I just hope Julian forgives me.

"Dad...You f-fought with her, didn't you?" Nikolai's asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"If you saw what she did to that poor girl... you'd also be mad.

I'm not against her harming outsiders, but that was her girl! and there was no evidence that Lydia actually wanted to harm Seong-min...for all I know, Lydia may have done what she did for a whole different reason." Rushil replied petting the sleeping cat in his arms.

"Lydia Brooks, the odd ball wherever she goes." Minnie spoke up, "Weird girl but usually harmless, unless you're the target of her contract." She added.

"Lydia kills?" Nikolai asked, "She's a sniper but it's not always her objective to kill, sometimes the Madame uses her to scare off people...when it comes to her aim, Lydia is the best I've seen in the sniper girls, I heard that if her barrel is pointed at someone, that someone is getting shot.

to not exaggerate, targets might unlikely survive death, but they still get shot so technically, she doesn't miss.

And personally speaking, most of the girls began with no to little training, including myself.

Lydia however, she was a pro before joining the girls, She's a tough cookie, not even milk softens her.

I almost didn't believe it when her and I got assigned a job together once...that was not the highschool reunion I anticipated." Minnie said casually.

"You were Lydia's classmate?" Rushil asked, "You don't know that?" Minnie questioned, "Not sure, My memory is weak...what do you know about Lydia, personally?" Rushil asked Again.

Thinking hard, "Hmmm, she seemed like one of those yandere girls, back in highschool...I remember once I saw her obsessively write 'L.B+C.M=Love' on a paper sheet... highschool chicks be like that sometimes." Minnie said.

"Yandere?" Rushil questioned, "Apparently it means s-someone who's lovesick, it's a popular term in anime culture." Nikolai explained, "The name 'C.M' could very well be the name of Lydia's love interest." He added.

Realizing it, "Cyrus Melaina, that's why they're connected! or why she contacted him specifically." Rushil said.

"Her and Cyrus are connected?" Nikolai asked, "Jin suspected early on that Cyrus knew something about the kidnapping that we didn't know.

According to Ha-yoon, Cyrus told her that Lydia asked him to go to her apartment.

it makes sense now why she picked him, When I first interviewed Lydia years ago, she spoke about a certain person without mentioning Their name or addressing their gender...she marked her brief friendship with that person, as the very first time she ever felt appreciated.

Also, She mentioned that that person is her first and last love as well, and the reason why she's single...because she can't find someone to replace them." Rushil said.

"And you think that's Cyrus?" Minnie asked.

"I told you this cat I'm holding right now belongs to Lydia, what I didn't tell you is that it's named after Cyrus." Rushil explained.

"Lydia and Cyrus were short-term friends, Lydia then f-fell in love with Cyrus and held on to that, named her cat after him and years later...she decided to c-contact him when Seong-Min got kidnapped by Flint." Nikolai deduced, "But something doesn't add up?" he added.

"What doesn't add up?" Rushil asked.

"I get it, Jin told me about Cyrus's transition, it happened after high school so it means it happened a while after Lydia and Cyrus's friendship ended yet, Lydia knew exactly who he became, that he became 'Cyrus' and she named her cat after that New name." Minnie explained.

"That word yandere means lovesick right? then I guess Lydia was stalking him, even after highschool." Rushil replied, "She probably lied about never leaving her home, so we wouldn't know about this obsession." He added.

"Now that I think about it, the whole school is involved in this story.

Me, you Niko and Jin...there's Rudy, Flint, Moses, Lydia and Cyrus and even poor Julian...we all went to the same highschool, it's crazy." Minnie pointed out.

"What's crazy is, that the cheerleading te-team leader became a muscle for hire, you." Nikolai said jokingly, "Dude! My man Flint topped all of us, he's a serial killer! can you believe it!

I mean, you became an actor Niko, Jin and I are bodyguards, Rudy is a nurse, Cyrus well... idk what he is, Lydia is a sniper and Moses is Missing in action...no one knows what happened to him." Minnie said.

"And Julian is dead." Nikolai added to her words, "Yeah, that's something that should've never happened, he had his whole life ahead of him." Rushil replied.

Suddenly, "D-Dad, I know you and Mom are not keen on sharing your secrets with me, but is there other reasons why Mom would go this crazy about saving Seong-Min's life?

I've noticed she put on little to no f-fight when I asked her to help Jin, then she just went hulk mode trying to s-save Seong-min." Nikolai asked.

"Your mom blames herself for what happened to you so far...during high school we were the most distance from you because of our business, and she thinks that we should've spent more time being your parents." Rushil replied.

"And what about Jin's mom, I've talked to mom about her, I know that Lily was one of your t-targets." Nikolai asked again.

Sighing, "You really want to hear the truth... first of all I'm pretty sure your mother already told you this, and I will confirm it.

We have nothing to do with Lily's death, we didn't even know she died, we tried to keep a distance from Lily because for one, I was definitely jealous of her.

