The forest wasn´t any more brighter than the tunnel. The tall trees everywhere around were making it impossible for the sun to throw a little bit of vitamin B at us. It was useless to wait for the sunrays when it was cloudy anyway. And even if the trees weren´t thick and the sky was clear, it would be still dark for me. I didn´t want to believe it. Believe that Heechul was dead. And I pretended that I didn´t hear that scream, didn´t see him fall down and pretended that he would follow me here. Just like always. Isn´t he the best at catching chimeras? To prove my naiveté, using the metal cuffs I tore away a piece of my blue shirt and discretely threw it on the forest path. Heechul knew, that I was wearing blue pyjamas, he would find me. That was how I thought but inwardly the world was starting to darken. My hands were tied together and my mouth was covered too, I couldn´t do anything by myself. I had to wait, I had to believe.

We kept walking through the forest but I couldn´t find any pattern, any sign my kidnappers were using as their navigation. Did they know the way by heart or were they simply going forward? In front of me and behind me, everything looked the same. My brain was now working on full throttle to analyse the situation, to put together the pieces of the puzzle, to make out the direction we were heading. But my mind was too preoccupied by worries about Heechul that any sensible thinking was impossible. It couldn´t be true, he wasn´t dead. He just wasn´t! I wish I had Heechul´s instincts so I could sense him. So I could tell he was alright. I might have been just simply insensitive because all I could feel was darkness.

“Don´t cry,” the man that probably shot Heechul, the quiet guy was the one standing behind him, turned around and spoke to me in strangely gentle voice. It was the first time I heard him speak and he sounded very hard to detect.

“I´m not,” I barked through the gag in my mouth and refused to let him see my weaknesses. But then the sharp guy´s eyes fell on the torn part of my shirt.

“Wait!” He called and everyone stopped on his command.

“Sir?” Yang Seungho stepped to his side in a manner, too polite for a usual subordinate. I was slowly catching up on the situation. One more piece of puzzle and I´m done.

“Hyukjae, what happened to your shirt?” He asked me sternly and pulled down the white scarf from my mouth.

“Hm?” I acted surprised. “It must have got torn somewhere along the way, I didn´t notice,” I shrugged.

“Let me see,” Yang Seungho kneeled down in front of my and pulled up the hem of my shirt. From the way he was holding it, it was apparent that a piece was missing. I got caught but I was sure, that I wouldn´t be the only one.

“If they got through the guards, they might be already following us,” the quiet guy said, “let´s hurry.”

“You are really sharp,” I smirked, “Mr. Primary.” The said man frowned and cringed his teeth.

“Don´t think you are smarter, Hyukjae,” he only warned me before he turned around and began walking again. I chuckled loud enough for him to hear me but then I got pushed from the back and had to start walking. But they forgot to put back the white scarf, previously belonging to Mr. White Scarf, I´m sorry for not giving him better name. They never call him by his name, I can´t do anything about it. Now that I identified Primary, I don´t need to learn any other useless names.

Who is Primary? I´m sure, it isn´t hard to guess, is it? Primary, the first man in the Likya group. He was smartly hidden among his loyal men but I knew, I would find him sooner or later. I learnt about Primary from the careless guards in the car. They would say the nickname quite often and I realised quickly that they were talking about the big boss. Later I asked the doctor but he told me that he´s never seen Primary in person. It wasn´t true, Primary has been around all this while, pretending to be quiet lower agent. He kept an eyes on me from the very start, he even rode in the same car as me and Heechul yesterday. And it was him, who probably shot Heechul. Only Primary could do a risky act like that without getting a permission from anybody. Then Yang Seungho´s tongue slipped and he called his quiet fellow ´sir´. The final mistake was done by Primary himself as he let Yang Seungho kneel down in front of me on the ground instead of him. Primary was too prideful to kneel in front of me. He caught me giving signal but I gave him much harder hit.

“Stop!” Yang Seungho hissed and we all stopped to listen. Sounds similar to that of the wind were heard close to us. But trained ears of the inhabitants of the bunker could tell, that it was something else.

“They are close, divide!” Primary ordered and grabbed my arm. Yang Seungho, Primary and I were one group. The rest dispersed around the forest. I groaned inwardly, this would make it much harder for everyone to find me. When Primary was giving Seungho some more orders, I dropped the white scarf on the ground and stepped on it to hide it until we leave the place. With this they couldn´t cover my mouth anymore and one last clue should help the ASC agents in finding me. All that was left now was for Kim Heechul to appear in front of me. Please!

“Hurry,” Primary tugged on my arm and I clumsily followed him deeper into the forest. It was hard to move being pulled by my tied up hands. It didn´t take me too long to trip over my own feet and fall down. “What are you doing?!” Primary hissed angrily.

“I can´t help it when you pull me like that!” I gestured to my hands.

“I will take it off, Sir,” Yang Seungho suddenly offered, “he caused himself concussion last time this way,” he rolled his eyes on me. Primary wasn´t sure about this risky idea but gunshots were heard somewhere far behind us and he didn´t have much time to decide.

“Okay, if it makes him faster,” he said and impatiently waited for Yang Seungho to release my hands. Once they were free, Primary didn´t give me any time to enjoy my newly gained freedom and grabbed my wrist.

We began running fast with Yang Seungho behind our back, covering us. At first I wanted to call for help but we ran too fast and my lungs weren´t able to produce any other sound except for huffs. And it didn´t seem to get better when in front of us appeared a slope heavily covered with rocks. Don´t tell me he wants to climb that. To my bad luck, as always, Primary decided to do just that. He started climbing the steep mountain side while tugging on my sleeve. I was already exhausted by the test earlier this morning and couldn´t really keep up, that of course didn´t stop the Likya leader and I would often scratch myself in my hurried climb.

“Freeze!” The sweet sound for my ears, horrible scream for Yang Seungho and Primary.

Seungho didn´t care for the familiar police command and immediately pulled out his gun. He was immediately shot by one of the ASC agents. Primary was slightly smarter and although he also didn´t listen to the order, instead of shooting directly, he stood me in front of him. Primary aimed his gun at me and I could feel the cold metal against my temple.

But my focus surprisingly wasn´t at the weapon nor the dangerous criminal behind me. I was looking down from the rock into a pair of the most beautiful eyes in the world. Eyes that very alive, alive and burning. Kim Heechul´s eyes were locked with mine and my whole body immediately caught on fire from them. The fire spread and I wasn´t feeling cold anymore, my heart wasn´t dark either. Everything was suddenly clear and I knew, what I was supposed to do.

 “Shoot!” I screamed and Heechul pulled the trigger. He got the message. This is the last thing I can do for you, Heechul.

Asa! Almost there, guys! I thought a lot about the ending and maybe you won´t really like it, still you should wait for those last two chapters! Thank you for reading and commenting. Be happy and take care - Panda Hero