Loving the Wrong Lover

Three years. Thats how long wed been together, living in pixels and text.

Axel said I was too clingy. So he tossed me to his roommate.

And just like that, the messages I received were from his roommate. The birthday gifts I cherished were picked out by his roommate.

I was completely in the dark, my heart fluttering with anticipation for our three-year anniversary, the day we would finally meet.

When that day came, my boyfriend was tall and gorgeous. He loved holding my hand and would blush shyly. I looked him over again and again, absolutely smitten.

The only thing was, he was a man of few words, and he guarded me from other guys like a hawk. Id laugh and tell him he was overreacting, that I was hardly some irresistible prize.

Until the day a brazen young man blocked our path.

His eyes were venomous, locked on the man beside me.

Silas, where the hell did you get a girlfriend?

Id noticed something was off with Axel.

Before, when we chatted, he was never a big talker, but every word he typed had a spark of life to it. Over the past year, though, his messages had become stilted. Sometimes the words came out one at a time, clipped and sterile.

It felt like I thought for a moment. It felt like I was talking to a robot executing a command. Uncanny.

Id cautiously tested the waters. Do you not like me anymore?

The reply was almost instantaneous, a frantic burst of text.

No!

I do!

Before I could even respond, he started typing again, the "..." icon blinking for a long time.

Busy today. Basketball tournament. Not ignoring you.

I shook my head, a smile returning to my face as I typed back, Okay, baby, my bad. Im sorry.

But you couldnt blame me for overthinking. This was the curse of a long-distance relationship, the constant hum of insecurity.

I huffed, then remembered something.

I sent a flurry of happy puppy emojis.

Do you remember our promise? Were going to see each other in just a few days!

The "..." started blinking again. And again. And again

My patience, initially abundant, evaporated. Whats your deal? If you want to break up, just say it. If you dont want to meet, just block me.

He seemed to panic. A message shot back instantly: Yes! Meet!

I grinned, triumphant. Thats more like it.

A moment later, a transaction notification popped up. Hed sent me ten thousand dollars.

I was confused. ?

Buy, he replied quickly, adding two more words. Plane ticket.

Come to think of it, besides his newfound brevity, Axel had also developed a habit of sending me money. He used to, but only for holidays or my birthday. This past year, the transfers came at all hours. Sometimes Id send him a random photo, and if there was so much as a single flower in the frame, hed spot it and wire me a few thousand dollars with a simple message: Buy flowers. Pretty.

It felt like a clumsy, almost desperate attempt to please me, as if money was the only language he knew.

I didnt accept the transfer. Instead, I sent him a picture of myself.

I got accepted into the exchange program at Blackwood University for a year! I typed, my fingers flying across the screen. Axel, Im coming to your school! Are you happy?

I love the ocean, so we had agreed to meet for the first time in Seacliff Point.

My school, Fairview University, and his, Blackwood, were two of the top universities in the country, rivals from opposite coasts. They had a long-standing exchange program for students with excellent GPAs.

He took a long time to reply. So long that I was hugging my phone, drifting off to sleep.

Finally, a message came through. Just two simple words.

Im happy.

The moment I landed in Bridgewater, my moms call came through.

Ive set up the meeting for you. Just think of it as making a new friend. And remember to pay your respects to the old Mrs. Hawthorne. Dont be rude.

I hadnt dared tell my mom I had an online boyfriend. So she was constantly reminding me that as soon as I got to the city, I had to visit the family that ours had a long-standing understanding witha verbal marriage agreement from a generation ago.

I figured it was a good opportunity to clear things up in person, so I didnt refuse.

Besides, Id heard the familys name was Hawthorne.

Because of Axel, I had a strange fondness for that name.

But I sat in the designated caf from afternoon until evening, and he never showed.

It wasnt entirely unexpected.

My mom had told me the Hawthornes used to live in our hometown when I was five, before moving to Bridgewater. In recent years, as a minor branch of the family, theyd managed to attach themselves to the powerful Prescott family, and their status had skyrocketed.

