Bleak Revenge (28.1)

"Y—You…" The middle-aged man in front of Hyunwoo stuttered before looking to Veronica, "You didn't say he'd be here-"

"What does it matter, you fool!" Veronica barked out, "Kill him!"

The man looked back at Hyunwoo almost meekly and Hyunwoo laughed, his voice soft and threatening at the same time, "Why are you hesitating?" His voice had a kind tone to it but something simply felt off, "Please don't tell me you developed a conscience now. Besides, you already killed me when I was eighteen. I felt something in me die the day I met you. I died the day I met you. Where's all that bravado now? The attitude? The confidence?"

"I—I…" The man stammered, looking increasingly nervous by the second, his eyes darting between Hyunwoo and Veronica, as if trying to gauge whether it would be better to beg the former for mercy or do as the latter told him to.

Hyunwoo stepped closer, "Are you scared of me, Michael Wayford?" He asked, making no move to pull out his weapon.

"How….How do you know my name?" The man asked, and his voice held a tinge of fear to it, trembling lightly.

"Of course, I know your name," Hyunwoo laughed softly, "I know all of your names. I know your ages, your history, where you live, who your families are, where they live…" He looked the man in the eyes, "How are your children, by the way? Sophie and Angelo, was it?"

The man's eyes sharpened, "Don't you dare say their names, you bitch. How do you know about them?" 

Hyunwoo cocked his head, "Oh? They didn't tell you about me?"

It took the man a moment before his face slackened, "...The pretty man with the purple hair…" He seemed to say to himself, "That was you? What were you doing? How did you find them?"

"I told you. I know everything about you. It wasn't very hard to find out where their college was. I'm not all that much older than them, you know? It was pretty easy to blend in with the other students," Hyunwoo shook his head, "They both liked me very much. But you know, they're lucky that they only ran into me. Someone else might have taken advantage of their fondness and naivety," His eyes sharpened, "Someone like you."

"Shut up!" The man yelled, holding up his gun to point toward Hyunwoo, "Stay away from my kids!"

Hyunwoo stepped closer, as though the gun pointed at his head seemingly not phasing him at all, "Do they know what you did? Did you ever tell them? In only a few words, I can make them doubt everything they ever knew about you. Did you ever tell them what working at the White Lotus entailed for you? What happened that one time when you were gone on a 'work trip" for months?' He took another step, the barrel of the gun level with his forehead, "Did you tell them why your wife left you?"

The man stumbled back, "You can't…You can't possibly know all of that…" He said, shaking, "How do you…"

The younger man chuckled, "I know everything. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat it for you to understand. Does it scare you?" His voice was still terrifyingly soft, "Are you scared of me, Michael?"

"I'm not…Why would I…I'm not scared of you!" Michael replied quickly, not meeting Hyunwoo's eyes.

"In that case, you shouldn't be afraid of what's going to happen next," Hyunwoo said before pulling his hand out from behind his back so quickly that Michael couldn't even process the movement. Hyunwoo fired two shots, one into the man's chest and one into the man's neck. 

Michael stumbled back from the force of the shot and in an instant, Hyunwoo moved forward, knocking the man flat on his back, "Y—You…" The man choked out, blood dripping out of the side of his mouth.

"Tell me one thing," Hyunwoo said, his tone as even and calm as ever as he put his foot on the man's chest and put pressure on it, "Did you ever regret what you did to me?" The man opened his mouth to speak, but Hyunwoo shot another bullet into his shoulder, and whatever words Michael was going to say devolved into a scream, "Imagine if your children ended up going through what I did. How would you feel when they finally told you after?"

Michael's eyes widened, "D—Don't…" He choked, "Don't say that…I would never let something like that—"

"Imagine what my mother felt when she found out why I'd been missing for all those months. How much do you think it broke her heart to find out what happened to her son? Do you think she would have just let it happen?" He leaned in, "It could happen to your children and you might never know, because they're too scared to say it. They're too ashamed."

"Shut up!" He roared, but the effort made him choke and cough on his own blood, "Shut your mouth!"

Hyunwoo didn't stop, "Imagine your children feeling so ashamed, so terrified, so shattered that they completely lose themselves. Imagine them being so paranoid that every person in a room with them has to be in sight or they'd have a panic attack. Imagine them being unable to talk to other people for weeks out of fear of being punished for speaking. Imagine trying to do whatever you could to comfort them, trying to hug them and tell them it's alright, only for them to scream the moment you touch them—" Michael began to say something but Hyunwoo didn't hesitate to shoot another bullet into his abdomen, "Quiet, I'm speaking," He said coldly, "Now, where was I? Ah, yes," His eyes sharpened, "Imagine knowing that your children were so thoroughly broken that they'd prefer to die than keep living with what happened to them," He leaned down, "Wouldn't it break your heart?"

