A year ago…

Kaeso was making graffiti in a similar hallway leading to the bathrooms. He was utterly detached from reality with the headphones on and his face covered by a mask. Suddenly a handcuff tightened around his wrist.

"You became careless." One of the mall's security guards finally managed to catch him.

Still, this wasn't the right time for Kaeso to get arrested, not yet. He had to get out of there quickly.

"Huh? You don't like it? Sorry, I can't hear you." Kaeso answered the guard in a facetious tone.

An annoyed guard knocked the headphones from his head.

"Now show me your face, you little punk." Guard reached to tear off Kaeso's mask.

"Do you seriously want to end the fun we have together?"

Everything was going swimmingly, just as Kaeso had planned it. All this time, while talking with the guard, he was holding a second bottle of spray paint in his free hand. Therefore, when the warden attempted to remove his mask, Kaeso made a smooth dodge and used the spray to blind the attacker.

"Let me put a smile on your face." 

To the man's scream accompaniment, Kaeso drew a smiling face on his faceless head using red paint. The man instinctively let go of the boy's hand and wiped his eyes. Kaeso quickly picked up the backpack getting ready to run away. Nevertheless, he knew there was no time for that; after taking a few steps, he returned to finish the painting with the last strokes.

"Now it's done. Maybe you will like it now? Hmmm… What do you think?" Kaeso looked down on guard crawling in pain caused by the paint in his eyes.

"That's what I thought."

"Don't move!" Other guards emerged on both sides of the corner.

Kaeso froze for a moment. Wardens were slowly walking toward him, holding gun tasers in their hands. Depending on what kind of cartridge was inside them, one shot was enough to paralyze an adult male for five minutes to almost an hour. Kaeso did not have so much time.

"You have nowhere to run now. Don't try doing anything stupid."

"Ahhh… Before leaving, I was planning to visit the bakery upstairs. I guess I won't have a chance to get there today." He thought out loud.

"Drop everything and raise both of your hands!"

"Okay, okay…" Kaeso carried out the command. A bottle of spray hit the ground. 

"Bye!" He screamed while jumping and disappeared into the ventilation.

"Hey! Stop!"

The security guards ran to where Kaeso had stood just a moment ago and looked up. Kaeso was looking down at them with a triumphant smile.

"See you next time!" Kaeso closed the entrance to the ventilation right in time, preventing the guard's shot from reaching his face.

"They are really fucked up. Aiming straight in my face, do they know how much it hurts to get hit with it?"

 Kaeso got his mouth closer to the vent to make sure they would hear him.

"You are fucked up!" Next, he began crawling to a different exit.

"Gosh…"

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After escaping, Kaeso got to the bathroom and sat on one of the toilets. Smoking the cigarette, he was trying to calm down and stop his leg from trembling.

"Let's begin the show."

Kaeso stood on the toilet and raised his hand with a lit cigarette to the smoke detector. The alarm turned on. Before leaving the bathroom, his reflection in the mirror caught his attention. It was the last time Kaeso saw his face without purple shadows under his eyes. Forcing a calm expression, he reached for the mask hanging around his neck and threw it into the trash.

"Maybe this is not a good idea." Since Kaeso left the bathroom, this thought accompanied him at every step. Moving faster and faster, he tried to run away from it.