********EDITED VERSION- 31/05/2017********

At last, at last, it has come at last.... hehehe

Hello to you all! Yes, I'm talking to YOU! my awesome ten subbies. I'd like to say thanks to the lot of you for subbing, already, and I really, Really hope you enjoy this chapter.

Oh!!! and don't forget to let me know what you think at the end. :)

Enjoy!!! :)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 1

‘E-Ex...-cuse me, Miss?’ he said to the waitress walking by his table. He was nervous- he would be worried if he wasn’t- because what he was about to do was indeed nerve racking. The waitress stopped at his table, a warm smile making its way onto her face as she registered the abnormally adorable expression on the man’s face. She wasn’t accustomed to such adorable expressions you see, so this man’s charmingly breathtaking expression took her aback, if just slightly, which was exactly what this young man wanted.

‘Yes Sir, how may I help you?’ she asked the man after regaining her wondering composure.  The man widened his eyes and slightly pouted, his expression turning into one of a boyish sort, one he was confident would get him the required results. He opened his mouth to talk then looked away, suddenly looking bashful which elicited a full grin from the woman looking down at him. She could see it clearly on his face that he was shy about what he is about to say, so much so that her eyebrows crossed at his sudden nervous shaking.

‘Sir?’ she sang concerned, trying to carefully extract an answer from the fidgeting man, ‘Are… you okay?’

Her smile turned from one of warmth to one of worry within the space of a second as she saw the man before her start pale. He had yet to say another word to but by then it was evident to her that something was wrong.

‘Sir?’ D-Do you speak English?” she asked, now desperate to get to the root of what was troubling this lovable man.

 ‘Jogeumyo. A-A li…rril.’ He admitted, shyly looking up at the woman. The waitress beamed at the little she had managed to draw out of the bashful man and realised, from the thick Asian accent, that he was probably unable to communicate his problem to her because he didn’t know much English.  Her mind reeled as she tried to come up with a way in which they could communicate, then, her smile brightened as an idea came floating into her head. She just hoped that this foreign man understood her first question or else her entire plan would fail.
   ‘Is...there… something wrong…’ she uttered, waiting for an indication that he understood her. When he widened his eyes and nodded slightly she continued, pointing her forefinger at him first, ‘with… you?’

  The man pointed at himself in the same way that she pointed at him before widening his eyes to show he understood and shaking his head vigorously at her thereafter. The woman frowned and then tried again.

‘Is… there… something wrong… with your… food?’ she then pointed at him first then at his nearly finished meal, eyebrows raised questioningly. When the man looked disapprovingly at the plate of food before him and slowly nodded his head again, she smiled at the break through, then frowned at what it meant. She walked to the man’s side and leaned in so as to be level with him. Her head then turned and she whispered to the man who was now facing her, showing signs of intimidation.

‘What’s wrong, Sir?’ she asked in a hushed voice, unwilling to let all her other customers know that there was a problem with the food on this man’s plate. As the man started to play out the scenes of him eating his food and the events that lead up to that very moment- and very well too, at least in the woman’s opinion - the woman started to realise that the man had paled so visibly because of what was in his food. She was mortified when the man showed her the cause of his unhappiness by playing out the scene of someone pulling out a very long string of hair from their mouth, then, when he actually showed her the brown strand of hair a glint of anger shone in her eyes as she thought of the person who could possibly be responsible for this whole debacle and what to do about it.

Standing up straight as she uttered a few apologies to the unfortunate Asian next to her, she decides that she would take action later but refund this poor man his money right then so as not to cause an unnecessary scene. She had earlier gotten a glimpse of his plane ticket and was well aware that the man was headed off in a matter of minutes so she also didn’t want to make him late. What a shame for such a thing to be his last experience in her country. With a guilt heavy heart, she sought to rectify the matter quickly and quietly so she pulled out a stack of bills and pointed it in the man’s direction.
  All should have gone as planned but when the woman offered the man his money back, which she had taken out of her small apron pouch that kept her tips- he shook his head in rejection. It seemed he wasn’t really comfortable accepting money from her but nonetheless, she tried again.
  This time she took out even more money from her pouch- probably the restaurants but honestly, the man didn’t care. So long as he got what he wanted in the end- and she tried to place the money in his hand but the he threw it on the table like it burned his hand upon contact. He would not be bribed! How rude of her to think so! The man only played at offense but couldn’t stop the voice inside his head from laughing ever so evilly at his ridiculousness. He knew better than to take offense at people’s idiocies. After all, those were what got him paid.  

