303 Going home

Kairen won the argument.

“I’ll drag you to a hospital if you don’t get better by night.”

“Yes, brother.”

“Fasten your seatbelt.”

“Yes, mom!”

“Shut up!”

“Shut it!”

“...Yes!”

Kairen did as he was told, leaned back on his seat, fastened the seatbelt, closed his mouth, and stared out of the window. They had somehow agreed on a few things. First, Aaron would stay at Kairen’s place for the time being. Second, Reyan would also be there to watch him? Kairen didn’t know what was going on but he just accepted the condition. The third was something about Kairen resting and his heath which he didn’t pay much attention to.

.....

And the last condition was about Claire. She was still being held in the prison. Saying that the girl had been working under him the whole time, Aaron requested for her to be released. The commander wasn’t willing to do so, especially since she had the power to create portals and move around freely, but he agreed on letting her go after applying some rules and restricting her power by some devices.

“Weren’t we going home?”

Aaron asked, confused when the car suddenly stopped beside a kindergarten. He looked at the flood of kids running out of a building with his eyes wide open. Claire, sitting in the front seat, stared at the kids with shining eyes. She was tagging along for some reason. Declaring that she didn’t have any place to stay at night at that she couldn’t go to her mom’s house as she was banned from leaving the capital, she also jumped inside Reyan’s car.

“We have to first pick up a kid from here.”

Kairen nonchalantly commented before stepping out of the car. He walked towards the entrance of the building and knelt down to hug a kid that was running toward him.

“....”

Aaron was staring at them from the window.

Kairen then got up and grabbed the kid’s hand, walking towards the car.

“....”

Aaron was still staring at them from the window.

The two of them hopped into the car, both of them sitting on the back seat beside Aaron.

“....”

Aaron was silently staring at them from the side.

“I’m hungry!”

“Yes, me too.”

“Can we buy pizza? Please? Please!?”

“No, Mrs. Neal has probably cooked us food.”

“Hmph!”

Ariyan and Kairen were casually conversing when they heard a coarse voice.

“...A kid...”

Kairen turned his head to his brother.

“...You have a kid!”

Aaron looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

“...What-”

“You got... married...”

“....”

The other three people in the car were only silently listening to him.

“And you didn’t even tell me that...”

“....”

“He is... He goes to kindergarten...”

Aaron was examining the innocent face of the kid sitting on Kairen’s lap. The man’s eyes were getting red for some reason and his face was even paler than when he was fighting the holy saint.

“When did you have a kid for him to be this age now-”

“Ron!”

Kairen cut off his brother’s words.

“He is not my kid what the fuck!”

He was speechless. No, he was talking... but he wanted to be speechless? Anyway. He was bewildered.

“How in the world would I have a child this age?”

Kairen then held Ariyan up.

“Does this thing even look like me?”

“....”

Aaron narrowed his eyes and examined Kairen and Ariyan’s faces, before muttering.

“...Indeed. He is too cute to be your son...”

“....”

That... That hurt real hard... But Kairen didn’t dare protest. He comforted his hurt feelings and swallowed a sigh.

“I see...”

Aaron nodded his head and heaved a sigh of relief.

“What? What’s the problem of me having a child anyway?”

“....”

His brother looked at Kairen as if he had asked the dumbest question in the world.

“It’s dangerous.”

“....”

“For the kid.”

“....”

“Also...”

Aaron frowned slightly. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before weakly mumbling.

“...I should be there at your wedding...”

“....”

“Like... The groomsman... I should be there you know... Ahem!”

“....”

“....”

Aaron frowned even more.

“You are not allowed to get married when I’m not around!”

“....”

“....”

This time, Kairen was speechless for real.

‘What-‘

Groomsman? Well, he would be the groomsman if Kairen- no wait! What the hell? Who was getting married?

“Uh? But I’m not uncle’s son...”

Ariyan looked at Aaron with a confused face. He turned his head to look at Kairen, then Aaron again, and finally raised his finger to point at Aaron.

“Uncle, who is that?”

Kairen put the kid between himself and Aaron.

“Who is this little kid anyway?”

.....

“I’m not a little kid!”

“Oho!”

Aaron gasped. The car started to move again at that moment. Kairen could see the ‘I’m fed up with all this bullshit.’ expression of Reyan reflected in the car’s mirror. He ignored his friend and answered Aaron instead.

