“Sniper!!!!!”

Before he could understand what Eunhyuk had shouted, or even what happened, Donghae found himself on the ground, his partner on him. Things happened so fast… his ears were still ringing from the loud noise of the shot, and a few meters from him he could see a body on the ground, losing all his blood. Henry…

They’ve waited a bit, Eunhyuk making sure they wouldn’t be shot, then he turned to Donghae.

“Can you untie me?” he pressed him.

Confused and half functional, Donghae was able to undo the rope around Eunhyuk’s wrists. Once he was done the detective jumped on his feet and ran outside the room.

“I’ll be back for you.” he yelled to Donghae.

At this moment the brunet wasn’t even wondering where he was going… the only thing he could see was the bloody body in front of him… With some effort, he crawled to it. Henry was shot, they had to help him! Even if he was a killer, they promised… They had to help him! He turned the body, and what he saw, he knew that even without hypermnesia, that image would hunt him until the end of his days. The bullet went through his brain, a small hole in the middle of his forehead, precise and deadly. In contrast, Henry’s face was so peaceful… He didn’t seem surprised, his tears still drying on his cheeks; on the contrary it was as if he accepted the reality of his death even before it came to him. But still… he was so young…

Donghae took him on his tights, and silently cried. They couldn’t save him… When he was just about to surrender himself, when he was about to atone for his crimes, to his brother, just when they were about to know who the Classic killer was…

The brunet heard footsteps back in the room, and he raised his head to see Eunhyuk coming back, short of breath and shaking his head.

“I wasn’t fast enough…! When I got there he had already flee. But I saw the sniper tripod’s marks on the ground.”

Donghae didn’t say anything and continued crying on the poor kid’s body.

“How could he…” Eunhyuk said his voice cracking. “There’s only a small window, the shot was almost impossible to be done…”

His heart ached even more, being reminded of how powerless they were. The brunet tried hard to contain it, but a small sob escaped his lips. He hated being so weak but everything that happened these past days, he felt so sorry for Henry… and Changmin… Donghae was crying for everything and for the pain of his body that ached more and more. Eunhyuk’s attention was reported to him. He kneeled in front of him and carefully untied him. Ten without letting go of his hands, he pressed the brunet to get up and let go of Henry. Like a puppet Donghae followed him.

“Can you walk?”

Donghae nodded.

“Good! We have to get out of here.”

“We can’t leave him here!”

Donghae hated the idea of abandoning the boy like this, in that awful place.

“We can’t do anything more for him… As soon as we’re safe I’ll send someone here for him.”

“We can’t leave him…” he repeated.

His voice broke, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to leave Henry like this. No matter who he was, he had been for a while their dongsaeng, and Donghae just couldn’t forget it that easily. He heard Eunhyuk sigh next to him, but his eyes stayed focused on the ground.

“I can’t leave you alone here… maybe the killer will come back. Even if I think that if he wanted to kill us he already would have.”

It was a good point… then why didn’t he? Why only Henry? The thought that he “knew too much” came to mind. So it was him who silenced Henry…

“Hae…” Eunhyuk lightly squeezed his hand. “We have to go now… We have to call the Captain.”

Reluctantly, the brunet followed him outside. They didn’t know how long they stayed inside the building but outside it was still dark. Without a cellphone of even a lantern to see in front of them, Eunhyuk took his hand and pulled him carefully through the forest. Because there were only trees around them, this place was probably an old abandoned warehouse, lost in the middle of the forest. Donghae let himself be guided, he couldn’t do anything else anyway; he was too much in shock. After what seemed a few minutes, they arrived at a highway. Eunhyuk was able to stop one of the cars passing by and they took a ride to the nearest hospital. Eunhyuk took care to wrap Donghae with his coat, because he was covered in blood, they didn’t want to scare the kind person helping them.

Once at the hospital, seeing in what state they both were, they were admitted to the ER. Donghae was sitting on one of the hospital’s bed while the nurses worked on him. They put some sort of cast around his injured shoulder and his arm, so he wouldn’t move it too much. In front of him, Eunhyuk refused treatment and instead, was impatient to go find a phone cabin to call on their boss as quickly as possible. He was going to leave the room when the brunet grabbed his arm. It was a reflex, one he should’ve refrained… but right now he couldn’t care less.

“Don’t leave me…” he pleaded.

In his state right now he didn’t want to be alone. Understanding him, the detective didn’t say a word and took his hand in his. He stayed standing there next to Donghae, while he was being patched up. Eventually he asked one of the doctors to lend him a cellphone, which they kindly did. Donghae was so dizzy that he only listened to half of the conversation between Eunhyuk and Kangin, but from what he could understand when their phone call was cut, they had dispatched a patrol and found the site of the accident. Apparently they were missing for a couple of hours. Once the detective was done he hung up and turned to Donghae.

“Kangin and the others are coming.”

“That’s a relief… You should get treatment too.”

Eunhyuk shook his head.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not…”

Neither of them was fine, as much physically as emotionally. Letting out a sigh, Eunhyuk finally let the doctors take a look at him, without ever letting go of Donghae’s hand. Apparently, other than his dislocated shoulder, the brunet always had a few broken ribs and also needed stiches on the forehead, were he hit the window. Eunhyuk too needed a few stiches, especially on his arm where he was cut by the broken glass of the accident. And also… Donghae hadn’t noticed it, but the same bullet that killed Henry had also touched Eunhyuk. It left a bloody powder trace on his abdomen, which was sued very carefully by the nurse. Donghae didn’t even notice in how much pain he must’ve be