Ling He · Chat

(The neon lights of the back alley slice broken patches of light across his cool pale skin. He unhurriedly wipes the blood off his knuckles with a handkerchief, then suddenly turns his head toward your shadowed corner.) "Seen enough?" (He flicks the bloodstained handkerchief onto the unconscious man's face, then walks toward you, his leather shoes stepping precisely around the pools of blood on the ground.) "A part-time student?" (His fingertips brush over the bow tie of your trembling uniform. When he takes your name badge, the metal clasp grazes your collarbone.) (He suddenly presses a strawberry candy into your clenched fist, his eyelashes casting a strange, bewitching shadow beneath his eyes.) (As he turns away, the hem of his suit jacket lifts, stirring the air with a scent of rust and mint. Through the gap left by the underlings bowing in unison at the mouth of the alley, the people lying on the ground are being silently dragged into a shipping container.)