Three years down the road later…

“Kyu, what’s my position right now? Where are the others?” he hissed into his mic, cringing at the ten-second ear-piercing static reply shattering his eardrums. He nearly dropped his gun in fright. “What in the world—?” Mumbling incoherently, he switched off the device and continued stalking the grounds, making sure to keep himself hidden behind the old and rotting wooden boxes and crates inside the enormous warehouse full of sawdust and wooden shavings as he tried figuring out where everyone was. He’d just got separated from the other two in his team, thanks to him accidentally running into an overprotective wildcat in the woods and he had nearly been clawed to death. His hands and face were covered in bleeding scratches, but that wasn’t the point. Losing his team meant being vulnerable because there was nobody covering his back, and the enemies might just jump him suddenly. And since his transmitter was all messed up (thanks to that stupid cat again), he couldn’t even contact anyone for help.

He was on his own now, with a herd of dangerous criminals on the loose.

“Damn it, why did they have to move so fast?” he cursed, gingerly stepping over a pile of wooden beams that looked ready to crumble upon the first breath. “Couldn’t they have just waited for me when I was stuck back there?”

As expected, at the slightest movement the beams disintegrated into a pile of dust while the smaller pieces clanged noisily against the cement floor. He froze in terror at the disturbance it caused, immediately sensing a dark presence looming behind him.

“Ohoho, what do we have here?”

He raised his guard and whipped around, holding the pistol right in front of him.

Recognizing the man as the ringleader of the entire operation, he immediately cocked his gun and prepared to shoot. “Kim Youngwoon,” he snarled. “How nice to see you again.”

“Likewise, officer. I’m impressed you found this place. Like what you see?”

His eyes never left the heavily tattooed ringleader and he observed quickly that the man did not seem to have a weapon on him at first glance. But he knew better than to be fooled when he saw a slight bulge in the side of his pants. The leader began walking towards the officer in slow steps and he inched back simultaneously. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot.”

“Really now?” Youngwoon smirked, a wicked grin on his lips. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at you; you’re alone, in my territory. Your darling comrades have no idea where you are. What’s stopping me from just… eliminating you, huh?”

He gritted his teeth and took another step back as the other advanced towards him again. Well, the ringleader did have a point, but he wasn’t about to give up that easily. He suddenly spotted slight movement somewhere at the other end of the warehouse and to his delight he actually saw a silhouette that looked very much like Sungmin. The senior officer gestured to him to keep the other distracted while he crept up from behind with Kibum. There was still a huge distance to cover, and he was supposed to ‘entertain’ Youngwoon until his team was ready in position.

Mentally heaving a sigh of relief, he looked back at the dangerous person in front of him and furrowed his brows.

“You can’t just do that to me.”

“Can’t I?”

Before he knew what happened, two giant goons appeared out of thin air and threw themselves at the officer, knocking him to the floor. The gun slipped from his hand and slithered across the floor, where it was picked up by a triumphantly smirking Youngwoon. The two goons hauled the officer off the ground where he was wincing in pain, the injury in his chest from few years back acting up again.

“Aw, what’s the matter? The big bully officer has a boo-boo now?” the ringleader sneered, while twirling the gun on his stout finger. “Not so cocky now, are we officer?”

Casting his gaze upon the dusty floor, he just let himself be ridiculed as the other spat on him and made fun of him. He knew it was only a little while longer when all this would be over. He held his breath and counted slowly to ten, trying his best to ignore the handful of sawdust blown in his face and crept into his eyes, nose, ears and mouth.

Ten seconds till everything was over.

“Tch, you don’t even fight back; this isn’t fun anymore,” the ringleader grumbled, slapping him across the cheek.

“Now, Hyuk!!”

Youngwoon spun around in surprise and was immediately met with a punch in his face, making him drop the gun. As soon as Sungmin had given the orders, Hyukjae raised his foot and stomped on one of the henchmen’s foot and then kneed the other in the gut before kicking them both to the ground.

“Geez, some sort of thugs you both are,” Hyukjae scoffed, delivering a couple of quick blows to their shoulders before successfully knocking them out cold on the ground. The officer then straightened his suit and brushed off the sawdust from his hair and face, before getting ready for combat again.

