Shotgun K

Mr. Park stared at me wide-eyed, his mouth slightly opened in shock. His reaction I could’ve expected. Here I am with guests in my home, and instead of welcoming them and thanking them for their assistance in my predicament, I was openly expressing contest against them. The guy I’ve never seen before just watched, not giving any noticeable response to my arrival to the scene. He seemed to be around my age, if not the same. Maybe he didn’t care what I had to say, or the fact that I was being indecent.
The first real reaction I got from the pair of strangers was from the girl, and it was a scoff. A scoff.

Immediately my eyes zoned in on her, my eyes narrowing in response. Who the hell did she think she was? I looked her up and down where she was sitting. She didn’t look like much; small in both height and size, face almost unnaturally pale in comparison to her dark grey turtleneck sweater and the black overcoat that fitted her frame snugly. There was something dark about her that settled deeper than just her appearance, but I couldn’t place what. But really, she was supposed to be guarding me? Really?
If this was all they got for the ‘best’, well, I’m disappointed. And I didn’t even bother hiding my disgust or disappointment.
She stared back, as if mockingly mimicking my glaring. Really, who was she?

Mr. Park stood up from his seat, recollecting some composure from the initial shock I seemed to have caused him. The strange man followed suit, his posture relaxed and well-mannered.
The girl continued to sit, not even making a move to stand. She just continued to return my stare.

I was about to openly comment on her challenging attitude when the man at her side made a small discrete motion. I saw the girl stiffen, and then slowly push herself to stand.
Mr. Park was the first to talk.
“Jae-Sung, this is our hired hand…uh---” he started, glancing back at the girl.
“K,” the man filled in for him. “Her name is K.”

Mr. Park nodded before looking back at me.
“She is going to help with the protection detail we requested.” he told me.

I glanced briefly at the girl, K, who looked just as uninterested as I was.
“Deh?” I said, unimpressed. “She’s the bodyguard?” I let out a scoff, to show what I thought of her.
“I thought she was some vagrant that wandered into my home.”
I saw a small twitch of irritation out of the girl’s otherwise stone-like expression. I couldn’t help the twinge of satisfaction out of that tiny motion.

The man stepped forward then, his step neither threatening nor challenging. In fact, he came off rather calm and civil.
“Ah…I know she isn’t much in appearance, but believe me, she packs in serious heat. And she will prove to be of great use soon enough.” he said, as if to offer some truce.
But I didn’t really buy it.
“Huh,” I scoffed. “Her, this one little girl? What is she going to do, huh? Cry and scare them away?”
I almost wanted to laugh.
“No offense, but it’s hard to believe that she can protect a top-star from the screaming fan girls, the snooping reporters, the paparazzi, and stalkers.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Park grimaced at my words.
“I am sorry, but I have to agree that we have no ways to believe that she is as competent as you say.” he said, surprisingly backing me up.

The man gave us a smile, and for some reason I felt a small wave of intimidation sweep through me at this expression of collected confidence. It threw me off guard for a second, but I managed to keep a straight face.
“Ah, that problem can be fixed right away.” he said. He then looked down at the girl, K, exchanging looks with her.
“K can just show you a very small view into what she is capable of.” he said, sounding sure. “Your agency president requested that discretion was vital to Mr. Seo’s career and stresses that we are to adapt to any situation and events his unpredictable schedule may bring.”

Curiosity spiked when I saw the girl’s eyes harden a bit in what I recognized as incredulity.
“Earlier on, we had to be cleared by the security guards to enter this restricted part of the apartment complex.” the man went on.

The girl’s eyes widened slightly as he went on.

“K?” he said, turning back to her. “Would you show them the weapons you were able to sneak through security?”

Weapons? How in the hell did she manage that? Where was she hiding them?

“Ha,” the girl laughed lightly, looking right at the man.
When he didn’t budge from his stern look, her smile dropped. Her eyes flickered back to where Mr. Park and I were standing.
I folded my arms across my chest and smiled smugly.
“Go on,” I said. “Strip.”

The expression on the girl’s face was priceless as she looked back at her partner, who just motioned at my coffee table.
“Come on.” he said.
A scowl made its way onto the girl’s face and her shoulder sagged a little. But then she started to unbutton her coat. I watched curiously as she reached into the coat and methodically started plucking something out of the inner lining. As she deposited them onto the coffee table, I saw that they were small cylinders with a clip thing on top. I was trying to figure out what this was when she reached in a started plucking more things out of the coat lining.
---knives. She pulled two knives out of her coat.

…Oh, no wait, four knives…five knives…six…seven, eight…nine, ten…

Ten knives in total.

Wordlessly I watched as she reached up her sleeves and pull out a mean looking blade and a beating baton out from hiding. These she also added to the quickly growing pile.
With that, she turned back to the man, concluding her inventory.

