⚠️ Obscenities / Blood TW / Minor Characters' Death ⚠️
Being an assassin was something that had never been easy, especially when you are assigned to kill the most prominent people in the famous industries, which would depend on the difficulty of the task.
Sunhee was an assassin, one of the most classiest and top hitmen in the underground world of assassination. With her alias as "Scarlet Noir" for assassinating men of the industries and milking their blood from their corpses until they were all bloodless and dried up with a horrible stench coming out, her reputation among the other assassins seem to be balanced really well.
Assignments and tasks were given daily on who to hunt down, investigations and sorts of things that would do to confirm their suspicions about a criminal wanted for murder, rape, pedophilia and other sorts of crimes the assassination agency abhorred. The disgust and loathe Sunhee felt for the criminals had her become determined to mercilessly wipe their existence off of the world, or put them in prison and torture them alive so they would suffer the consequences and reflect on the horrifying things they had done to their victims. Stealing things, gambling and breaking into homes was one thing, so the police could handle these types of crimes easily but molesting, rape, pedophilia and other things with evil intentions were the ones she resented the most, and if Sunhee had caught any sort of person, a celebrity or not, she would first alert the seriousness to the agency before going on to search the person and assassinate them with them unaware of the presence of the assassin, who would be covering her spot in order catch the criminal off guard. It did not make any difference to Sunhee whether the person happened to be a celebrity or an ordinary one, in her eyes a criminal is a criminal, and a dirty bastard one who deserved nothing but death since that person had ruined their victims' lives and had managed to bribe their accomplices with money just to keep their mouths shut from exposing their true colors to the world.
Sunhee had been an orphan and at the age of 14 when CYPHER agency had taken her in. The day they had found her, her home had seemed to be turned upside down with objects smashed and thrown everywhere. Blood had been smeared against the wall and there were several holes on the wall that had been punctured by multiple shots of bullets that were scattered on the floor that had also been stained with a long trail of blood. When the rescue team had broke into the house according to the call that had been made by a person residing in that house, they had found it to be destroyed with objects that had been smashed to bits. The captain of the rescue team Seon-hyuk assigned his team into searching the whole house to see if there were any signs of victims, despite the blood that had spattered all over the walls and the floor, with a trail that had led to a room. When the door of the room had been opened, which had led to a little office room, there on the floor lay two corpses with warm blood flowing out of their bodies and a young girl crouched against the corner of the wall, her head crammed in between her knees and her body trembling with sounds of sobbing emitting out of her mouth. Seon-hyuk had the rest of his team clear up the area and search for the culprit or remnants that would lead them to the killer who had murdered the girl's parents in cold blood.
Sunhee had been taken to the headquarters of CYPHER for further investigation and interrogation on the case. The poor 14 year old girl could not think of any reason why her parents had been murdered, but she had told the interrogator that she had witnessed her father begging for the killer to give him time to pay off on what she had heard was debts, and the killer, in their black clothes that would camouflage them from the police, had had enough of her father's unreasonable excuses. Lifting the pistol with their hands and pressing the cold metallic bar of the pistol against his temple, they pulled the trigger and shot a bullet into her father's temple twice before shooting several bullets into his body that had her and her mother scream with terror as her father slumped onto the ground with his eyes wide open like they were about to be taken off of their sockets, lifeless with blood gushing from his corpse ruptured with multiple holes caused by the multiple shots of bullets. The killer then had turned their head towards Sunhee and her mother immediately pushed her behind her back to shield her from them and grabbing the nearest cellphone she could get her hands on, she pressed the first numbers her mind had set on. With a loud bang, a bullet pierced into the mother's shoulder blades, causing her to drop the gadget on the floor as a piercing pain shot into her shoulder. Before the criminal had the chance to dig another bullet into her body, she grabbed Sunhee and pushed her towards the table that would enable her to hide from the killer's oncoming bullets, and she made a lunge towards the cellphone on the floor, tapped the numbers out in a furious and quick pace, and pressed call button when the footsteps behind her had made its presence known. The phone was pushed aside by their feet, making it glide across the other side of the room with its continuous beeping.
