Yuchi wasn't one to back down easily. Seeing Mike cling to me like a shadow, her resentment began to boil over. In her eyes, I was just some boring, aging senior who couldn't possibly compete with her youth.
During lunch break, while I was standing alone by the emergency stairs to get some air, Yuchi suddenly appeared. The sweetness was gone, replaced by a haughty, sneering expression.
"Listen, Hime. Don't think Mike cares about you because you're special. He's probably just pitying a lonely old woman. If you're smart, you'll stay away from him before I have to get rough."
She finished her sentence with a hard shove to my shoulder, intending to send me tumbling down the stairs. I lost my balance, but in that split second, a firm hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me back into a solid chest.
It was Mike.
But this wasn't the playful junior I knew. The killing intent radiating from him was so thick the surrounding air felt frozen. Mike's eyes were now a haunting crimson, staring at Yuchi as if she were already a corpse.
"Did you... just touch her with those filthy hands?"
Mike's voice dropped, raspy like a demon echoing from hell. He let go of me and took slow, deliberate steps toward Yuchi. She turned deathly pale, her legs giving out as she collapsed onto the floor.
"I... I was just joking, Mike..."
"Joking?" Mike let out a distorted, morbid chuckle. He lunged forward, gripping Yuchi's throat and lifting her off the ground with one hand. "Do you have any idea how hard I struggled not to tear you apart in the lobby? And yet you dared... to almost hurt her?"
Mike's grip tightened, the sound of Yuchi's neck bones creaking under the pressure. His total loss of control was terrifying. I rushed forward, grabbing his arm and screaming:
"Mike! Stop! You're going to kill her!"
I used every ounce of my strength, clinging to Mike's vein-popping arm. It felt as rigid as cold steel. I pressed my face against his back, my voice trembling with a mix of fear and desperation:
"Mike, look at me! Don't do this, for me... please!"
My name acted like a supreme incantation. The swirling killing intent in the room vanished instantly. Mike froze, the crimson in his eyes fading back to a deep black, though still clouded by the remnants of rage. He loosened his grip, letting Yuchi slump to the floor. She coughed violently, crawling away as if she had just escaped the jaws of death.
But Mike didn't grant that "trash" another second of his attention. He spun around, and seeing me breathless with terror, his expression pulled a complete 180. The cold-blooded killer was gone; in his place was a pouting, pathetic-looking boy with drooping eyes.
He collapsed his entire weight onto me, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist and burying his face in the crook of my neck. He started whinning, his voice raspy as if he were the one who had been bullied:
"Hime... I was so scared. She tried to push you, she tried to take you away from me. I couldn't help it... You're not mad at me, right? If you leave me, I'll die."
He nuzzled into my neck, inhaling the scent of my hair like an oversized puppy seeking comfort. The large hands that had almost crushed a throat moments ago were now trembling, clutching the hem of my shirt and refusing to let go.
"It's because she was being mean first. I just wanted to protect you... Hime, please be kind to me, don't scold me, okay?"
I stood frozen, my hands stopping mid-air as I debated pushing him away. Was this man a demon putting on an act, or was his soul so warped that he only knew how to love through madness? The duality left me shivering with dread, yet unable to pull away.
Yuchi was as persistent as a leech. After narrowly escaping Mike's death grip, she didn't feel fear; she felt a burning, psychotic need for revenge. She knew she couldn't beat Mike in a fight, so she turned to her ace: the CEO of the conglomerate funding the prison—a man notorious for his insatiable lust.
In his opulent office, Yuchi artfully displayed the bruises on her neck. She sat on the CEO's lap, her eyes brimming with fake tears, her voice a poisonous pout:
"Look at this... that woman Hime used her seniority to incite a junior to assault me. She even threatened to fire me if I didn't submit to her. You have to get justice for me..."
The CEO, blinded by his own depravity, stroked her cheek and growled:
"Hime? A mere warden dares to cause trouble? Fine. I'll sign her suspension papers tomorrow. After that... you can deal with her however you please."
Yuchi smirked, already imagining me kneeling at her feet, begging for mercy. But she and that foolish CEO had no idea that every word spoken in that room was being transmitted directly to the phone in Mike's pocket.
