The night had fallen hours ago, wrapping the city in a silence barely interrupted by the distant murmur of traffic. From the outside, that small apartment was no different from the rest: a modest place where two students shared expenses, routines, and an apparently common life. That was where Baek and I lived. To anyone who knew us, we were just a young college couple who had just moved in together, beginning a new stage amidst classes, responsibilities, and a quiet domestic life. No one would imagine that, behind those walls, normality was just a carefully constructed facade.
We had moved in together recently. A small, quiet apartment... isolated enough from the hustle and bustle to avoid attention and cozy enough to sustain the illusion of an ordinary life. I suppose it was exciting for Baek. After all, he was living with the person he loved, building a home by my side. For me, however, it was just convenient. The perfect cover. Studying by day, killing by night. The perfect routine.
We didn't talk much that night. It wasn't necessary. The constant sound of the keyboard under my fingers filled the living room. Although my attention seemed fixed on the laptop, I never stopped observing him. I always do. It is surprisingly easy to read him: his gestures, his silences, his habits... even the emotions he tries to hide. He has no idea how much I know about him, nor the control I could exert over every one of his decisions if I really wanted to. It's not because he's naive. He simply... trusts me too much.
The laptop was open in front of me. On the screen, university documents mingled with much less innocent files. My face remained impassive, illuminated by the cold glow of the monitor. My dark, sharp, and hard-to-interpret black eyes scanned every line with an almost unnatural calm. A few strands of my black hair fell over my forehead, casting shadows over an expression that rarely revealed what I was thinking. My firm jaw, lips barely curved, and perfectly straight back reinforced that image of serenity I had worked so hard to build.
Studying was exhausting. Killing, curiously, was not. The truly difficult part was playing the role of a normal person every day.
I let out a silent sigh and ran a hand through my hair, pushing the strands back in a slow, casual gesture.
"Ugh... I'm tired..." I murmured in a low, calm voice, eyes still on the screen.
It wasn't a complaint.
It was a hook.
Sometimes I like to watch how Baek reacts when he thinks I'm being completely sincere.