Silence is worse.

All truths that are kept silent become poisonous.

Rain

"I think I need another drink," I murmured, my eyes still on the screen that now was black and empty. Hey, like your heart.

Calm down. My body was sizzling with adrenaline, and I knew once I crashed, devastation would take its place.

So many fucking clues.

I tried playing in my head Sakai's version, and whatever he claimed that happened, like trying to match subtitles to the video.

It didn't fit.

Not in the timeframe, not in the atmosphere... I mean, they were chilling and laughing until something happened. What Sakai said could fit only to the last two minutes.

I am sure of one damn thing. Sakai hadn't watched the video.

JB succumbed to my request, bringing a bottle of some freakishly fancy blue vodka and a crystal glass. Everything he owned must be expensive and pretentious. Like him.

I took the bottle, uncapped it, and downed five gulps straight. It burned my throat. My stomach. If only it could burn down my stupid heart that kept beating erratically.

Calm the fuck down.

I can't.

"She was found the next day. Still in the car." He murmured, watching me lifting the vodka again and repeating the five gulps.

But...

"But she is not dead," I whisper, looking at the bottle.

JB looks at me like I'm crazy, then at the bottle. "I think you need to go easy with that," he tries to pry the bottle from my palm. "It's 80% pure alcohol." I ignore him, taking five more gulps. Still not burning enough.

"Is there a chance you would have some coke lying around? Not much, like, half a gram."

JB stiffens and tries to take away the bottle again. "If you want to have a nuclear meltdown and get shitfaced, it's fine by me. There are more beds here you can crash than in Ikea. Just make sure prior that there won't be seven shitheads banging on my door —or shooting at it— to find your messed-up ass."

"I'm fine," I hiss, taking one more huge gulp —okay, four— before giving it back to him. He places the half-empty now bottle on the furthest corner of the table, shaking his head before crashing back on the couch beside me. Wow, if JB —the two-night orgy, jacuzzi party king JB— is the responsible adult here, that's a new level of low. My mind, however, is so blown with info and questions that I'm fucking spiraling.

The problems with my theory were two—of course I have a theory. But that comes later— and I had to draw as many answers as possible from JB.

Drunk Rain/Sherlock mode: on.

Let's proceed to test it.

"You never told anyone you had the video? What about Sakai?" I turn and focus on JB fully.

Weirded out, he scoffs. "Sakai was a spoiled little bitch—the real kind, not the kind you think I am— but I would never be stupid enough to pick a fight with his father like that. I'd only stand to gain a headache. Whatever Sakai knew, it wasn't from me." Truth.

"You didn't answer the first question," I smirk, crossing my arms.

"No, I never told anyone," He smirks back mockingly.

"Could be him in the video, then? He knew what happened."

He arches an eyebrow, smirk intact. "I'll add good at bluffing while drunk to your skillset." He takes a hit from his joint. "Sakai was in Stockholm with you when Nanami was murdered, wasn't he?" He snorts. "The fucker has the best alibi. Almost as good as mine." Truth.

Sakai was with me indeed. I just wanted to see if JB knew it.

Side note: Apparently, Sakai is the complete opposite of his brother and has literally told everyone and their mothers what we did. Unless...

The fucker was with me to build his alibi. Which means he knew that Nanami was going to die somehow.

Shit, I'm not drunk enough to process this possibility.

"Then who you think was in the video?"

JB seemed to be contemplating his answer longer than he should. Hiding something?

He shrugged. "Honestly? It's Seoul. Shit happens. She probably killed someone she shouldn't have, and this is the price she paid."

"Like who?"

"No clue. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Do you realize that you are creating more questions than answers?"

"You were bitching yesterday morning that I wasn't doing anything of value." He muttered. "And now that I'm doing something, you're bitching about it too?" He snorted. "Get your shit together, Rain."

Okay, he kinda makes sense.

And now for the million-dollar question.

"How you got this? Having it and keeping it secret pins you as an accomplice."

His eyes narrowed with pleasure. "If that's what you want to claim, then sure." Smoke rippled from his lips. "I'll spare you the bullshit, though. Nanami was a threat to me, as she was to everyone in the clan. The loyalty Chin-hae bullshited you about was plain fear we all nurtured for her. But she was smart. Our relationship was a working one." Another inhale. "I'm sure Chin-hae can back me up on this," he drawled, earning a warning glare from me, "but to get shit done, sometimes the clan worked with the police. They met us halfway. That's how I got it. I made sure there is no other copy." His stare also said I might have also killed the guy who sold it to me.