“He is Kain’s son.”

“Who is Kain?”

“My brother-”

Kairen hurriedly closed his mouth.

“....”

“....”

“That bastard?”

“Hey!”

Kairen covered Ariyan’s ears.

“Don’t talk about him like that in front of his kid!”

“What? Am I wrong?”

“Yes, you are wrong!”

“Hmph!”

Aaron crossed his arms. Not understanding what was going on, the little kid was just looking at the two people on each side of him with his eyes wide open.

“Right! You could get married. That bastard could be your groomsman!”

“....What?”

“WHAT TO YOUR BROWDER!”

“....”

Kairen released Ariyan’s ears and his hands slid down powerlessly.

“Are you really...”

Kairen was scared of completing his words.

“Are you really jealous of Kain?”

But he did.

“WHAT?”

Aaron, who was staring out of the window, gasped before snapping his head towards Kairen.

“He is!”

Reyan commented nonchalantly from the driver’s seat. Next to her, Claire nodded her head.

“He is.”

The two of them avoided any kind of eye contact with Aaron after their comments, not even looking at the car’s mirrors.

“These brats! Look at them blabbering bullshit!”

If it was possible, Aaron would shoot out lasers from his eyes and spit out fire from his mouth. He barely stopped himself from grabbing the little fool’s collar and just glared at him.

“Will you die if you don’t talk bullshit for one day?”

Kairen shivered under the gaze and lowered his head.

“But he was right.”

“He was right though.”

The two people sitting in the front seat commented again.

“HAAAAAAA!”

But Aaron’s sigh, the sigh that resulted from a huge amount of repressed anger, made even the two of them shut up.

“Haaaaaa!”

“....”

“....”

“....”

Silence descended in the car as everyone closed their mouths out of fear.

Pull Pull

Well, except for one person.

“Uncle?”

Ariyan pulled Kairen’s shirt and tilted his head, whispering to Kairen’s ear.

“Who is that scary man?

“Who in the hell is a scary man?????”

Of course, his voice was loud enough for the said scary man to hear.

“Uh... He is not a s-scary man, Ariyan! He is my brother!”

“....”

Ariyan looked at Kairen and then at the angry older brother. Even the little kid couldn’t deny the resemblance they had.

“But... Wasn’t uncle’s brother papa?”

Still, he couldn’t understand things properly.

“Tsk!”

“...Yeah, but he is my brother too.”

“...Uncle’s brother too...”

Ariyan mumbled.

“Then papa’s brother too...”

He nodded his head to his own words.

“Wha-”

“Then, another uncle?”

The little kid cutely tilted his head.

“....”

Kairen looked at the kid and opened his mouth to say that he was wrong but...

Blink Blink

But...

Blink Blink

The kid was staring at him with his large eyes wide open, blinking them again and again.

“Y-yea, Ariyan. Another uncle for you...”

But he couldn’t.

“Hey! Wait a moment! What the hell are you-”

“NOOOO!”

Before Aaron could even finish his words, the little boy jumped up, threw himself on Kairen, pulled his clothes, and started to yell.

“I don’t want another uncle! Uncle is enough!”

“....”

Kairen slowly moved his eyes from Ariyan to his brother.

“I don’t want another uncle! Tell him to go! Tell him to gooo!”

“....”

“....”

“....”

No one said anything. No one dared to say anything. Even those who couldn’t see how Aaron had the face of someone who was ready to murder the little annoying creature in front of him, still didn’t say anything.

“A-Ariyan...”

Kairen hesitantly patted the kid.

“Nooooo!”

“Ariyan!”

If this kept going on, Ariyan wouldn’t be the only target of murder today.

“L-let’s talk about it later, huh?”

“Nooo!”

“U-uh A-Ariyan-”

“W-we’ve arrived!”

Reyan’s voice made Kairen stop his words and look up. The car had stopped moving and he could see a familiar building outside.

“Ooh we’re here!”

Immediately opening the car’s door, Kairen almost threw himself out of the car while also dragging Ariyan out.

“Come out brother, we’ve arrived!”

“....”

Aaron was still sending him deadly glares.

“C-come out b-brother...”

He took a step back.

“W-we’re home...”

He didn’t know how he was going to deal with these two from now on. They were going to live together in a house for at least a while. Were they going to argue like this all the time?

Kairen could only hope that things got better between them.