# Chapter 29
Hund gripped me so tightly I thought he might burst me, and whispered:
“It’s nothing, nothing at all.”
“Stop thinking unnecessary thoughts, and move.”
I nodded at his words and moved to the place we used to meet in Paris. What was I doing, being led by someone other than Woosang’s hand in Paris?
As Hund said, these were all unnecessary thoughts.
After walking a bit, we entered a small warehouse and confirmed the scheduled location and time. It felt unfamiliar to work after such a long time, but I had no choice. I had to play along as Hund determined.
Today’s target was an Asian man in his 40s. When he first handed over the information to me, his intentions were transparently obvious.
His efforts to manipulate me were almost pitiful.
This man looked nothing like Woosang. In the first place, no one in the world resembles Woosang. He is a one-of-a-kind existence.
The man’s age, origin, appearance—nothing about him could remind me of Woosang. So it was fine. I unconsciously clutched my unsettled heart and repeated that to myself.
We maintained that unpleasant silence. For some reason, that usual silence was difficult to endure today. But I didn’t have the courage to speak to Hund. If this was what he intended, he had succeeded.
“Keep track of the time.”
“…Yes.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to look at his face.
The door closed noisily, leaving only silence in the space. Suddenly, I couldn’t even remember where this place was.
Whether it was Paris or Brussels, it didn’t matter. As long as my leash was tied to him, struggling seemed pointless. In the end, it was like walking in place.
It was all my fault. “Hund” had pretended to give me freedom while handing my leash to someone else, and he had surely died.
“…Did you want to keep me bound that badly?”
I quietly asked the empty air. I checked the time. I had to go. I opened the door and went outside. The surrounding area was unbearably noisy.
In Paris, where people crazily lived together in cramped spaces, there was nowhere to escape.
If there was any consolation, it was that I wasn’t assigned a major task today. My job would be done once I brought the target to the designated location.
Hund and other colleagues were all much older than me. Among colleagues mostly in their 40s and 50s, I was the only one in my 30s, and I was always given the role of catching the target first, as I attracted less attention.
I suddenly recalled Hund’s face. I hadn’t noticed before, but Hund’s face had deep wrinkles apart from his scars. When I first met him, he was probably around my current age.
But time had flown by. He was now steeped in fatigue and resignation.
Why would he continue such bloody work even at an age when he should be tired?
That question dug into my mind, but I felt no pity.
My colleagues and Hund, who always looked shabby, usually took a more substantial payment than me after a job was done.
They didn’t seem to enjoy this work, even though they collected additional pay for torture and other services if the client wanted anything besides killing.
Yet they always crawled out to this dirty place, killed someone, collected money, and disappeared.
It was strange. Did they know they weren’t normal?
Thinking about it, I wasn’t much different. I didn’t want to do this, but I worked without complaint because it was the job given to me.
If I had been a normal person, I would have surely fled from this job, but somehow I had come to accept it. Of course, the situation is different now, but in the end, the fact that I didn’t hate this work remained unchanged.
I am, after all, just a murderer. I didn’t even have the thought that I didn’t want to acknowledge it. These thoughts were evidence that I wasn’t suitable for Woosang.
After walking for a while, I reached a relatively quiet area and looked around. I caught a glimpse of Hund from a distance.
While waiting for his contact, I mindlessly felt the inside pocket of my jacket. Somehow I felt more anxious than usual and wanted to smoke, but when working, I wasn’t supposed to carry cigarettes or other items that could leave traces.
Despite knowing this, I kept looking around because the tightness in a corner of my heart made me anxious.
I felt like I needed to finish this job quickly and return home. I hated the thought of having to crawl back to that unfamiliar house where that ghost was, but now even that seemed nostalgic.
The strangely trembling fingertips easily confirmed my anxiety. This shouldn’t be happening. I knew it shouldn’t, but I had no way to stop it.
At that moment, as if by magic, a message came from Hund. I roughly smoothed down my trembling heart and checked the text. His contact, which was usually so dreadful, somehow seemed fortunate now. As soon as I came to my senses, I immediately moved to the predetermined location.
And with truly impeccable timing, I saw the target man exiting a bar after paying.
Black hair with faint wrinkles. It was the man from the photo. We encountered each other faster than I expected, which created a strange tension, but I soon composed myself and approached him quietly.
“Excuse me, Mr. Khan.”
“…Who are you?”
The drunk man, with a heavily slurred tongue, looked me up and down. Rather than trying to identify if I was an acquaintance, he looked at me indifferently, as if appraising merchandise on display.
I felt like backing away from the disgusting smell of alcohol, but I endured it and, without avoiding his eyes, recited the words I had prepared.
