over a thousand views and almost 90 subcribers omg?? *throws confetti* im so amazed at the response and i feel really bad it took this long to get this chapter up; ive been busy with the first week of college but once i get settled i should be able to update more!

the thing about kyungsoo is that, while he’s very good at what he does, he’s really only good at doing one thing.

adept at both armed and unarmed hand to hand, muay thai, as well as several types of chokeholds and knot tying, his talents are excellent for stalking and subduing men up to twice his size, but not as excellent for planning an appropriate romantic overture to win someone over after they’ve seen you among a scattering of dismembered body parts.

kyungsoo really did think the heart was a great idea. classic and symbolic, but with a little twist, to show that he’s got a sense of humor. obviously, some more guidance will be necessary.

he doesn't have any friends he can ask for help. (he doesn't have any friends in general). victim #11's video rental card is still in his desk drawer, though, and a quick internet search pulls up a list of the top ten recommended romcoms.

kyungsoo works through the whole list, and a dozen episodes of boys over flowers, in two days. he watches ‘my sassy girl’ 4 times.

he learns a lot of things.

he learns, to his relief, that it’s okay for first meetings to go less than smoothly, or even badly, because it’ll be all the more romantic when the two parties finally do get together in the end. the most important thing seems to be that it’s memorable, and well, he and jongdae’s first meeting was pretty memorable.

the wonderful sound of jongdae’s voice, and his face, open and raw with terror, when he’d walked in on him - it’d flushed kyungsoo with adrenaline, thrill and panic at once. it made him shed all his meticulously curated rules and act on his base instincts, like he was an excitable young highschooler, stalking his first kill all over again.

but kyungsoo is not a rookie anymore. his next move needs to be more thought out. something impressive, that makes his intentions clear.

he’s also learned that while observing and fawning and planning big romantic gestures is good, it’s also important to build rapport, which can’t exactly happen if he and jongdae are never in the same room together.

kyungsoo thinks he can maybe kill two birds with one stone.

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at 5:37 am the next week, an elderly man out for an stoll in the cool temperatures of the early morning passes the southern plaza. 2 minutes later, a panicked phone call is made to the police.

by the time the morning rush of commuters has started to flow through the streets, officers have all surrounding intersections blocked off with police cruisers, and the plaza itself hidden behind tall barriers.

half a day passes, with no official statement given to the media. the web explodes with rumours.

bomb threat. sarin gas attack. political assassination. celebrity suicide. a few suggestions of ufos, some more serious than others. one commenter has a sister who works as a reporter.

‘she says theres police all around and theyre not letting anyone in without a police id, not even w/ a press badge

she and her cameraman got past the police cars but the fences around the plaza were like 50 m long and a cop saw them and kicked them out

she didnt even get within 10 meters of the plaza but she said there was a really strong blood smell still

there must have been a lot of blood omg wtf happend? anyone live in the area see anything??’

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jongdae turns off the tv. he doesn’t want to hear baseless speculation about the police barricade, what it could be containing and what it could mean for the safety of the city.

not when he can see the plaza with his own eyes from his apartment, a few streets away and a few floors down. from where he’s standing, he can see over the barricades, and the buildings around are just out of the line of sight.

so, jongdae is the only person outside of the s.m.p.a. who knows that right now, the entirety of the southern plaza is covered in 2 meter thick lines of red blood and human gristle, forming the letters of a single word in hangul.

and because of the fact that the lines are arranged parallel, not to any streets or cardinal direction, but to his bedroom window, jongdae knows that the message isn’t meant for the police. something cold forms in the pit of his stomach, but it still doesn’t stop him from mouthing the syllables in silent awe --

‘saranghae.’