Demons in the Mirror - Chapter 116

“…Did I say something wrong to you?” Valerian blinked at the back of Kiaran’s head. He never saw the mercenary this mad before.

“Wait a damn minute.” The blond did not let Kiaran answer him and cut through the conversation with the vanished rage that started to come back to his soul.

He gazed at the fallen handcuffs that Kiaran easily broke away from and moved his eyes to the back of his head again. “You could’ve escaped this shit yourself? Without my help?”

“Of course.” Kiaran returned the stare by tilting his head to the back, raising his eyebrows sardonically.

“I-” The words disappeared from Valerian’s mouth. The lieutenant was too stunned to speak.

Veins started to appear on the blond’s forehead. “Then why-”

“Because I don’t want to escape. I thought I’d told you beforehand?” Kiaran’s hollow eyes went back to face the police officers. “Now kill them off or something. That stupid brain of yours has gotten worse every time we met.”

Valerian decided to ignore the irritation within him and went to shoot his tranquillizer darts to the police officers that had just recovered from Kiaran’s shots. The blond missed the shot to the last officer and quickly jumped, tackling the man to the ground.

He punched the guy’s face and knocked the officer out cold. He jerked his head up to throw the blond locks that were covering his eyes away.

“You have to act. You get in from the front door, right?” Kiaran had already stood beside Valerian, snatching the fainted officer’s dark green jacket.

The mercenary adjusted with the jacket and took the stun gun on the floor. “You have to pretend to run away from the building and show yourself to the policewoman outside to prove that you’re innocent.”

Valerian frowned at him. “How do you know that I-”

He quickly snapped his mouth shut, deciding not to waste another breath away for this annoying guy. “You know what. I don’t even know if I’m helping you right now is part of your plan, but I don’t care.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not my plan.” Kiaran snatched Valerian’s hat and wore it to cover his hair and eyes. He let out a small amused chuckle to him.

“You surprised me again, police boy.” He shot him a last smirk and waved the rope gun that he had snatched away silently from the blond earlier. “Let’s meet afterwards.”

Then Kiaran ran away from him, leaving the frozen Valerian away, trying to process his words.

Then the realization hit.

“Wait, where-”

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Valerian had successfully acted like he was angry at the mercenary’s sudden disappearance. He easily fooled the woman that he had met earlier and several other officers.

They would not suspect him for anything because they knew how he had tried to defeat the mercenary for so long. He was basically the last person that would get suspected.

Valerian had spread some lies and manipulations, saying that the mercenary had escaped himself because he always had planned. It was weird how he easily incited false information to the people as if he had done it so many times.

Maybe he just had been hanging with a particular person way too much.

Now the problem was, Valerian had no single clue where the hell the mercenary went. He tried to search Kiaran’s burnt house and realized that he just had no idea where to search.

After trying to search the area around for a while, he decided to go home. The mercenary probably would disappear for a month or so, or maybe he would come back with another world burn.

…which would pile up the guilt in Valerian’s soul even more, but as he said earlier, he would just regret it later.

When he arrived at his house and was about to go to his room, Aster suddenly came in front of his door at the same time, offering him drinks lazily.

“Why are you giving me two cans of soda?” Valerian glanced at the drinks with a slight frown.

“That’s for me.” The door in his room suddenly opened, revealing a certain person that Valerian had searched all night.

Kiaran snatched the can from Aster’s hand and put the brown hat to the boy’s head. “Thanks for the hat, police clown.”

Aster held the hat on his head with one hand. “Oh, you know it’s mine?”

“The amount of the dirty blond hairs that was attached inside the hat was more than a single hair that had fallen from your brother’s head. Therefore, you wear it more than your brother. Then it’s yours.”

Aster blinked at the mercenary’s explanation. “Damn, smartass.”

The young Edelweiss cleared his throat, completely ignoring the presence of his brother as he properly faced the mercenary. “I just want to say that I still hate you for what you did to Axel.”

“But I was not the best person to him too, so I guess I can’t be mad at you on his stead.” He continued, staring at Kiaran’s blue eyes genuinely.

“But still,” Aster grinned as his green eyes morphed into a hidden hatred. “-respectfully, fuck you.”

Kiaran shrugged and opened the can. “Accepted.”

