Despite him falling for Stepan, his instinct still told him to be wary of him. That was why when he first came to Stepan’s room back then, he left something in his room. He feigned innocence when he walked out of the bathroom door just now to see Stepan in his room with a smile on his face. “You woke up early this morning,” he said. Kirill smiled back at him. “I needed to pee,” he informed him and only then noticed that his voice was hoarse. He swallowed his saliva to try to regain his natural voice. Stepan immediately offered him a glass of water. He took it and drank the whole glass in one go. “Are you going anywhere today?” Kirill asked as he handed the glassback to Stepan. He then walked back to the bed and got under the covers naturally.

“I have something to do in the afternoon. What about you?” Stepan asked as he sat next to Kirill after he placed the glass on the bedside table. He fixed the covers on Kirill’s body and looked at him lovingly. Kirill looked back at him before pulling his hands to his mouth and kissed it. He then smirked at him. “I’m going to sleep all day here. Someone totally wore me out last night,” he teased.

Stepan laughed and leaned down to plant a kiss on Kirill’s forehead. “Then you have a good rest,” he said. “If you’re hungry, just press the bell at the door. My housekeeper will bring in your breakfast or lunch whatever.”

“Are you leaving already?” Kirill asked.

“Yeah. I have to go to the hospital,” Stepan said. “...to see Stanley.”

“Hey, be nice to him,” Kirill warned.

“I know. I was quite impulsive last night. It must’ve scared you. I’m sorry,” Stepan apologised.

To that, Kirill immediately understood something. ‘You’re only sorry that you’ve scared me but you’re not sorry that you almost killed someone.’ “It’s okay,” Kirill replied. “Hey, can I use your laptop later? I needed to finish an assignment,” he asked.

Stepan turned his head to look at his study table which was situated directly opposite of the bookcase. “Sure,” he said. “The laptop is there on the table. It is not password protected.”

“Okay. Thanks,” Kirill said with a smile and kissed Stepan’s hand again.

Stepan leaned down again but this time, he kissed Kirill softly on the lips for a while. “I’ll see you later,” he said as he broke the kiss. He then caressed one side of Kirill’s cheeks with the back of his hands. “I love you, Kirill,” he whispered.

Kirill smiled at him. “Get home early,” he said. ‘I love you too, Stepan. But I don’t trust you,’ he added in his mind.

When Stepan left the room, Kirill stared at the ceiling for a long time. All sorts of thoughts are floating around in his mind. All sorts of emotions were filling his heart. He took his time to get up. It was because he knew he was about to know some secret. He was afraid of knowing. But somehow, he only allowed himself to be conflicted for a moment before he finally got up from the bed, put some shorts Stepan had left for him on, and walked over to sit at Stepan's study table. It is for a fact that after observing Stepan for a while, he noticed a few things about him. One was that he never wrote with a pen and paper. And secondly, he never used his laptop. He always carried his iPad around. He took down notes and did his assignment on his iPad.

That was why when he first came into the room, he saw how quite dusty Stepan’s study table was. So back then, he decided to place a ballpen into the pen holder on Stepan’s study table. That was the very ballpen he used to place in his locker. The ballpen with a secret camera in it. The battery must have run out by now but it should have recorded for 24 hours after it was turned on. These 24 hours should start from the morning when he woke up in Stepan's room before the boys revealed to him about ‘Fed Fet-ish’.

He took that ballpen from the pen holder. Then, he took out a piece from the side of the pen. There was a memory card in it. He then placed the memory card on the memory card reader from Stepan's laptop before turning the laptop on. With his hands shaking, he moved the cursor to the folder and clicked on it. Sure enough, there was a recording located in the folder. He took a deep breath before he clicked on the recording and watched the video play. He skipped through a few timeframes before stopping at one where he saw Stepan standing in front of the bookcase. He was touching a few places on the shelves of the bookcase and to Kirill’s surprise, the bookcase moved and was able to be pulled to open like a door. He saw Stepan getting into the secret room behind the bookcase but Kirill could not see what was behind it because by then, the recording stopped. The battery from the ballpen had run out. Kirill’s heart was beating loudly in his chest. He knew he had to see what secret lies behind the bookcase.

