19:00 pm

Hellen got out of the taxi. She looked around to make sure nobody was following while on the ride. She climbed up the stairs of the apartment and arrived on floor 4 and knocked on the door.

“Hello, who is it?” came a sweet voice from the other side.

“It's me. Hellen.”

The door opened and Hellen was greeted by Mew. The two of them exchanged warm smiles and entered the living room.

“Ahh, perfect timing. The dumplings are about to be out. Don’t forget to wash your hands!” said Jude as he looked at Hellen earnestly.

During dinner every one of them sat next to one another and ate across a long table.

“We’re eating breakfast and dinner like this. Pretty cool, right? Like a big family.” said Mew.

Saran and Blaire were unphased by the words. Yulia and Yumiko formed a bit of a smile.

“Yeah. It's really nice, Mew.” said Hori who was next to Mew.

She leaned closer to her and put her head on her shoulder in which Mew looked delightfully at her.

Hellen tried eating the food as if nothing happened but she couldn’t quite swallow the bad news with the food just yet.

“Hey, I heard there is gonna be a sequel to the Galactic Warlords series. Do you wanna watch it?” asked Succi with enthusiasm.

“Oh my gosh. I love that movie. We should watch it together!” said Hori happily as she looked at Mew in which Mew replied with a smile.

Hellen bit her lips, trying to not ruin the moment but she couldn’t stop herself any longer.

“You…probably shouldn’t.” said Hellen.

“Why not?” pondered Mew at Hellen with curiosity.

“It's dangerous. Hori shouldn’t be going out like this. And neither should Blaire, Yulia or any one of the convicts. We can’t keep you safe if the police figure out that you’re alive.” said Hellen with worry.

“It’ll be fine. It's kind of boring to stay at our house all the time like this. We gotta go out sometimes.” said Mew.

“But…” grumbled Hellen and sighed.

She took a deep breath and said “I have bad news.”

“Oh, I personally would suggest that bad news would have to wait. Whatever it is, I don’t want the appetite of my masters to soar.” said Jude with elegance.

Hellen mused at that word.

“Oh come on, Jude. It's fine. If it's important, all the more reason we should hear it soon.” said Mew.

“You…you visited the southern park recently, right? On October 10th?” asked Hellen.

“You mean yesterday? Yeah, we did. We didn’t tell you huh. It would have been fun if you hung around too.” said Mew with a smile.

“You, Succi, Hori were seen in the haunted cave on the left entrance security camera. Today I was investigating the missing idol case in which she disappeared yesterday. It happened in southern park. And during my investigation, I found footage of you three entering there.” said Hellen.

“Oh.” said Hori with surprise.

“I guess the footage being in the arms reach of the police makes it extra bad huh.” said Jude.

“Look. I’m not sure how long I can hide the existence of Hori from the police. I can’t keep silencing everyone who comes across the video.” said Hellen with clear frustration.

“You didn’t try to silence someone who came across the video, right?” asked Mew with concern.

“I…” started Hellen but gulped upon realizing she most likely would get scolded by Mew depending on her answer.

“I just want you to be safe.” said Hellen.

“I understand that. But you don’t have to hurt others to do that, you know?” asked Mew.

Hellen contemplated her words. During the day she did try to threaten Juniper to make her silent. Sure, she cried and showed genuine emotions and eventually came to agree to hide the truth on her own free will. But what would have happened if she didn’t? What would have happened if she retaliated or talked about the truth needing to be revealed to everyone just like Nera or Fushichin sometimes said. Would she have pulled the trigger and tried to deal with the mess with more lies?

The thought vexed Hellen’s mind. Ironically enough what she said seemed to have made her own appetite worsen rather than anyone else’s. While pondering over the morality of her actions Hellen’s eyes fell on Hori’s as she walked over to the kitchen to go for a second cup of dumplings.

“Hori…is she fine? Did you guys get checked by a doctor? I know I said we should keep a low profile but a doctor would know if something happened.” said Hellen.

“Yeah. I’m pregnant.” said Hori with a rueful smile as she came back.

“Isn’t she beautiful? She is gonna become a mom. We’re both gonna become one. I always wanted to have a small one. Hehe, we already do tho. Those three are soundly sleeping there.” said Mew as she pointed towards the three baby cribs that were placed at the end of the room.

Hellen blinked sadly and looked at the others.

“Are the rest of you-” started Hellen but Saran quickly answered saying

“Blaire and Yulia also are pregnant, yes. Me, not so much. I’m infertile. Plus I kicked one of the guards in the groin and fought against them once and they didn’t bother me again ever since.” said Saran.

“What about Imi?” asked Hellen.

