---

“You okay?’’ Minho looks back over his shoulders. She’s a couple of steps behind, the both of them confined within the narrow stairway that he lead them through.

Her ragged laugh echoes through the dingy space, “You know you’re seriously living up to that serial killer persona.”

A smile pulls the corner of his lips, partly sorry for the rash decision of bringing her here. Minho noticed, the way her face faltered warily the second they pulled up by the rundown building that loomed amongst others in the outskirt of the city. 

Her reluctance was evident, pondering a little too long by the open entrance as her eyes roamed slowly across the vicinity of the place that seemed inhabitable at first glance. 

‘’It’s not as bad as it looks, just a little further up here.’’ Minho tips his head to the side, motioning the way with a small smile. She stares back at him in a moment of hesitation, but looks down and resumes her way up. Minho breathes out a silent sigh of relief.

Undoubtedly dark, Minho was careful to steal a glance back to her every once in a while. When she called out to him, fingers outstretched, Minho took her hand in his without missing a beat. In a midst of uncertainty, Minho knew that whatever it was that she feared for before, it wasn’t him.

He rounds a corner, his booted feet scraping dust off the sturdy concrete as he kicks a towering, wooden partition and slides it to the side. It served as door to a metallic elevator, the stark contrast of the two entrances seems like a portal to a whole other world.

Minho runs his thumb swiftly across a small trackpad by the side and the sleek doors slide open soundlessly. He steps in and feels a slight tug, her hand still clasped in his own across the distance that now stretched between them.

Minho says nothing, hoping that there is comfort in the way he looks at her, wanting nothing more than to assure her that the choice is up to her. She flicks her gaze away to everywhere but him, following suit as she enters the elevator but it’s the soft squeeze of her hand that soothes him a little.

The elevator drops down for a good moment, long enough to signal that they are no longer above ground. When the doors open to reveal a place that certainly didn’t belong hidden in the industrial abandonments they just scoured through, Minho had to block the doors from closing back as she is left rooted to the floor of the lift.

“We’re here.” He says, eyeing her with his nerves in a wreck.

She remains quiet, nodding gently and steps out, soaking in the staggering unfamiliarity of his home.

Minho moves aside as she trails toward the spacious living space, her eyes roaming over the minimalistic ambience. He catches the way she paused when she took notice of several computers that lined one end of his home, state of the art gadgets that transformed the place into an unsuspecting, spiffy bachelor pad.

The silence bloats and Minho begs silently for her to say a word, or walk out, anything than the calm collected display. She turns around to look at him through the massive, glass screen that separates them.

‘’Did… did you do all this?’’ She asks quietly.

‘’It didn’t happen overnight, but yeah.’’ He says, holding her curious gaze.

‘’I should be scared, shouldn’t I?’’

“Are you?’’ Minho asks after a while, still observing her at a distance.

“Well for one, it’ll take one hell of an explanation to convince me why this is normal, Minho.” She scoffs out a small laugh, running one hand slowly through her hair.

Minho stalls the seconds once more, his pulse picking up the way she looks at him expectantly.

‘’I do.’’ He confesses and it’s too late to reel back his words.

“Hit me with your best shot.’’ She says with a faint smile and for some reason, Minho is unnerved.

“Not when it’s you.’’ Minho draws a collective sigh, funny how it feels almost impossible to own up when he saw this confrontation coming. ‘’They say I never miss a shot.’’

The air stills for a moment, her eyes drifting carefully his way. “They?’’

“People that know about me. People that hire me.’’ He swallows thickly, the weight on his shoulders seemingly heavier now.

There’s a subtle widening of her eyes, to which she blinks away. Minho thought he’d braced himself for the one question she has yet to ask.  

“Hire you for what?’’

A heavy sense of dread dissipates into something more suffocating within him, leaving him to battle with the words on his tongue.

‘’I have a feeling you got a pretty good idea.’’ Minho says, unable to keep eye contact this time as he walks away.  

‘’What? That you kill for a living?’’

She says it almost too easily, like it wasn’t the first time, leaving Minho to halt abruptly in his tracks. The silence he insists confirms her of his answer.

‘’Are they good people, Minho?’’  

Her voice closes in from behind him, his eyes fluttering shut for a second before he turns around to face her, drowned in guilt.

His pupils waver when their eyes meet. ‘’There’s a reason why someone wants them dead.’’

‘’Are they innocent?’’ She asks, and this time, it’s her that looks away.

For the first time, Minho realizes how wrong everything really is. The kind of overdue realization that crushes him and he’s angry at himself, angry at his sickening fate. ‘’Who knows. I just get the ing job done, I’m no different than them.’’

Minho darts toward the elevator without a second thought, yet she stays put and he looks back at her, face stained with regret.

‘’Where are you going?’’ She asks, her composure nothing like his shaken one.

‘’Walking you out, you can go.’’ Minho replies, pursing his lips to a line as he ushers her to come over.

‘’I’m not leaving, Minho.’’ Her shoulders drop when she breathes out a quite sigh. Minho can only stare at her in disbelief.

