𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺𝑰𝑫𝑬 | 𝐊. 𝐆𝐖 - 𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐢𝐢𝐢. 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝐞𝐧𝐝

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“That is so romantic” Mr Kwan cooed wistfully as the two sat at one of the booths, animatedly chatting over Nari’s newfound relationship with the boxer and he was loving every second of it.

Mr Kwan had always been a free, kindred spirit, he loved having people to talk to, considering he had no family of his own. Mr Hwang had told her one day, on the anniversary of Mr Kwan’s late wife when he didn’t attend work, that he had lost his wife among the many in the first infiltration of Smile Capital. It was why Yang-jung and Du-yeong were so adamant to end them once and for all, to avenge all of who they had lost- including Mr Kwan’s wife who had also been one of Mr Choi’s knifers. She remembered being in awe of him, that a man so kind and joyful had been so heavily grieving and lost beneath the surface. She hadn’t realised, and seeing him so happy for her, her heart ached knowing he was reminiscing through her. His first love and his last.

” You make a good-looking couple” he chimed, and Nari blushed, shoving his arm as he laughed before she followed. She adored him. Mr Kwan had been such a constant in her life, she wasn’t sure what she’d do without the sushi loving man.

“I say the truth” he chuckled at her reddening cheeks. ” You know it too” he said lowly and that’s when Nari threw her hands up, her cheeks burning in response.

“I’m going to get a drink” she said as his laughter rang through the restaurant before the bell chimed.

Nari could barely hear the low conversations as she grabbed two glasses of water. Mr Hwang hadn’t returned yet, but he would soon and then they’d be back to experimenting on new recipes and her stomach would explode from the never-ending sushi platters Mr Kwan would surely concoct.

A sudden crash startled Nari, her hands nearly dropping the glasses as she frowned as a loud pained grunt reached her ears.

”Mr K?” she called. Turning in her step, she made her way out of the kitchen to return to the floor.

The glasses slipped from her hands, her fingers numbing in shock and horror as the it went slack in her grasp. The glasses shattered by her feet, her lungs stopped working and dread flushed through her. It was crippling.  Her eyes widened, tears pooling and every fibre in her body tensed that she felt paralysed to the floor.

They had found them.

“Nari” Mr Kwan croaked, his mouth was drowning in blood, the crimson liquid dribbling down his chin and onto the floor, red specks sprinkling when he called her name through bruised half lidden eyes and swollen cheeks. He was being held by two big burly men who held his sagging body roughly between them and Oh God. When her teary eyes drifted lower she found herself staring at two round patches of blood, so mahogany it didn’t look real.

“Don’t” Mr Kwan croaked desperately, and he could barely lift his head to plead at Kim Myeong-gil who stood beside him, wiping the blood from a long and crimson stained knife onto a handkerchief 

“Mr Kwan” Nari cried, his name hastily falling from her lips when Myeong-gil turned to her, his head tilting but she could barely see him through the tears in her eyes.

“Ah, Miss Byun. I said we’d meet again” he said, his voice sending a shiver of fear down her spine and Mr Kwan’s barely intelligible run was not heard when Myeong-gil grinned maliciously, not tearing his eyes away from Nari when he gave the order.

She had barely turned when her body was jerked back with a cry as two hands grabbed at her arms and flung her into a table. She gasped, tears falling down her face as the table splintered from underneath her weight.

“Nari!” Mr Kwan heaved; with little strength he squirmed in the men’s grasp but Myeong-gil merely tittered . “Kill him” Myeong-gil ordered and Nari snapped her head to him as arms yanked her upwards.

“No” she said breathlessly as a man approached Mr Kwan who for the first time since she had met him  looked completely and utterly defeated. Nari didn’t even have time to blink when the same bloodied knife plunged into the spot over his heart with such strength it protruded out his back.

“NO!” the scream tore through her so violently she felt as if she was going to pass out. Her body swayed and a sickness like she had never felt before overcame her and suddenly she was limp in the men’s grasp, weakly trying to tear away from them as the men holding Mr Kwan’s now still body released him. His body thumped to the floor where it remained unmoving, lifeless and probably so very cold. 

“No, no no” she cried as Myeong-gil feigned sympathy before stepping over his body as if it were an inconvenience in his way.

“Ensure she does not intervene” he said to his men before glancing at Nari’s crushed form wickedly. ” She would not like what she sees” he said before he disappeared. Nari wanted to scream a warning to Mr Hwang but a hand muffled her before she could utter a sound.

