***

A faint knock on the door broke Kyuhyun’s reverie of the past event, he walked towards the door, wore his jacket to cover his injured arm. Fortunately it was Capt.Choi who was standing outside his door, guilt all over his face.

“Can I come in?”

Kyuhyun looked at the captain’s face; he didn’t say anything but let the door open for Capt.Choi to walk in. They stood across each other; Kyuhyun sat on the edge of his bed while Capt.Choi stood in front of him awkwardly; the room suddenly became so much bigger than usual.

Capt.Choi looked around to find the right words to say. “Uhm....I am sorry. I did not know you’re an-”

“It’s okay. I would react the same if I were you.” Capt.Choi was surprised to hear the agent’s real voice for the first time. He probably already heard it during their fight but he didn’t pay attention that much. This time it was so clear and he wanted to hear it more; maybe it was just curiosity working.

“But I hurt you...”

Kyuhyun smiled “You mean this?” lifting his injured arm that had a bandage on it. “This......will heal. I got hurt a lot during mission. It’s part of my job.” I’m not sure about my heart though...

“I am still sorry.” Capt.Choi looked at him in the eye, but Kyuhyun glanced away which somehow upsetting the captain, but he did not show it. “About you knife...I can’t give it back to you.”

“Why is that so?” He said calmly and gazed softly at the captain

This time it was the captain’s turn to look away, couldn’t bear to see this new intense gaze from the doctor “I am afraid someone will find out if you keep it on your thigh. In exchange, take this.” Offering a walkie-talkie. “If you need anything, just contact me. I am on line three.”

He chuckled “Am I supposed to be honoured by this or do you still can’t trust me with my knife?” he threw the walkie-talkie to the bed, hands folded on his chest, challenging.

“You are a skilful agent; you can turn a paper into a weapon. That’s hardly my concern. I’m just trying to help while you are here.”

Kyuhyun smirked “Well... if you say so, then you should get used to the talk between medicube staffs. They thought we are dating and asked about this...” touching the small bandage on his neck. “I can’t say the truth. Can I? So I just said you were too rough.”

It was succeed to plant rose colour on the captain’s cheeks. He cleared his throat and said “As long as it helps the mission, I’ll cooperate.”

“Very well” he nodded eagerly

“Then... I shall take my leave. Good night.”

“Good night.”

***

“Captain! We found a fainted boy near the frontier, sir. We just sent him to the medicube.”

“Okay. Dismissed.” He stood up and walked fast to the medical station and found the dr.Cho was examining the boy.

“How is he?” Capt.Choi came to join dr.Cho.

“High fever, low blood pressure and cold-sweating. It looks like he got some serious infection.”

The monitor beside the bed was suddenly beeping faster showing the boy’s rapid heart rate.

“Wait, this doesn’t look like an infection. Where are this boy’s clothes when you found him?”

“Here it is Cap.” A soldier who stood outside the emergency door rushed towards them.

“This smell... this is a metal poisoning.” The Captain look back at the kid again, checked his fingernails and examined his belly. “We have to do a CT scan. I am afraid he ate some metal stuff and it got stuck somewhere in his stomach.”

“We just did a few minutes ago, the result is in process.” Dr.Cho spoke “If what you said is true, we need to do a surgery right away.”

“You don’t-" before captain finished his words, miss.Kang came holding the result of the CT scan.

“He really ate it doctor.” Miss.Kang pointed at a small strange thing in the picture. “It was small, but it could kill him if we are not fast.”

“And it can be anything...worse than just a metal thing.” Capt.Choi muttered.

“Let’s start taking this out from the kid.”

“I need to talk to you first.” Capt.Choi dragged dr.Cho out from medicube to the camp. He only stopped when they were inside dr.Cho’s bedroom.

“What the hell are you doing?” dr.Cho slapped his hand away, her wrist were red from the grip.

“You are not a doctor! I can trust you treating wounds and giving medicines, but carrying out an operation... no. This is not a playground, agent. You can’t just act like surgeon just because you are wearing a lab coat!”

