“Please! Please, everyone, give them some space to breathe!”

  A tall, middle-aged man tries to gently push the crowd back from around the Aye-Ayes trio. He moves with calm respect, and people clearly respect him, because they back off immediately.

  The man smiles at us and gestures toward one of the rgest tables in the hall—right by the window that faces the front of the Rusted Fangs’ bulding.

  “Thanks, Juno,” Erina says to the man with a soft smile as she takes a seat.

  She calls us over too—but Ren doesn’t even hear her. He’s already locked in with a woman who’s smearing her bright red lipstick all over his face.

  “Come on!” I have to pull Ren away by the colr to get him to let go of the woman. “The night’s just getting started, my guy. The dy’s not going anywhere.”

  Ren doesn’t protest. He’s too busy blowing kisses to every woman around us.

  “You heard him—don’t run from me, darlings! Hehe!”

  I drag Ren over to the table and we both colpse into the comfy couch surrounding it with Erina. The trio’s lit up—smiling brighter than ever.

  “Hey, Ren. Lux,” the middle-aged man greets us with the same gentle smile he gave Erina.

  “Juno,” Ren grins at him, friendly as always, and I give him a respectful nod.

  “Crowded house tonight, huh?” Ren says, eyes especially wandering toward the women.

  Juno nods. “Everyone’s here for you guys. You really did it—you’ve become Rustside’s new favorites.”

  “Ah, don’t hype it up too much,” Erina says humbly. “I know people appreciate what we did, but it was just a job. We were in it for the cash.”

  “Hmm…” Juno gives a soft, serious smile.

  “I get it, I do. But look, my lovely dy Firefly— everyone around here is handling their own business like that but I don’t remember any of them clearing our streets of those damn Nullbreed scumbags as a bonus.”

  “You had one target. You could’ve just focused on that. But instead—you wiped out the whole gang!” He starts cpping—and others at the bar quickly follow.

  “Hehe~” Erina giggles adorably, her eyes glowing with pride. “Those idiots thought they could mess with the Aye-Ayes…”

  “And they paid the price for underestimating us!” Ren adds.

  I just smile at Erina, full of love. I was so damn proud of her—and of us—for what we’d done.

  Juno waves over a waitress, who comes rushing in with a tray full of frothy beer mugs. He sets them down on the table himself.

  “Let’s raise our mugs and toast to that.”

  We lift the mugs and clink them together softly.

  “To the Aye-Ayes!!” we shout in unison. “Salud!”

  We all down as much beer as we can in one go. Despite her size, Erina isn’t the first to give up—I am. Then her. Then Juno.

  Ren drinks until he spills half of it down his own shirt—a mess that sends all of us into ughter.

  “Hahaha!”

  Juno gnces at us with fondness in his eyes. He clearly wants to sit, to hear the whole story— How three orphans took down a ruthless gang that was hooking kids on hardcore drugs and extorting their families.

  But the kind man doesn’t sit. He just smiles warmly.

  “Tonight is your night. It’s all on the house. All you’ve gotta do is enjoy yourselves.” He grabs another mug from the tray and hands it to Ren.

  “It’s all on the house?” I’m surprised by the generosity.

  He nods right away. “Old Barl said no one in his house is allowed to deny the Aye-Ayes anything tonight.”

  “Anything?” Ren throws a teasing grin at Juno.

  The man ughs, shaking his head. “Cut it out, Ren—I’m not taking my clothes off for you, you degenerate!”

  Ren pulls a fake pout. “It’s your loss, man! Look at this package!”

  “Hahaha!!” We burst into ughter.

  Even if I tried to keep my distance from people— It was impossible not to make friends when you were beside Erina and Ren, especially after what we’d done for the community.

  Juno shoots a firm but friendly gre at anyone else trying to approach us.

  “Let our heroes enjoy some peace, you vultures! Autographs ter!”

  People respect Juno—after all, he’s the current manager of the Rusted Fangs, son of Barlow himself.

