“Umma…” Jimin mumbled, tears trailing down her temples. Her closed eyes squinting and her head shaking restlessly. “Appa.” She muttered next before waking up with a gasp. Beads of sweat decorated her forehead. She was panting, her eyes red and glassy from the nightmare that she just had. She sat up, feeling extremely exhausted while her head was throbbing. Her assessments were just around the corner and she had been pulling an all-nighter recently to study.

She went to the washroom and rinsed her face. Looking through the mirror to see her eyes still red. “Relax Jimin. Relax.” Jimin chanted to herself, trying to relax her strained body. Pulling an all-nighter evidently takes a toll on her body, especially when pulling them on consecutive days. She let out a sigh and went out to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of milk before heading back to bed. She had to wake up in 2 hours before leaving for the hospital for her attachment.

She lay down on the bed, her eyes closed and the blanket pulled up to her chest, as she turned, lying down on her side and hugging her bolster. The nightmare began to replay itself in her mind again.

“Your next mission is to kill Hwang Kiseob.” The man with a gruff voice said, throwing the file on the coffee table. The young man was sitting on the sofa at the side, listening to the instructions given. His dark and cold eyes piercing through the file that was thrown by the man he called father.

“Yes father.” He said, monotone. He picked up the file and left the office after giving a short bow to his father. He opened the file as he made his way to the weaponry room.

“Taeyong.” He heard a female voice called out and stopped his tracks. He turned and became face to face with his mother. “Mother.” He greeted and gave her a short bow. His mother gave a lop-sided smile and scrutinized the file in his hands. She smirked and shook her head in amusement.

“It’s only been 2 days since your last kill and you’re given another person to kill?” She asked in mockery. Taeyong gave his mother a short bow before continuing his way to the weaponry room. He was not at all offended by his mother’s words. He knew where he stood in the house. At the bottom of the food chain where his father stood on top. Beside him would be his mother. Even the maids in this house stood at a place better than his.

“You dare to ignore me now?” His mother asked in an icy cold voice. Taeyong stopped again, however, he didn’t turn his body around this time.

“I have acknowledged your presence; haven’t I mother?” He asked, tilting his head to give his mother a glance before he continued walking. Not waiting for an answer. He ignored the scoff that his mother had threw him and went into the weaponry room.

The room was filled with weapons like guns and daggers. Guns like rifles, snipers and a normal handgun. They’re all kept in a glass case where only the family members have access to. Taeyong went to the glass case where the handguns were placed at. There were 2 types of handguns, an M9 pistol and a deserted eagle gun.

He took out the necklace that held the key to all the glass cases in this room, it was dangling on his chest under his shirt. He unlocked the glass case and took out the M9 pistol. He locked the glass case again before going to the cabinet to get the ammo. He filled the gun with the ammo before keeping it in his gun holster and going to the glass case that holds daggers of different shapes, sizes and material.

He took the one that he usually used and kept it inside the holster. His leather jacket covering the weapons. He left the weaponry room, and left the family mansion, going to the garage to get his BMW Gran Coup M6 car. It was his ‘birthday present’ from his parents, asking him to use it whenever he was out on a task. However, he knew that it was tracked. Whatever he did, his parents would come to know about it. It was just how the family worked, if it even had the rights to call it a family.

Affection and love was taught to be a weakness.

Sorrow and pain was taught to be a lesson to gain strength.

And, anger was taught to be the fuel for the strength.

Taeyong started the engine of the car and went straight to the address that was stated in the file. He pulled over at the side and went to the night club, waiting for his target outside. Clubs were never his cup of tea. It was noisy, and too many girls clinging onto him for his liking. He was disgusted to say the least. They knew no respect for their own body.

He leaned against the wall, with his arms crossed across his chest and a leg up, his left foot pressing against the wall. The bouncer didn’t even bother knowing why he was there and just let him be, as long as he wasn’t causing any trouble at the club.

Taeyong stood there for 2 hours. And soon, 2 hours turned to 3, and 3 turned to 4 before the man finally came out. Taeyong had learnt extreme patience since it was his line of job. You needed to be patient to receive a satisfying outcome. If you rush, you’d tend to make mistakes, and mistakes weren’t tolerated by anyone in the family, him included.

