I'd Take A Bullet For You

I Love You

It is summer but that night brings a bitter cold that keeps her awake and trembling, and Seri is aware of the fact that there is someone else inside her house.

Her heightened sense of hearing catches another creak on the hardwood floor that her socked feet didn't make. Her stomach twists uncomfortably, and she can feel goosebumps running down the skin of her arms. One trembling hand has a tight grip around the baseball bat she keeps under her bed while the other reached forward, her fingertips grazing the wall that served as her guide in the inky darkness. Her heart is racing and she fights back the urge to run back into her bedroom and call someone for help. Her hand touches the switch that turns on the light in the main area of her apartment, and she takes a deep, shuddering breath.

The sudden assault of brightness makes her bleary eyes squint, and the temporary blindness increases her tension tenfold. She quickly rubs the sleep out of her eyes. With both hands holding up the bat behind her head, she scans the kitchen and the living room and finds nothing out of place. She checks the laundry room and the supply closet and finds no one hiding behind the doors. She even peers through the peephole in the front door despite the fear of something surprising her from the other side. No one. But the uneasy feeling remains. Then she notices the white curtains in the living room billowing inward from the cold air outside.

She remembers closing all doors and windows before going to sleep.

A cold shiver runs down her spine when her eyes catch the sight of a half-open window hidden behind the curtains. The wide space is enough for any man to easily slip through, and she suddenly finds it hard to breathe. She slowly makes her way towards it with her eyes warily scanning the room for any signs of movement. When the window was within her reach, she tries to close it with one hand and fails. After a moment of hesitation, she tosses the baseball bat onto the couch then uses both hands to push the window pane down shut. The curtains have stopped moving and the room turns deadly silent. She slowly backs away.

Then she hears the unmistakable click of a gun behind her.

Her entire body freezes when she feels the muzzle make contact with the back of her head. The bat she had tossed on the couch suddenly rolls off the cushion and clatters noisily against the floor, adding to the rising tension in the room. With her heart pounding wildly and her breathing growing labored, she raises both her shaking hands up in surrender and asks, "Who are you?"

The silence that follows after makes her want to risk turning around and knocking the gun off his hand, but both her mind and body seem to have shut down from the fear that has taken over her system. Then his heavy footsteps take their time making their way around her until her assailant is standing right in front of her. Her gasp gets caught in her throat. His eyes flashed the same furious and murderous light as the first time she saw them, his jaw and temple wore the painful shade of black and blue with a tinge of red, and his lips curled up in a sinister smirk that makes her stomach turn.

Cho Cheol Gang points the gun directly at her head and taunts her, "Remember me?"

"What do you want?" Seri asks him with a voice stronger than she expected.

"Vengeance," he replies. "You and that damn partner of yours are the reasons why I'm currently rotting in jail."

Seri tries to keep her eyes on his instead of staring at the gun. "You sound so certain that we are the cause of your misfortune instead of your numerous crimes."

He lets out a dark chuckle before studying her with an intensity that made her insides squirm in discomfort. "I had every intention of killing you that night," he tells her as if he were talking about the weather. "I should have, but that other detective just had to intervene. He should pay, too."