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The restaurant was not just quiet, but empty. Eunbyul was the first to arrive as she pushed through the clear glass door with the small ringing of the welcome bells hanging behind her.
She smiled over at the owner who stood behind the cashier register and greeted him. A small bow to her head while he quickly stepped away from the counter, to guide her towards a nice spot closer to the large windows that looked outside.
The streets ran lonely, too. With the forewarned storm, trickles of rain had already begun to come and go.
She pulled out a chair from the table and rested her closed umbrella against one of its wooden legs at her side.
"Slow night, sir?" Except for him, there wasn't any other of his usual staff either.
"Yes, it looks like it," he sighed. Taking a small notepad from the square pocket on his green apron, he grabbed his pen tucked behind his right ear. "Might have to close up early," he shifted to point to the news channel, "they're saying the storm will get bad closer to midnight."
From where she took a seat, Eunbyul followed the restaurant owner's pen in hand, to the small flat screen TV mounted on the opposite wall across from her table.
"Ah," she nodded softly in understanding, beginning to wonder if maybe she should call Mr. Hong and cancel instead. They could always do this another time, when there wasn't an impending stretch of dark clouds looming overhead.
Her gaze turned to stare out the window. Almost no light shined through from the obscured moon above. Only the few of dismal street lamps lit up the already wet sidewalks.
But before she had a chance to pull out her phone from her jacket's pocket, her adoptive father came into view along with the taller Italian lawyer.
"Would you mind waiting?" She glanced back at the old man who was ready to take her order, and explained as she pointed out the window at them, just across the restaurant now. "Those two are with me."
"Oh yes, of course," he nodded and put down his notepad.
She gave him a small smile and said, "Actually, we could start with a bottle of Makgeolli."
"Of course," he repeated and turned away to head over to his kitchen.
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
Rain began to drizzle again, her smile remained while she watched the pair of lawyers hurry to cross the street.
Mr. Cassano reached the door first and opened it for her father to finally step inside.
"Oh good, you're already here!" Yuchan flashed a bright smile at her, taking off his glasses to wipe off the raindrops with the sleeve of his suit jacket.
Eunbyul nodded, flickering her eyes behind him at the younger man that followed close. Without a business bag to block the light downpour like her father had done with his, Mr. Cassano's perfectly slicked back hair stood no chance against the rattling mixture of rain and wind.
And just for the way his wet fringe stuck to his forehead and the likes of a cowlick sprung oddly from the crown of his dampened hairstyle, did she keep the widened smile on her face when he stood in front of her at the table.
"Excuse me," he simply stopped to greet her with a quick bow of his head, before he stepped aside and directed towards Yuchan, "I'll be right back."
"Oh sure, go ahead," he turned his head to look at him as Mr. Cassano already started in the direction of the restrooms.
"I talked with Chayoung," she let out once it was just the two of them.
Yuchan took a moment to think, choosing the empty chair in front of her. He sat down and carefully asked, "Is she going to be alright?"
Eunbyul nodded, hoping to put some of his worries to rest as she told him, "She's your daughter, Abeoji, and she knows that. Maybe not in the way you'd want her to be, but trust me, Chayoung will come around when it matters the most."
The restaurant owner interrupted shortly to set the Makgeolli bottle on their table. Yuchan asked for another couple of minutes, giving Mr. Cassano time to come back, so they could order altogether.
Turning his focus back to Eunbyul, he asked again, "Do you think it's safe for her to still be working for Wusang?"
"I don't know but I think the less she knows, the better."
She looked at him and watched as he took a deep breath and began to come to terms with it. Taking advantage of his agreeable behavior at the moment, she figured at least she could try and see what her next words would get her.
"And I know where you stand on things but I just need to tell you; there's something about this whole mess with Babel that isn't going to end right for you."
At his quiet waiting, Eunbyul grew the courage to say more strongly, "Abeoji, it's not just about what they're doing being wrong or illegal, even. Listen, I was the one who told you that you shouldn't give up this fight once, do you remember?"
Yuchan nodded, recalling, "It's not over 'till it's over, you said this hoping I'd win."