Her grief was so startling, so heavy that her sobs had taken her ability to breathe. She was heaving but she would not let Mr Kwan die in vain. She would not lose anybody else. Myeong-gil will not take her loved ones away. She would fight as she had said, even if it killed her.

Through blurry vison, she bit down the hand muffling her screams. The man cried out, shaking his hand as Nari slammed her foot over his before spinning around, her eyes blinking furiously, before she lifted her knee to his crotch and then punched him harder than anything she had ever done in her life. Her grief fuelled her strife and her anger finished it.

She grabbed a broken chair leg and slammed it into one of the men. There were four, easy enough. She stabbed the wooden leg into his side, he seized, before falling to the floor in a heap, she pressed down on the wound eliciting a scream.

Nari did not care.

Her tears were still falling as she swerved the man’s blow, dropping him to the floor with a liver shot she had watched Geon-woo administer to Woo-jin in fact, before her heel careened to his skull and he was out like a light. Nari turned to the last guy who pathetically raised is hands, but Nari had no room for mercy, not when Mr Kwan laid dead at her feet,

She picked up the fallen knife and lunged. The blade sliced through his flesh, searing against his skin, he cried out, clutching the bleeding wound. It wouldn’t kill him, none of them would die but she so wished they did.

“Mr Kwan?” she croaked as a sob crawled up her throat, her knees hitting the floor beside his body as blood pooled around him. She lifted him slightly, careful as to not disturb him but her trembling hands were shaking so badly she had to lower him back down. His body flashed to her mother’s and she found herself unable to breathe. The familiar panic set her alight but this time she didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t run, she had no Geon-woo to comfort her and tether her back to reality. Fck, she hadn’t even thought of him. If Myeong-gil was here, surely they’d be next, she’d have to warn him but her priority right now was Mr Hwang.

Nari stood up on shaky legs, her pants were drenched in blood, fingers coated in a thick layer and her back was aching so badly she was struggling to walk.

”Do not hurt her” a low, disgruntled voice was barely heard as she held onto the wall.

“Mr Hwang” Nari called desperately as she stepped over the bodies and blood and, oh, she was going to be sick.

Nari swayed on her feet as she entered the kitchen.

“Mr Hwang” her throat constricted as a sob of pure despair tore through her. Her eyes drifted from the red water that swirled at her feet to where Myeong-gil smiled almost triumphantly, his smirk awakened a rage in her she didn’t know she harboured while Mr Hwang’s impaled body slumped his feet.

“You fcking monster!” Nari cried, lunging towards him with her knife in hand. Myeong-gil swerved, the blade nicking his shoulder before he grabbed her wrist and in one swift motion disarmed her, leaving her writhing in his grasp as his laugh rang in her ears.

“I told you Nari, what happens when you mess with things you aren’t familiar with” he chastised before forcing her to her knees in front of Yang-jung who had multiple lacerations all over his body. Red  completely overtaking his once pristine chef’s suit and his hands were clutching onto the blade that ran through his stomach. His head barely held itself upright as he maintained Nari’s fearful gaze. She was trembling so violently, her face wet with tears while Myeong-gil held his hand over her shoulder to ensure she could not run.

“Please let him go. Let me call an ambulance. Let him live” Nari begged, her voice betraying her fear as she kept her eyes on Yang-jung whose exterior finally crumbled.

He could not bare to tell her the news of Du-yeong but Nari was a smart girl, she would figure it out soon enough.

He held her gaze with so much reassurance that for a split-second Mr Kwan’s body was not laying away from them lifeless and cold and he was not about to follow soon. He looked at her as if all was okay. He looked at her with a proud fatherly gleam in his eye.

” Myeong-gil please. He’s bleeding out, let me help him” Nari cried, her voice breaking as she tried to reach for him but Myeong-gil tutted, shaking his head as his fingers dug harshly into her shoulder. She barely hid her wince as her knees began aching.

“You see Yang-jung” Myeong-gil started, eyeing the knife in his hand with a wicked sheen before he slowly lowered it. Nari stilled when she felt the blade run over her cheek.