‘Please Sir’ she begged as the man returned to reality to find her quickly snatching the money off the table and hiding it away from the view of her other customers. Her eyebrows were tied together in a nervous knot and her stomach started to sink at the thought of her losing her job because of this very incident. She was willing to sacrifice the money she’d brought along to get a gift for her little boy if it meant getting this man out of the restaurant as soon as possible. She no longer cared if the man understood her or not, she had to somehow get him to take the money and leave quietly. Emptying her pouch she tried her best to explain the situation to him while he ogled at her in confusion.

‘Sir… If my boss finds out about this he’ll fire me for sure, I really can’t afford that Sir. Could you please just take the money and leave now, I just got promoted to manager last week and something like this has never happened here before. I’ll be fired for sure if you don’t leave!’ Her pleas were hushed but desperate and she prayed that the man could see the desperation in her eyes.
  He inwardly smiled as he saw his imminent victory ahead, his eyebrows knitting as he completed the final scenes of his act- a guilt ridden face sorrowfully glancing up at the frantic woman before turning somewhat understanding with a hint of humiliation. This is too easy, he thought to himself. Way too easy.

He looks up at the distressed woman and then proceeded to look down at his lap in perfectly executed, false shame for what he was about to do. This act was followed by him stretching out his hand discreetly and indicating for the woman to give him the money she held tightly in her hand.

At the motion, the woman brightened immediately and hurriedly shoved the money into the Asian man’s outstretched hand, hoping that after he received compensation for his ruined meal, he would be quick to leave and let her erase any trace of his order on their system and forget that this incident took place under her supervision.

The man muttered a few words in a language she didn’t understand before he slowly lifted himself from his chair and made his way out of the restaurant. She watched how his shoulders slouched in disgrace at having accepted the money after eating almost three quarters of the meal and his embarrassment brought a warm feeling to her heart. That one, in this century, could still feel guilt at having been given a hell of a lot of money was amazing. At least there are still good people in this world. Not everybody was out to cheat people, she thought before she turned around and started cleaning up the table that was now empty, completely oblivious to the victorious smirk that adorned the bashful man’s face as he looked at the money in his tightly clasped hand. Hell, he had made a killing today. But then again, that was just his luck.

The poor woman, he thought as he made his way to the check in point of his flight which was waiting for passengers to board, leaving the woman with no idea that she had just been scammed. He felt no true remorse though, given that this wasn’t his first con and it was sure not to be his last.

Kim Kibum, alias Key, was tempted to laugh out loud, and evilly so, as he boarded his flight to London from the U.S. He had never in his life found a better place to live and eat and travel freely than the United States of America. Having come here with an empty suitcase and hardly a hundred dollars in his old, battered wallet, he now left with a suitcase full to the brim with all the latest American fashions, a wallet with no less than a dozen stolen credit cards and five thousand dollars in it – along with a new and much bigger wallet, of course – and having not spent a single scent on a single meal and a single item of clothing since he first came here about a week back. At least, not any money that belonged to him.

It was safe to say that Key was happy with himself, happy indeed at having proven his dear buddy Onew wrong for a change. I can do this on my own, he thought as he got comfortable in his window seat and prepared himself to doze off as the plane prepared to take off and a stranger quickly seated himself next to him.  His trip to London was sure to be fruitful if he continued the way he was already headed… up! Up! UP!

***

Following his prey like a predator on the prowl, this particular man could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins as he closed in on his unsuspecting target. He had been on the prowl for a half a day now and he was so close to finally capturing his prey that he could already taste the blood from the kill.

  He liked the taste of blood. He loved the thrill of the kill.

He walked, quiet as a shadow, a few meters away from his target, nothing else keeping his interest but the sight of the oblivious man- no, this one still looked like a boy- in front of him. He had been contracted to kill this boy just hours ago and now this boy was all he would think about, all he would dream about, all he would taste, until the day he finally did him in and could move to his next contract, his next obsession.