It was obvious that Hyunwoo's words were having an effect on the man, as he stared up at him, desperation in his eyes. Michael's mouth moved but no sound came out of it. The light in his eyes was slowly fading as Hyunwoo shot him in the chest once again.

"Tell me," Hyunwoo put his foot on Michael's chest, right where he'd shot him before pushing down, "Hearing all of that, do you regret what you put me through? What you put my mother through? Something that was just a job to you almost destroyed my life and my mother's life. Are you still proud of yourself? Can you live with yourself, knowing that I was the same age as your children now when you killed me as a person?"

There was no response, and Hyunwoo watched as the last light of life in Michael's eyes drained away.

"Huh," He blinked, "Guess he couldn't live with himself. Oh, well," He turned to look at Veronica, who had only just managed to sit up. He twirled the gun in his hand as he stepped towards her, "Whether you think I'm a whore or not doesn't matter to me. But I would suggest keeping in mind that I am also one of the heads of the intelligence in the rebellion. Although, I suppose knowing that wouldn't do you much good when you're dead…"

Veronica coughed as she glared up at him, "Don't…Don't think that it would be that easy…Or have you forgotten that he wasn't the only one?"

Hyunwoo tilted his head, "Oh, I haven't forgotten. In fact, I'm waiting. I wonder which one I'll get to kill next," The pleasant smile on his face contrasted with his words, causing the woman to shiver.

He didn't have to wait long for his question to be answered, as he heard an enraged shout from behind him, "You! How dare you! Sir Michael can't be defeated by the likes of you!" A large, burly man whose face turned redder by the second yelled, holding a broadsword at the ready.

"Well, unfortunately for you, he was," Hyunwoo said, almost boredly, "You're the one that was the most annoying out of all of them. Hello, Malcolm Yard, it's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"You don't get to talk to the likes of me," Malcolm snarled as he rushed forward.

Hyunwoo sighed and picked up the broadsword on the ground, "I see that you haven't changed. Still suffering from an unhealthy superiority complex, hm?" He held up the broadsword, easily blocking Malcolm's blow, "Tell me, how's Lila doing?"

"How do you—" Malcolm's eyes widened, "It's you, isn't it?! The one she's cheating on me with?! You bastard, you—"

"She wasn't cheating on you," Hyunwoo calmly interrupted, swinging the sword and forcing Malcolm back a few steps, "Or, well, if she was, then it wasn't with me. Perhaps she developed feelings for me but I was very clear with her from the start that I was just there to be a friend to her. All I did was tell her that she deserved better than someone like you."

Malcolm snarled, "I was the best that bitch could ever get! No one would have wanted someone as meek and broken as her. I was the only one who took pity on her and fixed her!"

Hyunwoo rolled his eyes, "No, you didn't. You just fucked her up even more. You might justify it because you were in a relationship with her but what you did to her wasn't all that different from what you did to me, now was it?" His eyes glinted with disgust, "Did you really think she wouldn't fight back?"

"There's nothing she can do to hurt me! I am the one with power, not her!" Malcolm yelled, lunging at him once again but in his anger and panic, he completely missed his swing. Hyunwoo easily dodged the attack and swung his sword again, slashing the man in the arm.

"On the contrary," He replied, "She's already done plenty. Or did it never occur to you why your parents both disowned you on their deathbed and made sure that their fortunes went to your sister and her husband rather than you?"

Malcolm froze, "That…"

Hyunwoo laughed, but it was a sharp laugh, something cruel in it, "You really are an idiot not to have realized. She couldn't directly go against you for her own sake, but I could certainly come up with other ways for her to rebel against you."

"You…You manipulative little shit—"

"Yes, yes, you've said that before, can we move on?" Hyunwoo sighed boredly, blocking the man's attacks almost as if it wasn't even a concern, "You know, I'm surprised you didn't even recognize me at your parents' funeral. After all, you used to boast so much about how well you knew my body."

Malcolm let out a sound of outrage, "The funeral was invite-only, how could you have possibly—"

Hyunwoo huffed, "Stealing a funeral invitation is hardly the worst thing I've ever done, you don't need to be that shocked. Anyway," He moved his hand expertly, easily disarming the man, "Don't use a broadsword if you can't even wield it properly. It's embarrassing for the sword."

"You—!" He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Hyunwoo's broadsword pierced his abdomen.