"Eunbi."
Peering up, she was alarmed to find that Taehyung had crouched down to her level, staring into her eyes. Like before, his face was impassive, betraying him of no emotion, but all Eunbi felt next was irrepressible rage and contempt.
"Go away," she sobbed, turning away. "It's all your fault... it's all your fault!"
She hated him. She was crumbling like this, yet he clearly didn't look sorry nor sympathetic, and she wanted to shove him, push him, and hurt him like he did to her.
"Eunbi–"
"Why did you come in here?!" she snapped, her anger sucking away her panic enough for her to drag herself onto her feet. "If you hadn't appeared when Boss was reading my report–if you hadn't gone here in the first place–none of this would've happened!" She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "Okay, you're better than me, Kim Taehyung! I admit it and you finally get to hear it from me!" she cried. "But this doesn't mean that I won't try!"
With that, she twisted around and streaked through the door, flying towards the exit of the office building, praying that her boss hadn't left yet.
I have to try...I have to try... I have nothing left.
She burst into the office parking lot, the cool evening November air brushing her skin, moon clear in the sky. The lot was practically empty now, and wildly scanning the area, her eyes quickly found Boss opening the driver's side of her car. Without wasting any more time, Eunbi burst off towards her.
"Boss!" she cried, grabbing her arm again. She collapsed onto her knees to beg, heaving from both exhaustion and desperation. "Please listen to me, I promise I will–"
"Eunbi!" her boss growled, shaking her off just as she did in her office. But Eunbi didn't stop. Scrambling to her feet again, she grabbed her arm again, trying to prevent her from entering the car and sealing her fate. "Boss, please, I really need this–"
Slap!
Shrieking, Eunbi's hands released their grip from his arm and flew to her cheek, where a sharp sting exploded. Shocked, she faced her boss, whose arm was still raised from where she'd slapped her, and Eunbi couldn't find any more words, her crushed heart fracturing into dust.
"You're fired, Eunbi," Boss said coldly, but before she could turn back to her car, her eyes flicked over to something over Eunbi's shoulder. Her hand immediately lowered, that same joyful smile replacing her glare. "Oh, Taehyung! Going home now?"
No. No, no, no.
Eunbi didn't want to, but she did. Twisting around, her fears were confirmed when she saw Taehyung, who had once again made an appearance after her like a ghost, either concerned for her or, more likely, wanting to go home.
His eyes, as they always were, were stony, but now, they held a different glint. Perhaps Eunbi had just never seen them under the moonlight, but nothing was right about them...
Unlike Eunbi, however, their boss didn't seem to care, that overly bright smile still plastered on her face. "You should hurry and get home, Taehyung. I know you ride a bike, and visibility at night is not the best."
"Yes, I know," Taehyung said, his voice now gravelly and dead.
"Oh, are you worried if Eunbi convinced me to give her job back?" her boss said behind her, laughter lacing her voice. "Don't worry, she's fired. You'll get your raise tomorrow."
"Okay," Taehyung said. He wasn't looking at Eunbi when he arrived, but now he did, and she froze, blood running cold.
What's... what's wrong with him...
"Eunbi," Taehyung said.
Forcing herself out of her stupor, she sputtered, "Y-yes?"
His voice, still calm, was now lined with a chill. "You should leave here."
"H-huh?" She could hardly speak, and all she could hear was how her boss laughed behind her, guffawing, "He's right. You should leave. You're fired."
Sheer anger and resentment caused her fists to clench. Both of them were against her, making fun of her, ridiculing her. "Leave? Why should I leave?" She glared at Taehyung, ignoring the amused chuckles of her boss behind her.
"There are dangerous people here," he said, his voice lowering even deeper. "Dangerous people?" she challenged. "Like who?" If this was his way of mocking her even more...
"Like me."
It was then she saw the gun, pulled out of nowhere. Taehyung aiming it straight at her, and Eunbi could only scream, a rock plummeting in her stomach as she realized that everything she'd done had bitten her back in the worst way possible.
He was going to kill her.
Bang!
Squeezing her eyes shut, and hugging herself Eunbi accepted her death, realizing everything in the end was futile, that everything she'd done would always fail in the end, resulting in her grisly demise that everyone would laugh over as she was finally...
"Eunbi."
...alive?
Her eyes flew open.
In front of her, Taehyung was still pointing the gun at her, smoke still curling from the barrel. Like before, his eyes were wide yet empty, steely and frigid.
