Agent J // NEX7 Fan ChengCheng

13

○ Capital J just like a scorpion ○
○ The brilliant sting is my signature mark ○

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked as she opened the door. She was confused to why he would want to talk to her when it was literally midnight but she nodded nonetheless and let him inside her room. He sat on  her bed as she did as well and she waited for him to speak.

"So, what is it that you want to talk to me about?" she asked. "If it's anything about M then you better hurry because I don't like dallying time and I'm only awake because I have a lot on my mind and we must hurry before anything is too late" she said quickly. "What? No, it's not about that at all actually" he said.

"It's rather about... you" he said and she was in shock. About her? What could he possibly ask about her? Or is it something she did wrong or any of her careless actions? Either way, she was scared of what was to come out of his mouth, what he was going to inquire to her.

"What about me?" she asked. Her tone showed nothing of what she actually felt but she was worried. She was worried if he would dig too deep into her and she might not avoid the question and end up revealing herself too much in front of him. And mind her, he's just a guard she met a few weeks ago.

"I've been wondering about your mask. You have so many of them and always wear them, I've never seen you bare-faced. Why is that?" he asked and she looked down. She didn't know how to answer that, she had her own reasons, of course she does but she didn't know if she could tell him just yet.

She wanted to tell him the reason on why she was always behind her mask but she was scared that he would be just like the rest, laughing at her for the excuse or whatever they call it. But she knew that he wouldn't be like them, at least not as bad. "It's because of this" she said and took off her mask for the first time in front of someone.

He gasped at the sight of the woman right in front of him. She was incredibly beautiful, that was what he thought at first. Then he saw the scar on her left eye. It wasn't a small one, not at all. It looked like it was too big to be concealed but he didn't think if it as disgusting or ugly, instead, he found it rather charming.

He thought that it added to her beauty. To him, no human, no being, no creation is completely flawless. They must at least have something that they can't do or anything. He figured that it might hide a painful memory behind it but every scar does, no matter the size or the depth, every scar, every bruise holds a painful memory.

"What happened?" he asked after a while, caressing the scar after she let him to. "Do you know why I chose J as what people I am barely acquainted with call me?" she asked and he shook his head. "Because to me, I'm like a scorpion and J can be well written by the body of a scorpion. To me, I only bring danger to anyone I meet" she said. "But what does it have to do with this?" he asked.

"Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm constantly reminded of the person who nearly died because of me. If only I didn't run fast enough, she would be dead by now" she said. "I was investigating an old laboratory and someone I knew insisted on coming with me so she did. There were people in it and they started attacking us" she started.

"We fought back, of course, but just as she wasn't looking, a bullet flew straight to her, aimed to the back of her head. I ran as fast as I could to not let her take the bullet, to let myself be risked to die instead of herself. I barely made it, and this scar is the result of that bullet that grazed my eye and landing on the wall behind my friend" she said.

He softly smiled, now that she's seen it, it was actually very charming. "Oh, that's nothing you should hide from the world" he said. He rolled up his sleeve and she saw a tattoo of roses and their thorns. "These tattoos are just like your mask, they hide my scars. If you follow this line right here, you can see the marks of something as sharp as a knife and as long as a rope that penetrated through my skin" he said.

"It was my own father, before he died the year I became a guard. He never wanted me to become a guard or something of the sort, he thought that I was just going to follow around other people's orders like a lost dog. When I argued with him he abused me, whipped me and I left right after that. He died that night, after having a heart attack" he said.

"I'm so sorry" she said. "I had to have this tattoo on me because I never told my mother about it, and she would flip if she knew. So I've always covered it up with it and why I've always worn long sleeves" he said. "But it's not about the scars that haunt me, Adam. It's that painful memory, that worry I felt when I saw the bullet being shot towards her. I'm like a scorpion, bringing terror and danger everywhere I go" she said.

"You're not" he said. "Why would you say so? I came into this palace because I heard that the Queen was being targeted and now all of a sudden, it's me and I have to risk all of you fighting alongside myself, moreover, with Her Majesty the Queen herself. Maybe I shouldn't have done this after all" she said as she lowers down her head once more.

"It's just who I am, I'm like the sting of a scorpion, bringing danger along with me no matter what"