Chapter 132 - Time Is A Confusing Thing : Part 1

"You're Aster." The dirty blond-haired human stated the most obvious thing as he stood before his demon counterpart.

The said demon was wearing a navy cloak that looked brand new. A blindfold in the palm of his hand as his red eyes stared right into the green ones.

"Yes, we are Aster." The demon retorted the statement, trying to snap his counterpart out of his fear-like daze. He then moved his bare hand and made a circling movement toward the door behind human Aster.

The door quickly closed itself just as demon Aster's hand moved. But the door did not seem like closing. It was more like reverse-opening in some way that it got closed.

Human Aster looked back toward the door behind him with a terrified gaze and quickly diverted his green eyes back to his counterpart again.

Demon Aster sighed and tried to approach his frozen counterpart. "Listen, we-"

"You're the blindfolded man." Human Aster flinched when the demon tried to touch his shoulder.

"Just-" Demon Aster inhaled sharply before giving his human counterpart a piercing gaze. "Look. I need you to listen to me."

"I- we- you. You are a bad guy. You are a villain." Human Aster's back bumped onto the door as he started to suffocate on his own breath.

Demon Aster's pointed ears twitched in a mix of irritation and hurry. "I don't have the time to explain about that."

"You need to do what I tell you." He continued, sternly looking at him as if he was begging. As if he was running out of time.

Human Aster's hyperventilation suddenly stopped when he heard the demon's request. The boy who was going through shock and denial earlier quickly turned into anger as he grinded his teeth.

"No."

Then the realization hit him again as quickly as the anger came. If his counterpart was the blindfolded man then-

Tears started to form on the edge of his forest eyes as he trembled. "N-no. I can't be a villain. You can't be a villain. You can't be the one who killed Axel-"

"I didn't kill him. No one did. It's a thing that must be done." The demon quickly gripped both human Aster's wrists and jerked the boy toward him, trying to make him understand.

Aster's green eyes widened at the sudden movement as he tried to wriggle out of the grip. "What do you mean?"

"Blame the time instead of the people, Aster. It'll be easier that way!" The demon yelled as if he was desperate. Or maybe he was.

"Always blame the time because it's unfair. It's unfair." He gritted his teeth as his shoulders shook a little.

"What?" The human, on the other hand, tried to face the unexplainable situation he was in. He could not run away this time. He could not deny. He could not do anything.

"We don't have much time. I don't have time to explain more." Demon Aster's words almost sounded like a beg.

The human's tears started to fall down. He did not know if it was shock, fear, sadness, or it was just exhaustion for facing too much bullshit. Nobody was making any sense. Nothing made sense. Axel was the mute murderer. Axel was dead. The boy was dead, and his counterpart killed him.

"What do you mean? What-"

"Time is a fragile thing." His counterpart's face was closer to him now. He stared at him with something in his eyes. Something that only human Aster himself understood. He often saw that look when he looked at the mirror.

"Sometimes, time is confusing too. Like right now." The demon's eyes were too familiar, and Aster wished that the demon would just stop wearing that desperate and pathetic look.

"You want to help your Axel, right?" He continued as the look got deeper, got even more frantic.

Demon Aster did not need to get an actual spoken word to know his counterpart's answer. Because he knew that the human would help Axel either way.

The wind from the opened window brushed into the two identical creatures, blasting through their dirty blond hair as they stared at each other with the same desperate look.

"Then do as I say."

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Valerian drove away from the police station while trying to hold down his irritation toward the mercenary. He did not understand nor get any information regarding the disappearance of the mute murderer's body.

This man always did as he wished. From blowing a building to the whole city, Kiaran always did everything and treated it like a play.

Valerian had always tried to catch the mercenary. But when he finally did, then what?

Those questions often occurred, but he always brushed them off. He was too focused on catching him and thought that it would be done just like that when he finished doing his job.

But then, he did catch him.

Not technically 'catching' when the mercenary lost his brother and completely surrounded himself to the city. But it was still a win for Valerian's part anyway.