Naturally, theyd look down on someone from a small town like me. They were probably afraid Id try to cling to them.

My mom was a talkative woman with a short fuse, and I was a talkative woman with no fuse at all. The two of us spent the next half hour on the phone, trading insults about the Hawthornes.

Finally, my dads slow, deliberate voice drifted through the receiver. Honey, dont swear in front of the baby. Youll be a bad influence.

I laughed, and then an idea struck me. I lifted my phone and snapped a picture of the twilight sky.

I opened my chat with Axel, sent the photo, and typed out a quick message.

Im here! One day left on the countdown!

Meanwhile, outside a dormitory at Blackwood Universitys computer science department.

A group of guys was heading back from the courts when one of them let out a surprised yell.

Hey, isnt that a Prescott family car? Silas? Whats he doing back at school?

Axel, dressed in simple gray sweats and a white t-shirt, a basketball tucked under his arm, glanced over.

A discreet, custom-built sedan was parked nearby, its door ajar. From his angle, he could only see a hand, pale and elegant, gripping the doorframe so tightly that the veins stood out in sharp relief.

Axel knew what that looked like. It was the physical manifestation of pure terror, a visceral disgust for stepping into a crowd.

Silas Axel frowned. He couldnt imagine why Silas would need to come back to campus. Hed already failed once.

Rick, another one of the guys, was just as confused. Doesnt he hate being around people? Last year he moved into our dorm, said he wanted to get over it. Lasted all of two days before the poor little rich boy couldnt take it anymore.

Seriously, driving him here in the middle of the night you think they want you to babysit him again, Axel? Rick said thoughtlessly, then caught the look on Axels face.

He quickly changed his tune. Hey, I mean, who cares if hes the sole heir to a fortune? The guy can barely string a sentence together. Hows he supposed to run Prescott Industries?

No wonder the old Mrs. Prescott dotes on you so much, man. When she finally kicks the bucket, even her own grandson will probably have to rely on you.

Axel said nothing. He pulled his gaze away from the car and walked off, indifferent.

Inside the car, Silass lips were pressed into a thin line. His handsome, refined face was ashen, a sheen of sweat on his brow. His hand was still clamped onto the doorframe. After a long moment, he asked in a low voice, Will she think Im a freak?

Arthur, the familys long-serving butler, a kind man with a head of white hair, felt a pang of sympathy. But he couldnt bring himself to offer the same hollow reassurances as before. He couldnt just say, Our young master is brilliant and handsome, who would dare think such a thing?

He remembered a playmate Silas had as a child. The boy had pretended to adore Silas to his face, but behind his back, hed called him a little idiot. A young Silas had overheard from behind the door. He never made another friend after that.

It was only in the last few years, thanks to Axel, that things had started to change. Arthur didnt know what magic Axel had worked, but over the past year, Silas had come alive. He was often glued to his phone, sometimes bursting into laughter for no apparent reason. And now, he was voluntarily asking to come back to school.

It was for this reason that the Prescott family had showered the Hawthornes with resources, elevating their status.

As for this "she" Silas was talking about, Arthur had no idea who he meant. He assumed it was just more of the boys rambling.

So, he changed the subject. Perhaps we should go home for now, and try again another day

Silas looked out the window, his features delicate and striking.

He shook his head, his voice firm. We have to meet.

The Intro to Philosophy lecture at Blackwood was always packed. By the time I rushed in with my textbook, only a few scattered seats remained.

My eyes scanned the massive hall, finally landing on one spot.

In the third-to-last row by the window, a single person sat in isolation. The seats all around him were empty, as if an invisible barrier had been drawn, a line no one dared to cross.

The young man in the seat sat with his back ramrod straight, his posture almost painfully rigid. He wore a simple white button-down, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing wrists of a startling pale white.

The room was a cacophony of noise, but he remained with his head bowed, eyes downcast, his long lashes casting a faint shadow on his cheeks. He was so still it was as if the world around him was on mute.

