The sound of plastic and metal crashing it’s way through the tree branches was clear and distinct. Birds emerged from the treetops in a clusters, squawking in displeasure after being rude awoken from their sleep, their squawks muffling the sound of the soft thump made when both guns hit the ground.

“Go.” Eunhyuk sneered, taking off into the thicket.

Yuri followed suit, running in the direction where she had heard the gun fall on the ground, her fantastic sense of direction paired with her ability to see well in the dark giving her an extra edge in the darkness. “Don’t get cocky, Kwon Yuri,” a voice trailed off somewhere on Yuri’s right, causing her to be on full alert as she scanned the immediate area for any sign of movement.

Eunhyuk was right; she wasn’t the only one with good vision. A rustle emerged from her left and Yuri imediately bent down and crawled on all fours towards the nearest bush to take refuge. Even with her superb vision, she could barely make out the shape of a human prowling through the shadows. Her only hint was the occasional snap of branches or rustle of leaves in a nearby bush. Sometimes, she could’ve even sworn that Eunhyuk had brushed past her back. “Why do you hate me so much?” Yuri asked aloud, knowing that giving away her position was the stupid but it was the only way to stall Eunhyuk while she searched for her gun.

“Stop asking the obvious Yuri…” Eunhyuk said, his volume varying unusually, “You know what you did that made me hate you.”

“What is with his voice?” Yuri thought to herself as she tried even harder to stall for time when she noticed a few thin branches lying on the floor. “I told you, I tried. I held on for as long as possible, I cried for help, you heard it too.” She insisted stubbornly.

“You left me to die.” Eunhyuk hissed, his voice suddenly emerging from both directions.

“I went down to look for you but I couldn’t find you!” Yuri rebutted, “I came back by bus after the instructors forced me to go home. I searched for days, Eunhyuk!”

“Liar. I was in the cave under the cliff, my leg…”

There was a few moments of silence, moments where the forest had suddenly fell strangely silent apart from the cackling of leaves when they were crushed under Yuri’s foot. “I waited for you. But I never heard you shouting for me so stop lying!”

“His volume is too abnormal. He’s voice is too loud. Something isn’t right… But what?” Yuri asked herself.

“I swear I did!” she defended, “I spent five days out here finding you but I just couldn’t find you! Where did you go? What happened to your leg?”

“SHUT UP!” Eunhyuk yelled, taking some time to simmer down before  talking back to Yuri in a more collected, but equally angry voice, “You never came for me. My leg was broken when it hit against a rock on the way down. I…I…”

“I meant to find you, Eunhyuk!”

“I amputated my own leg,” he confessed, “You! You made me amputate my own leg! If you had treated me asa friend and came for me, this wouldn’t have had to happen!”

Yuri’s legs immediately gave way and she fell back on the floor, speechless.

“Wha…” she stuttered over and over again, unable to accept the consequence of her actions that night. “What the ?” she blurted out, “Didn’t… didn’t your leg heal?”

Yuri could hear nothing but a faint sob in front of her. “Eunhyuk…” she called out, shame and guilt overwhelming her, fuelling her legs to stand. But when she stood up, she didn’t move. She simply stood there, unsure of what to do and uncertain of whether she was doing something right or not.

“What am I doing?” she asked herself, looking up as the full moon gradually disappeared behind the ever growing cumulus that gave the the pitch black skies an eerie purple tint to it.

Am I even supposed to be doing this? I destroyed his life, but he’s trying to kill me. I hear something. Sounds like footsteps.

So, I’m just gonna die here. By the hands of someone I used to call my best friend.

I didn’t betray him. I don’t deserve this fate.

But I couldn’t save him either.

My hands, they’re trembling. Of course.. Everyone fear death, I’m no exception.

Wait a minute. This feelinng.. This isn’t the fear of death.

It’s Eunhyuk’s prescence. I should’ve known. I was always afraid of him for some unknown reason. Even when we were still trainees.

“Hey!”I heard someone yell at me and two second later, I was lying face flat on the floor after having received a painful kick to the back.

“What’s this loser doing here?” the obnoxious bully laughed kicking the side of my stomach  as I tried to stand up, but to no avail after receiving the third kick to my abdomen.

“Go home you stupid , you don’t deserve to be part of the first class!” Minho snickered, sending another kick my way.