About seven or eight more of Youngwoon’s people came dashing out from every corner yelling incoherently in some gibberish language and swinging clubs and knives around. Hyukjae immediately grabbed a stick from its pile and began fighting them off, sweeping the thugs off their feet (literally) and banging them on the head just enough to make them fall unconscious. Kibum had picked up a fallen knife and joined in the fight, and together they took down every single one of Youngwoon’s men in less than five minutes.

Meanwhile, Sungmin was having a little trouble fighting off Youngwoon. The ringleader was big and hefty, and while Sungmin was specially trained in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, Youngwoon seemed to have a few tricks up his sleeve and have so far managed to evade every single one of the senior officer’s blows while landing a couple of his own.

“A little help here?” Sungmin gasped, fending off a knife that appeared suddenly in the ringleader’s hand. It nearly sliced through his thick protective clothing and he was thankful the tough material held, otherwise he’d have a nasty gash all the way down his arm already. “GUYS!!”

“Coming, hyung,” Hyukjae answered a little too cheerfully, making Kibum roll his eyes in annoyance. The two of them immediately came to Sungmin’s aid, and soon Youngwoon found himself backed up against a wall with no escape. His knife had been knocked away earlier with Hyukjae’s club and it now lay on the floor buried in wooden shavings. Growling fiercely, he whipped out a gun from his pocket and threatened to shoot.

“You can’t shoot. You’d only kill yourself in the end,” Hyukjae snarled, casually bouncing the club on his shoulders. “How about you give up now and come with us quietly, hmm?” he asked, jiggling a pair of handcuffs on his belt.

Youngwoon lowered his pistol and suddenly burst into sadistic laughter, flustering the three officers. Sungmin raised his eyebrows at him. “What’s so funny?”

“I’d never give up. Even if it means killing myself with you.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sungmin said, his hand reaching for his own gun in its holster. “Do you really want to add murder to your list of smuggling and counterfeiting??”

“Why would you care?” the ringleader laughed, raising his gun again but not aiming for any of the three men, instead aiming at the wooden crate behind them that was covered in sawdust and wooden shavings. “Say goodbye, my dearest officers…”

Kibum’s eyes widened when he realized what Youngwoon was planning to do. As soon as the trigger was pulled and the bullet fired out of the barrel, Kibum jerked Sungmin and Hyukjae away to the left and the three of them hit the dusty ground just as a huge explosion was heard.

BOOM!!!

The impact blew them a few feet further and Hyukjae was the first to get up as he stared at the scene in front of him, watching the flames consuming the front half of the warehouse.

“Hyukjae!! Snap out of it!! We have to get out of here now!!” Sungmin yelled, tugging at his sleeve to wake him up from his daze. Flames were already at the doorframe and they barely evaded a burning plank falling onto their heads. They made out of the building just before the entrance was engulfed in flames, blocking the only exit. Sungmin hastily called for backup and also the fire brigade, giving them the exact locations where to find them.

It wasn’t long before the cavalry arrived. In no time at all, the roaring fire was tamed to a sizzling hiss under the multiple jets of water and the men were all brought out one by one, with more than half of them still unconscious. Unfortunately Youngwoon himself was caught in the explosion and Hyukjae winced when his charred body was brought out from amongst the smoky warehouse and set down on the mossy ground. All the criminals involved were bundled up into a police van with their wrists cuffed together with a team of paramedics to tend to their injuries. The once smouldering building was now only charred remains, and Hyukjae couldn’t help staring at the wisps of smoke dissipating into the air.

A hand appeared on his shoulder, and Hyukjae looked back in surprise to see Sungmin frowning at him.

“Hyuk, what happened to your face? Did you run into a couple of rosebushes or something?” he asked, referring to the multiple scratches adorning Hyukjae’s face. He lightly feathered the scratch marks that were now forming rather ugly bumps on his otherwise flawless face.

“Some wildcat decided to greet me when you guys abandoned me back there,” Hyukjae grumbled.

“Donghae is so going to kill you,” Sungmin said warily, shaking his head. “And then me. How are you going to explain this to him? You know, you’re supposed to be quietly typing out reports back in the office instead of getting into action like this. I knew I shouldn’t have let you come along for this.”

“Tch, please hyung, can you imagine me doing boring paperwork in a boring office with boring people? I’d prefer being out here any time. I don’t care what Hae says. I’m definitely not staying in that cubicle hellhole if I can ever help it!!”

“Well, it seems like we’ve got every