𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐌𝐍 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 || 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐟𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐮

35 COFFEE BREAK

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C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - F I V E
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»My mom said to me "You know sweetheart, one day you should settle down and marry a rich man". Mom, I am a rich man.«
– Cher

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PREVIOUSLY ON "AUTUMN KILLED"

"Lucas, I lost him. Something must've happened!"

I started to sprint down the block, knocking people over in my hurry. I was dead set on getting around the corner where I had last seen Yuta's signal. I knew I had to hurry. The mission or Yuta's life could be depending on it.

~∙~∙~

I was frantic; All my senses on alert. I had to find him. I had to know what was happening.

As I got closer to rounding the corner, I realized I had to prepare myself for the possibility of running into a fight. I clenched my purse under my arm, ready to draw my gun as soon as I got around that corner. My pulse was accelerating, the adrenalin pumping through my veins and my heart was galloping like that of a race horse's. I gasped for air as I sprinted around the corner only to slam right into someone, knocking me, backward, down on the ground. A few people gasped, while others didn't even flinch.

"HMPH!"

The blow knocked all of the air out of me. It instantly took me back to the Headquarter in Summer Sixteen; Back to my extended self-defense training. Taeyong knew the training I'd had to undergo when I was little but wasn't satisfied with the way I reacted in a hand to hand combat.  According to him, it wasn't enough if I broke my opponent's nose, no, I had to learn to fight and to protect myself the hard way. I needed to go for the kill. So, Taeyong had asked Jaehyun to train me – because "Are you crazy, Carmen? Who would I be if I hit my own girlfriend?"

And luckily for him, good ol' Jaehyun hadn't been the type to hold back just because I was a girl. His left punch was iron and his right punch was steel, and he would use a particularly intimidating scare tactic to taunt me and to distract me.  There hadn't been any arguments or something like that between us in the past; we had just avoided each other our whole life, until the day Taeyong forced us to work together, "There is nobody I trust more than him. He'll train you well, he's tough but fair."

To be exact, I never believed Taeyong that my fighting skills needed some touch-ups. I was sure, the reason behind all that was the unpleasant encounter I've had with the poison-green-eyed monster a year back. It was clear, Taeyong was concerned that one day the situation would repeat itself and that he wouldn't be there to help. That's why I had agreed to his plan just because I wanted to reassure him on that matter and at the same time to show him how good my skills actually were; that he was simply underestimating me.

In my opinion, I knew everything I needed to survive, but training with Jaehyun showed me the opposite. When we faced each other on the mat in the training room, and he gave me that certain look, I knew the pain was coming, and it made me lose my focus, but it also forced me to learn how to think in scary situations. How to control my fear. How to deal with the pain. He and I always had our differences; as a matter of fact, he couldn't stand me, and I never did anything to change that. However, I don't think he took pleasure in hurting me, but he definitely enjoyed watching me toughen up after every punch.

Noticing a burning sensation running down my body snapped me out of my blackout. It was coffee, and I was still on the ground, confused after my collision.