Euphemism

Oh, you misunderstand. He’s not dead.

I apologize, English isn’t my first language. I flatter myself to think I speak it well, but I’ll occasionally misuse the specific idiom, not understanding what phrases are taken to mean other, unrelated phrases in the common tongue. I hope it didn’t cause any serious misunderstanding or stress.

He’s very much alive.

I simply refer to him as “The Late” because he’s constantly late, for everything.

A crime for which I intend to kill him. THEN he’ll be “The Late” in the way you’d taken me to mean, yes, but not one moment before…