Yunho points the gun, his hand shaking.

The man's shoulders look so small in the white shift and the black hood over his head.

The hood is over his head to dehumanize him, to make it easier for Yunho.

But Yunho finds that it's not much help when he can see the man shift on his knees and hear his sobbing.

He sees all the detail, like the man's small thumb moving over his fingers, shaking hard, and the shoulders sagging forward as the barrel of the gun touches the back of his head, and he sees the man shuffle forward on his knees, subconsciously trying to move away from the gun.

And it's all making Yunho absolutely sick.

"Yunho," says the cold voice. Yunho swallows and turns his head towards the man. "Shoot him."

Yunho looks back at the sobbing figure. He the gun, which makes a louder sound than he's ever realized.

The figure under the sack hears it too, because he gives a shudder, and Yunho clenches his teeth.

"There's no reason," says Yunho, trying to keep his voice steady.

"My dear Mr. Jung…." He chuckles. "This is simply a test."

Yunho closes his eyes and thinks.

He thinks.

"Yunho…" says the voice dangerously.

And then he springs into action.

He snatches the sack away from the kneeling man's head, and he only has time to see a mop of curly brown hair emerge from underneath before he points the gun towards the others. He takes the place between the hostage and the gang members, and he takes a single shot, right at their leader.

It hits his shoulder, and Yunho curses inwardly, because he knows his shot didn't kill.

And it isn't long until there are shots firing left and right, and it will be a miracle if he gets out of this warehouse alive by himself, let alone with the victim.

But he has to try.

He looks down at the still-kneeling man and gets a glimpse of his large, scared brown eyes and his face shining with tears looking up at him before he tugs at the man's arms.

"Come on!" he shouts. "Get up, let's go!"

The man finally gets up and they begin to run towards the exit. Yunho turns and takes a shot and he knows he took one out, because the rain of bullets stop for a second as each gang member searches for cover.

Yunho takes the second to make it across the warehouse and he feels an impact that jolts him forward, and a searing pain that he's never felt before at his shoulder. He can' hold in a grunt of pain and shock, and the hostage looks terrified as he takes a glance at Yunho. Yunho clenches his teeth and ignores the pain as best as he can. There are two guys blocking the exit.

Yunho takes two shots.

The exit is clear.

"Oh God," grunts Yunho.

He's bleeding all over the leather car seat, and he's driving with his bad arm, his good one pressing down on his wound.

The hostage still hasn't said a word, sitting in the passenger seat. He's shaking too, and even though he's no longer sobbing, the tears falling are constant.

Yunho knows he has to be careful with this hostage, for all he knows, he could be one of them, and that's what he learned – but right now, he doesn't care as he reaches for his phone.

"Siwon," he croaks.

"Yunho," he replies. "Code word?"

"Forget the code word, I've been shot, send help –"

"Code word."

Yunho grimaces in pain and grunts. God, Siwon and his semantics.

"Iceberg."

Yunho can feel man on the other end relaxing as Yunho utters the code not under duress.

"Did you say you've been shot?" says Siwon. "I'll send backup."

"A bit too late, aren't you?" says Yunho a bit bitterly. "I'll meet the ambulance halfway."

"You need ambulance?"

"I've been shot," says Yunho. God, Siwon's obviously never been shot because this ing hurts. "I'm going to need SWAT protection."

"Got it. They're on their way. They'll meet you halfway."

Yunho groans again and squeezes his eyes in pain.

Siwon must have heard that, but he doesn't sound overly concerned.

"Yunho, what did you find out?" asks Siwon.

Yunho curses, because he's pissed that Siwon cares more about the mission than the fact that his colleague has been shot.

"Not much," pants Yunho. He then looks at the man who's sitting in the passenger in a blood-splattered white shift, holding his arms and still silently crying. "But I have a witness here. Not sure how much he knows. He's going to need an ambulance too."

Yunho knows he's lost a ton of blood because he feels dizzy as soon as he steps out in the safety of the ambulance.

God, he doesn't even care if these ambulance people are safe or not, he just wants someone to help him.

He passes out as soon as they put him on the stretcher.

When he next realizes he's still alive, he's so groggy he can barely even keep his eyes open.

Everything is blurry as he opens his eyes, and he sees that he's hooked up to a hundred machines, and he sees a nurse right there, looking surprised that Yunho opened his eyes.

And everything hurts. Everything.

"Oh, you're awake!" she exclaims. "Let me go get the doctor, it'll only take a minute!"

