Ch06. Bitter taste

Johan didn't know that a department store could have so many... Departments.

Logically, Erick's shirt was the easiest part of the list.

Ten minutes later, Erick was asking the store manager to take them to the barbershop.

"Time to get rid of that scruffy beard and make your hair look presentable." Erick said, with a smile that mixed playfulness with sarcasm.

"Did you decide to bully me, just because you're supporting me?" Johan asked.

"Shut up." Erick held back his laughter.

Not even Johan could understand why he and Erick got along so strangely well.

Of course, him saving the life of the young Vaughn family member probably had a lot to do with it.

However, at the same time as the two seemed to belong to completely different worlds - Erick to the world of the rich and powerful, and Johan, on the other hand, to the world diametrically opposed to Erick's, where everyone who existed was stepped on by those who were above -, it was as if they had an ability to communicate that only brothers should have, and only in comics, web novels, and maybe a few other stories.

Never in real life...

***

At the end of the whole process, Johan looked like a new man.

Even Erick seemed surprised by the result.

"Well... You look like me after all, so..."

A smirk ran across his face.

Johan wasn't used to the kind of attention he was receiving, and when some of the female employees came up to him, asking for his phone number, he felt slightly embarrassed.

And pissed.

The girls seemed to have completely forgotten about the ragged young man who had entered there a few hours before.

Immediately, however, Johan mentally slapped himself.

'Get back to planet fucking earth, man. It's not you they're attracted to, and you know it!'

Returning to reality, Johan politely dismissed the girls, looking towards Erick.

"What now?"

There was a gleam of seriousness in Johan's eyes that Erick recognized as someone who had just returned from Wonderland.

And Erick liked that.

"Now we return home, and you will prepare for the trip."

Johan nodded, turning towards the door.

With a charming smile, Erick said goodbye to everyone there, and accompanied Johan outside.

***

In the car, Erick had a tired but accomplished expression.

"So, how does it feel to rub it in society's face that you're not just a useless worm that they can step on?"

Johan sighed, tired.

"Just because I have some expensive new clothes, a new smartphone, and I'm about to assume the identity of a rich guy who doesn't know what it's like to have to fight to stay alive day after day?" Johan laughed.

In truth, it was more of a sigh than a laugh, filled with contained bitterness.

"No..." Johan continued. "I don't feel like I rubbed anything in anyone's face."

Johan was looking out the car window, outside, enjoying the scenery during the trip back to that motel.

Therefore, he hadn't seen the murderous gleam in Erick's eyes when he said that.

But Erick said nothing in return, and the rest of the trip continued in silence.

When they arrived at the motel, however...

"There are two? Erick Vaughn has a brother and we didn't know?" A man's voice echoed from across the street.

Erick and Johan looked, perplexed, in the direction of the voice.

Only to find the three men who had stabbed Erick days before.

"I also thought it must be all in my head, but I said, man, that homeless guy looked too much like their boss for it to be just a coincidence."

Johan looked at the three of them, frowning.

He could have sworn he had put them to sleep in that alley.

How had they found them there?

As if reading the thoughts of Johan, the biggest of them spoke.

"Man... It was hard to find you, but after seeing you leaving the drugstore, I knew it was just a matter of following you..." his almost black eyes sparkled as he passed under the light pole, crossing slowly down the almost deserted street in that part of the city. "I just didn't imagine that I would meet Chief Vaughn with you. My plan was just to teach you a lesson for getting involved where you didn't belong, but now..."

The two men beside the big man - clearly the leader of the trio - appeared in the streetlight, and a shiver ran down Johan's spine.

The two were armed with metal bars, while the leader was armed with a knife that appeared to be frighteningly sharp.

"...I think we'll take both of your heads to the boss..."

Johan knew very well how to recognize a bluff, an empty threat, when he heard one.

And those guys weren't bluffing or making empty threats.

"Didn't you say you put them to sleep?" Erick asked, whispering in a dry, bitter tone.

"I said..."

Johan had made a mistake, even though he didn't know what.

And that mistake could very well end up costing not only Erick his life.

But also his own.

"Shit..." Erick gritted his teeth.

'Shit, indeed...' Johan thought, trying not to lose sight of any of the three opponents.

Opponents?

Johan had to be crazy, thinking of that word to describe those guys.

Still, however, that was exactly how Johan saw them.

Opponents.

Johan had never taken part in a fight that went far beyond the point where one of the two - or more - didn't just fall unconscious, claiming victory and earning the respect of his opponent.

There, in front of those brutes, however, he felt the dark, ominous certainty that any movement would be made...

Someone would end up dead.

No...

Even if he did nothing, someone would end up dead.

And that someone was him, and Erick.

Erick, however, seemed to notice something behind the big men, and with a low chuckle, still also paying attention to the slow, rhythmic movements of the attackers, he asked Johan a single question.

The question made Johan's bones go cold.

"Can you hold them back for a while?"