Jonghyun laid on Kibum’s lap, motionless and extremely quiet. Kibum had a hand in his hair that remained tangled with the short strands although it had stopped moving long ago. Kibum’s body was drained of energy, his emotions heavy in his chest and keeping him on the ground with its weight. His left shoulder had a small gash that was covered in dry blood, the stench of which Kibum had gotten used to despite how disgusting it was.

If it was that terrible for Kibum, it went without saying just how much worse it was for Jonghyun. He wasn’t sleeping but he might as well be unconscious, considering the way he hadn’t moved a single limb for almost an hour. He wasn’t always this stoic.

Just an hour ago, Jonghyun had been thrashing wildly as Kibum guided him away from the chasing Japanese men with a hand tight around his wrist. When they had gotten far enough that there were only a few more men following them (who were disposed by the archer easily), the three of them had collapsed in the space between two huge rocks that seemed almost like a cave. Jonghyun didn’t stop crying and trying to run off even then.

“I’m going to back to him! Let me go!” Jonghyun had begged.

“Jinki will take me with him… He won’t leave me like this…” Jonghyun had claimed.

It took a while to make Jonghyun stop and listen that Jinki was truly gone, that he had given his life so that Jonghyun could keep his. Jonghyun seemed to consider this for a while and Kibum thought he had succeeded in helping Jonghyun overcome his denial.

That was when Jonghyun had grabbed Kibum’s sword (his own long forgotten on the Japanese base camp) and came inches away from slicing his own throat. Kibum had screamed in horror, catching Jonghyun’s hand in time and together with the archer, they wrestled him onto the ground. Kibum had shouted at him in fury of how stupid Jonghyun was for wanting to take his own life like that.  Jonghyun had wailed even louder at that as if to drown out Kibum’s voice.

Jonghyun continued to cry his heart out in pain, emptying the contents of his stomach all over the forest ground once. Kibum had cried along with him silently, the sight of his best friend’s agony twisting his guts up and constricting his chest so tightly, he thought he had forgotten how to breathe.

“It hurts, Kibum… Take the pain away…” Jonghyun had requested of him in a broken voice once his tears had ceased before he had collapsed on Kibum’s lap. He has yet to move or say anything since. Kibum allowed him to mourn, showing him that he was there with him so that Jonghyun wouldn’t attempt to take his life again.

“Here, Kibum-shii,” the sound of the archer’s voice brought Kibum out of his reverie and he lifted his head from the rock he was leaning on to look to his left. A bottle of water was being handed to him, now filled with some fresh river water. Kibum took it, thanking the man silently before he drank a little from it.

“Hyung, drink some water…” Kibum said, holding the bottle in front of Jonghyun’s face. The older man brought his hand up and pushed Kibum’s hand away without saying a word. Kibum retracted his hand dejected, handing the bottle back to the archer.

“How’s your wrist now?” Kibum asked the archer and the other replied him by lifting his hand to show the cloth wrapped around it. The front of it was already soaked in blood but the back remained white so Kibum assumed that it had stopped bleeding.

“And your shoulder?” the archer asked him back. Kibum shrugged, dismissing the other’s concern despite the objection his shoulders had for this movement. The archer sat down beside Kibum, drinking more of the water from the bottle.

“I suppose that back there was someone dear to him,” the archer commented offhandedly and Kibum stopped moving his hand on Jonghyun’s head as he turned to face the archer. He wanted to see if this man had any malicious intents of bringing this up. Perhaps, he wanted to mock them for their stupidity. Perhaps, he was revolted by their feelings.

He didn’t seem like he was any of that. He simply seemed curious.

“What is it to you?” Kibum asked, knowing that he risked sounding rude and ungrateful for all he has done tonight in keeping both him and Jonghyun alive. But right now, his protective instinct over Jonghyun had him in his defensive mode and he was ready to bite off anyone’s head that tried to even remotely hurt Jonghyun.

“I’m sorry for him, that’s all…” the other man commented. For him to have said that even after it was clear as daylight that there was way more than friendship between Jonghyun and Jinki, well, that was a big deal. Kibum was surely grateful for it because it didn’t mean that he had another head to rip off, another life to take.

“So am i…” Kibum admitted, going back to Jonghyun’s hair.

“We should be heading back once he’s… better, you know? We don’t know what happened to the rest and we cannot go back to the Japanese base camp anymore now. We can only go home and wait for some news…” the archer thought out loud.

Despite his exhaustion and his unwillingness to move, he knew that the other was right. Getting Jonghyun to go back home was going to be the biggest challenge though. Will the other want to go back to the place he had shared so many memories with Jinki? A place where he bonded with this caring older boy as a kid before they eventually turned into lovers.