“Are you insane?! You are dragging me here to stop me from helping that kid? For your information I took medical study and I perfectly know how to carry out an operation.”

“You can’t even distinguish between a fever and a metal poisoning! Do you think I will let this kid’s live falls on your hand?”

“It was a mistake, but-”

“Sorry, till the operation ends, you’ll stay in your room. That’s an order” He rushed towards the door,

“Yah! You have no right to give me orders! Bastard!” Capt.Choi didn’t even bother to look back and locked the door from the outside, leaving dr.Cho inside, raging.

When he came back to the medicube station, the staffs were waiting for dr.Cho to direct the order, but Capt.Choi said something else.

“It was unfortunate that dr.Cho got hand-mouth-foot disease, so she can’t lead the operation. I’ll let this case taken care by you, dr.Lee and dr.Kim.”

“Alright, captain. We’ll do it right away.”

***

The surgery took two hours to finish successfully, the medicube staffs sighed in relief when the patient began to breathe normally again even though he still hadn’t gain his conscious yet.

Kyuhyun heard a keys tangling sound outside his door, he stood up and waited for the door to shut open. When it was finally opened, he saw Capt.Choi’s face.

“You can come out-” before finishing his sentence, a slap landed on his cheek followed by a shove on his right side when Kyuhyun pushed him with his own body whilst he walked out through the door.

Capt.Choi was left surprised, but contrast to the anger in dr.Cho’s face; a smile crept on his face. “He really acts like a girl; even his slap is soft like a girl too.” He grinned from ear to ear while touching his own cheek.

***

“Doctor?” Miss Kang approached her who was walking inside the medicube with her lab coat. “Captain said you are sick.”

“It was just a slight cold, nothing to worry. I can work now.”

“But, Captain said..”

“Don’t believe him, he is crazy.” She said nonchalantly, taking her equipment and went down to the patient.

“Ah you two are so cute. Really really cute.” She was holding both her cheeks, giggling.

Cute my . “Okay, let’s back to work, shall we? How is the patient?”

“The operation ended successfully, we need to wait for an hour to get the anaesthetic subsides and recheck his condition.”

“If lots of kids here like eating metal stuffs, then there are more kids who have the same problem as him. We should work faster.”

“Doctor, just now the soldiers who went to the village came back empty handed, and they said the tents were all gone.”

“Gone? This is suspicious. Keep watching the other patients. I will talk to captain.”

When dr.Cho came out from the medicube station, she was feeling dizzy, something moving on her feet, he glanced down and saw the sands and gravels moving around her feet.

“Doctor! There is an earthquake! Earthquake! Move to a safe place.”

As soon as she heard that, she rushed back inside and found all the medicines had been stormed out from the selves. “Get all the patients out!” to all the staffs and they moved fast to do so.

Since there were some patients inside the medicube so they decide to push the beds out from the building to an open space. The earthquake hadn’t stopped yet, and the medicube staffs were gather outside, having each patient to take care of and the soldiers also met them there. The soldiers run toward the staffs who still pushing the bed, helping them out. In the hectic crowd, Capt.Choi tried to search dr.Cho and found her checking the IV injection of the kid who just had surgery. He didn’t know where the relieved feeling came from just to see the doctor was standing there, until he saw blood stained the sleeve of her lab coat.

He came closer to get a better view of the said doctor. “You were busy taking care of the patients that you forget your own safety.”

“Huh?”

“Your wound is opened.” He lifted the edge of her sleeve and showed her the bandages were all messed up with her blood.

“Ah...I didn’t realize it.”

They just stood there waiting for the earthquake to stop. Once the earthquake had fully stopped, the captain instructed the soldiers and medicube staffs to bring the patient back inside since; but to stay aware of other earthquake. When dr.Cho was about to push the bed again, two soldiers came to help her.

“Let us do it instead” one of the soldiers spoke.

“Be careful with the IV sling” she warned them and earned her a nod.

