Adryn and her best friend, Eclipse were hanging out at a local coffee shop, probably a bit too late at night. They were surprised the coffee shop was even still open that late. They were just looking at various things on their phones when Adryn came across an article that struck her.
"Hey, you've heard about the recent murders around this area, right?" Adryn asked her companion as she looked up from her phone. She spoke English; not so others would have less of a chance to listen to their conversation, but because Adryn sucked at speaking Korean. Eclipse paused in her browsing and looked up as well.
"Yeah, I have. They are more around your area than mine though. It makes me pretty worried about you. You live alone in an apartment in a pretty shitty area." Eclipse replied as she frowned at her friend. Eclipse's frown deepened when Adryn chuckled at her words.
"I know right? No one would come running if I needed help. I'm just fine with that."
"You're doing better, right? I know you've been going through a hard time recently, but you're getting over your book getting rejected, right?"
"I'll be fine. Things will eventually go my way." Adryn might have said positive-sounding words, but the way she said them clearly told Eclipse that she had not much hope for her own words. Adryn sounded pretty hopeless actually, but before Eclipse could dive into her worries for her best friend, Adryn stood up. "I really should be getting home now. It's getting pretty dark and it's super dangerous to walk around if it gets any darker."
"Let me walk you home!" Eclipse went to stand up as well, but Adryn just gathered her things quickly as she shook her head.
"No. you live in the opposite direction and you need to get home faster than me. You have an actual job to go to in the morning."
"But Adryn, you're not safe going back alone!" Eclipse's worried words were ignored as Adryn had finally gathered all of her things. Adryn was heading for the door, walking backward.
"Don't worry about me! I love you! I'll see you later!" With that, Adryn was out of the coffee shop and on her way home. As she walked home to her apartment, she noticed that there were already less people than normal. She normally wouldn't care about that, but since she left the coffee shop, she had a weird feeling. Adryn felt as though she was being followed or watched. She chose to ignore it though, in hopes whoever was possibly there, would just leave her alone.
Adryn was right to just ignore it since she made it to her apartment building just fine. As soon as she got there, she walked into the run-down building and hurried up to the 3rd floor. She didn't get jumped or bothered by anyone, so that was a relief to Adryn. She'd hate to have needed to call Eclipse and tell her that something had happened.
After getting into her apartment, Adryn made sure her door was locked. She then went and took a quick shower before taking out her contacts and putting on her red glasses. She then changed into sleep shorts and a tank top. Once she made sure that she was ready to get into bed, Adryn crawled into her cold bed. Adryn turned out her bedside lamp, causing her bedroom to fall into a darkness that matched her mood.
"I wonder when I'll be the next victim of whoever is killing all these people," Adryn muttered to herself as she grabbed her phone. She did what she normally did before bed. She went through the old photos on her phone to see the people she used to know. She saw pictures of herself and Eclipse back in America when they were younger. They were happier then. Adryn was happier before she started to grow up. "I wish things were still as easy as they were when I was younger..." Adryn whispered to herself as the tears began to flare up in her eyes. She began to think about the older days.
The days when she still had a family to call her own. Before she'd left everyone and everything behind. Her mother, father, brother, niece, and all of her beloved cats; were all left behind. Adryn couldn't help it, she slowly began to cry as she dwelled on what she used to have and how things could have turned out differently. Adryn set her phone down and covered her face in her hands as she sobbed.
"I regret everything that has led me up to this point! I wish I'd just die already!" Adryn yelled out at herself as she continued to cry. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed into her hands.
"You can't die yet." A male speaking Korean spoke to her from the darkness of her bedroom. Adryn instantly snapped her head towards the corner of her room. There was a chair there where a male figure was seated. Realizing she wasn't hallucinating, Adryn pulled her knife out from under her pillow and switched the light back on. As Adryn's eyes adjusted to the light, she could see that there was indeed an Asian male seated in the corner of her bedroom. All she could tell from him was that he was in all black and had unnatural colored hair.
