Laravel 5.7 - How to use Auth::check() even when not using auth middleware

I want to build an API route which can be called by an authenticated user as well as a non-authenticated user and returns the data based on whether or not the user is authenticated.

I am stuck at using Auth::check().

The controller function is something like this:

class SomeController extends Controller
{
    public function check(Request $request) {
        if(Auth::check()) {
            return response()->json([
                        'message' => 'Logged in'
                    ], 200);
        }
        else {
            return response()->json([
                        'message' => 'Not logged in'
                    ], 200);
        }
    }
}

I end up having two scenarios:

Scenario 1

Route::get('scenario1', 'SomeController@check');

In this scenario, in the controller when I check Auth::check() inside an if condition I am always getting the false condition, no matter the user is authenticated or not.

Scenario 2

Route::get('scenario2', 'SomeController@check')->middleware('auth:api');

In this scenario, in controller when I check Auth::check() I get true when user is logged in and error(Route[login] not definded) when user is not logged in.

via Chebli Mohamed