BIA Ch. 78

As soon as he stepped into the bathroom, he grabbed the showerhead. It took a while to warm up, but thankfully the hot water worked fine.

However, no matter how much hot water he poured on it, the ink on his back wouldn’t come off. It didn’t even smudge when he scrubbed it with body wash, so it must be some kind of special ink like henna.

“Damn it. What the hell did you do to my body?”

Isaiah cursed, looking at his back, which had turned red from all the scrubbing. He got even angrier thinking that the mysterious itch that had been tormenting him like withdrawal symptoms yesterday and today was because of this.

But seriously, why did they even put this on me? And why this prayer in particular?

Isaiah thought, looking at his back in the mirror.

Like Chester said, if it was just because he was nineteen and thought a tattoo looked cool, he would’ve gotten a tribal design or something more common. Out of all the lettering, the fact that they chose this prayer meant it had to be related to Bran. He was with Bran right before he got his memories back, so there was no need to doubt it.

Could Bran have ordered this? No, he’s not that kind of guy. Besides, it’s not even a real tattoo, it’s henna. It’s not like a kid’s prank… No, wait. Maybe because it’s a prank, they did it more casually, without any deep meaning.

…I don’t know.

Isaiah sat weakly on the edge of the bathtub, still holding the showerhead. Maybe it was because he had been in the hot, cramped space for too long, but he felt dizzy. His head also hurt. Honestly, he didn’t care about the tattoo anymore. What really bothered him wasn’t the tattoo.

‘You dragged me into the fitting room, saying you needed help changing clothes, and then you just pounced on me!’

If what Chester said was true… then there was a high chance he did the same thing to Bran. If that was the case, and if Bran didn’t refuse.

Could it be that… I slept with Bran? Me…?

It was too absurd to be a delusion, but there were a few things that bothered him. The fact that he had the prayer from Bran’s book—the one he had stolen but Bran had definitely taken back—tattooed on his back, and the fact that he was wearing Bran’s coat when he regained his memories at Liberty Port.

But there was more obvious evidence than those subtle implications. It was the sensation that remained on his body. He had been aware of it since he got into the taxi at Liberty Port yesterday. He had definitely had sex with a man within the last few hours. It was just something that happened to him all the time, so he hadn’t thought much of it. He just had a slightly sore and tingling feeling in his stomach, and a sharp, stabbing sensation inside whenever the car bumped, so he just clicked his tongue, thinking that whoever it was must have been incredibly rough, or maybe their dick was ridiculously big.

And that someone could be Bran.

“……”

He didn’t know if it was bad or if he hated it. He just couldn’t believe it. Anyway, it was something that didn’t exist in his memories, and it was just a possibility for now, so it all felt like a far-fetched story.

But if it was really true—

“Hey, Isaiah!”

Isaiah snapped out of his thoughts at the loud knocking.

“What is it?”

“You have a call.”

Isaiah clicked his tongue and turned the showerhead lever. The water pouring from the head stopped with a thud, and everything became quiet.

“Give it here.”

He opened the bathroom door and held out his hand, and Manny handed him a flip phone. As soon as Isaiah closed the bathroom door, he pressed the call button.

“Isaiah?”

Morgan went straight to the point without any greeting.

“Sorry for the sudden call. But I just got a call from the hospital.”

“The hospital?”

“Yeah. It seems like Jacana’s condition has worsened. So they just moved him to the ICU.”

It was a truly sudden story. Of course, his stepfather had been in the ICU a couple of times before. But that was when he had just collapsed from a stroke, and in the last two years, he had been in a relatively stable condition. Well, it wasn’t like he was actually stable, being in a vegetative state.

But why now, at this timing, after two years, all of a sudden in the ICU? Of course, it could be true, but he couldn’t help but be suspicious.

“Okay. Thanks for taking care of it, Morgan. I’ll go to the hospital as soon as I finish work on Wednesday.”

