Ryeowook’s sinister cackle echoed loudly in the stunned silence. “You bastards are never getting out of here alive. If I die, we all die together!”

Donghae quickly made to pull Hyukjae off from the bench, but Heechul immediately dragged the panicking inspector away, making him stumble onto the ground. “Inspector, don’t touch him! Let me handle this!”

“Save him! Get him away from there!” Donghae yelled as he scrambled to his feet, hearing the bomb ticking louder and louder. “Hyukjae!!”

“Everyone go! I got this,” Heechul barked at the other dumbfounded officers, who obeyed and started clearing out, along with their crazy laughing prisoner. The taller officer then crawled under the ticking bench and quickly began working on diffusing the bomb. “Inspector, please go with them. We don’t need another casualty.”

“But Hyukjae—”

“Go!!!”

“Why can’t we just grab Hyuk and run? We still have 20 seconds left!”

“Because this is a pressure-sensitive bomb and it’ll go off as soon as the weight on top changes,” Heechul yelled. “Now just stop Hyukjae from moving, or it’ll blow up in our faces!”

Donghae stared at Heechul in shock. He grinded his teeth and stubbornly shook his head. “I’m not leaving Hyukjae here alone. I’m staying with him.”

“Inspector, please be rational!”

Hyukjae groaned softly in pain, his face white as a sheet as he kept applying pressure to his wound. “H-Hae, take him and go,” he whispered, gesturing towards Heechul busy trying to disarm the bomb. “Save yourselves.”

“We’re not going anywhere without you. I’m not letting you go, ever again,” Donghae whispered, tightly clutching onto Hyukjae’s arm. “If you die, I die with you. I don’t want to live without you.”

The wounded officer gave his lover a grimacing smile. “I don’t want to leave you either, but you can’t die in vain. You still need to protect the rest of the city from criminals like Wook. You can’t let him get away with this. You…” Hyukjae held back a sob as tears started falling from his eyes.” “You have to be strong and keep going on, with or without me… but always remember that I’ll always love you, forever and ever. I love you.”

“I-I love you too, H-Hyukjae, please don’t say it like you’re leaving without me,” Donghae cried. “I can’t live without you. You promised me you wouldn’t leave me alone again. You have to keep your promises!”

“Shh, Donghae baby, I’m sorry…”

“Hyukjae…”

Beeeeeeeeeeep.

Donghae froze in terror and flinched, tightly gripping onto Hyukjae, expecting a blast and flames. For a horrifying moment, nobody moved.

It was eerily and deathly silent. Then Heechul cleared his throat.

“Well, if you guys are finally done saying your vows, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss the bride, or groom, whichever position or role you guys are.”

At the sound of Heechul’s cheeky voice, the inspector finally dared to open his eyes again.

“We’re not dead?”

“The last I checked, we’re kinda still alive.”

The glaring red numbers on the bomb had stopped at 00:04.

Hyukjae smiled gratefully at Heechul, on the verge of passing out from pain. “Thank you…”

“Don’t exert yourself, Hyukjae. And you’re welcome. Now let’s quickly get you out of here.”

Donghae carefully draped Hyukjae's arm over his own shoulders and helped the wounded officer up.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep…

“Oh , it's rigged!”

Heechul let out a loud scream and shoved Donghae and Hyukjae away from the bench right before the bomb exploded and threw everyone off their feet. Hyukjae flew out of the inspector’s hold and landed against a stack of tires with a loud grunt, the inspector landing closely behind on the ground with another thud. Some of the windows on the cars also exploded from the impact, making deadly glass shards fly and strike their unconscious victims in the flesh.

* * *

Donghae flinched at the bright lights and groaned. His head hurt. His body hurt. His knees hurt. Everywhere hurt, but he couldn’t open his eyes. His back was kind of sore too, like he’d been lying on his back for way too long. Donghae fidgeted and tried to find a more comfortable spot, but the sharp pain that shot through his leg prevented him from doing so.

Hyukjae.

The inspector gasped loudly and began to shake uncontrollably. His heart rate started fluctuating and some machines began beeping loudly, but that only sent him into another state of panic. More bombs! I need to get out of here and find Hyukjae NOW!!

“Donghae! Donghae, calm down! Doctor! Doctor, Donghae’s awake!”

“Hyukjaeeeeeeeee!!!!” Donghae screamed, thrashing in the hospital bed as nurses ran in to stabilise him. “Let me go! I need to find Hyukjae!! Hyukjae, noooo!!”

Tears streamed down the inspector’s closed eyes as he struggled against the nurses’ hold. Sungmin clutched onto Kyuhyun’s hands and bit on his lips as they watched the team of nurses sedate their inspector. Donghae still hadn’t opened his eyes, but with the sedative taking effect, his muscles eventually relaxed and he slowly fell limp in the bed.

“H-Hyukjae… no…”

Sungmin sniffed softly into his partner’s chest. It just broke him too much to see his usually strong inspector in such a vulnerable and depressing state. Kyuhyun tried comforting the older officer and held him close.

“Let’s go check on the others. Has Hyukjae woken up yet?”

“I don’t know, the last I checked he was still unconscious,” Sungmin whispered. “They don’t let anyone into the ICU outside of visiting hours, though.”

Kyuhyun nodded and hugged Sungmin closer. “We’ll just have to wait, then.”

* * *

One by one, the officers solemnly stood in front of the black coffin and saluted. Donghae lowered his gaze as he gave his last salute, grieving the loss of a comrade. He knew it was entirely preventable. He should have been the one who died, not his officer. He should have protected his team better. He should have suspected Ryeowook from the start.

A single tear fell onto his cheek.

If only Donghae could turn back time, he would have done a lot of things differently.

* * *

“Regrettably, Ryeowook had us all fooled the entire time,” Kyuhyun said, presenting the case at their meeting. “There were many subtle clues pointing in his direction, but we did not follow them up enough before giving up. It’s a regrettable error we’ve all made, me included.”

Donghae cleared his throat and addressed the audience. “Ryeowook and Kyungsoo, or as we know as D.O., had a nice little operation going, stealing luxury cars, refurbishing them, changing the number plates and selling them off in the black market for a fair bit of profit. They’ve had this going for a few years now.”

An officer raised his hand. “Inspector, how is this case related to the supposed gang murders?”

“We will get to that point if you let me continue, officer.”

“Sorry.”

“Kyu, please click to the next slide.”

“Okay.”

The inspector pointed at the projecte