Ten knives, one blade and a baton plus two mystery items that were sure just as deadly…pretty impressive. I’ll give her that much. But I could probably do the same if I got creative with my hiding places too…

I saw the man raise an eyebrow at the girl.
“Take off your coat, K,” he ordered her, sounding flat.
The girl scowled in response, not making a motion to remove her coat. The man took a warning step towards her, to which she retreated. She glared at the guy and glanced briefly our way.
Serves her right; this was kind of fun to watch.
A dark look took over her face and obediently and roughly pulled off her coat, throwing it over my couch. I now saw the gun harness she had around her back and shoulders with two hefty-looking guns holstered. I could feel my own face fall.
I stared as she pulled one out and methodically disarming it, pulling out the bullets and pulling back on the slide of the gun before adding to the pile of her things. She did the same for the other gun, finishing both in less than two minutes. She concluded by shrugging out of the now empty gun harness and dropping it with her coat.

“And the belt.” the man said knowingly.

The girl unclipped her belt obediently and threw it over to him with a snappish flick, which he caught. I watched as he slipped two fingers into the clasp and tugged out of the dark leather a sharp 4-inch blade.
The man gave another look to the girl before he threw a glance towards us. The girl gave him a defiant glare.
The man simple tossed the newly collected items onto the table before turning back to the girl.
“K…” he started.
“Alright! Calm down!” this ‘K’ finally snapped.

Suddenly, she started to move, pulling out one thing after another and adding to the pile. Another handgun, a silencer and more bullets made the collection before she kicked her legs up onto my couch which made me slightly wince. She pulled out another knife from one ankle, and a small taser from the other. She deposited the knife into the pile but kept the taser at hand. Oh if looks could kill…

The girl turned back to us and after a moment of looking at us she smirked. Apparently our shock and disbelief was showing on our faces and from that reaction it amused her.

“Done.” she said, and gave us a fake smile. She looked back at the man. “Jun, savvy?” she asked.
Jun looked at her, looking unconvinced.
“That’s all you got?” he asked.
She tossed the taser into the pile, and took a step forward.
“What do you mean, that’s all I got? I’m not going into war, why should I pack more?” she retorted.
He still looked skeptical.
“I feel like I should give you a pat-down---”
“I am now completely disarmed, but I can still come up with twenty different ways I can kill you.” The girl snarled.

“Wait a minute---what the hell was that?”

My mouth was moving before I realized. What did I just witness?
I had stepped forward, again without me realizing. But I had a mouth load to say.
“What the hell is this girl? Isn’t it illegal to be carrying so many weapons?” I demanded.
I looked at the girl, who just stood there casually. I looked at her with disdain.
“I don’t hire criminals. Get out.”
The man, Jun, gave me a stern look, never breaking his calm composure. It was starting to piss me off.
“I can assure you, she is no criminal. She knows what she’s doing.” he said.
“I don’t care. She is savage, violent, and way too unkempt. Just look at her.” I spat, motioning towards the girl with a dismissive wave of my hand. “She won’t do. She’ll just ruin my reputation.”

The girl rolled her eyes and turned around. She reached over to my couch where her coat was and started to dig through its pockets for something.
“Hey, I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice.” she said as her hand pulled out something small and metallic looking.
I felt my jaw drop as she unscrewed the flask in her hand and took a drag of its contents.
“And she drinks?” he demanded. I shook my head in disbelief. “Unbelievable.”

The girl turned to me, shifting her position to face me directly. She paused a little, as if to make sure she knew I knew she was staring.
Then she brought the flask to her mouth again and took a long, leisurely swig.
I felt my face burn with anger.
“Cheers,” she muttered.

I opened my mouth to unleash a whole line of unmentionables when Mr. Park stepped in front of me, intervening. He pushed me back slightly with a hand on my chest, to make sure I didn’t try to push through.
“Calm down, Jae-Sung! Please..." he said warily. "We should discuss this more into detail---"
"No need; I want them out of my home." I snapped. "I don't want her to work near me."
"And I don't want to work for you." she shot back.

Jun stepped forward then, and he gave the girl a stern look, to which she scowled.
"I understand that you are wary of having strangers working to watch your back---"
I scoffed, beyond disgusted. I was done with this conversation.
Jun continued.
"But K here is your best bet to keep you safe. And we both know you can use the best here."

I leveled the most even stare I could manage towards him and turned to both of them.
"Don't worry; I think I can take care of myself. I'm a big boy." I said sarcastically.

The man, Jun, seemed to think for a moment, clearly troubled by the turn of events. He let out a sigh.
"Alright...I suppose then that we are left with no choice." he said.

That’s right. If I say I want you out of my house, I mean it; out of my---

"But I will have to ask for your patience. You see, a personnel exchange order will have to be submitted, and there will be some paper work that needs to be fixed.” Jun continued to say.
I just shrugged, unfazed.
“All fine with me. Where do I sign?” I asked.
Jun held up a hand as to tell me he wasn’t finished.
“The only issue here then is that the paper work will take three work days to sort out.” he said.
I frowned and glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall.
Wait a minute…it’s already 6:02 PM…
Mr. Park spoke, as if he was echoing my concern.
“Three work days.” he echoed.

I looked at Jun. He was just smiling his polite, composed smile.
“I’ll start on the paper work first thing tomorrow morning.” he said. “Until then---”

He then turned to the girl, who had the same look of shock on her face.
“I’ll see you then to pick you up, K. Monday evening.”