00.

His sharp eyes slid across the bar discretely, drawing in the features of everyone in the room and committing them to memory. Soonyoung’s brow rose when he finally spotted the person he had come there for.

She was a petite girl, entirely too plain for her own good. Her hair was long and black, the shine to it making it very clear an ounce of any chemical had never dared defile the ity of its roots. She was dressed in a button-down white shirt and black slacks, a gray apron tied tightly around her thin waist, though still too large to lay flat against her stomach like it should. That was a sign that she didn’t receive nearly as much nutrition as she should have, and by the look of the bags under her dark eyes, sleep was also foreign to her.

It wasn’t very fitting at all for such a small creature to be working at a rowdy bar, her small frame and malnourishment would do nothing for her in the event some drunk decided to take advantage of her.

It was a good thing, what Soonyoung was sent to do. With no family and a miserable life, he would simply be helping her put an end to her melancholy existence.

Perhaps she’ll be reborn under better circumstances.

That’s something he always told himself when he was sent on these little tasks, a stand-in for Death when the case was nothing too serious and a waste of time.

Soonyoung continued to watch the girl as the evening progressed, his presence clouded behind the mass of people crowding the bar, calling for her and the other waitress’s attention whenever they needed a drink refilled. But even so, he wasn’t sure how she had managed to be so diligent as to spot everyone, and her dull eyes eventually landed on him. He could tell by the way her brows rose just a fraction and how her pale cheeks tinted the lightest shade of pink that she had noticed he was staring at her.

“Cute.” He muttered to himself under his breath. With a mixture of both haste and hesitation, he saw her grab a notepad and pen from the counter and begin pushing her way through. One man stopped her on her way, his hand reaching up and cupping the back of her thigh. Unable to turn him down, she gave him a wry smile and pointed in Soonyoung’s direction, the helpless look in her eyes clear evidence of her trying to escape.

The man, burly and unshaven threw one glance at Soonyoung’s table before turning back to the girl with a crooked grin. She yelped when he slapped her thigh