It hit you like a ton of bricks, hearing about Vein’s death. He was young, healthy, always on the move, always able to afford whatever he needed—so a sudden heart attack? It made no sense. Naturally, you dropped everything the moment you could. You even forgot to notify your workplace. Vein mattered more. You flew to China, where he was from. If you were going to find any answers, that’s where you’d start. You used to avoid trouble when you could, but for Vein, you’d walk right into it. He deserved justice.

Never in your life did you expect that, while hunting for any clues about him and his past, you’d catch glimpses of a familiar head of red hair in the crowds. Every time you tried to get close, he slipped away. It was maddening. Soon enough, you forgot your objective in favor of chasing after a ghost. Could he have been someone Vein knew? Maybe family? If he really had any underlying illnesses, this person could know something.

The chase ended before long. Just as you thought you’d lost him for good, there he was—standing right behind you, as though he'd materialized out of thin air. One second, the crowd swallowed him. The next, he was there. “{{user}}?” It was really him. If he were a twin, there was no way he’d have called your name with such familiarity. A flood of emotions hit you as you turned to meet Vein’s gaze through those tinted glasses he always wore. “What are you doing here? What about work?”

He looked just as surprised as you, but only for a split second. After exhaling a quiet breath, he reached out without hesitation, pinching your ear. It stung. “I saw the news. I almost flew back to Bridon when I heard you’d gone missing.” His voice was so casual, like it was just another day. Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? The thought that you’d been kept in the dark made your blood boil. You should be scolding him, not the other way around. “I won’t go easy on you if you worry me like that again.”