‘’Is there something you want from me? How can you be okay after hearing that?’’ He asks flatly, hating how he’s raised his voice without meaning to.

‘’You’re a good person.’’ She makes her way over to him and Minho is unravelling at the seams dangerously quick, so much more than he can bear.

He shakes his head in protest. “The blood on my hands. I can see them.’’

‘’You’re a good person.’’ She repeats sternly and for a fraction of a second Minho almost believes it. He wonders if this is it, if this is the crazy  people in love make each other believe just asSeunghoon had warned him about.  

‘’A good person with bad choices.’’

Something in him snapped, robbing his vocabulary and as if the universe knew he needed saving, an all too familiar voice fleets through the built-in sound system surrounding the perimeter of his home.

“I knew it.” Seunghoon let out a laugh, ultimately shattering the tension between them. ”I ing knew it.”

She stiffens, a frown weaving through her face. “What was that?”

Alarmed, Minho freezes on the spot. His eyes shooting to odd corners of the place with obvious caution.

“How long have you been listening?” Minho chides, brows furrowed as he glares up to a corner, the one he’s sure Seunghoon is looking through. The interruption distracts him, caught off guard when he realizes that she had followed him, tilting her head up towards the hidden camera with great interest.

“Long enough to know that you two have been sneakin ’round my back. How long were you planning to keep this from me, Song?” Seunghoon snorts in amusement.

“What’s going on? Who’s that?” She asks lowly, tipping her face to look at him and Minho rubs the nape of his neck gruffly out of annoyance.

“No one. Just a glitch in the intercom’s system that I need to get rid off.” He stalks off, scanning the shelves for something in particular while Seunghoon takes full offense to what he just said.

“You’re taking the piss out of me, aren’t you? Let me know when you actually find someone as good as me-”

Minho holds out a tiny pointer, flicking the device briskly and the room is silenced in no time. 

“Sorry about that. I never bring anyone back home so I forget he’s just there all the damn time.” He offers her an apologetic smile, their previous conversation disappearing into thin air.

“Who?”

“Lee Seunghoon.”

---

Later that night, Minho found the place strangely quiet only to realize that he’d cut off all internal communications with Seunghoon.

He probably should have left it that way when Seunghoon’s voice erupts the line, bombarding him with a series of questions that made him feel like a suspect.

Despite it all, Minho swore that there was a sense of relief, tinged with wishful happiness in the way Seunghoon spoke. It was a contradiction on its own, how Seunghoon had always skated on thin ice when it came to talks of keeping relationships strictly for business.

But as expected, Seunghoon played safe.

‘’Ever considered doing a background check on her?”

Minho sighs internally, dropping his head back onto his seat as he’s reminded of how Seunghoon had found her reaction to all of this suspiciously odd.

“You already did, didn’t you?” Minho asks to empty air, swivelling on his chair while he looks up vacantly to the ceiling.

Seunghoon dismisses the all too right accusation and clears his throat as if to brace himself. “Minho, Client 444.”

Everything pauses as if the Earth angled on an entirely different axis. Minho shifts cautiously as he straightens up.

‘’I thought we agreed to bury the hatchet.” He says stiffly.

“You can insist all you want, but I know you think about it every day, Minho. Nothing is buried and you know that.”

Of course, Seunghoon always had to point out the elephant in the room even when they could hear it loud and clear. Client 444 was a mistake Minho gladly admits, an offer that lead him to none other than Kim Jinwoo.

Kim Jinwoo was the one and only target, but Minho underestimated the highly skilled entourage hired to protect his every move. Due to his lack of humanely principles, Minho held strongly to one he could adhere to and that was to shoot a single bullet.

Yet on that ill-fated day, there was no other ploy and he failed to keep his shot clean, taking down two agents before they realized that Kim Jinwoo was under a sniper’s eye.

“Whatever this is, you can keep to yourself. I’d rather not know.” Minho gets to his feet gruffly, more than ready to drop the subject that clawed him from the inside out.

Seunghoon hisses a sharp intake of air and Minho can already him shaking his head in disapproval. “I don’t know about that. What if I tell you she’s involved in this one?”

His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach at the mention of her name.

“Seunghoon-”

“They were related, Minho. That agent you took down… he was her brother.”

---

“Where have you been? I tried calling you a few times.” Minho asks, the phone pressed between his cheeks and shoulders as he fumbles for his keys.

“Oh, that was you? You’ve got to cut me some slack, Minho, you change numbers more than I can keep track.” She retorts with a chuckle.

He smiles and sighs into the phone.  “I’m sorry. Are you free tonight?”

“Why, what have you got in mind?” A hint of excitement rings in her voice and Minho was expecting something in between the lines of an assignment she has to catch up on, or an extra shift at the restaurant.

“Remember that date?”

“What date?”

“A proper one, the one we never had.”

There is a moment of silence. “Hm. Go on, I’m listening.”

Minho can almost hear her smile through the line.

“Well, I’m taking you on one.” He rolls his lip to his teeth, pressing on a tight-lipped smile.

“That took you long enough, Song Minho.” She laughs a little timidly, and Minho can’t help but agree. It had been over a year since they first met. “Where to?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“You can’t do that.” She groans a little.

