Mayex lay flat on the hardwood floor, his chest heaving as he stared blindly at the ceiling.
Boran looked down at him, then shifted his gaze to the intruder. The anger that had been simmering under his skin for the last ten minutes finally went cold, hard, and sharp. He stepped forward, his boots crunching deliberately on the scattered glass.
"Me," Boran said. His voice was entirely flat, stripped of any inflection. "You fucking monkey."
The boy glanced over Boran's stance, his bloody lips curling back into that same arrogant, hollow smile. He casually adjusted his footing. "Alright then. Come and try to—"
He never finished the sentence.
Boran's fist flashed straight and fast through the air—no theatrical wind-up, no warning shift in his weight. It was a pure, mechanical strike straight from their facility drills. The blow landed clean across the boy's jaw, the force of the impact snapping his head back and crashing his entire body hard into the floorboards. The intruder went limp before he even hit the ground.
Benny watched from her corner, her small frame trembling as tears continued to track through the dust on her face. She looked at the motionless figure, then up at Boran.
"…Is it over?" she whispered.
"Yes," Boran said, his breathing even. "His weakness is expecting a fair fight."
Adam moved first, crossing the room to Benny. He carefully untied the cord binding her wrists, checked the deep laceration on her forearm, and then dragged the length of rope over to the unconscious boy. Working with practiced efficiency, he bound the intruder's hands and feet together. Once the knots were secure, he looked up at Boran.
"…What now? Is this done?"
"No." Boran stared down at the boy on the floor. "He isn't Johan. He's someone else." He paused, calculating the parameters of their protocol. "We take him to the basement. Boss will want to see him." He looked around the circle of faces. "So—who's carrying him?"
A rough cough broke the silence.
Mayex pushed himself up slowly, bracing one hand against the floor as he forced his lungs to expand. He sat there for a moment, staring at the bound boy with a look of pure, unadulterated irritation.
"…Damn. I lost pathetically."
"Yeah, you did," Adam said without looking up from his knots. "Guess I'm calling you loser from now on."
"For God's sake—he wasn't normal." Mayex straightened his spine, wincing as his ribs protested. "Who takes a kick just to grab the leg? He didn't dodge it, didn't counter it—he took the hit on purpose just so he could throw me off balance. Who fights like that?"
"That's exactly what a loser would say."
"Both of you." Boran's voice cut through the bickering like a blade. "Stop. Benny got hurt. Did you forget that already?"
A heavy beat of silence settled over the living room.
"…They definitely did, Boran," Benny said quietly, her voice small as she cradled her bleeding arm. "They definitely did."
Mayex turned toward her, and his expression went completely blank. The adrenaline faded, leaving only the reality of the situation.
"I… kind of forgot. Shit."
He crossed the room in three long strides, kneeling down beside her and lifting her carefully into his arms to avoid putting pressure on the wound.
"I'll take her back," Mayex said, his tone shifting into something urgent. "She needs treatment. But—how exactly are we supposed to move him in broad daylight?" He gestured with his chin toward the bound boy on the floor.
Adam reached out and slapped the back of Mayex's head.
"Are you serious? The old man has a car. He drives us. Simple."
Every eye in the room instantly turned toward the far corner, near the doorway of the study where the client had been standing only moments before.
The hallway was empty. He was gone.
---
No one moved.
The silence stretched through the safehouse, heavy and suffocating, punctuated only by the distant sound of passing traffic outside.
"For God's sake," Boran said quietly, his fists clenching until his knuckles turned white. "That fucking old bastard."
---
The old man had watched Mayex lose.
That had been the exact moment his remaining nerve shattered. He hadn't waited to see the end of the confrontation; he had simply slipped through the front door without a word, walked out to the quiet residential street, and kept moving. He didn't look back at the house. If the Brown Organisation wanted results, they could send professionals who could actually deliver them. Not children. Not teenagers who played with whipped cream while his life hung in the balance.
What was that woman even thinking?
As he walked, the image of Melon Violet flashed through his mind—that slow, knowing smile she always wore, like she already knew the ending to every story before the first page was turned.
He pushed the thought away with a shudder. *Don't think about her.*
He reached the perimeter of the parking lane, his fingers wrapping around the cold metal of his jeep's door handle. He squeezed the mechanism—
Something small, cylindrical, and freezing cold pressed firmly against the center of his back.
"Don't move, old man."
Johan's voice. It was quiet. Calm. Entirely devoid of theatrics.
"You're going to open the car," Johan instructed from behind his shoulder. "Then you're going to drive wherever I tell you. Understood?"
The old man's hand began to tremble violently against the handle, the keys rattling in his grip. "…Wh… where?"
"Somewhere. Not the basement—not yet." A brief pause hung in the air. "Nothing happens to you as long as you cooperate."
The client swallowed hard, forced the door open, and climbed into the passenger side. Johan stepped in right behind him, smoothly taking the keys from his shaking fingers. He slid into the driver's seat, adjusted the rearview mirror, and started the heavy engine without a single moment of hesitation.
"Don't worry." Johan checked his blind spot as he shifted the vehicle into drive. "I know how to drive." He pulled out smoothly into the Sunday traffic. "Nothing will happen. As long as you don't try jumping out, of course."
---
Mayex stood in the center of the wrecked living room, Benny held tightly against his chest, his eyes fixed on the empty space where their client should have been.
The shattered glass from the window glinted in the afternoon light.
"…Guys," Mayex said, his voice hollow.
No one answered him.
"I think we fucked up the mission."