Despite the phone being far away from Sunhee's mother's reach, the call had been answered.
The killer, unaware of being overheard by the person through the phone, proceeded to lift their gun up and towards the mother and with no hesitation fired multiple shots of bullets into her chest, the roar of fire deafening Sunhee's piercing scream of witnessing her 2nd death of the day. Her mother's corpse, along with her father's, were laid on the floor with their eyes wide open and the blood flowing out of their bodies quicker than ever, the stench of blood and smoke intermingling in the room. The sight of her parents' graying corpses and the scent of blood had made Sunhee's stomach gurgle dreadfully and the metallic taste of saliva had begun to form on her throat like she was about to grow up at any moment. Just when they had their gun pointed towards her head, there were loud crashes and thundering footsteps on the floor below before the killer had the chance to blow her brains off. Cursing under their breath, they made a lunge towards the window, running towards it instinctively and they got out through the window, glass shattering into shards with an ear-piercing shriek as the sound of footsteps began to head for the direction of the room she and her family had been taken in as hostages.
The moment the criminal had taken their chance to disappear, her saviors had finally arrived.
Watching her family die right in front of her younger self had left Sunhee with a permanent trauma. The rescuers had taken her to CYPHER for further details of the case and when they were finished they were planning to bring the girl to an orphanage but the founder and CEO, Kim Myungseok had taken pity of the girl and had decided to raise her himself. And throughout the years, he had grown to be fond of her and dote on her like she was his own daughter.
Through her years of growing up, Sunhee was taught the art of assassination and murder. From the age of 14, she had been strongly educated on martial arts, on how to handle her choice of weapons perfectly and other useful skills that would enable her to be the perfect assassin. Of course, she would not assassinate innocent lives, she was taught to not be merciful towards those, celebrities or not, who had committed serious crimes that had caused for their victims' demise. And for that, she would make sure they would pay with their lives for ruining innocent ones with no remorse. Through her training years, she respected her peers and superiors with no trouble coming from them. Even if one had tried to cause trouble for no reason, Sunhee had always been the winner.
It was there she had met Jae-wook.
It was during a sparring session and Sunhee had only been 24 at that time and he 31. In a simple sporty garb with her hair pulled up in a ponytail with strands of them sticking above out her head and sweat soaking her skin, she had set her chin above while preparing for a sparring match in the ring with her opponent and friend, Seon-hyuk who had been the senior captain of the rescue team division who had rescued her from the criminal. She had been set on winning against her opponent and had been so immersed with wrestling Seon-hyuk to the ground that she had not taken notice of the guy in a ripped white sleeveless shirt that exposed his muscular arms and the tattoos that were scrawled all over his arms with soaked strands of curly hair that hid his dark brown eye had been observing her from the corner of the room, watching her silently as she landed jabs after jabs to her opponent who had been trying to dodge her vicious blows that could make one hold onto their bowels for dear life so they wouldn't fall out of their bodies due to how strong she was. Sunhee had not known the existence of the attractive man until her eyes had met his weeks after she had defeated Seon-hyuk in their little sparring match. It was during break time and she had gone to her dorm room to change into a clean pair of shirt and sweatpants when she had encountered Jae-wook. The door to his room had coincidentally resided three doors away from hers on the left and she had casually looked onto his way when her eyes had accidentally met his penetrating ones, and that had caused to her heart to speed up its beatings in her chest. The way his eyes had looked into her soul had made her feel like she was naked in front of him with all of her secrets out and exposed to him. The silence that had lingered for a while between the two staring into each other's eyes in the hallway had Sunhee instantly feel attracted towards the man with tattooed arms in spite of not knowing who he was.
Later on, Sunhee had found out about his identity based on the rumors that were spreading among her colleagues and seniors. It had been said that Jae-wook was the son of a rich CEO who had gotten involved in political and financial matters including gambling overseas that had gotten his father's company to go through bankruptcy due to his greediness for power over political matters he had gotten himself into and overspending money in gambling. And because of his father's gluttony need for power, money and glory, the Kim family had become a disgrace to Korea and that had them lose their privileges including money, supporters, the earnings of the company and many more. Despite the circumstances, Sunhee had become determined that they were in no way faults of Jae-wook's although she still had more to learn about him.