"How... How did you...Where did you come from!?" Adryn questioned in poorly spoken Korean.
"The fire escape." The man responded in English. "Just speak what you're good at. I guarantee you, I can speak better English than you can speak Korean."
"Who are you?! Why are you in my bedroom?!" Adryn yelled out in frantic English.
"I am here because you told me to be. You told me to be here at this very moment on this very day."
"Huh?" To Adryn's confusion, the man chuckled, making Adryn even more confused.
"I figured you wouldn't remember any of this." The man replied as he shook his head, before continuing. "1 year ago, you were drunk at a bar nearby. You confided in me and told me how you regretted your existence, how you hated your life, and how all of your dreams have failed. You told me you just wanted to die but you were too scared to do it yourself."
"That... sounds like me... But still..."
"You told me to come here, exactly one year after our encounter. You told me that if things had gotten better, then don't kill you and just have a conversation with you instead."
"I don't remember any of that. However, if I really did tell you all that, then you should just get it over with. Kill me. Things have just gotten even worse than a year ago." Adryn looked at the man with resolve in her eyes. She was ready to die, but the man just shook his head.
"I can't kill you now."
"What? Why?" Instead of answering Adryn, the man stood up and began to approach her. Feeling a rush of panic, Adryn raised the knife up, as if to protect herself.
"Put the knife down." The man's soft voice was surprising to Adryn. She instantly put the knife down, feeling suddenly and oddly safe with this man. Seeing Adryn put her knife down made the man laugh at her. "You're stupid."
"If you got into my apartment so easily, I'm sure you could take the knife away from me just as easily." Adryn snapped with a frown on her face, trying to cover up the odd feeling she got from him. The man just nodded his head and took a seat on her bed, before smiling at her.
Adryn could now see the man better. He had pale pink hair, similar to Eclipse's pastel-pink hair. He had beautiful brown eyes that clearly held pain and suffering in them. Even his smile seemed to hold sadness in it. Adryn noticed that there was a broken heart tattoo on his left forearm, which felt familiar to her as if she'd seen it before.
"Why does it feel like I've seen your tattoo before?" Adryn asked the man next to her. He chuckled before responding.
"You commented on how pretty it was when you were drunk a year ago." Adryn frowned at his words as she knew that it might be true. However, she felt like she'd seen it more recently and more clearly than when she was drunk. "My name is Taeyong, in case you were wondering."
"I probably don't need to tell you my name, right? You probably already know it."
"I know more about you thank you think," Taeyong responded with a smirk on his face. Adryn tilted her head to the side before questioning what he meant.
"What do you mean?"
"My job, to put it simply, is to kill people. You are the special one for this night. I've been waiting for this day to come since I wanted to do something different with you." Taeyong's words horrified Adryn and it clearly showed on her face.
"What? Different? Special? Huh?"
"The different thing for you is... I want to save you."
"Excuse me?"
"For the past year, I've been learning about you."
"Why?"
"I took a liking to you, on that drunken night. I've learned about some of your past, how you failed at every job you'd ever taken on, even in America. I know you were so depressed there that you tried to end your life, which caused your parents to send you away to a mental institution. I know your best friend Eclipse broke you out of the hospital and you two came here, to Korea to start over." Taeyong's explanation stunned Adryn into silence. "By the way, your parents stopped looking for you since you changed your name and appearance."
"How...How did you know all of that?"
"It's my job to learn about the people I kill, just to make sure they are supposed to die or if they can make the world a better place. You have been deemed a worthy person to live, as you'll make the world a better place."
"No, you're wrong. I'm nothing but a pathetic sake of nothingness." Adryn shook her head in denial, but Taeyong just frowned at her. "I wrote a book, that book was rejected so how am I supposed to help the world when I can't successfully write a single good book?"
"I thought your book was good. However, since it wasn't perfect Korean, that is probably why the publishers didn't want to risk taking it on. There would be too much trouble with it."