“I don’t want to hear.. Umf.. Someone of your caliber insulting me.” I said in between coughs as I dodged the next kick just in time by pushing myself away but Minho immediately caught me.

He held me up by the collar. I kicked his shin and saw nothing more than a flinch. “Say it again,”he said coldly as he tightened his grip on my collar, causing me to choke a little.

“I said, I don’t want someone of your caliber insulting me.” I wheezed, bracing my self for impact as I shut my eyes and prepared for the worst.

“Why you.. I’m gonna punch your face till it caves in, punk!” I heard Minho yell in anger, sending a punch flying my way, but instead of feeling the pain on my face, all I felt after three seconds was the small gust of wind that followed his punch.

“No pain?” I thought to myself, confused.

“Let.. Go of me!”

“What?” I muttered as I opened my eyes, only to see Minho’s fist just mere inches away from my face. Strangely, his fist was trembling; not in fear but from over exertion.

“Let her go, Minho.” Someone else instructed in an authoriative tone.

“How about this: I’ll give you a spoon so that you can eat my .” Minho retorted.

However, in a matter of seconds, my savior had Minho’s face under his foot and his arm in a position such that it looked like it would break anytime. Minho was in agony, screaming hysterically as he tried to break free, only to realize that he would be in much lesser pain if he didn’t move. “I told you to let her go, now didn’t I?” he asked.

“Shut the up and let me go!” Minho yelled resentfully,grunting in pain when the blonde haired trainee let his arm go.

“Let’s go!” Minho barked, gesturing for his clique to follow him as he swung his arm in circles to get the blood circulating again. “in’ son of a ,” I heard Minho growl as he swiftly walked across the corridor to avoid being humiliated by others.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” I replied meeking,unsure as to why I had no guts to look at my benefactor eye to eye.

There was something in his eyes when he looked at Minho eye to eye. It was foreign to me. I didn’t like foreign things.

In my desperation to get away from him, I tried to stand despite being extremely brittle after taking a merciless onslaught from the school’s biggest oppressor other than my cadet officer.

Immediately, I fell to the floor, gasping in pain as I clutched the side of my stomach. It was there and then where I out.

I remember having a dream. A dream where I was the best cop in Seoul and I had countless medals and awards lined up in my trophy case and all over my living room wall like game in a hunter’s home. I was up on stage, receiving yet another medal from the President when suddenly, my bubble burst.

I was rudely awoken by the sound of someone laughing out aloud. “Oh sorry. Did I wake you?” the voice asked.

I remained silent, partly because I didn’t want to talk to someone whom I couldn’t see clearly, and partly was also because my head was still spinning out of control and I soon found myself staring back up at the ceiling of the academy’s infirmary again. “Hey.” He called out to me.

I knew he was trying to be friendly, but his words came out as a bark and that startled me a little. “Sorry.” He said,”What’s your name?”

“Y-yuri.” I stuttered.

The next few weeks passed quickly as I went to class with Eunhyuk, gradually becoming friends with him. He wasn’t as scary as the time when he saved me anymore, in fact, I think I was starting to like him. But things changed one day during a game of hide-and-seek.

We invented this new game of two person hide-and-seek. Basically we had to put our guns in ziploc bags and fling them in a random direction, then judge the position where it landed with our ears. The first objective of the game was to find your gun. The second, was to sneak up on the other party and force them to surrender.

Naturally, none of won the first game and we ended up giving up after a whole afternoon of playing hide-and-seek, but as time went by, we started to get the hang of the game.

I won a few times in a row, managing to sneak up on Eunhyuk for a surprise attack, but by the fifth time, when we started wagering a little higher than meals, Eunhyuk won all the way. But there was just this once. Just once, when he found me, there was this deranged look in his eyes as he pointed the empty gun barrel in between my eyes. I could’ve sworn I even saw him squeeze the trigger before he finally lowered his gun. “You lose,” he panted, his forehead glistening in the late evening sunlight as he caught his breath while I tried to catch my own.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“No. You’re not the Eunhyuk I know.” Yuri said to herself, not even flinching when she felt herself kick something hard on the ground.