  “Seriously, guys,” he says to us kindly, “Anything you want tonight—just raise your hand. The waitresses’ll fight each other to get to you first.”

  “Thank you, Juno!” Erina beams at him.

  “Thank you, my dy.” Juno bows quickly, giving Erina a wink—then tosses one to me and Ren too. “And thank you, boys.”

  As Juno turns and walks away, Ren motions for us to lean in toward the center of the table.

  “Did you hear what he said about autographs? We could totally charge for them, right?”

  “Ugh!” Erina scowls at the thought. “Come on, Ren! We’re people’s heroes, you can’t seriously be thinking that!”

  I doubted Ren would ever actually do that. He’d never take money from the people for an autograph. A kiss from a pretty girl? Absolutely. But cash? Nah.

  Still, Erina and I understood why that kind of idea even crossed his mind.We all shared the same crappy apartment—a dirty, stinking hole with a busted old couch and a mattress that barely qualified as furniture.

  Even our meals were shared scraps, bought with whatever little money we managed to earn.

  Clothes? Ren’s suit was borrowed, obviously. We couldn’t even afford his socks.

  Ren let out a deep sigh under Erina’s judging stare and leaned back against the couch. “I know, I know… but the pay for that kind of job was way too low. It doesn’t even cover two months of rent with all the extra expenses.”

  Erina leaned back too, sighing softly. “What did you expect? Old Thomas isn’t some banker. He’s a factory worker—he had to save for months just to pay us to avenge his daughter.”

  Ren looked away, ashamed. “We need to start getting better jobs…”

  “Really?” Erina sounded disappointed.

  “You didn’t feel anything when we gave that sick bastard what he deserved? Avenge Thomas’ daughter, kick those monsters out of our streets—that was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, and I don’t regret a damn second of it.”

  Even though she was asking, she already knew Ren was a good man. She was proud of all of us for what we’d done. He just couldn’t stop worrying about the future.

  But what she really wanted was to know how I felt. That’s why she turned to look at me with those bright, fme-colored eyes.

  I didn’t want to lie to her—so I tried to put it in the softest way possible.

  “Ren’s right. It felt amazing to kick those bastards’ asses… But yeah, we do need a job that actually pays well.”

  Erina sighed again, her glowing eyes still locked onto mine. “Don’t worry. Now that we’re becoming famous, the good jobs will start coming in.”

  “Exactly!” Ren lit up, suddenly full of energy again, and reached both hands out over the table—one to Erina, one to me.

  Erina instantly grabbed one of his hands, and both of them turned to me. We always did this before a mission—or whenever we needed a boost.

  I nodded and took their hands. We brought them together in the center of the table and pointed forward, strong and proud.

  “Together!” We repeated our motto—the Aye-Ayes' vow.

  Ren grinned and gnced around. “Okay, I need to kiss a beautiful girl now, hehe!”

  He stood up, grabbed his beer mug, and started heading toward the crowd of women. “Back in a fsh—don’t have too much fun without me!”

  Erina ughed. “Go get 'em, you half-baked Casanova!”

  “Hey!” Ren gnced back over his shoulder, fake-offended. “Why so little faith in me?”

  Erina gave him a teasing look. “That is more credit than you deserve!”

  He rolled his eyes, flipped her the bird with a big grin, and dove into the dance floor surrounded by girls.

  Erina and I exchanged a look—and then both started ughing. But her smile faded quickly, her expression growing more serious, a little worried.

  “I’m fine,” I said before she could ask.

  “Mm.” She nodded—but her eyes didn’t soften.

  “That’s not enough.”

  “What do you want me to say?” I asked, even though I had a good idea what she wanted to hear.

  Her expression turned tender, almost heartbreakingly loving. She scooted closer on the couch and spoke softly.

  “Lux… we’ve talked about this. The darkness inside you… You have to fight it with light. Face sadness with happiness.”

  I held her hands and put on my best smile. “I am happy right now. Don’t worry.”

