Jiyong didn't know how Heechul and the girls managed to do this: be calm and composed in light of Taeyeon's situation. Frantic by her stubborn silence and empty gazes, Jiyong had rejected Kyungsoo’s offer to send Taeyeon to the hospital, immediately choosing to take a police car and drive her to SM Labs, where he knew she would feel safer.

Heechul and the girls took one look at the bloodied and pale Taeyeon and immediately threw themselves into work, leaving Jiyong with a deep feeling that subtly, they knew what had happened to their sister, but their priorities in rescuing and stabalizing her took priority over all other emotions. Grief and rage could wait, but for now, Taeyeon needed their professionalism. Tiffany scrubbed down into operating scrubs with Jessica, while Yoona and Seohyun started carefully wiping her body and taking care to subtly scrutinize her injuries. Hyoyeon operated the machines with fast but quick fingers, and Sunny and Sooyoung settled with supplying the other girls with the materials they needed. The only two that didn't interfere apart from Jiyong, was Heechul and Yuri.

“Tell me you killed the bastard.” Jiyong blinked at Yuri's sudden willingness to talk to him. The dark skinned beauty never really took to him really well when Taeyeon first declared they were dating. She was the quiet but energetic one, and from her movements, he could tell she was a very seasoned fighter. Hell, Jiyong even doubted if he could hold all on his own against her.

“I didn't.” He swallowed as Yuri him, eyes blazing and angry, the only intermediary being Heechul, who physically placed himself between him and Yuri to avoid the girl slaughtering Jiyong.

“You didn't?” The bastard did this to her and you didn't kill him?”

“The law would take care of him.” Jiyong argued.

“Yeah right. If the law was that effective there wouldn't be any mafias in the first place.” Yuri scoffed, eyes trained back in the limp Taeyeon on the hospital bed, where the rest of the girls were bustling busily. Both of them in a breath as Tiffany cut away the coat covering Taeyeon, and Jiyong's eyes welled in guilt at the burn brands on Taeyeon's body, the courtesy of Baekhyun's handiwork on her pale skin. Jessica came out of the room, barely holding back her tears as Yuri stepped forward, face hard.

“He really did her in badly.” She whispered, her own tears glistening in her eyes. “There's going to be so much scarred tissue in Taengoo’s body.” She turned, watching as Tiffany struggled to control her emotions in the operating theatre, stitching up the remnant wounds of Baekhyun's brutal ual assaults. “I don't even know if she can have kids anymore.” Jessica murmured.

“Doesn't the tissue repair itself?” Jessica whipped around at Jiyong's voice, ice filling her hardened eyes as she stared at the guilty man before her.

“She's not superhuman like you are, Kwon Jiyong.” Jessica's words cut through Jiyong like a shape knife. “Even if it heals the scarred tissue would probably prevent future ual activities and cause a lot of problems if she bears any children. It would just make any pregnancy she has either end in a miscarriage or make it a highly dangerous pregnancy if she were to successfully carry the child to full term.”

“There isn't any..right?” Jiyong whispered, his arms crossed uncomfortably as Jessica stiffened.

“We can't tell this early on. But if you have some kind of issue with it, Kwon Jiyong, why don't you just get the hell out of here since it's your fault my sister is and lying on that bed!” Jessica snapped, held back by Yuri's hand.

“You might want to go.” Yuri's steel voice cut through. “You aren't welcome here anymore. If I so see you step in here just a single step, I swear to God I will slaughter you with my own hands.”

“Enough!” Heechul thundered. “Is this chit chat and open threats going to be of any help to Taeyeon?” Both girls fell silent at Heechul's words. “ You should leave Jiyong. “ The older man frowned silently as he wheeled himself over to Jiyong

“Give them some time. All this lashing out on you isn't their fault. It's partially because they couldn't do anything to stop it.”

“Still. I didn't get there fast enough.” Jiyong's eyes were haunted. “You didn't see what happened Heechul.”

