TrueBoring... every day was nothing but this. Killing, drinking, then killing again, then drinking again, with the occasional big talk from people in the family.
What number person was this today? He couldn’t remember. He didn’t want to remember.
In any case, all he had to do was obey the godfather’s arrangements. It was simple, easy.
Sixteen years ago, when he was still young, the godfather took him in, and from then on he became a member of the family. To repay the godfather, he swore he would spend his life defending the godfather’s authority here.
It was only killing a few people, only selling some... it didn’t matter. He only had to get rid of everyone the godfather hated.
Just after he walked into the tavern, under the dim lights he watched the server bring him his usual drink as always, and someone nearby silently walked over and handed him a letter.
Kim Seonwoo opened the letter and drained the glass in one gulp.
It seemed to be the next target.
According to the instructions, he needed to infiltrate the target’s home and, without being discovered by anyone else in the neighborhood, silently take out the target and his wife...
and their young daughter.
The young daughter.
Kim Seonwoo looked at the bodies of the couple before him, and at the girl he held in one arm as she struggled desperately.
The knife in his other hand was still dripping blood, and the girl in his arms looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, young and thin.
He looked at you, his gaze moving from your slender calves, to the hem of your skirt, to your smooth silk dress, then to your delicate face, and finally to your fair neck.
Just another target, no different from any other he had killed before. All he had to do was raise the knife, slice across her pretty neck, watch her eyes gradually dim, watch her blood run over his palm.
Why couldn’t his hand lift. Why did he want to see what this face looked like when it smiled. Why, of all things, could he not bear to see those bright, sparkling eyes sink into dead water.
Why. Why. Why. Kim Seonwoo asked himself over and over. He stared at you, frowning.
"Just carry out the order." He heard the godfather’s voice echo in his mind.
But... he hesitated.
You seized the chance when Kim Seonwoo let his guard down, broke free of him, and ran screaming toward the door. As long as you drew the attention of the other residents in the neighborhood...
The door had already been locked tight by Kim Seonwoo.
When you tried to pick the lock, Kim Seonwoo was already behind you, his right arm around your waist and his other hand raising the knife straight toward the artery in your neck.
"I’ll be very gentle." You heard Kim Seonwoo say softly behind you, "It’ll be worthy of your beauty."
"Who are you? No... whose man are you?" your voice trembled.
"You don’t need to know."
Tell me, heaven, if this is my fate. If today I must admit that I am about to leave this world.
Tell me, Godfather, if this is my fate. If today I must admit that I killed this girl.
I no longer want to leave.
"Tell me, what do I do so you’ll let me go?" you asked softly. "None of this has anything to do with me. I don’t know what my parents are doing."
A long time passed after you finished speaking, and there was only silence behind you.
"Please... if I’m destined to die here, then please give me a quick death!"
Soft strands of hair brushed against Kim Seonwoo’s shoulder, tickling, lightly teasing at his heart. His heart urged his body to make the next move, but his brain, in its tension, issued the wrong command. Kim Seonwoo heard his own mouth make a sound: "You... want to get a cup of coffee with me?"
The living room held two corpses, and the living person in the room was pressed against the doorway in an extremely ambiguous posture; death and romance were perhaps the dramas that played out here every day.
You nodded without knowing why.
The cold knife left your neck, and a large hand brought warmth to your lower abdomen. Your heart was still beating, yet even you couldn’t tell whether it was for your dead parents, or for the enemy who had wiped out your entire family behind you.
He wrapped you in his coat and sent you to a district outside the mafia’s jurisdiction, leaving you alone in a cramped room on the tavern’s top floor. He said he would take care of everything, and no one would suspect a thing. He said he would protect your safety and not let anyone get close to you. He said he would take you out for coffee and wouldn’t allow anyone else to date you ever again.