Her eyes turned to Imi who was silently eating her food up till now.

“I got an abortion. It's no big deal. Better to deal with it while it was little than later.” said Imi without much concern.

Hellen looked down at her food.

“I do wonder why it all had to be this way. You’ve all suffered so much, endured so much. But you still have to hide under the ceilings of this building to survive. I used to think the justice system was for love. But to me it seems like it's the opposite. They are the ones who are criminal.” grunted Hellen.

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“Don’t blame them Hellen. Afterall, just like you were back then, they are simply doing their job. They don’t have the insight to see deeply into things. In life there are many ways you can be wrong, in many ways you can justify continuing the cycle of hatred.” said Jude.

“Cycle of hatred huh. Yeah…honestly I want to kill the sons of bitches who did this to Hori and the others. Does that make me part of the problem?” asked Hellen with a deranged look.

“In some ways, yes. You were supposed to help Blaire, Saran and Hori to reform and re enter society. But at your current level, you seem just as savage as them.” said Jude as he turned around to face her with a disappointed look.

Hellen bit her lips and looked away with grumpiness.

“Hellen, that’s no good. Trying to get vengeance won’t solve anything. We are all here alive and happy today. That’s all that matters. You don’t have to worry about things that didn’t happen.” said Mew.

“Am I supposed to just wait until you all get captured and sent to prison again? And this time, they may try to convict you too for hiding criminals.” grunted Hellen and slapped the table in anger.

“Yes, wait. What else can you do? Killing every cop is surely a one hellish battle. And at that point you would be a bigger criminal than all of them.” said Jude.

“Or we could just run. Take Mew, Hori and everyone else and just run from this place. You have plenty of money saved after you sold the mansion, right?” asked Yumiko towards Succi with tearful eyes.

“Yes. We could run. But where to? I did look into it and it seems pretty hard. Smuggling 5 convicts on an airplane is difficult. Maybe by a boat? We would have to find and make a deal with someone.” said Succi.

“Where would we run to? Leaving our friends, running away just to survive. Succi, you have Joseph, right? You’ll miss him. There is no way he would abandon his singing career and go with you.” said Mew.

Hellen’s heart skipped a beat at that moment. She looked at Mew.

Would I miss Mew if she was gone? No, that doesn’t matter. If she stays here, it would be too dangerous to Hori as well as Mew herself. I can’t be selfish. I have to let them go.

“I…yeah. It would be unfortunate but to keep Hori safe, it's a small price.” said Succi with a grim smile.

“It's not a small price! Please don’t say that. I have a few friends that I would like to be with here as well” said Mew.

“Don’t be childish, Mew. You can just make new friends. I’m sure an outgoing person like you wouldn’t have troubles.” said Hellen.

“That’s not the problem. People aren’t replaceable. And I don’t see why we have to leave our home and be driven away when we didn’t do anything wrong!” yelled Mew.

“I…I killed dad. I did do something wrong. Instead of making you suffer like this. It's just better for me to take my rightful punishment” said Hori with teary eyes.

“Don’t say that! I won’t let you suffer any longer! If those judges and juries like their punishment so much they can enter their own cells and enjoy their suffering. You have a bright life ahead of you. You and your baby. So don’t feel any guilt.” said Mew as she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her to herself to embrace her.

“Argh, dammit.” grumbled Hellen.

“Hmph. Personally I would just wait for the worst. If worst comes, Saran can handle a gun pretty well. We would try to fight them off and go into hiding. Until then there is no point in worrying.” said Jude.

The discussion ended there. Hellen couldn’t bring herself to eat the rest of the food. After a nice hot tea Jude and Yumiko started cleaning the table and washing the dishes. One of the baby, recently named Menushka, started crying which woke up Omi and Rara who were sleeping in the cribs next to hers.

Yulia, Mew and Imi quickly went there and comforted the babies.

Seeing how Hellen sat there miserable, Hori couldn’t help but feel curious and walked up to her.

“Are you okay? If something is troubling you, you could say it to us.” said Hori with a smile.

“I…” started Hellen but sighed.

Mew came to them as well and looked at Hellen’s downer face with a frown.

“Hey, come with us.” said Mew and grabbed Hellen’s hand.

The three of them went through the hallway and entered Mew and Hori’s room.

“Sit down.” said Mew and offered Hellen a seat on her bed.

It was extended to be long so that both Hori and Mew could sleep together. Hellen sat and placed her hands on her knees awkwardly.

“You look down.” said Mew.

“Of course, I would look down. I don’t understand how I’m supposed to solve this. I thought I was good with puzzles and coming up with solutions to problems. But I’m stumped. Running away seemed like the most logical option. But…your arguments are pretty good too.” said Hellen as she slumped on the bed with her back, defeated.

