The tall man, with his leg, kicked the figure with one single powerful strike. The figure was a middle-aged man covered with bruises and blood, he gasped heavily from the painful kick he received. With bloodshot eyes, he glared resentfully at the hitman before him who looked down at him as if he was trash. The middle-aged man clutched his stomach and attempted to sit up only to fall back again as he received a second kick from the hitman. A spit of blood spewed out of his mouth between the harsh coughs.
"Life is great, is it not?" After asking a rhetorical question, the hitman chillingly smiled. "But too bad yours is about to end, Mr. Russell."
Licking the seemingly dry lips of his, Mr. Russell hoarsely spoke, "You... Someone hired you, right? Who——" Suddenly, a certain someone popped upon his mind, and the man let out a dry, hateful laugh. "It was that bastard Hans, wasn't it? That sneaky cunt."
He, James Russell, controlled most of the drug operations in the city, and having such a big influence, no one would dare to make a move against him. But there he was, laying on the floor of his own house beaten up by a hitman. A hitman hired by that son of a bastard Hans. That bastard was the biggest enemy he was facing against these past months. Resorting to such an underhanded trick, he had underestimated the bastard.
The hitman didn't answer the question. "Well, Mr. Russell, bid your farewell." He wasn't going to waste his time listening to a target rambling and cursing someone.
The hitman aimed the .45 calibre handgun at the target's forehead and without waiting for the target to react, he pulled the trigger. With a loud deafening crack sound, the bullet punched its way right through the forehead and created a gaping hole. Blood flowed out of it and formed a pool around the head against the hard floor as it slowly spread wider and wider. The dead man still had his eyes wide open, showing his last emotions of shock and unwillingness before death, but they were becoming dull and lifeless.
Taking out a disposable phone, the hitman dialled a certain number. "Tell him to be ready with the money in an hour." Right after he finished his sentence, he hung up the call.
He looked through a window nearby, the sun had already gone down. Turning around, he looked at the dead body; it was the second target of the day. A mischievous smile appeared on his face, it was soon time to take care of his third target before the day ended.
"Ah, I have to get my payment."
Silently and calmly, he exited the place and left the body on the floor lifelessly in the living room—now a murder scene.
Have you ever fallen asleep on a train before and woke up finding yourself somewhere far away from your home? Mavis wanted to cry, she hadn't expected to fall asleep and end up in another city five stops away from her home. It wasn't as if she had never been in the city, it was just that she had to pay a lot to go back. She could already foresee the nightmare coming to her during sleep, haunting her for foolishly wasting money. It was already night, the weather was cold and breezy. She could see her breath in the air. Checking the time on her smartphone, the train would arrive in twenty-three more minutes.
After arguing with herself whether or not to buy a warm drink, she went to the coffee café at the station that was about to close for the day and bought herself hot chocolate. Immediately, she checked the time on her smartphone and relaxed after seeing the time. Twelve minutes left.
As she had her eyes on the screen of her smartphone while walking, she didn't see the person in front of her and collided into them. The impact not only made her clumsily take a few steps back but also made her feel a sharp pain from her not yet healed broken rib. The pain caused her to loosen her hand grip around the cup with hot chocolate, leading it to drop to the ground with a heavy 'flop' sound.
The things that happened suddenly to her weren't completely registered in her mind, she felt her whole body falling backwards. When she opened her eyes that she had squeezed them shut earlier and saw a man, she had thought he would catch her from falling. Unexpectedly, he didn't do anything but watched her fall on her bottom.
"Mghh––!" She bit her lip from refraining herself to scream in pain as she made contact with the solid, harsh ground. The pain from her chest was so greatly painful that she didn't feel the pain coming from her bottom and hands that supported her against the ground. Tears formed in her amber eyes until they ran down her face. She quickly placed one of her hands on her chest.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck–– It hurts so much! Bloody shit!'
At the very moment, the man looked at Mavis who was in pain and recognized her. He clicked his tongue and swiftly took off his suit jacket. Kneeling, he gently pulled her to lie on the ground as he placed his suit jacket as a pillow under her head. After making sure she was laying straight, he smoothly calmed her down.
"Shh, take it easy. Control your breaths, don't inhale too much... Yes, you can do it..."
As he talked, he unzipped her jacket and used his fingers to mildly massage below her chest area. During the time, Mavis was gripping tightly in one of the man's shirt sleeves with her hand. The man felt the tugs made by the little woman underneath him, he lowered his eyes and continued to massage her.
A few short moments have passed and Mavis was finally able to relax, her broken rib did no longer cause her to feel pain. But she continued to shut her eyes; she enjoyed the massage the man gave her and didn't want to lose the comfortable feeling yet. It was only after she remembered what had happened that she opened her eyes. She gulped when she saw the man looking at her and chuckled.
