♤𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫♤

Epilogue

7 years later

You can make your favorite song your alarm, and it will still annoy you in the morning. I've learned this naturally. Waking up is just as hard as going to sleep, still. All this time and I still can't sleep without her.

But cuddling with a corpse would be even less comforting.

I've ruled her off as a high school fling. A high school sweetheart. My first love. But not my last. I'll find someone like her someday.

I sat up in my bed with grey sheets and flipped my hair that hasn't changed since high school. It was a bit shorter now, and the bangs were gone. But it was still black and naturally straight. Peering over at the melatonin pills I had been trying for the first time this week, I threw them straight into the trash. I've tried many brands and found a brand that works for me, but the store was out.

"Bullshit." I shamed it, flipping it off in the trash can.

Rubbing my face and closing my eyes, I tried waking myself up to prepare myself for work at the police station. As of right now, there's no severe cases to work on, it's mostly just investigations that have lost their momentum but need justice.

I find it ironic how I became an officer of all things. I wanted to be a physician's assistant initially, but after Yeji, I worried she was in a position where she couldn't search for me like she promised. And even though I heard three gunshots that morning, I refuse to believe one of them killed her. I could claim that I just wanted to distance myself from that world. And I could claim that I find it somewhat justifiable working as a good guy as someone who used to be in love with a criminal.

Especially since I helped said criminal get rid of her twin's dead body and steal her identity.

But I knew deep down that I was a spy hoping that one of these missions would lead me back to her. I don't even know what would happen afterwards if I found her. But I'd stay with her no matter what it takes.

She's the only one who knows how to love me. And I like to think I was the same to her.

Staring at the wall in a daze, a phone call took me out of it. I answered after seeing it was from my boss. He called me to come down to the station and meet him in The Room immediately.

The Room was where us officers and agents were given our mission information. It usually means that it's a mission that needs to be acted upon immediately. I was sent down to The Room once a week at least, assigned a new mission. I grew to be one of the most trustworthy officers here in that I will get a mission done. No matter what I have to do.

"This is the one mission you may not come back from, Lekova." My boss told me. I chuckled.

"I thought you knew me well, boss."

"I do. But we've already sent 6 agents on this mission, each of them failing."

I swiped the mission folder out of her hand and looked at it myself.

—

Name: Unknown

Gender: Female

Age: Unknown

Race: Asian

Height: Unknown

Hair color: Brunette (unsure)

Danger level: A

Based: South Korea

The rest is unknown

"You've sent six agents and all of this is still unknown? All you have is this sketch..." I pulled out the sketch from the folder. It was just her silhouette from the shoulders up. It was evident she had bangs, straight hair that at least past her shoulders. She had bangs and 90 degree shoulders. "How am I supposed to work with this? Do you know how many tall, brunette, Asians there are?"

"We aren't setting you up for failure, Ryujin. We know where she'll be tonight."

"How will I get to South Korea in time? From Anchorage it's about a day long flight."

"She won't be in Korea. She'll be in Las Vegas, Nevada gambling at the Palms Casino Resort."

This is too good to be true. Why would they get lucky this one time and track her down this easily?

"How exactly do you know it's her?"

"We started hunting her down a year ago, after our first agent failed to terminate her. We've read her patterns, Ryujin. It's her."

"A year, and all of this is still unknown- you know what? I'll do it. What exactly do I have to do?" I questioned, looking through the rest of the folder and then the prize if I complete this mission.

'Success of termination will result in position change from agent to first lieutenant.'

"Wahh, Boss. Why such a jump?" I smiled greedily.

"It's beena hell of a ride, Lekova. Anyone who can kill her is worthy of the position."

I prepared for my mission. Getting into the right mindset. Killing people isn't as easy as it seems in movies and tv shows. I have my fair share of body counts, but the amount of souls you take seems to follow you. I don't know what I'd actually do with myself if I didn't take the lives of the already guilty.

On the way there, in the jet, I looked over her file again. I feel like I'm going into this blind, there could literally be a billion people in the world that have the same known features as her. And if she is such a task to track down, why is my boss so certain that she isn't the one tracking us down?

I've had experience with criminals like this in my younger years. They're absolutely relentless to retrieve what they want.

It's not like I'm going to pull up at the hotel in an all black combat suit and guns. I have to be undercover first. I'll be going as a victim.

This illegal game of cards was set to have prizes for the winner. There would be four games going on in one room. Each winner from each game will go against one another until the final player is left standing. The winner gets the biggest prize.

Tonight the prize is a whole lot of drugs and me. Classic, disgusting human trafficking. The whole game will be rigged to make this unknown woman win. She'll take me with her back to Korea and I'll fulfill my mission then.

I had never been to Nevada before, let alone Las Vegas. I always knew how famous the state was for their Casino city. It seems as if everyone there will be as dangerous as me, except for this mystery woman, who is apparently even more dangerous than I as a Category A criminal.

But I wouldn't waste my breath on hoping to see this grand city tonight. I have one focus. Be a victim. Be scared. Be weak. So, in simpler terms; be the opposite of who I really am. As expected, as soon as the jet landed, there was not a second thrown away. Into a van I went with a couple others. The driver, whom I didn't pay much attention to, and my usual partner, Nana. She would be offering me as her prize to give to the winner.

On the way there, I was put into costume. A simple torn up dress that had seen better days, no shoes, cuffs around my neck and wrists, messy hair, and no makeup.

"You ready?" Nana asked me before we left the car that was parked behind the hotel. She blindfolded me with a thick black blindfold, it must have been a rule. But this blind wasn't thick enough to completely block my sight. I could make out people and objects just fine, the blindfold only served a minor hindrance.

"Are you?" I retorted, she chuckled back and the back van doors opened. Suddenly I appeared scared to everyone else. Suddenly, all the eyes are on me, but their eyes have dollar signs illustrated over their colored orbs.

The room where the game would be held was dim with rare lighting. The room was filled with men. Only three women were present. Nana, myself, and the mystery woman. She even wore a face mask that hid every feature. Like a glass mask one would wear to a ball. She really didn't want anyone to know what she looked like.

Let the games begin.