"Piece of cake" was what Alberto said when his friends asked him to hack into the school's security system. It was of course easy for him since he had been exposed to hacking from young age. When they got access to the footage, they hired several people to look into it and report back to them if anything suspicious is found.

In the meantime, the four boys hang around in the living room of Stepan’s house while drinking wine. “Ah, I heard rumors that the Codrin’s family keeps wine that was mixed with blood and it supposedly tastes exquisite. I’d like to give it a try,” Alberto started to gossip.

“What are you? A vampire?” Andre joked.

Alberto only grins uncaringly to the joke. “Codrin’s family is pretty mysterious. You know the two step brothers are in charge of the whole family business, right? Hah! Two young kids inheriting that loads of money, what do you think will happen? Many people are eyeing to snatch them away, you know? But none was successful by far. Don’t you think it’s odd? It’s like they made a deal with the devil or something,” Alberto continued to gossip.

Andre’s eyes grow wide in surprise for a while as he recalls his visit to The Codrin’s mansion a few years back. “Oh! Have you been to their mansion? It looks haunted and only those two boys living in a huge mansion, right? How do they even survive? But the Klaus’ family mansion is even worst. You heard, right? The family’s mansion was burnt to the ground? And all the family members are dead in there. What’s scarier is that only the paintings in the mansion weren’t burnt by the fire. It’s like straight out of a horror fiction, no?” Andre chattered. He can’t forget the visit. It wasn’t really of the mansion or the rumors but it was mostly because Lucca Codrin, the heir to the family business, is one hell of a pretty face.

Stepan looks at the two gossip boys disapprovingly before he butts in. “What are you guys blabbering about? All mafia families are like that. If there’s no bloodshed, then there’s no power,” Stepan spoke nonchalantly.

“Have you shed any blood before?” Alberto suddenly shot a question towards Stepan.

This question causes everyone to pay attention to Stepan’s every movement. Even the quiet Stanley on the side also started to observe. Stepan halts in his pace while he was trying to take another sip of the wine, a cunning smile forms on his lips but he is not smiling to anyone in particular. He was smiling to himself as if to adhere to his own thoughts. He does not answer the question. With that smile still plastered on his face, he just calmly continues to sip the wine from his glass.

Alberto notices the awkwardness and quickly changes the subject. Stepan is not someone anyone can afford to provoke. “By the way, I’ve hacked into Kirill’s social media,” he informed as he flashes the screen of his phone to the other boys. That seems to spark Stepan’s interest and he turns to look at the screen seriously. “Look at these,” Alberto shows photos hidden to public in Kirill’s Facebook profile. “He doesn’t post much on IG and FB, but damn, he has secret folders like these in his FB. I guess he just doesn’t like to share about his private life,” Alberto commented.

There are various pictures of himself in New Japan. He looks good in all of them, even though some pictures seem to be taken by someone else of him waking up in bed with a messy bed hair. But mostly, the pictures in this hidden folder are of Kirill with a boy who appears to be his boyfriend. They are pictures on them in bed, naked. The lower parts were covered by the blanket. Kirill’s boyfriend’s body was covered in hickeys. Kirill was planting a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek.

Stepan feels uncomfortable looking at the photos. In his mind, of course he didn’t think of Kirill as being pure or any of that sort but to actually see what he did in front of his eyes, he begins to fume in anger. And that doesn’t make sense. Because by the time these photos were taken, of course they have not met yet. He doesn’t understand why he is angry. But he is sure that he really dislikes seeing the pictures. He wanted to take Alberto’s phone and smash it to the wall. He wanted to find that boy and burn him alive. For the violent thoughts he has in his head, he resorts to being quiet to think carefully about the reason why he is affected by all this.

But Andre’s comment on the pictures didn’t help Stepan to relax. “Holy mother, look at that sixpack!” Andre commented as he watches with his eyes wide open. “He has tattoos! Motherfucker, he looks bad-ass!” Andre spoke again. He then turns to look at Stepan pitifully. “It appears that he really doesn’t do bottom, Stepan,” Andre whispered, adding fuel to the fire.

Stepan appears to look at the pictures calmly without any reaction. None knew of the violent thoughts in his mind. He then slightly licks his lips and articulates his words carefully; “he will do bottom for me.” The way he said it sounds like he was stating a fact. It is something that is not to be denied. This is the first time that Stepan feels like his friends are provoking him on purpose despite of him knowing that they didn’t have such intentions. Nonetheless, he is still provoked. He is angry to the point he can kill someone with his bare hands but he doesn’t understand why he is angry.

Or maybe he knew it from the start.

But he just doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

It was indeed jealousy.

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Next update: 2022/03/14

*Author’s Note: Sorry. I just have to put the Codrin (From my other story; Papa) and Klaus (From my other story; Dark Beauty) in the gossip. Lol. What do they call it? The same universe? Hmm. Something like that. -K