“We need to treat your wound.” Capt.Choi suddenly spoke from behind her back.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it later.” She intended to leave the captain, but the captain continued talking

“The earthquake was big; we don’t know how many people were injured by it. We need to get ready for the calling. You can’t help the victims if you lost so much blood.”

Dr.Cho looked at Capt.Choi, she admitted that he was right but didn’t say it aloud; so she just let him dragged by the captain inside the medicube.

Kyuhyun sat on a wooden box inside the room where they stored the drugs, it was in a mess, glass were everywhere, but Capt.Choi managed to get the things he needed to treat Kyuhyun’s wound. He rolled Kyuhyun’s sleeve and was shocked to find the bandage were all covered with blood.

“Are you always like this?” he dragged another wooden box and sat next to the doctor while taking bandage off from his skin.

“Like what?” Kyuhyun gazed questioningly.

“Like you have nine lives?” he shrugged his shoulders

“Are you always like this?” this time is Kyuhyun’s turn

“Huh?” Capt.Choi looked up

“Always compare me with a cat?” Kyuhyun said without much expression.

Capt.Choi laughed throatily “You’re funny you know.... Cute!” But cleared his throat as soon as the last word blurted from his mouth.

“If you’re done..”

“Okay. Done.” Looking proud at his work. “Ah wait...” he took a pen from Kyuhyun’s front pocket then wrote something on the bandage.

Please don’t hurt me anymore T.T

Kyuhyun was smiling inside but he wasn’t going to admit it like one thousands things he would never admit to him, so he rolled his eyes and mumbled a soft thank you.

“Hey!” Capt.Choi called him again when he was about to disappear from the door. Kyuhyun turned around. “Be careful.” He said with his earnest smile and that moment, Kyuhyun returned the smile too.

***

After the earthquake the soldiers and medicube staffs had been busy taking care all of the victims, since the hospital was far away from the camp, so the people who were living in the village near the camp were all treated in the medicube. Thankfully no one was injured too badly, yet the medicube was too small for all the patients, so some of them were treated on the spot.

When a car pulled over in front of the camp, no one took a notice since the earthquake; the gate to the camp was open for everyone. Two men came out from the car and met with miss.Lee who was surprised with the two people, their faces weren’t so friendly but they said they needed a doctor.

“What is it miss.Lee?” dr.Cho appeared from inside the medicube, she examined the men outside the car and smirked.

“They said they have a family member who was injured but is impossible to bring them here and asked one of us to come with them.”

“Ah I see... how is the victim’s condition, sir?”

“H-he was...uh he got fracture bones, blood is everywhere, you should see it by yourself, doctor. Please.” The man said.

“Dr.Cho, let just tell dr.Kim to go with them...”

“No. It’s fine. I will go with them.” Dr.Cho said smiling confidently

“But...doctor.”

“Ah, the captain might be worried. Please tell him, I will need my baby later.”

“Your what?”

But the doctor just blinked her eyes and got in the car with the two strangers.

Capt.Choi went to medicube to check if all the medicines needed were available, when he realized he didn’t see someone who was supposed to be there, he asked around till he met miss.Lee.

“Doctor went in a car with two guys who have an injured family member.”

“Did she go alone?”

“Yes Cap. I am kind of worried because the guys looked weird.”

“I see. Did she say anything else before going?”

“Yes, oh! She also said to tell you that she will need...her baby? I am not sure too why she said that.”

“I got it. Till I instruct it myself, do not let any medicube staffs went with stranger again, alright?”

“Y-yes sir... is dr.Cho in danger?”

“No one can hurt her. I will take her back. I promise.”

Capt.Choi went back to his office and contacted the doctor through walkie-talkie, there was no reply at first, but..

“dr.Cho...?”

“Hello Captain Choi Siwon.” Capt.Choi knew the voice too well “How is your chest? I spared you since I didn’t hit your vital. I bet it was getting better, especially when you have a beautiful doctor like her around, one or two wounds won’t be a problem right?”

“Do me a favour and shut up will you? Let her talk.” He said coldly.