The man had bodyguards with him. Both Taeyong and the man’s eyes met but the man just walked away. Taeyong followed the man, walking deeper into the alley.

“There’s so much work to do when I get home.” He heard the man groaned in frustration to his bodyguards. Taeyong was hiding in the shadows, making sure he wasn’t caught by them until they were deep enough.

“Remember, don’t tell my wife about this.” The man warned. Taeyong was sure he was implying to his frequent visits to the nightclubs. Those kind of men simply didn’t know how to keep it in his pants. Taeyong had seen so many of these men and even women that he wasn’t at all fazed by the idea of a 50-year-old man having with a minor.

After feeling like they were deep enough, Taeyong took out his gun and cocked it, earning a loud click that resonated against the walls of the alley. The men stopped walking, turning to Taeyong who was pointing a gun towards them. Before they could even take out their own weapons, Taeyong had already started shooting, only leaving with 7 ammos after shooting the last guy dead. “8.” He muttered under his breath.

With a single click of a button on his smart watch, he had sent a signal to his father, telling him that the task had been successfully completed.

He didn’t wait for his father’s men to pick up the bodies and just left the alley, leaving the bodies lying on the cold lubricant ground. He walked towards the direction of his car but stopped when he received a message from his father, informing him of another task at hand. It was located just 10 minutes away from here at another alley.

He turned at a corner, knowing of a short cut that led to the alley he was supposed to complete the task. After walking for 5 minutes, he was met with a familiar woman. He was confused but that wasn’t shown on his face. He kept his poker face on and looked at the woman.

“Finally. Took you long enough.” She said in obvious irritation but Taeyong didn’t even budge from the tone. Taeyong just stared at her as if she was a stranger that had been stalking him.

“You’ve grown guts now haven’t you Taeyong?” She asked mockingly but Taeyong wasn’t fazed by her attempts of scaring him. He had been through so much worse, no thanks to her and her beloved husband. He wasn’t even sure if they got married because of love or it was simply just because of work and status. He was certain that it was for the latter.

“Mother.” He greeted her the same way he usually did and his mother smirked in reply. Amused at how stiff her son was being. Then again, she had indeed taught him not to show any emotions, because if he did, it would be easy to see through his mask that he was trained to wear.

“Do you know why I’m here, Taeyong?” She asked, a sly grin plastered on her face. He knew that grin anywhere. It was the grin that he grew accustomed to. The only grin that she had given him. It was the closest thing that he got from her that was near to a mother’s smile.

“Training.” Taeyong simply answered and she nodded in satisfaction at the answer.

“Why?” Taeyong simply asked, not aware that he did anything wrong to deserve any training. He didn’t even know why it was called training in the first place. All they ever did at this ‘training’ was hurting him until he could barely even breathe. He was accustomed to pain as well. The amount of pain that they made him go through in his childhood was beyond imagine.

“You’re starting to disrespect me aren’t you Taeyong-ah? How can you ignore the person who painstakingly gave birth to you?” His mother asked, her eyes so dark that it resembled the pair that Taeyong owned. Anyone who were to witness this scene would have doubts about them being mother and son, but the resemblance with each other was uncanny. They were indeed mother and son.

There were even pictures in the house to prove it.

“I never did.” Taeyong said bluntly and he widened his eyes when he felt a stab on his side. He looked down and saw a handle of a dagger sticking out of his side. He pulled it out, resisting the pain that the stab was making him feel. He couldn’t deny that his mother was a skilled assassin. Especially when it came to daggers and taking people off guard. He didn’t even noticed the dagger that his mother was hiding in her sleeves. He wasn’t even near his mother’s level, yet.

“Hurts doesn’t it?” She smirked as Taeyong threw the dagger to the side, earning a clinging sound when it made contact with the cement ground. The place was barely lit, with a flickering dim lightbulb trying to light up the alley but it was clearly failing.

“Are you done yet, mother?” Taeyong asked, his voice cold and hard. Not even a sign of faltering.

“I’m nowhere near done, son.” The smile came back and Taeyong just stared into his mother’s dark eyes. She casually approached Taeyong and he just stood there, not looking away from his mother’s eyes. A stab in his abdomen. Another one. And another one. Their eyes never left each other as his mother continued stabbing him like it was the most enjoyable thing to do. Amusement never left her eyes as she enjoyed the look that Taeyong was giving.

