I felt something crash into my chest and I wrapped my arms around it instinctively, only to feel a warm liquid run down my hand. I took my gaze down to see Yuri in front of me, blood steadily flowing from her chest.

No, no, no. No! What had I done?!

“This can’t be happening again,” I unconsciously blurted out, beginning to shake and panic.

She gripped my sweater with both hands and slowly slid down from my grip. “Y-Yuri, you’ll be okay. I’ll make it b-b-better,” I whispered rapidly, sinking down to the ground with her. I gently laid her on the ground as she partly opened her eyes and mumbled, “I don’t mind.” Her eyes wandered to mine as I scowled. “You’re not going to die on me Yuri, I’m not letting you,” I said with more force in my voice than intended.

The next thing that came out of astonished me. She laughed.

“I’ll be fine, Jimin. I’m not that easy to get rid of,” She managed to get out as she closed her eyes. I stayed there for a moment, completely perplexed, but her breathing started to become shallower and I felt nothing but rage bubble up inside of me. I was angry, so damn angry I had let her get hurt and at the fact that I could have done more to prevent it.

“How cute. Your little girlfriend took the bullet for you,” The man who shot her sniggered as he came closer. “Well, to be honest, I hope she rots,” he giggled out and leaned in.

"You ing bastard!" I yelled, jumping over Yuri and tackling the man to the ground, punching him repeatedly in the face. The feeling of his blood slowly trickling down my fist was exhilarating and nearly distracted me from remembering the injections. The ‘predators’ as we called them, always carried more than one. He struggled to push me off him several times and landed a punch to the side of my ribs that left me gasping for air, but it didn’t matter. I needed to disorient him.

When I felt like I'd punched him enough to impair him, I searched his pockets for the syringes. "What the do you think you're doing you little shi-" He began, but before he could finish I found a syringe and stabbed him right in the chest with the injection. Most of the predators were human, which meant they had no chance of surviving the injections themselves. I had no time to feel remorse as he started to seize right in front of me. I quickly stepped away from him and ran back to Yuri, stumbling with hot tears in my eyes.

"Yuri, can you hear me?” I asked frantically, but she didn’t move or answer. “I got to get us out of here…” I whispered, looking down from her face to check her bullet wound.

“What the-” I choked out in confusion as I looked for the wound, only to see a faint scar surrounded by blood that was half dry. "It can’t be," I exhaled shakily in disbelief.

I had an inkling something was off about her, but to see that she was a mender with my own two eyes was unbelievable. And even if she was a mender, why was she healing so fast with the injection in her system? Why was she even healing at all?

I glanced around us and saw the man Yuri had kicked repeatedly in the face slowly starting to regain consciousness. “Damnit.” I put my hood on, picked her up with a small grunt and carried her away from the alley, running as fast as I could without drawing too much attention. “Where to hide, where to hide...” I mumbled as I ran, looking for anything that could throw them off our trail.

“Where did those mender scums go?!” I heard one of the predators shout not too far behind me.

“. . !” I veered into an alley and saw the door to a warehouse cracked open. I didn’t hesitate and opened it further with my foot, quickly running inside, grateful that there was no one else currently there. I spotted a few crates to my left and walked toward them, only to see that they were too small and I could see right through them. “This won’t do…”

I spun around and saw a lone crate, large enough for us to fit in. I swiftly walked toward it and gently put Yuri down on the ground beside it. “You can still see through it,” I huffed out in irritation. I decided to grab two small crates and put them in front of the large one, contemplating if I should put another when I heard scuffling just outside of the warehouse door.

I bolted for Yuri and lowered us inside of the crate, putting the siding back on and positioning her in between my legs, holding her to my chest. The both of us barely fit, so much so that I began to feel claustrophobic, but before I could even begin to panic I heard the warehouse door creak open.

“Yes, I know and I’m sorry ma’am, but they've escaped. We’re searching the perimeter, they couldn’t have gone too far,” I overheard the predator say, his footsteps resonating loudly against the warehouse floor. “You better hope you find them Predator 204, because if you don’t it’ll be your life that I take instead.”

I felt my eyes grow wide as I recognized the voice. That woman, the woman that caused my family and me so much pain. What could she possibly want from me now?

I unintentionally hugged Yuri closer to me as I  remembered the damage I’d caused everyone around me by merely existing.

“She’s really going to murder us over some kids?! Especially that little who never listens or obeys? He killed one of our own! She should know him by now, why is she so surprised?” Growled a different voice. “You imbecile, she’s not surprised. Of course not. That boy is special to her and our job is to bring him to her,” The predator from the phone call said, raising his voice slightly.

“It’d be better to finish him off and call it an accident. I’m tired of running after this evasive brat,” The other predator mumbled. A smile threatened to spread across my lips. At the very least, I was glad I was making their job that much more difficult.

“It would, but to do that we need to find him first.”

“Ow! Why’d you flick me on the forehead for?” The second predator screeched out.

“Because you irritate me! You search this warehouse, I’ll go check around the block.” The predator, who I could only assume was the unit leader said as he left, leaving the other predator grumbling profanities. “Jaebum has a stick permanently shoved up his ! Who cares if that brat is important to Eunha? Whipped much?” He huffed in anger and I had to stifle my laughter. This guy had no respect for his superior and it was amusin