It became a routine afterwards. Once Na-Kyum realized how good his friend was at slipping through the window discreetly, he stopped trying to stop him and his bed became theirs at least twice a week. If they managed to see each other during the day, he wouldn't go and spent the night studying instead. If they hadn't, he'd slip under the cover and they'd whisper to each other until Na-Kyum yawned and fell asleep on his shoulder.
The supervisor was replaced by an old woman from the village soon after their first sleepover. No one knew what had happened to the cruel man and no one thought to link his disappearance to the unrecognizable body found in the river a bit further away. The corpse held many signs of torture, but the death was put on the fifteen deep stab wounds covering his abdomen.
He was barely twelve when he took his first mission.
One Tuesday night, during a weekly meeting of the higher up, he walked right up to the main house, ignored the numerous bodyguards standing at the front and confidently reached for the door. They didn't take it well.
However, his training had born fruits. He quietly wiped them all out. Giant, trained men spread unconscious and bloody around the small, lean boy. He cleaned up the whole house and didn't knock before entering the meeting room.
His father raised a surprised eyebrow while his brothers turned red with fury.
« Take the dog out ! » Chung-Hee shouted but nobody rushed in.
The small fries couldn't step into this room. Seven men sat around the long, hardwood tables. His father at the head and the highest executives around. They all lived on the compound in luxurious villas with their family. Around the room stood the less important people, his brothers save for the two youngest who were still minors, some of the others' own sons and a few men he had seen in various locations and had noticed were the most talented.
«What the fuck are they doing letting this rat in ? » The eldest brother who was already thirty, Ji-Hun, clucked his tongue. « Get him out. »
The skilled sniper he had often seen at the shooting range sighed and reached for him but Do-Yung easily avoided it. He sensed the shift in the room then.
« Let the boy speak his mind, » Sung-Woo, his father, smirked in disdain. « You can educate him afterwards. »
« I want to be part of the family, » he deadpanned with an expressionless face and a cold tone, back straight and head high in front of all those dangerous, grown men.
He wasn't surprised by the choir of laughters that resonated around the luxurious room and waited patiently.
« Look at the bastard ! » Si-Woo, another of his eldest brother, with slicked black hair that reached his shoulders and an ugly mustache, laughed loudly. « What family are you talking about ? »
« Give me a mission and I'll prove myself, » he confidently answered, his face still impassible.
« Get one of the men to take care of him, » Sung-Woo sighed. « I have enough sons. It's a pity you couldn't quietly enjoy my generosity. »
Chung-Hee pulled out his phone and they all turned their back on him, going back to the conversation as if nothing had happened while Do-Yung stood still.
« Eh… » His blond brother frowned at his phone after trying to call a few more times.
« What is it ? » One of the eldest executive, a bald man wearing a ring on every finger glared at him.
« Nobody's picking up, » he stared at his phone in confusion.
« What the fuck are they doing ? » Si-Woo cursed and took his own phone out to try himself. Nothing.
« What is going on ? » Another executive frowned at them.
« Just get the one right outside and send him over to see, » Sung-Woo ordered and someone Do-Yung remembered seeing at the shooting ranges pushed him aside to get to the door.
Do-Yung didn't react at the shocked gasp he heard then.
« What…? » The shooter walked backward until he was back inside the room.
« The hell is going on ? » Chung-Hee growled before coming to see himself.
« Give me a mission, » Do-Yung repeated patiently now that he had their full attention again.
His father was all too happy to send him on the field.
Murder, kidnapping, torture, recon… Name it. He warned Na-Kyum of his impending absence, never leaving for more than three days or he'd become restless, craving his fix. Na-Kyum asked about what was going on, worried about the secrets his friend kept from him but he was too kind to force Do-Yung to talk and way too trusting to suspect what his friend was doing.
In a little under a year, the rumor about a bloody ghost from the Seo group spread in the milieu. Not a soul hadn't heard about the skilled hitman who never missed a target. Even in the group, his full implication was kept a secret though his obvious talent while training, now that he was allowed to take part, left no room for debate. Seo Do-Yung had become the ninth son of Seo Sung-Woo and nobody dared to oppose the decision. Even his brothers had to bite their tongue in front of his results. They still abused him but when the boss called, no matter that they had just hung him down from the ceiling or that the blade was still slicing through his skin, when the boss asked for the Nightmare to be sent on a mission, they all stepped back. He let them. Not because he couldn't do anything about it, no, but he still wasn't the strongest. Not yet. Soon, but not yet.
He now had three meals a day and his own bedroom in the main house, though he still preferred Na-Kyum's smuggled scraps of food and the tiny bunkbed they were slowly outgrowing.