BIA Ch. 57

Bran blinked once, looking like he was wondering if he had really said that, then spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“I came here a few times before for work.”

“What kind of work?”

“What kind of work do you think?”

“Oh, no way….”

Drugs? Isaiah asked cautiously. Bran’s reaction was as if he couldn’t understand Isaiah’s reaction.

“Why no way?”

“Ah, well, Chester said you hardly deal with drugs.”

“What mafia doesn’t deal in drugs?”

Bran said dryly, taking a sip of his drink. He placed his glass, which now only had ice left, on the table by the window, then smiled at Isaiah.

“Why, are you disappointed?”

Disappointed…? Isaiah repeated Bran’s words. The pronunciation felt foreign, like a word he had never encountered before. Him, of all people, being disappointed in Bran. That was strange. That could never happen. No matter how terrible he was, even if he dealt with more drugs, more kinds of drugs than now, he would never be disappointed in Bran.

He wanted to express that somehow, but he didn’t know what to say. If he said something too cheesy, Bran would hate it, and if he treated what he did too lightly, his sincerity would be diminished.

But no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t come up with a good way to express it. In the end, Isaiah mumbled.

“I’ve killed a lot of people too, so….”

And as soon as he said that, he regretted it. Saying something like that as comfort. Especially when he can’t even remember it.

As expected, Bran said with a laugh.

“What do you mean, when you don’t even remember?”

“Even if I don’t remember… it’s still something I did.”

Isaiah, who was muttering dejectedly, belatedly said, “Oh, right,” and his face brightened.

“Even if I don’t remember, there’s proof.”

“What proof?”

“Chester showed me….”

The rest of the words scattered without a trace between our overlapping lips. No, it would be more accurate to say they were swallowed whole. Bran swallowed them. Isaiah’s tongue, lips, words that couldn’t become sounds, and even his breath.

“Hngh….”

Even though it wasn’t our first kiss, Isaiah had no idea how to breathe. The movement of the tongue sweeping through his mouth was so skillful that he couldn’t help but feel suffocated. He tried to breathe in the gap where their lips parted, but before he could even inhale, their lips were overlapping again. Isaiah gasped, wrapping his arms around Bran’s neck. Then, finally remembering that he could breathe through his nose, he was about to kiss Bran’s handsome lips first when—

“That’s enough.”

“What…?”

Bran suddenly grabbed Isaiah’s shoulders, pulled him away, and said.

“The rest is after you take your medicine.”

Being dragged by Bran to the living room table, Isaiah was dumbfounded and shouted.

“No, but… why are you so eager to make me take medicine!”

“Someone might misunderstand.”

Bran said, dropping two Motrin tablets directly into Isaiah’s palm.

“I want you to get better quickly. You don’t like being sick, right?”

“I’m not that sick anymore! I’m much better.”

Isaiah grumbled but swallowed the fever reducer with water. Bran watched Isaiah with his arms crossed, then said, sounding like he was amazed or couldn’t understand.

“Are you that desperate to have s3x?”

“Wh… what are you talking about!”

Isaiah’s face flushed instantly. To hide his embarrassment, he hit Bran’s arm with the water bottle he was holding.

“Who are you calling desperate for s3x?”

“I’ll apologize if that’s not the case.”

Even though he said he would apologize, Bran didn’t look sorry at all. For the first time, Isaiah could truly, deeply understand why Chester hated Bran.

“It’s really not like that….”

His voice even trembled, he was so wronged.

“Okay, I understand.”

He was so frustrated, but Bran was laughing, which made him even more upset.

“No, really….”

As he spoke, his eyes suddenly felt hot. It seemed like he was going to make a fool of himself if he stayed like this, so Isaiah put the water bottle on the table and went into the bedroom.

“Hey.”

Bran followed, looking unusually flustered, as if he hadn’t expected that. Isaiah ignored him, pretending he hadn’t heard, and flopped down on the bed.

“Isaiah.”

Sorry. Bran lay down naturally beside him and apologized.

“I was careless. I guess I just assumed that since most nineteen-year-olds are like that, you would be too.”

