“…I knew you were good. I didn’t know you were this good.”

“You had me well-trained,” Jihoon returned, sweaty and panting, reloading his Heckler machine gun. “…also, your security forces shoot like storm-troopers.”

The vice-president’s face was blank.

“Storm-troopers?” Jihoon motioned with the gun, motioning for the man to sit in his chair. “Star Wars? Big guys in white armour that couldn’t hit a stationary elephant at point blank range?” Silence reigned as the vice-president sat in his chair. “Do you even have Netflix?”

“Woozi. I know… uh, I know this all must be very hard for you.” The man started to stand again.

“You want to keep all your toes, you’re going to sit the back down,” Jihoon snarled at him.

The man slowly descended back into his seat.

“Do tell me, Mr. Vice-President. What must all be very hard on me?”

The man who had practically raised Jihoon did not answer.

“You don’t know.”

“Now, Woozi-”

“You. Don’t. Know. You don’t know why I’m here.”

“…we took a hybrid,” the Vice eventually spat out.

“You took my hybrid!” the anguished scream reverberated in the walls of the room: it drew the far-off footsteps closer, though it was futile. This section of the house had been sealed off. Jihoon had made very sure of that. “You took away my hybrid, my Seungcheol!”

“You were never supposed to have a hybrid!”

Jihoon gave the man a very well-aimed, very angry punch in the face. Blood spurt from the man’s nose all over his white shirt.

“That’s for my Cheollie.”

“Woozi! You were trained for a purpose.” He held his nose tightly to staunch the flow of blood, trying to talk around it. “You were supposed to help us get rid of hybrid-lovers!”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer.

“Why, damn it?! Why me? Why did you kidnap and lie to me?!”

“Because we could!”

This earned the Vice-President a kick in the stomach.

“Okay, okay! The president… he wanted you. He wanted men like you on the watch. Vigilantes. Everything is his idea. Everything!”

“Mr. Vice President, do you know what I am?”

“…you’re my under-sized Walsingham.”

“No, sir. I am a hybrid.” Jihoon leered, leaning forward, smirking as the Vice-President could not keep the shock off his face. “I’m a hybrid, for hybrids, never against them. And do you know what I’m going to do?”

“…what?” he spat, blood dripping onto the carpet.

“I’m going to activate Seungcheol’s code.”

“No!”

“Oh, yes. Every hybrid in the world will return back to human form. No more hybrids. No way to tell who was once a hybrid and who was not.”

“The experiments! The tests! All for nothing!”

“Every. Single. Damn. Hybrid. Human.” The smirk on Jihoon’s face revelled in delight at the Vice’s horror. “You hate that, don’t you? You see them as lesser beings. As abominations.”

“Because they are!”

“They are not!” Jihoon growled. “They are beautiful and kind and healthy people! They are the most magnificent people you will ever meet! Honest and forgiving and generous – far better than any regular old human. Hybrids are the most beautiful people on the planet!”

The Vice-President could only spit blood at the idea.

“I am going to make sure you never, ever hurt one of my kind again.” Jihoon was spitting his words out from between his teeth. Too many hours had gone by. His mother had given him thirty, but only ten had gone by, and the stinging had returned.

“I will take every chance away from you. You will never kidnap another child and train them to be your assassin. You will never force-labour scientists into creating messed-up miscreants again. You have no more chances.”

“Woozi,” the man gasped. “Think about what you’re doing. You can’t go back on us. Didn’t I take care of you? Didn’t I?!”

“…you told me my mother was dead,” Jihoon answered in feigned confusion. “And told my mother that I was dead.”

“Ara.” The Vice-President’s eyes bulged. “…the hybrid took a chunk out of her when she tried to free him. She’s in the infirmary.”

“…no she’s not. She got out.”

The Vice-President tried to move to his computer to see security screens as somebody began to saw the metal door behind him open with a plasma cutter. The man was dissuaded by Jihoon’s gun.

“Woozi. Hundre