The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

The restaurant was quite big. As you got inside and up three stairs, to the front there was the bar, to the left an entire hall filled with tables and people and waiters and noise. To the right, there was a STAFF ONLY sign and that was supposed to be the staff room but seeing how the black haired was being led that way, it felt like the purpose was anything but that. Well, in appearance it looked like one and towards the left of the staff room there was the kitchen, so it at least functioned as one. The real deal seemed to be to the right of that inner room, where there was another door.

And again, past it, the lockers and another door and then some stairs and another door and finally some stairs leading towards what seemed the basement. Well, now the chances moved from being in a meeting to being taken somewhere he could be killed without most people noticing and then disposed off in trash bags and thrown into the garbage bin. It didn’t help having the lamp guy on his right and the TW gangster on the left. It was the only way he could call them since he didn’t bother learning the name of the second guy and the new addition didn’t introduce himself.

Another door and this time some other dude, bulkier, proceeded to pat him down again, getting way too close to skin, before being satisfied and opening the massive metal door behind him. Kyuhyun expected a dark room, a chair in the middle or something, anything movie like since the situation was very much alike but there was none of that. Instead there was a big bright room, a couch and armchairs in the middle, a bar on the back wall, some chairs here and there. It looked more like a secret club kind of hide out.

He took notice instantly of the people around him. To the right, two dudes in black suits, probably armed, with their arms crossed and a crossed look on their faces. At the bar a young girl, probably not even in her thirties, light brown hair, short but stylish, wearing a leather jacket. That was as low as he could see given how she was behind the bar preparing something. On the couch, there was a guy, handsome and also stylish, maybe just a few years older than the prosecutor. Dark brown hair, nice eyes, a fit body, in a navy-blue suit, the white shirt under ed at the top, an expensive watch on his wrist, a chic necklace on his neck and an earing only in his left ear.

If he took out the two pissed off dudes out of the equation, it almost looked as if he was having a friend’s night out or something. There was one other thing he noticed: both men that entered with him looked first towards the girl and then headed inside, picking a place right behind the available couch, as if they were pinpointing the seat Kyuhyun was supposed to take. He also noticed how the girl stole glances at them but didn’t look one bit bothered or out of place. It actually looked like she was very used with situations like this.

Kyuhyun knew how to take a hint. He walked towards the couch, greeting everyone present with a slight bow. There was no reason to forget manners even if he was sort taken there against his will without being told of the purpose of his visit.

“Good day.” The brown haired on the couch finally spoke, making eye contact with the prosecutor.

“Hello. My name is Cho Kyuhyun.” The black haired didn’t stand yet, placing his hand inside his pocket to take out his name card.

“Oh, we know. Mr. Cho Kyuhyun. Public Prosecutor for Seoul’s Central District Prosecutor’s Office. We have taken a lot of interest in you.” The man admitted. “Please... have a seat.”

Kyuhyun did sit down, placing his briefcase on the left side next to him, proceeding to remove his coat since introduction didn’t seem to be necessary. There was a moment of silence as the woman behind the bar moved and revealed herself, carrying what looked like two cups of coffee. Now the prosecutor could clearly see that she was also wearing a tight pencil shaped leather skirt and a pair of red boots on her feet. Quite y looking, Kyuhyun figured, and seeing how she could just walk towards the man, place the cups down and then take a seat next to him, she had to be his girlfriend or something.

“Thank you.” The man smiled towards her. “You know, it’s not very often that a prosecutor attempts to use our services.” The man continued.

“And who exactly is we?” Kyuhyun finally spoke.

The woman seemed to be surprised to hear the black-haired talk. She turned towards him and then leaned her right hand on the seat of the couch, fingers through her hair, feet bent up, looking more and more interested about the visitor. She also seemed slightly amused, as if it wasn’t the first time, she was hearing this kind of question.

“I represent an institution that can provide almost everything one needs. A broker if you will. You name what you want and how much you are willing to pay, and I find the right people to do the job.” The brown haired answered.

“And what makes you think I am interested in the service? I could have simply been snooping around. I am a prosecutor after all.”

He had to play it cool. He was intrigued by such an organization since it was surely real but hard to identify. Even if he tried as a prosecutor, he could only find little fish in the big pond that were somewhat connected but never really tied to each other. Any prosecutor would have loved to get the inside of such an organization, the head and the main structure down and behind bars since it would surely lead to plenty of arrests and a supposedly more peaceful city.

“Oh…”

The lady next to him moved again, this time taking out what seemed to be like a recorder out of her inner pocket. Kyuhyun’s mouth turned dry as he heard himself.

“I don’t think I am going to find someone to kill that son of a in this god forsaken place.”

