Echo || NCTau ||

9 - About attempts

Yeoreum swore under her breath when Park Jisung hastened his pace. The kid had noticed her so quickly even though she had left a lot of space between them. The second she detected the change in his posture, she knew that she needed to make a split-second decision.

She could dip out and let the guy get away, go home and re-think her strategy. Or she could keep going despite being noticed and just work faster. The potassium chloride syringe in her purse would work its magic quickly, she just needed to isolate her target somewhere where she could inject him in peace.

Leaving the kill for another day would've been safer for her but now that Park Jisung had realized that he was being followed, it was likely that he would be on the edge in the future, knowing that something was going on.

Yeoreum thought back to the map of the area her target's dance studio was located in. It was a fifteen-minute walk from where he lived and, based on the intel she had received of his schedule, he tended to walk on busier streets on his way home. However, there were two sections where he had to take narrower alleys between densely built buildings in order to avoid adding ten more minutes into his walk.

It had been Yeoreum's plan to wait until the latter alley because it was longer and had less visibility to the busier streets but, now that he was aware of her presence, she'd have to improvise a little and just take whatever quiet and, more importantly, CCTV-free street she could get.

She wasn't too scared of him alerting strangers, or anyone else, about her. Based on the scarce information she had received about him, before finding his friends, he had been kidnapped as a teen and his trust in people had been completely destroyed. Additionally, he lived on a false ID so he most definitely avoided causing any problems or drawing attention to himself.

Kids like him – the kind who had to grow up without family or much sense of normalcy rarely reacted to situations in a rational way. Yeoreum had seen it over and over again in the organization because most of the kids recruited to the program – especially the ones who ended up becoming Echoes – came from messed up backgrounds.

Yeoreum started walking faster when her target did. She had seen him take his phone out just for few seconds but his quick movements were enough to alert her.

It was possible that he had reacted in a more rational way than she had expected. It was possible that he had just asked for help and that would significantly reduce her time window to do her job.

She needed to get it over with. As she walked behind the guy, slowly catching up to him, she thought back on the map of the area. If he'd be cool-headed enough, he would avoid the secluded alleys altogether and take the longer way home. If that were to happen, she would have to give up and circle back later or find a way to get him out of sight.

The streets weren't that busy but every single witness would be too much when she was supposed to kill him discreetly. Sure, the witnesses wouldn't be able to identify her anyway since she had hidden her hair underneath a cap, her face behind a mask and her fingerprints with gloves, but Dr. An had been very clear in her instructions.

Even if someone eventually realized that something was off with Park Jisung's death, no one was supposed to see who was behind it. Ideally, it was supposed to seem like an accident instead of assassination but as long as no one witnessed the actual deed, she would be okay.

Luckily, Park Jisung was not as rational as Yeoreum had dreaded.

Instead of following the bigger street with other pedestrians passing by and CCTVs watching over him, he turned to the alley he always took home.

Maybe his body was working on autopilot or then he had figured that it would be for the best to get home quickly.

Yeoreum gave one sweeping look to her surroundings before following him to the alleyway. No one seemed to pay attention to them so she should have at least half a minute to succeed in her mission.