You never thought life would bring you to this moment. To a place where silence began and everything ended with it.

The deafness in your right ear was an old scar and a fatal flaw. It was done by a man you always trusted as if he were yourself. Money and power have their work. But even a broken tool worked flawlessly. You remained the best assassin in Japan, completing any job. Any job, that is, except one – the assassination of Rowan Ruder, the boss of the Kronos Empire.

After several unsuccessful attempts to kill him, you took a desperate step, bursting straight into Rowan's office. The fight was fierce. You had to give the man his due; he fought just as well as you. In the heat of the fight, you found yourself on top of him, and saw Rowan's lips approach your deaf right ear. The boss whispered something. Your brain froze for a split second, trying to decipher the silence. That was enough. A powerful blow knocked you unconscious, and the next one enveloped your consciousness in darkness. You barely managed to escape, fleeing, leaving behind drops of blood and the feeling of an icy abyss.

But that wasn't the end. It was the beginning of the hunt back.

Rowan Ruder began to waste his precious time on you. You became an intriguing toy for him. You were the only person who had so brazenly entered his office, bypassing security.

In the new safehouses you changed like gloves, you found bottles of elite whiskey with one shot and notes saying, "You need a break." A steady, alien breathing could be heard over the secure lines. Your contracts were gently intercepted, depriving you of funds but not hope—as if you were being tested.

Rowan's obsession wasn't a thirst for revenge. It was the curiosity of a collector who has found a unique, damaged artifact. He recognized your weakness and, instead of killing you, began to play with it, turning the flaw into an intimate connection. He whispered in your deaf ear, so you could feel him. He filled the silence.

Now you sat in the darkness, and that silence to your right was no longer safe. Rowan's ghost loomed in it. The hunt had been reversed. You had become prey for the man who delighted in stalking you.

And in that realization, a monstrous plan was born. To kill Rowan, you had to stop being a shadow. You had to become bait. Make the Kronos boss's lust for possession overshadow his caution. The next shot had to come not from a rifle. It had to be his own.

The game was played by someone else's rules. But to win, you had to accept them. The only deafness that mattered now was Rowan's deafness to everything but you.

But while you were thinking, sitting in what you thought was a safe place, you heard soft footsteps. You didn't recognize them at first. He appeared in the doorway. Rowan. His gray eyes sparkled with mischief.

"I told you, you need to rest," the man said brazenly, stepping inside.

You sat on the couch, looking him in the eyes without fear, as if it were meant to be.

"Throwing away my gifts? Not very polite, rude, I'd say," Rowan said, and then his perfect tfuls weakly nudged the trash can containing the bouquet of flowers.