"How?" Ichiro demanded, then frowned. "You didn't use those hidden savings of yours did you? I wanted you to save them towards university!" "You knew?" For the second time that morning, Jiro's face held a little expression, this time of surprise. "Of course I knew!" Ichiro pulled a face hinting he was hurt that Jiro felt it was necessary to keep a secret about how he was moonlighting, helping others with their studies and homework, creating notebooks on key points in subjects based on historic examinations and exchanging all his hard work for cash. "How many times have you hinted that you can share the burden of our expenses? And I know all about Saburo selling cookies and baked snacks at school as well in order to get some pocket money!" "I wasn't hiding it from you," Saburo denied, "I just didn't want you eating all the merchandise!" He giggled as Ichiro rolled his eyes at him; he didn't even like sweets that much, just that straight out of the oven, the aroma was too tempting. "I didn't use that money," Jiro finally admitted, he couldn't anyway, he'd invested some of it in shares, testing the waters of this tricky field, while another portion was in a bank account with a reasonable interest and fixed period of investment. "I telephoned Uncle Keith." "What?" "Uncle Keith lent us the money," Jiro replied. "Actually, he stated that we didn't need to pay it back, but I knew that you wouldn't agree to not doing so." "I don't even agree to borrowing it in the first place," Ichiro whined, dropping his head to the table. Ugh, he still felt so weak! "You know what his conditions are for lending us money these days. I don't want to deal with it!" "We didn't know what else to do," Saburo said, honestly, drying his hands on a tea towel before coming back to the sofa and sitting beside his brothers. "Your heat was so bad and Zandre was unreachable. The Doctor said to keep you hydrated, but he wasn't really that helpful otherwise, couldn't even prescribe some sedatives or liquid suppressants." "It is not as if we had the money to pay for subscriptions anyway," Jiro mentioned. It was not right to do so, but as Jiro still got suppressants free, being a student, the two older brothers relied on these. They hadn't helped with Ichiro's situation at all, however. "What's done is done," Ichiro sighed with resignation, before his mind focused on a key point in Saburo's words. "You tried to contact Zandre?" The Alpha was away, he wouldn't have been able to help the heat... but did he worry for him? Did he miss him? The boys looked at each other and Ichiro automatically felt a falling sensation in the pit of his stomach. "We can't get through to him," Saburo admitted. "I've tried on your phone and on mine..." "Why do you have his number?" Ichiro glanced at him suspiciously. Saburo coughed before saying; "not the point right now! He'd just not answering the phone nor is he replying to any of the messages I've left him." "Maybe his battery died?" Ichiro suggested weakly. The boys decided not to sabotage Ichiro's feeble hope. Instead, Jiro decided to advise him of the other matter. "There is something else that we need to tell you. On Saturday, your relationship with Zandre was announced in the newspapers with a clear photo of you and your full name, age and a few other details in print. I had actually planned on teaching the class of little kids that you take during the week, but the Hall had a few reporters waiting outside of it." On seeing that, he had walked past as if the Hall had no relation to him whatsoever. One reporter had been speaking to a person who lived in the neighbourhood, but either they had not recognised him or decided to remain silent when it came to his identity. Either way, nothing substantial had come of the reporters interviewing people on that street. "I saw a guy with a camera hanging around near the parking lot yesterday afternoon," Saburo added. "I guess they aren't too sure which apartment block we live in or which floor." The name in the paper had been Ichiro's birth name and their father's family name, but now they all went by their mother's maiden name, so the trail for the reporters had probably hit a bumpy road. It probably would not take long for them to unravel some truths however. "There's more," Saburo then mentioned with a sigh. "There have been some rumours circulating the internet. As you can imagine, there are a few individuals who see Zandre as their idol, but there are more that support his ex probably because she's an actress and on television and in magazines a fair bit. They felt like you are to blame between the 'perfect match' that was their idols. They've said some really horrible things." "It's not unexpected," Ichiro admitted. He recalled the article in which the Kobayashi's were candid about the prejudice they faced thanks in part to Elizabeth Kobayashi's gender and part in Torin Kobayashi's high profile status as a film emperor and heartthrob. "It should die down after a while." "I'm not certain of that." Jiro moved to his desk and unlocked his computer screen. Saburo helped Ichiro shuffled around in order to see it clearly. The social network he brought up was easy to use and available to everyone, people followed their families and friends upon it, keeping updated to every status update. Naturally, this one had official pages for celebrities, but also fan pages. And although it was not the number one trending discussion in the network, it was definitely quite a prominent subject on both Zandre and Elani Van Zyl's fan pages; Did Zandre Kotze dump Elani Van Zyl for a Male Omega Escort?