Ji-Eun made her way to the compound.

And she waited. Her allies came. Others called them underlings, but they had always been her friends, loyal and friendly.

It was only a matter of time before the police came. She had lured them here deliberately, after all.

 

She sent her allies away.

+~~~+

When they came for her she was ready. The police hadn't been her only expected guests. She had gone in too deep, there was a price on her head. 

She needed to take care of everything tonight, or Jinyoung would have to be involved. Jinyoung, her sweet, stupid brother.

She dispatched them. They fought dirty, but she fought dirtier. 

As the last one of them fell, she raised her gun to her temple and squeezed the trigger.

Only to hear an empty click.

 

Gripping the gun tighter she walked down the hallway and emerged into the small courtyard outside.

A cop stood alone in the center.

It was Lizzy. 

Ji-Eun was so sorry. So sorry.

Lizzy didn't recognize her. She lifted her gun and aimed it straight at U's chest.

U raised her gun in return. She could feel the lightness. So heavy. She was holding a weapon to the woman her brother loved, the sister of the boy she loved. 

The lightness, the lies. They didn't deserve someone like her.

As the sun peeked over the tops of grimy industrial buildings, a gunshot shattered the dawn. 

And as Ji-Eun fell to the ground, she thought she could see the shards shimmering in the pale pink sunrise. 

The world would be so beautiful without her. 

And she shut her eyes and smiled.

+~~~+

Lizzy rushed over to U. 

When the police had arrived, Jinyoung and she had been sent in first. They took opposite ends of building, assuming there wouldn't be any problems.

And then U had been standing right in front of her.

Guns had been raised. And as a shaft of light beamed down onto U, his chest exploded in a rose of dirty red. 

Jinyoung stood his face hard and resolute. No one would ever harm his Lizzy. He would always protect his Lizzy. Always...

 

And then he saw U's face. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And his world came tumbling down.

The sky fell in pieces around him.

But... why?

 

Ji-Eun?

No.

 

 

No.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No.

no

nO

NO

 

It was a lie. It was a mistake. 

It had to be.

Because it was Ji-Eun's face smiling blankly above a white shirt stained with blood.

Ji-Eun's face was never that still. It was always grinning. Always moving. She was so sweet, so alive. 

She couldn't be....

Why would she...

 

No.

 

He shoved his way past the other officers who were beginning to arrive.

He had to go home.

It was wrong.

It was a lie.

It had to be.

 

 

It had to be.

+~~~+

His home was empty.

A letter lay on the kitchen table.

...

It was her apology.

Her explanation.

Their parents had died five years ago. Soon after, she had gone abroad to study computer science. She had lived with an uncle and aunt that she had claimed to have gotten along well with.

He never knew that she could lie so well.

She had barely stayed at that house at all.

The hacking, the crime, the drugs, that all started with one favor. One favor for her best friend's older brother.

Before she knew it, she was hooked. She couldn't stop. She got drunk on the power, the money. 

When she came to Korea, she put down her roots. And U emerged.

 

She had been naive. She was so young, after all.

She never expected it to go so far. And when it did...

Realizing just how much damage she had done, she repented in the only way she knew how. She took down all the opposing crime bosses, one by one. She set herself up for the police. 

She thought her life was the only price she could pay to make up for what she did. To make Jinyoung forgive her.

 

She was so stupid. 

How could she think that this was better?

How could she leave him?

He had killed his own sister.

The sister who cooked him American breakfasts and the best Ramen ever. The sister who tucked him into bed when he came home drunk and distraught. The sister who always greeted him with a smile. The sister who was so happy and innocent with her first love...

 

His tears fell onto the letter, smearing the ink.

How could she be so selfish?

+~~~+

Lizzy returned home with a heavy heart. Jinyoung's sweet little sister was U. And she was dead. 

She couldn't even imagine how devastated Jinyoung could be. If something like that happened to Seung Ho.... She probably wouldn't be able to keep on living. 

Seung Ho ran down the stairs grinning, and Lizzy's heart sank even lower. She called out to him. "Hey buddy, where are you going?"

"To the playground, to meet Ji-Eun," he cheerily replied.

"About that," she began, "Ji-Eun's gone."  She winced. It sounded so wrong.

His smile faltered. "What do you mean gone?"

"I mean... She's dead, baby. She's gone." There was no way around this.

"That isn't funny," Seung Ho frowned. 

"It's not a joke." She tried and failed to keep her voice from cracking. "She's gone. She was U, baby. She did everything. And she was shot."

"No..." He shook his head. "No! You're lying! Why are you lying to me?" Increasingly distressed, he rushed out the door without his jacket.

His breath came out in white fog as he stood in the playground. She wasn't there. 

She was late.

Pulling out his phone with shaking hands, he called her. 

"Hey, you've reached Ji-Eun, leave a message!" Her cheery voice sounded tinny and far away.

"Hey, it's me. Where are you? You're late. You always yell at me for being late, so why are you late? Where are you? Where are..." His voice got shakier and shakier. "Lizzy told me a joke. She said you were dead. I didn't think it was funny. Please come soon."

Lizzy had to be lying. Ji-Eun would come soon, hair a mess and laughter ringing loudly. 

But Lizzy never lied. Not to him. 

The tears fell from his eyes. He collapsed to the ground near the swingset where he had kissed her. The cold snow bit into his palms. 

She was gone.

Why was she gone?

Ji-Eun...

Why?

+~~~+

The funeral was quiet, except for an unfortunate incident where Seung Ho punched Jinyoung square across the face.

Lizzy kept her distance, knowing that he couldn't. Not anymore. Not now. Maybe not ever. He would never be the same fresh-faced boy she fell in love with. So she left him for now. 

 

Ji-Eun's gravestone was pure white.

She would have hated it, he thought. 

 

They had kept it out of the news, saying only that U had been apprehended and killed. Never mentioning his identity. 

 

After all the other guests had left, Jinyoung stood alone in front of her gravestone. 

His knees abruptly collapsed, one after the other. Short pieces of glass clung to his pants as sheets of rain poured down from the sky above. Her stone was cool to the touch. All that was left.

All he had left.

His tears fell salty and mingled with the rain. 

And the sun ducked behind the cover of the horizon. The purples of the sky mingled with the blues. Reds and oranges slowly trickled down away from the sky. 

The clouds stopped crying, but Jinyoung found that he could not. 

He had shattered his life with a bullet that morning, and the shards would always pierce his heart.

Ji-Eun had never meant to hurt him. 

 

But the pain.

Wouldn't.

Stop.

 

+~~~+