[CONTENTID1]brink[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Chapter Twenty Eight[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

In the moments before the man pulled the trigger, he thought about everything that would change once the bullet found its mark. He would be a rich man, for starters. With that would come everything else: the penthouse suite in the swankiest high-rise in Gangnam, his pick of the most beautiful women from around the world, the freedom to do whatever he wanted without reproach. – his. Drugs – his. Alcohol, cars, parties, power… All his.

Too bad someone had pulled the trigger a little earlier than he did.

Jiyeon stood over the body of the man with not a trace of amusement on her face. She liked killing; she viewed is it as a game – one that she almost always won. Naturally, she didn’t take too kindly to people who directly targeted her boss as part of the game. Taekyung was off limits.

She kicked the body to the edge of the building. Really, the man had been quite amateur as a wannabe assassin, but she knew better, she knew he wasn’t the one she was looking for. He was too sloppy, too caught in his villain’s monologue to even realize she had already been there when he’d showed up. One more swift kick and he was sent flying over the edge. She used a pair of gloves and discharged a single bullet from the gun, then tossed it over after him.

Games were fun, she thought, but this one was starting to lose its excitement. Whomever had shot Park Ryujin, and who had now set their sights on Taekyung was good at hiding; it would take a while yet to find them. She wanted to play a different game, one where Mark Tuan’s head was the ultimate prize.

Jiyeon loved Taekyung, more than she loved herself, and would do anything for him. She had hunted, she had killed, she had stolen, she had tortured. If he told her to fetch him the moon, she’d fly there herself just to bring him a little piece. Her love was endless.

She couldn’t remember when it had started. It could have been when she saw him for the first time in the hallway during their last year of high school. It could have been when he first taught her how to wield a knife in order to protect herself and praised her as a natural. It could have been when she finally told him that she had a violent home life and he offered her something better. Perhaps it was when he helped her hide the body when she murdered her drunken, ually abusive father.

Taekyung had been there when she found out that Mark Tuan had murdered her sister. Her sister’s death had been her undoing. Her younger sister was only 15 and the polar opposite of Jiyeon. She didn’t know anything about the world, about what it meant to fear death and darkness. Jiyeon had protected her from their father to preserve that sweet, tender flower that was her sister. Mark took that from her. With no rhyme or reason, Mark Tuan killed and innocent little girl who happened to be walking home alone on a day when he was in a bad mood. Mark Tuan, for whom her hatred knew no bounds. Jiyeon lost her mind on that day.

She didn’t want it back.

Taekyung saved her for the second time. He held her when she broke down crying, and when she saw hallucinations of her sisters ghost crying out for her to join her on the other side. He kissed the bruises on her arms and legs when she threw herself down the stairs in an attempt to appease that request. He took the hits when she finally broke through the despair and fell into the rage. He taught her how to channel her anger, how to take that rage and turn it into deadly precision. He told her he loved her wild, unhinged uality; he made her feel loved in a way that her -addicted father could never. Her love for him bordered on obsessive and he could see that, but he told her he didn’t care, he loved her, too. Taekyung didn’t coax her back from the brink, he had jumped over it with her. She couldn’t fault him for the lengths he went to protect his sister; she did the same thing before her sister’s life was cut tragically short.

So when he told her that Mark Tuan had returned to Seoul, she knew it would be her time to exact the revenge that she had been waiting 6 very long years for. Her sister’s death and her own subsequent madness had helped her realize that she was like her sister in one way: she didn’t fear death or darkness. Taekyung had told her that her crazed love for him and her desires for revenge would be her destruction. She didn’t care.

For what blessings did she have alive, that she would fear to die?

++

Jakyung graciously accepted the cup of coffee offered to her, but she didn’t take a drink. This didn’t go unnoticed by her new team.

“I’m picky,” she told them simply. They stared. She stared back. She grinned.

“I can tell that you’re a lively bunch,” she joked. “If you're wondering if I know about what this company really does, and what I’ll find after going through the books and records, you have nothing to worry about. Please, relax your shoulders, unclench your s. Stay a while.” This seemed to draw out a few grins from the five person team.

There were three women and two men, all who looked barely older than herself. Kyungmi, Drago, Yue, Luna and Hansol. They all looked very capable, but Jakyung knew better than to judge by first appearances.

“I have a goal and in order to achieve that goal, I need to learn,” she told them. “I know that my brother brought you to this company because you are loyal to him and him to you. I will not tread upon that. I need to earn your trust, you need to earn mine. We will work as a team; precise and efficient. Deadly, if the occasion calls for it.”

“Miss Park, do you have any specific requirements of us going forward?” Drago asked. Jakyung raised a single eyebrow and opened up his file. She scanned it for a moment and then looked back at him

“Drago,” she said his name slowly, as if trying it out. “I would prefer it if you dropped the obedient act. I am not a toy to played around with and I prefer honesty to sugar-coated nonsense.” Drago had the decency to look surprised, but then his face changed and the wide-eyed, innocent look he had been giving her until then disappeared.

“Alright then,” He chuckled. “I’ll repeat my question in a way I think you’ll understand clearly. Will you be a burden to this team and this company? We have goals too, and we don’t need a whiny brat getting in the way of that.” Jakyung clapped and stood from her seat at the head of the table.

“See? Doesn’t that feel good? To say what you mean without all the pleasantries and candy sweet vocabulary?” She gave them all a big smile. “And to answer your question: no. I don’t believe I will be a burden. I am a simple woman, and all I ask for is your honesty. That, and better coffee. I know instant when I smell it.”

Hansol got from his seat and grinned sheepishly. “That’s my fault; I was in a rush this morning.” He grabbed for the cup, but Jakyung slid it out of his reach.

“It’s no matter. I don’t expect you to be getting me coffee every morning,” she said, waving it off. “So, like I said before, we are a team. We work as a team. If we can do that, then it won’t matter that I’m technically your boss. I don’t care so as long as we get the job done.” She plopped back into her chair and sniffed at the coffee. She took a tentative sip, swallowed and shuddered.

“If I didn’t already want to kill a man, this would make me want to kill a man,” she mumbled. Kyungmi, who was sitting closest to her, giggled. “Would any of you like to fill me in on what the department has been working on thus far? Taekyung only gave me