Disclaimer: I don't own DotS.

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Yoo Si Jin rarely, if ever, feels scared during the past decade that he has been serving in the Special Forces. If anything, an endless lecture (full of spit and death glares) from his Commander Battalion Park Byung Soo, or having to write a report as thick as a bible in A4 paper after conducting misbehaviour, scares him more than a C4 or an RDX.

Sergeant Major Seo would readily agree with him.

If he has to be honest though, the only time he ever truly felt scared is during that time when he got promoted into a lieutenant and the next thing he knew, his father had called him and told him that his mother got into a car accident and that she was pronounced dead at the scene. It was a hit-and-run, but they managed to catch the perpetrator a few days after. He had drunk himself senseless and tried to numb himself from the pain. He should have been better to her. He should have spent more time with her. He hasn’t even done anything for her as a son. He felt and saw all his achievements crumbled into nothing without the mother that would praise him with a pat on his head telling how proud she was for giving birth to such a capable son.

But then he saw his father—he saw his resolve and the way his father steeled himself even when the love of his life had left him. When he met his father’s eyes the first time after weeks of grieving and silence between them, he saw the pain, the loneliness, but he also saw the determination to keep on going.

“She would have beaten you and I like crazy if we don't pull ourselves together,” his father had said, cracking a bittersweet smile, “she visited me yesterday. In my dream. She threatened to strangle me in the afterlife if I didn’t snap out of my stupor. And she said to tell you that she loves you and that you look good in your new uniform.”

He cried again that day, but he promised himself that after this brief moment of weakness he would stop whining and properly do his job. Protecting children, the elderly, and beauties. He would not forget his motto. He is a soldier of the Republic of Korea and he will make his mother in heaven proud.

However, nothing, not one thing in his life could ever prepare him for the cold dread that spread over his being in less than a millisecond when Sergeant Choi told him through the radio that a shooting spree broke out at Haesung Hospital and that a doctor and a nurse are taken as hostages. Si Jin has never been particularly religious, but as his team rushes to the scene, he prays to all the gods and magical beings out there to protect the love of his life—to protect his beautiful, amazing Dr. Kang who has accepted him for all that he is; his extra baggage of being a soldier and the limited time he could give her—from all the possible dangers and threats. When the image of a bullet piercing through her heart suddenly comes to his mind, he almost loses his cool and abandons all tactics and strategic plans just to rush through the double door, but Sergeant Major Seo grabs his wrist and gives him a solemn look. Si Jin knows what he is trying to say. They never give any information as to who the hostages are. The probability of Dr. Kang being the hostage is relatively small considering the number of doctors that work at Haesung Hospital. Besides, she works in the emergency department which is located in the right wing. He is sure Sergeant Choi has told him that the shooting takes place in the opposite building.

At least, that is what he has been telling himself for the past hour. It’s the only thing that gives him hope, and God knows he is barely holding onto whatever is left of his rationality. This feels like Urk and Argus all over again.

So imagine his surprise (or maybe not because she is Kang Mo Yeon and he is Yoo Si Jin and they are the blockbuster couple) when his team clears the second floor and as they are about to march through the hall that connects the two buildings of Haesung Hospital, he sees her less than five meters in the vicinity of the shooters and the two hostages, raising both of her hands up in surrender. For a brief moment, their gazes lock and he sees the relief that pass through her eyes. The only comfort that he can take from the given situation is that she is not one of the hostages, but the fact that she has a gun directly pointed at her head is not doing his rattled nerves any good.

Nor his sanity, he seethes silently in his mind, what is that woman doing here anyways. Isn’t she supposed to be on the other side of the building?

She sends him an apologetic look, as if saying, I’m sorry for making you worry.

He scoffs again internally. She’s sorry? Let’s see how sorry she is later when he decides what to do with her.

But their silent conversation is immediately interrupted when a child suddenly breaks out of his mother’s hold, and one of the shooters, who is holding a male doctor by his neck as a hostage, clicks his tongue in annoyance and directs the gun at the child. “Oi, brat, stop running around or I will shoot a hole through your head.”