Shit. Of course, he got it from the police. It's footage from a security camera of the docs.

It also made perfect sense that he placed it right after the clan's party to hide it. No sane person would have watched this till the end. It was perfectly hidden among literal fuckeries. JB is a perverted little genius. And with the guy who sold it to him dead, no one else has seen it.

Thank fuck.

My phone rings with Violet's text ringtone, disrupting my thoughts and the silence and giving me a headache.

Виолетта: The eagle has landed.

That means someone tracked my phone to RR and went there to find me.

RR: Can you be less specific? Which eagle?

Виолетта: Well, two eagles.

Виолетта: The hot one and the broody one.

RR: Bitch, that's all of them. Have you even learned their names?

RR: Don't mess with me right now. I'm in a very stabby mood.

Виолетта: Sorry.

Виолетта: V and Suga.

I blink twice, shaking my head in denial of what I'm seeing.

Hold the fucking press. 

And bring more vodka.

V and Suga???

What's V doing with Suga. And didn't V have a thing?

Shit.

Suga recruited him to his team somehow.

Who cares about your fucking war anymore? Seriously!

Виолетта: What you want me to do?

RR: Nothing. Just stay there. I'm coming.

RR: No pun intended.

"So what's this worth to you?" JB asks as he lays back. I have to deal with him later. I must go. Definitely not worth marrying him, though. I snort at the thought.

"Doesn't this mean you have to obey me no matter what?" I tap on his chest. On the snake curled around the apple.

Hey...

Apple?

Snake?

Fucking Dejavu? As in: stabbed apple? Also, like the fucking apples I find everywhere?

Why the fuck am I only realizing this just now?

Drunk Rain/Sherlock mode: on again.

Suga was trying to tell me something about the clan tattoos. He even traced them with his finger when he warned me. Hold on to that thought.

Not the tracing. That was sinfully hot, but it's completely irrelevant.

I know the bloody waves clan tattoo depicted the seven seas, literally the meaning of Nanami's name. Waves represent flow, movement, strength, and most importantly — life. Just like the tide, life is a continuous cycle of push and pull, rise and fall. It's a reminder that nothing is constant. Bad situations will eventually turn for the better. And that good things can be lost in an instant if you fail to seize the moment. Timing.

Somehow thinking of waves now makes me nauseous. It's not the waves. It's the half vodka bottle you downed straight.

I also know that the red color represents strength, vitality, and power.

Art school 101: Every art form always has a historical reference behind it, Drunk-Sherlock/Rain says. Just bear with me.

Snakes entangled with apples are definitely from the bible. It represents temptation and sin. But I bet all my money mommy wasn't the bible-study, goody-two-shoes type. Unless it was a satanic bible. She probably had one to perform satanic rituals involving puppy blood and baby tears on the daily. According to what others say about her, at least. 

That would be really handy right now. If only I could summon dead Sakai to question him. And then kill him again.

Nanami supposedly gave the Grim Reaper a run for his money.

Focus bitch. You are too drunk to function. Second meaning for snakes and apples.

In general, snakes in tattoos represent change. Transformation. Rebirth. Just because it sheds its own skin.

But the snake on the Ryuzaki clan mark is a viper. Hey, that was my high-school nickname.

Vipers symbolize children plotting against their parents. Vipers also symbolize a woman that kills men for revenge. Like Medusa.

Vipers are vicious creatures that attack instinctively. There is no reasoning with them, which makes them a common enemy. That's why vipers are a very common tattoo among Yakuza gangs.

Don't hate me for the art lessons; I love my job, and all the history behind it, drunk Sherlock/my subconscious adds.

But how does the apple connect to any of those?

In general, many people don't know this, but apples in tattoos symbolize love.

I'm definitely missing some clan history lessons here.

Where is Chin-hae when you need him?

Shit, Chin-hae would have tortured JB Hostel-style —aka drown him in a bathtub filled with his own blood— if he knew he had the tape. You're getting sidetracked again. Drunk ADD much?

The only other apple I can think of —except the phone brand— is the infamous apple of discord in Greek mythology. That little golden fruit started a whole epic war.

I don't get what Suga was trying to say. 

Whatever, we are getting again out of track here, don't you think?

No, I think I need more vodka to figure this out.

"Oh, come on. I'm giving you everything and not getting anyth..." JB was still murmuring beside me. Hey, I actually put him on mute for a minute there.

