Two days had passed, and still—there was no sign of Shen Seizan.
Kin's patience snapped. He turned to Vixen, his voice sharp, almost a scream. "Two days, Vixen! And you still can't find him?!"
Vixen didn't flinch. He knew Kin was aware of the lengths he had gone to in order to track Shen down—the endless hours, the sleepless nights, the search parties—but knowing it didn't stop the frustration from spilling out.
Lately, Kin's health had been… fragile. His moods shifted without warning, swinging from irritation to exhaustion. Vixen had noticed. He also noticed something else—the entities.
They no longer attacked Kin directly. Instead, they haunted him from the edges, unsettling him in ways that gnawed at the mind. A glass sliding off the table when there was no wind. Soft, deliberate knocks on the main room door in the dead of night. Things that shouldn't happen—yet did.
Vixen kept telling himself the same thing over and over: No matter what, I will protect Kin. I will protect our future child.
Days blurred into months. Three months passed, and Shen remained missing.
During that time, Vixen traveled abroad for performances, even bringing Shen with him once before his disappearance. Yet, even with so much happening, Kin's heart remained tethered to his lost friend.
The weeks stretched into months with no word. Sometimes, Shen's mother would call Kin, asking about her son. Every time, Kin would speak calmly, hiding the pain in his chest. He would lie—tell her that Shen was fine.
At Vixen's request, an application was filed at the police station under his name, claiming Shen was too ill to return. But how long could they keep lying? How long could they hide the truth—that Shen had vanished without a trace?
And now, Kin was pregnant.
Lately, Vixen had been having the same dream, over and over. In it, a golden, brilliant light bloomed from the heart of a lotus. When he told Kin about it, Kin's eyes widened.
He'd seen it too.
In that moment, Vixen remembered exactly what the monk at the Buddhist temple had once told him.
The dream was not a coincidence.
It was a sign.
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