Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 4-6) ✓

175 | Friends

     This was Keigo's apartment, and with his help, Max would know what to do.

     "Max!" a voice calls out.

     Keigo steps out of the building and walks toward Max with a smile. Keigo was surprised and glad that Max messaged him first, and he was also excited to talk about what happened at the banquet yesterday, but when he saw the serious expression on Max's face, his expression instantly falls too. "What happened?" He asks as he stops in front of Max.

     Max doesn't say anything, but to his surprise, the heir bows to him and says, "Please, I need your help."

     Keigo's eyes widened from shock. He quickly looked around at the people who walked past them and were giving Keigo weird looks, so Keigo panicked and immediately asked Max to stand properly. "P-Please stop," Keigo begs, grabbing Max's shoulder so he would stop bowing to him. "You need my help? Then don't bow like that. We're friends, aren't we? That's what you said."

     Max smiles at Keigo and nods at him, making Keigo smile as well.

     "Alright, then let's head inside. You can tell me everything after," Keigo says as he leads Max to his apartment which was on the 9th floor.

     Unlike Gavriil's apartment that Max and Keigo went to before, Keigo's apartment was definitely smaller. And when they got inside, Max was surprised to see the ton of books that were scattered everywhere, almost making it look more like a library than an apartment.

     "I apologize if it's a bit messy. You messaged me so suddenly that I wasn't able to tidy up," Keigo explains, picking up a pile of books from the sofa and putting it back inside his room.

     "No, it's fine. I should be the one who should apologize."

"Oh don't be silly," Keigo says, gesturing at the now empty sofa so Max could take a seat.

     Max thanks him and sits down. Keigo then takes a glass of water and hands it over to Max before asking, "So, what happened?"

     "It's about Felix," Max explains before taking a sip of the water that Keigo gave him. "I called him an hour ago because I wanted to ask if he was okay, but when I talked to him, he suddenly told me that he needed my help, and then the call ended soon after. I couldn't call him anymore after that."

     When Keigo heard what Max has to say, he sat beside Max on the sofa and took a deep breath. "I might know what it could be about," Keigo honestly tells him, and Max looks back at him and says, "It's about the case with your father, isn't it?"

     Keigo was surprised that Max already knew about it, but he didn't try to question him as he nodded his head instead. "That's right. On the day you were talking to Siren, Felix and I waited for you outside. I didn't really have any bad intentions, I just genuinely wanted him to know about his grandfather's involvement with my father's crime."

     "So it's true then? That his family was supposed to get a sum if you successfully stole the money from that big company?" Max asks, and Keigo takes another deep breath before nodding his head to confirm it.

     Max doesn't say anything and massages his temple instead. He was hoping that Étienne just got it all wrong, but hearing it from Keigo, Max could only stay quiet.

     "I don't know how he took that information, but your friend must have done something about it. He must have tried to confirm it himself, but he ended up getting in trouble because of it. Of course, that's just an assumption," Keigo explains.

     "Our friend," Max then corrects.

     Keigo was surprised, but he smile and nods his head. "Our friend," Keigo repeated.