Monster

40

For the life of him Mark can not remember the girls name and now hes struggling to remember why he thought that would be important to him. It just doesn't make sense.

Hes walking out to the gardens, about mid-afternoon, the sun is high and the area, besides a few orderlies and some patients gardening, is empty. He likes the gardens, they remind him of the woods around his house. It has been a long time since he could go for a walk and relax and now he can do it almost everyday.

The plants grown here are mostly flowers, nothing edible, although that doesn't stop some of the patients from trying to eat them. He joined the gardeners in his second week and stopped in his third, it was boring and hot outside and he didn't like being covered in dirt, it brought back too many memories.

"Mark...?" Mark cringes, wishing he didn't recognize that voice. He turns around, his expression blank.

"Holy shit, what are you doing here?" Kai hasn't changed. He speaks as slowly as he always had and stands in the same cocky manner. His eyes drag over Mark slowly, same as they always did.

"Probably the same thing you are"

"Yeah? I thought you quit drinking, you know, because of Jinyoungie" Mark didn't think Kai could get under his skin, but his vision spots when Kai has the nerve to use Jinyoung's nickname.

"Don't call him that."

"Did he grow out of it? He used to like it"

"Its not for you"

"You sure are cranky, maybe you need a drink"

Mark doesn't say anything. He will not lose his phone call because he kicked Kai's ass. He knows its beginning to look strange, the two of them facing off in the garden, when they certainly don't look friendly with each other.

"So why here? Do you live in the area?" Kai asks.

"Wouldn't you like to know"

"I'm just making conversation"

"How about you? Did Kyungsoo get sick of dragging your drunk ass out of swapmeats?"

Kai looks like he is about to hit Mark for that one. His cocky demeanor dissolving, for only a moment, into anger.

"It was my decision"

"I'm sure" They're silent again for sometime. They've never gotten along, even back when Mark worked for Kris and Kai came into the picture. Mark hit it off alright with most of everyone in Kris's crew, but not Kai.

Their first meeting wasn't exactly magical. Kai, green as they come, walked into a back room he shouldn't have right as Mark was slitting the throat of an informant, Agent something-or-other from the FBI or CIA or whoever, Kai had screamed, and Mark, entirely fed up with screaming at that point had put the same blade through Kai's arm and Kai shot Mark. And even though Kris had told them to get over it, there was always resentment. Mostly from Kai, Mark wasn't that upset about it, he came out of it mostly unscathed as Kai was a lousy shot anyways and the bullet barely grazed his arm.

"I had expected you to be dead" Kai spoke again.

"Yeah well, despite you trying to poison me, I'm away from most of those things now"

"Let me rephrase that, you should be dead"

"Baekhyun was surprised too, do me a favor when you get out and tell that slug to stay out of my things"

Kai ignores that. "Then who died?"

"One of Jackson's friends. So good job, your aim is still just as bad"