And two, because we were a danger to her." Rushil said.

"Yeah, mom said much." Nikolai replied.

"As for why your mom is putting little to no fight in doing your requests, it's because she blames herself for the death threats.

Radka thinks whoever is targeting you is one of her enemies, she's scared to death that you might die because of her." Rushil explained.

"So it's not out of g-guilt towards Jin for what happened to Lily?" Nikolai questioned.

"Did you honestly believe your mother killed her?...I mean yes! she could've! but, she couldn't and wouldn't." Rushil replied.

Sighing, "Th-this makes me feel at ease, honestly it would've been awkward for me to continue dating Jin, if my mother killed his mother, haha." Nikolai said chuckling.

"Wait, so you guys are really serious about dating each other? like there's no game or anything? no benefits? you guys are dating for real, like out of love?" Rushil asked.

"Yes we are.

truth is, if it wasn't for what happened to Julian back in high school, I was actually planning to forgive Jin at that time.

Like I was going to be mad for a week or two because he was playing me at first, but I was going to f-forgive him because even though our love started on a bet, it turned out to be real in the end, and he was planning to tell me but Moses beat him to it.

But because Julian k-killed himself, I held Moses and everyone associated with him responsible, even Jin who barely interacted with Julian.

My anger just exploded at the moment and I replaced the love I had for Jin with enough hatred instead." Nikolai replied.

"But after you saw how he changed himself and became a better person, that hate of yours started to melt, am i right?" Minnie said smirking.

"Yeah and to be honest when I think about my relationship with Jin, it had a better outcome than Cyrus and Julian's.

Apparently th-those two were dating secretly, just their relationship being a secret was a struggle, and it must've been so hard for Cyrus to be unable to help Julian, just like I was unable to do the same.

I heard that s-someone discovered Julian's body other than his uncle that unfaithful morning, if I knew it was Cyrus at the time, I would have gave him a hug at least...it's not easy to d-deal with something like that." Nikolai replied.

"I don't like to act on behalf of the dead, but if Julian can tell you anything right now, i bet it's probably that he's happy you're alive Nikolai, you almost followed him to the other side." Rushil said.

"I just hope Julian forgives me, when he died I took on his path, I wasn't going to be an actor, he was...i wanted to be Julian's manager.

F-funny, I got in an accident and I can't even act, the one thing that can make Julian proud of me, I can't do it." Nikolai said sniffing.

"You're an idiot you know that Niko, you're going to get better and you're going to go back to the scene sooner than you think, and I'm pretty sure that everything is going to get better, just believe it." Rushil replied.

"Thanks Dad, although I like to believe that things will get better, I just keep thinking that it will only get worse.

I mean first of all the death threats, the s-sniper incident, my relationship with Andrea going to hell, My own accident and then Seong-min getting kidnapped...

Whoever's in charge of writing my life story, chose to give me a one full of tragedy and mystery, instead of a boring romantic story which I d-definitely would've preferred for myself." Nikolai said.

"Talk to me about romance! your mom decided to abandon any support she had to Andrea." Rushil Said chuckling.

Confused, "What do you mean?" Nikolai asked, "Oh is it about what happened that at the apartment complex? I heard some girls talking about it, they found it real funny when your mom literally kicked Andrea away." Minnie spoke up.

"Kicked him? kicked him where?" Nikolai asked, "Madame told Andrea to go back to Italy, she also held him responsible for your accident.

Oh! and she said that Andrea saving your life during the sniper accident, was probably the only thing stopping her from punishing him for what happened to you recently." Minnie explained sniggering.

"Oh wow! mom either went overboard, or Andrea must have done serious shit to make her s-say something like that!" Nikolai pointed out.

"It must be his ignorance, I heard that he wasn't even aware of what happened to you, I mean the whole blindness thing." Minnie said.

"Radka was furious that Andrea acted as if nothing happened, so when she started to ignore him, he lashed out and she came at him." Rushil replied.

"I heard she called him useless! serves his ass right... just because the Madame favored him at first, and that he was your best friend and was in love with you, Andrea thought he could get away with everything.

but I hold him responsible too for your accident, if Andrea didn't act dramatically, you wouldn't have been in this situation." Minnie said.

"I share an opinion with her, Andrea was my favorite when it came to the guys around you, but the stunt he pulled when you went to visit him... that's suspicious, and worth getting angry over." Rushil said.

"I still want to t-talk to Andrea to better explain the situation for him, because the truth is that when I went to visit him, I said that I wasn't serious about dating Jin.

I said it was all for show, but he said he doesn't believe me and he was right to do so.

It's hard for anyone to accept the fact that the person they loved for so many years, su-suddenly started dating without telling them...Andrea must've felt betrayal." Nikolai said with a hint of guilt in his voice.

"How can you let someone you're not dating control your love life?! You are free to date whoever you want." Rushil replied.

"I still want to talk to him." Nikolai said.