“Ohhhhhh I know very well how brutal Baekhyun can be, believe me. I still remember how he killed my little sister. He her and killed her in front of my eyes. So I know what Taeng would have been through. I'm thankful to you for bringing her back to me alive.” He prodded Jiyong's chest. “I wouldn't know want to do if I lost the only person left that was important to me. She's the one that keeps my will to survive and be alive.” He opened the door. “ Now go. I promise I will tell you about Taeyeon's condition as soon as it becomes better. Meanwhile, you need to occupy yourself with other things. Take your mind off Taeyeon's situation. With what you and that police saw, I should say it would be more than suffice to let Baekhyun rot his pretty boy in jail. I will take care of things down here.” The door swung shut in Jiyong’s face, leaving him standing alone, forlornly outside SM Labs.

~~~~~~

Taeyeon opened her eyes to a glaring amount of white light and a stabbing pain in her lower regions as she moved. She breathed silently, watching as the girls were all separately clinging tightly to chairs, draped in obscene positions as they slept. Normally such a scene would have automatically made loud laughter boom forth from her lips, but Taeyeon felt nothing left in her chest but a sense of heavy emptiness.

“Water.” Her voice very nearly cracked, still hoarse from the stress of the previous day’s overuse in her predicament. Taeyeon tried her very best not to recall any of it, wincing as flashes of painful memories attacked her concentration. The chair Hyoyeon was on rocked slowly with the girl’s weight, and Taeyeon’s eyes followed its pendulum like movement. It was going to fall under her weight, Taeyeon knew, and sure enough, the said girl crashed to the ground in the midst of her sleep feist, and jerked awake immediately with a gasp. Hyoyeon shook her head, prepared to hoist the chair back up to get back to her beauty sleep, only to feel a pair of solemn but blank eyes staring intently at her.

Her head turned, and he gasped delightedly at Taeyeon sitting in bed, legs curled to her chin, her eyes watching her like a guardian angel.

“Tae--” Taeyeon lifted her finger to her lips in a sign to shush the girl. “You don’t want me to wake them up?” Hyoyeon crept quietly towards Taeyeon on the bed, gently hoisting herself on the soft material as quiety as possible. “But why? They’ll be happy to know you’re fine.”

“Water.” Taeyeon just merely glanced blankly at Hyoyeon, pointing childishly to the cup of ice cold water not far from the bed.

“Alright. Alright.” Hyoyeon reached over quickly and caught the cup, bringing it to Taeyeon’s lips with gentle devotion. “Better?” The girl in question nodded mutely, ducking her head slightly. “Good.”

“I wanna walk outside.” Taeyeon’s voice was hoarse, and she blinked innocently at Hyoyeon. “Where’s Jiyong?” Hyoyeon swallowed nervously.

“Uh…” She couldn’t possibly tell Taeyeon that he had been chased out by their sisters, couldn’t she?

“He’s not here, isn’t he?” Taeyeon’s voice was merely quiet with resignation. “He realised that I don’t deserve and am not worthy of him anymore.”

“Thats not true! Its the other way around.” Hyoyeon promised, slinging a arm around Taeyeon’s shoulders. “You’re the best person in the world any boy could wish for.”

“Maybe I was once. But not anymore.” A brittle smile graced Taeyeon’s lips. Hyoyeon didn’t know for once what exactly she should say.

“Taetae!” Her blessed interruption came in the form of Hwang Miyoung, Tiffany, as the girl very nearly tackled her best friend in her exuberant happiness at seeing her alive and well, only to be stopped by Hyoyeon from physically attacking the injured girl. “Are you okay?”

“What kind of question is that?” Taeyeon attempted to joke, but failing miserably as all the girls faces fell. She floundered for a moment, before shaking her head. “Its bad, isn’t it?”

“You’ve got second degree brand burns on your skin. I don’t think some of them can be healed over.”

“They’ll scar, won’t they?” Taeyeon muttered lowly, picking on the blanket before her. Jessica cringed.

“We could graft some skin up to cover it up for ---”

“No. Its fine.” Taeyeon gently pushed herself off the bed, suddenly feeling sick at the thought of Baekhyun. She nearly crumpled as soon as her feet touched the ground, a sharp pain stabbing through her nether regions as she shuffled forward in a slow miserable walk.

“You shouldn’t be walking.” Jessica admonished. “At least use Hyo’s second prototype wheelchair. That should help in speeding up the