I took a deep breath. In that instant, I knew.

I started walking towards him. A boy with a shy smile tried to stop me. Hey, um, you can sit here. He he doesnt let anyone sit next to him.

Hearing our exchange, the boy at the desk snapped his head up.

The moment our eyes met, he froze completely, his light brown pupils flickering with a delicate, fractured anxiety.

I gave the other boy a small shake of my head and whispered, Thanks, but Im here for him.

I plopped down into the seat beside him, and for a second, the entire noisy lecture hall fell silent.

I ignored it, tilting my head to look at him, my voice soft. Axel?

It took him a long moment to speak. When he did, it was a barely-audible hum. Mm.

His voice was low, a little hoarse.

I grinned and hooked my pinky finger around his. I knew it was you, I whispered. I recognized you instantly. Pretty amazing, right?

He didn't speak, but a furious blush crept up from the tips of his ears, spreading down his neck and across his cheeks.

My eyes widened. I was afraid he might actually combust, so I quickly let go of his hand.

But the next second, he looked at me, his eyes wide with shock, like a puppy that had just been abandoned.

So, I threaded my fingers through his again. By the way, I asked casually, whats your real name?

He stiffened, suddenly unable to speak.

I smiled. Axel is a fake name, right? You said youd tell me your real name when we finally met.

When we first started talking, neither of us used our real names. It had started as a quirky thing on my part, and the nicknames just stuck.

Hearing my words, he pursed his lips, his expression suddenly serious.

Silas. My name is Silas.

I wiggled his fingers in mine, my smile bright. Nice to meet you, Silas. Im so happy to finally meet you.

Axel no, Silass situation was a little more complicated than Id imagined.

When the app first matched us, it showed a 98% compatibility rating.

His profile tags were: *Withdrawn, Aloof, Anxious.*

From our earliest conversations, I knew Silas was struggling with somethinga condition without a formal name. A traumatic event in his childhood had left him terrified of face-to-face interaction, crippled by a fear of crowds. He couldnt live a normal life, have normal conversations, or make friends in the real world. So he hid himself online.

At first, I just felt a pang of sympathy for him. Like seeing a small cat huddled in a corner during a rainstorm and feeling the instinctive urge to offer it the shelter of your umbrella.

But neither of us expected that my small umbrella would, over time, become a roof for us both.

We were a perfect fit, a true meeting of minds. We read the same books, watched the same movies, listened to the same quiet music. He always seemed to understand the emotions I never put into words.

My roommate, Pippa, once leaned over my desk, staring at my reflection in the mirror, completely baffled.

Do you really need to date online? With your looks, you could have a whole roster of boyfriends lined up.

I thought about it for a long time. When I finally answered, I sounded like a complete lovesick fool. Hes different.

Everyone in my family is good-looking, so Ive been immune to physical appearance since I was a child. To me, a thousand pretty faces are all the same. They cant compare to a single interesting, profound soul.

And Silas was brilliant. Inhumanly so.

During my senior year of high school, when I was drowning in academic pressure, he became my unofficial tutor. No matter how convoluted the problem, he could break it down from behind a screen, explaining it with a clarity and conciseness that was breathtaking. I still remember how he typed out tens of thousands of words of analysis just to help me with my weakest subject.

I glanced down. Silas was clutching my hand, his grip incredibly tight.

I smiled, trying to get him to relax. Hey, its okay. Im not going anywhere.

He pressed his lips together, switched hands, and held on even tighter.

I chattered on, telling him about everything and anything. I have a way of talking thats different from most people; I love to add vivid, colorful descriptions. A story about losing a shoe at the train station might take someone else a single sentence, but I could stretch it into a ten-minute epic.

All that talking left my throat dry, and I swallowed instinctively.

A second later, a pale, slender hand appeared in front of me, holding an open water bottle. The bottle itself was immaculately clean.

My eyes lit up, and I took it, gulping down a few mouthfuls. The water was the perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold, with a faint, sweet scent of licorice root.