This man walked and walked and walked after the boy, making sure not to be spotted, spied or detected. He stopped at a nearby bench opposite a music store and carefully placed himself on it, opening a magazine which he had no intention of reading. He slowly paged through the magazine, its contents of absolutely no importance to him, while he skilfully kept an eye on the boy who was listening to a music through booming headphones and dancing along to the tune in a pleasantly rhythmic manner.
  The boy listened for a while longer before looking at his watch and quickly moving to pay for the CD he had just been listening to. He then made his way out of the store and moved towards the boarding point of the flight that would take him to London, England.

  The man watched as the boy shivered in apparent anticipation- face stuck in a grin wider than the Grand Canyon- for what would be his first solo trip to a foreign land. He had come with his father to America and was now leaving alone, a fact that the man was well aware of, it being his job to be aware.

The boy is naïve, the man thought as he continued to follow him at a safe distance. Over the past few hours he couldn’t help but to observe just how clumsy, forgetful and outright ridiculously uncoordinated he could be at times. The man was well aware of the fact that the boy was a dancer, a good –no – brilliant dancer according to what he had been told. What he still, quite frankly, couldn’t understand, was just how it was possible for someone as scatterbrained and uncoordinated as this boy clearly was, to be so supposedly good on his feet.

  Even just moments ago, as the boy was purchasing his CD, he had simply turned around and left the music store without taking his change. The thought made the man shiver in distaste. Surely someone as careless as this boy deserves to die young, doesn’t he? The man couldn’t help but think, though his conclusion of the situation failed to convince.

They were just minutes away from their check in point when the man suddenly stumbled upon an unfolding scene at a restaurant close by. An Asian man was shyly acting out the scene of one who had stumbled upon something in his food to a waitress, no, the manager of a restaurant nearby. The man observed the scene as he sauntered by the restaurant in pursuit of his prey and for a moment was tempted to stop for reasons he himself was unaware of, right in front of the two communicating people. In fact, when he found himself right behind the other Asian man, nothing but thin metal railing between them, his feet - to his despair - suddenly refused to take another step.  He found himself watching as the woman standing next to the Asian man straightened up and tried to give the man a hand full of dollar bills only for the man to refuse to take them. A smile threatened to invade his face but he was quick to capture it before it made its appearance.

It took only a few moments for him to realise that he was standing and no longer following. Before he could be further engulfed by the unfolding scene, he quickly put one foot in front of the other and resumed his pursuit. His insides were churning in disbelief as he realised that something other than his prey had for a second, just a second, captured his attention. He rebuffs the thought; suddenly feeling the need to splash some cold water on his face. Perhaps he should rid himself of such preposterous thoughts.

After making certain that his prey had boarded the correct flight, he decided to head to a nearby bathroom to quickly give his face a rinse before boarding the same flight himself.

  As he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, face dripping with tap water, paper towel in hand, he wiped any recent thoughts of any person or anything other than his prey away with the towel by running it across his face.
‘Come on Minho, get a grip on yourself!’ he whispered to his reflection in the mirror. He blinked twice to clear his head grabbing onto his black briefcase, the paper towel he had used long lost to the bathroom dustbin, and gave his watch a glance before realising that he would be late for his flight and as a result lose his prey if he didn’t move quickly.
  He made his way to boarding and hurriedly entered the flight just as they announced last boarding call. He was glad to have made it on time.
As he entered and walked through the door of the plane, he spared a single glance in the direction he knew the boy he pursued was likely to be. When he spotted the boy’s wavy auburn hair he turned in the opposite direction and headed towards the back of the plane to where his own seat was waiting for him.

However, he stopped dead in his tracks when he reached his seat, the sight of the Asian man from the restaurant knocking the wind out of him. He took a deep breath in to collect his thoughts and before he knew it he was seated and comfortable next to the man that had captured his attention, not once but twice now.

They had a long flight ahead of them, he was well aware of that, and he planned on using that time to find out exactly what it was about this man that kept on catching him unawares. There just had to be a viable reason because…

Well… because Choi Minho was never caught unawares.

*

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Erm... So that was the first chapt. Hope you liked it. Let me know what you thought, I'd really love to hear your opinions of my portrayals of the characters so far.

I honestly think that they fit their roles perfectly: Key, the scheming conman who can get anything he wants with just one look and Minho, the silent assasin... enough said.

Anywhoo, my opinions really dn't count for much any ways, yours do. So please leave me a comment at the bottom and let me know what you think. I really do wanna know.

Next chapt, Minkey's first interaction... :D(this was so much fun to write)

Byeeeee