So, he kept rewinding the video and memorised Stepan’s gesture in front of the bookcase. He then got up and walked to the bookcase behind him. Led by his memory, he looked at the first, second, and third shelves of the bookcase. He saw that there are five books with no titles. There is only one letter displayed on the book spine. On the top shelf, there's a book with a letter R and G. On the second shelf, there's a book with the letter A. And at the lowest shelf, it was a book with the letter D and O. When he thought back on Stepan’s gesture, he managed to form a word that made sense.

DRAGO.

This is the codename that Stepan was called to by his bodyguards when they searched for him in the woods. Nervously, Kirill pushed the book with the letter D-R-A-G-O in order. Some mechanical sounds could be heard before the bookcase moved and got loose. Kirill pulled on the bookcase to open the door to the secret room. The lights in the room flickered for a moment before turning on. He was greeted by a wall filled with pictures first. The pictures filled the front wall and the left wall. Meanwhile, the right side was actually a glass! The mirror in Stepan's room was in reality, a two-way mirror. It is similar to that of the mirror they had in a police’s interrogation room. He was surprised but he couldn't think of the reason why Stepan made his room that way. It was probably because he wanted the natural light in. Who knows.

What’s more concerning for Kirill right now was the pictures. He couldn't see the details of the pictures but as he walked closer, he realised that what he was seeing were crime scene pictures of random boys being tortured and killed. He wondered where Stepan had gotten these pictures from. But when he turned to his left side, he was flabbergasted by the next set of pictures he saw pasted on the wall. He gasped in horror and covered his mouth as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His legs got weak and he fell to the floor, still looking up at the wall filled with pictures of… himself! Yes. Of himself in random places and in random outfits. And most of them were taken in New Japan! At that moment, he realised that he had been stalked!

Beep…

Kirill then heard a sound. He turned around to look behind him and only then did he notice it. There was a video recorder recording in the room but it was facing the glass which directly recorded everything that was happening in Stepan’s room! This means that the video recorder would have recorded them having sex too!!! Kirill immediately took the video recorder and smashed it to the ground angrily. He took a few deep breaths before starting to put two and two together and found that the only logical explanation now is that Stepan is a motherfucking pervert! And a stalker! And he... Wait.. Did he..? Those boys on the wall.. Did he kill them?!

‘Shit’, he thought. ‘He and his friends… they are all animals!’

He had to leave. He had to run. He turned with the intention to leave the secret room but stopped before reaching the exit. He then slowly turned his head around because there was a strong connection that he could feel in his chest towards something in the room. He was drawn towards something. There was a box at the corner of the room. Kirill was drawn towards that box. With tears filling his eyes out of fear of what he was about to find out, he walked closer towards the box.

He then peeked to see what was inside it. Tears streamed down from his eyes as he saw and recognised that the things in the box belonged to Kliment. He reached his hand out into the box and took Kliment’s handphone with his shaky hands. He knew that it belonged to Kliment. He was the one who gave that phone case to him on his 13th birthday. Kliment refused to change the phone case. He liked it very much. The police never found any of Kliment’s belonging. Then, why is it that these things were here? Whatever it was that happened to Kliment that day… Stepan must have been involved in it. And this means that Kirill had been deceived all along!

'What have I done? What have I gotten myself into?' He thought to himself among his confusion.

It's too late to think about how he got here. But, it's never too late to think about how to get out.

֍֍֍

Next update: 2022/11/21

*Author’s Note: I'll answer before anyone asks. Yeah. Stepan had seen Kirill way before he met Kirill in Krasniy. He had been stalking him (by hiring people to follow and take pictures of him in New Japan) since a long time before Kliment disappeared too. Why? Let's wait to hear the reasons from Stepan himself teehee -K