CHAPTER 503: FOOLISH KINDNESS

The next morning, Micah woke up to pale sunlight leaking through the curtains. His head felt clearer than the night before. He sat up, running a hand through his messy hair, and glanced at his phone. Both Darcy and Clyde replied with short messages, just "Okay" and "Alright."

He quickly sent another message to Darcy, asking how he was feeling.

Then, with a sigh, he swung his legs off the bed and forced himself to start the day.

He attended his classes as usual, whispers trailing after him wherever he went. A few students pointed discreetly when they thought he wasn’t looking. Micah didn’t need to guess what they were whispering about. He had seen enough of the online threads to know his name and his gaming username were trending again. Willow had already turned a blind eye while Ramsy employees leaked his photo online, letting netizens piece together his identity. It was just a matter of time before everyone knew he was Ramsy’s heir.

Once or twice, someone even dared to stop him to ask about LOJ and whether he had joined a team.

Micah didn’t care and brushed past them. By noon, he was already heading back to his apartment, worried for Darcy, even though he had constantly texted Darcy, asking if his fever had gone down. The replies were short and spaced out, mostly "I’m fine" and "don’t worry".

It wasn’t enough. Micah needed to see him for himself.

When he reached his own apartment, he hesitated. Should he ring the bell or just unlock the door and walk in?

In the end, he rang the bell. He didn’t want to stumble on the carer and scare her.

A middle-aged woman was the one who opened the door for him. She was dressed neatly in a pale apron. Her calm expression flickered briefly into surprise before settling into a polite smile.

Micah blinked. "You must be the carer that was hired," he said after a short pause.

Recognition sparkled in her eyes. "Ah, Young master Micah," she greeted warmly. "Please, come in."

Micah raised an eyebrow and stepped inside. He looked around. The apartment smelled faintly of ginger soup and medicine. Everything looked clean and neatly arranged; clearly, someone had been taking good care of the place.

"My name is Jade," the woman introduced herself with a small bow. "You can call me Aunty Jade, like Master Clyde does."

Micah smiled. "Aunty Jade, how is the patient?"

"Young master Darcy has taken his medicine on time, and his fever has already gone down. But he had started to cough, and his appetite was not great either," she explained.

"Thanks for the trouble. I’ll go check on him." Micah turned and walked toward Darcy’s room.

After knocking lightly, he peeked inside. "Hey."

Darcy looked up from his laptop, his dark hair a little messy and his face still pale. "Good. You’re back. Can you tell her I’m fine already?" he grumbled. "She won’t let me leave the room! Keeps treating me like I am on my deathbed or something." He coughed midway through his complaint, pressing a fist to his mouth.

Micah chuckled softly and stepped inside, sitting beside the bed. "Stop nagging. This is how a proper heir gets treated. Get used to it."

"Who said I wanted that?" Darcy shot back, frowning. "I can take care of myself."

"I know," Micah said, peeling a mandarin he had taken from the table. "Well, I wanted to do it myself. But I’m useless. Anyway, it’s this or me. What, you want to go downstairs and risk getting your mum and sister sick? Or move into a dorm with those awful roommates?"

Darcy exhaled loudly and sank into the pillow. "Fine," he muttered, coughing again.

Micah separated one segment and held it out to him. "Here."

Darcy hesitated, then accepted it, popping it into his mouth. "Did you two... fight?"

Micah tossed another piece into his mouth. "Nope. I’m way behind on a few projects, so I went back to deal with that." His tone was smooth.

Darcy didn’t press further.

Micah looked at the laptop, trying to change the subject. "Where does that come from?"

"This? I wanted to run some code, needed a computer. She gave it to me. I presume she is not from the Ramsy family, right?" Darcy asked.

"No," Micah shook his head. "She is a housekeeper from the Du Pont family. I told you before, I won’t use Ramsy’s resources for us."

"You are unbelievable, using someone else’s staff like that." Darcy leaned back with a dry laugh.

"I told him to hire a carer. If he decided to send one of his people, that’s on him," Micah said nonchalantly.

Darcy stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "You really do think and act like a spoiled young master. Not everyone gets to take that for granted, you know."

"Enough with that. I’ll come to give you this," Micah handed Darcy a USB. "Your classmates asked me to bring it. Something about project data."

Darcy took it. "Thanks. Have you eaten yet?"

"No. I’ll tell her to add my portion too. Wash out and come out after, alright?" Micah said and left the room.

Darcy watched the back of the young man as he disappeared behind the door.

This Micah was really stupid. For him, he had even stood against Clyde.

Did he not realise that the madman was someone no one should ever go against?

He wasn’t deaf. Of course, he had heard things, soft, muffled sounds from the kitchen and the other room the night before. He wasn’t naive enough not to guess what the two were doing. But what surprised him most wasn’t that. It was Micah’s reaction afterwards. The fact that Micah had left the apartment entirely, just to avoid hurting his feelings. It made Darcy’s chest twist uncomfortably.

When Micah’s text came last night, he had actually laughed. He could almost picture Clyde’s face at that moment, and that made him feel smug, even though he shouldn’t have.

Honestly, he shouldn’t have cared. But his heart ached whenever he thought of the two getting closer. So Darcy was pleased to see Micah leaving Clyde for his sake.

Last night, Darcy had been itching to go out and have a good laugh at Clyde, but stopped himself. The man was unpredictable. Just one small warning from Micah had made Clyde barge into his room, then do that to Micah....

Darcy couldn’t imagine what Clyde would do if he realised Darcy had learned Micah had abandoned the man for him.

That foolish Micah... he really shouldn’t be this nice to him. Didn’t he know that kindness only made it harder to stay away?