Yang-jung felt blood crawl up his throat but his eyes looked furious as he weakly inched his fingers towards her trembling hand. ” There was a time I thought you a God. No one could ever stand before you and walk away unscathed, hell look at me now. ” he shrugged, gesturing to the wound in his shoulder and blood smearing his face. ” I thought you unbeatable. I feared you. But then I found out that even immortals have a weakness” he derived, Nari held her uneven breaths from escaping her as the cold bloodied blade hovered over her shoulder, pressing into her skin and drawing small blood. Fear shone in both their eyes.

“You hold your dearests close to you” he said, eyes glinting as he pressed the blade deeper into her skin. Nari gasped as she bit down on her lip until it bled. She didn’t want to give Myeong-gil the satisfaction of seeing her squirm. ” You protect them as if they’re your own blood. So let’s see if you two bleed the same” he grinned and Nari’s eyes widened before she felt a sharp and blinding pain burst from the point below her ribcage.

Yang-jung grunted, the blade sinking deeper into his flesh as his eyes, bruised and wide couldn’t look away from her. Blood replaced every word he tried to utter as Myeong-gil’s sick and vicious  grin lit up as he twisted the blade and that’s when Nari couldn’t hold it in anymore- she screamed.

“You are to share the same fate as your predecessors” he said into Nari’s ear as she cried, the blade sinking deeper into her skin and red exploded in her vision.

“I warned you to stop meddling. If you guys want to be bloodhounds so badly, then you’ll meet the same end as one” he told her and then the blade was gone, ripped from her body clean.

Nari shuddered, her body slumping as raggered gasps mixed with blood spewed from her lips. Her hand weakly lifted to cover the wound as tears rolled over her nose and onto the wet floor where it joined the swirl of bloodied water.

It seemed both Yang-jung and her bled the same.

“I am grateful to you” he said to Yang-jung who had silent tears rolling down his cheek, his enraged eyes drooping but never straying from Nari’s limp figure.

“You showed me where love truly gets you” he said, stepping over Nari’s body and leaving them there. The bell chime now sounded like deaths call.

Nari laid paralysed as the blood continued to seep from between her fingers into the water. For a moment that was all she could do, all she wanted to do. Close her eyes and sleep. She was so tired. So sore and everything hurt. She was in so much pain her vison blurred. Her eyes drooped and for a second she saw black before his face flashed against her eyelids. His smile and then his laugh.

Geon-woo. 

 And with him followed the others. Her brother, Ms Yoon, Woo-jin, Hyeon-ju. They were all waiting for her. They didn’t know and she did not want to give Myeong-gil the satisfaction in her dead corpse. She was a fighter. She was stronger than him in will and grit. He had said so himself. People with grit could do anything.

Nari sucked in a large breath as she slowly pushed herself upright. She cried out at the pain, clutching her chest tighter as her shaking steadied. She screwed her eyes shut as she reached into her pocket to grab her phone. She did not want to look at Yang-jung yet. She felt she might faint if she did.

Nari was quick to dial emergency services when she managed to get the device in hand. Dropping not only their location but the Lee residence in case. If Myeong-gil was set for them then they were already a target or were doomed to be. Nari had barely typed the four letter word to Geon-woo before her phone slipped from her hand, her fingers going numb, and her head hit the wall in defeat. She couldn’t pick up her phone.

Nari laid there defeated, drenched in blood and heart shattered at the thought that a few moments ago everyone had been alive and well. They had been happy and now they were dead. And she would be too.

Nari’s lips quivered and a horrible sob filled the quiet room. She glanced up to where Hwang Yang-jung laid unmoving, head bowed with his chest impaled and hand slightly outstretched in her direction.

She barely uttered his name as another sorrowful cry left her. She was so weak and she couldn’t protect any of them much less herself and now she had lost him. She had lost them all.

Blood crawled up her throat before she coughed, the red liquid spluttered down her shirt and over her lips and her chin and Nari found herself closing her eyes and thinking she was never going to open them again.

She wouldn’t get to say goodbye to everyone. She’d never properly thank Mr Choi for everything. She would never get to laugh with Woo-jin or have girls night with Hyeon-ju, she’ll never get to meet Mi-kyung’s baby or hold them in her arms. She wouldn’t see her brother and she wouldn’t get to fix her relationship with her father. She would never tell Geon-woo that she loved him and that he made her so happy in the time they’ve known each other. She would never kiss him, hold him close. She wouldn’t have a life with him.

So she let herself sink into darkness because surely death was better than this unimaginable pain she was in.

 Because death was painless, life was not. 

       Well then………….

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