Then the death sentence came, and Valerian had this uneasy feeling eating him alive.

'The mercenary deserved it.' He thought.

'He should pay for his crimes.' He added.

But then there he was, after bailing out the said mercenary himself and completely betraying the whole country, he also helped him on finding out who had stolen the mute murderer's body.

Now his sworn enemy was sitting beside him while busy fiddling with his clothes. He seemed to be irritated from the lack of fashion on his body.

Wasn't he being too laid back despite having a death sentence following his trail?

Wait. Was the mercenary being like this because he thought he would protect him?

He probably accidentally opened the door for Kiaran while saying, 'You may do world burn part three, sir.'

Valerian's lips twitched in disbelief as he stared hollowly at the road. Ah, did Kiaran's madness rub off on him after playing cat and mouse for years?

"Spill it." Kiaran suddenly spoke without giving Valerian a glance.

"Huh?" The blond quizzically tried to see the black-haired teen's face while focusing on the road.

"Those thoughts about me. Just ask." Kiaran quickly stared at him with obvious boredom and sighed as if his question was obvious.

Valerian blinked in surprise. "Wait, can you read mind?"

He rolled his eyes and answered, "I'm a human, not a demon. Of course I can't."

"You were thinking too loud that it annoys me." He continued as they stopped in red light.

'This pretentious fucker. How in the world does a person think too loud? Is he that of a genius to even tell what other people's thinking?' Valerian grumbled in his mind and waited for the light to turn green.

"You were just cursing me, weren't you?" Kiaran side-eyed the blond with a raising eyebrow.

Valerian coughed. "No."

When the light finally turned green, Valerian quickly stepped on the gas pedal and continued driving. He stole a few glances at the criminal before finally trying to ask a question.

He knew it was going to be a mind game if he asked about the interview earlier, making Valerian try to guess all the riddles Kiaran would give to him. So he decided to ask another thing instead.

"About the world burn," Valerian could see the slight flinch from Kiaran at the mention of it. "Were you really going to burn the world and end it?"

"As if." He huffed and let out a snort. "If I could do that, I would've done it long ago."

Valerian frowned and quickly focused on the road when another red light appeared within his vision. "Then- your speech about burning the world-"

"It's called hyperbole, police boy." Kiaran cut him off before the blond could utter more nonsense to him.

"I was just going to destroy the city." He nudged Valerian when the red light turned green.

"Why?"

Kiaran shrugged. "Cuz I'm bored."

"Wha-" Valerian sputtered and wrinkled his eyebrows in disbelief. "You want to destroy the world because you were bored?!"

The car slightly went out of the way before the blond quickly adjusted his driving again.

"Yep." He popped out the 'p' as he lazily answered.

"I'm just bored of waiting, that's all." Kiaran continued and looked toward the car window. Somehow, there was a hint of sadness within his words.

Valerian stopped the car. "Waiting for what?"

Kiaran was still looking outside for a while, leaving the question hanging in the air within the empty street of the city.

Then slowly, he turned his head toward the blond, staring right into the two forest eyes.

"For everything."

Valerian was always occupied with Kiaran's teasing and mocking eyes. Sometimes, it was full of madness. Sometimes, it was just full of playfulness.

The first time he saw a different thing in those blue eyes was when he held the mute murderer's dead body in his arms. The pathetic, grieving eyes glued inside Valerian's brain like a broken record.

This was the second time Valerian saw different feelings within those ocean eyes again.

It was just soft and sad in some way. It was something else.

It was exhaustion as if Kiaran had given up on the world—on his life.

The young lieutenant never thought that he would see those looks from the criminal. The more they stayed together, the more Valerian could see the play that Kiaran unwillingly got into. The play that Kiaran would call 'his life'.

Valerian unknowingly showed a new feeling within his forest eyes too to the sworn enemy. The usual irritation within his eyes was not there. It was a whole new different expression.

It was not pity, it was not sadness.

He showed the feeling of understanding.

Because, he, too, was tired of the life that controlled him despite the fact that he was the one who was living.

He was tired of waiting for everything to end too.