It was almost ten. Ren was just finishing the last manuscript he was reading. He had been working late a lot recently, but he was used to it. His last job usually saw him working until well past midnight. This editing job was easy compared to it. Besides, he didn't find the prospect of coming home to an empty apartment very appealing lately. It gave him too much free time to think. To feel. Ah, how he missed that old job and the thrill that came with it. But he knew he could never return to it anymore. He had made his choice.
How very wrong that choice had been.
He was just shutting down his computer when a folder, one with a photograph paper-clipped on the front, fell on his table. Ren looked up and saw standing before him a tall young man with long red hair.
"Well, well, look who decided to visit." Ren smiled. His old apprentice looked just the same as when Ren had left some years ago. "How've you been, Charys?"
"I've...had better days." It seemed that way. Charys was normally a cheerful young man. But he looked very troubled that night. Ren suddenly remembered how he, himself, had started to age recently. Silver strands were now visible within the mass of unruly black hair on his head. How sorry he thought he must seem to his pupil.
"Is this your target tonight?" Ren asked as he picked up the folder with the photo. "Pretty."
He opened the file and smiled. It had been a while since he had his hands on one of these.
"Hart Arevallo, university student activist," Ren read the file. "Explosive." He flipped the folder closed and handed it back to Charys. "So, what brings you here?"
Charys didn't accept the folder back. "I can't do it," he said, gravely.
Ren was a little surprised with his statement. "What do you mean?" He asked.
Charys avoided Ren's eyes. He sat on the edge of a table and studied the floor. "I... I know her."
"What do you mean, you know her?" But he had a feeling he knew what his apprentice meant. What other reason could possibly bring Charys to him?
"It was my internship year. Her boyfriend was my target."
"And you just had to go and comfort her. Little did she know it was your hand that caused her to be miserable in the first place."
"I know, I know! I was foolish."
"Forget her." Ren threw the folder on Charys' lap. He knew where this was going. And he didn't like it. "Just do your job. Shoot her and move on."
Charys turned wide open eyes up to Ren. Clearly, he hadn't expected the coldness Ren had suddenly showed him. "I-I thought you would..."
"Support you? Encourage you? Maybe even help you?"
Charys was silent.
With a sigh, Ren turned to the open window. "Do you know why I left, Charys?" He asked, more calmly now. "Don't get me wrong, I believe in what we do. Or, rather, what I used to do. But there was this girl. And you know the rules. To keep her, I had to leave the job... forever."
Ren paused. His mouth clenched but his eyes remained far in the darkness of the night. Like his pupil's new target, Helen had been collateral damage, someone who held the target dear. And after Ren had shot him... How foolish Ren had been to comfort her. In the process, he fell for her.
"And so, I left the job," Ren continued. "For a girl I loved, I left the job. But it was for nothing. I threw away everything to be with her, but in the end she still left me. Look at me now. I edit books for a living and go home to a lonely box of a room, when I used to be doing what you're doing now! Am I what you want to be like?"
