「 ɪ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ ʙᴇ ʀᴇᴅ,

ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴄᴀʀᴇ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ sᴀʏs

ɴᴏᴏᴏᴏ

ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ ʙᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ

ɪ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ sᴘʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʙᴏᴠᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ʟɪᴋᴇ ғɪʀᴇ 」

♪─── Red – The Rose ────♪

••••• ••••• •••••

𝚂𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝟶𝟾𝚝𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟻

𝚉𝚒𝚣𝚑𝚘𝚞 𝙰𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚞𝚎, 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚍𝚞 𝙲𝚒𝚝𝚢, 𝚂𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚞𝚊𝚗, 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚊

𝟾:𝟶𝟶 𝚊.𝚖.

"Hey!"

Her pace began quickens as she heard the roaring sound from the black–suited men with shades chasing after her.

Her breath ragged as she keeps panting from exhaustion, but that doesn't stop her from continuing to push herself through the crowed area in the busy street of Zizhou.

Some people shouted profanities, some gave her the looks while some just continues back to minding their own business, totally unbothered. Still, she couldn't care less.

She tried to switch direction to confused the men and it worked.

Once she looked behind, the men are scattered around aimlessly with their heads turn around looking for her. The scene caused the brunette to scoffed with a mischievous smile.

Should've took off those the sunglasses to find me.

Seeing them distracted, she took the chance to continue running through street and halted her steps when she passed by the empty alleyway with a look of interest.

Her boots clicked against the crooked asphalt that seems to aged a long time and began jogging towards one of the buildings that caught her attention.

She climbed up the ladder that was planted on the brick wall and started to boost her way up until she reached the top balcony, her smile then widens.

Aha.

She pulls a beige colored trench coat and hastily puts it on herself before adjusting the wrinkles of the fabric and tightens the belt around her small waist.

The corner of her eyes caught a glimpse of figure and she immediately whips her head to see if the men had found her. Fortunately, it was just a man in his late 40's sprawling on the couch watching TV, his white top barely covers his giant belly.

Bowls and packets of food were scattered around everywhere in the living room and the lights were barely illuminating the room. The sight caused her to gave a thought before pulling familiar amount of paper from her bag.

4190 yuan.

Just enough amount for the fabric she's wearing and the couple of bills for the apartment he's staying — at least, to help him get a better access to everything than this.

Wrapping the money together, she stealthily opens the balcony window and carefully placed them inside before closing the door shut, "At least I paid, so technically it's not stealing heh."

Chuckling to herself, she swiftly took off from the man's balcony and headed upstairs to the rooftop. The wind brushed past her short hair as she runs to the isolated area where she could see the view more clearly.

Pulling out a pair of binoculars, she then scanned around the busy city until she located the destination she wanted and quickly puts away the binoculars inside her bag and dash again, only this time she reached the dead end of the building but that didn't stop her from moving forward.

If she goes back, she will come face to face with those men again. There's no other choice but to–

"I think I last saw her going this way, come on!"

Then she leaped.

The moment where she felt like she was floating in space as the wind took over her hearing, muffling the screams from the men. She had always wanted this adrenaline and carefree feeling dancing in the pit of her stomach as if she's a firework shooting across the sky, ready to explode into bits of sparkling shimmering lights waiting in mid–air.

Thud.

She landed gracefully on one foot, her boots crushed against the concrete floor beneath her and she keeps running. Again and again, she keeps running nonstop. Hopping and ducking away from any upcoming obstacles standing in her way.

She loves this kind of adrenaline.

All thanks to her training.

The yelling seems to ease down a bit and she knew they were a good distance away from her retreating figure now. But she can't stay for long, soon enough they will catch up to her again and of course, she wouldn't let that happen.

Realizing she was already close to the bus stop, she inched closer to what looks like the third floor of the apartment building, she made another leap and made another successful landing on the ground.

The people around were mostly wearing long coats like hers and masks so it's easier for her to blend in with them in hopes of not getting caught again.

She crossed the street to the other side of the road, just in time for another bus to stop by. Not wasting further, she hopped in, her heartbeat still accelerates from all that running but mostly it was pumping hard from escaping those men and knowing that she was no longer chased by them.

She dropped a token for the bus driver and skimmed through crowd to find a vacant seat and thankfully, there was one left at the back with tinted windows next to an old woman.

Great.

She smiled, trying to seem casual and polite and she took the spot next to the woman in her late 60's knitting with her basket of clothes in it.

"That patterns looks so pretty ma'am."

The woman looked up from her knitting and stare at her through those small rimmed glasses. She smiled,

"Why aren't you such a dear, thank you. It's for my grandson, my daughter is giving birth to him today and i want to surprise her with it."

She spoke cheerily, as if feeling happy for the child's birth and she smiled as well,

"I bet he'll look cute in them granny."

