---
The soft glow from MJ’s phone screen burned into Nani’s vision.
Message received — Unknown Number
“Give us the file MJ. With the rest of the documents. We know you've got something.
Or do you want to see someone else end up like Nani?”
His breath hitched.
His chest tightened, his fingers cold and shaking.
“…end up like Nani?”
He staggered back. The floor beneath him suddenly felt unsteady. He looked around.
The apartment was alive with the sound of faint arguing and giggles. Sky’s voice echoed from the hallway, yelling something about toothpaste. Tee was laughing weakly from the couch. Dew was tucking him in again, scolding gently.
No one noticed the storm churning behind Nani’s eyes.
He waited. Waited until the laughter dulled. Until everyone had finally gone to their rooms. Until the lights dimmed.
Only then did he quietly grab his hoodie, zip it up, and slip out the door.
---
The night air was icy and still.
Nani didn’t dare take a cab. Too risky. He walked—fast, his footsteps echoing against the pavement, heart hammering louder with every step.Nani’s fingers trembled as he locked the door to the apartment—the one that once felt like home. The place he used to share with MJ before everything collapsed.
And then he found it.
A box.
Tucked behind a false panel at the back of MJ’s closet.
Wooden. Sturdy. Locked.
Nani’s fingers brushed over the lock, his heart crawling up his throat.
“…The key…”
The one they found earlier. The one hidden in that basement. This had to be it.
But he didn’t open the box. He couldn’t—not now. He gently placed it back where he found it, careful not to leave a trace.
His legs nearly gave out as he left the apartment and walked back in the dead of night.
The streets were silent, the weight of the message still screaming in his mind.
“Do you want to see someone else end up like Nani?”
He got back to the HQ apartment just after 3 a.m., every step slow and silent.
He twisted the doorknob.
Clicked it shut.
One step inside—
“Where the hell were you?”
Nani froze.
Sky stood near the hallway, arms crossed, face unreadable—but his eyes were full of rage. He was still dressed. He had waited.
“Sky…” Nani muttered.
“Don’t even try it,” Sky said sharply, stepping forward. “You snuck out again.”
“I—”
“No. You don’t get to speak yet.” Sky’s voice was low and dangerous. “Do you have any idea what you just did?”
“I had to go—”
“You had to go?” Sky snapped. “In the middle of the night? Alone? After everything—after nearly bleeding out in my arms—you still think it’s okay to disappear?”
“I didn’t have a choice!” Nani yelled back. “I got a message—someone’s threatening us, threatening MJ! What was I supposed to do, sit here like a coward?!”
“You could have told someone! You could have told me! Damn it, Nani!” Sky’s voice cracked. “You could’ve been attacked again!”
“Then maybe I should’ve been!” Nani shouted. “Because I’m so sick of all of you treating me like I’m going to break!”
Sky stepped back like he’d been slapped. “Is that what you think we’re doing?”
“You don’t trust me to handle anything on my own,” Nani hissed. “You hover. You scold. You act like you care, but all you really want is control!”
Sky’s jaw clenched. “You think this is about control?! I carried you back when you were bleeding, Nani! I cleaned your blood off my hands! I sat by your bed every single night hoping you’d be alright—”
“And I never asked you to!” Nani’s voice shook, eyes burning. “You chose to do that! I never begged you to care, Sky!”
“I chose to because I—” Sky’s voice caught in his throat. “Because I can’t watch you die.”
Silence.
A moment stretched between them, full of fury, grief, and everything they wouldn’t say.
Nani turned away first.
“Next time, just don’t wait up,” he muttered coldly.
Sky’s fists were shaking. “Next time, don’t expect me to save you.”
---
Nani walked to his room without looking back.
Sky remained in the dark hallway, eyes burning.
And in the quiet living room…
Tee was snoring softly on the couch with his head in Dew’s lap.
---
Junior was asleep on Mark’s shoulder, an empty popcorn bowl in his lap.
They had no idea.
But when morning came, everyone would feel it—the shift. The quiet. The wall that now stood between Sky and Nani like an unspoken storm.
---
YOU ARE READING
Shadows of Identity
Mystery / ThrillerNani, a soft-hearted university student, lives a quiet life overshadowed by his older twin brother, MJ-a cold, calculating detective feared and respected at HQ. But when an attempt on Nani's life leaves him comatose, fate twists in the most impossib...
