"Which one should I choose," Ridley asked her son. "The 'Melancholy of the Moon', or The 'Titan Sun'?"

She had requested for Ziro to help her transport some of her pieces to the museum in the city, where she was in the midst of getting another one of her artworks displayed. She had created two watercolor paintings: one of Moonhaven's moon, and the other of the ordinary sun.

"Go with the moon," Ziro said blandly to his mother. "What has the sun ever done for us?"

Ridley chuckled. "Other than keeping us warm, providing a source of vitamin c, and sustaining the life of mother nature, as well as human life."

Ziro shrugged. "The moon gave us a home. Our moon did at least. You can be a sellout next time. Go with the moon now. 빨리 하세요 (ppalli ha-seyo), I have to meet the group soon."

Ridley nodded. "알겠어 알겠다 (al-gesso algett-da). I guess I'm getting disowned next time." She chuckled again, a little louder, causing Ziro to look away as if he didn't know her. Ridley picked up her painting of the moon ready to head over to the curator, when her phone rang. She lowered the painting to the polished floor and dug her phone out from her back jeans pocket. "Hello?"

"Ridley! It's me!" shouted an aggrieved Grayson through the phone.

"Grayson, is that you? What's wrong?" Ziro glanced at his mother. "Slow down, Gray...oh my god. Alright, hold on. Ziro," she handed him the phone.

"Mr. Prior?" Ziro said to the other end.

"Ziro! It's Alex...something's happened. He's been arrested, but they're holding him in the hospital downtown. They won't tell me exactly what happened. I'm headed there now, but I'm sure Lex could use a friend there too. I know it might be too much to ask but-"

"I'm on my way," Ziro cut in. "The museum's close by to the hospital so I'll get there sooner."

"Great! Thank you! When you see him, let him know I'm coming."

"I will." Ziro returned the phone to his mother, then he removed Necrodian from around his shoulder and handed it to her too. "They won't allow it at the hospital. Seems like there'll be cops there too. Take it home for me?"

"Of course. And let me know how Alex is."

Ziro nodded, and darted for the exit.

Lev was furious.

Grayson had called him twenty minutes ago about Alex, and he didn't even need to ask him anything — Lev was storming his way downtown to the hospital before the call was even over. But when he arrived, neither the police nor the doctors would permit him to see Alex, or even tell him what was going on. So he settled for angrily sitting on bench three doors away from the room where Alex was being held.

Lev's foot tapped rapidly against the floor, when he noticed someone as angry-looking as him, turn the corner and march in his direction. Ziro stopped not too far from where Lev was seated, and the two locked into a ferocious stare-down.

Ziro spoke first. "They won't let you in either?"

"Nope," Lev said with sharp, cruel emphasis.

"So Grayson called you too," Ziro said. It wasn't a question.

"Yup."

"He knows your number?"

"Nope. Jeremi's dad gave him my mom's number, so he called her to ask for me."

"And you actually came." Ziro's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Why don't you just ask Carsyn or Nyne or literally anyone else to spy on me some more?" The venom seeped through Lev's words, loud and clear. "That way you can know everything without even talking to me."

"He told you," Ziro said again after a beat of silence; still not a question. "So why did you still-"

"Why'd I still come to see him? he's my friend, that's why!" Lev bit back. "He kept saying it to me at first but I didn't believe it. Now I do. He's the only one who gives a shit about me, so why wouldn't I come?"

"Who's fault is it that you're alone?" Ziro countered. "I'm just trying to make sure you don't betray him like you did me. The first time I sent Alex to you, it was just an initiation for him. Nothing more was supposed to come out of it. I wouldn't have done it if I knew you were going to lure him in. I swore to Syn I'd raise hell if something happened to him because of me, because of you. You may claim he's your friend, but he's with me now. So you better fucking tell me if you're planning anything against him."

More Silence scraped through the dim white halls of the hospital, despite it bustling with moving bodies all through it, but to Ziro and Lev it was noiseless.

"...I liked him," Lev said quietly.

"What? Who?" Ziro questioned.

"...Nick."

"I already fucking know you liked him. I saw that first hand."

"No...I had a crush on him." Lev gazed down at the floor, entwining his clammy fingers nervously. Ziro stared at him, drifting a few steps closer and his expression left unreadable, yet intense.