“You were here?!” Valerian yelled, separating his brother and mercenary away from each other. He finally finished questioning his existence and went to shout at the unfazed black-haired teen.

“I was searching for you this whole time-” Valerian cut his own words again. he often did it to the mercenary, knowing how his irritation toward him would be endless. “You know what, never mind.”

“Never mind.” He repeated his words and took the can in his little brother’s hand.

Kiaran drank the soda in one go and tilted his head. “So, why’d you save me?”

“You told me that we’re ‘friends for now’, remember?” Valerian stated, taking a sip of the soda before staring at his sworn enemy’s eyes. “I’m just doing what a friend must do.”

“Damn.” Kiaran raised an eyebrow, completely amused. “You really don’t have any friends, huh?”

“Pffft.” Aster stifled his laugh and looked the other way. His face was red as he choked on his own saliva, receiving stares from Valerian and Kiaran.

Aster quickly adjusted himself and cleared his throat. “…I’ll leave.”

The boy floundered away from the two sworn enemies and finally left them alone.

Kiaran side-eyed Valerian as he got inside the blond’s room, sitting on the bed as if it was his own bedroom. “I clearly insulted you. Why are you smiling?”

The faint smile that was plastered on the Edelweiss’s face quickly flattered at the mention of it as he closed the door behind him, taking off the trench coat slowly. “Aster hadn’t let a single laugh these past days. I’m glad he’s recovering right now.”

Then silence surrounded them for a moment. Kiaran was gawking at Valerian as the guy hung his trench coat behind his door and went to sit beside the Vergessene.

“I had a friend.” Valerian began suddenly, catching Kiaran’s attention again. “But we got separated when we were young.”

“He was the only friend I had.” He sighed, glancing at the ceiling as he remembered the old days. “When I got this work, I thought I’d made friends and-”

“Well, one of them betrayed me and died. I thought Gina was my friend.” He chuckled pathetically to himself before continuing, “I tried to search for this boy. Even though I don’t even remember him.”

“But he just… gone. There are no track records of him in the school, and it was weird. It was as if he never existed. We were only nine. All I remember of him was his black hair.”

Valerian did not notice the sudden shock that bloomed on Kiaran’s face, as if he just realized something big, something that the mercenary himself had forgotten.

“He just left me and disappeared.” The lieutenant continued, still glancing at the ceiling.

There was a beat of silence before Kiaran finally chimed in, “Weren’t you the one who left him first?”

Valerian did not question how Kiaran knew about it. He did not even realize it since, weirdly, it felt like he was talking to that boy again right now. The same comfortable feeling of a friend hearing his thoughts.

“Well, yeah. I had to.” He answered, shrugging while finally facing Kiaran who had adjusted his expression. “They forced me to move. I told him to wait, but I was not allowed to go out that week.”

“I came over the next week to our usual place, and he was not there. I kept coming back after that, searching for his house, but he disappeared.”

Valerian smiled sadly at Kiaran and sighed. “I kept coming back, but at some point, I gave up.”

“I still went there sometimes.” His green eyes morphed into something longing and some spark of guilt. “You know, maybe he’ll magically appear.”

When Valerian finally realized Kiaran’s unusual stiffened face, he finally came to his senses. “Ah, I overshare.”

“Don’t worry.” Kiaran quickly answered as he leaned on the wall with a foot crossing over the other. “That’s what friends would do.”

Kiaran smiled. It was the first genuine smile he gave to a person after a very long time. Valerian returned the smile with a fond smirk.

Then they both realized that they had just made the situation awkward. They quickly looked away at the same time, trying to search for a reason to do something at the moment. The belated regret ate the two away, knowing that they both silently agreed to never talk about anything that had just happened.

What happened in this bedroom, stayed in this bedroom.

“Hey, uh.” Kiaran began again, awkwardly coughing his throat. “That friends of yours-”

His words were interrupted by the sudden ring from Valerian’s phone. “Wait, something came up.”

The latter quickly picked up. As he received the phone call, his face morphed from a frown into a sudden horror toward Kiaran.

“I just got a report.” Valerian put his phone away and stared at his sworn enemy with a haunted expression.

“Someone stole your brother’s body.. They are suspecting you.”