"When did the Ryuzaki clan started using this tattoo as a mark?" I cut him off, shifting on my seat to face him directly.

He narrowed his eyes in surprise with the subject change, scratching his chin with two fingers. "Long before it was called Ryuzaki clan. Nanami's parents snatched the clan, sweetheart. But you know that already, don't you?"

I get a weird feeling of awareness —like I am trapped into something. I can't exactly put my finger on it. I shake it off.

"Why do you think Sakai wanted Suga dead?" He muses, exhaling a thick cloud upward.

"Because they hated each other," I reply confidently. At least I am 100% sure of that fact.

"No." He tsks, amused. "Because Suga was next in line." He says and shakes his head like I am too stupid —or too drunk— to understand. Which I'm not enough of either.

"I'll make you choke on that blunt if you look at me like that once more." I smile in a thready-flirty kind of way.

"Sakai tried the if you can't beat them, join them, tactic sweetheart." He rolled his eyes as he notices that I'm eyeing the vodka bottle again. He passes the blunt to me instead, and honestly, I need this right now. "He knew he couldn't beat you. Tried to join you. Tried to convince you to take Suga out of the way. And well... we both know how that ended." He grinned.

I took a long inhale, narrowing my eyes on him, focusing on what he says—or trying to.

Sweet oblivion, this shit is definitely five stars.

"You acted smart, Rain. Sakai would have betrayed you and taken you out of the way in the first chance he had. He was waiting for the right time to strike. But you had two clans to back you up. He needed to get rid of Suga, get rid of his father, then get rid of the seven seas to get the Ryuzaki clan and work it the way he wanted. Or did you just assume that coincidentally when he got in the picture is around the same time all the trafficking jazz started? With Nanami dead, no one stopped him."

"And Chin-hae?"

"Chin-hae simply tolerated him. Chin-hae is smart enough to know that the sudden sketchiness started when he brought back Sakai. Do you think he would let you walk around and rule like a hot-shot queen Elizabeth after plotting to kill his son if he didn't want him out of the picture as well?" He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. From his point of view, it was obvious.

"Then why he brought him? Why keep him around?"

"Because Sakai was Chin-hae's failed plan. His last hope. An attempt to turn the tides. That maybe, his father's lost clan will merge with the Ryuzakis and stop the war. Why not get the two lineages together?" He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. "That's how wars ended in medieval times. Don't think for a second that because we're rich and grew up with all the table manners and the boarding school pedigrees that we're less savaged than our medieval conqueror ancestors." He pauses, a slight smirk playing on his lips."We just exchanged swords for guns."

He knows I understand where he is going with this.

JB was fucking testing me. He wanted to see if I would throw away his offer as I did with Sakai. He never intended to marry me and get the clan. He was checking to see if I'm trustworthy enough, if my morals bend, before showing the video to me. He wanted to taste my integrity. To be sure, I won't sell him to Chin-hae.

Well, who knew? Sweetheart is loyal indeed.

Or he is just waiting for the right time to ask for something in return.

See? Mind games. That's why arguing with him turns me on.

"How about you keep coming to me when you find any info instead of trying —and failing— to blackmail me, and I keep you alive?"

He shook his head again, annoyed this time. "How many times do I need to say I'm not your competition?"

"How many times do I need to say that everyone is my competition?" I retorted.

He inhaled sharply as we started one more staring contest. "Here's a pro tip for your little investigation." I stiffened in his mocking tone, ready to bite back. "Look toward where it hurts the most. That's always where the answers are."

"Thanks for the advice." I gritted out. 

Because I know where it hurts the most to look.

The thing about having a broken heart? It's trained not to hurt anymore. Mine fucking failed me.

I don't need more emotions.

I need more facts.

Just like those, I noticed in the video.

Any emotional or simply normal person watching the video would assume those two were friendly or kissing.

I like to believe I am neither. And Nanami wasn't —isn't— either.

An intelligent person, avoiding emotion and using deductive reasoning, as I did, would look closer for the clues.

Cold hard facts and observational skills —before getting drunk— pointed to something that I bet JB hadn't noticed. Even though he probably has secretly watched the video a million times.

When the lightning lit the sky, was when Nanami leaned closer to the guy. Not coincidently.

Because she saw the lightning hit close. She noticed it. As I did.

And she knew that after five seconds, the thunder would follow. As I as well concluded when I saw it.

A thunder that crashed and echoed, covering up whatever she whispered to the guy's ear.

She saw the opportunity and used it.