She slowly bent down, picking up the gun that was lying on the ground, unlocking the ziploc bag before picking up the gun. “You’re not the Eunhyuk I know. The Eunhyuk I knew was kind. He was gentle, funny, and never would he haveheld any intention to kill me. But I understand that that Eunhyuk is dead now,” she said aloud, sighing before she continued, “At least, to me, he’s already dead.”

“What’re you going to do? Kill me again?” Eunhyuk laughed sarcastically.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work; Yuri was now completely serious. “To me,” Yuri said emotionlessly as she loaded the gun, “You were already dead three years ago.”

“Why don’t you try and find me then?” he taunted.

Yuri paused for a moment before punching the tree next to her, glaring up ahead when she felt her fist crush something metallic. “Then why don’t you stop hiding?” she said through her gritted teeth.

Eunhyuk smirked, breathing his mini microphone which was connected to the tens of tiny speakers that were planted all over the area. “I never said I was going to play fair, now did I?” he whispered, giggling uncontrollably as peered at Yuri through a pair of night binoculars, casually flinging a rock near her and smiling to himself as he watched her startled expression.

Yuri crouched down to examine the rock. She noticed nothing unusual about the rock, but the stone had left clear indentations in the soil where it had come into contact with. “This rock was thrown. He’s toying with me, that means he probably can see me very well from where ever he is.” Yuri thought as she remained hidden in the cover of a small bush.

“Where are you, Yuri~” Eunhyuk mused to himself as he continued to look through his binoculars, scanning the immediate area over and over until he saw movement.

“Found you.” He smiled to himself as he readied another rock, “I’m gonna play with you until y—What the ? Where’s she going?”

“He couldn’t have planted all these speakers all over the forest. It’s impossible for me to find the generator powering all these speakers in this light but if I can just lure him out of his comfort zone…”

“It’ll be a fair battle and your chances of winning will be increased huh?” Eunhyuk said to himself, following the sound of Yuri’s footsteps closely, “You can try. But you’ll never catch me.”

“One, two. One, two. One, two.” Yuri mumbled to herself as she paced her own jogging, treading quietly on the tips of her toes so minimize noise while listening out for the sound of waves; the softer the sound of the waves, the further she was from the coast and that meant she was also further from Eunhyuk’s speakers.

Little by little, she could noticeably hear the sound of waves become softer and softer until they completely vanished. Now, it was just her and Eunhyuk.

“You ready to play, Yuri?” Eunhyuk’s voice came from a short distance away.

Yuri didn’t reply, knowing that one of the core rules of the game was to avoid giving your own position away, but the fact that Eunhyuk was here was giving her a slight bit of confidence that her plan was obviously working. A large tree acted as her cover while she caught her breath, breathing in and out as silently as she could to avoid detection; the slightest bit of noise would give her opponent a fix on her position and since she couldn’t be sure if he was playing fair or not, she would probably be dead in seconds if he pinpointed her location. “What’s the matter Yuri? Didn’t you want to play?” Eunhyuk called out.

“Looks like he doesn’t know where I am. Still have to be cautious though, if he’s showing such arrogance, it just means that he’s probably wearing night vision glasses of some sort.”

Stealthily, Yuri moved through the darkness, crouching down and crawling across the floor on all fours to avoid being seen. Every few minutes, she would be able to catch a glimpse of Eunhyuk over the bush and once in a while, she would feel small indentations in the ground, showing her the tracks she needed to follow and sneak up on him. But nothing seemed to be of any use since a head-on attack would be stupid and many of her previous attempts to sneak up on him three years ago had failed terribly, often ending up with her going home with a bloody nose. “It’s all or nothing I guess.” She thought to herself as she glanced over the bush once more, only to have drop agape when she saw Eunhyuk standing a couple of metres away from her with his back turned towards her. “Like a sitting duck.” She smiled to herself, “But… This seems to easy. It’s almost as if he w—“

A small buzzing sound came from Yuri’s pocket, barely loud enough even for her to hear. With her brightness stopped down to the dimmest setting, she took out her phone and to her surprise, Jessica had sent her a message.

From : Jessica

Yuweee~ I thought you might not have had dinner and I don’t want you to stay out so late so I bought dinner for you. It’s your favourite~ Come back soon alright? Yurin already fell asleep after having her dinner and I’m bored as hell in here.

“Jessi..”

