By Zephyria 
A new moon night with pouring rain.
In a secluded back alley between tall buildings that shone like glass boxes, a man stood in the rain. He certainly didn’t look neat.
The seams of his black Versace shirt were torn and a button was missing. His deeply stabbed right shoulder was dislocated, his strong arm hanging limply, and there was severe bleeding from the long horizontal cut on his thigh.
“Keuh…”
The man, swallowing a harsh curse, limped down the alley. Corpses were scattered along the path he passed, amidst puddles of thick blood.
The sight of five men in dark suits, their necks, heads, abdomens, and chests riddled with wounds, was gruesome and hideous. White bones protruded from their twisted arms, and blood that hadn’t cooled yet trickled from the torn wounds.
The dazzling night view of the city center, neon signs, and car lights blurred the bleak view. Tae-hwon’s eyes, as empty as darkness, scanned the alley. He saw a bag lying under a fallen corpse.
Inside the leather bag, soaked with flowing blood, were stacks of 50,000 won bills. Enough funds to last a lifetime. Cleanly laundered fake IDs, fake passports, and plane tickets. If he left for the airport as it was and boarded any departing flight, he would never set foot on Korean soil again.
‘That was the plan, or so it should have been.’
Limping towards the corpse, Tae-hwon pushed the flesh aside and tore off the bag’s handle. A tracker, smaller than a pinky nail, rolled out.
“Ha.”
A burst of laughter.
After staring at the tracking device for a while, Tae-hwon raised his boot and smashed it. Even with the pouring rain, the pungent stench of blood that stung his nose didn’t fade. His numb right arm had no sensation and wouldn’t move anymore.
Now.
This very moment was the final chapter of the story.
It had been a truly dirty and arduous time to see the end.
For 10 years. While the landscape changed, Tae-hwon was submerged in a dark swamp, holding an immoral and ruthless knife. It was a savage life where it wouldn’t be strange to die and fall at any moment. There was no such thing as the ruin and destruction that would come to a villain, or a deserved retribution. In fact, the ending that Tae-hwon faced today was so bland that it was boring…
‘Is this finally the end?’
It had been a long, long time. To reach the last moment of this tiresome life.
His vision gradually blurred and strength drained from his limbs.
Soon, his heavy body slumped. Like a falling giant tree, Tae-hwon plunged forward and collapsed onto the bare ground.
He desperately wanted a cigarette.
But, at that moment.
Screech… A Maserati slid in and stopped in front of the alley. Strong headlights shone brightly in front of him. He could even see the raindrops falling. Soon, the front door opened and an umbrella bloomed like a flower.
A man with an umbrella approached the fallen Tae-hwon.
“Mr. Tae-hwon. It’s been a while.”
His face, smiling brightly as if he had missed Tae-hwon very much, was very noticeable. Born with albinism, he had snow-white hair and blue-gray eyes that would not be forgotten once seen.
‘…Young Master?’
Kwon Rae-i.
The concubine’s son of Kwon, the head of the Gyeongjeong faction. The late youngest son.
When Tae-hwon was still young, right after joining the organization, he had briefly taken care of this young master. It was a distant past that had long faded and discolored as a memory. A memory that should have been sent away long ago.
“It’s strange. I expected to be angry when I met you, but when I saw Mr. Tae-hwon’s face, I was worried.”
“…”
“Why are you so badly hurt? You only fought a few people… Did your knife rust in the meantime?”
He bent his beautiful eyes and approached Tae-hwon, crouching down to meet his eye level. It was strange to see him holding an umbrella over him. The small young master in his memory had grown into a grown man, and his huge body didn’t look small at all even when crouched down. He seemed to be taller than Tae-hwon now.
But his face, which captivated people, seemed to be the same as ever.
‘To think that the last thing I see in my life is that guy’s face…’
His face is as outstanding as ever, without a single flaw, whether now or then.
Eyelids as white as pearls. Clear and cold blue-gray eyes like a calm lake in winter. His deeply sunken eye sockets and beautifully raised nose resembled a frozen landscape of heavy snow falling on the quiet mountain range in the forest. His unique cool yet mysterious atmosphere seemed closer to an unknown ethereal being than a person with a warm beating heart.
“I’ll give you a chance once. Try to make some excuses.”
Tae-hwon didn’t answer anything.
He only let out a heavy breath.
“Why did Mr. Tae-hwon betray Gyeongjeong? Why did you kill my father? Did you want to run away?”
“…”
“Were you sick of it? Were you disillusioned? Did you want to make a fortune and leave this world, and live a normal life? Did you want a life where you didn’t get your hands dirty anymore?”
“…”
“Ha… Haha. You know, I thought I had misheard the report. Isn’t that right? Mr. Tae-hwon blew a hole in my father’s head and ran away. They said his brains were dripping and soaking his lower body… It’s absurd. There’s no way Mr. Tae-hwon would do that. Why. Why would Mr. Tae-hwon!”
Kwon Rae-i trembled and panted. He looked more painful than the badly injured Tae-hwon, roughly exhaling. He exuded a dangerous scent that he didn’t have before.
His face, which was as clear and innocent as it was in his childhood, was distorted. A twisted obsession could be seen in his piercing blue eyes.
A terrifying madness that overwhelmed everything was clearly present in him.
“If you were going to do that, you should have killed me first and left…”
Thoughts were sparsely cut off in Tae-hwon’s turbid head. Red blood was staining the asphalt and flowing into the sewer. His body, heavy like a rock, was also cooling down.
The rain pouring through the night sky became even heavier. It was about to completely swallow and scatter the world.
“If you were going to abandon me like this, you should have taken my head first…”
It’s dark.
It’s black.
It went completely dark.
***
Have you ever washed a palette with paint on it?
If so, you will know. The sight of colorful colors dissolving in water and mixing together, eventually becoming black ink and being sucked into the drain. That was exactly what was going on in Tae-hwon’s head right now. Various colors were mixed together and swept away indiscriminately. Into a dark pit.
Rainwater, blood, knives, the sensation of tearing flesh, dazzling neon signs, and the lights of cars running on the main street…
Fragmentary memories flashed by and were sucked into the darkness.
Pushing against invading organizations, taking land, doing as told, barking as told, ordering jajangmyeon, cursing that the cigarette tasted bad, getting drunk, being a hitman…
In the end, it’s blood. Blood.
All that remained in his hand was red paint.
Endless red water poured into the drain. No matter how much he wiped and wiped the palette, the bloodstains on his hands wouldn’t come off. Tae-hwon’s hands, full of scars and calluses, were all dark red from his elbows to under his fingernails. He wondered if the resentment clinging to him was this much. It was a dirty and cruel price for his sins that he could never wash away in his life.
‘…’
Tae-hwon could only remain silent as he watched the endlessly flowing red light. His head was gradually being swept away. Water endlessly filled up and the pouring water became even stronger.
At some point, even the red blood that seemed like it could never be washed away gradually began to fade. The red gradually faded to pink, and eventually became transparent.
‘I am…’
Tae-hwon frowned. The palette, with all the paint wiped off, was clean. His arms, which had been stained with thick blood, also regained their original skin and became clean. Even then, the water didn’t stop.
Tae-hwon’s past and memories, even his will and turbid ego, were swept away and poured into the black pit. In the end, it was washed clean and emptied. As if there had been nothing from the beginning, it was pure white.
‘…Who am I?’
Memory loss.
Tae-hwon’s clockwork, which was standing at the final chapter, returned to the prologue. To the moment of creation, which was the starting point.
A full 10 years had been cleanly erased.
Only then did the water stop. The last few drops flowed, drip, drip, and then it went completely dark.