“Captain... I think you don’t know your situation right now. I am the one who has control. You listen to me and you’ll get her alive.”

“Why would I listen to a bastard like you?”

“Like I say, I have control. Now you listen to me or I’ll send part of her bodies to you, what do you want first? Fingers? Ah...she has beautiful eyelashes too”

“What do you want?” Capt.Choi gritted his teeth from annoyance.

“Finally you understand! Give me the report this beautiful doctor is working on and also I need a chopper.”

“What report?”

“You don’t know? Let’s ask the doctor..” a sound of a strap taken off was heard  “Talk!”

“No report. They’re going to kill me anyway.” Dr.Cho said and earned her a loud slap on her cheek.

“Bastard...do not hurt her.”

“I’ll be waiting till midnight. You know where to find me, Captain.”

And the line went dead as soon as Eric said that. Eric was a special agent too like Capt.Choi. They ever worked together in a mission, but since three years ago he quitted the military and started dealing with black market, what’s worse he also deal with human trafficking. It was a fate that Capt.Choi met again in different time with different condition.

***

Dr.Cho was tied in her hands and her legs to a chair, there were some bruises on his forehead and arms.

“You are unusually attractive, doctor. It’s such a shame that we have to meet in this kind of circumstance.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” dr.Cho smirked “There’s no possible way you could match me, bastard.”

A slap

“You got a loose mouth too... do you like getting beaten so much? Huh?”

Another slap

She spit the blood from . “Do you get satisfied from beating woman?”

Another hard slap

“ you. Just tell me now where the report is!!! I can skin you alive to make you talk!” Eric pulled her hair and made her look up “You will end up beside a trash can in the place you never imagine, worn out and dying.”

“I hope your mom doesn’t hear you saying this. She will be ashamed.”

One of the gangsters came forward while giving Eric a laptop. Eric smiled and put the laptop on the table in front of dr.Cho, going through a list of something.

“This is why I like this kind of business... money never gone too far. They keep coming back. You know the feeling right doctor?” he showed a list of account numbers that had a list of amount of money beside them. “Do you want to know how much do you cost?”

“How about a million of you?” dr.Cho smirked.

He stood up abruptly and choked her neck. “You sound like a pitiful dying .” Dr.Cho couldn’t spat back because the grip on her neck was so tight that she could hardly breathe.

A broken glass heard from the right side of the room, followed by a dead gunman from one of the gangsters.

The grip on dr.Cho’s neck was released, she coughed a few times trying to get air to her lungs, during that time Eric was busy saving the laptop and put it inside his suitcase. “Cover me.” He said to his gunmen  and “You take care of her!” to the bulky man.

Despite the gunfire from inside the building, Capt.Choi and two soldiers flied inside, kicking the glass window to enter the room.

The bulky man tried to untie her from her chair but Capt.Choi came to rescue; “Do you need a hand?” Capt.Choi yelled while kicking the man down.

“I only need my baby.”

“You mean this.” Capt.Choi threw the ballistic knife to dr.Cho’s hand that was still tied to the back of the chair.

Dr.Cho tried to cut the ropes on her wrist but before he did the same with his legs, a man attack him with a knife, she backed away and ended up making both of them fall with dr.Cho below. Dr.Cho took the chance to have his hands around the man’s neck and knocked his head to the chair before rolled them down then she stuck the knife on the man’s neck.

She rolled herself off from the big man, cut the ropes on her wrist and legs. The soldiers who were with them were shocked to see how skilful dr.Cho was but he didn’t have time to comment and just instructed her to get out from the building because they intended to fire it down.

“No! Wait. Don’t” dr.Cho shook her head and sent a signal to the captain.

“Come on, let’s get you out.” Capt.Choi spoke

“There’s no use for me to be alive if the document were gone.” She whispered close to the captain, it surprised him but Capt.Choi knew what the doctor meant.

“Sir? We are waiting for your mark.” Said someone on his ear.

“You all get out now. I’ll take care of something first. And no fire till I said so.”