Isaiah said, running a hand through his dripping wet hair. As soon as the short call ended, he tossed the phone into the bathroom cabinet. And then he grabbed the showerhead again.

It was exactly five in the afternoon when he arrived at Eloy Airport.

“Damn it, what the hell.”

As soon as Chester turned off his phone’s airplane mode, messages from Cedric arrived one after another. Four of them were missed call notifications, and the last one was a one-sided notice.

‘Be home by six.’

It seemed like he left the message because he couldn’t get through on the phone.

“You have to come too.”

Chester demanded that Isaiah come with him, as if it was obvious.

“Why should I go?”

“You have to, of course! Who knows if you’ll run into Bran if I leave you wandering around alone? You have to stick by my side until Wednesday.”

Chester was now openly acting like a jealous maniac, whether it was an act or not. Isaiah genuinely wanted to give up on everything, but he decided to endure it for two more days, thinking it was his own karma. If he could turn back time, he would run home as soon as Bran spoke to him a week ago. That’s how much this situation sucked.

But an even more fucked up situation was waiting for him. He went to Cedric’s house, having left a gun at his apartment and only shoving a pistol into his pants pocket, and Bran was there. It seemed like Cedric had called the two of them together.

“You’re here?”

Chester’s face soured as soon as he saw Bran, who was playing chess with Cedric. Even so, he grabbed Isaiah’s jacket and wouldn’t let him go, who was trying to turn back.

“Bran is here, so it’s fine. How am I supposed to meet him separately with the guy here?”

Isaiah whispered into Chester’s ear in a suppressed voice, but it was no use.

“Just stay here.”

Chester was just stubbornly insisting now.

Just as Isaiah was about to shake him off and leave, someone came out of the dining room and announced that dinner was ready.

“Let’s eat first. We can talk while we eat.”

Cedric got up from his seat. Bran followed behind him. He didn’t even glance at Isaiah once until he entered the dining room.

It was the same in the dining room. Cedric sat at the head of the table, with Chester and Bran on either side, and Manny sat next to Chester. Isaiah was sitting next to Manny, which made it an awkward position to make eye contact with Bran. But the fact that their eyes didn’t meet even once during the entire meal, even by accident, felt unnatural. Especially since, from Isaiah’s perspective, Bran was the only person sitting across from him, so he often found himself looking at him when he came to his senses. And yet, their eyes never met. That meant that Bran was intentionally avoiding looking at him.

“By the way, why didn’t you answer your phone? What were you doing all day?”

Cedric said, scolding his son next to him.

“I was on the plane.”

“You were on a plane? Where did you go?”

“Virginia.”

“Why Virginia?”

Cedric looked perplexed. And for good reason. It wasn’t like there was a business there, and it wasn’t a common place for drug deals either.

“Ah, well, um, that’s, well… I mean…”

Chester pretended to cut his steak with a knife and nudged Manny’s elbow next to him. He had answered without thinking, and only belatedly realized that he didn’t know what excuse to make, so he was sending an SOS.

“Well, this guy… I mean, Isaiah’s father is in the hospital in Virginia. His condition suddenly worsened, so Isaiah and I were going to go, but Chester went with us, yeah.”

Manny answered quickly. It was too familiar to be a hastily made-up excuse. Only then did Isaiah realize that Manny had been eavesdropping on his conversation with Morgan outside the bathroom.

“Hmm, is that so.”

Maybe he thought it was better than just messing around, because Cedric’s reaction was quite mild. Not only that, but he was praising Chester’s actions, saying things like family is family, you are all like brothers in the organization, a brother’s parents are like my parents, and so on. If you only listened to this, you would think that Cedric had really decided to hand over the organization to Chester.

But that couldn’t be the case.

“But why are you two, who should cherish and love each other the most, in such a bad relationship?”

Finally, Cedric got to the real point. It seemed like he had called the two of them together to say this.