Covering up so nothing will catch her words.

Making it appear as something else for the video.

And whatever she said to him, shocked him. He wasn't prepared for it.

A secret, so covertly covered, only him and her know, lost behind the rumble of the thunder.

Something that shocked him. He panicked. 

The victim in the video is the guy. If only I knew what they were talking about.

But sometimes, the solution is the problem.

The problem for me is that I didn't have sound.

The problem in Sakai's version is that he didn't have image. He described things he hadn't seen. That's why he assumed the windows were tinted.

The problem is that there was a fucking audio recording device in the car. 

That's why Nanami used the thunder's rumble to cover whatever she said.

And Sakai's version was different because he never watched the video. He somehow had only found and listened to the audio, or part of it.

Sakai knew.

The night of her death was not a coincidence.

She used a car without tinted windows, parked in front of a fucking camera. She took advantage of the weather. So the video would be blurry enough, and only the things she wanted would be seen.

I bet she invited the guy to meet the moment the storm started. He was starring in her murder. And he didn't know about it. Until she made him do it.

It wasn't submission that made him lower his gun.

It was an order.

Silent, perhaps.

Because the Bloody Waves speak with the eyes.

Chin-hae was right.

The killer was indeed someone from the Bloody Waves.

But Chin-hae was also wrong.

Because the killer was indeed his fucking son. And not the dead one.

And the bitch was wearing a bulletproof vest under her coat.

The body at the funeral? 

Same shit like the kind I pulled. For instance? I had Violet henna all over her body fake tattoos to look like me from afar. I had her wearing a wig and drive my car for two fucking hours every day. 

A body after one night in the sea? A body with the same tattoos after a whole night in the sea? She could easily found someone that looked like her. 

Undoubtedly her, my ass.

Now you get why I need more vodka?

You need to go to RR, pronto.

Fuck, I forgot about Violet.

I need to get going.

And do what exactly? Run and ask him, "Hey, sugardick, how's it rolling? You need to update your wardrobe btw. Wearing the same hoodie totally gave you away. Also, did you happen to accidentally fake-kill my mother? Care to tell me WHAT THE FUCK THE TWO OF YOU WERE PLOTTING?"

There is not enough vodka in the world to face that. Hey, maybe seven seas of vodka. That's what sweet dreams are made of.

I was ready to get up and wear my jacket when my phone started ringing again.

Виолетта: I am caught.

That means one thing. Suga found her.

Definitely not the time I was hoping for, but still.

Damn, I lost the opportunity to see his reaction when he found her.

Bitch! Who the fuck cares about that??? You've got a list of bigger problems.

"If you think I'll let you drive while you're more hammered than a sixteen-year-old that just got his first fake ID, you are in for a loud wake-up call." JB lifts from the couch and follows me to the corridor that passes a fucking sauna room. I turn around, ascending the staircase. His house is so fucking enormous, a fucking army would need a map and a strategy to get out.

"I'm not!"

"Then why are you trying to wear a leather jacket inside out?"

...

"It's a fashion statement!"

My phone rings again.

Виолетта: Help.

Виолетта: I'm un fyckinf trrouble

She typed the last one without looking at her phone.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Suga must have reacted a lot worse than I thought. I got myself in the middle of a fucking mess again. And this time, it totally is my fault.

"I mean it, Rain." JB rushes after me, holding his silk robe as he ascends the stairs. Hey, soldier is up and alert, giving me a military wave.

Don't check him out bitch!

How is this my fault? He could have gotten dressed, but chose to wear a fucking black kimono while obviously completely naked under it! Isn't that what I always do? Get drunk and move on?

I stop and turn to face him. "Since when do you care?"

He stops too. His jaw is hard enough to cut diamonds. "Since Chin-hae will use my spine as a scarf if anything happens to you." He barks.

He is lying.

I cross my arms. He crosses his too. Even his jaw crosses its proverbial arms.

I narrow my eyes, tilt my head, and smirk. He remains adamant as a fucking statue.

"My driver will take you back." His voice is calm. And fake. This is so on.

I was about to tell him that the last thing I need right now is one more guy bossing me around.

Another text rings on my phone.

S: I fucking warned you.

A/N. I thought writing Rain's pov was hard since she is so smart and observant and all that —you know. But writing drunk Rain's pov gets the cake. She gave me a fucking headache.

Also, the clue about what Nanami did, was literally at the start of the previous chapter.

Lies save trouble for now,

But they will return in thunder and lightning.

:)

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