“But what about dr.Cho?” said one of the soldiers in the room. “Shouldn’t she follow us as well?”

“No...I’m fine. I mean. They got something and I am the only one who knows what it is...”

Capt.Choi nodded to the soldiers as they were leaving the building. He then held Kyuhyun’s arm and both of them were running through the hall, searching for Eric who got away during the fight.

When Kyuhyun passed a door, someone tripped his leg and made him fall, but Capt.Choi was faster to catch his wrist with his left hand before falling and pulled him to his embrace, at the same time fire two times with his other hand.

“Nice catch.” Kyuhyun whispered and straightened up. “Move.” He turned Captain around to avoid another shot from their side while launching the blade of his knife to the gunman, it stuck on his throat.

“Geez...that must be hurt badly.” Capt.Choi mumbled.

“And dirty my baby.” Kyuhyun said while retrieving the blade from the gunman’s neck.

“Cap, we saw a man with a suitcase on the rooftop.” Another voice on his ear.

“Shot’em and take the suitcase.”

“Done, Cap!” The man on the line continued “The computer is in the safe place. We should get out fast.”

They ran down to the level one to meet the others, but when they stepped on the stairs, the old building was shaking.

“Wait. I told you to fire on my mark.”

“We haven’t made any move, Cap.” Yet the shaking didn’t stop and it even got stronger and stronger.

“It’s an earthquake.” The ceiling above them started to fall down, peppering them with dust which blocked their visions. Capt.Choi reached his hand to hold Kyuhyun’s hand and helped them got out from the wreck. “Stay with me.”

“Cap...you should get out faster. The building is falling apart”

“Cap...We’ll get inside.”

“No. Stay outside.”

“But... sir...”

One of the pillars went down just a meter away from them, blocking their way. When the other pillar started to fall just in front of them, Capt.Choi pulled Kyuhyun close to his chest and protected his body with his. The loud thud was heard followed by a series of falling wreckage before everything went silent.

Capt.Choi woke up with a massive headache and numb legs. He cleared his vision to find that his head was resting on Kyuhyun’s chest. Kyuhyun’s arm still lingered securely around his neck. He could see all of their bodies were covered in dust. He checked the doctor’s vital sign and was relieved that he was still breathing.

He coughed a few times while wiped the dust from his face and tried to sit up. Only when he tried to help the agent he realized that there was so much blood coming from the back of Kyuhyun’s head.

“” knowing that the doctor saved him by let her body fell first to the ground. “Hey...dr.Cho...can you hear me? Hey.... wake up...dr.Cho”

“No need to call me that when we’re alone.” Kyuhyun hissed in pain

“You just scared the hell out of me and now you try to be funny.” Capt.Choi searched for something on his pocket. He took out a haemostatic patch and put it on the wound on Kyuhyun’s head.

“It will stop the bleeding.”

“I know how a haemostatic patch works.” He mumbled despite his hoarse voice. “When will you ever believe that I also took medical class before...”

Capt.Choi didn’t reply to that comment, he his walkie-talkie trying to contact the other soldiers outside but the line didn’t work. “We have to get out of this place.”

“I really want to, but we just fell to the basement and this building has 11 levels above us.” Kyuhyun coughed again so Capt.Choi helped him to sit up and gathered him in his arms, he looked so fragile in his hands. “We can’t even stand up in this tiny little space.” he chuckled.

Capt.Choi tried to kick the block close to his leg, but to no available, they were stuck in between a huge blocks, there was no way they could push the blocks away.

“I will get us out from here. They will come to help us. The only thing you need to do is stay with me.”

He sighed “If we both survive, I will tell you who I really am.”

“Such an enticing promise. What about you let me know your name first?”

“My name?”

“Yeah...I am curious with the name of someone who can kick a 180 pounds man down with both hands and legs tied to a chair.”

Kyuhyun chuckled, he closed his eyes, smiling “Kyuhyun, my name is Kyuhyun.”