Only time will be able to tell.

At the crack of dawn, with only a couple of hours of restless sleep, the three of them got up to leave their hiding spot. Jonghyun surprisingly did not put up much of a fight. But Kibum wasn’t so sure if he preferred this stoic moving statue in the place of a Jonghyun who was throwing tantrums. He supposed that was what someone who had seen the things he had, would look like. Or at least for now.

Just in case though, Kibum still kept his good hand curled around Jonghyun’s wrist.

They moved quietly and quickly, depending on Kibum’s memory of the forest near Yongin. It wouldn’t be that easy to get lost in here anyway. If you kept walking long enough in a fixed direction, you would eventually find yourself exiting through either Suwon, Osan or Yongin. It was with this confidence, along with his memory, that Kibum lead them home.

Eventually the terrains around him began to grow familiar, giving Kibum a sense of direction and knowing for sure where they would come out. After all the gore and violence overnight, coming home felt like a blessing. Kibum missed those familiar faces and even more, the predictability and sense of safety that came with them.

The forest around them had been silent their whole journey, only the sounds of animals faraway and the trees stirring from a light breeze accompanied their footsteps. Therefore, it was only natural that Kibum immediately stiffened at the sound of unmistakably human footsteps in some odd direction. The two behind him froze as well, not understanding at first but realizing slowly why Kibum halted so suddenly.  There were voices too now, approaching them fast from a direction that was hard to tell from how the trees seemed to echo the sounds.

“-couldn’t be any further than here. It’s close to their village already. They must be around here! Find them, you useless imbeciles!”

That voice. So familiar yet Kibum couldn’t put a finger on it. Regardless, they had to find a cover now because if they were found, Kibum knew that they wouldn’t be able to hold up. Not in this condition; both Kibum and the archer injured while Jonghyun was weaponless.

“This way,” the archer whispered to them, motioning towards an area where the trees cast a dark shadow. It was no point really, trying to hide in such an open place. Still, they hurried into the shadows, looking all around them so that they were not caught off guard. Even Jonghyun seemed to have come alive from his earlier rigid state, taking a hold of Kibum’s wrist instead of the other way around.

“Did you hear that?” a voice came from behind them, a little too close for comfort, and it was all they could do to dodge behind the closest tree. Jonghyun pulled Kibum behind a tree of massive girth while the archer went the opposite way, taking his place behind another.

Those footsteps, though it did not sound as numerous as earlier, seem to near them. Kibum held his breath, placing his right hand on the sword hanging at his hip to draw it, only to find Jonghyun already taking it out silently. Kibum looked up at him and Jonghyun simply gave him a meaningful look to let him take charge for once without Kibum questioning him.

Kibum dropped his hand at that, giving in to the elder’s wishes.

“I’m sure I heard something here…” one of the men approaching them said. Kibum heard a clear grunt in a deeper voice and no other noises. So he guessed that there were two of them. Chancing a peek around the tree, Kibum confirmed his instincts.

There were two Korean men in the Japanese uniform and carrying guns, warily coming closer to them. That would explain why the voices he heard had spoken fluent Korean. All of a sudden, it occurred to Kibum just why the voice earlier had sounded so familiar. It’s because he had seen the man before. He had done more than just see him, in fact.

There was the sound of a small thud of something falling to the leaf and twig covered ground, followed a muffled curse under the breath. Kibum turned to look at where the archer had been hiding and noticed that he had dropped an arrow to the floor, just beside his feet.

“COME OUT!” one of the men bellowed and Kibum knew that there were no more chances of him escaping. Not with those guns these men carried. He himself seemed to realize this just then and he smiled at Kibum and Jonghyun one last time before he started into the forest, leaving the safety of the tree.

The two men started firing wildly, running forward pass Kibum and Jonghyun’s tree without even seeing them. Taking this opportunity, both Kibum and Jonghyun leapt out onto those men. Kibum wrapped an arm around the man’s neck tightly, pulling him back with all his weight as he remained attached to his back while simultaneously, kicking the gun from his hand. The man choked and gasped for air, his face turning red. Kibum didn’t quite know how to snap a man’s neck and so he could only manage to hold him off while Jonghyun took care of the other with the sword.

Jonghyun came to him immediately when the other fell dead and plunged the sword into the others body easily. Kibum jumped away from him, letting the body fall limp to the ground.

Out of the blue, a big hand grasped the hair on the back of his hard violently and pulled him back onto his knees on the ground.  Kibum screamed out in shock and in pain, his right hand instantly grabbing for whoever it was that was pulling him.