Back at the precinct, Mike was peeling an apple for me. When the filth reached his ears through the earpiece, he froze. The sharp blade sliced into his finger, but he didn't flinch. He slowly licked the blood off, his pitch-black eyes bleeding into that terrifying, deep crimson once again.
"Hime..." Mike looked up at me, his smile still sweet but his aura suffocatingly dark. "It seems a few more rats want to play the 'punishment' game with you. Should I go prepare some 'gifts' for them?"
I shivered, the apple in my hand suddenly tasting like ash. I knew then that the CEO had just signed his own death warrant.
The next morning, the atmosphere at the precinct was unsettling. The looks from my colleagues were no longer filled with respect or fear, but with mockery and pity. I had barely reached my desk when the Warden—the same man who had trembled before Mike just days ago—regained his arrogance, slamming a document down in front of me.
"Officer Hime, this is an official temporary suspension from the CEO. The grounds are abuse of power and causing injury to a colleague."
I froze, picking up the paper with trembling hands. Beside the Warden stood Yuchi, clinging to his arm with a triumphant smirk. She arched an eyebrow, her voice dripping with spite:
"See? There's no place for violent people here. Mike will soon realize exactly what kind of person you are."
Whispers broke out among the staff; some even laughed behind my back. My chest tightened with suppressed fury. Just as I turned to leave to preserve what little dignity I had left, a loud crash echoed through the room.
BANG!
The door was kicked open. Mike strode in, but not as the playful puppy. Clad in his crisp uniform, he carried the aura of a grim reaper emerging from the shadows. He walked straight to me, casually snatched the suspension order from my hand, glanced at it, and... shredded it into pieces right in front of everyone.
"Mike! What are you doing? That's an order from the CEO!" the Warden shrieked, but his voice died in his throat the moment Mike looked at him.
Mike didn't say a word; he only smiled—a distorted, bone-chilling grin. He stepped closer and patted the Warden's shoulder, his grip so intense the man buckled in pain.
"Whose order? Does the word of a man about to vanish from this world still hold any value?"
Mike turned back to me, the crimson in his eyes fading into a terrifyingly tender gaze. He stroked my hair, ignoring the dozens of eyes watching us:
"Hime, go home and rest. Just for today. By tomorrow, no one here will dare speak your name without trembling. I promise."
He spared a glance at Yuchi. A single look that sent her collapsing to the floor, too terrified to even breathe. Mike thought to himself: You little rat, have you finished enjoying your final moments?
The vast office fell into a deathly silence. The killing intent radiating from Mike was so thick that colleagues nearby kept their heads bowed, cold sweat trickling down their temples; not a soul dared to breathe heavily or look into his crimson eyes. Even the Warden stood rooted to the spot, his mouth agape without a sound, the shredded suspension order at his feet a blatant insult to the conglomerate's power.
While the entire precinct trembled as if facing a storm, I let out a breath and reached out, grabbing Mike's clenched hand. It was ice-cold and rigid, but the moment my fingers touched him, I felt a slight tremor pass through him.
"Mike. Enough. Come with me."
I gave his hand a small tug, my voice not loud but filled with unwavering resolve.
The miracle happened instantly. The aura of a slaughterer vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed. Mike froze, the red in his eyes dissolving back into clear, deep black. He looked down at my hand holding his, then looked at me with an expression of utter... obedience, even a bit of a pout, like a puppy being scolded by its owner.
"Hime... I'm listening."
He retracted his hand from the Warden's shoulder and followed me meekly like a shadow. He even hunched his shoulders slightly so his height wouldn't overshadow me, muttering softly just for me to hear:
"They were bullying you, so I got angry... But if you say go, I'll go. Just don't let go of my hand, okay? I'm coming."
We walked out of the office under the stunned gazes of everyone. Yuchi remained collapsed on the floor, trembling as she watched the "demon" who had just threatened to suffocate the entire room now trotting behind a woman with an almost unbelievably "gentle" face.
But I knew this submission was reserved for me alone. And as for the CEO... tonight would likely be the last night he ever slept soundly.