The gun didn't waver.
Boran looked at it, then at Johan, then at the gun again.
"You're the one we have to eliminate," he said.
Johan tilted his head slightly.
"You can try."
His finger moved toward the trigger.
Then something hit his leg.
Hard.
Johan dropped to one knee, and Elara stepped past him, pipe already swinging for the second strike — aimed at his head, no hesitation, no warning. Johan's left arm shot up and caught it. His right hand moved for the gun.
Boran drove the scissors at his neck.
Johan shoved Elara sideways and twisted away from the scissors in one motion, then came back with the gun and cracked it across the side of Boran's head. Not enough to knock him out. Enough to make everything go white for a second.
"Alright," Johan said, standing slowly. "I suppose now I can shoot you down boy."
He raised the gun.
Elara's foot connected with his groin from behind.
Johan went down again.
Elara closed her fist.
Boran grabbed her arm and ran.
He didn't stop until they were half a street away, legs burning, heart somewhere in his throat.
"Are you INSANE?!"
Elara looked at him.
"He has a GUN," Boran said, still moving, pulling her with him. "He could have killed us at any second — it was pure luck we're still breathing , what were you THINKING going for the finishing punch"
Elara said nothing.
"Why don't you just TALK?!"
She kept walking beside him, eyes forward, expression unchanged.
Boran made a sound that wasn't quite a word and kept running.
.
.
.
Johan's POV
Johan stood up slowly.
He looked at the empty alley entrance where they had disappeared. He had expected them to keep fighting. Most people, when they had momentum, kept going. These two had stopped and run.
Interesting.
He brushed off his jacket, checked the gun, and started moving after them.
Then
"HEY!"
Johan stopped.
A man was standing at the alley entrance. Suit wrinkled, bottle in hand, eyes the specific kind of unfocused that meant he'd been drinking since well before noon. On his jacket, a name tag.
Anal.
"I SEE YOU," the man announced. "YOU THINK I'M A JOKE, RIGHT?! MY NAME IS A JOKE TO YOU?!"
Johan looked at him.
Anal swung the bottle.
It connected cleanly with the side of Johan's head. The glass shattered. Alcohol and blood ran down his face. A few pieces of glass caught the light on their way to the ground.
Johan didn't move.
Anal, apparently taking the lack of reaction as an invitation, began slapping him. Repeatedly. In the face.
"PEOPLE THESE DAYS HAVE NO RESPE—"
Johan shot him in the chest.
Not quickly, not slowly. Just matter of factly, the way you close a door that was left open.
Anal looked down at himself.
"You…you…you fucking…weirdo…"
He hit the ground and started crawling toward the alley exit. Johan watched him for a moment, then stomped on him, Once, Twice, Until he stopped moving.
He looked at the body.
"People like you confuse me," he said quietly. "You could have kept drinking while going to your destination. But no, you decided today was the day to die pathetically in an alley."
He stepped over him and walked out.
.
.
.
Back to Boran POV
Boran hit the front door at full speed.
"GUYS."
Mayex and Adam looked up from the couch.
Their faces were covered in whipped cream.
Boran stared at them.
The room was very quiet.
"…You cannot be serious," Boran said.
"Hey" Adam started.
"I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE AND YOU WERE PLAYING WITH WHIPPED CREAM?!"
Mayex and Adam both fell off the couch from the volume.
Adam sat up from the floor, genuinely offended.
"This couch is extremely comfortable and you made me fall off it."
A vein appeared on Boran's forehead.
Mayex looked up at him with a bright, open smile.
"Also, to be fair, you went out alone. Nobody told you to do that. That was just…" He searched for the word. "Stupid."
Another vein.
"I want to punch you both until you choke on your own blood," Boran said. "But unfortunately I need your help."
Mayex tilted his head.
"Help? Last time I tried helping you, you were furious at me."
"Because what you did was embarrassing me."
"It was meant to strengthen your mentality."
Adam lit up.
"Oh, are you talking about the presentation? When Boran chose goldfish?"
"Yes," Mayex said, grinning.
"And he explained how they eat, reproduce, and live, and then Mayex stood up and yelled 'does that mean you watched fishporn for research?"
"WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS," Boran said.
"Because it was funny," Adam said simply.
"IT'S NOT—" Boran stopped. Breathed. "The mission. Can we talk about the mission."
Silence.
"Fine," Mayex said.
Boran sat down.
"I was outside. I saw something shiny near an alley — turned out to be a pair of scissors, painted gold. And then he just appeared. Out of nowhere." He paused. "We had… complications. We got out. Elara saved me at the last second."
Mayex looked at Elara.
"We?"
Elara said nothing.
"Did you at least get anything on him?" Adam asked.
"His face," Boran said. "Burns. Not a cut — actual burning, like the skin melted. He looked like melted ice cream." He paused. "And his name is Johan. That's all he gave me. No last name." He leaned forward. "He reads as a psychopath — no expression, no hesitation. But I don't think he actually is. I think there's something underneath it. I just can't explain how I know that."
"And he's a weirdo," Boran added.
"If you see him, you'll understand."
Elara goes to mayex and tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at the old man.
The old man was standing in the doorway of his work room. He had clearly been there for a while. His expression was the specific combination of horrified and exhausted that comes from having heard everything.
Mayex, Adam, and Boran stared at him.
Benny appeared from the kitchen, arms full, cheerful.
"Hey Mayex, I got more whipped cream!, different kinds this time!" She looked at the old man. "Oh. Hi, old gramps."
The old man looked at all of them.
"I heard worse… but… yeah."
A moment of silence
"Oh I am fucking dead! It was a mistake trusting the Brown Organisation… FUCK!!!"