Master of his heart (Brielle and Max)

The year both my dad and 001 disappeared, I was only nineteen.

One evening at the base, I came across a face that looked just like 001's-it was Jaired.

Jaired had no idea 001 had died. He was simply confused about why his brother had stopped contacting him. Thrown into the team, he found his days endlessly dull. And then, he saw Irene.

But when Irene looked at him, her emotions burst out in a mix of tears and laughter. She joyfully asked how he could still be alive.

Jaired and Irene weren't close. He had only seen her a few times while pretending to be 001 to infiltrate the base.

One of those times was the night she became the leader.

He wasn't interested in her, despite her beauty.

That night, while pretending to be 001, the old leader mentioned picking a few guys for the lovely lady, and she had agreed, even drinking some special concoction.

So when she knelt before him, begging, Jaired was shocked. He thought she was delirious from the potion and mistook him for one of the chosen men.

Of course, he left. She wasn't his type. The men she wanted were right outside, weren't they?

That night, Irene learned there were two 001s. And the one who rejected her wasn't the one she yearned for, marking the second time she cried. The first was the night she was rejected. In her life, she had only cried for 001.

She cast aside her leader's cold and stoic demeanor, frantically questioning Jaired.

"Why did you come that night? Why didn't you tell me you were Jaired? And why did you open that door? Even if you had waited a few minutes for 001 to arrive, it would have been better."

"Do you know, this past year, I sent him on a hundred missions. He survived ninety-nine and died on the last one. If only you had told me the truth before that, it would have made a difference."

Jaired, the cherished child of the Riddle family, was doted upon and held with high hopes by everyone. Born with everything, he never really longed for anything. Achieving success with ease in the team even before adulthood, he found these victories bland and uninteresting.

Meeting 001, he discovered an exciting life he never knew existed, unaware that what he scorned was what 001 had strived for his whole life but could never achieve.

Jaired was the first to suggest

swapping lives, a game he found

endlessly entertaining. The constraints he faced in the Riddle family seemed to vanish here, freeing his true nature. He thought he should have been the one left behind, and 001 should have become the Riddle family's promising young lord.

But he never anticipated his thrill-seeking nature would ruin two lives. He forced Irene to mature, to abandon her emotions and become a ruthless leader, with only her dagger for company. He forced his twin brother to endure pain, to undertake deadly missions arranged by the one he loved, never to return.

Jaired's sins were too numerous to atone for. His mind buzzed, Irene's heart-wrenching sobs and accusations echoing in his ears. For the first time, Jaired felt true panic, an emotion foreign to him. Exhausted from crying, Irene released his collar, her voice hoarse, "From now on, you're my 001, you're my Jaired."

Jaired couldn't argue. He couldn't repay the debt he owed. A simple apology was never going to be enough.

He truly became her Jaired, watching as she became increasingly merciless, yet he saw in her a despair so profound it bordered on madness.

"Jaired, isn't this what you like? Watching others in pain, watching them tear themselves apart?"

This was Jaired's dark secret, the side of him he hated to confront. His rise in the team was fueled by his ruthlessness, the thrill he found in others' torment. But as a Riddle, such emotions were disgraceful, so he had to mask them, pretending to be normal.

Normal people fall in love, so he

displayed affection for Alivia, even genuinely feeling swayed by her at times. Of course, he liked her, but more so he liked seeing her in

distress, plotting against oth net

relished witnessing such vile

He

displays. Thus, when Alivia fell from grace, her allure for him Vanished with her desperation.

"Jaired, you're to replace 001, always by my side. You're the one who grew up with me, you owe me and him, a debt you'll never fully repay."

This became Irene's regular proclamation, always delivered with a smile.novelbin