Among the trained and fully-skilled assassins in the agency, including the seniority of them, Sunhee had become the most superior in the art of assassination due to her hard work throughout the growing years and she had learned to cultivate her skills and senses until they had been sharpened perfectly so as to avoid committing mistakes in the upcoming future when she was to become a high-class assassin. Although she had surpassed most of her colleagues, her skills equal to Jae-wook's. And for that, Myungseok had appointed the two as partners and both had agreed to it despite Sunhee's slight distrust for him.
The result had turned out to be well, they had worked out as assassins and acquaintances and they had learned to accept the terms and regard each other with mutual respect, which had grown into deeper feelings throughout the years. Sunhee had men as friends without developing any feelings for them in the agency and they had treated each other as typical siblings who tease and bicker amongst one another so she had thought that she would be able to regard Jae-wook as one of her sibling-type friends but that had not been the case it had turned out that he was an exception.
Sunhee had never developed deep feelings for her former partners and it had come as a surprise to find herself holding a strong admiration for Jae-wook and his characteristics. Although, she had no time for love or marriage or any sorts of things because she would pour all of her time and energy in being an assassin. When it comes to being an assassin, in Sunhee's perspective, there would be no such thing as falling in love. So, she had tried o suppress her feelings for Jae-wook in order to concentrate on her professional life as a high-class assassin but it had been no good. Her feelings for him had gradually gotten stronger and it had left a crushing weight inside her but she had to keep them back so as not to allow it to distract her from doing her tasks. Despite her efforts on ignoring her longing and attachment for him, they seemed to have taken over her system instead of disappearing as they should have done.
At the current time in Seoul city with the neon lights colliding amongst each other, the atmosphere of the city was brimmed with heavy energy of the thronging people and cars sped by the traffic lights with piercing shrieks of their horns to notify those who did not watch the road carefully that had caused them to almost crash into another vehicle due to busying themselves with objects while driving.
Driving in a sleek black car speeding through the city and heading for their mission's destination, Jae-wook gripped the steering wheel, pressed firmly onto the gas pedal with the heel of his foot and slid the car sideways, managing to avoid and block the other vehicles that were blocking the way with ease with the wheels slightly screeching and the engine roaring monstrously. On the front seat beside him was Sunhee, who was constantly checking the time on her wristwatch. The car had stopped at a red traffic light and the two sat there in comfortable tranquility. Instead of their usual black matching suits, the two were garbed in formal attire that made them look like a couple in love, which was what they were aiming for since they were to carry out their mission together as an undercover couple residing in the hotel where their target was in.
Sunhee was dressed in a black backless gown with beads of crystal strings attached on her shoulders, the skirts of the dress reached floor-length with sideway slits that exposed a bit of her tanned legs and hid the secret pocket above her thigh where she had stashed a secret mini gun and countless of bullets for extra precaution, which had refined her figure nicely and beautifully. Her hair was secured in a neat bun with curls of hair below her ears and the two blades that looked like normal chopsticks from afar that would keep the bun on her head from moving. The makeup applied on her face was not heavy but it was not light either. With the smoky eyelids and the dark crimson lipstick, they had given her an overall look of sensuality and seduction as an undercover assassin. When Sunhee had stepped out of her room in CYPHER headquarters dressed up in her glory for the mission, all eyes were upon her. Although, she had secretly enjoyed the praises and attention coming from her friends and colleagues with Myungseok tearing up a little bit like a proud father at how stunning she had looked, Sunhee had been aiming for Jae-wook's attention only, and the way he had scrutinized her, marveling in her beauty and figure in something else other than their usual uniforms had her heart palpitate and her stomach squirm with butterflies. Jae-wook had put on a grayish white tuxedo that made him resemble a bond agent, with his dark hair smoothed back and the muscles in his well-built body defined him handsomely as well as the jawlines that sculpted the shape of his face like Achilles, the Greek warrior.
