“There was an incident on campus involving two people. One person down—a woman.”

At hearing the words, it was suddenly even harder to breathe. Sehun’s chest felt like it might explode. He couldn’t see straight from what was in front of him anymore. It felt like the whole world was mixing together into one blur. Even before Sehun realized, he was already running.

He shouldn’t have let her go off alone. He, of all people, should have known that. Sehun ran as fast as his legs could take him as if running fast enough could reverse time. He would have never let her walk away. Sehun thought about their last words to each other and how he could never say anything else to her anymore. Would it all end like that?

Sehun didn’t mean to snap at her. It dawned on him that he wasn’t even angry at Byul. He was angry at himself and misdirected everything towards her. Because in the end, she was right. If Sehun didn’t know her personally and he had been offered seventy-five grand for an easy target, would he have done the job? Would he have been the one responsible for hurting someone like Byul?

Regret and anger were weighing his shoulders down, but he kept pushing.

He kept running.

The scene of the crime came into Sehun’s view. There was a large group of people surrounding one area in a circle. They were all staring at the scene in the middle. EMTs were already hauling a gurney out of the back of an ambulance. The sirens in the distance meant that police were on their way. Sehun pushed past everyone, even if he felt his whole heart being torn apart because a part of him didn’t want to see Byul hurt. The image was imprinted in his mind even before he could look at the scene for himself.

Because of him.

Byul bleeding out on the sidewalk because of him.

He left her and she was gone. It would be his fault. Sehun would never forgive himself.

Once Sehun reached the front of the crowd, he saw a woman he had never seen before. Her bright blonde hair that was fanned out against the cement was almost white in color. She was lying on the ground and clutching her bloodied head.

But the girl was a total stranger. It seemed like she was involved in a fight that turned physical and her assaulter fled the scene. Paramedics were supporting her neck with a brace as they carried her onto the gurney.

Sehun whipped his head left and right, wanting nothing more than to find Byul.

What if she had already left without him and took the train home? Byul wouldn’t have left without him, right? Sehun ran towards the nearest building, hating himself for not knowing where her locker was or even where she took her classes. He felt like he was a rat in a maze stuck in the same corner over and over again. Sehun was scanning every face he ran by, none of them the person he was desperately looking for.

Sehun stopped in his tracks once he saw her.

Byul had her back turned to him, but he was sure it was her. Even if there was a mass of other students moving about, Sehun was definitely sure. She was sitting on a bench near the doors of that particular building, her head bowed as she faced the other direction. Sehun wondered what she was doing. It didn’t seem like she went to her locker as she said. She was just… sitting there. With his sight locked on Byul, he quickly made his way to her. Sehun ignored the car that had to slam on its brakes to keep from hitting him when he crossed the road.

“Byul! What the hell are you doing?” Sehun had practically collapsed in front of her on his knees after thinking she was dead. After thinking those could have been their last moments together—horrible, horrible moments.

“Sehun, why are you here?” Her voice was broken.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He lifted her face with a hand on her chin and realized she had been crying. By how red and puffy her eyes were, he could assume she had been crying for a while. The sight of her in tears broke him apart again.

How could he fix it? How could he make her happy again?

“I… I know what I do for my job is—”

She shook her head. “I’m not crying because of that.”

He was confused. “Then what’s wrong?”

Byul wiped her cheek with her sleeve. “You wanted us to break up.”

Sehun tried to recall their last conversation but did not remember having such a talk. “What are you talking about? When did I say that?”

“I said that it sounds like you wanted to end things and you didn’t say anything back to me. You didn’t say no. And then I walked away,” she explained. “I’m really trying to understand things from both our sides, Sehun. I really am. I don’t want to give up.”

Sehun was at a loss for words. Of all things to be upset about, it was that? Not the fact that he didn’t tell her sooner that he was a hitman, but because she assumed that because he hadn’t said anything before she had walked off that it meant he wanted to break things off?

Because he was once again silent, Byul took that as his answer. She removed his hand that was on her lap. “It’s okay, really. You don’t have to—”

“Stop talking. You’re such an idiot.”

She stared at him, surprised at his words. “Excuse me?”

“You misunderstood me. Of course I don’t want to end things. Can’t you see that I’m trying to do the opposite of that? That I’m trying to hold us back together despite everything I’ve told you up until now?”

“Wait, what? But y-you…”

“Just because I don’t always show my feelings doesn’t mean I don’t have them, okay?” he mumbled, looking away in slight embarrassment. “I just might care too much, Byul, and that’s my problem. Don’t you know how many rules I’ve broken because of you? It’s bad enough that you still want to be with me even after knowing all this.”

She blinked away the last of her tears. “Don’t you want me to be?”

Sehun wanted to grab her by the tops of her arms and shake some sense into her. He wished he was better with words so that he could explain the depth of love he had for the girl. So that she would never have to worry about things like that anymore. Growing up in a household and an environment without any show of love or empathy from parents had made him lack emotional intelligence.

Still on his knees, he looked up at her with both his hands tightly gripping on to hers. “Of course. I do, I’m always going to be greedy when it comes to you,” he assured her.

Byul felt herself smile genuinely for the first time in a while.

Did she care for him that much too? Sehun returned her smile, the feeling bittersweet. He had a hard time believing someone like her still wanted to be involved with him to at least try to understand his perspective on the issue.

“And you were right about everything,” he said. “If I didn’t know you, I would have shot you.”

Byul swallowed and her eyes fell to the front of his shirt to avoid his gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“I’m not trying to get you to pick between me and this job, but just know that I’d appreciate it if you… stopped. I understand that you’re only doing this to criminals for some sense of justice, but what you’re doing is essentially capital punishment.”

Byul watched his expression carefully as she spoke. Because it seemed like he was waiting for her to finish, she continued.

“You know, I actually wrote a paper on this,” Byul said with a weak smile. “It’s like playing God—deciding who lives and dies. But, um, execution doesn’t erase their crimes. Don’t you think that life without parole in a prison is more effective? Doesn’t that sound like more of a punishment? Sitting away in a cell?”

Sehun slowly stood to his feet and sat down beside her in thought. “Do you mean… being locked away for life?”

“Yes,” she nodded, pleased that he was understanding her rambling. “And what you’re doing is… illegal, you know.”

“And bad?”