"Well, I lied," she pushed through the slight widening of his eyes and leaned in against the table between them, "because you can't win. There is no way you are going to win and you have to believe me when I say; things will only get worse from here."
"Eunbyul-ah." There it was, the inescapable and very specific tone of his voice when he spoke her name aloud like that.
"I know you say it because you care about me and you're worried— But if I give up, then what kind of man would I be?"
A living one.
The truth was there, staring right at her but she turned her back to it. To the heartbreak that accompanied the inevitable fact.
So she didn't say anything else and pretended not to realize—pretended that everything would be okay—and didn't wait for her father to pour her a drink.
Yuchan chided her for it but she quickly turned to the side and drowned all her fears with a shot of Makgeolli down her throat.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Mr. Cassano offered an apology as he pulled the chair next to her father's and sat down.
"No worries, Mr. Cassano," she let out. Silently noted how more put-together he looked with his return from the washroom, before she picked up the bottle to pour her father a drink.
She only meant to pour it for him. But then Yuchan caught her eyes and threw her that look again, and Eunbyul couldn't find it in herself to disobey him this time around.
"Drinks and dinner are on me," she said to the both of them, while her outstretched hands offered the bottle to the small bowl placed in front of Mr. Cassano.
Her gaze was set intently on the milk-colored liquid being poured, ignoring the knowing smile from Hong Yuchan. As well as the surprised wavering of Mr. Cassano's eyes.
Eunbyul simply served Vinzenco a proper drink, before she pulled her right arm back and dropped the hold of her left hand.
"Aish, aish! What are you—?" Yuchan leaned in and took it from her mid-pour into her own bowl, "No, you're not doing that again. Give it here."
"Yah, it's no big deal," she looked at the bottle in his hand and couldn't help the small pout. "You know I prefer pouring my own drinks," she tried to reason but he was just as stubborn.
"Well, not tonight, you don't. Vincenzo..." Yuchan turned his head to his side and held out the Makgeolli bottle for the younger to take, "I trust you to keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't pour herself from now on."
"Yes, sir." With not much of a choice, Mr. Cassano took the Makgeolli and straightened up in his seat while he reached out and offered the begrudged ravenhead a drink, "Ms. Hong?"
Eunbyul shot her father a sharp look but she soon dropped it and turned to Mr. Cassano's outstretched arm. Picked up the small bowl in both of her hands while he lowered the bottle and poured the liquid. In the same manner she had done for him.
"Okay," their elder glanced at them with a pleased smile once all their small drinking bowls were filled with Makgeolli, "now it's time we eat."
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
After six shared bottles of Makgeolli, most of which had been emptied all by her father, did Eunbyul start to grow hungry.
She stared at the order of Japchae noodles out on the table for her. She felt her cheeks tinged, although it was nowhere near being the shade of red that ran across the Jipuragi lawyer's face, as he managed to return with two more milky white bottles in hand.
"Here's the thing..." He stopped and stood over Mr. Cassano's shoulders, trying to steady himself while he plastered on a drunken grin. "Jackie Chan!"
His outburst startled her and she decided she wasn't hungry enough to touch her food. It was cold already anyway, so she only placed the dish aside and reached out a hand to take the bottles from him.
"I love his movies," he explained.
Mr. Cassano was taken back as well, as he took an enthusiastic pat on the back from him, before Yuchan relented the Makgeolli to Eunbyul.
"Why?" The rhetoric was quickly answered with a light chuckle when Yuchan moved and stepped at the empty side of the table. "He wins not because he's a master of martial arts," his light chuckle was paired with a show of clumsy fists thrown forward into the space between the sitting pair, "but because he never gives up! Even if he messes up, he tries again for ten or a hundred times. He just keeps trying and trying until he gets it right like— Pow! Pow! Pow!"
Across from her, Mr. Cassano let out an amused smile at the sudden special audio effects that her father indulged himself with as he mimicked a couple of martial arts poses.
"Yeah, Jackie Chan's the man," Eunbyul halfheartedly agreed and tried to settle down his drunk behavior. "Yah, Abeoji," she sighed and gently motioned for him to take a seat, "come on, please."
Instead, the old man slipped and almost hit his new partner in the face.
