central park

@♛ edelweiss "...smartass." she muttered under her breath although in playful manner and as she was about to leave the house, Xueting again caught her by surprise and she could only nod while making her way out. "Stay safe eh? It feels weird to hear that." Chaewon said to herself before shaking herself. She needs to stay on focus to carry out the mission perfectly, and dwelling on such encouragement words would do nothing but distract her from her main objection. She drove her bike to the house where she knew her target would be and as expected it was heavily guarded. "Time to chop some head off then." a small smirk made appearance on her face as she put on her mask and wasted no time to deal with the electricity first as darkness could provide a lot of help in a smission like this for her. She took careful steps toward the guards outside the house, swiftly killing them by slicing their neck one by one, determined to finish it as soon as she could; she raced toward where her target is all the while killing everyone who stand in her wayby stabbing or using their own gun to kill them. Once she made it, Val stood in front of the cowering man who now is begging her to not kill him and she just shook her head "Someone wants you to be dead. But not by my hands." with that being said, she dashed as quickly as she could and hit the man's neck with the hilt of her blade to make him unconscious. Taking her phone out, she dialed the phone she handed to Xueting before. "Meet me at the dock. Your prize will be delivered there."

@♛ valkyrie "Pretty sure you can, seeing as I'm sitting right here alive right now." Xueting mirrored Chaewon's chuckles, thinking that the situation right now was weird and unbelievable. Listening to her plans, Xueting gave her a nod, taking the phone before finishing up the cup of hot chocolate. "Okay." She answered as she pushed herself up, smiling gently to Chaewon as she made her way to her bedroom, deciding to take a rest for the job she has to do later. "Chaewon? Please stay safe. And thank you," she added on, disappearing behind the door before slumping onto the bed.

@♛ edelweiss "Alive huh? You're asking an assassin to bring someone alive?" She chuckled while shaking her head. But well, she hadn't really kill anyone during the last mission. Her target was pretty much alive and now going to be her employer. "Well, alright. Give me 5 hours to track him down and bring him to you. Lets meet up somewhere else if you want to deal with him. Meanwhile you should rest." She walked over to a cupboard and retrieve two phones from it, giving one to the taller girl. "Its untraceable phone. I'll text you our meet up place later when I'm done with him."

@♛ valkyrie "I just don't want any more trouble for myself... it's tiring to face killers all the time, first you, then that guy... who knows what's going to happen next." Xueting sighed again, her face buried in her hands as she slumped against the back of the couch before turning to Chaewon again to question terms she had. "Is it not possible for you to bring him alive to me? I need to deal with him myself." She clenched her fist tight, punching down on the sofa using her good hand.

@♛ edelweiss Her brows rose up at the sudden question, to be completely honest; the thought of this seemingly harmless woman hired her for revenge was never crossed her mind, but the will for revenge on her own was definitely already being planned as she knew the man's hideout. "...Why would you ask that?" She couldn't help but to ask, just to confirming her own guessing. "Although if I work for you, you can never ever mention that you know my real name. And you will stay put and do nothing till I finish the job."

@♛ valkyrie "I guess." Xueting kept still as Chaewon finished up tending to her wound, then picking up the freshing oversized tshirt, slowly wearing it using her better arm. Still keeping a distance between her, she gently sipped on the hot chocolate which had cooled at this point, letting out a sigh as she recalled the things that happened to her for the past week, knowing that it had to come to an end. And there was one person right in front of her who could help. "Chaewon... how much do I need to pay you for a job?"

@♛ edelweiss "I guess both are worse." She shrugged. Chaewon was about to scold the woman for moving her shoulder but the little apology reached her ears before she could even utter any words so in the end, she just let out a sigh. "Hold on, its almost done." She focused back on stitching the wound and wrapped it nicely with bandages. "Try not to move it too much for a while. If you want to rest, you can use the bed." Chaewon gestured to the single bed in the bedroom with a jerk of her head. "There are food in the fridge too. Although I have no alcoholic drinks."

@♛ valkyrie "Ah... so it was your parents? I wonder what's worse, having these kind of parents or having none at all. I don't remember mine..." Xueting shrugged unconsciously, feeling the tug of the surgical thread on her shoulder to which she mumbled a little 'Sorry.'