“Chaebal, ahjussi,” the mother of the child pleads, “please spare him. He doesn’t know what he is doing.” Then she turns to her now crying son who is trembling from having a gun pointed at him, “Hae jin-ah, please, stop running and stay there silently. Don’t trouble these two people, arasseo? Omma promises to buy you an ice-cream later if you be a good boy. It’s alright. The good people there are going to save all of us. Everything is going to be fine. ”

The man snorts and tilts his head mockingly. “Ibwa, ahjumma. There will be no ‘later’ if none of you hospital staffs are willing to take us to the Director’s office. Don’t be too optimistic.” As if to prove his point, he tightens his grip on the male doctor’s neck, almost to the point of choking him, and sends the Alpha team a smirk as his gaze fleets between the hostages and Mo Yeon. “Besides, I think we have the upper hand here. With the hostages and this hospital’s star surgeon on our hands, they can’t do anything to hurt us. Or they will find more than one dead body at the end of the day.”

Si Jin can feel his men tense up, but he knows they know better than to get their feathers ruffled by the mindless taunts of the enemy. It is something that has been ingrained in their mind during their training in the academy. Although the current situation doesn’t look too good, he knows they have the upper hand. What these shooters don’t know is that they are not facing just any people, they are facing the Alpha team of the Special Forces—the team that consists the best of the best soldiers in South Korea. And he would like to keep it that way for now. Better to make the shooters think they are nothing but normal back-ups and that they are cornered when in fact hundreds of police are stationed outside of the hospital and there is basically no way for these two people to escape once his team manages to apprehend them.

But with every plan, there is always a slight chance that it is going to fall through.

This situation shouldn’t be too difficult considering he and his team have been through a lot more than a simple shooting spree. He would like to think that facing Argus and saving Mo Yeon from the mansion that night proved to be a harder mission to accomplish. Key words: would like. Reality is, Argus isn’t mentally unstable nor is he a patient suffering from Schizophrenia that just escaped from the mental ward. He understands how his mind works.

With an enemy like these two people, however, the slightest agitations would drive them into a corner and react violently.

And the next moment proves Si Jin’s worries.

The child, who is now scared beyond his wits, starts to cry even louder and seems to find the ability to walk again as he tries to run to where his mother is, “Omma, save me! Ahjussi is so scary. Nappeun ahjussi! Baldy ahjussi!”

The shooter’s face—Park Joon Soo, from what Si Jin could read from the label sewn onto his patient gown—turns red in anger and he pulls the slide of his semi-automatic pistol, ready to murder the child in cold blood. “It seems your son needs a plug to stop his overflowing chatty mouth.” He sneers and aims at the child’s head, ready to shoot, “I’ll give him just what he needs. Say goodbye to your mommy, brat.”

And then everything rolls by in a slow motion.

He remembers Mo Yeon ducking and her throwing one of her platform heels at the other shooter. Then in less than a second, she throws herself in front of the trembling child, enveloping him in a tight hug with her back facing Park Joon Soo and her face, clearly painted with fear but with courage blazing in both of her eyes, is directly in his line of vision and he watches, not being able to do anything, as the bullet from Park Joon Soo’s pistol hit her on her back.

Bang.

A single shot.

He watches, slowly, as the impact of the bullet pushes her forward.

He watches, slowly, as her eyes meet his and they say so many things and one of them is I’m sorry, and then they flutter close.

He watches, slowly, as she falls on top of the crying child, and there’s blood marring her white coat.

He watches, slowly, as the blood starts to pool around her body and staining the white tiles of the hospital.

Then he stops watching.

Adrenaline pumps through his system, his heart pounding loudly and there is a ringing on his ear when his trained body automatically launches forward as soon as he sees an opening at Park Joon Soo’s right side, sending a debilitating kick and a hit at the back of his neck that causes him to topple forward in unconsciousness. The doctor who’s previously taken as hostage scrambles away fr