She winced at the instinctive reach of her hand that stopped the incoming punch, "Aish..." Her upper arm suffered as she leaned forward and finally held her father still.
"Oh, Byul! Byul, sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" Yuchan ushered out his apologies and blinked the haziness from his vision away, holding onto her and searching her arm for any signs of bruising.
"It's alright, I'm fine." She nodded and fully stood up to guide him into his chair next to the other, younger man.
"Are you sure?" His brow pinched together as he tried to sober up.
"Yeah, I'll live just fine." Eunbyul laughed softly at his unrelenting concern. "But maybe try to keep the excitement to a minimum; I'm sure Mr. Cassano would like to go home with his head safely on his shoulders tonight."
"Ah, right." Yuchan sat down and turned to look at him, his expression sincere although embarrassment only made his ears burn hotter. "I'm sorry, Vincenzo. I'll be more careful."
Mr. Cassano was quick to shake his head. "No, no—it's okay, there's no need for that," his smile remained kind and at this, he received another pat on his shoulder from Yuchan.
With a deep breath and a furrowed brow, the old man stared at him for a second longer before his hand let go and dropped back to his side.
"Why is it-?" Yuchan turned the conversation as he glanced between Vincenzo and Eunbyul, just now having noticed in the midst of his inebriated thoughts, "Why is it that you two don't refer to each other by first names yet?"
Eunbyul returned to her seat and blinked, confused with the question, "What?"
However, Mr. Cassano simply met her eyes and raised a knowing eyebrow at her father's rambling.
"Good question," he agreed and amusement pulled softly at the right corner of his lips. Her confusion disappeared with a roll of her eyes, being the only one at the table sober enough to register the taunt.
"I mean," Yuchan continued. "You guys do share an apartment, right? That's a lot of time you've spent together, so it's just strange..."
Eunbyul couldn't figure out if the incertitude aimed directly at her as he faced her again, was genuine or he was just kidding her thanks to all the Makgeolli he had taken.
"Haven't you broken the ice already?" He was being serious.
"Um, no. Yeah, uh... We, we have." She stumbled with her words, feeling like a child being forced by their parent to make friends at the school cafeteria table.
Mr. Cassano's silence didn't make things any better, leaning back in his seat and clearly enjoying her digging herself a pitiful grave.
"Of course," Vincenzo finally spoke up and smiled as he explained to Mr. Hong at his side, "we have become good friends."
She needed another drink.
Her hand went in for a bottle but he was too quick and grabbed it instead, twisting the cap open before he reached for her empty glass next.
"Eunbyul-ah," Mr. Cassano's smile grew wide enough that she noticed the way the outer edges of his eyes crinkled, while he poured the shot and looked at her, "isn't this right?"
Oh, he was dead; the image of her hands around his neck while she snuffed out the sheer audacity sparked in his eyes, was all she could think of.
But in reality, there was nothing she could do other than accept his offered drink and fall straight into the trap Hong Yuchan had unknowingly helped set up.
"...Yes," she forced a nod and agreed, "Vincenzo and I are good friends."
The sweet gesture of her scrunched nose as she pressed her lips together in a tight smile hid the aggravation stirred in her blood.
Because how dare he? How dare he say her name, so casual and nonchalant, like he hadn't just insulted her a day ago? As if they hadn't spent most of their interactions threatening one another? Wanting each other gone?
And how the hell was it; that he was able to speak her name in a way she never heard anyone else say it? In a way that made her cheeks burn hotter with the flushed feeling of the cold Makgeolli down her throat.
Eunbyul bit her tongue and much to her chagrin, forced herself to move past it and not be bothered by the pleased nod Mr. Cassano sent her way. She refused to let him know just how capable he was of pushing her buttons, and especially in front of Mr. Hong.
"Well, I'm happy to hear that." Yuchan and Chayoung really did share a lot more in common than they wanted to admit to. Eunbyul looked away from Mr. Cassano and sighed at her father's oblivious smile.
"I'll go and enjoy this smoke, now," he told them and stood up. "You two keep drinking and chatting, okay?"