@♛ edelweiss The squeeze on her thigh caught her off guard as she jumped slightly at the contact, her face turned red and quickly shook her head at Xueting's words "Its fine. We couldn't chose which kind of family we're born at and to what kind of parents we'd being taken care of." She shrugged as if its not big deal. Well, she never remembered any warmth coming from her parents anyway so she didn't feel any remorse to her situation.

@♛ valkyrie Listening to Chaewon's story made her feel pity instead of being scared. Xueting couldn't imagine killing at such a young age, and having to hold in the emotions all by herself. Slowly reaching out a hand to the back, she squeezed Chaewon's thigh in assurance, trying to comfort her a little. "I'm sorry to hear that..." was the only words she could squeeze out; Xueting had a thousand and one questions in her mind, but it was all sensitive and she decided to save it for next time, not wanting the girl to relieve the memories which she might be trying to forget.

@♛ edelweiss "I don't know. Maybe around 5 or 6 years old. The blade was much bigger than my own hands but they told me if I failed, I'd be the one they kill instead." She said as she started working on stiching the wound on Xueting's shoulder. Chae never told anyone about her past before so this was new for her but then again, not everyone wanted to hear such dark childhood anyway. "He was a politician...they told me he got so many dirty deeds and by killing him we're actually doing something good for the society. So yeah, I sliced him on the throat and stabbed him there to make sure he's dead..."

@♛ valkyrie Xueting gave a half smile to Chaewon, shaking her head when she apologized. Turning around, she watched her get the medical equipment needed, gulping when Chaewon appeared with a needle in hand. She could see the nervousness in her eyes, and she became nervous as well. "Please do it well. I'll be in your care." Bracing herself, she turned around, forcing her eyes shut and biting down on her lip when she felt the prick of the needle and the slow injection of the drug, her body gradually relaxing when the throbbing pain of her injured shoulder faded away. "Y-you weren't allowed to huh... that must have been very traumatizing for you. How old were you then?"

@♛ edelweiss "...I can stitch them. If you're okay with it. Been doing that for quite a long time for myself." She stared back at the girl and nod "It's nothing. I'm sorry too for...how things ended up for you." Finally tearing their eyecontact apart, Chaewon stood up to get the equipment she needed to stich Xue's shoulder. It would be the first time she ever do it to someone else, since usually she tended her own injuries and for some reason she felt nervous. After making sure everything's ready, she made her way back to the couch, a syringe in her hand. "Gonna inject anesthesia now." Chaewon cleared the area with the alcohol swab and slowly inject the drug in. Once she's sure its working, she started her work on patching the injury slowly. "...To answer your question earlier... no, I didn't feel shaken after my first kill. I wasn't allowed to."

@♛ valkyrie Xueting bit down on her lip when the alcohol stung the wound, her body tensing up and jerking away from Chaewon's hand; she let out a hiss and tried her very best to stay still, frowning a little when she heard of the severity of the injury. "The hospital's going to question us if I let them stitch it up though... I guess you can bandage it up and let it heal on its own..." She sighed again, turning her head a little, making eye contact with the shorter. "Thank you though."

@♛ edelweiss She quickly closed at the teasing, clearing , Chaewon stood up to retrieve a medical kit, one she usually use to patched herself up; returning to the couch, she first started cleaning the wound with alcohol. "Its gonna sting a bit. Hold on." She hummed as she cleaned the wound and frown when she saw the cut was larger than she thought. "...Its need to be stiched."

@♛ valkyrie Xue turned around only to meet Chaewon's dumbfounded face, rolling her eyes and letting out a little chuckle. "Are you only good at killing people?" she chided her playfully, wincing a little when the air blew past her shoulder. "I can't reach my injury, can you help me out with it? It's starting to hurt even more."

@♛ edelweiss "Hmm." That was her only respond to Xue's rambles. She didn't know what to say right now, and she tried searching in her brain on whatever to say when she felt the dip on the other side of the couch; surprised, she turned to the side only to be greeted by the smooth back of Xueting. She blinked once and twice before muttering "...Huh? What...?"

@♛ valkyrie Being greeted with a cup of hot chocolate and a fresh set of new clothes helped her to calm down even more. Sighing in relief, she eyed Chaewon sitting opposite of her, deciding to trust her before taking a sip of the drink, the liquid warming up her insides making her feel comfortable, to the point where she almost forgot about her shoulder injury. "You helped me too... and it was just... instinct. I didn't want you to be hurt... even though you were the one who hurt me first, I know I know, it sounds funny, I don't know what happened to me too..." She rambled on, eventually stopping when she realised she had talked too much, taking yet another sip of the drink. Rubbing her forehead with two fingers, she slowly stood up, approaching the shorter girl before turning around, her back facing her as she carefully pried herself off the blouse, revealing her tattooed back and the bleeding from the slash before. "I guess I need your help again..."

