Chapter 36

Chapter 36

"Nevi, Nevi, are you alright?" Makaji stared straight at Nevi, a shadow of something unreadable flickering through his eyes, yet his voice was thick with concern.

Nevi closed his eyes, his slender fingers pressed against his forehead, brows slightly furrowed, waves of dizziness washing over him in relentless surges, making him miserable.

Makaji's voice beside him drifted in and out, muffled and indistinct.

Through the haze, Nevi thought he heard Makaji offer to take him to the lounge to rest.

His mind sluggish and barely functional, Nevi mumbled a vague reply, and then felt Makaji steer him with a firm, insistent grip as they left the buffet area, seemingly heading toward the lounge.

Makaji's grip was rough, tugging at Nevi in a way that made his skin crawl. Nevi tried to pull away, but couldn't—Makaji's hold on his arm only tightened.

Nevi winced, the pain finally cutting through the fog in his head. He forced his eyes open, only to lock eyes with Makaji's bottomless stare.

"Nevi, what's wrong? Be careful now—if you let go of me, you'll fall." Makaji's tone was as gentle as ever, yet there was a cloying, syrupy quality to it that made Nevi instinctively shiver.

The warnings from Barlow, Paz, and the others came rushing back. What he'd brushed off earlier finally began to sink in, and his face, already flushed from the alcohol, drained of color, his heartbeat quickening considerably.

But before Nevi could react, everything went sideways.

"Bang"

A sharp, cracking thud rang out, and Nevi heard Makaji's furious voice beside him: "Joelson, are you blind?!"

Caught off guard, Nevi was suddenly shoved aside by Makaji, his body lurching as he started to topple backward.

But a stranger's strong arm shot out and caught him, steadying him.

"Ne—Nevi, are you alright?"

The stranger's voice was frantic with worry, yet carefully controlled. He guided Nevi to a pillar in the hall, and once Nevi was steady, he let go immediately, hovering nearby in quiet protection.

Nevi grunted in acknowledgment, steadying himself against the pillar. The dizziness in his head only got worse, making him feel even more miserable.

The fruit wine Makaji had given him was deceptively strong—smooth going down, but the kick hit hard and fast.

Nevi blinked hard at the stranger, trying to focus, but the alcohol kept his face a stubborn blur.

Meanwhile, the strange guy had started arguing with Makaji.

"Joelson, did you do that on purpose?! What exactly are you trying to do?" Makaji glared at his shirt, now soaked in juice, sticky and filthy, his face twisted in disgust. Especially when he saw Joelson flat-out ignore him and go to steady Nevi instead, his fury spiked.

"I should be asking you that! What did you slip Nevi, and where were you dragging him off to?" Joelson demanded, nearly in disbelief.

After the full moon ceremony, Joelson had been secretly watching Nevi—gorgeous, glowing, and surrounded by admirers.

When he saw several young, accomplished guys approach to chat him up, Joelson—normally so confident and cocky at school—felt a rare flicker of insecurity.

Sure, he was top of his class among his peers.

But he couldn't hold a candle to those guys who'd already made their mark in the real world, with real power and connections.

Feeling deflated, Joelson had taken his little brother to the play area for a bit. When he came back, Nevi was gone.

He dropped his brother off with their family, then went looking for Nevi—only to spot Makaji yanking a stumbling Nevi along.

Joelson's breath hitched. His gut screaming that something was wrong, he grabbed a big cup of juice from the buffet and splashed it all over Makaji without a second thought.

Makaji was the sneaky, two-faced type, a master of putting on a good show. He had the elders completely fooled. But behind closed doors, he had no standards—he'd sweet-talk plain, timid male insects and stoop to any low to get what he wanted.

He went after male insects from humble homes, shy dispositions, and low status. With his chairman dad and high-ranking mom backing him, he knew these male insects would never dare to make a scene.

Joelson couldn't believe Makaji would pull something like this at such an event.

It wasn't until Joelson helped Nevi up and caught the heavy smell of mixed liquor on him that he knew for sure—that lunatic Makaji really was after Nevi.

Today was his kids' birthday party, after all. There was no way Nevi, as their father, would drink something like that.

"What's it to you? Since when are you such a nosy prick, Joelson?!" Makaji's face twisted with the rage of being caught red-handed.

"Makaji, you shouldn't have laid a hand on Nevi. Do you know what occasion this is? Do you know how much your dad and mom value Nevi? Are you trying to blow this up?!" Joelson stared hard at Makaji, his voice low.

Makaji's expression shifted, his lust-addled brain finally snapping back to reality. He shot Nevi a bitter, wary look, then gritted his teeth, spat out a threat, and stormed off.

"Joelson, I'll remember this. You just wait."

*

Nevi slid down the pillar, still dazed. Suddenly, a sharp, acrid smell drifted closer.

Instinctively, Nevi turned his head, trying to escape the stench.

But that voice—unfamiliar yet strangely familiar—spoke again: "Nevi, this is spicy lemon. Hold it under your tongue—it can sober you up. Would you like to try it?"

Nevi opened his eyes to see the guy crouched in front of him, carefully holding a long green-and-red strip of fruit through a bag, offering it to him.

Nevi hesitated, then thanked him in a raspy voice, taking the spicy lemon and tucking it under his tongue.