“Your wife, Anna, sent me. She told me to bring you urgently.”
“…Anna? Has her time to die finally come?”
The man snorted, and somehow maintaining a silence that seemed to indicate he found it ridiculous, he smiled as if it were laughable.
Seeing his attitude toward his family made me think many things. Indeed, there is no remaining affection in this world. The affection I had seen was probably all an illusion.
Unfortunately.
Swallowing a small disgust at the look in the man’s eyes, I continued speaking calmly.
“It’s what you expect. She said you’d understand if I told you that.”
“…Right. Where is she? Already in a coffin?”
“……”
The man seemed to know that his wife was trying to kill him. Yet he didn’t look miserable at all. Not feeling sadness at being threatened by someone you loved. It’s simply strange.
His attitude, as if saying “try if you want,” made me scan the surroundings to see if anyone was around.
As soon as he finished speaking, I carefully took the lead and started walking. Before heading to where the car was, I just needed to knock him out and hand him over to Hund, and today’s assigned job would be done.
But the uncomfortable feeling wouldn’t go away. It felt like I was missing something. I couldn’t distinguish whether this uneasiness came from this man or if it was a feeling that had remained from before.
‘I need to go back quickly.’
I wanted to go to that place where no one knew me. I kept my guard up and carefully looked around. Contrary to my expectations, I didn’t sense any unusual presence.
But the man following me showed no such signs. Somehow, I seemed to be getting more anxious than the man.
After a short distance, the man’s footsteps hesitated strangely. It seemed like he was trying to run away. I couldn’t let him escape. I had to prove my usefulness here.
As soon as I felt his hesitation, I turned around, grabbed the man’s neck, and pinned him against the wall.
“Ugh…”
The man tried to scream, but I quickly blocked it and compressed his airway. Somehow, sweat seemed to be pouring out more than usual. My fingertips were not just damp but slippery.
Something was definitely wrong. But I couldn’t afford to mess up the job. I couldn’t understand what made me so desperate.
At that moment, I felt my hand that was gripping the man’s neck slip due to the sweat on my hands.
“…No.”
At the words that escaped without my knowledge, I took a deep breath. And as I tried to put strength back into my hands, the man pulled something out from his chest and struck my abdomen randomly.
My breath caught with a gasp.
Cough. Coughs burst out. It was my mistake. Even if he might scream, I shouldn’t have focused both hands on his face—it was an absurd mistake.
I felt that everything was falling apart. From where? This wasn’t just about this moment.
Enduring the pain, I lunged at the man again, pinning him to the ground, and looked into his bloodshot eyes.
The man, who had been struggling to breathe, seemed to lose strength as he dropped the small butter knife he had been holding.
Clang.
The butter knife, which I didn’t know when he had picked up, might have been secretly taken from the bar, and fortunately, its tip was dulled. There didn’t seem to be any major issue with my abdomen.
“P-Please, spare…”
“You should, be quiet.”
Fortunately, I hadn’t completely ruined the job. I took a deep breath and waited for the man to lose consciousness.
After taking one rough breath, I met the man’s eyes with blurry vision. His fading focus felt pleasing.
But at that moment, my head shook severely.
The strength in my hands seemed to be strangely draining. I tried to concentrate, but it wasn’t working well.
Then my vision blurred, and the old and shabby-looking man disappeared without a trace. Instead, a familiar figure was lying there. Unfortunately, it was a face I knew well.
It was Yun Woosang. Woosang’s face was completely collapsed, with burst blood vessels in his eyes, glaring at me.
“…!”
The flowing black hair and unfocused eyes. The fluid flowing from his mouth. Somehow a thinner body than usual.
Woosang was here.
I knew what was happening. Probably another ghost had come to find me. I already knew it well.
Did I know it? I couldn’t be sure.
He’s here. No, I know this man isn’t Woosang. But why can’t I perceive it properly?
‘Maybe this man was Woosang from the beginning, and I’ve been seeing an illusion?’
I couldn’t tell. I felt tears about to flow from my eyes as I made a crying face.
For some reason, the corners of Woosang’s eyes as he lay there were also full of tears, about to fall at any moment.
“D-Don’t cry.”
“……”
No answer came.
I don’t know why he’s crying. His lips were moving slightly. I tried to understand his meaning, but it wasn’t easy. Should I let go? And I needed to talk with him.
Everything about why I had to leave you, and how I actually didn’t want to leave.
I wanted to share everything with Woosang.
In truth, I want to go back to where you are right now. I wanted to spend happy times quietly on the sofa with him.
That was my true heart.
