On the first fire, I crouched down as low as I could onto the floor and shots went on in what felt like a 30-second warfare in some wasteland in Iraq. There were eleven gunshots. She fireball eleven rounds of her pistol high-capacity magazine.
As I inevitably inhaled the residual scent of gunfire, I tried my hardest to sense if blood was dripping from my head or if my head was there at all. I could not mistake her pulling the trigger of the gun that aimed at my face. It would be impossible for my skull and its precious contents to persist unscathed, but I didn't feel even a trickle of blood. I didn't feel any pain. I thought, maybe I was dead. And I died for pissing someone off. If so, what a moronic way to die.
But I wasn't dead. I was just dazed with my ears buzzing, but the buzzing wasn't that of a bee but of a helicopter stuck in my ear canal. The ringing went rabid by the second and my heart was springing up my throat going 180 beats per minute. At that rate, I might have fainted or out. And I mean that in the real medical sense.
I couldn't muster all the stimuli around me to conceive logic out of what happened. I couldn't be certain if the girls spoke or if they even moved, but I brought myself up slowly. Albeit I still wasn't sure if I was alive or was already i na spirit-wandering state, I still had the pride to control my trembling in case they were looking at me.

*I never meant to start a war

You know, I never wanna hurt you

Don't even know what we're fighting for

Why does love always feel like a battlefield*

After hearing the song played overhead, it dawned on me that I was indeed alive. I knew it was Chae's half-satirical playlist booming within the firing range. For a moment, I felt some relief hearing the music, but the Bee cut the unfolding theme song short which I found out later on
was because of Seulgi's interference. The Sound fading made my ears ring again to the aftershock.
I raised my head slowly fighting the commotion inside my ear. And there she was, expressionless and still holding the gun half-lowered with her left hand. But there was something else that I didn't expect to see.

Tears.

She was crying. With all the hostility and intimidating stance, she was betrayed by her eyes that evidenced not anger but unbearable sadness.
I might have told Chae that a better song would have been Devil May Cry. But after seeing all her pretenses crumble in front of me, I couldn't find a single reason to despise her. Instead, I wanted to run to her, hug her and prevent the rest of her defensive walls from completely falling apart. But I briefly froze to her tear-laden stares before I could move toward her.
"HAJIMA!" And she pointed her gun at me for the second time. If there was a single thing I was sure of that moment was that her gun's magazine was empty, but it was reflex that halted at the sight of gunpoint.
Every tear that fell made me regret that I ever opened my mouth. And at that moment, I saw how from the devil that she was that she started shedding off all the hatred and menace i've always thought she epitomized. Now all l could see was a defenseless being struggling to collect herself before all her human vulnerability became fully exposed.
Hell might have raged against me that day but the kiss of its sweltering fire led me to see the Jennie who was void of her sinister guise.
And she was a heavenly sight.
It took five more seconds of calculating the number of bullets she fired before I decidedly made a step forward. But before I could take another one, she threw the guns toward my direction that they landed a few inches from my feet.
Guns. Yes, she held another with her right hand. Both guns flung onto the floor. That fact caused
me to freeze again.
She didn't want to hit me, all she wanted was to prevent me from coming near. Then she darted to the door and disappeared, expectedly not saying another word.
I only returned to consciousness after hearing the electric target placement suddenly moving closer. The sheet slowly made its way and smacked the back of my head before it continued to trend toward the booth where it stopped. From where I