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
She picked up her phone, next to the one her father had left behind on the table. Another soft chime vibrated in the palm of her hand as she eyed the lit screen and read Chayoung's texts.
Resting her back against the chair, Eunbyul brought her phone closer and smiled at the image Chayoung sent of her really expensive designer suit all muddied and wet. A line of angry-faced and sobbing emojis accompanied her sister's ranting on how the rain had caught up to her.
'Just hurry up,' Eunbyul texted back and got an immediate reply; Chayoung was only ten minutes away.
The humorous smile on her lips curled further into a smirk when she glanced up across her seat, noticing Mr. Cassano's curious gaze on her.
"Yah, Mr. Cassano," she lowered her phone a bit. Kept his attention for a moment longer, where he simply blinked back at her in question.
"What is it, Ms.—?"
She opened the camera on her phone and enabled the flash with a simple swipe of a finger, "Smile!"
It was quite childish of her, she'd admit, but she was too tipsy to care. An amused fit of barely suppressed giggles escaped her at his baffled and annoyed sputtering of Italian curses. Simply going trigger happy on the camera button as she ensued a rapid-fire of flashes. Stored what seemed like an endless amount of his fidgety and obstructed close-up photos in her camera roll. Absurd and humiliating enough to be used as a form of blackmail if she'd ever need it.
"Oddio!" He let out a short gasp when a particular one hit his widened eyes, too bright that he swore it almost blinded him. "What are you doing? Delete that— delete every single one of those. Now."
Eunbyul ceased her laughter and pulled her phone back, guarding it from his reaching hands. "But why? Why? Why?!" she knew she was being unabashedly bratty at this point.
"Taking a page from your sister's book, aren't you?" The peeved glare from Mr. Cassano didn't really help.
"Aigo, you hurt my feelings," she feigned a hurting in her heart and clasped a hand over the spot on her chest. Quickly let go before she leaned a little ways in to better meet his face. Even dared to use the honorific in a teasing tone, "Vincenzo-ssi, I thought you said we were good friends. Hmm?"
He fought back an affronted scoff and dragged a finger to his bottom lip at the point she made. A beat of silence passed between them, before a smug glint lit his eyes once more and was sure to tease her back as he dropped his hand and said, "Va bene, ora stai diventando irritante. Come una mocciosa viziata."
'Okay, now you're just being annoying. Like a spoiled brat.'
"Yah, you mafia bastard!" this had been exactly what she wanted to shout back with—but she forced the outrage away and kept her cool.
Eunbyul sucked her teeth and simply stared back at his infuriating smile. With a dismissive click of her tongue, she leaned back and sighed, "I'm too drunk to get angry, so I'll let it go just this once."
"And the photos?" he pressed.
"Aish— listen here, you're the annoying one!" Even if she wanted to keep calm, it was damn near impossible with him.
With him and that stupid, dreamy daze in his eyes—that ridiculous, cute streak of pink tinge that warmed up his cheeks...
God, she was drunk. But obviously, so was he. And they were both staring. Hard.
Eunbyul was the first to break and pulled her phone out from her jacket. "Fine," she unlocked it and handed it over—if just so she could spare herself from further annoyance.
He simply took it and silently worked to trash all the twenty-three photos of him, in the most unpleasant angles he didn't even know he could have.
"Thank you," he said and gave the phone back to her when he finished.
"Un piacere," the remark managed itself through her gritted teeth. She was loud enough for him to hear and he couldn't help himself, either.
"Senti, odio il tuo sarcasmo," he told her, pointedly—if just so he could stop himself from further embarrassment.
'You know, I hate your sarcasm.' He felt his cheeks reddened with such a lie, because there was no way he could really mean it. Not when she had accompanied it with that lilt to her voice and that softened roll of her Italian tongue.
And admittedly, he could only be grateful that she extinguished the bothersome flutter in his chest with what she let out next.
"Well, and I hate you," she said, returning to strictly Korean.
Eunbyul hadn't meant for her words to come out so harshly, but it was no use taking them back now. Crossing her arms over her chest, she simply waited for his reaction.
He gave his head a small nod and picked up the Makgeolli bottle between them, "Touché, Ms. Hong."
