Echo || NCTau ||

30 - About leaves and willows

All the color drained from Jisung's face.

"What?" The word came out as a weak, confused gasp of air.

Yeoreum followed as he took in the oversized black hoodie and the black cap she had covered herself with – the building had CCTV but she had made sure that none of them captured her face. She hadn't had the time to grab a wig from home to further throw the police off but the cap and the hoodie Yeowoon had left in his car covered her short hair anyway.

Slowly, she took out one of her throwing knives. She was stalling and she knew it.

The fact that the table was still between them wasn't an obstacle – she had killed moving targets from much longer distances, and sometimes even by using unfamiliar knives with wrong weight. The knife in her hand was a familiar one and she could take him down with ease.

She would throw one into his throat and another one into his heart, and then check that he died quickly. She'd take the knives out, maybe do some quick cleaning depending on how badly the blood spattered, and then get out.

Yeoreum swallowed.

She had promised mom that they would go to Gangneung soon. She was supposed to teach a new throw in the next self-defense class because, surprisingly, her older students were into judo throws. She had wanted to tell Haechan about her dad's memorial service, have a High School Musical marathon with Sungchan and Shotaro (even though she and Shotaro pretended to hate them), and buy Yeowoon a nice meal.

Could she face any of them ever again after killing Jisung?

"It was you this entire time, wasn't it?" Jisung guessed, seeing the emotionless mask on her face. "The one who tried to kill me in the alleyway weeks ago. And someone followed me around afterwards, even though we never saw who it was. Was that you as well?"

Yeoreum remained silent.

Over the years, she had assassinated so many people. She had thought that whatever conscience she had been born with was gone, and that it would never come back. She had thought that if she only followed the director's guidelines, she could handle the weight of her job.

Jisung looked at the throwing knife in her hand and his own hands started trembling.

"Can you even tell me why?" He sounded like a wounded animal even though Yeoreum was yet to nick his skin. "I thought that we were almost like friends. You've been so kind to me. I just – I just don't get it."

Friends? Kind?

Yeoreum wasn't sure if he was still talking to her.

"Did something happen to you or your friends because of me?" Jisung guessed with a frown. "Haechan told me that you have other doubler friends so maybe the poachers hurt them by using me. I was rarely sure what was going on around me back then so it is possible."

Some of Yeoreum's guilt was overpowered by confusion. Jisung was supposed to be trying to escape or beg for his life, put up a fight or at least throw insults at her for stabbing him in the back. Instead, other than his pale face, the weakness of his voice and the trembling that had spread out to his entire body, he seemed to be quite level-headed.

"What are you talking about?" she finally asked, still holding onto the knife.

"Aren't you trying to kill me as revenge for something?" Jisung asked in turn.

Yeoreum shook her head.
"I was hired to kill you."

This was, by far, the weirdest assassination situation she had ever been in. Despite being scared, Jisung was very good at faking that he was calm; Yeoreum had seen (and killed) gang leaders and hardened serial killers with way worse poker face.