𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐒 // 𝑻𝑾𝑶𝑬 //

| 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

· · ─────── ⋞··⋟ ─────── · ·

The Girl of a Thousand Evils never steps into the killing floor before first having counted all the heads she's going to take.

In this five-star hotel's ballroom, she notes a total of two-hundred-thirty-six bodies including children. It's a big event, the wedding of a politician's son and chaebol family's daughter. Their names are not important to her, just the fact that to everyone else, the union of Kang Taejin and Lee Hyewon is a thing of history-in-the-making. These high-profile targets are her perfect guarantee of the NSP's attention. They have to be. She needs to find a way to get into The Agency now, if she's ever to get out of the hellhole she was dumped in when the Stormo all but exiled her.

There are a total of thirty national-security level bodyguards, equally divided and spread out across all points of exit-and-entry. She times her stopwatch for five minutes. Taking into account the collateral damage, she adds another three minutes to the timer. The two major heads she needs to take by the end of it are counted for, but the trick to this dance number lies in the show of a massacre led by her one-woman-team.

She counts; forty-two. Her mental hitlist contains the whole entourage of thirty bodyguards, the bride-and-groom pair, and ten of their bystanding wedding guests sans the children. She's decided it should be enough for the NSP to take her in under ten minutes once the bullets and blood start to rain down on their party. And for this, she first needs to get hold of a couple semi-automatic guns.

She fixes the neckerchief around the collar of her server's uniform shirt and takes a silver tray filled with vodka martini glasses from their service table. With one wrist held up close to her right shoulder, her right hand carries the tray as she walks four rounds through the entire ballroom. Makes sure to take her time, diligently working the shift as a cocktail server. Spends the first few hours cleaning up spills, waiting on tables that demand for a refill of their champagne glasses, and even receives a slap on the face by Kang Taejin's mother-in-law, and gets her ass groped by one of Lee Hyewon's drunk uncles along the way.

She has all these misfortunes happen to her in plain sight of the most deceivable bodyguard, Seo Jihun. A 27-year-old young man, a former South Korean Army soldier, who despite his rigid stance and sour scowl on his face, is betrayed by the sympathetic kindness in his eyes that grows with each time he catches sight of her struggles. A self-made hero so easily swayed by a damsel in distress.

A bee in the honey trap.

The Girl of a Thousand Evils, once considered the Principessa di Corvi, now reduced to playing a fucking honey trap.

The silver tray slips from her hand, crashes on the floor with the rest of the cocktail glasses. Crystal shatters around her and she falls when her frazzled feet step on the splattered drinks. The guests continue to party around her without concern. Her so-called boss is out for a smoke and the rest of her co-workers are too busy with their own work that they don't notice.

No one pays attention to her, except Seo Jihun.

He glances at her bleeding hand cut by a piece of broken glass. Exchanges a quick word to his partner standing beside him, before he steps away from the door their guarding and walks over to her. He tells her to leave the tray, the mess of broken cocktail glasses and spilled vodka and champagne she hurriedly tries to pick up, and helps her stand. Using a clean cloth napkin from a banquet table nearby, he wraps it around her hand and has her press her fingers into her palm to slow down the bleeding.

And when he guides her away from the chaos, with a gentle hold on her upper arm as he leads her through the back service-door, she truly means the thanks she gives him.