Of course, their sole purpose was to catch South Korea's prominent politician, Ahn Kyung Woo, who had been revealed to be exploiting illegal activities such as sex trafficking, exporting drugs containing of hazardous chemicals with poisonous sorts, kidnapping innocent people and murdering them if needed to. Behind the surface of the handsome politician was a man of dark corruption and he must be vanished from the world quietly to atone with his deeds. Once he has been wiped out, the dark deeds of his will be exposed to the world to show them the true persona of Kyung Woo and the things he had done which would truly disturb the society and his supporters would immensely drop.
Snapping out of her trance, Sunhee looked upon herself in the tiny compact mirror of the vehicle, examining if there was anything that would make her look suspicious and if she did, she erased them altogether and glanced at Jae-wook for a bit to steady the pressured nerves running through her veins and to console herself that she was not alone and that this was not the first time she had taken down a criminal of society.
Jae-wook pulled the car up into Radisson Blu hotel, the car making a stop in front of the entrance. As soon as the valet had seen them, he stepped out and walked towards them in a respective manner, opening the door of Sunhee as she exited out of the car, clutching the skirts of her slitted gown while he smiled down upon her and offered her his arm. The musky scent of his perfume had invaded Sunhee's nostrils' privacy as she twined her arm with his while he handed the car key to the valet. Together, the two beautiful but deadly assassins strolled towards the entrance of the hotel, arms linked and their real identities masqueraded as a rich couple attending the gala ball hosted by their target's industrial company, one amongst the popularized industries in South Korea which had led to its succession to globalizing it.
Strolling into the 5-star hotel, the couple in disguise were greeted by glowing yellow lights blaring and intertwining with other shades of color that seem to be in between indigo and blue. A polished wooden table stood in the middle of the lobby with a crystal vase held with a bouquet of freesias, marigolds and other types of flowers Sunhee couldn't familiarize with. The lobby was large and spacious, the walls were painted in burgundy brown with a collection of frameworks pinned on the wall that looked like they were purchased from museums. In the waiting area, there were dozens of leather sofas and coffee tables with magazines and catalogues organized neatly on them. Across the waiting area was the reception crowded with people whom were checking in, asking for specific information or checking out. Next to the reception desk was a brochure stand filled with varieties of brochures in all colors of the rainbow. There was a hall leading to the elevators as well as the conference room that was rented for tonight's party, and that was where Jae-wook and Sunhee were heading for.
As they enter through the swinging wooden doors of the conference room, with Jae-wook escorting Sunhee like a gentleman and pulling onto the golden handles open for her, they found themselves in an almost-cramped room that was swarming with so many invitees of the event. The room seemed to be stifling and buzzing with chatters of the people as well as a piano piece of Beethoven that was playing in the background. There were tables covered in a white silk sheet all over the room with sets of chairs surrounding them, camellia flowers in crystal vases perfuming the room along with a stench of variety of perfumes diffusing as the two undercover spies continue to court one another in the party, seemingly looking like any other couple in there while following up on their tasks, guns tucked beneath their garments along with other sorts of weapons concealed from the security force as they make their way through the bustling crowd of invitees.
Sunhee examined the surroundings around her as the waiter passing by her offered a flute of Champagne and she picked one up, briefly scrutinizing the frothy bubbles forming onto the surface before she picked up another glass and offered one to Jae-wook, in which he accepted and thanked her with a dazzling smile that made Sunhee's stomach squirm with butterflies and her heartbeat speeding up a bit.
