Hangeng spent the rest of the night locked up in his room. Neither of them had eaten by the time Leeteuk decided to go find Heechul and bring her back to the apartment.

“Are you seriously going to make a habit of doing this?” Leeteuk asked, pulling a chair up to the small table. Heechul looked at him from the other side.

“I’ve only had one.” She answered. “I went for a walk in the park. It got cold so I came in here.”

Leeteuk had left the apartment and spent an hour looking for the woman before she could get herself into any trouble. He had found her in a nearby bar only by the fact that she was sitting at a table by the window.

“Well, that’s good to know.” He said with a comforting smile. “So what happened?” Heechul looked away for a moment, tears filling her eyes again. Leeteuk reached over and took the drink out of her hand before she could lift it to her lips. She glared at him but willingly let it go.

“I don’t even know.” She looked back at him after a moment. “I’m so confused, Leeteuk.”

“What’s there to be confused about? You love him, don’t you?” Heechul blinked and turned to look out the window without a word. After a long period of silence, Leeteuk repeated “Don’t you?” but this time with less confidence.

“I don’t know.” She whispered then added in an even lower tone, “I know I love you though.” He reached over and grabbed her hand. Heechul jerked her head back towards him, surprised by the sudden contact.

“You need to go talk with him, Heechul.” The woman tried to pull her hand back from him at the words. He refused to let her go. “You’re not going to be able to get through this until you do.” Heechul knew her best friend – if she could call him that now – was right. She would remain upset about the entire situation unless she went to talk with Hangeng and had a civilized conversation with him either to work out their differences or gain closure. But after everything that he said to her that night, talking to the man was the last thing she wanted to do. Why did Leeteuk always have to be right? Her hand tightened against his as she fought to hold back the tears.

“I don’t think I can.”

They remained in silence after that moment until they both decided it was time to leave and head back to their apartment. The entire way back, Heechul maintained some form of physical connection. It was as if she were afraid Leeteuk would disappear if that connection were to be broken. She didn’t know how much more she could take before her entire world decided to come crashing down around her. A blood curdling scream from around the corner would prove to do exactly that.

The two of them sprinted forward towards the source of the scream but froze in their tracks as soon as they rounded the corner. An all too familiar dark haired girl lay on the concrete, gasping for the air that contained her life. Ryeowook’s frightened eyes stared back at her two leaders as they approached.

“Leeteuk, call an ambulance.” But the man didn’t need to be told. He already had his phone out and was talking to the 911 operator. Heechul’s entire body was shaking as she knelt beside the youngest member of her unit, taking her head into her lap. She took one look at the wound and knew that there would be nothing that anyone could do. In just those few moments blood had pooled around the girl from the stab site. It soaked into the knees of Heechul’s jeans as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding with her jacket. At the same time, she spoke softly to the crying girl, tears rolling down her own cheeks.

“Hey, Beautiful. Shh… it’s okay.” Heechul ran her fingers through the younger girl’s hair and over her cheeks in a comforting gesture, memorizing everything of the young woman’s features as she could with the knowledge that there wasn’t much time. Ryeowook sobbed as she reached up and grabbed her hand. “Stay with me, Wookie. You’re going to be alright.” With a sob, Ryeowook’s eyes began to close.

“Ryeowook! No!” Heechul shouted. “You have to stay awake! Open your eyes!” The hand that Heechul had held so tightly in her own fell lifelessly to the ground. With that, the younger member of the unit was gone.

Heechul gasped for air as sob after sob escaped her lips. Leeteuk knelt beside her as they both cried over the lifeless body. Ryeowook had always been the quietest member and the most timid but she had been the baby and everyone cared for her as if she were their daughter. She was hardly twenty-five years old. She had joined the unit after running away from home as a young teenager and got caught up in the excitement. But now that sweet spirit was gone.

“Heechul, we have to go. We can’t be here when the cops show up.” The woman knew Leeteuk was right but she couldn’t make herself move. Her body was too heavy and would not budge. She felt as if her heart had stopped beating along with the Ryeowook’s. The freezing air was nothing compared to the coldness that enveloped her from the inside out. Leeteuk tried to help her to her feet. She was numb as she allowed him to do so and they walked back the rest of the way to the apartment, giving one last glance over their shoulders at the body they would never see again. There would be no records of a girl known as Ryeowook who had been killed that night. It was best that they all forgot about her. The reality of their situation hit them harder than it ever had.

The two had to support each other the entire way back until they finally reached the door. Hangeng had finally made his way out of his room and was sitting in the living room looking through the files they had received earlier that day and waiting on them to come back when the door swung open revealing a blood soaked Heechul supporting and being supported by a red-eyed, sobbing Leeteuk.