The person that enters isn't the doctor.

It's freaking Siwon.

Siwon.

"God, I was starting to think we'd lost you," he says.

Yunho lets out a breath. "Why?" he croaks. His throat feels like sandpaper and everything hurts, god damn it.

"Because we still need details. How many were there, and did you ever figure out what exactly they –"

"Siwon…" says Yunho, shaking his head. "Not now."

Siwon bites his lip.

Yunho thinks back though, and he tries to remember.

And he does. Some of it, anyway.

He remembers the tiny fingers and the curly brown hair and the doe eyes.

"You've been doing that to that kid, too, haven't you."

"What kid?"

"The hostage kid."

"Changmin?"

"Is that his name?"

"Yeah. Shim Changmin. You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't know."

"I've tried interrogating him. He won't say anything. His name is Shim Changmin and he's 22. That's all I know."

Yunho is 24, so Changmin is two years younger. Yunho thinks back to how he was two years ago.

Definitely less mature than he is now.

"Were you hounding him the same way you hound me?"

Siwon doesn't say anything and Yunho takes that as a yes.

Yunho is moved out of the ICU the next day.

He guesses that being fit does have its advantages.

He's sort of wheeling his IV pole around in his room, trying to stretch his legs and try to feel alive again, when Siwon comes to him.

"He wants to talk to you."

"Who?"

"Shim Changmin."

Yunho sighs. "Am I going to have to go there or is he coming to me?"

"Doesn't matter."

Yunho thinks.

"I'll go," he decides.

Siwon nods. "Okay."

Changmin looks worse than he does.

At least Yunho is walking around. Changmin though, looks like he hasn't slept in days, and Yunho is going to kill Siwon for interrogating a kid who clearly is in so much distress.

Yunho sits at the bedside, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. "Hey," says Yunho. "How're you doing?"

The kid sits, his knees curled into his chest on his hospital bed. He's silent for a long time before he turns his head towards Yunho.

"You were… undercover?" whispers Changmin.

Yunho nods. "Yeah. Sorry I didn't know you'd be there, or I would have brought backup."

Changmin shakes his head. Yunho isn't quite sure why.

They're silent again, then Changmin looks at Yunho again.

'Thank you," he says, and the tears are falling again.

This time, Yunho actually has enough head to wipe the tears from his face.

"Oh god," whispers Changmin through his tears, wiping his eyes. "I can't – I can't –"

Yunho feels his heart tug in worry for the boy and in annoyance of Siwon.

"Stop it, Siwon."

"We need to know."

"Give him a break!" shouts Yunho.

Siwon looks flustered, but he leaves the hospital room.

But when it's just Yunho in the room, Changmin talks.

"Do you have family?" asks Yunho.

Changmin shakes his head. "No," he whispers. "Never had one."

Yunho smiles. "Me neither," he says. Changmin looks at Yunho. "That's why I was recruited to the Agency in the first place."

Changmin puts his head down. "I lived alone since I was fourteen."

Yunho reaches for Changmin's hand and squeezes. "It's not so easy, I know," says Yunho, but he doesn't at all, because at least he's had the Agency take care of him since he was young.

"You know, I always thought it wouldn't be so bad dying," whispers Changmin. "But when I was actually there, I… I didn't want to, you know?"

Changmin looks at Yunho. "The world is really cruel, and I'd be really happy to leave it – but there are also beautiful things in the world that I don't want to leave. I don't know if you get it."

Yunho looks into Changmin's eyes and he thinks he does.

The pieces are coming together, and they have enough information for a large-scale raid.

Yunho has been asked to join them, with his shoulder almost healed now and having the most amount of information.

"We'll be going in tomorrow," says Yunho to Changmin.

"You too?" asks Changmin, looking shocked.

Yunho nods.

Changmin's lip quivers.

"Do you… Do you have to go?"

Yunho frowns. "What do you mean?"

"Can you stay?"

Yunho chuckles and brushes the bangs out of Changmin's eyes.

"Why?"

"I don't want the world to lose someone so beautiful."

Yunho is struck speechless.

He notices that Changmin's ears are red.

Yunho doesn't join them for the raid, but it's successful anyway, with the amount of information that he and Changmin were able to give.

And he's smug, because Siwon gets shot in the leg, and he's whining and groaning like mad.

He's also happy, because Changmin is doing better.

Changmin clings to Yunho like a koala, all the time, but Yunho doesn't mind.

In fact, he loves it.