— Okay… time for my break, she muttered to herself, her voice trembling despite her efforts.
She grabbed a cigarette, the lighter clicking in her hand, and walked toward the storage room.
The silence of the corridor contrasted brutally with the deafening music of the main bar.
The neon lights flickered above her head.
She inhaled a long drag.
The smoke burned her throat, but eased her.
The acrid smell cleared her thoughts, snuffing out the anger still throbbing under her ribs.
She closed her eyes.
Let the smoke slip from her mouth like a sigh, like a release.
Then—
A scream.
A sharp scream. Torn.
Drenched in panic.
— I'm sorry, sir! I won't do it again!!!
The cigarette nearly slipped from her fingers.
Her heart froze.
Nari stepped into the storage area with the caution of an animal entering unknown territory, each footstep muffled by the slightly slick floor, her heart pounding against her ribcage like an impatient fist.
And then—
the scene revealed itself in a single instant.
A visual shock.
A living tableau of pure violence.
Kai.
In the back of the storage room.
His shoulders lowered, his back slightly bent, breath slow but deep, like a predator finishing its kill.
The two men…
Or rather what was left of them, curled on the floor, arms raised like trembling shields.
Blood splattered with each impact — a dark, sticky red that stained the walls.
His knuckles were red.
Stained.
And despite the brutality, he didn't look out of breath.
He struck calmly, like someone completing an inevitable task.
The faces of the two men… unrecognizable.
Twisted by panic, bones fractured, flesh split.
Each hit cracked something — cartilage, a tooth, a last line of defense — and a groan chased the next, almost begging, almost grotesque in its weakness.
Nari froze — but not like a victim.
No.
Her lips parted slightly.
A warm breath escaped.
And deep inside her eyes…
something unconfessable bloomed.
A dark satisfaction, primitive, almost animal.
A twisted relief.
A slow, sweet, venomous thrill.
As if each hit Kai landed hammered something inside her too.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling.
A tiny smile, but real, pulling at her lips despite her.
As if a part of her — the deepest, the smokiest, the most forbidden —
took pleasure in seeing these men punished.
Kai…
stopped instantly.
As if the world had frozen.
As if his body sensed her presence before his eyes even saw her.
He turned his head.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Without any rush, like a beast savoring the moment it discovers a witness.
His dark gaze slid over her.
A caress.
A blade.
An evaluation.
Then he straightened up, turned away from the dying men as if they were nothing but trash, and crossed the distance between them in three measured, silent steps.
Once he reached her, he wiped his fist on his suit pants — a slow, sensual, almost intimate gesture, as if he were offering her the cleanliness of his knuckles before offering her his words.
His face was very close to hers.
So close she felt the warmth of his breath brush her lower lip.
His voice fell then.
Lower than anything she had ever heard from him.
A warm, dangerous, venomous voice…
Almost caressing.
— Madame is enjoying this… he breathed, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly.
He paused, his eyes gliding over her smile, over her still posture trembling with an excitement she didn't bother hiding.
Then, colder, sharper:
— I leave them to you.
The world tightened around them.
A suspended second.
A silence so heavy it would vibrate through the walls long after they left.
Then Kai turned away.
And he walked off.
Just like that.
As if the scene had no importance.
As if breaking lives was merely an inconvenience in his evening.
Hands in his pockets.
Shoulders relaxed.
Steps calm.
No trace of remorse.
No weight.
Only that almost insulting, almost sublime detachment.
Nari stayed there for a moment, unmoving, her breath short, her heart pounding violently.
Then she walked toward the two men on the floor.
Their eyes — swollen, wide open, watery — sought help in Nari's gaze.
They found something else.
A frozen glint.
A silent vengeance.
— You're so pathetic… she whispered, her voice soft like a caress that burns.
She leaned closer, her shadow swallowing their distorted faces.
— A simple beating is enough for you to beg for mercy. If I had been the one begging… would you have hesitated to spare me?
The two men stared at her with a terror almost childlike.
A miserable pity.
A pity that made her feel a brief pulse of amused disgust.
— Y-Yes of course! screamed one of them in a trembling, desperate voice.
We would never do something like that!
A lie.
A lie so blatant it echoed through the room like a misplaced laugh.
Nari then placed her foot on one of them.
Then on the other.
And slowly — deliberately — she stepped onto their broken backs, digging her heels into their tender flesh.
The scream that tore from them was no longer human: a shredded howl, crushed by pain, an animalistic wail that dissolved into the blood-soaked walls.
She leaned in, her breath sliding against their strained necks:
— A lie… it would have excited you.
Then she lifted her head.
And her heart lurched violently.
Kai was still there.
Standing.
Leaning against the wall as if he had never left.
Blood on the collar of his shirt, dried in dark patches.
And the most devastating smile she had ever seen pulling at his lips.
Like a man who had just tested a woman…
and gotten the answer he wanted.
He burst into laughter.
A deep, rough, uncontrollable laugh that shook his shoulders as if all the tension in his muscles had just snapped at once.
A laugh that did not fit the scene at all.
Nari froze.
Her heart folded inward.
She realized what she had just done.
Suddenly blushing, she bowed abruptly, nearly panicked.
— I'm sorry… I shouldn't have lost control. I… I'll accept any punishment, Mr. Ryou.
Kai wiped a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye with his thumb, still smiling.
Then he exhaled, amused:
— Start by removing your heels from the backs of those dying men…
ah ah.
Nari jumped back, red to her ears.
Kai stepped toward her.
One step.
Then another.
Slow.
Measured.
His shadow slid against hers, erasing them both into a single outline.
He came so close she could smell the warm scent of his skin under the dried blood, feel the heat of his breath brushing her cheek like an unspoken whisper.
He placed his hand on the wall, just beside her head — an invisible cage that held her there, suspended, unable to breathe except in echo to him.
His voice fell between them, low, almost gentle, but dangerous like a bite hidden inside a kiss:
— Your punishment… will be given tomorrow. In my office.