Babe, youre too sweet! I teased, looking at him. Thanks, boyfriend?

The tips of Silass ears turned red again. He managed a clipped, Youre welcome.

I grinned and ruffled his soft, black hair. It felt like silk.

Its okay, I thought. You dont have to talk much.

Ive got enough words for the both of us.

I heard that Prescott kid is back on campus.

Get close to him. Keep a very close eye on him. If that boy says so much as one extra word at home, the Prescott family will consider it a major accomplishment on your part.

Did you hear me? Axel

Axel scoffed and hung up the phone.

Rick walked in, saw his foul mood, and wracked his brain for something fun to talk about.

His eyes lit up. Hey, have you heard? Theres a new exchange student in the computer science department. Dude, she is drop-dead gorgeous.

She walked by the courts this afternoon, and someone snapped a picture and put it on the campus CrushNet page. A bunch of people are already shipping you two.

Let me see yeah, the comments are all like

*Oh my god! They dont even know each other, but Ive already written a 100,000-word campus romance in my head!*

*I dont care about anything else. Based on these two faces alone, Im shipping it hard!*

Rick zoomed in on the photo and slapped his thigh. Its perfect, Axel! This girl is totally your type!

He looked up, only to realize Axel wasnt listening at all, his eyes glued to the game on his computer.

Rick scratched his head. Oh, right, I forgot. You have that online girlfriend. When are you two planning to meet up?

Axel didnt even look up. Shes just something to kill time with when Im bored. Shes not my girlfriend.

Besides, with a face like hers He tried to recall what she looked like but couldn't remember why he'd even started talking to her. He just remembered an accidental video call where hed caught a glimpse of her. A round, flat face with two small eyes. She was far from pretty.

Back then, he could have just ghosted her. But then he saw Silas.

His online girlfriend and Silas. One who wanted to text 24/7, and one who wouldnt speak for 24 hours if he could help it.

Hed tossed the person who annoyed him to the person he despised.

A chatterbox and a mute.

A smirk played on Axels lips.

A match made in hell.

He had warned Silas that chatting with her was fine, but meeting up was out of the question. It would save him the trouble of cleaning up the mess. Silas was just an imposter filling in for him; he wouldnt have the guts to meet her in person.

The next day, Axel and his friends were on the basketball court when a girl walked towards them.

The afternoon sun bathed her in a golden light, her skin so pale it almost glowed. Her features were sharp and stunning, her figure tall and graceful.

There was no one this beautiful at Blackwood. This had to be the exchange student Rick was talking about.

A lump formed in his throat. He let out a silent laugh. Rick really did know him well.

As someone who was used to being the center of attention, he was always the one being approached.

For the first time in his life, he took the initiative. Hey, Im Axel. Can we be friends?

I blinked, looking up at him.

The man in front of me was incredibly striking. He had a sharp brow, and the corners of his eyes tilted upwards, giving him an air of casual arrogance.

If Silass beauty was like fine porcelain, cool and fragile, then this man was like a drawn sword, all sharp edges and swagger.

His name was Axel too? What a coincidence

Silas probably never imagined that the random name hed picked would belong to someone at his own university.

I snapped back to reality, falling back on my well-practiced response to being hit on. Hi, Im Sera. Nice to meet you. Friend.

Remembering that Silas was waiting for me, I gave a nod and started walking towards the campus gate.

Behind me, Rick and the others started hooting and hollering. Ooooh, look at her, shes so shy she ran away!

Axel, man, your charm is undefeated! Theres no girl you cant get!

Axel just shoved his hands in his pockets, a familiar, confident smile on his face.

Silas still couldnt handle being at school. He lasted one day before returning to the Prescott estate. I had a few classes today, and his car was waiting for me at the gate long before they were over.

You dont have to come so early, I said, climbing into the car and immediately cupping his face in my hands. It must be so boring waiting out here for so long.

