The dimly lit safehouse was filled with an oppressive silence, broken only by the occasional creak of the old building settling around them. Hana shifted on the couch, unable to shake the thoughts racing through her mind. The events of the night weighed heavily on her, and every time she closed her eyes, she saw Kang Hyun’s lifeless body, the bloodstain spreading across his shirt. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen death, but this one felt different. Final. And yet, it didn’t feel like the end.

Kaito’s voice, low and gruff, broke through her thoughts. "You’re not sleeping either, huh?"

Hana opened her eyes to see him leaning against the window, staring out into the night. His silhouette was tense, shoulders hunched, as if the weight of everything they’d been through was pressing down on him. She wasn’t surprised; none of them had been able to truly relax since they got to the safehouse.

"No," she admitted quietly, sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest. "How can I sleep when everything feels like it’s just... hanging in the balance?"

Kaito turned to face her, his expression unreadable in the faint light. "It’s always like that. After a mission, after a kill—it never feels like it’s really over."

Hana sighed, rubbing her temples. "I keep telling myself that Kang was the worst of it, that we’ve finally turned a corner. But I can’t shake this feeling that something bigger is coming. It’s like we’ve only scratched the surface of all this."

Kaito nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Daeyoung’s right. We might have taken down Kang, but that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. His people are going to want revenge, and if they find out it was us, we’re screwed."

Hana looked up at him, frowning. "Then why did we do it? If taking him down doesn’t change anything, why go through with it?"

Kaito’s lips pressed into a thin line, and for a moment, he didn’t answer. Finally, he pushed away from the window and crossed the room, sitting down beside her. "Because we didn’t have a choice. Kang was a monster, and he was only going to keep hurting people. We had to stop him, even if it doesn’t solve everything."

There was a long pause as Hana absorbed his words. She understood what he was saying, but that didn’t make the ache in her chest go away. "Do you ever wonder if we’re making things worse?"

Kaito didn’t answer right away. He leaned back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "All the time."

The silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken fears. Hana didn’t know how to respond, and for a moment, neither of them spoke. Then, after what felt like an eternity, Kaito broke the silence again.

"I didn’t want this life," he said quietly, his voice laced with a bitterness Hana hadn’t heard from him before. "None of us did. But here we are."

Hana looked at him, surprised by the vulnerability in his voice. "Kaito..."

"I wanted to be a mechanic," he continued, cutting her off. "I had plans. A normal life, a normal job. But that all went to hell the moment I got dragged into this mess."

Hana swallowed hard, her throat tightening. She had never heard Kaito talk like this before. He had always been the strong one, the one who kept them grounded. Hearing him admit that he didn’t want this life made her realize just how much the burden was weighing on all of them.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

Kaito was silent for a long moment before he finally spoke. "I trusted the wrong people. Got involved with the wrong crowd. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. I owed too many favors, made too many enemies. And the only way out was... this."

He gestured vaguely to the room around them, as if "this" could sum up everything they had been through. Hana felt a pang of sympathy for him. She had known Kaito for years, but she had never really asked about his past, about how he had ended up in this life. Now, hearing the pain in his voice, she wished she had.

"I’m sorry," she said quietly. "I didn’t know."

Kaito shrugged, though the motion seemed heavy. "It’s not your fault. We all have our reasons for being here."

Hana nodded, but the weight of his words lingered in the air. She wanted to say something, anything, to make it better, but no words came. What could she say? That she understood? That everything would be okay? They both knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

Before either of them could speak again, the door to the back room creaked open, and Daeyoung stepped out, his expression as grim as ever. He glanced between Hana and Kaito, sensing the tension in the room, but said nothing about it.

"We need to talk," Daeyoung said, his voice low but urgent. "I’ve got some intel on Kang’s second-in-command. If we want to avoid being hunted down, we need to act fast."

Kaito sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "There’s always another target, isn’t there?"

Daeyoung didn’t respond. Instead, he crossed the room and spread a map out on the table, motioning for them to join him. Hana stood, her body protesting the movement after hours of tension. She exchanged a glance with Kaito before they both moved to the table.

"Who is it?" Hana asked, her voice steady but tinged with exhaustion.

Daeyoung pointed to a location on the map, a small industrial area on the outskirts of the city. "His name’s Jin Woo. He’s been running Kang’s operations from the shadows, handling most of the logistics and the dirty work. With Kang gone, he’s the one pulling the strings now."

Kaito leaned over the map, frowning. "So what’s the plan? Take him out too?"

Daeyoung shook his head. "Not yet. We need more information first. Jin Woo’s smart, smarter than Kang. He’s already started consolidating power, and we don’t know how far his reach goes. If we move too soon, we’ll just be walking into a trap."

Hana nodded, her mind already racing with the implications. Jin Woo had always been a shadowy figure in Kang’s organization, someone they had heard about but never seen. If he was taking over, things could get much more dangerous.

"So what do we do?" she asked.

Daeyoung tapped the map again. "We hit his supply lines. Cut off his resources, weaken his network. Once he’s vulnerable, we move in."

Kaito let out a long breath, shaking his head. "We just took down Kang. Now we’re supposed to take on his entire network? We don’t have the manpower for this, Daeyoung."

Daeyoung’s eyes were cold, determined. "We’ll make do. We’ve done it before."

Kaito opened his mouth to argue, but Hana cut him off. "He’s right. We can’t let Jin Woo take control. If we don’t stop him now, things will only get worse."

Kaito looked between them, frustration clear on his face. "And what if we fail? What if we’re just digging ourselves deeper into a hole we can’t get out of?"

Hana’s jaw tightened. "We won’t fail."

The conviction in her voice surprised even her, but she meant it. They couldn’t afford to fail—not now, not when they were so close. She didn’t know what the future held, but she knew one thing: they had to keep fighting.

Daeyoung straightened, folding the map and tucking it under his arm. "We leave at first light. Get some rest."

With that, he disappeared back into the shadows of the safehouse, leaving Hana and Kaito alone once again. The tension in the room seemed to thicken in his absence, and Hana felt the weight of everything pressing down on her once more.

Kaito rubbed his temples, his frustration clear. "This is insane, you know that, right? We’re going to get ourselves killed."

Hana didn’t respond right away. Instead, she stared at the spot on the map where Daeyoung had pointed, her mind turning over everything that lay ahead. Kaito was right—it was insane. But what choice did they have?

Finally, she spoke, her voice barely a whisper. "I know."