The woman’s face was empty and her eyes were void of all emotion. The sight sent shivers down Hangeng’s spine.

“What happened?!” He asked, standing up to walk over to the two leaders. Heechul noticed this and straightened her back, pulling Leeteuk to do the same.

“Ryeowook’s been killed.” The flat emotion in her voice matched her eyes. “She was attacked one street over. We need to warn the others. Make sure they don’t leave their homes unless they need to. It’s too dangerous now.”

Leeteuk moved to sit on the couch, trying to bring Heechul with him. She shook him off and walked into the shared bedroom. A few moments later, she came out, her arms filled with the items she could call her own and moved them into the bedroom she had called her own when she lived there with Jae. It became an unsaid agreement that she needed to be separated from the younger man at this point. There was nothing Heechul wanted more at that moment than to be alone. She would get her wish until later that night.

After hours of tossing and turning Leeteuk finally gave up trying to get any sleep that night. The image of the young woman dying before him was etched so deeply in his mind it had become impossible to ignore. He sighed as he stood up to walk into the kitchen. Maybe a drink and a smoke would calm him down. But when he walked out of the room, a light glow coming from the kitchen told him that someone had already beat him to it. It took only one guess for him to determine who.

The dim lighting that was coming from the closed off writing nook cast a deep shadow over the entire kitchen. Leeteuk could barely make out the outline of Heechul as she sat at the table, swirling a capped bottle in one hand. The other held a small, slowly blackening stick, a pack of cigarettes in front of her next to his ash tray.

“I don’t see how you can on these things. They’re disgusting.” She said flatly, filling her lungs with the black gas before blowing its remnants in his general direction.

“An acquired taste.” Leeteuk answered smartly before sliding into the chair across from her, taking a cigarette out of the pack for himself and lighting the end. The heat of the smoke numbed the heartache for just that moment. It still wasn’t enough.

“We’ve never lost anyone before. What happened this time?” Heechul started after a moment of silence.

“I don’t know. No one should have even known where we are. Not even headquarters knows our location. We ran away, remember?”

“All too well.” She answered. Their purpose for taking the unit into hiding was to keep everyone safe and to prevent things like this from happening. “So now the question is, how did they find out where we are?”

“Someone must have followed us back the last time we were at headquarters. They saw us there, recognized us, and paid attention to where we were going. That’s the only explanation I can come up with that’s logical.” Leeteuk took another breath of smoke. He watched the smoke spin patterns in the dim lights when both he and Heechul exhaled. Heechul sniffed.

“That was absolute hell.” She wiped her eyes with the side of her thumb. “In all my years of working, I have never experienced anything like that. We’ve always taken such good care of our people.”

“I know, Heechul. It’s hard.”

“I mean,” Heechul held her hands in front of her. “She died right there… in my arms.” Leeteuk could tell, even in the lack of lighting, that the woman’s eyes weren’t seeing what was truly in front of her. They were seeing everything that had happened that night. The crying face of the younger woman. The blood soaking into the concrete and clothes that were used so desperately to try to stop the bleeding.

She opened to say something else but choked on her own words, shaking uncontrollably. Leeteuk stood up and pulled the woman into his arms. The touch of someone she trusted as much as she trusted Leeteuk only broke her resolve. She broke down sobbing into his shoulder. They stood like that for an indefinite amount of time and it wasn’t until Leeteuk’s shirt was thoroughly soaked with tears and had permanent finger marks from where she had grasped onto him as tightly as she did that Heechul had finally cried herself into an unconscious state that Leeteuk wouldn’t quite call sleep. Her hands had gone limp against his back and shoulder and there was more weight leaning against him than there had been earlier.

He picked her up and started towards the kitchen door. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hangeng move quickly into his room and shut the door behind him as quietly and swiftly as possible. Leeteuk raised an eyebrow at the sight but gave it no more thought the closer he got to Heechul’s bedroom door. He swung it open and placed the woman on her bed, taking care to tuck the covers tightly around her. It had been a cold night and the last thing they needed was for anyone to get sick. When he stood up to walk out, a feeble hand jolted out from underneath the blankets and grabbed his sleeve. He looked down. Heechul’s eyes were still closed. He unraveled her fingers from the fabric and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

But as he pulled back, he heard a voice come from the woman that he had never heard before. It was weak and pleading, sounding almost childlike.

“Please…” was all she said, grasping onto his wrist this time. Her eyes, now open, bore into his as they filled with tears yet again. Leeteuk sighed, stood up to shut the door, and climbed into the bed. He made sure he too was snug under the blankets. When he felt Heechul curl up against his chest, he was finally able to fall into a restful sleep with, despite everything that had happened that night, a small contented smile on his face. At least for now, she was safe. And that was all that mattered to him.