Chapter 189.2

Chapter 189.2

“That’s why I was thinking… maybe I should just turn myself in.”

“…What?”

Kia dropped his spoon. Seoryeong shrugged as if it were nothing.

Ever since Azerbaijan she’d been drifting from one of his hideouts to another, freeloading like a parasite. She was sick of herself now.

“It’s already been six months. I can’t keep living like I’m on the run.”

“…”

“I want to settle things properly and live a proper life.”

“Don’t do it. If you turn yourself in and get locked up in prison, I’ll blow that place up.”

“Don’t raise my blood pressure.” She warned him.

“Do you think I’m bluffing?”

He swept back his hair and exhaled heavily. Then, as if a dark thought had crossed his mind, anxiety flickered across his face. He stood up abruptly, slamming his hands on the table.

“What does it mean to ‘live properly’?”

“Sit still when you’re eating.”

“Why does living properly mean leaving me?”

“…”

“I’ve been holding back, not even laying a finger on you. Because back at the Winter Castle you had that face, like you wanted to die…! I’ve been furious for months. That bastard won’t quit, and Solzhenitsyn is even more unbearable!”

She couldn’t tell what had set him off this time. He was yelling to himself, words spilling out in a jumble that didn’t sound like they were only about her.

“I want to be one with you. But in this ‘proper life’ you keep talking about, am I even in it?”

He ground his teeth and loomed closer. Seoryeong, at a loss for words, twisted the rosary she’d worn since Azerbaijan between her fingers.

She hadn’t thought about it in a while, but the bracelet Rigay had left her had started to fade in color.

“Answer me! Am I in it or not?!”

The glass beads trembled in time with his shouting. His desperate voice stabbed at the edge of her heart.

She was grateful he’d taken her in when she had nowhere to go. It was true she’d used his affection to stay hidden all this time. But that didn’t mean she had to sit there and take his temper. Maybe in the silence he’d forgotten who actually had the worse one.

Seoryeong suddenly tipped over her bowl of soup.

“Don’t take your anger out on me.”

The lukewarm broth spilled over Kia’s hand.

“I’m not living with some punk who only knows how to yell.”

His shocked eyes trembled. He lowered his lips and began to plead.

“Sonya…”

When he dropped to his knees and tried to cling to her calves, she coldly avoided him, and just that alone made his eyes brim with tears. The sorrow in his gaze was unmistakable.

“It’s not venting… You don’t even remember Solzhenitsyn… So why now, why are you saying you want to turn yourself in, now…”

“Solzhenitsyn?”

She frowned, unable to hold back anymore. She couldn’t follow Kia’s rambling, but he’d mentioned that name repeatedly.

“If you need something to do, just help me!”

Stunned, she looked at Kia in disbelief. The blood vessels in the whites of his eyes were bulging red.

He seemed to be at a breaking point from stress. No way… he’s not saying I should do the same kind of work as him, is he…?

She had only just now managed to start running freely outside again. Seoryeong let out a hollow laugh and furrowed her brows.

“Sorry, but I can’t kill people anymore.”

“… Even the master of the Winter Castle?”

His gaze probed her. She tilted her head.

“The master of the Winter Castle?”

Her face hardened. She didn’t want to hear about the Winter Castle from anyone. It conjured up images of the bodies of her siblings who’d died on the frozen floor, something she tried not to recall.

Kia would occasionally bring up that topic, either to test her or observe her reaction.

“Did you know the people who lived in the Winter Castle were part of the Russian Prime Minister’s family back then? Those people were Solzhenitsyn.”

The Prime Minister… Russian Prime Minister… His words unlocked a memory. The gossip the Blast Squad once traded about an old Prime Minister and his wife. The moment it clicked, Seoryeong’s eyes widened.

“And Rigay, your father, blew them all up.”

Her mouth went dry. Right… that infamous explosion everyone whispered about. It had been their story all along. The realization pressed heavy against her chest, but she didn’t feel shaken.

Instead, she felt strangely calm; ready, at last, to face someone’s truth without fear.

But Kia stopped there, his lips still. His pitch-black eyes watched her, testing her. Backlit by the dim light, his face was impossible to read.

“They say the grandson who survived came back. That’s why everyone out there is losing their minds.”

Seoryeong froze. Kia reached out and brushed a hand over her lashes—his touch oddly sharp, almost childish in its spite.

“Pathetic, isn’t it? They say he can’t see.”