Mew climbed onto the bed and lied next to her and said “You don’t have to be so logical all the time. I know detectives gotta use their head but…you should use your heart too.”

Hori also climbed and laid on Hellen’s right side.

Hellen was at a loss for words. She looked at the ceiling and said “I thought I did. But I guess that was the problem. Recently I’ve been thinking and worrying too much. What if I was wrong. What if everything I did was for nothing and all I did was doom everyone? Hui Ying, Kyong, Dimitri, they all died for this. If I mess up and allow you to get captured. How am I gonna keep going? What value do I have?”

“What are you saying? You will always have a value. You’re not a tool to save others, you know that? You’re a person. The very fact that you’re here and ate dinner with us made me happy. I’m happy to know that you care about me so much.” said Mew and kissed Hellen on her cheek.

Hellen’s face turned red and her eyes darted in weird directions awkwardly.

“And you’re also not appreciating how you helped me too. Without you, I would have never seen Mew again. I don’t want you to keep beating yourself over things that you didn’t do. You saved me and you’re doing good things every day.” said Hori as she slumped on the bed next to Hellen’s other side as well.

“Thanks. I’m sorry if I’m being such a downer.” said Hellen.

Hellen looked at Mew next to her. Her gentle smile and dreamy green eyes was alluring to Hellen. She barely held back her tears.

“Hellen, is there still something you would like to tell us? Don’t hide it.” said Mew.

Hellen bit her lips and looked troubled. Her heart ached more than it ever did before.

“I…I don’t wanna lose you Mew. I’m scared.” said Hellen.

“Yeah. I can see that.” said Mew.

“I thought I was strong. Fearless. But looking at you, being like this…I’ve never felt more comfortable like this in my life, rarely I felt it. But I’m also scared. No matter how much you two try to help me I feel scared.” said Hellen.

“It's okay to feel scared. I was scared of losing Mew too. When dad hit me and when I was taken away. In that dark confinement room. I was always afraid.” said Hori.

“It's not good to pretend. I know as a detective you’re supposed to look brave and save people’s lives but wanting to fool others and hiding your true emotions is just mischievous.” said Mew with a frown.

“You’re right.” said Hellen, tears sparkling in her eyes.

She was panting hard. The feeling was unbearable. Almost like a flood was rising from within her insides and hitting a wall then stopping. This wall, it was so painful.

I have to get rid of it. This wall. I have to say it. I know I’m being selfish. I know I don’t deserve it, not a single bit but I have to say it.

“I…I love you Mew” said Hellen desperately.

Mew blinked with big eyes. Before she could respond she placed her head on Mew’s chest. Tears started to sprawl out of Hellen’s eyes and flooded down her cheeks.

“Oh…so you did love my sister. Guess that explains why I was saved.” grumbled Hori.

Mew put her arms around Hellen’s and gently caressed her.

“I understand. Okay. You love me. And I love you too. Hori might get jealous but I hope she understands too.” said Mew.

Mew looked at Hori with a happy smile and in return Hori gave a reassuring smile back.

“I…I know. I’m stupid. You and I didn’t spend much time together. But I…I still love you. I know what I’m saying is selfish. But I…I just wanted you to know. I need you.” said Hellen as she cried and panted.

“It's not wrong to be selfish, you know that. I love you too and you helped me so much. I want you to be happy as well. This world would have been so much better if everyone just strived to become happy. Strived to love and live as deeply as humanly possible.” said Mew with a warm smile.

Hellen rubbed her cheeks against Mew’s bosom. It was so soft and so warm, almost as if she had become a child again, forgetting about all the jobs and responsibilities she had to bear, she could become a child again in her embrace.

Hori suddenly crawled and hugged Hellen from behind.

“Don’t leave me out. Why didn’t I get a confession?” said Hori with a laugh.

Hellen smiled and turned around to face Hori. This time, Hellen looked much brighter and happier than usual.

“I love you too, Hori.”

Hori happily hugged Hellen tight and plunged her face under her head.

“Thanks. It's great to know there are more people in the world who love me and need me.” said Hori.

Hellen smiled happily at her and kissed her on the forehead.

“No matter what happens. I’ll always protect you.” said Hellen.

“Then running away definitely is the wrong option. If we get separated from one another how are you going to protect all of us?” asked Mew as she hugged Hellen from behind.

“Y-yeah. I guess you’re right. I’ve been so afraid of Klancy and the other detectives finding out the truth that I’ve completely forgotten about the possibility of danger lurking around in other countries.” said Hellen.