A month has passed, it was now summer. The flowers starts growing, and many other plants do the same as well. As well as it is, the hot sun continued to burn every single thing on this planet Earth. And the warm breeze was not too hot but it felt right and warm. Kwon Taekjoo, who had just woke up from his slumber. His room was quite a mess, he spent his entire night researching on the mystery of the Dobrovolskaya Mansion. It had said that the family was partly called the "Mansion of Sacrifice" either "Family of Sacrifice". Oh behold that the family was quite deadly, secrets crawling upon them.
News spreads across the Internet, saying that the family had also been murdered, but there were only few of the survivors which are the children of the family. Who's names are Anfisa Vasiliev Konstantinovsky Dobrovolskaya, Alexandrei Konstantinov Tikhonov Dobrovolskaya and Artem Yermolayev Krasnopolsky Dobrovolskaya. These three children are around the ages of 8-19. "Anfisa, age 9, survived the explosion but had severe burns and injuries. Alexandrei, age 15, survived the explosion but had half of his face burnt off by the explosive. Artem, age 19, survived the explosion but had receive multiple burns, injuries and one fractured leg."
Beyond these 3 children, they were the luckiest to survive. But their whole other family had been dead by the fire and explosion. And it said that the intruders had not been found and who murdered the family. Despite the horrific trauma they endured, a fragile bond formed between the orphaned siblings, each grappling with their own scars, both visible and unseen. The world watched with a mixture of pity and admiration as these young survivors began the arduous journey of rebuilding their shattered lives.
That was enough news for that night, Taekjoo turns off his laptop to go to bed. It was quite late anyways. But the faces of the children from the article still lingered in his mind, a stark contrast to the peaceful morning awaiting him. Back to the sunny morning, Kwon Taekjoo walks towards his bathroom to brush his teeth and went to take a cool shower. The weight of the tragedy he had just read about seemed to cling to the air, even as the sunlight streamed through his window.
After that, he walked into his kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee to not be to that tired. What he couldn't also is breakfast, so that's what he made to clear his clouded mind. Hours passes by, it was the middle in the afternoon. Kwon Taekjoo's phone kept ringing, it was Zhenya. He kept on spam-texting him if he wanted to hangout together.
"This bastard..spam-texting me, seriously? You bastard, if you want to hangout then just call me instead of spamming. It's as if my phone were to explode soon enough!"
Taekjoo thought for a while, suddenly Zhenya called. Asking him if he wanted to go and hangout, just by hearing the Russian man on the other side of the phone with a playful voice, Taekjoo couldn't say no so he just agreed and got ready. They both meets up at Bagrovaya Ledi park, chit-chatting to eachother and spending minutes and hours just going everywhere in Moscow.
It seems like Taekjoo's day wasn't bad at all. They have been partners for almost 3 months now, just going on missions together and starting to be friends. But, Taekjoo still doesn't like Zhenya that much since he doesn't know a lot about him. He doesn't know how's his backstory, family background and personality like. Whilst Zhenya, it's not as what he seems to be like. A man with an angelic look with a pretty face, leads to the darkside of him. "A demon disguised as an angel/wolf behind sheep's clothing", that's right. This man, killing every inch of a person with such strong hands. It is truly a mystery on who Zhenya truly is.
The light in the sky had fell to the evening, Zhenya looks at Taekjoo who was still eating. His eyes just glaring at Kwon Taekjoo's baggy shirt which let him to able see his bare chest. Zhenya licked his lips and smirks as Taekjoo suddenly looked at him.
[What are you doing?]
[Ahh...nothing..]
[Nothing? Then, why were you looking at me?]
Kwon Taekjoo madly asked as Zhenya quickly looked away, he almost got caught by him. Taekjoo scoffed as he continued eating his food. But a seed of suspicion had been planted. Taekjoo's eyes narrowed slightly as he chewed, his gaze flicking back to Zhenya every now and then, trying to decipher the meaning behind that furtive glance. This wasn't the first time Zhenya's gaze had lingered, and Taekjoo was starting to piece together a pattern he didn't quite understand, a subtle undercurrent in their interactions.
At Kwon Taekjoo's rented house, he needs to find out who Zhenya truly is. But that isn't the time now. He needs to focus on missions and other important stuff that his boss told him about. These weren't routine assignments ; the weight of the nation, or perhaps something far more personal to his enigmatic superior, rested on their success. Each task was a tightly wound knot of secrecy and potential danger, demanding his full attention and unwavering precision.
Weeks pass, Taekjoo was on his own going on a mission which is finding out the mysteries that hide behind the Dobrovolskaya children. Following a hunch, Taekjoo tracked down the lead investigator from the original case, a man now living a quite life in a remote town. The investigator was initially dismissive, insisting the fire was accidental. But as Taekjoo presented him with inconsistencies he had unearthed - a strange burn pattern on a recovered artifact - a flicker of doubt crossed the young man's face. He reluctantly admitted there were things that didn't quite add up, whispers he had dismissed at the time, whispers that now seemed to point directly at the miraculous survival of Anfisa, Alexandrei, and Artem.