 “Ki-“ Jonghyun began to shout out to him, only getting cut short by a loud slap of skin against skin. Kibum struggled against the hand that was holding his head tilted back at such a painful angle to look at Jonghyun. What happened to him? Why isn’t he calling out to Kibum?

“Well, well, well…” that familiar voice came from his left, b with taunt and dryness.

“I came looking for some scums and look what I get my hands on. The very scum that I’ve been waiting to kill for so long…”

A new hand closed around his exposed throat, the grip not strong enough to choke but the pressure was there. The hand in his hair moved down to trap Kibum’s hands behind him, crushing his mangled left hand that was only beginning to heal in a tight hold.

Kibum’s eyes clenched shut at the blinding pain that shot up his hand.

“Look at me boy! You had no problems doing it the other day. Scared without your bodyguards now?!” the man commanded him, rattling Kibum with the hand around his throat.

“That’s rich coming from you after how you ran away that day!” Kibum snarled in the man’s face, opening his eyes to look at the other, ignoring the tell-tale warm wetness that was beginning to envelope his left hand. It was amazing Kibum was feeling anything at all by now with that hand, considering how all the nerves in it must be already severed from the mess of broken bones around it.

“Stupid boy!” the man cursed at him, tightening his grip around Kibum’s neck. Now it was getting harder to inhale, his airway constricted and his head filling up with blood that wasn’t able to circulate properly.

“I see that you pissed off a lot more people,“ the man said, probably referring to his bloody hand now.

“Bend it back,” the man ordered the one behind him and Kibum immediately felt the man, pulling his hand back in an awkward angle.

If it was painful when it was first broken, then that was nothing compared to this. Kibum could not even scream in agony the way he wanted to, barely able to squeak weakly against the hold on his throat. This was going to kill him and he knew it.

“Say hello to your friends up there for me, will ya?” the man sneered, his fingernails digging into the side of Kibum’s neck as he felt his lungs give in to the lack of air. His own heartbeat pounded in his head and his vision slipped into blackness.

“Don’t give up, Kibum!”

A subdued cry reached Kibum’s ears. It felt like he was in a dream where the ghostly voice was talking. It sounded so faraway and so unrecognizable. But Kibum’s brain had the ability to still supply him with the information, somehow, that it was Minho that was saying it. His brave, loving, beautiful Minho.

Then, suddenly, Kibum was not drowning in the lack of air anymore. He swallowed gulps and gulps of oxygen. His ears filled with rush of his own blood, flowing out of his head and downwards. Even the pain from his hand was back in its full force, proving to him that he was still alive.

“Kibum, look at me! Look at me! We’re safe! Do you hear me?” Jonghyun was above him, fretting over him. There was no Minho anywhere among the crowd of men fleeting around them. It occurred to Kibum that Minho was never there and that he had only imagined he was.

Kibum was just about to question their whereabouts and what had happened, when he was suddenly hoisted up by two men, one at his feet and the other holding him around his underarms, and they began to move.

“Whe- Wha-“ Kibum struggled to get the words out, his head lolling around weightlessly in his dizziness. Jonghyun’s voice came to him from somewhere behind him.

“Ssshhh… Breathe first, Kibum. That man is dead now. Don’t worry. I took care of him.”

That was not at all what Kibum wanted to know. He wanted to know about Minho. Maybe he really had heard his voice just now. Kibum wanted to know for sure.

His efforts of speaking were again shushed by Jonghyun and Kibum listened to him for a bit because he really did feel too breathless to talk.

Moments later, Kibum felt a hard surface press against his back and he opened his eyes to look at the roof of the shelter they had built for the injured. There were hands that were beginning to treat his left hand and Kibum turned to his side to see the traditional medicine doctor’s face scrunched up in concentration.

Jonghyun’s father was standing behind him, looking on worriedly along with Jonghyun himself. Kibum heard bits and pieces of conversations around him and he tried to listen to them in an effort of distracting himself from the pain, the excruciating, agonizing ache. He felt guilty as iit is for having worried the man with the stunt they pulled and now this. He was sure that the village head must be trying very hard to not show how all of this was affecting him. He was the head. He should show no weakness. Not for his own son. Not for Kibum.

“-they ran away-“

“-leader gone, of course they would-“

“Thank god for the young heroes of our village!”

The snippets of the conversations Kibum heard picked his curiosity. Why was everyone buzzing with such excitement although they were in here getting treated for wounds?

“Wha- What happened?” Kibum asked, turning back to the village head. The man looked down at him solemnly, contemplating his words.

“What happened? Tell me.”

