- 12 -

                                    

                                          
A broken plant pot serves no purpose. You could find the most beautiful flower in the whole world, buy the most expensively rich soil known to man, and it would never bloom to its full potential living inside a broken plant pot. To cherish is to care, but a lack of care doesn't equal, not cherishing what you have. It's simply not fair to let something beautiful be encompassed by something broken. And there's a solemn kind of mercy in accepting that.
Matthew stood idly to the side of the old beta male. His eyes fixated on each shaky sweep of his brush. How it gathered up all of the ceramic shards, dry soil, and tattered roots, soon to be discarded, and never seen again. The path that was once lined intactly, now mourned the loss of one of their own. The withered rose lying lifelessly in the shadow of its peers. It was strange to say, but Matthew felt some semblance of a connection to that grim scene. Unable to walk away until the beta had left with the body bag. 
The rose had wrongly put its faith in that plant pot, but Matthew knew better than to lean on feeble promises. A week had passed since the confession, and he still hadn't decided on an answer yet. In the moment, he asked for time; time given to him without a second of hesitation. There was no pressure, no impatience. Jiwoong was his usual understanding self. Though Matthew wasn't sure if he deserved it. To love someone, is to give them your everything, and he didn't doubt for a second that Jiwoong would give him the world. But he severely questioned whether he could do the same. The alpha didn't even know his true identity, let alone what a life would entail having to deal with the complicated mess of his existence. Maybe it was for the better to cut things off now, before Jiwoong had the chance to see the real him. The him that was far more broken then he let anyone realize. 
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" 
Matthew froze in the center of the path, his ears stung by that deeply familiar voice. He gazed ahead of himself to where a small crowd was forming, just outside the journalism department. Two tall figures stood at odds, one visibly fuming, whilst the other had his eyes to the ground. And in a matter of seconds, a loud slap echoed through the campus.
His heart sunk.
"Tell me why you did it?! Tell me you fucking coward!" Hao screamed, his fists clenching around Gyuvin's collar, forcibly shaking him for an answer. 
The alpha remained silent.
Matthew wished his confusion could have lasted for longer, that his mind didn't automatically jump to the worst conclusion imaginable, but the anger in Hao's eyes was for too telling. Gyuvin had been gone all week for his rut, and Hao had never had a problem with the younger before today. If there was anything that could cause a rift this big, then it had to be linked to Ricky.
"I can't believe you're being like this!" Hao suddenly shoved him back, sending the alpha stumbling into another student. 
There was something deeply deeply wrong here. As Hao pressed forward, continually jamming his fist into Gyuvin's shoulder, the younger didn't make a single effort to fight back. For a tall, well-built alpha, he could have easily stopped Hao if he wanted to. Yet, he didn't. He just stood there taking the punches.
"You have the audacity to do all that, but you can't even look me in the eyes huh?! Look at me!"
Matthew couldn't bare to watch this any longer. The safe space he'd coveted so dearly, falling apart right in front of his eyes. They were supposed to be unbreakable. They were supposed to have each others backs. Fighting under the intrusive eyes of all these alphas felt unsettling, as if that level of solidarity had washed away. Anything could come out in anger, but neither showed any interest in taking this somewhere private.
So he had no choice but to intervene. 
"That's enough!" He raised his voice assertively, his gaze firm on the beta, as he physically pushed himself between them. "Let's deal with this in the club room."