That was his voice and that was what he said while outside the location on the name card. So, the phonebooth was real but was also a set up. They could hear things in the near proximity of it, snap pictures of those calling the number and then contacted them. It was quite an interesting way of keeping things secret, anonymous if they wished, without being able to trace the so-called brokers. Oh, the things a prosecutor could do with such information.

“We usually do not make such direct contact with clients but a prosecutor…. such a rare individual, unique, we just had to.” The man spoke again. “And to honour such a special meeting… my name is Lee Donghae.”

Again, it was weird. Something was off. Kyuhyun had this strange feeling that while he should be talking with the brown haired, it wasn’t really the brown haired he had to do the talking with. Still, he had to pay attention to the conversation he was in because he had to make sure he wasn’t going to compromise himself while also finding clues and hints relevant to his job. And maybe, just maybe, he could get a solution to his problem as well since they were somewhat aware of it.

“So, who is the guy?” Donghae asked, picking up his cup and taking a sip from it.

“A serial and murderer.” Kyuhyun decided to be honest, wondering just how far the conversation was going to go and what else he could find out.

It seemed like everyone knew who he was talking about. How couldn’t they when the press had been up and about on the matter, slandering whoever they could, making fool of whoever they found appropriate and brought more ratings. One would have to live under a rock in order not to know the person he was talking about regardless of what side they were on. Like always, there were people that thought the had to be punished while other thoughts the prosecution just needed a scapegoat to mask how dumb they are at doing their job.

“And how much does his life cost to you?” the brown haired asked again.

“To me?” Kyuhyun couldn’t help but leave out a snicker upon hearing the question.

He could feel his own body turning tense, blood boiling once again inside his body. Being there, in front of those people that made the possibility of disposing of such a person a reality was just too tempting. He was either one step closer to hiring a hitman or one step closer to being unmasked and thrown in jail for soliciting murder. It was a gamble and he had to decide. To trust that they were who they said they were, just brokers, and that the affair was clean or fear that this was just a stunt to get him and find a way to remove himself from such a situation.

“Nothing.” He finally answered the question. “To me he is a piece of that is better of erased from the surface of this planet. I found ties to 5 victims but there are 3 more. A murderer and , a devil. He is worthless but the lives he took are priceless.”

“So, you don’t actually want to hire someone to kill him?” the brown haired looked surprised, his head turning slightly towards the woman next to him, an action spotted by the prosecutor.

“I do want him dead. I wish he’d be punished by law and rot in jail but somehow, he managed to dodge everything thrown out him. It would be a pity for someone to try and take revenge and end up in jail for his murder. Divine punishment….” Kyuhyun remembered what his dear friend said.

“Interesting.” Donghae leaned back, looking a bit confused.

“How would it work anyway? I give you the money and you just ask someone to kill him? Or I pay after he’s dead? You’ve patted me down twice, but I have no idea if this is tapped. This could all be a bad joke, a trap or a real deal and I am not sure which option seems better.”

There it was again. The brown haired glanced towards her once more as if he was getting her approval or something. Now that he thought about it again, weren’t the scary man supposed to be on each side of the broker, guarding him? What if the prosecutor was crazy and decided to attack their boss? They seemed much more interested in being on her left side. It was almost as if the brown haired was the guard on the right, the two monkey the left protection and the two dudes right behind Kyuhyun extra protection.

Now that he thought about things like this, it also seemed odd to have the men accompanying him looking at her as they entered and keeping a position right in her eyesight. It felt also a bit shady how casual, as if this was actually her place, her behaviour was. A.N. That was what the name card said. Lee Donghae was L.D... Maybe that was supposed to be a hint.

“There is no need for us to tell you all this.” Donghae smiled, seemingly not noticing how the black haired peaked at the woman across the couch.

“Then why bring me here? Surely you would have thought that maybe a prosecutor didn’t actually mean what he said.” Kyuhyun tried, wondering exactly what the end game was.

“All sorts of people need the help of a broker. Why would a prosecutor be any different?” Donghae shrugged.

It did seem like he was knowledgeable about what he was talking. His speech didn’t seem out of place, nothing seemed rehearsed, he was calm and collected. The only fault was that he seemed to be seeking approval from his female companion in the most discrete way possible. And it would have been left unseen if Kyuhyun, given his profession, wouldn’t have the knack of observing things. His very job required attention to detail and reading people and when he wasn’t being an idiot going around and about thinking of killing others he could be at his best game.

“But I didn’t make the demand. If I meant it, I would have returned.” Kyuhyun insisted and he knew he was saying the truth.

