Ren is looking at the dead body in front of him. Then he approaches me. He gives his hand and I look at him with disbelief. He raises his eyebrow and pulls me up.
"Let's go."
Ren looks at the brown-haired guy. The brown-haired guy looks down. Ren sighs.
"You saw nothing."
The brown-haired guy nodded with understanding and then left hurriedly.
Ren walks past me and turns around.
"Come on. What are you waiting for?"
I'm still looking at the thug that is covered with his own blood. Ren's bodyguards are pulling and flipping the body like a dead fish. I turn around and look at Ren. He shot a guy and he didn't feel guilty about it. At this moment, I'm thinking if I make the right decision.
I walk beside Ren and then get inside his car. We are sitting in the backseat and Ren is looking at his phone the entire time. Then he looks at me from the corner of his eyes.
"Are you alright? You look so pale."
I shake my head and look outside the window.
"Of course not. Someone died in front of me with a bullet in his head."
Ren sighs.
"If you want to take revenge for your parent's death, you will be seeing a lot of bodies from now on. I'm not saying that you have to kill anyone. All you have to do is to get used to this kind of stuff."
I look at Ren.
"Have you killed a person before?"
Ren is glaring at me from the corner of his eyes.
"I did. As the next leader of the Hasegawa clan, I had to dirty my own hands. If not, the Hasegawa clan will lose its power."
I clear my throat.
"Kuro and Aiko as well?"
Ren shakes his head.
"No, I will not allow them to dirty their hands. If necessary, Kuro can dirty his hands, but not Aiko. I will not let her be one of us."
I look at him and then turn my head toward the window. The driver looks back.
"We are almost there, young master."
Ren is humming with understanding. I look at Ren.
"So where exactly are we going?"
Ren looks at his watch.
"Remember the photos I showed you back in Kyoto? We found the guy who took the photo and we will interrogate him."
Ren rests his head on his fist.
"Just don't be surprised and I want you to watch the whole thing."
I'm gulping and nod.
The car then stops and the driver opens the door for Ren. I get down with them and I look around. I know this place. This is an abandoned factory that got closed because of a fire accident. The bodyguard unlocks the fence and we all walk toward the factory. A person is guarding the entrance and as soon as he sees Ren, he bows and opens the door for us.
We enter the factory and there are dozens of people wearing a suit and tattoos on their hands and necks. They all bow at Ren and one of them approaches us. He shows us the way to a small room at the back. When he opens the door, a cold breeze hits my face and I can immediately smell blood coming from the room. A person is tied down on a wooden chair naked and covered with his own blood. He's trembling and I can see his toes are so pale that it turns blue.
Ren looks at one of his men and nods. A person is carrying a bucket and throws the iced water on the guy. The guy can no longer scream and all he can do is make a quiet moan while looking at Ren. Ren looks at me.
"Come here. Let's hear what they got from him."
I approach him and one of Ren's men bows.
"Young master. We got all the information we needed. He was ordered by the Wakagashira (Second in command). They were also prepared to take them down when ordered. We managed to take down his subordinates last night."
Ren is staring at me.
"You heard that? They're planning to kill Erii and Ryo."
I clench my fist and I really want to punch him so badly, but looking at his condition, I'm hesitant to do so. Ren is looking at me as if he's waiting for me to beat him up. I look at Ren and I shake my head. I can't do that to someone that is already dying. Maybe if he's still in a good condition I might beat him up.
"You can't or you don't want to?"
I look at Ren.
"I don't want to. He looks like he's about to die."
Ren is humming with understanding. Then Ren is pointing his hand at a small box. One of his men grabs the box and gives it to him. Ren opens the box and he grabs a light bulb. He looks at me.
"Have you heard a story of a kid putting a light bulb inside his mouth and he can't take it out?"
I nod.
"Yeah, I heard of it."
Ren looks at two of his men and nods. They grab the guy's mouth and open it as big as they can. Ren shoves the light bulb inside his mouth. The guy is finally screaming in fear. Ren lifts his hand and one of his men gives him leather gloves. Ren put them on and immediately punch the guy's jaw. The thin glass of light bulbs scatters inside his mouth.
I can see his mouth bleeding and I can hear the tiny pieces of the glass get crushed by his teeth. Ren grabs the guy's cheek with his left hand while his right hand gets inside the guy's mouth. Ren then clenches his right fist and moving it randomly inside the guy's mouth. Ren is grabbing the pieces of the glass and shoves them to the guy's throat. The guy is screaming and tears come out of his eyes. He looks at me with his eyes wide open. I look away and close my eyes. I can hear the guy is gargling because the pieces of glasses cut his throat.
I look around and I just noticed that I'm not the only one who is uncomfortable with this. All of them are looking away like I did. Ren is moving his fist and staring at the guy's eyes expressionless. Then Ren pulls his fist out from the guy's mouth. We all can hear a cracking sound and I'm not sure if that's the sound of the glass or his jaw. Ren removed the gloves and drops them on the ground. He looks at his men.
"Kill him and take his head then send it to his boss."
They all bow with understanding. Then they drag the guy to the other room.
Ren approaches me.
"I told you to watch the whole thing."
I exhale deeply.
"Fuck, Ren. I don't think I can see that kind of scenery. It's too brutal for me. How the hell did you do that so easily. Don't you have any sense of humanity?"
Ren scoffs and smirks.
"Norl-Kun, they have lost their humanity when they joined the Yakuza. They could kill anyone anytime when they were ordered to. You should treat trash like trash. You don't have to feel sorry for them. Remember, he was ready to kill Erii and Ryo."
I look down and exhale deeply. Ren furrows his forehead.
"Now you know. I'm not the same as you or any of highschooler. I was born and grow up to be like this."
Ren looks at the pack of cigarettes in my pocket. He taps it and sighs.
"You want to smoke? Let's head out. We are done here anyway."
I nod.
We both get out of the factory and I light my cigarette. My hands are shaking like crazy and I breathe heavily. Ren is leaning on the wall while looking at the distance.
"I heard about what happened between you and Aiko yesterday."
My body suddenly stops moving on its own. I can only move my eyes and I'm looking at him. Ren is glaring at me and smiles.
"Don't worry, I don't mind about it. She does that on her own accord. But there's something I want to say to you."
Ren gets up and walks in front of me.
"Don't bring her into this mess. I can't tell you to stay away from her because if I do that, Aiko will do something dangerous just to get what she wants. I don't want to know what is your relationship with Aiko, but you already have Erii. You should take care and think about the woman of yours."
I scoff.
"Erii and I broke up because of that. So she's not mine anymore. She never was mine in the first place."
Ren is humming with understanding but he doesn't show any expressions. He smirks and looks at me.
"Good. Because you don't deserve her and Aiko."
I look at him and for some reason, I don't feel angry for what he just said to me. Maybe I really don't deserve Erii.