To Love & To Kill

03 | stay

Jennie sits inside the café while scrutinizing the faces of each passersby. It's a dead-end on capturing the individual she was assigned to. She's a bounty hunter, paid to find the owner of a company that allegedly escaped the law of tax evasion.

She tapped her index finger on the side of her hot cup of coffee, following the beat of music that is playing in the place.

She scrunches her face, frustrated with the lack of information she had obtained. Only knowing that the person go to this coffee shop doesn't really help her as she doesn't even have any clue of the age or sex of that criminal.

Is it the male in a slick black suit talking loudly on his phone? Or that old female whose face is painted with dark make-up? It may even be the waiter serving the hot beverage on the other table, trying to conceal his identity. These are the thoughts that flooded her mind, going back and forth with which has the highest probability of being the mysterious person.

She grumpily closes her notebook while sliding her pen inside her shoulder bag. She then hastily stood up and turned the other way to reach the exit. But other than doing that simple task smoothly, she hit someone, causing the hot coffee that the man was holding to spill on her dress.

"Ahh!" She exclaimed as she felt the hot liquid coming in contact with her skin.

She instinctively reach for the tissues placed on the table and pat it immediately on her front. "Excuse me!" She said sarcastically.

"You're excused." The man blatantly replied and went directly to the chair where she was sitting awhile ago. He nonchalantly crosses his legs as he unlocked his phone to continue reading the news report he had clicked before.

Jennie was astonished with what happened, hardly believing the man's arrogance. Yes, she admits he's good-looking, but it's not enough reason to be oblivious with the incident he took part of.

Without second thoughts, she took her half-full cup of coffee that was left on the table and threw the liquid on him, purposefully aiming to pour it on his face.

The man was shocked as he felt the bitter coffee dripping on each feature of his face.

Although not hot, she was satisfied with what she did. "Now, we're even."

She was about to leave when she was halted by a sudden pull on her left arm. The man was fuming with anger as no one has ever disrespected him until now.

"You think you can just get away with this, Jennie?" He said with an intimidating smirk as a sudden plan lurked his mind.

This sent shivers down to Jennie's spine. His voice was intimidating, yet his smile was alluring.

"How did you know my name?" She asked confusingly.

He playfully tilted his head on the side with a smile not leaving his lips. "You're not good with hiding your identity, Jennie." He repeated her name, trying to point out that she should have never messed with him.

Jennie suddenly felt goosebumps as she wondered if he was the mysterious person she was set to find - the reason why he easily knew who she was. She removed his hand that was still holding her arm, and looked the other way to avoid his stare.

Without receiving any reply from her, he shifted his gaze to her bag and scoffed.

She unconsciously followed his eyes and there it revealed her notebook peeking through her half-opened bag. With her calligraphy writing, her name was inked at the upper right corner of the notebook's hard bound.

She was disappointed with how careless she was. But she still wonders if he's the same person she was set to capture or this incident was just an unrelated incident?