Chapter 4
Wooyoung
San spent the first day watching.
He learned Wooyoung's routine.
Morning coffee.
A walk.
A small bookstore.
Lunch somewhere different every day.
An afternoon meeting.
Home before nine.
The strange thing was that Wooyoung didn't behave like someone who knew he was being hunted.
He looked ordinary.
Painfully ordinary.
He got irritated when traffic stopped him.
He dropped his keys once.
He bought flowers and then realized he had forgotten the person's birthday.
He stood outside a convenience store eating ice cream because he'd apparently been unable to wait until he got home.
San watched from across the street.
He had killed men who had looked more dangerous while sleeping.
He had killed men who had ordered people tortured.
He had killed men whose faces had appeared on wanted posters.
Wooyoung was just…
Wooyoung.
A person.
A ridiculous, beautiful, living person.
San hated that thought.
He hated himself more for thinking it.
On the second day, Wooyoung noticed him.
San knew the exact moment.
It happened in a cafe.
Wooyoung was sitting by the window.
San was outside.
Their eyes met through the glass.
San didn't move.
Neither did Wooyoung.
For three seconds, perhaps four.
Then Wooyoung smiled.
Not flirtatiously.
Not suspiciously.
Just politely.
The kind of smile people gave strangers.
San looked away first.
It irritated him.
He had been trained to stare through people.
To become invisible.
To make himself forgettable.
Yet somehow Wooyoung had made him feel seen with nothing more than a smile.
San walked away.
His breathing was too fast.
He stopped in an alley.
Pressed his back against the wall.
Closed his eyes.
In.
Out.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"Get yourself together."
He whispered it aloud.
His own voice sounded unfamiliar.