Minji ran down the stairs as quickly as possible without falling and got in her car to drive off, nearly flooring the gas pedal. She left her flat behind within minutes, but she was still nervous. Would he get angry once he noticed she was gone? What would he do? Maybe running away wasn’t such a good idea, but she needed to know what Jisoo had found out. She wanted to talk to her in person and not just on the phone since it seemed to be something very serious.

Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the driveway of the house where Jisoo lived. Minji rang the doorbell and was greeted by her friend who immediately hugged her tightly.

“Minji! You’re okay!” she cried, not letting go of her for at least a minute.

“I am okay, no need to crush me,” she replied as calmly as she could. “And now you better tell me what’s going on!”

Jisoo nodded and took her hand to pull her along into the small living room of her flat where they sat on the sofa, close to each other.

“First of all, it won’t be easy to speak about this. It’s a lot to take, especially knowing who is most likely responsible,” she said, not doing a very good job at hiding her trepidation from Minji who grew increasingly distressed seeing her friend like this. They had known each other for a long time, but she couldn’t recall having ever seen Jisoo act this way.

“Go on and tell me. I need to know.”

“Well… the… uh… dead body was found by an office worker who was heading to his car after the late shift. He saw weird red spots on a wall and went to investigate. What he found behind a car was… um… the mangled body of a man in his twenties. He was in such a bad state that he could barely be recognized,” Jisoo explained hesitantly.

“That’s horrible! Do you know… who it was?” Minji asked, already having a suspicion in her mind, but she didn’t want to believe it yet. It couldn’t be true…

“Only the last name of the victim was released by the police, that being Kim,” she answered, confirming Minji’s suspicion.

She swallowed, her hands clenching so hard that her fingernails dug crescents into her palms. “It was Dongmin, no doubt about it.”

Now it was Jisoo’s turn to be shocked. She couldn’t believe her ears, staring at Minji in pure astonishment. fell open. “What?! Your ex? What was that doing at Wang Enterprises?” she hissed hatefully, remembering what a bad person he had been. Her horror about the crime faded and she no longer felt sorry for the murder victim.

“He worked there,” Minji whispered. “I met him in the building.”

“Why haven’t you told me? Did he do anything to you?” Jisoo yelled, grabbing her friend by the shoulders.

“Not really? I mean, he taunted me… and threatened me, but he’s done much worse in the past, so it wasn’t that bad.”

“Not that bad, huh? Your perception of what’s okay and what isn’t is completely messed up because of that . Sorry to say this, but it’s true. Neither he nor anyone else has the right to threaten you. You need to understand this, Minji,” she said, trying her best not to yell at her friend again, but she was overwhelmed by anger at Dongmin and it was hard to hold herself back. Jisoo did not have infinite patience, especially not when that abuser was involved. She despised him.

“I’m trying,” Minji whispered. Jisoo sighed and put an arm around her shoulders, hoping to comfort her friend. She knew it wasn’t easy for Minji to speak about her ex, but sometimes it was necessary. They had to figure out what had happened.

“Assuming that Baëkhyun was the one who killed Dongmin, what motive would he have to do it?” Jisoo asked, meeting Minji’s distraught gaze. “Did he know about what Dongmin did to you? Was he with you when you met him?”

Minji lowered her head to glance at her restless hands. “He knew. I told him after he witnessed me panic a few times,” Minji explained. “He was also there the second time I met Dongmin in the building.”

“That’s interesting. How did he react?”

“He was livid. I haven’t seen him so furious, ever. It was scary and I was glad when we were out of there,” Minji said.

Jisoo raised her eyebrows hearing this. “That confirms it. He killed Dongmin.”

“But why? What would he gain from it?” Minji mumbled, running a hand through her hair.

“I don’t think it’s that hard to explain,” Jisoo answered. “Demons are known to have a strong obsession with revenge. When you piss them off for whatever reason, you’re done for. Baëkhyun must have been angry because he found out what you went through, and I can’t blame him. I was angry too when I learned about it.”

“But did he have to resort to such an extreme level of violence? Murder?!”

“Demons don’t deal with problems the same way we humans do. They obliterate the reason for the problem even if that means taking someone’s life. Mercy and forgiveness are foreign to them,” Jisoo replied, her eyes hardening.

“What if he hurts other humans too? What if he kills them?” Minji whispered and hid her face in her hands. It should have been obvious that Baëkhyun didn’t care for the lives of humans and had no issues with erasing them, but she had blocked it out, never thinking about it. However, now she was confronted with the truth whether she liked it or not.

“I highly doubt that he would hurt someone for no reason. It’s easy to see that he was taking revenge.”

“That doesn’t excuse his actions! He committed a severe crime and on top of that, he didn’t just kill Dongmin but also tortured him. It unsettles me,” Minji said, rubbing her teary eyes. “And he’s probably furious at me for leaving without telling him first. He must have noticed already. I don’t want to go home!”

“You can’t run forever, though.”

“Yeah, but I need time to get used to the fact that he killed my ex. If that isn’t freaky, I don’t know what is. I don’t feel sorry for Dongmin, but I don’t get why Baëkhyun would go so far just to get someone like him out of the way. Why does he even care, I don’t understand.”

Jisoo pursed her lips, thinking for a moment before she answered. “Maybe… it has to do with your bond?”

Minji was unsure, not knowing what to think of this. “I mean, yeah… could be true, but it’s one of many possibilities.”

Just when she had started to warm up to him and to trust him, he killed a human in such a cruel way that she wanted to turn her back on him and run. She had forgotten who she was dealing with because she hadn’t seen his violent side in a while. He was cruel, he was vicious, and he couldn’t be trusted. She had to remind herself to keep her distance, to stay away from him.

“Minji, maybe you should talk to him about it,” Jisoo suggested.

“Talk? To him? I know how that’s going to end. He’s either going to throw a fit, or he’s going to mock me.”

“Perhaps you’re wrong,” Jisoo countered. “You shouldn’t keep him waiting too long.”

“Are you throwing me out?” Minji sighed.

Minji reluctantly left her car and locked it, leaning against it to stare up at the house, to the windows of her flat. It was deadly silent in the area, and she was more than a little uneasy about her return. She hadn’t thought about this when she had left earlier… now how should she face him, knowing he had killed Dongmin? She couldn’t say that she was completely fine with it, even if her ex had been a ty person. The idea of someone being tortured to death horrified her and caused her stomach to turn on its head. She was terrified.

With reluctance, she trudged up the steps to her flat, dragging her feet as she walked. Her fists were shaking at her sides. Before she could bring herself to unlock the door, she stood in front of it, staring at its white surface with furrowed brows. This was way harder than she imagined…

“Coward,” she scolded herself and finally unlocked the damn door to go inside. It was quiet in here, and the lamps were rather dim, she noticed. She discarded her shoes and jacket, walking down the hallway towards the living room, where she assumed him to be. Suddenly, the door in front of her was ripped open from the other side and she came face to face with a livid Baëkhyun. His eyes were dark red, his gaze hitting her with the intensity of a bullet, causing her to flinch. Mixed in with the anger in his eyes was crushing disappointment.

“Why did you run away? I thought we were over this!” he hissed resentfully.

She couldn’t answer, didn’t know what to say. Her tongue was glued to the roof of . She couldn’t form words and her silence upset him further, the lamps on the ceiling brightening and dimming in turns, painting eerie shadows over his face. Her breath hitched when an unwanted picture flashed before her eyes, showing her his face stained with human blood, making him look like the murderer he was. She instinctively took a step back when he took one forward.

His eyes became steely