  I tried. But my words were useless. Erina saw straight through me—through the emptiness still hiding in my heart.

  She gently caressed my face. “I want you to promise me something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Tonight… you’re going to try your hardest to be happy.”

  “I… I’ll try.”

  She squeezes my hand gently, passing the warmth of her own delicate fingers into mine. “Then do what Ren does. I know you like kissing—so go find a nice girl for some good old-fashioned human connection.”

  I lean forward and kiss her hand. “I’m already in the presence of the finest dy in the city—the great Firefly! And every guy here is jealous of me, haha!”

  Erina blushes at my words, making her look even more beautiful. God, I love seeing her like that—it really warms my heart.

  She giggles proudly. “I know, you dork! I’ll always be the most beautiful woman in your life. But…”

  “But?”

  She looks at me with a strange expression—something in her eyes I can’t quite pce. Conflicting emotions, maybe… But still full of love and affection.

  She takes a deep breath and says it all at once: “I want you to be really happy, Lux. Promise me you’ll live your life to the fullest—please.”

  I’ve never been able to say no to Erina. And I know I never will—not when she asks like that.

  So I nodded and leaned in to pce a gentle kiss on her cheek. “Alright… I promise I’ll try my best to find the happiness you want for me.”

  Erina smiled at me adorably. Her eyes glowed like fiery pearls, making my heart beat faster.

  “Thanks, Lux.” She stroked my hand softly. “You’re a good boy.”

  The moment was starting to feel… intense. Too intense. I was scared of my own feelings, so I tried to change things up.

  “Well, I’m starving. I think some good food is the perfect way to start my happy night. What about you?”

  Erina licked her lips. “Steak and fries for me! That’ll make me so happy, hehe~”

  “You got it!” I ughed as I got up and headed toward the counter.

  But before walking away, I gnced back—and saw Erina’s loving smile as she watched me go.

  She had always been by my side, through every moment of my life. She was my guardian angel… and my chest would tighten every time I stepped away from her.

  Just the thought of losing her felt unbearable. But back then, I didn’t think about any of that.

  I just kept moving forward. As I approached the counter, I caught looks from a bunch of women—and I smiled back politely.

  But honestly? It was always hard for me to really notice other girls because of Erina.

  Don’t get me wrong—I never had romantic feelings for her. That would’ve been… wrong. But I loved and idolized her so much, it was hard not to see every other woman as… lesser.

  Erina was so stunning, so uniquely her, that she made everyone else look pin—no matter what they looked like.

  And yeah, I’m not the kind of guy who values appearances first anyway. But the problem wasn’t the way others looked. It was the way I looked at Erina.

  No woman who tried to get close to me could miss the way I admired her—and that always complicated things.

  Still, that night I had a mission: To honor my promise to Erina, and make a real effort to enjoy myself.

  So I did. I tried to keep an open mind and look for someone to connect with.

  As I passed by the many attractive girls fshing me winks and smiles, I reached the bar.

  The waitress who appeared in front of me was probably around twenty-five.She was above average for Rustside—pretty, with a glowing smile.

  “Hey, you!” She greeted me enthusiastically, her eyes shining. “You’re Lux, right? You can order whatever you want—boss’s orders.”

  How about a dance?

  I wonder…If I’d said that—if I’d opened up to someone kind and sweet…

  Maybe things would’ve turned out differently. Maybe my family would still be okay. Maybe none of it would’ve ended in tragedy.

  But what I actually said was: “Steak and fries for Lady Firefly!”

  “On it!” The waitress winked and hurried off to pce the order in the kitchen.

  Not flirting with her wasn’t the mistake. My real mistake… was choosing the wrong dy that night.

  But how could I have known everything was about to go so wrong?

  I didn’t go looking for trouble. Trouble found me.

  And I just… couldn’t resist her— Not once I heard her voice for the first time.

  That voice was so charming, so seductive. So confident and mysterious…

  It crept into my ear like the song of a siren.

  “So… you’re the famous Lux?”