"How did you read my book? There aren't any physical copies and the last typed document is on my laptop."
"I've been in this apartment a few times and during those times,
I've checked out your writings."
"Oh my god..." Adryn muttered as she stood up suddenly, letting the knife clank onto the floor. Adryn then walked away from Taeyong and her bed to look out the window and stare at the now-empty street.
"Are you alright?" To Taeyong's question, Adryn simply shook her head as she tried to find the words to say.
"I can't believe how dumb I am. I never noticed that anyone but myself and Eclipse were in my apartment." Adryn mumbled as she sighed to herself. Taeyong couldn't help but chuckle thought.
"Well, I am pretty good at being stealthy so I expected that you'd never know." Taeyong watched as Adryn turned around to face him with a frown on her face.
"Are you going to kill me or not?" Adryn's voice was calm as she spoke. It was almost eerie for Taeyong to hear coming out of someone's mouth. She was too calm about it like they were discussing the weather or something.
"I'm not. You have a greater purpose than you think."
"What good can I do for this world?! What purpose do I have?!"
"Maybe not the world, but for me."
"Huh?" Adryn tilted her head to the side again and just stared at the man in confusion.
"While I've been watching over you, I've fallen completely in love with you. I want to take you away from here and try to make your life a little better while bettering my life with you."
"I don't believe you." Adryn honestly admitted after a moment of disbelief.
"Adryn..." Taeyong stood up and approached the woman, taking her hands into his own. Adryn didn't fight it or even flinch at the touch. "Last week, when you were dancing around this room during your short bout of happiness; it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Especially when you tripped over something and fell down."
"Um, that hurt though?"
"Even when you're sleeping, you're cute." Taeyong completely ignored Adryn's pout on her face.
"Being cute isn't a sole reason to love someone." Adryn frowned at Taeyong, but he just shook his head.
"You helped a little old woman across the street, despite you being late for your hang out with Eclipse. You even made sure the old woman made it to her home. You didn't have to do that and it showed how amazing of a person you really are, despite you not believing that. You care about other people and are selfless when you need to be. In this day, that is rare."
"But that was just me being kind!"
"Exactly. You're a kind woman. I am drawn to you and I love you for how kind you are. The exact opposite of me; a murderer."
"Is this some moth to a flame type shit?" To Adryn's question, Taeyong chuckled and nodded his head.
"It might be something like that, but my feelings are true and I want to prove them to you. If you'll give me a chance." Taeyong's words caused Adryn to sigh to herself. She then slipped her hands out of his and walked to her bed before sitting back down. "I know this is sudden, but I'll give you time to think about it. I'll be back in exactly 1 week. If you leave your window open for me, I'll take your answer to be a yes, but if not... I will never bother you again."
"Taeyong, I don't even know if I'll be alive in a week with all of the murders going on."
"I'll have someone protecting you. It'll either be me or a close friend. I won't let anything happen to you during this week. However, if you choose to not go forward with me, one of my friends may kill you. You have seen my face and my gang tattoo. You can identify me now."
"That's understandable." Adryn nodded her head in understanding. Taeyong didn't like the way she just went with the fact that she might be killed, but he knew he had to let it go. It had gotten late and he knew that Adryn must have been tired. He knew it was time to say goodnight to the woman.
"Thank you, and be safe, Adryn. Goodnight." Taeyong gave her a small smile and then went out of her fire escape. "I'll be waiting." With that, Taeyong disappeared. Adryn went right to the window to close and lock it, but also to see where Taeyong was going. However, the man was nowhere to be seen, which Adryn should have expected. So, she just shook her head and closed and locked her window.
"He was pretty weird for a murderer..." Adryn muttered to herself as she fought back a yawn. "I guess I should get to sleep now." Adryn sighed as she picked up her knife, put it back under her pillow, and then turned out the light. She took her glasses off and laid down to hopefully sleep. To her surprise, Adryn fell asleep quite quickly and had the most restful sleep she'd had in a long time.
