“Oh god, no. Please. I don't want to die.”

They always seem to say that whenever Mark paid them a visit, it baffled him.

God couldn’t save them now. Why bother begging?

If the mere sight of him sent terror shockwaves running down their spines, it didn’t make any sense why they’d keep doing things that forced him to stand in front of them with a glare. Don’t cry when you see the Devil if you’ve spent your entire life sinning.

He clicked his tongue as he stood in a dark alleyway and pressed his gun against the man’s forehead, his tattooed fingers wrapped around the trigger, “Should’ve thought of that before GOT7 needed to send me.”

It wasn’t that he liked killing, he was simply good at it.

He was a good shot, clean, and didn’t care for theatrics like Jackson.

Most importantly, he was loyal.

Mark pulled the trigger fast, the sound of the gun firing echoed loudly as the man’s head snapped back and he crumpled to the ground. He stood over the body, blood still spilling out of the man’s head as he pulled a small handkerchief out of his pocket to polish off his gun. There was blood on it, and he hated when he got blood on it.

It was messier than he thought, he was hoping for something more innocuous, but the man had a bit more fight in him than he expected. He would probably have to call one of his guys to clean this up, which was another hassle in and of itself, the cleanup guys always gave him an earful.

The only thing he hated more than a mess, was people who couldn't follow orders, people who thought they could bite the hand that fed them, and people who thought he'd show mercy. 

He didn't take kindly to traitors. 

And he never showed mercy.

He lifted his head, his blond hair falling over his eye as he stared at the men watching him with a mix of fear and resentment in their eyes.

“This is why you don’t cross us. This is why you don’t ing skim ten grand off of our money and think we won’t find out. ”

-----

She knew that she should be paying more attention.

This was an important meeting, with executives from every department huddled in the conference room to discuss how they were expected to proceed now that the VP of Human Resources was suddenly fired on the eve of a major merger. This affected all of them.

But her Louboutin heels were killing her and the pain was all she could think about.

Seo Heiran hated how much she loved expensive designer heels, they made her heart skip a beat but made her feet scream bloody murder whenever she had them on for more than 5 minutes. She rotated her ankle under the table, resisting the urge to kick off the suede royal blue red bottoms.

Torture. This was honest to god, modern-day torture.

“We’re moving fast, trying to find a replacement, but we need to make sure that we continue to reaffirm to the Samsung reps that everything is fine and that we have a succession plan in place. I’m going to speak to the HR department and see if their Director would consider stepping in as the VP until we have someone.”

She nodded in time with everyone else, looking over the CEO’s shoulder at the grand painting hung on the wall. She had to appreciate the old man loved his art, a passion that they had both bonded over when she had first started working at the city’s largest investment firm as the VP of Finance. 

He somehow managed to land some of the most lucrative pieces of art that she didn’t think a single person could possibly own. It was one of the reasons she looked forward to coming in each day. She loved standing in the halls of this building just staring at the most beautiful works of art. She would find herself getting lost in elegant brush , losing track of time as she transported herself to somewhere magical.

She assumed that the works that hung on the walls of their building belonged in museums, but as she stared at Vincent Van Gogh’s Café Terrance at Night, she could only long to be sitting in a café like that right now instead of being at this meeting.

“Heiran, continue working on the estimates of the merger. It seems the cost continues to grow, but I want to make sure that we stay on course, even if that means making cuts.” He ordered. “And keep coddling that tech start-up, they like you, they’ve been with you for ages and if everything goes according to plan with Samsung, they could be enticed to acquire a growing business.”

Silence ticked by before she blinked, realizing that he was addressing her, she sat up and nodded tersely in the same impassive, cold-hearted way that everyone had grown to praise her for. “I have a meeting scheduled with the Director for a progress report.”

The CEO nodded, satisfied, before turning his attention to the VP of Legal, rambling on about international law as she zoned back out of the meeting. No one ever pressed her for more information when it came to these meetings.  

They used to call her the Dragon, behind her back. It was because she was ruthless with her standards, sharp with her tongue, infallible with her decisions, expected 150% and spent every hour possible at the office; the Dragon’s Den, apparently.

But she didn’t have much of a choice.

She was the youngest executive here and constantly felt the need to prove that she deserved a seat at the table. She worked three jobs in university, just to pay off a fraction of her student loan. She didn’t have the connections or old money that half the people here used to get to where they were. She worked her way up from an intern and drank coffee as meals to save money.