It was then she heard the tortured groans behind her.
Whirling around, Eunbi screamed again when she saw her former boss, the source of those ugly sounds, writhing on the ground in a growing pile of blood, a wide bullet wound on her shoulder. "Ughhh...urgh...," she muttered.
Eunbi twisted back around, eyes frozen open onto Taehyung. It turned out he wasn't aiming at her but rather...
He began walking towards her, and she stayed rooted in her spot, but he simply glided past, his gun still pointed straight at their boss.
"Boss," he said, voice dead and icy, face straight, completely unlike the friendliness he had shown to his coworkers and boss like he always did. "Do you know why I applied to work for you?"
It was obviously a rhetorical question, because without even attempting to wait for an answer, Taehyung pulled the trigger and shot the woman in the leg next, their boss yowling in tortured screams.
"Two months. That's enough time to build trust with you and the other employees." Taehyung grinned, but unlike the warmth from before, it sent chills crawling up Eunbi's spine. "But I've been studying consulting practices for the past year before joining," he said. "It was the only way to gain your trust and your full approval. And it worked. Beautifully."
Her mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe it. Taehyung had been planning this all along, for an entire year, studying everything for a profession he didn't care about until he was an expert at it, doing this job just for tonight. Gazing at the maniacal thrill in his eyes, she couldn't help but crumple onto her knees, fear engulfing her.
She'd been working side-by-side with a mastermind killer.
Bang!
Eunbi flinched as another gunshot resounded, Taehyung having shot the woman's hand next, the same hand that had slapped her.
"And why?" He chuckled amusedly. "You're greedy. Very greedy. But I can't blame you–corporate greed can get you so much money, and that's also the reason why we're so interested in you."
Bang!
"All of my 'stellar' work, as you say, was possible because of Ha Eunbi's reports. Every consulting session was based word-for-word off her reports, whether you approved it or not. And because of her success, you only abused her, making her work harder and harder, and so..."
Even in her fear, Eunbi blinked, not believing her ears. He'd... he'd been using my reports even when they hadn't been approved...?
Taehyung's smile disappeared. "...you deserve none of it."
"Pl-please..." her boss groaned, drowning in blood.
Bang!
Eunbi looked away, the last sight of her boss being the gun pointed straight at her head. Then, it was silent.
Please...did he leave?
"Eunbi."
Silent.
"Eunbi."
And finally, she gazed up, accepting that Kim Taehyung, a killer, was in front of her. But her breath hitched when she saw not a gun barrel pointed down at her, but his hand. He was now on his bike, seemingly ready to leave.
The chill in his eyes had mostly gone, yet remnants of insanity festered within. Perhaps it was the shock of hearing the news she was fired, or perhaps it was because she'd gotten a gun pointed at her, but when she stared into his eyes, she felt oddly... calm.
"Eunbi," Taehyung said again. "I have officially resigned, and therefore, we don't work together anymore."
She swallowed, not sure what to say. "Oh... but you were about to be promoted by Boss... and you..." She couldn't finish the sentence. Killed her.
"I'd rather be promoted to death." An amused grin flickered over his face. "But that promotion was given to someone else."
She stayed silent.
Taehyung sighed, gazing down at her. "Yes, this is who we are. Who I am. A killer. And I understand if you don't want me." He paused. "But I want you."
Her heart froze. "What...?"
"You were an unforeseen complication in my master plan, Eunbi," he said, a pinprick of yearning in his eyes. "I hadn't expected to fall for you... but I did. But now that we're not working together, I can finally stop hiding." He paused, the slightest grin on his lips. "I can finally tell you that I want you."
He...wants me...?
He peered down at her silence. "So? Aren't you getting up?" He gestured to his bike. "You ride it with me, or you aren't going anywhere."
She gazed at his hand, knowing that whatever her decision ended up being was much more than getting a ride home. It was signing a contract with a whole new world, a realm she'd never thought she'd come across.
But Taehyung was right–she wasn't going anywhere if she didn't ride it with him. Before he entered her life, she was going nowhere, staying in the same place no matter how hard she ran. He'd used her reports. He stood up for her. He was leading her forward.
And realizing this, she knew she had to hold his hand, and... she wanted to. His hand would finally pull her out of her treadmill of misery.
"Okay, Taehyung," she said. "Show me the world."
And with that, she reached up and accepted her forbidden promotion.