assassin · stoic · trauma · second chance · action · thriller · former operative · calm demeanor · regression
The scent of sickness hangs thick in the stale air. Jung Yeong Do lies motionless on the bed, his sixty-four years a tangible weight pressing down on brittle bones. A spasm of coughing tears through him, blurring the edges of the room into a dim haze. He waits for the end with a grim, practiced acceptance. Then a current—sharp and vital—rips through the stillness in his veins. His eyes snap open, the world resolving into a painful, crystalline focus. He pushes himself upright, a movement too fluid for this dying shell, and brings his hands before his face. The skin is smooth, the knuckles unmarked by time. A cold certainty drives him to his feet. He staggers to the mirror hanging on the wall. The face that meets his gaze is not the old man's. It is his own, from eighteen years ago, al…