383: Brother

Brother

[FLASHBACK]2

In a cafe, two figures sat across from each other on the table outside the establishment.

"That's your dream life?" Tiger leaned his arms against the small round table, staring at the woman across from him.

"Mhm." Hera hummed slightly while reading a newspaper leisurely. "You think it's dumb?"

"It's pathetic."

Hera glanced over at the newspaper, only to see the dismay plastered on the man's face. "Is it?"

"How can you not know that?" he clicked his tongue, looking at her as if she just said something so disappointing. "You have the world at your feet. That kind of life is like a... downgrade."

"Don't you think choosing you over Bear is a downgrade as well?"

"Oy." 

"You seemed to like that word a lot, Tiger." A chuckle came right after her remarks, shaking her head. "I'm not judging you for being a jerk, so you shouldn't judge me for wanting to have a family of my own."

"Tsk tsk tsk." Tiger shook his head while letting out a series of tongue clicking. "Do you think there's a person who deserves you?"

"Huh?"

"I'm not ruling out the possibility that you might get desperate enough and pick someone to marry. Who knows? You might get desperate enough to marry that damn clown?"

"Now I feel insulted."

"My point is, I won't let you." The dismay plastered on Tiger's face was slowly replaced with solemness, moving closer to the table. "You have to kill me first because no matter what, I won't let you."

"You won't let me marry?"

"Yeah, I won't."

"What makes you think I need your permission?"

"That's why you must kill me because that's my decision. It doesn't matter if you need my permission or blessing, but I won't let you."

Hera assessed the man across from her with an arched brow. "Why? Because you think no one deserves me?"

"Because I don't think anyone is capable of loving you genuinely."

"That's strange." The corner of her mouth curved down before her brows rose with his next remarks. 

"Someone who isn't a part of this vicious world will not understand, Hera." Tiger ran his tongue across his inner cheek briefly. "And for sure, someone from this world will not have pure intentions. Men are fragile things, egos — most, not me. That's why I won't let you, even if it means I have to die in your hands. If there is someone who will end me, that should be you because you're the person who picked me up and freed me from my prison called life."

A moment of silence befell the two, staring at each other squarely. His eyes swirled with solemness as if all the things he said were nothing but a promise. Something he was already prepared to do even before any situation like that could arise. 

"I'd rather die before I see you get ruined by such a stupid ambition," he continued after a moment. "The person I pledged my loyalty to wasn't that sort of person who talks about such silly things."

"I am insulted," she remarked, but the corner of her lips curled up. "But sure. I'll kill you next time."

A glint flickered across her squinting eyes, enough to make one wonder if she was messing with him or being serious. However, Tiger knew she meant what she had said. Not now, though. But in the future, if the situation calls for it, she would. 

"Tiger, the person you pledged your loyalty isn't as amazing as you perceived her to be." Hera slowly set her eyes on the newspaper in her hand, reading an article about the massacre in the biggest cartel in this particular country. "I think you have the wrong perspective of me. This is why I like Bear as my company better, because he isn't a hypocrite who thinks what we do is sort of heroic."

She snapped her eyes over the newspaper once again, looking straight at the person across from her. "Though I don't kill people for fun doesn't mean I am not capable of doing that. Still, the fact that I have dead people piling up under my belt remains. I am no hypocrite, you better start rewiring that brain of yours before I do it for you. Pro Bono."

"I'm not a hypocrite, but what you said is exactly my point." Tiger clicked his tongue irritably. "But well, I guess I can't expect you to understand everything. You can be dumb sometimes. Also, fuck Bernard. I hope he dies wherever he is."

BOOM!

As soon as those words rolled out of Tiger's mouth, a faint explosion reached their vantage point. People around the area jumped, startled. Some stopped in their tracks, turning their heads to where the explosion came from out of curiosity. Yet, Hera and Tiger didn't look away from each other, even though a floor in the building just right across the street exploded and was now on fire. 

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last sentence," she said, setting her attention back on the newspaper. "Kill people, but don't wish for your family to die. They're still family, after all."

Tiger rolled his eyes. "Family my ass! Look who's the hypocrite now."

"Tiger," Hera called leisurely, unbothered by the sound of the sirens howling in the air as more and more police came into the area. She reached for the cup of coffee, eyes still on the newspaper while Tiger watched everything unfold in his surrounding. 

"We are the bad guys," she continued after taking a sip, putting the cup down on the table between them. "Redemption is already beyond our reach and the only thing we actually deserve is retribution."

Hera slowly folded the newspaper as she set her eyes on him. "That ambition of mine will always be a dream — a farfetched dream that I will never try to get, no matter how powerful I become. After all, the only place I want to be right now is the peak where no one else can touch me or my family ever again."

"However, if life played tricks on me once again and I somehow fall for someone who will turn out to be the Karma in disguise… don't save me," she added, stressing each word, eyes still on him. "I… never needed saving, brother. My decisions are mine to make, and yours will be yours. If dying in my hands is what you want, then I will do so. But I hope you'll not make me do that."

Her eyes softened slightly as a subtle smile turned up on her face. "Because at the end of the day, you'll always be a brother to me, and killing you also meant killing a part of my nonexistent heart."

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