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It’s all of the personal items I’ve requested. The exact ones I’d asked for, nothing missing or the wrong brand.

The tampons, the face wash and cream, the hairpins and ties, a loofah with body wash, even the haircare products specific for my curl type that I requested.

There’s no way the drugstore around the block had the shea butter moisturizer I like. I usually purchase that from the African hair shops in South Korea.

Which means he must’ve gone through some great lengths to get all of this for me.

Only to immediately retreat into his bedroom and avoid me the rest of the night once he’s home.

I’m not sure whether to be grateful or to feel like a burden. I’m not sure about anything when it comes to Jin. He’s a complex puzzle that I don’t know if I’ll ever solve…

13.Jin

Her scent permeatesthe entire apartment. Something sweet and something light and woody, vaguely reminiscent of the springtime.

It’s summer, deep in the midst of our monsoon season, but it’s applicable just the same.

I can close my eyes and take an inhale and know it’s Monroe’s scent. Images of sunshine, flowers, and tall grass come to mind.

Bright things. Pure, happy, warm things.

All in contrast to what I am—dark, cold, violent.

I return stained with blood and there she is, filling up the space of my apartment with her scent. I escape to my room to avoid her, though that doesn’t work when I’m aware she’s on the other side of the door.

My apartment is only sixty-five square meters in size. There’s no escaping the fact that Monroe is only a few paces away.

It’s not as though I can blame her. It’s my fault. I brought her here.

I wasn’t thinking when I did it. Coming out of my blind rage and murder of In-soo, I had to dosomething.

The Baekho-je was expecting an update the next time I paid him a visit and that fucking nuisance Seung-min was circling her like a vulture. Yet still I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. I couldn’t even bring myself to allow a hitman like In-soo to do it.

The only option I had left was to take her myself. Put her in hiding until I figure out something better.

Over the next couple days, I curate the situation. Normally, I’d have my men dispose of any dead bodies, but I take care of In-soo myself. This situation is so delicate that I can’t trust others, not even the men under my command. It would be too risky, opening the possibility that word could get back to Seung-min, or worse, the Baekho-je.

But I do send some of my men to Monroe’s apartment once In-soo is gone. I direct them there under the guise of cleaning up the mess. They believe it’s from her death. That the apartment was destroyed in the process.

It gives me the corroboration I need to make it believable when I do report to the Baekho-je’s office.

Jae-hyun is all alone for once, reclined lazily at his desk as he enjoys another Cuban cigar. The TV is finally off, no longer playing American porn.

“Jin-tae!” he exclaims jovially. “I hope you have come with good news.”

“I have updates regarding the new weapons supplier as well as the threat from the Bulgeomhoe.”

The Bulgeomhoe are our greatest rivals in Busan. Their name translates to the Crimson Society in English. They come in a close second in terms of their involvement in the drugs and weapons trade, and they have tried unsuccessfully several times to dethrone us from the top spot.

Jae-hyun makes an uninterested humming noise as I explain I’ve secured the weapons we were after from our supplier andthat the Bulgeomhoe have been warned about selling their products in our territory.

He’s much more interested in the other update I have for him.

“Tell me about the girl,” he says. “Seung-min mentioned some of the others scrubbed clean her apartment. He said everything was destroyed.”

My jaw clenches.

Of course word got around to Seung-min. My crew is so small that it travels fast. One of the others, like Park Min-gyu or Choi Woo-sik, must’ve told him in passing and he rushed to spill that info to the Baekho-je.