If he had given in to his demons, he would have returned to that spot even if simply by pretending to be passing by, hesitating again and being conflicted again. He didn’t. He genuinely tried to find of legal ways, things he could use, details he could speak off, anything, no matter how much out of the box, to nail the devil through laws. He wanted to be proud of the fact that he didn’t let his dark side take over reason.

“I must insist. Why make contact with me?”

This time Kyuhyun didn’t look at the brown-haired man on the coach. He turned his eyes towards her, attempting eye contact, feeling confident about his hunch that things weren’t exactly what they seemed. His gut feeling was telling him that the lady was amused for a reason. If he had to make an educated guess, it looked like she was actually running the show and she wanted this meeting because she believed it would be fun to mess around with a prosecutor.”

“Me?” she finally spoke to him, her voice sweet yet strong, confident but also sounding confused.

“He keeps looking at you for approval. Those two are watching over you.” Kyuhyun let out a sigh.

“So?” she shrugged.

“He lets you talk which wouldn’t normally happen if you were just some bimbo.” Kyuhyun continued. “You are actually running this show, aren’t you?”

Did he ruin a nation in a previous life, or had he been a killer himself? Cause otherwise he was finding it hard to believe just how bad his karma was lately. If dealing with a psycho in court who outsmarted him, having to embarrass himself in front of a gangster wasn’t enough, now he had to deal with what seemed to be another crazy person. She laughed.

Her laugher was colourful and bright but mocking and condescending. It was a mad person’s laugh, a laugh like something villains would have in movies. It was a mockery and he was right. This wasn’t a meeting to arrange someone’s death. This was her entertaining herself with what could have been a shady prosecutor for all she knew. This was fun for her.

“Maybe next time I should just watch such meeting from behind a computer.” She shrugged again, now moving to sit even more relaxed.

It took only a few seconds from the dark brown haired to get up, bow and apologize to her and then move behind the couch, still on her right, adopting a bodyguard like posture. What was this thing he had gotten himself into exactly?

“To answer your question….” She continued, leaning forward towards the prosecutor. “I just had to know.”

“Know what?” Kyuhyun felt intimidated once again.

“If an upright prosecutor like yourself really wanted to have someone killed. Of course.” She replied as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

Donghae moved again and this time Kyuhyun felt like he had to be on his guard, careful and even more aware of what he was saying. A part of him expected that his hunch was wrong and the people there would just laugh it off. Another part of him thought that if he was right, they might panic or something and drug or try to kill him. Some part of him thought they maybe they had an ulterior motive to this meeting.

They seemed to have done their homework, finding out who he was, what was his job. And if they were as serious as they wanted to sound and indeed did the kind of work, they promoted themselves as doing, surely, they had much more information on him. They didn’t even seem that surprised to hear who was the man he wished to see dead and that meant they had been so thorough in their job that they could anticipate and predict what would the person in front of them would say and do.

Donghae had moved towards the bar and picked up a folder. He only returned to give it to her, but she just threw it on the table, opening it. Photos of Kyuhyun at his job, in his very office, on the street, in front of his residence. Pages of written information were right below them, but he couldn’t see exactly what was written on them.

“A birdie said he even threatened your family.” She looked at the prosecutor again, her eyes fierce as she established eye contact.

“I….” Kyuhyun felt at loss of a few seconds.

“You said he is worth nothing. You want him dead. You were this close to hiring a hitman. I applaud the will needed to not give in and return to finalize a deal.” She smiled at him but even her smiled seemed rather wicked.

“Are you going to kill me or let me go home at the end of this meeting?” Kyuhyun found himself asking, needing to know the answer to this question before doing and saying anything else.

“I have no intention of killing you. There is nothing you can do to harm me.” She answered with such certainty. “What I want to know…” she mentioned and then proceeded to take a coin out of her pocket. “A deal is still a deal regardless of the price. For 500 Won.” She placed the coin on the table. She smiled again but there was something vexing about her words. “Should we help you? We can have him killed. For 500 Won… a deal?”

There was no reason why someone would agree to kill someone for 500 Won. There had to be an ulterior motive. The question was pertinent and demanding of an answer. Gulping, Kyuhyun let his head down for a few seconds and experienced the most disorganized trail of thoughts ever. What would have happened if he said yes? He wanted to say yes but he knew he shouldn’t. He wanted to be a prosecutor to the very end, righteous, so why was his mouth moving before he could finish reaching a conclusion in his head?

Why on earth would he say such a thing when he managed to keep his morale code intact after successfully escaping the sweet temptation, he felt a few days back? There was no turning back from saying something like this.

________

i am getting anxious a little.

is this a bad story? or have i simply beem away for far too long and now no one wants to read and comment on my stories?

i feel a tad...insecure. lol.

hope you love my story. let me know.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!!