So, though her face would never betray her, she wore the Dragon name like a badge of honor.

If only those people knew that their Dragon was currently daydreaming about a Parisian Café and a breezy summer night.

-----

Heiran walked into her floor while scrolling through emails that had gathered on her phone when she was locked away in that god-awful meeting. Her hair, long and black, was getting in her face and she was trying to schedule a meeting with Samsung’s Finance VP.

Maybe she’d just chop it all off, let it brush against her collarbones.

“Your five o’clock canceled.”

Heiran’s steps stuttered at the voice, a voice that certainly was not her dedicated overzealous personal assistant who liked to pretend that she didn’t idolize her. She lifted her gaze and felt every bone in her body melt at the sight of the little girl with askew pigtails spinning around in a chair.

“Really? Did they want to reschedule?”

The girl beamed at her, “No! They said that they want you to spend the rest of the day with your cute daughter.”

Her lips quirked as she slipped her phone away before getting on her knees and holding her arms open, “Well, if that’s what they said, then I guess I have to do it.”

The little girl squealed in joy and jumped out of the chair before racing into Heiran’s arms. She lifted the girl up and walked into her office, kicking the door closed with the base of her heel, “How are you, sunshine? How was school?”

“Good. We learned about the water cycle today. Did you know that rain comes from water that’s already on the ground?” She sounded astonished like Mother Nature had personally offended her. Heiran swore that her heart flipped, three, four, five times.

Her entire office was pristine, with the only décor consisting of awards lining bookshelves, textbooks, her degrees, a single potted plant and 5 different pictures of her daughter who had said that any more would be too embarrassing.

She gasped in feigned shock as she set them down on the couch in her office before fixing her pigtails, “No way. How is that possible?”

“Okay, it’s this thing called evaporation, and can you believe it? The rain falls, then it evaporates off of the ground and goes back up into the sky.” Her eyes were wide and nothing short of sparkling as she explained herself, her tiny arms waving around.

God, she would die for this little girl.

“Okay Lucy, I couldn’t find apple juice, but I stole someone’s orange juice out of the staff fridge, I don’t think they’ll notic—oh god.”

Heiran looked up when her personal assistant walked in, holding a glass of juice in her hand, “Hi Eun.”

She looked positively mortified as she pushed her glasses further up her nose. Heiran remembered interviewing Eun, she had gone to her alma mater, graduated at the top of her class, had an impeccable resume and was utterly nervous during the interview.

When she made it to the second round of interviews, background checks were run, and the head of security almost keeled over laughing when he discovered Eun’s twitter account was essentially a Heiran fan account. She obsessed over her career, retweeted every article she was in, and tweeted about her big aspirations to follow in her footsteps. 

Safe to say, Heiran felt good about her choice.

“I’m so sorry for being away from my desk.” Eun stuttered, unsure what to do with the glass of juice in her hand, “She asked for juice and I was going to run out and grab some, but we were out of apple and—”

Heiran ran her fingers through Lucy’s hair, “It’s fine. Sunshine, say thank you for the juice.”

“Thank you, Eun!” She cheered as she accepted the glass and took a big gulp. Eun let out a stuttering breath, she couldn’t tell how mad Heiran was, she was always gentle when her daughter was around, even if she was angry inside.

Heiran would’ve smiled if she didn’t have a reputation to maintain, “And remember, I’m your boss, not her, you don’t have to do anything she tells you.”

“I didn’t tell her! I asked her.” Lucy punctuated.

Eun’s face flushed as she nodded, “Y-Yes. Sorry. Will do.”

Heiran sighed and looked down at Lucy, feeling a tinge of sadness. With work in the way, she didn’t spend nearly enough time with a little girl who needed constant love and attention. She didn’t have a father waiting to pick her up from her lessons or siblings to fight with. She just had a driver, her classmates, and Heiran.

, she wasn’t even 30 years old yet, how was she supposed to know how to be a good parent? She never had a chance to prepare for this.

“Eun, cancel my 5.”

Her eyes widened, “With the Director? Isn’t that really important?”

She took the glass of juice and set it on the table before lifting Lucy up and going to gather her things.

“This is far more important.”

-----

Mark sometimes wondered if there was something fundamentally wrong with him.

Maybe he was just wired wr