“Kyuhyun...”Capt.Choi recited. “How old are you? Ah don’t answer. You must be younger than me. So from now on, you should call me hyung.”

“What if I want to call you honey instead?”

“Ya!” Capt.Choi was about to yell, but he thought better after seeing the agent was in pain.

“Please entertain me. This pain is throbbing hard.”

Capt.Choi couldn’t bear to watch the agent enduring his pain “What do you want me to do?”

“Tell me about your wound on your chest.”

“I thought you wanted me to tell you joke.”

“Who knows I might think your story is funny.”

“Eric was a captain from other team. We used to work together. I saved his life once during a mission, he was a friend. It seemed like he quitted military and become a drug dealer and smuggler.”

“So you met him recently.”

“Yeah. When I went to check the village over the hills, there was a group of people who attacked me. He suddenly appeared. He shot me.”

“.” Kyuhyun  shivered a little. Seeing that Capt.Choi took off his outer shirt and cover Kyuhyun’s body with it. “You are so sweet.” Kyuhyun muttered weakly “Must be happy to date someone like you.”

“Then you should introduce me to your sister...”

“My sister?” he opened his eyes a bit.

“Do you think I wouldn’t know... your name and her name... You two are very alike, they don’t happen a lot unless you are twins. But when I looked at her file, her brother dead at young age.”

“Hm... Do you like her?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe when we meet, I’ll figure it out.”

“Alright. I'll introduce her later.”

“Anyway, your voice is very charming.” Capt.Choi said held the agent closer, the latter only smiled with his eyes closed but never replied the compliment.

The night was so quiet, it was either their breathing or the Captain tried to check Kyuhyun’s condition. Once in a while he would ask Kyuhyun, afraid that Kyuhyun would be gone in his sleep.

Till a light came through a small hall on top of their heads. Capt.Choi could hear a sound of steps echoing.

“Help! We are here!”

Two ambulances were there in front of the wrecked building once they were outside. Both of them were carried to a different ambulances, Capt.Choi was too exhausted to ask, but he still turned to look at the sleeping agent was carried to the other ambulance, then he fainted.

***

He woke up with numb hands and feeling dizzy all over his head. He tried to sit up, but someone who looked like one of his soldiers stopped him.

“Sir...”

“Where am I? How long did I sleep?”

“You’re back at the camp sir. Not too long. You weren’t injured too badly, just fainted from exhaustion.”

“Where is Ky—I mean dr.Cho?”

“Dr.Cho was brought back to Seoul.”

He sat up abruptly hearing the news. “What? Seoul?”

“Yes  sir, Comm. Kim alone took dr.Cho back to Seoul. It seemed like dr.Cho was injured badly.”

Then it got to his head, it was a better solution for Kyuhyun to be back to Seoul rather than staying here for his treatment, not only for his injured head but also for his identity.

“The suitcase?”

“I am not sure sir. It seems like it was already taken care by Commander too.”

“I see. Thanks.”

***

It was a two weeks after, Capt.Choi was already back to his old self, ready for the work to protect the country. It had been a rough weekend for him, ever since that day he woke up and didn’t see Kyuhyun beside him, he was worried, he wanted to know about the agent’s condition, but he didn’t get any info nor did he know how to get contact to the agent.

That day when he was busy with a pile of reports in his office, he got a call from the base, telling him to prepare himself to fetch dr.Cho from the airport. His heart was pulsating faster to hear the news, he ordered his soldiers to get ready as soon as the call ended and rushed to the airport.

He waited impatiently at the terminal building of the airport, once the plane landed safely, he couldn’t help but fasten his pace to meet the doctor again. He stood there with two of his soldiers on his sides, welcoming the doctor.

He was so ready to say ‘welcome back’ or ‘how’s your head?’ to dr.Cho, unless what he met was not the one he hoped for, it was not someone who got a bad injured head from saving his live, not the one who kissed him goodnight. He could tell it on the first glance.

Because dr.Cho was back, but not Kyuhyun...

TBC.

Next chapter will be the finale chapter...

regards,

Serena H