He sat perfectly still, letting me squish his cheeks. Not boring. Not seeing you is boring.

I pouted. I had no idea this quiet boy could be so smooth.

The car pulled into a residential complex not far from Blackwood.

Silas led me into an apartment, and I turned to him, confused.

For you, he said, producing a deed from out of nowhere. For school.

I waved my hands frantically. No, no, absolutely not.

This place had to be worth millions. I couldnt possibly accept it.

Im fine in the dorms, I said quickly. Its more convenient anyway. Id seen the Blackwood dorms; they were standard four-person rooms with loft beds over desks. They were spacious enough.

And Im only here for a year, maybe a year and a half. Its not like Im moving here for good The words left my mouth before I could stop them, and Silass expression darkened. Anyway, I quickly added, nobody gives someone an apartment the first time they meet. No way. Not even a boyfriend.

The dorms are bad, he said, pausing as if searching for a convincing reason. He finally found one. Theyre smaller than the bathroom at my house.

I couldnt argue with that.

Silas didnt press the issue. He just stood there, his eyes downcast, looking at me. His long lashes hid his expression, but he looked so quiet and crestfallen, like a giant, dejected dog.

I was helpless against him. I pressed a finger to my nose, then pointed it at him with a huff. Fine. On one condition. Ill stay here temporarily, but you are not, under any circumstances, to give me this deed.

Silass lips twitched, the corners turning up in a faint, triumphant smile.

It was only after Silas left that I realized the apartments decor looked familiar.

The color of the living room sofa, the style of the floor lamp, the built-in fireplace in the corner

Every single detail was something I had mentioned offhandedly in our chats, a preference Id once shared.

The next morning, I opened the door to find Silas standing there, holding a bouquet of flowers.

When did you get here? Why didnt you knock? I exclaimed, then noticed the person behind him and smiled. Good morning, Arthur.

Arthur beamed at me. He probably knew Silas wouldnt say anything himself.

He spilled the beans. Oh, he was up bright and early! Woke up at four, took a shower, spent an age picking out his clothes, and he even arranged this bouquet himself, you know.

He held up two fingers, his eyes crinkling with his smile. When he got home last night, he did something unprecedented. He actually said two whole sentences to his grandmother. She was so happy she couldnt sleep all night.

Last night, just before he went upstairs, Silas had turned back and seriously asked him: *How do you pursue a girl?*

Goodness, a man his age, what did he know about how young people date these days? So he and his wife had put on their reading glasses and spent hours searching online, while Silas sat beside them, watching them quietly.

As Arthur told the story, Silass ears turned red again.

Thats amazing! I said, taking the flowers and praising him. You said two sentences to your grandma yesterday. How about we upgrade to four today?

Silas nodded obediently. Okay.

I had already sensed that Silas was only pretending to be relaxed and normal around me. He could spend an entire day with me in quiet companionshiptalking, touching, being close were all fine. But the moment he stepped outside of this little world wed created, he would retreat back into his shell.

Over the next few weeks, I consciously made myself a bridge for him, helping him extend his world, little by little.

He had once told me in a chat that when he was very young, his family, out of desperation, had tried to use extreme methods to shock him out of his condition. It had only left him with deeper scars.

So I never pushed him, never rushed him to open up.

We took walks in the park at dusk, visited quiet, empty bookstores, and went to the convenience store late at night.

When he was having a good day, I would give him a gentle nudge. How about you just try saying thank you to the clerk?

I didnt expect much. Its okay if you dont want to.

Silas squeezed my hand, his fingers curling slightly, but he looked at the clerk and said a clear, steady, Thank you.

As soon as the clerk turned away, I beamed at him, my eyes curving into crescents, and gave him a tiny, silent round of applause. You were so brave just now.

Silas kept his eyes down, but his thumb gently stroked the back of my hand. His voice was low but incredibly earnest.

I I wasn't scared.

He paused, then shot a quick glance at me before looking away again, adding in a whisper,

When Im with you, Im not afraid.