"Not always though," Lev went on. "That day you made a deal with him, he came looking for me after...basically flirting with me. He tried putting it off as innocent compliments, but everything he said always threw me off guard. I really fell for it. I saw him in this way that I didn't totally understand. He asked me to spar with him one time to help get ready for the fight. I said yes, and after we finished he told me some sob story about how much pressure his parents put on him to be on top at school. Sword fighting was the only thing that made him happy, so he wanted to be number one with that too. He wanted to spar with me because he knew we trained together, so training with me would be good practice. And he kept giving me compliments, and eventually I offered a few pointers in going toe-to-toe with you."

Ziro at last sat down on the bench, leaving some room between him and Lev, startling his former friend to a halt in his story. "계속해 (gae-sok-hae)," Ziro said without looking at Lev.

Lev hesitated before he did. "...we sparred for the rest of that week. On the Friday before the fight I thought about telling you everything. I wanted to at least tell you that I was helping him out. But after school when I tried telling Nick that, he talked me out of it. He told me that you wouldn't accept it. Not just you — the group, my mom — everyone. I'd like to say that I thought that was complete bull, but I remembered how Syn wasn't so lucky in her 'coming-out'. I wasn't even entirely sure what...who I was, so I listened to him, and then he just...kissed me."

Lev still wasn't looking Ziro's way, but Ziro finally attempted to make eye contact despite it, the angles of his face downturned into sympathy.

"That asshole kissed me...and I kissed him back. My first kiss too. He called off sparring that day, so I didn't see him again till the fight. I didn't think he'd actually beat you. When he did, I tried to congratulate him but he barely said anything to me. And later that night he was having a party, so I tried talking to him again, but that's when he finally just came clean..."

"멈추지 마 (momchuji ma)," Ziro said so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear through the buzz of the hospital, "you can tell me."

Lev released a heavy breath. "He said I shouldn't hang around him anymore — he got what he'd needed. He admitted he hadn't planned on the kiss, but back then I almost jeopardized his plans. At least I wasn't a total moron that I didn't realize where things were going."

"Tell me you at least hit him once," Ziro said, an edge to his tone that Lev knew wasn't directed at him.

"I decked him right then and there," Lev chuckled. "But then he threatened to tell everyone that I ′took a few compliments from him the wrong way'. That I offered to spar with him before the match. That I kissed him." Lev lifted his head at last, dragging his eyes to meet Ziro's. "I thought I could at least try to fix things with you...but I couldn't tell you. I preferred you hating me for helping Nick, instead of me having feelings for him. I knew you wouldn't forgive me, but I had to try anyway. Just when I was accepting being alone, I meet this weirdo who starts complimenting me, kind of like Nick did. But...Alex is everything Nick isn't."

Ziro's following silence was so intense, that Lev's furious foot tapping started up again. He had looked away, making it hard for Lev to discern his reaction. Lev contemplated getting up and leaving, or at least finding somewhere else to sit, preferably closer to the room Alex was supposedly inside. He hated being around Ziro when he was so intensely quiet. But the cat was out of the bag now, and there was no going anywhere.

Ziro's hand clasped Lev's knee to stop his foot tapping, causing a disturbing chill to charge through Lev. Ziro then reared back his elbow so that it collided into Lev's gut.

Lev wasn't surprised; he knew he had it coming. He just didn't know what exactly it was for. He tried restraining his groaning as he prepared for anymore sudden blows.

"이 멍청아 (ee mong-chong-a)," Ziro said at last. "You really think I give a shit about who you're in to? You really think your mom does? That group? It doesn't matter who you like because you'll still be the same hothead that stood by my side for seventeen years. I wanted to kill you for stabbing me in the back, but now I just want to kill you for listening to that moronic douche-bag."

Ziro took a second to catch his breath looking considerably calmer, and a reluctant grin reaching to both sides of his cheeks.

"So, you and Alex?" Ziro asked.

Lev nodded. "Yeah. Since last night."

"...and you showed him Verglas."

Lev replied slowly, but surely. "So you get how I feel about him."

"...talk about a match made in hell." Ziro and Lev locked eyes again after an eternity, simultaneously erupting into laughter.

Their reunion was cut short when Ziro caught sight of a nurse escorting a woman he hadn't seen before towards Alex's room. The woman's hair was tawny brown, short and straight, and the glasses she wore were thin. When the nurse turned and went away, Ziro watched as the woman peered through the window into the room.

Lev followed his gaze to the woman. "What is it?"

Ziro had a disturbing thought as he leaned forward to see the woman better. "Could that be...?"