Pain. Unbearable pain. His pupils were shaking at the pain, and his consciousness going back and fro from the amount of blood he was losing.

“Goodnight, son.” She whispered in his ears before placing one last stab and taking the dagger out. His mother smirked as Taeyong stood there, his dark eyes never leaving his mother’s.

“I guess I’ll see you again when you manage to live through this night.” His mother said, amusement filled her eyes before turning her back to Taeyong.

Taeyong started seeing black spots as he tried to take a step forward. The more steps he took, the more spots started to appear. Before he knew it, his legs gave out and he was plunged into complete darkness.

Jimin was walking home from the hospital that she was attached to. Dark circles prominent under her eyes due to the lack of sleep that she had. Her phone started vibrating and she picked up after looking at the caller ID.

“Jaehyun-ah.” She simply greeted her best-guy-friend of 8 years. They’re been through everything together. Middle school, high school, they’re even attached to the same hospital.

“Just making sure you’re heading home safely. That evil chief didn’t even let me have a 30 minutes break to walk you home. That son of a b-“ “Jaehyun.” Jimin cut him off before he could curse their chief. Indeed, it felt like their chief was taking out all his anger against the world on the interns. Which included Jaehyun and herself. The piles of workload that he put on them could even be considered illegal, but she wouldn’t know since she never studied law.

“Sorry.” Jaehyun let out a sheepish laugh.

“What time are you allowed to go back home anyway?” Jimin asked, looking at the ground as she turned at a corner, entering the alley that she usually took to get to her studio apartment. Jaehyun would normally walk her home after having supper together, but he couldn’t for obvious reasons.

“Maybe in an hour or two? God, I’m so tired. Just 2 more weeks and we need to go back to studying for exams. Oh god. Exams. They’re the most unbearable thing in the world. Who was the one who invented it anyway? That son of a b-“ “Jaehyun! Goodness!” Jimin cut him off again before he could start cussing again. Jaehyun was the ‘outgoing’ one of the pair. He was extremely expressive and equally short tempered.

Jimin was the calm one of the pair, balancing out the differences that they have with each other.

“Sorry.” Jaehyun chuckled and Jimin let out a sigh, shaking her head in amusement. Despite the sigh, she was smiling from ear to ear. She was used to Jaehyun being like this. After all, 8 years was not a short time.

“You’re smiling aren’t you?” Jaehyun suddenly asked and Jimin’s smile widened.

“No I’m not.” She lied and Jaehyun laughed.

“You can’t lie to me you know.” Jimin let out a chuckle and breathe in the cold air. It was late autumn. She could feel the winter breeze blowing against her face. She heard Jaehyun sighed the same time she saw someone lying on the ground. She widened her eyes in shock and ran over to the body.

“Oh my god.” She gasped at the pool of blood, staining the grey cement ground. “Are you okay? What happened?” Jaehyun asked, sounding panicked at Jimin’s sudden gasp.

“I’ll call you back.” Jimin said and hung up before Jaehyun managed to respond. She kept her phone inside the pocket of her coat and patted on shoulder.

“Hello, excuse me, sir? Can you hear me?” Jimin tried to wake him up but to no avail. She tried calling out for him a few more times as she pressed his abdomen to put pressure on his bleeding wounds. Just how many times was he stabbed? She felt quite a number of stabs of his abdomen but it was too much to even count.

She cussed under her breath when she realized she had no hands to call the ambulance with. She mentally face-palmed herself when she realized that she had a scarf around her neck. “Stupid Jimin.” She scolded herself as she took off the scarf and tied it around the person’s abdomen, to put direct pressure in place of her hands. She took out her phone with her bloody hand and called for the ambulance. One hand holding the phone while the other pressing against the wound.

“Hello, what is the emergency?” A man responded to the call.

“Please send an ambulance to Hanam, street –“ She snapped her head towards his face when her hand was forcefully put down, causing her to drop her phone in shock. “Hello? Ma’am?” The voice from the other end called out.

She saw his dark eyes that was struggling to open as he gasped for air. “D-don’t…” He didn’t manage to finish his sentence when he fell back unconscious. “Ma’am?”

Jimin stared at the hand that held her before picking up her phone again. This time, she just hung up and let out a sigh. “What have I gotten myself into?”