Kibum urged him, almost forgetting the ministrations on his left hand. Almost, that is. Kibum hissed harshly when a particular movement sent his whole body into a violent jerk, trying to get away. He was pinned down from moving away further.

When he looked back up from staring at his own hand for too long, he noticed someone enter the shelter. Kibum would have paid him no attention if he hadn’t recognized who it was and what him being here meant. His head snapped back in his direction.

“-needs to be taken to the hospital. He has lost too much blood,” the doctor was saying to Jonghyun’s father but Kibum only barely registered it.

“Hey, you! You, over there!” Kibum shouted across the distance to the man who had come with them on their mission, one of the fighters from Suwon he figured.

The man turned around, not even realizing it was him that was being called as he was merely responding to the loud voice. But when his eyes locked on Kibum’s, he immediately knew it was him that was being addressed. He broke into a wide grin, walking over to Kibum’s side. He eyed Jonghyun once before looking down at Kibum again.

“I thought you three died! Thank god! Where’s Hyun?” the man asked, looking around for the archer probably. One look from Jonghyun had this man’s grin changing into a sad smile.

“He was not so lucky, huh?” the man asked, pushing his hands into his pocket and looking down, allowing his hair to fall on his dirt-smudged face.

“What happened with you guys?” Jonghyun asked in Kibum’s stead. Kibum waited anxiously for the reply.

The man looked back up, grinning once again.

“You don’t know yet? We did it. We took the man out in his sleep. Couldn’t even fight us, that bastard!” he said, declaring their victory proudly. Kibum felt joy grow in his heart. They had done it. Their efforts hadn’t gone to waste, they had stopped this before things took a turn for the worse.

Jonghyun was not smiling but he seemed content knowing that that Admiral was dead.

“It was glorious, the way Jinyeok pushed his blade right through the man’s heart. The guy must not have gone to sleep expecting to wake up to his dead. He had almost gotten away when a few Japanese men came in to save him. We fought them down while Jinyeok went straight for that unarmed man. We couldn’t have done it without the other team who came in the nick of time. They had the weapons and we-“

“Wait! Other team?” Kibum questioned, cutting the other off, his joyous heart stopping for a moment before it started to beat faster.

“Yes. Those who went before us. They came just in time as the Japanese realized something was wrong in their Admiral’s tent. We truly couldn’t have gotten out alive if it weren’t for them. Especially Jinyeok. He owes his life to the leader of the other team-“

“Leader?” Kibum asked once again interrupting the other although he didn’t seem to mind.

“His name was Choi… Choi…”

“Minho?” Kibum breathed the name.

“Yes him! He was the true hero, if you asked me. He saved Jinyeok and gave him the opportunity to kill the Admiral while he held back more assailants. Fought like true warrior, he did,” the man said in pure admiration and respect.

Kibum’s heart swelled. His eyes welled up. His Minho had saved all of them. He had fought for all of them.

“Where’s he? I want to see him,” Kibum said, making a move to sit up. The doctor pulled him back to lie down with a hand on his left shoulder. Kibum jerked away from the hand, making known of the bullet wound there. The doctor immediately began to pry his shoulder. But Kibum only had eyes for the man standing near him.

He wasn’t looking at him. He was no longer grinning. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, letting them rest by his sides before he spoke, still not looking up.

“You can’t see him…”

Kibum’s heart sank, feeling like something was pulling it down heavily, ready to yank it away at any moment. His joy turned into white-hot fury that was beginning to make his own eyes tear up.

“WHY NOT?!” Kibum snarled, pushing away to sit up again. The man looked up, taken aback by Kibum’s tone.

“He’s…not here…”

(A/N) Chapter 37!!! Third last chapter presented to you in all its un-proofread, weeks late glory!! We're reaching the end, you guys! Two more chapters to go, three if my writing decides to take control of me again... :(

I will update the next two (or 3) chapters altogether soon. I'm sorry for being so late with my updates lately. I'm just so in over my head with all my college work (German- WHY U NO HAVE MERCY?!) and my brain decides to throw me random ideas when I sit down to finish this. I ended up writing a new Minkey twoshot, 'Salvation' instead of this... OTL

Anyways, I hope you guys will be patient a little bit more and understand me for not having the time to answer comments. I realized I spend as much time replying comments (not because I get too many of it but because I'm so obssesive-compulsive about my replies that I end up re-typing multiple times sometimes as I cannot settle for just a 'thank you' when you guys give me feedback on the chapters) as I do writing the actual chapter...  But I will tell you this- I READ EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR COMMENTS AND I TRULY DO APPRECIATE THEM!!! 

So... I'll see you soon. Thank you so much for reading!! <3 Have a great day ahead! XD