Minhyun whimpered silently and the two boys drew closer together on the floor. When they had heard more shots none of them dared to even sit up.

“Why is it that I wake up in the middle of a freaking warzone?” Minki whispered, his voice trembling.

“It’s going to be okay, Aron promised he would be back…” Minhyun didn’t look the least bit more confident than the blonde in his arms. “As long as we just stay here…”

His voice faded when both of them heard steps outside the door that Aron had left open.

“Hyung… do you think that’s him?” Minki’s voice was so low Minhyun almost couldn’t hear it. Apprehensively they pulled further back against the wall, the brunette clenching the younger one tightly.

“Auch!”

Minki’s hand had come across one of the glass shards on the floor; there now was a long cut all the way across his palm, blood running down his fingers. He squeezed his eyes shut, biting his tongue to prevent himself from letting out another cry, but it was too late.

Outside the steps had stopped, as if the person who was walking down the hallway had stopped to listen when he had heard Minki’s whine; then they started again, faster this time and the boys could hear them coming closer. Minhyun tried to take Minki’s hand, but he pushed the other one away with his good hand.

“Don’t touch me, I’m bleeding!” he hissed through his breath, still staring anxiously at the door. A second later a person wearing a hood had entered the room. He was holding a knife and when his gaze fell upon Minki, who quickly hid his hand on his back, a smile burst onto his lips.

“Who would have thought that I would be lucky enough as to get rid of you in the middle of all this?” he muttered, stepping forward over the sea of glass. “God knows for how long we have been trying to kill you little Helix…”

“Who… who are you?”

“You don’t know? Your guardian angel haven’t told you yet?” He smirked as he kneeled down next to them, holding the knife to Minki’s neck. “Well, I guess I’ll have to scold him from you then” he continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Minki!” All three of them turned their heads to the door as Aron limped into the room; his face was twisted in pain from the wound on his leg. “If you touch him, I’ll shoot you!”

The Solum-assassin’s smile grew wider.

“I don’t think so. If you pull that trigger you might end up shooting one of these beauties… And I hardly believe you’re willing to take that risk”. Slowly he made room for himself between the two of them, placing an arm around Minhyun and pulling him close, without lowering the knife from Minki’s neck for a second.

“Now there’s just one problem” Aron sneered, trying to keep calm. “This is a dead end. None of us can move”.

“You’re quite wrong”. He leaned his head on Minhyun’s shivering shoulder, snuggling up to him with a provocative smile. “Because you are now going to take that gun and shoot yourself through the head. As a reward I’ll let this one go. Hell, I’m gonna let the Helix go, too, he’s not gonna last a day without you anyway”.

“Aron, if you even consider doing it, I swear to God, I’ll kill you!” Minki sputtered, but the Solum only pushed the knife deeper into the skin, making a small cut.

“Shut up. How about letting him decide for himself?” He smirked and pulled Minki closer, too. “And he better hurry, before I lose my patience and cut your pretty little throat”.

“All right, all right, I’ll do it!”

Looking the Solum right into the eyes he lifted the gun to his head, placing his finger on the trigger.

“Excellent. Any last words?”
“I hope it’s going to hurt!” Before he had realised what was going on, Minki had smashed his bleeding palm to the assassin’s face, making sure the blood got into his eyes. At once the man started to scream, desperately trying to twist away from Minki’s hand, but the moment he was free of them Aron didn’t hesitate.

One shot between his eyes and he rolled over dead. His eyes were red and deform, almost as if they were crumbling in their sockets.

Both of them quickly got on their feet and rushed to support Aron, who couldn’t stand anymore.

“You were hit…” Minhyun clung to Aron, looking helplessly at the gunshot in his thigh.

“Hey, I came back, just like I said I would, right?” He forced out a smile. “And it’s not that bad. I’ll just have to get the bullet out, then I swear I won’t feel it anymore”.

“Then we need to get you to a hospital…”
“No, we can’t go to a hospital, not with gunshots. They’ll report it to the police and we can’t have them asking any questions about this. It’s a war of the underworld, the public can’t become aware of it”.