@♛ edelweiss The shaking hand didn't escaped her observation and she confirmed it when it touched her cheek. Despite the surprise of the small gesture, her trained face showed nothing and follow the girl's movement to the couch with her eyes. She shrugged before making her way towards the kitchen to retrieve hot chocolate she made earlier and handing it to the still shaken girl. "Here. Hot chocolate. And no, I didn't put any poison in that." She said and left the room again, this time walking to the bedroom where she grab an oversized tee and knee length pants for Xueting to changed. The short haired woman put the clothes on the coffee table and sit down on another couch, keeping safe distance in case Xue still doesn't trust her. "You need to get your shoulder checked too though. Why did you help me back then?"

@♛ valkyrie The voice Xueting heard quickly snapped her out of her daze, as she hurriedly cleaned up before stepping out the door, shaking her head with a light smile when she was greeted with Chaewon's worried eyes. She still couldn't imagine how a girl like her can be so ruthless, killing people as if it was nothing. She even became one of her victims. But for now, Chaewon was her saviour, and she was thankful for that, even though the method used certainly traumatized her. With her arms still shaking, she reached out to gently hold Chaewon's injured cheek, softly mumbling "Take care of that, I hope it doesn't scar..." before settling herself on the couch, sighing. "Do you happen to have any tshirt to change to? My blouse is stained.."

@♛ edelweiss Once they arrived at her safe house, she pointed where the bathroom at with no words, knowing that the other girl was still shaken after the sudden turn of event. Chaewon was quietly preparing a cup of hot chocolate after cleaning her own cheek cut and taking her bloodstained shirt, both from her own blood and the attacker's. She knew things weren't going to be easy now, more than before. The source of all of this must be eliminated, in other words, the man who ordered her to kill Xueting. "Time to put end to this." She muttered under her breath when she heard a loud thud sound; startled, she quickly made her way to the bathroom and almost pounded on the closed door. "Hey, are you alright there? What's wrong?"

@❂ stranger Refusing to cry anymore, both because she needed to conserve energy and because it didn't solve anything, Goeun took a few deep breaths to keep herself in check, fingers curling into the fabric at her sides as he spoke. "Extra interested...?" she repeated, rhetorical as it was just in an effort to jog her own memory. Her grip didn't loosen, merely tightening to the point that her already pale knuckles whitened as she thought over everyone in the shelters. Dozens of people, more on any given day.

He made good points, but none of it sounded right.

Or felt right.

She shook her head, swiping harshly at her eyes with the back of a hand. "There's no one like that...n-no one obvious, anyway..I only stayed at women and children places because..." she trailed off, lifting her gaze to look at him when his other questions registered in her mind which was already running a million miles a minute, too quick to process new information. "Uhm.." her eyes shifted about as she tried to recall about the last time she ate or slept. "I don't know. But-- i-it doesn't matter, I'm fine. All that matters right now is Mingun--" Her eyes widened a bit as a thought dawned on her.

"Oh my god, he might not be eating-" The statement came out all in one breath, mumbled and sounding like one word. She clenched her fists to keep them from shaking or shaking more than they already were, and started walking again, quicker. She didn't know where she was going, but she refused to leave a stone unturned.

@♛ valkyrie Xueting could only nod at the girl's words, allowing herself to be dragged out of the park to one of her houses. After all, they had did this together, and she was in it whether she liked it or not. Finally inside the house, she watched the latter do her stuff while she made her way to the washroom, beginning to wash her face and attempt to wash her feelings away. Looking at her disheveled self in the mirror with the still bloodstained hands, she punched the wall in anger and guilt, letting out an expletive as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Why... just why..."

@♛ edelweiss She kept staring at the girl as the later tried to calm herself after pulling away from the hug. Chae was about to answer when she finally aware that their location wasn't that secluded and the longer they stayed there, the more dangerous it could be. She moved away to picked her blade, wiping the blood trace on the man's shirt the lightly place her hand on Xue's healthy shoulder. "Lets move out before anyone notice what happened. We can talk later and you need to be treated too. Follow me." She grabbed the lady's hand and literally dragged her out of the park to her safe house, one of many. "Don't worry, I wont hurt you. You have my words."

