Wos feelin' quite a bi' nice t'day so I  decided t' post this early...I know, I know. Your welcome xDD

When the woman leaves, he takes another look at the mirror on his vanity table and notices the blood stain on his shirt. Fortunately, he is able to conceal it by wearing his coat before the Judge enters.

“An honor to have you here, my lord,” he tells the man with a smile so that he does not appear suspicious.

The latter looks at him questioningly. “You know me?”

“Well sir, who in this world does not know of the Great Judge Jung?”

The latter’s expression does not change as he approaches him. “These premises bear not the best of appearances, yet Bailiff Shim tells me you’re the most accomplished of all the barbers.”

“That’s very kind of him, sir. And what might I do for you today, Your Honor? Perhaps, a massage, a haircut,” he asks as he helps the older man with his coat. “Sit, sir, sit.”

“Of course, and some French cologne, perhaps.”

“For the ladies?”

“Yes, but only one in particular. But first, a shave please.”

“The closest I ever gave.”

The latter settles himself on the barber’s chair while the younger man applies the on his face. He takes one of his razors from its case, admiring its luster. Now then, my friend, now to your purpose, he tells it internally, careful not to say his thoughts aloud. Revenge is best when taken slowly, when every moment is savored.

“My lord if you don’t mind me asking,” he queries, “who is your intended?”

“My ward,” he answers, “such a beauty, she is.”

“Pretty as her mother?”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing, sir, nothing. Now, may we proceed?”

He glides the razor on the older man’s neck and decides not to cut him just yet. For now he pictures possible ways to go about his revenge. Would he introduce himself, remind him of the old days and the way he had suffered in prison for fifteen years? Or perhaps, he can just lodge the razor in this man’s throat as soon as he is completely relaxed. He can just watch in pure joy as the man’s neck draws liquid rubies. And while it’s doing so, he can lodge the silver in his neck repeatedly, enjoying every moment of it until this man falls into the eternal slumber from which he shall never awaken. Oh, the endless possibilities! He can feel it now, the euphoria of this process. The baker had been right all along. Half the fun is to plan the plan. Yes indeed, he recalls her saying so once.

That’s right, you bastard. Stay right there...

Slowly he brings the razor closer to the man’s neck once more. Not to shave him though, but to kill him at last.

There, there, my friends. Slowly...carefully...There is no need to rush...

He draws the silver blade closer and closer by the second. Just a little more and he shall finally get his vengeance. Just a little more...

“Mr. Seo, I’ve spoken to Minjung and—”

“You...”

Immediately the older man shoots up from his seat, wipes away the remaining cream from his visage, and approaches the young sailor that had just barged in the shop.

 “Minjung, elope with you? Never! I will see to it that neither you nor any other man shall ever set eyes on her again, do you understand?” he angrily declares to the sailor, who still hasn’t recovered from the shock of seeing the Judge. “As for you, barber,” he continues, facing him, “I’m never to return here again!” And with that, he bolts out the door in fury.

“Mr. Seo, please!”

“Get out,” he tells the young sailor, trying to contain himself and fighting every urge to inflict harm upon the young man for driving away the Judge.

“But Mr. Seo—”

“OUT!”

The young sailor runs off, only to be followed shortly by the baker coming in the parlor.

“I heard you all the way downstairs! What’s happened here?” she instantly queries him.

“I had him,” he says gravely.

Looking at his expression, she realizes immediately that this is another one of those moments when reasoning with him would do no good. In times like this one, this man is willing to destroy anything—or anyone—in the room. The broken body mirror is proof of that. Still, she has to try.

“I had him,” he repeats in a whisper.

“There, there, dear, calm down,” she tells him.

“No, I had him!” he growls.

“Easy, Mr. S. He’ll come by again eventually.”

“No, he won’t! I had him right there, Mrs. Han, he was right there!”

“Love, all it takes is a little more—”

“Patience? He’s never coming back, Mrs. Han. Never! You told me to wait, and now he’ll never come again.”

She makes no attempt to walk closer towards him as he heads toward the window gaze at the citizens below. He starts uttering dark words – ones she’s never heard him say before, and her worry heightens. It had something to do with the world being inhabited by vermin who are filled with , the rest of it she didn’t catch.

“We all deserve to die,” he says as he approaches her, a scowl present on his face. She backs away in fear and soon, he pins her to the wall, placing the cold metal beneath her neck. She wants to tell him to calm down, but she cannot find the voice because of great fear. “Even you, Mrs. Han, even I.”

She does nothing as he drags her to the barber’s chair and presses the razor against her neck once more. “There are only two kinds of people in this world – the naives and the bastards such as the Judge and the Bailiff. Those higher than the rest of us, they do nothing but step on others below them. They take pleasure in other people’s suffering. Now surely, my dear, everyone’s done something for deserving it. For the rest of us, death is a nothing but a relief.”

He steps away from her and stands in the middle of the room while she remains sitting on the chair, watching his every move. The man is unaware that he is ones again thinking out loud; his thoughts take over him and the baker is left with no choice but to observe him, for she is afraid of what he might do if she makes any movement. He has never been the stable type. However, he has always been extremely dangerous.

“Minjung, my dear Minjung, will I ever see you at all? My Hyorin, lying in ashes in an unmarked grave... That bastard; there has to be a way! Of course...”

The man feels overjoyed at his epiphany, having never felt so alive in years. Of course! There has to be another way to get to the Judge. And the Bailiff too, for he is well-deserving of it as well. If it wasn’t for them, his wife would still be alive and his daughter would not have been trapped in the premises of that bloody sergeant of law! He will have his vengeance. He will have salvation. But until then, the work waits. The woman tells him revenge cannot be taken in haste, and that is exactly what he shall do. Everyone has done something surely deserving of death, and until he finds another way to get to the bastard, he shall practice on the throats of all other men. They aren’t as innocent anyway – they never had been. They all deserved to die—all of them deserved to die.

The woman sighs at the man’s outburst. She doubts that he even had any idea he had been thinking aloud the whole time. It isn’t the first time he has done it either; a similar situation happened just the other day when he was grieving the loss of his wife and daughter. She can hardly blame him though, for she knows he had been through so much back in exile. She understands him fully, and she knows she can do nothing but to cope with it.

She takes a step closer to the man, who is at the moment on his knees with his arms spread out widely.

“Well, that’s all very well, love. But what are we going to do with that one right there?” she asks him, indicating the fake Chinese man’s cadaver still hidden in the chest. She figures that she has snapped him back to reality when she sees him slowly bring his arms down and his gaze falls to falls to the floor.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

She receives no response from him as he continues to look down, breathing heavily. She sighs and rolls her eyes as she helps him up, bringing the man downstairs and into her shop. It is at times like these ones when she wonders why she is even in-love with a man as useless as him. She knows he isn’t the same man that she knew before, yet something about him is more entrancing; what it is, she does not know. It seems that each day, she would prefer being with the cold Seo Junho, despite his indifferent, homicidal nature than the naïve, kind-hearted Kim Junsu.

Story Status

Completed Chapters - 1 through 12
Under editing/revising stage - 9, 11, 12
Under planning stage - 14 and 15

• Plans for succeeding chapters still undecided
• Rating might go up, depending on planning of other chapters

Just thought I'd wanna give you guys a heads up.

Well, hope you liked that chapter. And remember, NO COMMENT = NO UPDATE. I am honestly no longer condoning silent readers. I need to get your feedback so I'll know whether to improve on something or not. And to those who don't know yet, please say something other than "update soon". I mean, I do appreciate you saying that, but please, do tell me more than that. Those don't really help too much.

Okay, bye now! See ya next chapter...if I do.