The second it hit his tongue, a sour, bitter tang with a sharp, burning kick shot straight through his skull.

That harsh, burning kick was exactly like the rough, cheap liquor he'd first tasted on Numbered Star.

Nevi clapped a hand over his mouth, coughing hard.

The guy beside him stammered nervously, asking if Nevi could handle it.

The spicy lemon actually worked. Once the initial shock faded, Nevi felt himself sobering up fast.

His foggy, rusted brain seemed to click back into gear.

But for some reason, his chest felt tight, and he could barely catch his breath.

Nevi looked up and finally got a clear look at the anxious face of the stranger in front of him.

He blinked—this guy with the flashy red hair looked familiar. He was the young guy who'd fumbled and forgotten his gift at the full moon ceremony.

"Thank you, Joelson. Thank you... for helping me." Nevi said gratefully, but the faint smile on his face held no warmth—only a bottomless bitterness.

"Don't be scared. If you can't say anything, I'll take this to the chairman myself. There's no way this gets brushed aside! That Makaji is a total creep."

Seeing the gorgeous male insect looking so lost and broken, Joelson's blood boiled, and he spoke up without a second thought.

"Thank you, Joelson, but not for now. Let me think about it..." Nevi had no idea what his voice sounded like when he said it.

Everything that had just happened left Nevi's head spinning—scared and completely lost.

He absolutely despised Makaji. That guy's shameless lust and hidden agenda had dragged up memories Nevi didn't want to revisit.

But his dad was Chairman Pegita, and his mom was Primo. They'd always been kind and patient with him.

The kind faces of Pegita[Pegita] and Primo[Primo] and Makaji[Makaji]'s twisted, hateful face kept flashing through Nevi[Nevi]'s mind.

Nevi's eyes glazed over, and the tightness in his chest got worse and worse.

Why, why did this have to happen to him?

Joelson[Joelson] beside him seemed about to say something more, but a hurried, flustered voice cut him off.

The heavy, tense atmosphere in the room froze instantly.

"Nevi, I finally found you! Hurry to the medical room—Barlow[Barlow] and the kids are there!" Paz[Paz] panted heavily, urgency in his voice.

"What? The medical room—what happened to the kids?!" Nevi shot to his feet, his face going completely blank.

"It's hard to say right now, and I don't know the details either—just get over there quickly!" Paz stepped forward swiftly, ignoring the stunned female insect standing there, and grabbed Nevi's hand, about to drag him away.

Nevi scrambled to follow, but after only a few steps, the suffocating tightness in his chest got worse, gradually turning into sharp pain.

Nevi stopped, his face twisted in pain, clutching the front of his shirt with one hand.

Paz, who had noticed something was wrong, and Joelson, who hadn't left yet, both rushed over.

"Nevi, what's wrong? Where does it hurt..."

Nevi opened his mouth to speak, but with another sharp stab of pain in his chest, his vision went black, and he passed out.

"Ahhh, Nevi! Nevi!" Seeing Nevi collapse to the ground, Paz let out a blood-curdling scream.

*

"Help! Leafwen! I need you urgently—please help me!" Crouched in the bushes outside the banquet hall, O'Casey[O'Casey] watched the security insects converging and shrank back, whispering urgently into his communicator to his friend Leafwen.

"How do you want me to help?" Leafwen's voice was calm and direct.

He didn't even bother asking O'Casey[O'Casey] what had happened.

"Can you hack the surveillance in the Male Insect Association[Male Insect Association] branch in East District Two for a while?" After saying this, O'Casey[O'Casey] felt it wasn't enough and added, "Better yet, delete the footage from the last two hours."

But upon hearing O'Casey[O'Casey]'s request, Leafwen, who had been relatively composed, instantly blew up.

"O'Casey[O'Casey], are you crazy, or am I? The male insect branch is still part of the Male Insect Association. Hack their surveillance and delete footage for you? Even if I could pull it off, if I actually did it, I swear the Imperial police bug[police bug] would be at our door within two hours! What the hell did you do?! If it's not serious, go find your female parent for help right now. If it is, turn yourself in—come clean, and maybe your female parent can still bail you out. Don't drag me into this! We're not that close. Anything else? If not, I'm hanging up."

"Hey, hey, wait, wait!" O'Casey[O'Casey] cut in quickly, "It's not that serious. It's just—just that I might be mistaken for a baby thief right now. I'm stuck here. Please, Leafwen, you've got to save me! I can't let my female parent find out about this. Help me out, and I'll send you that jewelry set you've had your eye on right away." O'Casey[O'Casey] rubbed his nose, begging nonstop.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. Perhaps it was O'Casey[O'Casey]'s pitiful tone, or maybe the jewelry was just too tempting. Either way, Leafwen's voice softened a lot. "Fine, I'll set up a small virus to jam the cameras for fifteen minutes. You'd better run fast. I can't delete the old footage, but I'll mess with it so it's blurry."

"Heh heh, that's more than enough. No one in the association knows me anyway. Thanks!" O'Casey[O'Casey] broke into a grin, full of confidence.

*

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Author's note: I managed to get this out, though it's still yesterday's chapter. Next chapter, we'll see if the brother-in-law is still this confident. Heh heh. Kaisisen[Kaisisen], who's been missing for a while, should also show up next chapter~

Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!