𝙍𝙊𝙎𝙀𝙏𝙐𝙈- 𝘫𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘨

九

his hands curled into fists as his boss's loud voice blared through his phone.

"you what?"

"you know what i said, hoseok," he sighed.

"what is wrong with you? you never get distracted!" he bit his lip. hoseok never raised his voice at him. "you are my best hitman! you have never taken more than a week to kill anyone, and here you are telling me you missed a chance!" he heard hoseok take a deep breath. "the person that requested jisung is getting impatient. i'll have to move the deadline to may 1st, so you have 16 days left. don't mess up."

the call ended.

he groaned and let his head fall into his hands. hoseok was right. he had to focus. he grit his teeth and forced himself to refrain from doing something he would regret. he didn't understand why he was suddenly unable to focus. frustration surged through his chest like a wave and he grit his teeth to stop himself from doing anything he would regret.

he remembered when he was still training to become a hitman. hoseok, who was the man who offered him the job, made sure to push him beyond his limits, training him into the orange hours of dawn.

"no. throw the knife with more force. again."

"again."

"again."

hoseok taught him how to use a gun, dodge bullets, and spot weaknesses. he taught him about the human body and where to attack, how to injure, and how to kill. although he'd been trained with all sorts of weapons, he chose to only use a knife.

"why only a knife?"

"so that my targets can feel how i did when i was with my ex."

he remembered his first mission clearly. at the age of 17, he was to kill a 25 year old man named min yoongi living in daegu.

"you have two weeks because you're just starting. i have an apartment set up for you. good luck."

his heart raced as he packed his clothes. he was determined to finish in less than three days. he knew that hoseok was going easy on him for the past year, and he needed to prove to hoseok that he could do this.

as he walked around the tall buildings of daegu, he scanned the faces of every single person in the sea of people walking on the streets, but wasn't able to spot a single person with deep red hair, gummy smile, fixed look of boredom.

he felt the air slowly cool around him as the first stars started to appear in the darkening sky. he had looked around for hours, circling around the same places every thirty minutes, and his energy level was going down fast. his stomach was yelling at him for food and his feet ached. he slowly trudged back to his apartment, his feet dragging along the rough pavement as the street lamps flickered on. he couldn't help but feel disappointed in himself. it's okay, he thought, i'll start searching for yoongi the next morning right after-

a motorcycle drove by and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of deep red hair. his eyes widened and his fatigue vanished immediately. he ran after the light of the motorcycle, not caring about the sharp pain in his left heel. he slowed his pace after the motorcycle stopped at a brick apartment building and started walking after he saw the man take off his helmet. as he got closer, he heard the click of a lighter and barely made out a puff of smoke against the deep blue sky. he watched as yoongi slowly turned his head and look at him.

"what're you lookin' at, hm?"

he flinched at the raspy, rough voice of yoongi. realizing what he did, he went with a timid, shy personality.

"n-nothing, it's just that i j-just moved here, a-and i just wanted to take a look around."

he winced as his voice cracked. yoongi raised an eyebrow and let out another puff of smoke. he watched as the smoke curled into feathery wisps of white. he jumped back as yoongi offered him a cigarette.

"want one?"

he immediately shook his head. hoseok had told him too many times that he couldn't smoke, drink, or do drugs. it made sense. he didn't want to expose hoseok's organization or leak something important. yoongi shrugged and slid the cigarette back in the box. his eyes darted around, looking for possible witnesses. the streets were empty. his breath slightly quickened and he took a deep breath to calm himself. he looked back at yoongi, who was staring up at the sky.

"more stars than usual in the sky," yoongi commented and sighed. "people here don't see that much."

he felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead despite the cold weather. he had a chance to end his mission on the first day, and he had to take advantage of the opportunity. he put his hands in his pockets, staring up at the sky with yoongi as he felt for the small knife in his jacket. his fingers wrapped around the handle. every single breath seemed to be magnified as the nervousness almost numbed his body.

"i-it's beautiful," he forced out, taking his hands out his pockets. yoongi got off of his motorcycle and stood next to him.

it was now or never.

in a quick, fluid motion, he turned around and quickly pinned yoongi to the ground. he felt yoongi struggle to wriggle out of his grip. his heart raced as he stared down at yoongi. the bright stars reflected in his dark eyes, but he saw no emotion beyond it. he hesitated and felt yoongi chuckle from under him.

"death frightens the weak."

those four words were yoongi's last as he brought the knife down. he watched as the life in yoongi's eyes drained away and all he could see were the stars sparkling in the dark orbs. he watched as the crimson blood tricked out of where the knife was stuck in yoongi's chest like a thousand small rubies. he watched as yoongi's mouth curled into a crooked smile as he struggled to breathe.

he pulled the knife out of yoongi and took one last look before backing away. he whipped around as he felt a prickling feeling on his arm. it was a rose bush. he quickly tore a rose off from the leaves, not caring if the thorns dug into his palm and walked back over the body. he placed the rose on yoongi's chest, and walked off with the bloody knife in his hands.

he scrubbed at his hands with warm water and soap for what seemed like hours and disposed of the knife. he fished his phone out of his pocket and called hoseok.

"i got him."

when he arrived at hoseok's house those years ago, he expected to be greeted with hoseok's usual expressionless face and pat on the back. instead, he was met with a smile.

"you did amazing."

a tentative smile made its way onto his face and a swell of pride rose up in his chest. in the two years of missions that followed, he never failed to experience that feeling. he was the best hitman hoseok had ever met, and he was proud.