"Did it feel good?"
Mavis blankly stared at him before she said with a quiet voice, "Sorry." She gently got up from the ground, carefully not to turn her body around too much because of her injury. "Also, thank you."
The man only had his eyes on the ground, Mavis followed the way the man looked at and saw the wrinkled, folded black jacket. Her mouth formed into the shape of an 'o' and immediately understood the situation. Just as she was about to pick up the jacket, she heard the man let out a sigh and watched him do it instead.
Mavis tilted her head, looking confused, she thought he had wanted her to do it for him. Walking towards her, the man reached out his hand. "We meet again. This time, let me introduce myself."
She remembered, the man was the same man she sat beside on the bus two months ago; the same man who rejected her. She didn't expect to meet him again, especially in a city she rarely went to.
Although Mavis felt a bit hesitant, she still accepted his handshake. With a smile, the man introduced himself. "My name is Siyan Hyun."
Mavis replied, "I am Mavis."
The man cocked his eyebrow. "Only Mavis?"
"Oh." She hastily shook her head. "It's Mavis Ying."
Watching her, the man placed his hand on his mouth to prevent him from letting out a laugh. Because of the height difference between them, she had to raise her head to have eye contact with him. Her round amber-coloured eyes shone brightly, it almost made him unable to stop looking at them. He ran his fingers through his dark hair, his smile softened but he nearly dropped it as soon as he saw her look at the cup with a small pool of some drink laying on the ground and then the railroad tracks with a visible frown.
"What is wrong?"
Mavis lowered her head. "I dropped my hot chocolate... I also missed the train."
Before he had the chance to speak up, he detected tears falling to the ground from her face. Because she had lowered her head, he wasn't able to see her eyes. Thinking that it was because of the pain from the fall earlier, he knitted his eyebrows. The tears streamed down and she began to sniff.
"Are you still feeling hurt? Where does it hurt?"
Hearing this, Mavis knew he had misunderstood her. She shook her head weakly and wiped her tears away messily with her arms. This made the man raise an eyebrow.
With red eyes from crying, Mavis explained. "The train that I missed was the last one for today. I live five lengthy stops away from here. I refuse to waste money on a taxi. Not only did I waste money on the ticket, but I also wasted money on the hot chocolate that I didn't even have the chance to take a sip of." She sighed softly. "Rest in peace, my money."
The man was speechless. Then, he burst out laughing. He originally thought that it was something serious, but it turned out it was because the little woman was crying over the money she spent. His laugh was deep and pleasing, although, at the moment, Mavis didn't care about it at all. She tightened her lips and looked at him with an accusing look.
"Don't laugh." She raised her quiet voice. "This is a very heartbreaking moment."
However, this only made the man laugh even more. His laugh became louder and more hearty. Mavis was pissed; her being stupid enough to fall asleep on a train had made her waste a lot of money. All that money could have been spent on upgrading the food week, like buying some chicken nuggets, soda, and rice. How she wanted to bang her head on a wall over her stupidity.
"Stop laughing. It's not funny."
Seeing that the man didn't listen to her, Mavis stayed quiet and patiently waited until he stopped laughing. When the man no longer laughed, he took a deep breath and apologized. "I am sorry. It wasn't kind of me to do, was it?"
'How does it feel when a stranger laughs at you? Obviously, not cool.' Mavis inwardly commented.
Because she didn't want to be rude towards someone she barely knew, she shook her head and lightly replied, "It's okay."
The man looked at her amused, he saw through her but didn't say anything about it. "A part of it was my fault too, from earlier. Let me compensate you. How about I pay you the same amount as the ticket and the drink cost you?"
Even though she was sad over her loss, she still didn't like it when strangers gave her money unless she earned it. It would leave her an uncomfortable feeling. She was hesitant and the man knew.
"Don't feel bad. This amount of money is nothing to me."
The words that were supposed to comfort her made her eye twitch in disbelief instead.
'Nothing? Does that mean I'm just that poor? Of course, I am. I am in debt.'
She looked at him with a pair of clear eyes and asked, "You really want to compensate me?"
Curious about what she was trying to do, the man nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed."
"Rather than paying with your money, how about you kill me?"
The little woman before him looked at him with such a steady and genuine feeling but with her puffy cheeks and red eyes from crying, he couldn't take her seriously. Somehow, she reminded him of an animal. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to pinpoint the exact animal she resembled.
"Didn't I answer you last time?" He narrowed his eyes.
"You did." Mavis nodded. "However, there's nothing wrong to ask again. Who knows, you might have changed your mind."
"Oh, then did I?"
Her lips curled into a small smile. "I hope so." She asked him, "Did you?"