if there is anything his time with ishikawa has taught aiden, it’s patience. he did his waiting, 5 years of prayer for a better, a less painful life. that’s the second thing he learnt under the reigns of ceo shiwoo moon. religion is flawed, created for the weak minded who cannot give sense to their own life. god wasn’t going to grant aiden the justice he deserved. no, he would have to take matters into his own hands and seek for a peace of mind himself.
his kill list is long but aiden’s durability proves to be even longer. he has a purpose now and he indulges in the thought of the hunt, haunting his prey before he sinks in his metaphorical teeth and robs them from the same spirit and vitality they had taken from him so many years ago. that’s how he stays patient. rational. a blind, unprepared kill is nothing more than that. empty and mundane. unfulfilling. see, there’s something very gratifying about seeing an individual grow paranoid, to see their arteries slowly slipping shut when confronted with the face of a man who had been presumed to be dead.
that’s what makes aiden human.
the night is cold, much colder than it’s supposed to be, curling a smile around aiden’s lips that sit into an otherwise stoic set of features. he is dressed in nothing but a silky black shirt and dress pants, wind blowing through the light, flowy fabric yet the droid remains unbothered by the chilly weather. there’s no jitters, no nerves, detectable in his posture as he leans against the brick wall of the bar, waiting for his bait to make his exit for his one am smoke break.
he walks out with a cigarette hanging loosely hanging from his lips, hands rummaging around in the pockets of his trouser for a lighter. a sigh tumbles from the man’s lips, squinted eyes scanning the alleyway in search for a saviour in such desperate times.
“hey, care to help a man out?” he asks as soon as he lays eyes on aiden, cigarette now bouncing between his fingers. he is just as brute as aiden remembers him. perfect. “sure.” aiden replies, shoulder coming loose from the wall and fishing a lighter, his lighter, out of his pocket. he ignites it, the flickering flame revealing parts of his face that had previously been hidden in the darkness of the night. the man freezes, eyes growing wide in shock, or maybe it’s fear mixed in with a little bit of surprise. either way, it’s enough to wipe to smug expression of his face, just like aiden had wanted.
“remember me, mister kim?”
aiden does not wait for an answer. instead, he drops the lighter to the ground, hands moving swiftly as he grabs the knife that had been hidden in his belt and buries it into the man’s stomach. aiden’s other hand curls around his neck, lips gently pressing against the man’s ears to whisper some final words. “i really hope your daughter is spared from the same horrors you put me through.”
he wricks the knife out of the man’s spasming body, blood dripping down the blade onto his hands and clothes. the smell no longer bothers him, eyes colouring just as darkly as the crimson liquid as he heaves the knife down one more time but this time directly into the man’s heart. weak, aiden thinks to himself, dropping the lifeless body to the ground and watching the life gush out of it.
there’s not a single hint of sympathy in aiden’s eyes as he kicks the body with the heel of his boot. dead. now that was out of the way, it was time for aiden to take care of the pair of eyes that had been burning holes into his back for the past couple of minutes. before turning around, aiden runs his hands down his cheeks and neck to try and wipe the blood away but he only ends up making it worse.
“are we going to have a problem, here?”
fraternity is known for taking care of things seamlessly and quietly. for the right price, there is little they wouldn't do, and eunjae's task for the day includes just that. it's been in the planning for a week now, various members have been appointed since it was a high-grade job. some tracked the man's movements, some hacked into his accounts to trace patterns. a lot of background research went into it, more than people realized, and it was eunjae's task to oversee them all, make sure they worked together, and they weren't any loose ends they didn't take care of.
they were at the end of the deal, some would say the actual deal was going with the kill, but eunjae knew how long it took them to find the perfect spot, go through with it the way their client wanted. one of their best hitman had been sent out for the job hours ago, and all jae had to do was to make sure the job was done, retrieve the personal belonging their client wanted from the body. it sounded easy enough, and it was not jae's first rodeo by far. in the past six years, he had seen his fair share of carnage and bloodshed, learned how to distance himself from a lifeless corpse. it was fine, it was supposed to be an easy in-out-job — but little did he know there was more to it than that.
he steps inside the alley, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up to hide his hair — it's dark enough that there is no one around to see, but when he gets closer, he meets a silhouette he didn't expect to see. it's not the hitman he had sent, and there is too much blood for it to be a fraternity kill. his eyes widen immediately, hand going back to his waist where a gun is tucked into the back of his pants, and his fingers curl around it as he steps closer to the man.
"who the hell are you?" someone an enemy organization? did someone interfere with their kill? where is their hitman? one glance at the body on the ground shows that it is their target indeed, but the fraternity member is nowhere to be seen. once again, there is a lot blood, so much blood, unlike their signature technique of a bullet to the head. they use silenced guns for these kinds of things, and it's apparent the man in front of him had anger towards the man on the ground.
the light of a nearby lamp illuminates the figure's face once jae steps closer, their face turned towards him— eunjae pulls out his gun to point it at him regardless. a warning; it's nothing personal, he just has to figure out what the hell happened. recollection comes slowly. after he looks at him for a few seconds, eunjae realizes he knows this person. the gun in his hand grows slack as he points it at the ground. then again, knowing who it is only results in more questions than answers. "aiden? what are you doing here? why did you —"