48 hours earlier

"You double crossed me."

"Did I, now?" T.O.P leans back, smirking at the seething woman before him. Gyuri looks formidable in an all-black outfit, complete with black rhinestone studded nails and a black pearl collar, but she is just another one of his pawns and he finds watching her humorous.

"That man," Gyuri hisses. "The one you hired me to kill. He broke into my room, into this very mansion yesterday." She slams her hand on the table, the force causing a few rhinestones to bounce off her nails. "What the hell are you playing at? Who is he?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why the hell not?!" she shrieks, banging her other fist onto the table. "You think I give my services away to just anyone? You think this is a game?"

"To me, it is," T.O.P concedes, giving a small shrug. "Whether or not you consider it a game, I'll leave it up to you. And I trust that you will win."

Gyuri is livid now. "That man is after me, while I am supposed to be after him, and I know nothing about him other than the fact that he must be dead before the exhibition," she says. "And you think this is all a goddamned game? What do you want?"

T.O.P leans forward with a glint in his eyes. "I want him dead."

She narrows her eyes. "I don't trust you."

"You don't have to," he replies coolly. "You never have, anyway. You trust no one. In that way, we are alike."

"I can't kill him," Gyuri says, "if I can't be sure that I will be paid."

"Oh, I'll pay you." T.O.P chuckles. "I'll give you all the money you want."

"You are willing to pay for a game? "

He winks. "As long as you give me a good show."

Gyuri bares her teeth in rage. "I can't kill him, either, if I don't know who he is," she says. "You know, you are a puzzling individual. You ask for the death of a man and think so low of him as to consider his assassination a game, yet you respect him enough to keep his privacy. What do you have to gain from this?"

"You don't have to understand me, Gyuri," T.O.P says, his tone almost a warning. "You don't even have to like my terms. But I can tell you now that I have everything to gain from this. As we previously discussed, business is business."

"You'd kill a man for business?"

T.O.P's lip curls. "And you wouldn't? Is that not what you do for a living?"

Gyuri swallows her tongue, realising that she has made what is quite possibly the most hypocritical statement. "At least tell me his name."

He regards her curiously for a moment, scrutinising her closely. "Why does it matter so much to you?"

She tilts her chin upward proudly. "It does not matter," she says curtly. "But I would like something to write on the ribbon."

T.O.P gives a disbelieving scoff before breaking into a grin. "You are also a puzzling individual, Park Gyuri," he says. "And a hypocrite."

"You don't have to understand me," she replies, quoting him right back.

He smiles genuinely for a moment, wondering whether he's found his verbal equal in Gyuri.

Then he decides that she isn't anywhere near being on par with him.

"His name is Changmin."

***

24 hours earlier

"Hello, handsome," Gyuri breathes, hoping her voice sounds like pure poison. "What's your name?"

His voice is really low when he answers, but she manages to catch it. "Max," he says. "My name is Max."

Her eyes narrow. Someone is lying.

***

Now

Max feels like he's been attacked by the mother of hangovers when he wakes up. Beside him, Gyuri is still out cold, lying on her back with wide open.

Despite everything, he can't help but chuckle at the sight. He wonders how many people have ever been able to catch a glimpse of Gyuri like this, and thinks of how he would take photos as proof if he was a normal man.

But