Could he be alive? Where could he be right now? Where has he been since the supposed plane crash?

"My brother could be alive... After all this time..." Viktor said softly, looking down at his food.

Silence filled the atmosphere and I had no more appetite. I looked at Viktor, careful about the words coming out. "Do you want to head back to the hotel now? I'll ask them to take the food away, don't think either of us feel like eating anymore."

"Yeah, sure," he replied, still looking down.
He desperately needs a hug right now.

I walked over to the other side of the table and hugged him tightly, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. As he hugged me back, I heard him sniff softly.

At that moment, I did not care if anyone was staring at us, I just knew Viktor needed me. Eventually we had to pull away from the silent embrace. I walked over to the counter and asked the lady to take away our food.

The burger place was pretty close to the hotel so we decided to walk back instead. It took us a good ten minutes to do so and the entire time,t was just complete and utter silence between me and Viktor. I was afraid anything I said would affect him even more.

What do you say to someone whose brother was presumed dead for the past seventeen years?

"Is there anything I can do for you?" I finally asked when we were back in our room not knowing what else to say.

"No, I'm just going to take a shower. You can continue looking through," Viktor replied and walked into the bathroom, his shoulders slumped.

I sighed and sat on my bed, took out my phone and continued looking at the pictures, trying to find more clues so as to what actually happened on that plane. But instead, I ended up falling asleep.

"Are you excited for your first day of school? In a new part of Russia?"

"No," I deadpanned.

"What? Why? You have to admit it's a little exciting, meeting new teachers and classmates, new surroundings, making new friends... and cute boys," A smirk was forming at the corner of Nikita's mouth as she said that.

"Whatever. School is school. Boring lessons, loads of homework, annoying teachers, mean bullies, and boys who think so highly of themselves."

"But it's your first day! At least have a positive mindset for a day. Just a day?" she pleaded.

I guess she really wanted a good start after what happened.

"Fine" I said, jokingly stretching out the syllable.

Her lips curved into a smile. "Alright, great! You got your lunchbox?"

"Yep."

"Okay, I'll see you at two-thirty. Have a great first day!" She was smiling so widely that I had no choice but to smile back.

I just couldn't stop thinking about dad... Adrian. Even though it had already been months, I still couldn't get over his death. He wasn't even a good guy. Then why do I still feel... sad? I shouldn't feel sad! I should feel relieved he's not in our lives anymore! He abused mom and—

"Something's wrong, what is it?"

I sighed and decided to be honest. "It's my fault. What happened to... Adrian, it's all my—"

She placed her hand on my shoulder. "No, it's not. You did what you had to do. He was going to hurt us. He wasn't a good man. We need to move on from this, that's why we moved, remember?"

"Yeah... you're right. I'm moving on. I have to." I slowly nodded.

"Have a great first day," Nikita repeated as I opened the car door.

"You too. Have a great day at work."

As I walked into the school, I could see many groups of friends walking together, talking. Whereas it's just me, walking alone. Moving from Evenkia to Moscow was hard for me as I've lived there my whole life even if it wasn't a great one.

I walked into the indoor sports hall where the principal was supposed to give some welcome speech for all first years in the secondary school. That just screamed boring.

"Good morning, students! I'm your principal, Mr Gorky. First and foremost, I would like to welcome the new batch and any new transfers to Moscow Valley Secondary school. As many people say, yes, it's true, secondary school's experience is much more different than primary school. Most of your friends you make here will probably be your lifelong friends..."

And that's when I heard a ringing sound.

"What is that?" I asked in a sleepy voice, my eyelids fluttering open.

"I think it's your phone ringing," Viktor answered and stood up from his bed, grabbing my phone from the nightstand.

"Who could it be?"

"Don't know. Better don't answer." And he pressed decline.

Oh, crap. How long have I been sleeping?
I sat upright and pressed the button on my phone, revealing the time. 5:42 PM. So I'd slept for two hours. I saw Viktor engrossed in his phone, no doubt mulling over the information we just discovered.

"Any new developments?" I asked.

"Well, my brother was definitely involved. There is just no other way they could've made it look like a malfunction without it actually being a malfunction, and there's no way it's an actual malfunction."

I nodded my head in response and pursed my lips before asking what I had wanted to since the discovery we made, "How are you feeling about all this?"

"I don't know... Yes, I'm somewhat relieved my brother might be alive after all this time. But to think that he was in bed with some shady people... It just completely changed how I've viewed him my entire life." He let out a deep breath. "Not to mention the fact that he didn't reach out after all this time."

"Completely understandable." I shifted my body to a more comfortable position. "And I think it's also safe to say my parents are most likely dead. Because if they weren't, they would have tried to find me, right? And take revenge on the person who was on that plane?"

"I wouldn't rule out anything just yet." Viktor gave me a small smile.

"But, where do we go from here? Even if your brother and my parents are alive, it's not like we can find them, since they've managed to hide from Felon for the past seventeen years."
Viktor thought for a while before answering, "I think our best bet now is to find that person who was on the plane. I'm pretty sure they had planned a whole escape route and are still alive. And that person is somehow linked to Felon."

"So we need to find Felon, with no resources whatsoever." That was going to be a problem—not to mention, we were leading ourselves straight into the clutches of the big, bad criminal.

"Yeah, I've no plan for that. Didn't even know he existed until Anton mentioned him," Viktor sighed.

"So, the only things we know about him are he's Spanish and a drug lord since he took over my parents' business."

"Drug lord... we just have to buy his drugs!" Viktor exclaimed.

"But that would only lead his minions to us, not him."

"But it's a start right?" He looked at me with a determined gleam in his eyes.

I sighed in resignation. "Alright, it's not like we have any other choice."

After that, I was feeling hungry so I heated up the untouched burger from lunch and devoured it. The room was quiet as I spent the entire evening dreading Viktor's reaction to the elephant in the room—if he wanted to search for his brother or not.

It was completely understandable if he didn't. Peter did lie to him for seventeen years and did not try to get in touch even after their parents died.

To continue dragging out the time to ask that question, I went to take a shower, up till the point where there was no more hot water. Oops.

Viktor was still analysing the pictures he had taken today, probably going over all possible scenarios that might have happened on the plane, hoping to construct at least one his brother could not have been involved in. I had been going over it in my head all evening too, but to no avail.

"We should get some sleep. Need to get up early tomorrow and start asking around for drugs," Viktor snorted, trying to lighten the mood.

Before I could reply, there was a 'ding' sound from my phone. I grabbed it from the nightstand and saw a text message from a blocked number.

Felon's main operation in Thailand is at the warehouse near the docks 17C Meronia Bay. Hope u get the answers u need.

-A friend who wants to take him down too.

"What's that about?" Viktor asked.

I handed him my phone and he scanned the text, before passing it back.

"So?" I inquired.

"I'd say we trust this 'friend' of yours and pay a visit to that warehouse tomorrow."