“But… But then how…”
“I’ll take care of it myself. There’s first aid kit in one of the lockers, please get that for me”.
“A first aid kit? Aron, I hardly think that’s going to…”
“Just get it, I’ve done this several times before, okay? There’s nothing to worry about”. Minhyun’s sceptic expression wouldn’t leave his face as Minki came back with a normal white box with a red cross on it.

“Thank you. Now, I want the two of you to leave while I take care of this. It sure won’t be pretty”.

His stubborn face alone made them surrender to the order, and they left Aron at the floor, where he opened the aid box and took out a pair of tweezers along with a bottle of iodine and started to cleanse the wound, after having torn off half of the pants leg. It hurt as if he had been shot once more, but he bit his lip till it started to bleed in order not to let out even the smallest cry.

Preparing to keep himself from fainting at all costs, he forced the tweezers into the wound on his leg, wanting to dig out the bullet as fast as possible.

Blood was welling out as he pressed further until the tweezers finally caught the bullet. All he could see was black spots and he started to get really nauseous. His hand was shaking so badly the tweezers slipped on the soaked metal and he ended up ripping out a piece of flesh instead. He collapsed on the floor, panting for a while, closing his eyes tightly. No, no, no, he couldn’t get sick yet.

“Aron?”
“No, I’m fine! Stay out!” he gasped, fighting to get up again. Once more he drew the tweezers into the wound, more aggressively this time, releasing a true inferno of pain inside his head, before he finally managed to pull the bullet out. His legs was twitching and he had to let out tears, before he couldn’t hold it in anymore and got sick from exhaustion.

“Aron, I refuse to stand out here and listen while you turn your insides out!”

Minhyun marched into the room again and cradled Aron in his arms, looking at him with his lips pouting.

“You’re so stupid, you know that hyung?” He kissed him tenderly on his forehead, which was as drenched in sweat as the rest of him. “Here, let me dress that leg for you”.

“You don’t have to…”
“Yes I do”.

Still pouting he pulled Aron’s pants off him, reaching out for the gauze in the aid box. Aron looked away with cheeks that slowly developed a slightly red shade and Minhyun smiled.

“Are you blushing hyungie?” he whispered as he started to wrap up the wound.

“Of course not!” His face turned even more red and Minhyun had a hard time hiding his lips that wouldn’t stop curling into a smirk.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything inappropriate as long as we’re not alone”.

For a moment Aron had almost forgotten that Minki was staring at them from the doorway, unsure of how to react. A satisfied little smile was resting in the corners of his mouth though; the sight of Minhyun leaning forwards, pretending to check if the gauze had been put on right when all he really was doing was the rim of Aron’s ear while whispering something for only him to hear, filled him with serenity, but at the same time the envy was eating him up. He wanted to be back in Jonghyun’s arms, he wanted to feel the other’s lips on his face again.

He waited respectfully for a while before clearing his throat.

“Guys? We have to get back… Jonghyun needs us…” The begging tone in his voice made the couple on the floor nod at once, and Minhyun helped Aron get on his feet.

“We’re leaving through the front door. I need to pick up my phone on the way”.

“How are we going to get away?”
“There should be a car on its way to help us escape. We won’t have more than an hour or so before Solum realises they have failed again. We need to be in the airport by then”.

“Aron, please, who are these Solum-guys? I feel like I’m about the only one here who doesn’t know!”

“Minki, for God’s sake, we have five hours on a plane, can’t it wait?” Minhyun looked pleadingly at Minki who shrugged with his eyes turned up.

“Fine. Let’s go then”. Stepping in front of Aron, the small blonde was about to leave the room first, when the last of the windows shattered and a bullet went straight through his right shoulder. With a screech he collapsed in front of them.

Right away, Aron had turned around and fired back through the empty window frame. In the building across the deserted street, another sniper tumbled off the roof.

“Minki? Minki, look at me!” Minhyun had lifted the younger one into his arms, desperately clinging to him and already crying inconsolably. “Aron, he won’t open his eyes!”