Joon saw the movement through a crack at the back of the barn, a fleeting form rushing past like a ghost in the night, and his first thought was that Agent had come back sooner than expected.  He was outside the barn at this very moment, running like a fox in search of the perfect angle of attack. His judgment was compromised by his affection for the favourite, and he was scurrying in a panic, trying to gain the advantage. But armed with only a hammer, the man was outclassed.

Small-minded and foolish, but admirable in the way an animal was admirable.

Joon turned and hurried back to the truck to retrieve his gun case from under the seat and to check on God’s bride, whom he’d left alone for too long. It occurred to him as he rounded the open truck door that he should have closed it. The sight of the broken post had caused this slight lapse in judgment.

He cleared the door and stopped.

The seat was empty. The favourite was gone.

Buzzards screamed through his mind. He knew immediately what had happened. He considered the possibility that Shin Hye had escaped on her own, but the salute he’d seen was too tall to have belonged to the bride.

This turn of events would have caused any normal man to panic. But this, too, was a test. Joon aimed to pass it with a calm that would impress even the vilest and most demanding master.

He retrieved the gun case, slipped out the nine-millimetre, chambered a round, and turned off the headlamps. It took great effort to control his anger, this despite his advanced sensibilities. But emotion only impeded good judgment, a fact that he’d proven twice already tonight, first when he’d left Romeo in a rage after thinking he’d mortally wounded the man, and then again when he’d left the door open upon seeing the broken post.

He would not make the same mistake again.

Thinking clearly now, he walked to the door that led out the back of the barn. Romeo had headed north, not south along the obvious route, which meant he was thinking clearly enough to do what he thought was unexpected.

But Joon knew these grounds, having surveyed them during his selection process. If Romeo was thinking clearly he would avoid the cornfields because this variety grew on small stalks planted closely—they would leave unavoidable tracks of their passing. Instead he would make for the clump of trees at the edge of the clearing. Unarmed and encumbered by bride and wound, he would be easily caught and killed.

He crossed the clearing toward the trees without fear, gun by his side. The buzzing in his head impeded his hearing slightly, something that had undoubtedly allowed Romeo to sneak away with the bride. But now he listened carefully past the persistent buzzing. Any attempt on their part to flee the trees would force them to crash through the fields.

He approached the trees, gun extended.  The ground behind the largest was bare. He considered this for a moment, knowing that he had not been wrong, not again. He was too evolved for that. They had come this way, they had stopped here. In their condition they would have had to, if only to collect themselves.

He lowered his weapon, studied the corn, and saw the broken stalks immediately. So, they had gone farther in after resting here.

Now a dilemma presented itself to Joon. He could chase them down and surely catch up to them. Kill the Agent. Take the bride. Or he could let them come to him.

His mind sifted through the possibilities and as he put himself in the mind of his adversary, he knew the course the Agent would take. The man was a hunter. His mind was on the bride’s safety, but as soon as he felt he’d secured that much, his mind would return to the adversary he’d pursued for such a long time.

Thinking clearly, Agent would realize that by morning Joon would be long gone. His evidence cleaned up, his truck nowhere to be found. Surely the man must know that anyone as extraordinary and superhuman as Joon wouldn’t be found by registration and rental records. Agent would know that Joon, having been so exposed, would vanish into thin air. Another state, another country, another world, another universe.

And indeed, by first light Joon would be gone. As far as the east was from the west.

Furthermore, his adversary would conclude that there was no way to reach either a phone or a travelled road before sunrise. It was now man on man, ghost on ghost, angel on demon, this was it, this was the end game.

For these reasons and for his newfound love for the bride, Romeo would come back tonight in an attempt to put a final end to the demon that had entered his world.

And when he did, Joon would be waiting for him.

-----------------------------------------------

They had stayed under the tree for less than a minute before Min Ho knew their raw emotions would only betray them here, so close to the barn. Shin Hye could not stop crying and he could not stop trying to comfort her. Joon was already on the hunt and they couldn’t stay here in such a state of ruin.

He’d taken her by the hand and together they’d run into the field, careless for a few minutes, then with calculation when they came to the ditch that ran perpendicular to their flight. In this light the killer would not know if they’d turned right or left.

Min Ho took them left, single-file down the centre of the ditch. A hundred yards, no farther. From where they crouched they could just see their original point of entry. If Joon followed them, the moon would reveal him on the bank without betraying their crouched forms in the ditch.

They would rest here until he decided what to do next. The sun would be up in a few hours, and they had to put some distance in before the light made tracking them an easy task. It might take hours for them to reach safety. In the meantime, the more distance between them, the better.

There was another alternative. He could hide Shin Hye and go on the offensive. Not even Lee Joon would expect such a brash move. In a matter of hours the killer would be gone, and the more Min Ho considered it, the more he was sure that Joon would be gone for good. But he would never be gone, because in one week or one month or one year he would return for the one he had lost. For the last favourite.

For Shin Hye.

But for the time being, they were safe.

Shin Hye clung to his arm, still trembling, staring back down the ditch.

“Kwenchena?” he asked, smoothing her hair back. She looked different. Even by moonlight he could see the change in her. Her hair was still messy, but wavy and cut to cup her delicate features. She wore a red shirt and jean shorts.

She faced him, lips trembling. “I’m scared.”

“I know you are. It’s okay, I swear we’re going to make it out of this.”

“You came back for me?”

He hesitated, and then nodded.

Her tears glistened in the moonlight. “I love you.”

It was a simple declaration of understanding, stripped of any social posturing, etiquette, or purpose. And Min Ho’s heart flooded with this same understanding.

“And I love you, Shin Hye-ah.”

But her face twisted with anguish. “I’m scared, oppa.”

“Aniya, you don’t need to be scared anymore. I have you and I won’t let you go.”

“But…” She could barely speak past her emotion.

“But what?”

“Is that okay?”

He was reminded then of her own horrors extending beyond this night. Her fear of memory and the outside world. Any human would crumble if taken by the likes of Lee Joon to be drained of blood and glued to a wall. But Shin Hye faced a thousand demons more.

He extended his hand to her, and Shin Hye was hardly capable of taking it. She couldn’t accept love from a man like him. Not yet. She might try, but she faced a history that darkened the waters of love like brine. Like himself, but worse, so much worse. The truth of this covered him with shame for his self-absorption. To think that he’d felt sorry for himself for so long…

“De,” he said. “it’s okay.”

Then he leaned forward and kissed her on her forehead. He wanted to kiss her lips. He wanted to hold her gently and swear his undying love for her. He wanted to take her from this place and never let her out of his sight.

But she was too delicate for any of that. Too precious. Too beautiful and rare and beyond his clumsy ways. She, not he, would dictate what she needed and when she needed it.

So he just touched his lips to her forehead, let them linger for a moment, then pulled back and said, “You are very special, Shin Hye-ah. And I love y