The lady laughed and she couldn't help but giggled at that. I love old people.

They then strike up a conversation but her sharp eyes didn't missed those suited men coming out from the previous alleyway she had gone to, rubbing their heads on stupidity and the leader began to thrash them, saying that they've done a lousy job while she just smirked as the bus started moving towards the town's main area.

••••• ••••• •••••

𝚂𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝟶𝟾𝚝𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟻

𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚍𝚞 𝚂𝚑𝚞𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚞 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝙰𝚒𝚛𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝, 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚍𝚞, 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚊

𝟾:𝟺𝟻 𝚊.𝚖.

"Goodbye my dear, I hope you got a safe flight back home."

The old lady yelled from the hospital entrance as she gave a wave at her before entering inside.

The younger female sighed. She had insist on helping get to the hospital safely and the she head on to the airport; besides, the places weren't that far form each other so it's easier for her.

She crossed another road to the entrance of the airport, passing by a couple of people waiting for their families or other important people they need to fetch up.

The electric door slides open and she was greeted with many more people — also dresses similar as hers as well — queuing up for their perspective flight. Her eyes scanned the chinese letters in the signs and found a flight to Seoul, Korea.

She quickly made her way there. The brunette knew that she had to be quick because they flight will leave at 9 a.m. Luckily, the line wasn't long maybe it's cause the passenger that were there before had checked in way earlier.

"Hi, I would like a ticket to Seoul please."

She dropped the cash into the desk as the receptionist lady stared at her for money before giving her a smile and proceeds to give her the tickets.

"You haven't got any luggage with you miss?"

The lady questions with a confused frown but instead she gestured with her hand, seeming trying to brushed her off with a reassuring grin,

"Nope, just me and my trusty sling bag. Don't worry about it I got this." She gave her wink and left the young woman blinking rapidly albeit her face was bit flustered by her action.

After checking in and scanned herself and everything, the brunette strode off in a quick pace among the other passengers to the waiting room. She glanced at her wrist watch to see that she had eight more minutes before the plane arrived and so she walked faster, almost running while digging her hand inside her bag to retrieve a pair of sunglasses.

She was too focus on the rummaging that she hadn't noticed she was walking into someone else who had the same pace as hers, causing them to collide onto each other in a hard impact and she fell, dropping almost all the contents in her bag.

She winced quietly, "That hurted like a stick in butt." She rubbed the spot where she had hit and glanced at the pair of polished black shoes that strode to her sitting body.

Her stomach dropped.

She scurries for the glasses before a hand reached out in front of her face,

"I'm so sorry, are you okay miss?"

A hoarse voice spoke in worry and she looked up to see a pair of small sharp eyes glaring back at her. She began to gather all her things and got up, refusing to accept his helping hand for a reason.

"I'm fine, it's alright." She smiled with sunglasses clad on her face and then walked away from him, not catching the curious look on the man's face. He watched her with squinted eyes as she fled until another voice called out, the man broke away from her retreating figure.

That was close, she thought while she reached the waiting area just in time for the announcement from the speaker,

"Attention to all passengers who attended the flight AB9/619 to please prepare your tickets for boarding at gate C12, thank you."

She heaved a breath. That was her only chance of escaping and that was close.

Once the other passengers got up to the attendees waiting at the booth to give them their tickets, she joined along — again, trying to morphed into the crowd to not be suspicious. She just had to be that extra careful.

The brunette then smiled at the attendee who took her ticket and wished for her a safe flight.

She walked out of the door and towards the plane waiting outside and find her perspective seat. She took off her sunglasses and stared out at the window to the busy city of Chengdu, her hometown. The place where she was born.

The place that took away her precious childhood.

The place that had once destroyed her.

Not anymore, she smiled when started to feel the movement of the plane going forward, the gravel beneath her slowly faded into a blurriness of grey lines and the wheels whirled hastily showing that she was about to ascend.

Finally, she could no longer feel any more weights bearing in her shoulders. Her plan of escaping this hellhole has worked perfectly just as she thought it would turn out to be. Her intuitions were never wrong.

She watched as the buildings and busy roads littered with traffic of the typical Chengdu being replaced with fluffy white clouds and the tint of bright sun ray peaking through then turn her head to rest on the seat before shutting her eyes close, awaiting for the sleepy o take her over.

This is it.

This is finally the end of her misery.

She could no longer suffer any more.

She could finally leave and started a fresh new life.

One that doesn't involve killing, dealing with enemies, being deceived not witnessing further more gruesome actions.

All she wanted was to live a normal life as a normal citizen and that's what she's doing.

That's why she escaped the facility and catch a flight to Seoul, a place far away where she could speak their language fluently thanks to the past learnings she received.

Nothing is going to bother her anymore.

Or so she thought it wouldn't.

...ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇᴅ...

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