Mr. Cassano tilted its neck in her direction and casually poured her another drink first, before he took the bottle back and emptied the last of it in his drinking bowl.
Eunbyul limited herself to a sip this time.
She made a conscious effort to finally sober up and went back to the previous formality they'd established, "How did the meeting with the tenants go this morning?"
He licked his lips at the taste he still had to get used to and explained, looking up at her with another nod, "They've decided to agree on the terms of their relocation. Your father as well. He's promised I'll get all their signatures by tomorrow."
"Good," the well-mannered pleasantry was all she could offer, "I'm glad to see things are working out for you."
"Yes." Mr. Cassano sighed and blinked down to the half-eaten plate of food settled in front of him. Almost as if he had to recall, "The sooner I take care of this matter, the sooner I can leave."
"Back to Italy?" It was an obvious answer, but still, she needed to fill the awkward turn of the air around them with something.
"Yes," he said, lying.
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
Hong Yuchan's phone suddenly rang, abandoned at his side of the table while he was away, and Eunbyul picked up at the caller's insistence, "Hello."
"Who is this?" the stranger on the other side demanded. He sounded out of breath and didn't even give her the chance to answer, "I need to—I have to speak with Lawyer Hong."
"Sorry, Lawyer Hong is unavailable at the moment." She looked out the window and watched as her father stood by the door and lit up a cigarette. "But this is her daughter, Hong Eunbyul, speaking."
"Hong Eunbyul..." he repeated. "Investigator Hong Eunbyul? Are you her?"
She turned away from the window and said, "Yes, sir."
The man sighed in relief, before he opened his mouth again and went off like a lunatic, "Oh, Investigator Hong, please. Please, help me, please..."
"Okay, sir, I will—" she tried to get him to settle down in his hysterics but to no avail.
"Please, I'm Yu Minchul— Yuchan-ssi. He told me I could trust you..."
"Sir, calm down, I can't—"
"Please, you gotta help me! They're after me! Babel— those fucking scumbags are here to kill me!"
"Listen to me..." Eunbyul tried to stay calm herself. The revelation of his name only served to cause a rising panic, but she forced it down with a gulp, and ordered, "Yah, I need you to stop talking and pull yourself together Yu Minchul!"
That did it.
"Yes," he exhaled. "Yes, okay. I'm listening."
"How many are there?" She asked.
"Two, just two."
"Where are you?"
"Busan; I was laying low at a hotel close to Naktong River."
"Okay, Mr. Minchul," she nodded and tried again, "what about now? Where are you right now?"
"I'm hiding in a boat at the shipyard," he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm not sure which one, I'm sorry. Oh, God, please..."
Eunbyul remained silent, giving him a moment to fight back that choked up feeling she knew he was experiencing from holding back cries.
"I know I can't escape—they're gonna kill me, I know." The terror in his voice was almost palpable, "Hong Eunbyul, please, find a way to stop Yuchan-ssi before he ends up like me. And tell, tell my family that I love them— Please tell them I wasn't the one who killed those people at the villa. No, not them. I didn't kill them."
"I will," she breathed, "Yu Minchul, I promise I will."
"Thank you. Thank you so much, Hong Eunbyul."
"No, wait! Don't hang up—" she held him on the call for a little longer, "I need you to do something for me, sir."
"What can I do?"
"Just keep the call on," she made sure to clear his confusion and reassured, "put your cell phone on speaker and hide it somewhere close. Alright?"
"Yes," and even though he was following what she said, he still sounded so scared, "I understand."
But there was no time to feel for him, and they both knew this. "Mr. Minchul," Eunbyul thought back to what he had told her, "you said there were two. Can you tell me what they look like, anything at all?"
"It's too dark to see," he said, "but they're dressed up as Busan police. One of them looked young, he can't be that much older than me, I think, and his accent was from Seoul... God, I'm sorry."
"No, I can find them—I'll find them," she swore to him this much, before any calm that she'd been able to give him was completely taken away.
Mr. Hong's phone remained pressed against her right ear. She heard Yu Minchul's sobs and screams. The pair of men that were after him had finally caught up to him— his phone on speaker allowing her to listen to everything, until there was nothing.