@♛ valkyrie "Yes... self-defense, that's what it is..." Xueting forced out the words between her sobs, the arms around her feeling strangely warm and comforting. Finally calming down after a few minutes, she looked up at the female, giving her a light smile as she softly pushed her away, chiding herself loudly. "S-sorry... I wasn't supposed to do that.. not in front of my supposed killer..." She chuckled, the dried blood staining her face as she wiped her tears away. "W-were you like me when you first killed someone?"

@♛ edelweiss She was surprised alright. Definitely not expecting the sobbing woman to hug her like this and she froze, not knowing what to do or say since she never really be in such position to comfort someone else. After few moments of hesitation, she finally wrapped her arms around the taller woman's figure which for some reason looked smaller than her own. "I'm sorry, I should've been the one who ended him. But yeah...he's the bad one. Its an act of self-defense." She said gently as she runs her hand on Xue's back. "Its alright. Everything is alright now."

@❂ luna Brenton followed along, walking beside her and keeping a close distance so he could hear her speaking. He had to admit, she was doing a pretty good job at trying to find her son especially without any help from the police. And she would have found him if not for Brenton who had taken Mingun away into the safety of his own place. His eyebrows rose at her words, it made him wonder just what they had gone through that made people there familiar with them, until a five year old knew to go there.

“Someone with bad intentions…” He trailed off, swallowing the dry lump in his throat. This situation would just be like any other case that he would have to handle back in the day, except he knew where the missing kid actually was at, which made this entire thing harder. “Could there be anyone at the shelters who’s extra interested in your son? Say, extra display of affection, finding excuses to spend more time together, you get the drill. Those kind of people would have good motive to perform a kidnapping, and if they were someone your son knows, the chances of him going willingly would be higher.” He spoke steadily, as if he wasn’t just flat out lying. But she wouldn’t and couldn’t know, not yet.

He came to a stop when he realized the woman was no longer beside him. Already few steps ahead of her, he turned around and faced her. Letting his gaze fell over her, it was almost as if he was seeing her for the first time. Lip quivering, tears welling up, the clothes on her that looked like they had seen better days and seemed to be doing nothing much warding off against the cold winter evening, the obvious struggle of trying to hold onto the thin string of hope. Before he even knew it, the questions had already escaped him. “Have you eaten anything? Or gotten any sleep?”

@♛ valkyrie Her actions slowly came to a stop when she felt an arm over her waist, and a hand on her arm. Letting the knife fall with a thud, she slowly turned over into Chaewon's embrace, her bloodstained hands tightly gripping onto Chaewon's shirt, mumbling between her tears. "He's bad right... he deserves to die... I didn't do anything wrong... he deserved it..." Her heart still pumped with adrenaline, her mind dazed with shock and guilt as she buried herself into what was once her killer's chest, trying her very best not to break down again.

@♛ edelweiss She felt the grip on weaken and soon followed by the complete release, Chaewon dropped down to the ground while coughing; taking the all needed air that's been blocked for quite a while by the man's hand. Once she regained her breath, she looked up only to be completely surprised by the sight in front of her. The sight of Xueting who was crying while repeatedly stabbing the lifeless man made her heart twist in painful way. 'So she never killed anyone before.' A sigh escaped her as she made her way yo the girl and hugged the later from behind with one hand, the other hand stopping the blade that is now red from blood. "Its over. Its alright now. You can stop."

@♛ valkyrie Xueting could only watch on as Chaewon executed the plan into motion, immediately reaching out for the blade once she dropped it. She could feel her hands shaking as she stared at the two, letting out a yelp when the man caught Chaewon by the throat, almost squeezing the life out of her. "No!"She had to do this, she had no choice. 'It's just killing, it's just one step further than beating up people' Xueting convinced herself, dashing straight towards the attacker and stabbing him through the neck. The male immediately released hold of Chaewon, and with a roar, he almost knocked Xueting off her footing, but she was stable, infuriated and scared. Without thinking, she stabbed him with both hands, the blade piercing right through his heart, and even when he fell to the ground lifeless, she stabbed him again and again and again, her eyes closed with tears leaking out from both sides.