Shaking her head out of her reverie, she took a couple of sips while nonchalantly looking around the room with Jae-wook and caught sight of their main target, Kyung Woo. The man was in the corner of the conference room, chatting and laughing with the people he's surrounded himself with, holding a glass of red wine in one hand while fiddling with the cuff of his tuxedo. Jae-wook and Sunhee glanced at each other briefly before they make their way towards the empty table that was near him to try to obtain intel as well as accomplish their mission tonight. As the two assassins passed into the dance floor, they were suddenly attacked by a bright white spotlight that suddenly appeared from the stage with a voice booming:
" Ladies and Gentlemen, we have found our couple of the night. Please, applause for them and make some space on the dance floor because we must feel their romance for tonight. "
The clapping, whistling and the expectant looks coming from the crowd had Jae-wook and Sunhee paralyzed mid-walk, with Sunhee shifting uncomfortably and Jae-wook took the chance to grab her hand and lead her to the dance floor, whispering into her ear " follow my footsteps " . As a romantic melody of Frank Sinatra was being performed, Jae-wook put his arms around Sunhee's waist and started slow-dancing, with him leading their movements and guiding her slowly and gently, his eyes searching through hers. With her arms around his neck and her gaze fixed on his, Sunhee completely forgot about their surroundings, the people around them watching and their primary target. Instead, her gaze was shifted onto Jae-wook's eyes that had some sensuality in them, her heart going badump-badump, increasing at every second as his eyes never left hers while they slow-danced. It felt like he was looking into her soul, she thought as his warm breath fell onto her lips and she could see he was moving closer to her, his gaze fixated upon Sunhee's lips painted in lipstick before there came a loud slam of the swinging doors behind them.
Jae-wook and Sunhee finally broke out of their moment before they realized that Kyung Woo was gone with his goons left behind and standing by the door with their hands holding their guns concealed in their jackets and their eyes watchful of the assassins' picking their way through the dancing crowd, cursing beneath their breaths as Sunhee made a run towards them and attacked them with full speed and adrenaline in her body with her heels colliding with the face of one, which made a loud crunching noise in the skull, and using her taekwondo skills to another.
Meanwhile Jae-wook was body-slamming his
attackers and blew them off like it was a piece of cake. Around them, people started to scream as gunshots poured into the room with bullets puncturing the wall that's next to Jae-wook on which he narrowly missed them. Sunhee wrestled with the others and, pulling a knife disguised as a chopstick on her hair, swung it around, stabbing the goons repeatedly as they lay on the floor bleeding to death.
After the two of them finished with Kyung Woo's thugs, with Jae-wook's fingers intertwining with Sunhee's, they ran out of the conference room, with the hordes of people screaming at the sound of piercing gunshots and fleeing out of the hotel, to the elevator with hotel guests looking at them with puzzled expressions as they realized that they are in an urgent mission and quickly dispersed themselves, but Jae-wook took the emergency stairs with Sunhee following. Together they ran all the way up the stairs towards the roof with the sound of the helicopter rumbling loudly, Sunhee's heels clacking and causing her balance to wobble a bit before she removed the burdensome heels and threw them off the stairs while they try to pursue the wanted criminal.
The plan did not seem to go smoothly. It seemed that somebody among the agency worked for the criminal politician and betrayed them by exposing their plans to him. Luckily, Myungseok a reliable CEO and kept all the documents and flash memories that contain information regarding the corrupt politician and he was going to expose them at 10 PM.
Jae-wook looked at the time in his watch: 9:59 p.m. It was almost time.
Jae-wook and Sunhee, after panting for breath for a few seconds, barged through the door to the rooftop with their weapons raised and their positions poised with caution. The helicopter, with its loud choppy noise that caused some rumbling and vibrations on the floor, was about to takeoff but the pilot was staring lifelessly towards their direction with his head resting upon the controllers and blood seeping out of his corpse and quickly staining his uniform as there was also some smeared against the front window. The sight of movement behind the dead pilot did not go unnoticed by Sunhee and Jae-wook. There was a click of the gun magazine that was being shifted and properly inserted as the culprit pushed the corpse aside, which rolled over and toppled over the ground with a thud. Jae-wook carefully placed a sweaty finger onto the trigger, guarding his movements as he proceeded to move towards the helicopter with Sunhee behind him, her long hair no longer pulled into an elegant bun but splayed in between her bare shoulders. She could feel the time ticking like there was a bomb that was about to go off at any moment if they continue to waste more time instead of catching Kyung Woo.