"Mr. Minchul." She swallowed the horror settled in her bones and spoke into the phone, "Sir? Are you there?"
The call was still ongoing. She knew they were listening.
"Your researcher is dead," one of them picked up the phone and laughed. "And guess what? You're next!"
His sing-song voice brought her vision to blur with a blood-red ache for vengeance.
"Well, you and your partner should get in line then. You fuckers aren't the only ones who wish to see me dead."
She cut the line.
Her mind worked twice as fast, trying to remember every piece of information she'd been able to know from that call. She reached for her father's business bag left by the side of the table and rummaged through his stuff. But there wasn't a single scrap of paper to write on and neither a pen or pencil to write with.
"Aish!" she couldn't believe this was happening. Still, she needed to keep herself in order. Couldn't really afford to lose her mind, even though she really wanted to flip this very table and bolt out of here.
All she really wanted was to take Yuchan, Chayoung, her son, and everyone else that those sons of bitches dared to come after, and run someplace far. Far away where they would all be safe.
But that was nonsense, a way of thinking she couldn't afford. Because no one was ever safe with her. It had already been established she wasn't some kind of savior to be able to protect anyone.
The best thing to do was try to stay focused so she could find out who had ordered the hit. And kill them before they'd kill her.
"Ms. Hong," Mr. Cassano looked at her, offering the pen he pulled from the inside pocket of his black Boorarlo suit, "here."
Eunbyul settled down the business bag at her feet and didn't hesitate to take the pen from his fingers. Ready for her to use, she grabbed a napkin from the steel-metal dispenser and listed down everything before she forgot:
Busan hotel.
Naktong River.
Shipyard.
Two men- one around thirty and from Seoul.
Disguised as police- carried at least one illegal gun.
One shot fired- either heart or head.
Straightforward- no torture.
Loud, spineless, cocky, bastards.
Piss-poor level assassins.
Eunbyul took in the sight of her scribbled handwriting. The black ink of his biro pen bled through the cheap paper-napkin, Yu Minchul's screams for help failing to fade from her ears.
"Are you involved in any of this, Mr. Cassano?" She needed to know. And while she wasn't able to see through his lies earlier, she had her own tedious feelings to blame for that. Feelings that she wouldn't let blur the line now.
The look in her eyes turned cold with the flick of her gaze up at him. Whether he was capable of grasping the sense of calculation that festered from within her chest, or not, she didn't care to hide this slip of her mask.
That was something she'd have to worry about later. Right now, her sole focus was on his behavior. The sensible rise of his eyebrows. The steady breathing of his lungs. The neat folding of his hands on the table.
She sat still and considered him whole. Took in all there was to him. Everything she knew and had committed to her memory of a man like him— she made sure to use it now.
"No. After our conversation last night, I didn't say another word of the RDU-90 drug to Mr. Hong." He understood the severity of her weighted shift in demeanor. Most importantly, he was honest with her.
Mr. Cassano had decided to listen to her, after all, and kept himself out of the Babel Group case. He didn't want Mr. Hong hurt by this godforsaken lawsuit any more than she did.
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
Thunder followed lightning outside, and the Jipuragi lawyer sought refuge from the incoming storm as he rushed back in.
"Aigo," he let out a breathy chuckle, reaching his chair, "it's really like the sky is falling out there."
"Yuchan-ssi..." The honorific was wrapped in the most sober of tones. "I'm only going to ask you this once," Eunbyul demanded his heed, "what is it that you're keeping from me?"
"What? Not- noth..." The old man blinked, taken back with the dour frown etched upon her mouth. And it wasn't until it finally dawned on him that she must've figured out his secret, that he let out a deep sigh, "How did you find out?"
"He called you," she slid his phone across the table to him. Watched as his lips parted in surprise, immediately looking down and taking his phone in his hand, but she clasped a hand on his wrist.
"No," she put a stop to him. Her eyes narrowed and voice lowered, trying to breathe calmly through her nose. A certain kind of terror trickled in, agonizing the rapid beating of her heart. "Hong Yuchan, you need to tell me exactly what it is that you have planned right now or so help me God..."
