen. With a heavy heart, he closed it and walked back to his apartment.

The apartment walls muffled the choked sobs, but he could still hear them clearly, even from the corridor. He moved away faster.

It wasn't his place to listen to them.

Things should get resolved next chapter, so stay tuned.