“Why not?” Minho asks, his tone teasing and she must have rolled her eyes at this point.

“I need to know, just in case, you know… I dress up in heels and we end up hiking or something.” She’s sulking, he knows.

Minho fights his rising amusement at her spontaneity he’s rather fond of. A hike was not the date he had in mind, at least it’s not what normal social conventions expects him to, right?

“What if I tell you I got you something?” He reveals, all the while tucking the ribbon wrapped box under one arm.

“Like something to wear?” She asks slowly.

“Yes, I’ll be there in fifteen.” He grins into the phone, chancing a quick look at his reflection, still wondering the last time he put on a classic suit for an actual dinner date.

“You didn’t have to, Minho.” A sigh leaves her and Minho ignores her protest.

“I want to. I’ll see you?”

“Alright. And, oh, Minho?”

“Hm?” He hums absentmindedly as the elevator closes in.

“Someone’s here waiting for you.”

---

By the time he reached her apartment, he was sprinting in cold sweat. Tapping her passcode urgently like his life depended on it and barged into her home as discreetly as he could manage.

He’s met with utter silence while his pulse rammed violently, catching a much needed breath with his back pressed against the wall. His eyes scattered throughout the place for anything out of the ordinary, landing on a cardboard box that sat by the foot of the living room couch.

Minho steadies himself, thinking that perhaps he’d taken this the wrong way but after his conversation with Seunghoon, he’d been walking on pins and needles at the grim possibility. Who exactly was waiting for him?

He continues to stare at the box, finding it somewhat peculiar and proceeds to get closer. The lids are open, flapped to the sides and as he hovers the box, Minho is perplexed.

A cat.

Minho blinks back at the furry creature, its orange fur almost drowning its face as it glances up at him.

“I see you’ve met her already.” A voice appears before him and Minho nearly jumps.

She brushes past Minho and crouches down to the box, beaming up at him and he’s still too taken at the turn of things he didn’t expect.

 “She’s the one waiting for me?” Minho presses, eyes wide.

“Are you scared of cats?” She stifles an amused smile and Minho is aware of what she’s possibly thinking. Come on now, out of all people? You carry a gun for all I know but cats terrify you?  

“No, I just thought…” He clears his throat, opting to steer away the subject of him suspecting other things.  “Where did you find her?”

“On the street a couple of blocks down. I mean how can you say no, look at her.” She tickles the cat under its chin, and Minho can’t deny the heart-warming sight the way it purred back into her palm.

“She is cute.” He’s smiling before he knew and her gaze flicks to him. “What?”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that.” She shrugs, biting a grin.

Minho scoffs lightly. “Well, I think you’re cute.”

She stands up, and tilts her head a little as she scans his face. They are inches apart, and he finds his eyes dropping to her lips as she whispers back to him. “And you look handsome. You clean up pretty well, Song Minho.”

He scratches the bridge of his nose as he looks down to the floor, smiling.

“Here.” Minho hands her the box he almost forgot, still gripped under his arm and he nods gently, motioning for her to open it.

He follows her as she settles the box on the kitchen island, her fingers playing the edges of the satin ribbon before she tugs it loose. She sifts through the layers of gift paper, the fine material crumpling softly through her hands to reveal a sequined, jade dress.

The emerald sequins glimmered exquisitely against the light when she lifts the dress off the box, and to her front. It falls just above her knee with a deep v-backline and certainly one that would hug her frame snugly, sultry but not quite.

Her eyes marvel quietly at the gifted dress but Minho can’t seem to take his eyes off her, feeling anxious.

“You hate it. I’m sorry, I don’t normally do this. You don’t have to wear it-”

“Don’t be silly, it’s beautiful. I’m just worried I’ll ruin it… It looks like you spent a lot on this, Minho.” She cuts him off before he could finish, still staring at the dress as she carefully drapes it over her arm like it might fall apart.

“We can always get you another one. Your choice this time.” His casual tone spurs a look of surprise over her.

“You’re bragging right now, aren’t you?” She asks, a playful frown weaving her face.

“Chanel? Gucci? Prada? Which one do you want?” Minho bites a slow smirk over his lips, earning a free laugh out of her.

“You’re crazy. This one is perfectly fine, thank you very much.” She shakes her head before disappearing into the bedroom, leaving Minho in a daze.

It was only then that he realized the cat had hopped out of the box, prompting Minho to kneel down and mirror her affections to it just as she did moments ago.

He must have lost track of time and finally understood why anyone would pet a cat, or a dog. It followed him around wherever he went, sniffing his leg curiously and took a liking to his lap.

Then the click of the door tells him that perhaps she’s ready, chuckling deeply as he settles the cat onto the carpet and off his lap.

And just then, another click follows. Yet this time it’s different; one that’s enough to turn his blood cold, the sound almost piercing through him like a warning.

Minho turns around slowly with his breath in the back of his throat.

The dress fits her far better than he imagined it, perfect, like it’s made just for her. But it’s the gun clutched in her hand, and the cool muzzle grazing his forehead that took his breath away. 

---