Mr. Hong clenched his jaw but he didn't pull away. Her grip tightened desperately around his hand and it hurt. But he only turned his palm and moved the hand she held, to let it rest in his.
"Un diavolo scaccia l'altro," he said.
Eunbyul's gaze softened, straightening up in her seat as she breathed, "What?"
"Un diavolo scaccia l'altro," he spoke a bit clearer. "It's the only Italian proverb I know."
Her fingers slipped away from their hold, and he glanced between her and Vincenzo, uncertain, "Only one devil can take out another devil, right?"
At his side, the Italian lawyer offered a short nod of his head yes.
"Eunbyul, I know," Yuchan went back to her. "Everything that you've told me is true and I know..." He took another deep breath, before giving up and admitting, "I can't be the monster that's needed to defeat Babel."
"But you tried anyway," she scoffed. Because she knew something like this would happen, and her anger wasn't directed at him so much as it was at herself. For playing it so ignorantly and being such a fool and—fucking dammit—Mr. Cassano was only right.
She had been running scared all this time. Still was, if the gut wrenching feeling in the pit of her stomach was anything to go by.
"Dammit, Hong Yuchan," Eunbyul caved in with a low curse and looked at him as she tried but failed to keep her anger in check. "Do you even have a clue about the kind of trouble you're in because of this? You shouldn't have lied to me. Why the hell did you lie?!"
"Because I just..." he searched for a good way to explain things. "I just wish a real monster would appear and deal with all these corrupt and evil bastards, whether it's legal or not!" He simply shared her frustration when he realized that there was no good way out of this. No way to put an end to it, unless...
"Eunbyul, I'm sorry," he took her hand in his again, just as desperate and terrified. "I'm sorry, I swore to you I wouldn't do this again; but are you sure you can't help me with this?"
"Yah, Abeoji!" She pulled away from him and shot up from her chair. Ignored the weight of Mr. Cassano's gaze on her while she stepped closer in front of Mr. Hong.
"Yu Minchul was killed not five minutes ago and it's only a matter of time before you're next! Do you even...? Shit. Do you really think a simple monster like me—"
She fell a step back. Her hand now wrangling her shirt's fabric as she clung to her chest and tried to catch her breath, "—is gonna be able to save you from this fucking hellfire that you threw yourself into?!"
"I do," Yuchan stood up and gave her a reassuring nod of his head as he said to her. "Because you are not just some monster, kid. Please, Eunbyul-ah, you better than anyone know this won't be over 'till it's..."
The sudden brightness that washed over them from outside was too close for it to be another strike of lightning.
Eunbyul turned to look out the window. Headlights blinding her vision as the screeching of tires against asphalt deafened her ears. She felt a scream in her throat build up but all she could do was let her mouth open in horror, while the loading truck's driver crashed into the restaurant's wall.
Over.
The last of Hong Yuchan's words rang in her mind before the pain took full force of her body.
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A/N: Happy holidays/merry christmas ig I am so sorry you guys omg I hated having to do this so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭
BUT BEFORE ANY OF YOU GO ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER, PLEASE LET'S TAKE A MOMENT OMG PLEASE LET'S GATHER OUR FEELINGS 😔🙏😔
Okay, so... if y'all really want that maximum pain and tears ahahaha, I have paired a music piece (Adagio in G Minor by Mac Quayle) with the next chapter for those who enjoy reading with background music! Other than this I just need to say:
Thank you so much for reaching this point in Eunbyul's story with me! I swear it's just the beginning and I have lots of exciting things planned ahead, so I truly hope you lovely readers can continue with your wonderful support! Like seriously, we reached 2K votes and 35K views already!! AJKGH;AJGHA;GJA- I just love you guys so much OKAY
With chapter seventeen out, I'm taking a short break from writing. But don't worry, I plan to be back with the next chapter by February 2022! I wish everyone the best for the new year! I myself am so grateful and happy to have spent 2021 with you here so thank you, sincerely, thank you for reading and sharing the love!
Now please, enjoy the next one and let me know what you guys think of "Desperado" so far. I hope it's lived up to good expectations and maybe, after chapter seventeen, even built some hype for you guys to wait and see what's coming next!