That was true. Most nineteen-year-olds had their heads full of that kind of thing. In fact, when he himself had opened his eyes a few days ago with the persona of Isaiah Diaz, that was the first thing he had thought about. He had wondered if he had gotten drunk the night before and finally done it with someone. So he couldn’t exactly blame Bran. But…

“It’s not that I want to have s3x… it’s that I want to do it with you.”

He had managed to muster all his courage, but his voice got smaller as he went on. Ashamed that he couldn’t even say something like that properly, Isaiah covered his face with one hand and cursed.

“Okay, it was my fault. I’m really sorry.”

Bran gently stroked his cheek, making him remove the hand covering his face. There was still a faint hint of laughter in his voice. But Isaiah could tell that Bran was truly sorry, unlike before. So, wanting to be a little spoiled, he made a mistake by saying something he shouldn’t have.

“It’s true. If I just wanted to have s3x, I would have done it with Chester earlier.”

“Why is Chester coming up ?”

Bran looked very taken aback.

“Well, because Chester tried to jump me today.”

“Oh.”

Bran’s eyes narrowed slightly. At the same time, the color of his pupils seemed to drop. It might have just been the shadows from his eyelashes as his eyes narrowed, but from Isaiah’s perspective, the change in temperature, the shift in atmosphere, was considerable.

“Interesting? Tell me more.”

“……”

When Isaiah shut his mouth, Bran said gently, as if coaxing him.

“Go on.”

“Hmm? Isaiah.”

He tapped Isaiah’s cheek with his finger, and even the touch that had felt so affectionate just a moment ago now felt threatening. Isaiah had no choice but to tell the truth while nestled in Bran’s arms.

“No… nothing much happened. It’s just that Chester was talking nonsense in the fitting room during the day. You know, how he’s been acting since the apartment, asking if I had done it with you.”

“And?”

Bran asked again in a low voice. Judging by the atmosphere, he wouldn’t believe him even if he said nothing had happened. Isaiah spoke in a casual tone, as if nothing had happened.

“So what, he tried to check by putting his finger there, and I hit him in the chest with my elbow to stop him. That’s all.”

“I see.”

Bran nodded, smiling. Isaiah felt a chill run down his spine. He had seen Bran smile like that before. It was at Cedric’s garden. Back then, Bran had smiled like that, raising one corner of his mouth. In that state, he had put an arm around Gilman’s shoulder and pulled out a gun from his jacket.

And just as he thought.

“Should I go kill him?”

Bran brushed the hair that had fallen on Isaiah’s cheek behind his ear and spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“What?”

Isaiah was startled and sat up.

“Are you kidding?”

“I don’t know why you would think I’m kidding.”

Bran pushed Isaiah’s chest with his hand, making him lie back down on the bed.

“I was going to kill Chester anyway. It’s just a matter of doing it a little sooner.”

He said it as if it wasn’t a big deal. At this point, it was clear he wasn’t joking.

“No, no, there’s no need for that, Bran.”

Isaiah said urgently.

“It’s true that happened, but I’m not asking you to do anything about it. I told you, I hit him with my elbow. Really hard! Chester must have been in a lot of pain. He didn’t touch me after that. That’s the end of it. And honestly, I’m not really nineteen, and you know better than anyone what I might have done with the guys I met at that club! Don’t you think it’s a little ridiculous to make a fuss over something like this? Don’t you?”

“Well, it seems like a different issue to me.”

“No, it’s not. It’s no different at all.”

Isaiah shook his head desperately. Bran seemed to think that Isaiah’s argument was somewhat valid, but he also seemed to just want to kill Chester at this opportunity. That’s how it looked to Isaiah.

It was true that Bran was planning to kill Chester, but that was part of the power struggle within the organization. And there was a plan for it from the start. He didn’t want things to get messed up because of him. No, actually, things were already messed up, but he didn’t want them to get any more messed up. And more than anything.

“Ugh, please, Bran. I don’t want to ruin the mood over Chester in this situation…!”

That’s right. He didn’t want to just stare at the feast that had been laid out because of Chester. If that happened, he might end up killing Chester himself, not Bran.