Chapter 25
Rei Kurosaki
I sat on the edge of Dimitri’s bed, knees pulled up to my chest, staring at my phone. The screen was lit up with notifications I had been ignoring for days. Missed calls from Kento. Several of them. Texts too.
I did not open any of them.
My thumb hovered over the screen, then dropped back to my knee. My heart was beating too fast, the same way it always did when Kento decided to remember I existed. He was my older brother, but he had never felt like one.
Kento was ruthless.
He killed without blinking if it suited him. I knew that. Everyone in our world knew that. But he had never hurt me. Not physically. Still, there was this power he had over me. Like if he told me to jump, some broken part of me would ask how high before my brain caught up.
I did not know how to explain it. Not even to myself.
I was scared to open the messages. Scared of what they would say. Scared of what they would not say. Kento always found out everything he wanted to know.
Always.
Even when Alexei had smashed every phone in that hallway and made sure nothing about the locker incident got posted online, I knew Kento had heard about it anyway. He had eyes everywhere.
And he knew about Dimitri too. I was sure of it. Dimitri had been around me constantly lately. I could already imagine the disapproval in his eyes.
My phone started ringing. It was Marco.
I answered fast, grateful for the distraction.
“Hey,” I said, trying to sound normal. “You feeling any better?”
There was a short pause on the other end. Then Marco’s voice came through, a little rough. “Yeah… yeah, the cold’s mostly gone. Still kinda tired but I’m okay.” He sounded off though. Not his usual easy tone. “How are you? I… I heard what happened at school.”
I sat up straighter. “How do you know? There isn’t any video, right? Alexei made sure—”
“No, no video,” Marco said quickly. “Mia told me.”
Mia was another scholarship student. She had also been filming that day, and she liked running her mouth.
I was not surprised she told him. They were not even friends, but she probably yapped about it to anyone she talked to now.
“She kept saying there was blood everywhere and fingers and—” He stopped himself.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up like that. Are you okay?”
I forced a laugh, even though nothing about this felt funny. “I’m fine. It was just a really bad prank.”
He did not sound convinced. “A prank? Mia said you were on the floor hyperventilating. She said you looked like you were having a panic attack. And the blood— she said it was real. And the fingers…” His voice dropped. “Who the hell would do something like that to you?”
I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t know. Some psycho with too much time on their hands. It’s over now. I’m fine. Really.”
There was silence on the line for a moment. I could hear him breathing. “You don’t sound fine.”
I closed my eyes. Marco had always been too good at reading me. Even through a phone.
“I’m… getting there,” I admitted. “It shook me up. But I’m dealing with it. Dimitri’s been helping. A lot.”
Marco’s voice shifted, trying to sound lighter. “Speaking of Dimitri. How are things with him?”
I felt my face heat up even though no one was there to see it. A small, helpless smile tugged at my mouth.
“Dimitri’s… good,” I said, and I could hear the softness in my own voice. “He’s been really sweet, actually. I mean, he’s still scary as hell when he wants to be, but with me he’s different. I know that sounds like a cliché.”
Marco made a small noise that sounded suspiciously like a smile. “You sound happy when you talk about him.”
“I am,” I said quietly. “It’s weird. I didn’t expect to feel safe with someone like him. But I do. It’s confusing.”
“I’m glad, Rei. Really. You deserve someone who makes you feel like that. Just… be careful, okay? With everything that’s going on. I don’t want you getting hurt more than you already have been.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m being careful. I promise.”
We talked for a while longer about nothing important. Marco told me about some new game he was playing. I told him about the terrible Russian movie Dimitri had made me watch the night before.