"If those 3 children survived, they should've been in the hospital recovering..as for the family..I still find no information about them. Who really is the Dobrovolskaya family? And..why are they called the family of sacrifice? Is it because they find the sacrifices of their loved ones who betrayed them? Not to think about it, now that the children are now orphans..it seems that the oldest child is now taking care of his 2 younger siblings.."
"Haa..even so...I still need to find out about these dark mysteries of them..but, if their family is now entirely dead...it's been years since my father and hyung passed away in war. And yet, it's painful to see the children suffer badly. I'm at fault for causing their family to entirely die and the children injured..I'll try to be careful with myself next time. Right now, I need time to keep focusing on the mission, I need to get to Saint Petersburg by Thursday."
Kwon Taekjoo thought mindlessly as he packed his stuff in his suitcase before heading to the train at the east of Moscow. A while later, he gets to the train station and ordered a ticket. He'd wait for the train to arrive. Minutes go by, Taekjoo enters the train and gets into his personal room. But on the other side of the train, Zhenya had tracked down Taekjoo on where he's going. Yes, he installed a gps tracker in Taekjoo's phone when he wasn't around. It was that easy, that brunette man hadn't have a passcode on his phone so it was that easy to turn it on. Kwon Taekjoo doesn't know though, Zhenya ran and ran until he reached into the train right before it could even close.
That's when Taekjoo went to use the bathroom when Zhenya went inside his(Taekjoo's) room. Taekjoo came out of the shower when he finally spotted Zhenya. He asked him what he was doing here, Zhenya then looks at him and also looked at his body. A tanned skinned man with a big chest, thin waist. What a perfect body, Zhenya thought. His gaze fixed on Kwon Taekjoo again.
"Zhenya, how the fuck did you even get here? Did you track me or what?"
"Oh, no! It so happened that I didn't knew you were also on this train. What a coincidence to see you here! This is also your room right? Well..the staff on the train said there weren't any room left so they gave me a card to this room."
Zhenya said with a smirk, Taekjoo just glared at him in disgust and went towards his bed. He took his clothes out and wore them on, he then again, caught Zhenya looking at him. But not his face but his chest. Zhenya licked his lips and smirked as he just looked. What a weird bastard, who looks at people changing. Taekjoo just decided to ignore it.
"Zhenya! Can you stop staring at me with those eyes?"
"What eyes? Am I your type, that's why I'm looking at you huh?"
"What! No!..I'm only into women, man!'
Taekjoo refused, with a slight blush on the side of his cheek. Zhenya just kept looking at him then asked what his type was. "A blonde woman with size cup D and a small waist", that's what Taekjoo said. This man was clearly straight, right...? As Zhenya heard, he giggled softly as he shook his head. He went towards his leather bag and took out a bottle of liquor. It looked like Vodka, that's what many Russians use to drink.
"Seriously? You brought that with you?"
Kwon Taekjoo said as Zhenya glanced at him as he put the bottle on the table infront of them. He nodded, then again, Zhenya goes through his bag to pull out two glasses. Literally, what in the world is this man even bringing to the train. Kwon Taekjoo looked at the blonde Russian man who was still in front of him with a disturbed look. Kwon Taekjoo sighed as he pinched and rubbed his fingers against his forehead, thinking overly, Zhenya just bringing the most random items he could possibly put in his bag.
Zhenya finally looked up, a faint, almost mischievous smile playing on his lips as he gestured towards the bottle and the glasses. "For the journey," he said, his voice carrying a hint of amusement. "One must have proper...sustenance." His eyes flickered towards Taekjoo, as if expecting him to understand some unspoken context. Taekjoo, however, was still at loss, his disturbed look just mirroring his internal state perfectly.
"Sustenance for what exactly?"
Taekjoo finally asked, his voice laced with a healthy dose of skepticism. he watched Zhenya carefully, trying to read this man's expression, but his features remained an instructable mask. Zhenya simply shrugged, a playful glint in his eyes. "The road ahead can be...taxing. One must be prepared for unexpected thirsts." He picked up the bottle, his movements deliberate, but offered no further explanation, leaving Taekjoo to stew in his confusion.
For a very long night, both Zhenya and Taekjoo just endured drinking Vodka, talking, laughing and even hanging out together. Not long after, Zhenya had already fell asleep after taking 10 shots. Whilst Taekjoo, who was still drunk, was talking to himself. Is this how he acts when he's drunk or is it that he's talking to a ghost. Either than that, he got very tired that he fell asleep straight on the table.
Days passed, it was now Thursday. Kwon Taekjoo needed to go to Saint Petersbug for the mission that his boss gave him. But he couldn't leave Zhenya behind so Taekjoo decided to bring him along to help him out with the mission. Despite Zhenya's unexpected presence by his side, a knot of unease remained in Taekjoo's gut. He still couldn't quite decipher the other man's motives or his true capabilities. Bringing him along was a gamble, a deviation from his usual solitary approach, and Taekjoo couldn't shake the feeling that was walking into the unknown with a blindfold on.
Stepping onto the platform, Taekjoo made a silent vow to remain vigilant. He would rely on his own instincts and training, and keep a close eye on Zhenya. Trust would have to be earned, and in their line of work, mistakes could be fatal. The mission in Saint Petersbug had begun, and the air was thick with unspoken questions and potential threats.