As Sunhee was about to press onto the trigger of her Beretta M9, she was caught of guard by a strong, well-built arm that wrapped itself around her throat, putting her in a chokehold with a gun pointed to her temple. The arm itself started to choke her neck harder, which made her gasp for breath and clawing at it with her nails as hard as she can, and it didn't budge. She looked up through her slightly hazy eyes to see Jae-wook on the ground wrestling for the gun with Kyung Woo and aiming multiple punches at every unprotected body part he could find and while trying to parry the oncoming attacks from his opponent. While digging her nails onto her attack, Sunhee took a deep breath before slamming her head all the way upwards and towards her opponent with full force that had them staggering backwards and their grip on her loosened as she slipped out of their reach, placed her beretta back into her garter, pulled out her blades and lunged towards them, swiftly dodging the thug lunging for her once again and landed a swift knee on their face, kneeing them in the face with a loud crunch and their head tilting backwards with their eyes rolled backwards and blood streaming from their nose. While she's busy dealing with the thug, Jae-wook and Kyung Woo attacked each other mercilessly with guns repeatedly pointing towards one another and slipping out of their grips due to their nerves pulsating continuously and the heat enveloping their bodies in slippery sweat, the two of them covered in blood and lots of bruises in their bloodshed. Sunhee glanced at them briefly to make sure that Jae-wook was still alive before putting all of her blood, sweat and tears into fighting back against opponent, slashing her knife here and there where the other was narrowly missing her points when she was able to cut open their arm, causing them to grunt and clutch onto their where blood started to trickle onto the ground.
With one final force and a grunt, Sunhee pushed herself forward and stabbed the shining blade into the thug's abdomen, pulling it out and pushing it in deeper multiple times, twisting the knife and slashing it into their body, with blood quickly gushing out and causing them to topple to the ground, bleeding to their death. She was focused on killing the thug with a final slash on the throat when all of a sudden, a gun shot had erupted from Jae-wook's side. Sunhee turned around, her heartbeat speeding up and panicking at the thought of Jae-wook's corpse on the floor, of him losing to a piece of shit like Kyung Woo where his corruption would continue. At first, she couldn't make out if the gunshot killed Jae-wook or Kyung Woo as they were entangled with former bellow the latter. However, the sound of the familiar grunt sent deep relief into Sunhee's nerves as Jae-wook pushed the dead politician off of him and pushed himself upwards, breathing heavily and panting. He was covered in bruises and his white shirt was completely soaked in blood as he stared at the body of Kyung Woo before spitting onto it and walking towards Sunhee, staggering a bit with a lopsided grin on his face that made her dizzy with delight and her stomach fluttering with anticipation.
After disposing the bodies and calling the agency to clean up the mess, Sunhee and Jae-wook left the hotel in silence, with the people staring at them with puzzled expressions as the same valet who parked his car quickly scrambled towards them with the key of their car and scampered away, too terrified to deal with the assassins who were supposed to be undercover in the politicians party.
Not a word was said between them as they drove away from the hospital, but the silent atmosphere between them was comfortable and cozy. Jae-wook was driving and had his eyes on the road, occasionally glancing at his companion with a fond smile upon his lips while Sunhee was staring out of the window, pondering deeply over her thoughts. Of course after everything that happened today, she felt full of fatigue and her injuries felt numb. All she had wanted was to get the mission done, go home and sleep her exhaustion away.
But it seemed that Jae-wook had plans of his own regarding their relationship.
He brought the car to a stop in front of the "Han" River, where the water was swaying smoothly by the breeze and lapping up the massive stones soaked in froths of water. When Sunhee snapped herself out of her trance and looked around her surroundings and before she was able to utter a word when she had faced Jae-wook, he cupped both of her cheeks, grazing his thumb upon her tender cheek and pressed his lips against her own, pulling her into a soft, tender kiss. Their lips were molded perfectly and in their perspectives, it felt like they were finally coming home.
They were one another's home.
A perfect moment to end the day of a tiring mission.