BIA Ch. 77

“Hey.”

Chester suddenly spoke.

“What did Bran say to make you switch sides?”

“What do you mean, what did he say.”

Isaiah, who happened to be thinking about Bran, deliberately answered more indifferently to hide his flustered feelings.

“He said he would pay more generously than WD. That’s all.”

“What, that’s it?”

Chester made a dumbfounded expression.

“That’s it.”

“Is money important?”

“To a guy who works for money, what else is there?”

Chester hmm’ed and sat on the edge of the bed.

“I can pay more.”

“Pay up then.”

“If I do, will you quit WD and join our organization?”

At the unexpected question, Isaiah looked up at Chester. It was such a worthless thing to say that he just looked at him, but Chester, taking it completely differently, quickly climbed onto the bed and said,

“It’s true that Father is considering it. Raymond keeps coming to the house.”

Raymond was the legal counsel for the Kalisz family. Cedric was planning to step down from the front lines and hand over all authority to him at the same time as appointing a successor, so he had already prepared his will. But if the lawyer was coming and going again now… Chester was right to be filled with hope.

But what good would any of that do? Whether it was Bran or Chester, war was the expected course. Only the justification for each to take up arms would change. And even that justification had no meaning to him. No matter the justification, those who were going to die would die, and those who were going to live would live. He just had to adjust the direction of his gun according to the wishes of the person who paid him. If he had to put it into words, that was his justification.

“Huh? It’s not just about becoming a good fella^[1]. You will become a man of honor^[2]. Of course, once you take down Bran.”

Chester, who had climbed onto Isaiah’s body, said while supporting himself with both hands on the mattress. Isaiah stared quietly at the doll-like man in front of him and said,

“Chester.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you doing this because you want to fuck me?”

“What…”

Chester looked noticeably flustered. He probably hadn’t expected him to say something so blatant in this kind of atmosphere.

“Or do you want to be fucked by me?”

“Are, are you kidding? Why would I want to get fucked when I’m not even gay?”

Chester quickly moved away and shouted.

“Why would you want to fuck someone when you’re not even gay?”

Isaiah, still lying on the bed, smirked.

“Because you’re…!”

Chester sat at the edge of the bed and yelled.

“You, you were the one who came on to me first!”

“Me?” Isaiah frowned.

There was no way he would do that unless he was crazy. —Just as he thought that, Chester shouted.

“Yeah, at the Dior store! You dragged me into the fitting room, saying you needed help changing clothes, and then you just pounced on me! So I even had to tell you to wait until after my aunt’s funeral!”

It was an unbelievable story.

“He must be really crazy.”

Isaiah clicked his tongue. That was the only way he could express it. To become a different person and still be so desperate to get laid by a man. And to be so desperate that he even tried to seduce a loser like Chester.

But putting aside his own bad mood, from Isaiah Diaz’s point of view, it wasn’t completely incomprehensible. He was nineteen, right? A thirty-four-year-old man would look pretty cool in the eyes of a nineteen-year-old college student. Plus, he was good at spending money, even buying Dior suits. Even though he was skinny, his face was pretty, and if he was wearing a vest, jacket, and coat like now, he would just look slim.

“So why did you have to come on to someone who’s not even gay and make me so bothered! Why!”

Chester whined, saying it was all his fault.

“How is that my fault?”

Isaiah was about to retort, saying that it didn’t make sense for a guy who wasn’t even gay to fall for someone who came on to him, but then he found it funny that Chester was teary-eyed with a bright red face, so he deliberately turned to his side as if to seduce him.

“Well, if you beg me to let you, I might consider it.”

“Let me.”

Chester replied without a second of hesitation.

“You have to say it more politely.”

“Fuck, eat shit.”

Chester slammed his fist on the mattress, realizing he was being teased.

“Let me.”

And then he immediately spoke politely again.

“Please.”

He even begged desperately.

“You want it that bad?”

Isaiah laughed, dumbfounded.

“I do.”

Chester said seriously. His voice, more serious and tense than ever, made it seem like he would kneel down and bow his head if he was told to lick his feet.

Of course, he would refuse if it actually came to it, but it was fun to see a guy who was always so arrogant groveling like this. Chester even seemed to be slightly aroused.

“Hmm, is that so.”

Isaiah narrowed his eyes and scanned Chester up and down. He was pretending to think about it, but it wasn’t really a problem. He wasn’t going to see him again in three days anyway. He was no different from the guys on Mountain Dog. Since he wasn’t in the mood to go to the Mountain Dog today, he could save the trouble of going there and just take care of it lightly with Chester here.

Besides—he had learned this while being stuck with the Kalisz members to show them off—Chester may look weak, but his equipment was decent. Of course, it wouldn’t be as enjoyable as being crushed under a heavy body, but it might be better if the partner was Chester. He wouldn’t accidentally call out Bran’s name, like he usually did when he was with the big guys.

“Okay.”

Finally, Isaiah sat up from the bed.

“If you don’t want to kill the mood, close the door and come.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Chester went to close the bedroom door. Meanwhile, Isaiah took off his T-shirt. Seeing Isaiah take off his pants as well, Chester said with a slightly deflated tone,

“Isn’t this too unromantic?”

“Why would we need that?”

When he told him to just hurry up and fuck, Chester grumbled, “No, but this is too…,” but he quickly took off his coat and jacket.

“Uh…”

Chester, who had left his buttoned vest and shirt on and was approaching the bed while undoing his belt buckle, suddenly stopped.

“What is that on you?”

“What?”

“The tattoo on your back… Ah, is it painted, not a tattoo?”

Chester rubbed Isaiah’s left back with his hand.

“What are you talking about?”

Isaiah looked puzzled at the incomprehensible words, and Chester, rambling, said, “No, the tattoo on your back, did you always have it? You didn’t, right?” and picked up his phone to take a picture.

“Look at this.”

Isaiah couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the phone Chester held out. There was lettering he’d never seen before on his back. Fortunately, it seemed to be painted, not a tattoo, as Chester said, but that wasn’t the problem.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I can not change,

courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

It was a familiar sentence. If he remembered correctly, it was the prayer from that book, Slaughterhouse-Five. The prayer that the protagonist, who had realized that no matter how much he wandered through time and how many times he went back to the past, he couldn’t change anything, had put up in his hospital room to accept that fact.

Why the hell… why would he have this on his back.

As Isaiah stared at the picture of his back with a confused expression, Chester muttered,

“But this…”

“What?”

Isaiah raised his head to look at Chester.

“It’s nothing.”

Chester quickly shook his head.

“Tell me.”

“I was going to say, did you do it to cover up a scar.”

Hearing that, he noticed a small scar hidden under the black ink. But it wasn’t a big scar that needed to be covered up with such a large tattoo, and it wasn’t even in a place that would be visible when he was wearing clothes.

“Isaiah Diaz must have gotten it, right? Well, if you’re nineteen, you might do that. It’s an age when that kind of thing looks cool.”

Chester babbled on, saying he got one around that age too, not that anyone cared.

“Want me to show you mine?”

As if he wanted to keep the mood going, Chester hurriedly unbuttoned his shirt. Just at the right time, the sound of the front door opening was heard, and Isaiah used it as an excuse to say,

“That’s it. I’m quitting.”

“Yah!”

Chester protested, saying there was no such rule. Isaiah ignored him and left the bedroom.