38 No room in this game for saints

The very moment Ji-ho entered the vehicle, the door was slammed shut and a gun was pressed to her temple.

"Are you serious?" She said to the actress. The window glasses were tinted so dark that people outside couldn't see what was going on inside the car.

"If you don't make a fuss, you'll be home by tomorrow, Sun Young-mi," she was told. Dan-bi and Ji-ho stared at each other with hatred. The former for having the love of her life stolen, and the latter for being kidnapped.

"Why?" She asked Dan-bi, unable to believe that someone would go to such lengths because of a man. The car had cleared traffic and was speeding in a direction that went away from the actor's house.

"The nerve of you to ask me that," Dan-bi said with a smile of utter contempt. She appeared disgusted and resentful of Sun Young-mi. "You seduced Seung-ho. I don't know how but you did it with your mediocre face, your ugly body, and that innocent act-" the butt of the pistol was roughly shoved against Ji-ho's temple. "How does he not see you for what you are, Young-mi?!"

Dan-bi was delusional. Ji-ho thought it best to remain quiet and watch the road at least to be aware of where they were going. Ji-ho was feeling very annoyed right now. Despite being seen in public with her, Dan-bi had had the guts to kidnap her in broad daylight. Were all celebrities such psychos?

"Hello?" Dan-bi answered her phone when it began to ring. "Yeah, I have her. We'll get there in half an hour."

Ji-ho was tempted to snatch the gun from the actress' hand but she wasn't confident she could do it before the beefy bodyguards overpowered her.

"Who cares? Just conduct your business and I'll send you the money."

Dan-bi hung up on the call and turned to Ji-ho with a vicious glint in her eyes. None of Sun Young-mi's scandals had managed to damage her career in any meaningful way so she was going to make sure that this time, the scandal would be of such epic proportions that not even S.S. would be able to bail Sun Young-mi out of the resulting backlash.

_____

The vehicle carrying Ji-ho left the busy city area and reached the outskirts where the road went through a forested area. Taking a turn into a dirt road, the car came to a halt and Young-mi was passed off to a man holding a semi-automatic rifle.

"Have fun, Young-mi," the actress waved at Ji-ho and giggled.

Worst birthday ever!

Ji-ho was going to have trust issues after this. She hadn't expected Dan-bi to be this malicious. Playing stupid games to humiliate her clearly hadn't been enough. From how the man was leering at her, Ji-ho could guess at what was waiting at the end of her journey.

At gunpoint, the young woman was forced inside the black vehicle with a covered licence plate. Sitting inside, she saw that aside from the driver, there was only one other man. Any plans she might have had to fight back were cancelled when the man sprayed something on her face. In no time, Ji-ho closed her eyes and fell asleep.

_________

How long had she been asleep? Her head felt heavy like it was stuffed with cotton. She struggled to open her eyes but found it too difficult.

Ji-ho's vision was blurry but when she blinked, the young woman faintly made out the outline of a man. Her eyes closed again and she began to slowly make sense of what was going on. Ji-ho realised she was on a bed in some strange room she had never seen before. Forcing her eyes to open again, this time, Ji-ho's heavy eyelids stayed open long enough to make out the familiar face that was seated on a chair placed close to the foot of the bed she occupied.

"What?" She slurred. "What's going on?"

Ji-ho slowly sat up and rubbed her aching head. Her mind wasn't at its full clarity but Seung-ho's eyes were flashing a beautiful silver-blue colour. Was she still drugged?

She glanced at the floor where a man was laying in a pool of his own blood. His face resembled that of the person who had sprayed her with the drug.

"Park Ji-ho," Seung-ho called her name.

"Yes."

It took her an embarrassingly long five seconds to realise that he had called her by her real name.

"Wh-what?" She muttered in shock. "Did you just call me Park Ji-ho?"

"Would you prefer I call you Sun Young-mi then?"

Wearing an elegant charcoal grey suit and impeccably polished black leather dress shoes, his legs were crossed as he relaxed in the comfortable armchair with the ease of a big cat. His silvery blue eyes were at half-mast as he watched Park Ji-ho do the mental gymnastics that could explain just what the hell was going on.

Her gaze once again drifted to the dead man on the floor and back up at Seung-ho.

"The reaper," she spoke with realisation dawning in her eyes. "It's you."

"Very good, miss Park," he said with a growing smile that appeared faintly predatory. "How are you feeling?"

"Bamboozled..." Ji-ho realised that the reaper may have been enquiring about her health; not her feelings about the discovery of his secret. "So this whole time, was it you all along?"

"Yes," he responded. "But not in the way you imagine."

Ji-ho's brain fog wasn't letting her think clearly but she grasped the important points. Seung-ho was the grim reaper. That was why he kept showing up to save her every time she was in trouble of any kind. A tiny bit of disappointment reared its head because a part of her had believed in the genuine connection she'd had with the actor.

"I had no memories of you prior to this kidnapping," Seung-ho, the reaper, added after a pause.

"But-"

"Miss Park, you were kidnapped, drugged and nearly.. violated," his cool gaze moved to the video camera on a tripod. "Do you know what you did wrong?"

"I shouldn't have left with Dan-bi." Ji-ho felt like a fool for having placed her trust in outside circumstances; like the fact that they were in the public eye and it led her to believe that her safety was guaranteed.

Seung-ho's silvery eyes did a once over of her remorseful expression.

"Humans make mistakes, miss Park. You will never be prepared enough for every single eventuality. And that is why I exist - to protect you from the unexpected."

"So what mistake did I make?"

The reaper regarded her wide-eyed and frustrated look. Ji-ho had tried her best to do her job but it hadn't been enough because Seung-ho had to keep rescuing her.

"You're a smart girl, Park Ji-ho. But you are a smart golden retriever in the company of vicious wolves. If you wish to avoid such incidents in the future, you will have to become a mirror; reflect the ferocity and ugliness of your enemies. Fight fire with fire, so to speak."

Ji-ho silently listened to his counsel. The reaper was right about her being a golden retriever. If Ji-ho had a fraction of the viciousness that Blue and Dan-bi had displayed, she would have already gotten Jessica her vengeance. She was collecting evidence and relying on the law but her enemies were capable of twisting the arm of the law with their money. Why was she trying so hard to be good? The only rule she had to follow was to never directly instigate the death of another person.

"I understand," she replied. Dan-bi hadn't thought twice about sending off Sun Young-mi to be sexually abused and filmed during the whole thing. She couldn't imagine how awful the aftermath would have been if Seung-ho hadn't intervened and murdered her would-be abuser. "Fight fire with fire." Dan-bi wasn't a target of Jessica's but she was now top priority on Park Ji-ho's hit list.