All thoughts of doubt instantly left Yuri’s head and she recalled her reason for responding to Eunhyuk’s challenge; she needed to get the rings back, no matter what the cost. “You’ve got this. You’ve been for special ops training before, Eunhyuk hasn’t. The ball is in your court.” Yuri reassured herself, taking a deep breath and confirming Eunhyuk’s location once more before she moved out.

Yuri moved swiftly from cover to cover, treading softly on the ground while avoiding fallen tree branches like a superstitious man avoiding cracks on a pavement. The fact that she was now barely three metres away from Eunhyuk caused Yuri’s heart to beat faster. She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her blood, causing her to feel slightly light-headed. She didn’t dare to get distracted, she didn’t dare to blink, for a moment’s loss of concentration would be disastrous. Inch by inch, she closed the gap between herself and Eunhyuk but all of a sudden, Eunhyuk made a sprint for the  largest tree in the vicinity which was no farther than ten metres away.

Yuri stood there in her crouched position, fell agape and without a moment’s hestitation, she ran towards the tree, pulling her gun out in the process. Her gun trembled in her hands when she realized that Eunhyuk wasn’t behind the tree. She took a moment to register that fact before she felt someone’s prescence behind her, but before she could turn around, she felt the barrel of a gun nudging the back of her head. “Don’t move.” A voice, colder and harder than cold steel commanded her, “Lower your gun.”

“Tch.” Yuri spat as she complied.

“You lost,” Eunhyuk said, giggling as he jabbed Yuri’s head with his gun, “You lost, Kwon Yuri. You were never better than me and you never will be!”

“No I haven’t.” Yuri growled as she sent backthrust towards Eunhyuk’s chest, but the attack was futile as Eunhyuk easily saw through the attack, grabbing Yuri’s leg and throwing her off balance before she could even land the kick on him.

“Pathetic.” He spat as he gave her stomach a hard stomp, making Yuri writhe in agony.

Yuri lay on the ground, motionless as she awaited her inevitable doom. Her vision was getting blurry from the heavy blow she received and breathing was getting heavier and heavier. “I don’t want to die like this.” She said to herself as she reached out for the necklace that was dangling from Eunhyuk’s pocket.

“Neck…lace.” She said in a painful whimper, “Please.”

Ignoring her pleas, Eunhyuk cruelly stepped on Yuri’s hand, threatening to crush her wrist as he slowly applied more and more force on his foot. Only Yuri’s cries of anguish and pain filled the air until her voice faded away from the lack of water. “This leg,” he said, pointing to the leg that was crushing Yuri’s wrist, “Was the one that you made me lose. Now, I’m gonna make you feel the same.”

“If I put a bullet through your elbow and shoulder, you’ll probably lose this arm now won’t you?” Eunhyuk sneered, loading his gun and pointing it directly as Yuri’s elbow. “Any last words to say to your right arm?” he asked.

Yuri, who was barely conscious, could only make vain attempts to push Eunhyuk’s leg away. “Don’t.” she muttered softly, “Don’t touch me.”

Eunhyuk scoffed one last time as he aimed the gun at Yuri’s arm. “Time to say goodbye to your arm.” He said coldly as he started squeezing the trigger slowly.

It was at that moment when he squeezed the trigger that a sharp pain pierced his arm. Natural reflexes kicked in and the trajectory of the bullet was altered towards the ground behind Yuri. “What the ?!” Eunhyuk screamed in pain as he looked at his arm, only to see a sleek, black dart, roughly about two and a half inches sticking out of his tricep. “Who’s there?!” he asked, looking around, his heart beating faster and faster when he couldn’t find the shooter.

Over the next 5 seconds, two more darts jabbed him in the back and before he realized it, he was already on the floor, losing consciousness while drooling onto the soil, apparently unable to control any part of his body anymore. “Tranquilizer darts. ing .” Eunhyuk cursed as he flickered in and out of consciousness.

“Yuri, Yuri! You okay? Yuri! God damn it.”

Yuri woke up to find herself in the comfort of her own home which was definitely not where she expected to be. “Eunhyuk” were the first words that subconsciously escaped her lips. Her brain took a moment to boot up before her eyes snapped open. “Eunhyuk!” she yelled, pushing herself off the bed, only to fall face first on the cold marble floor.

“Yuri! Geez!” Jessica yelped in surprise, dropping the bowl of soup on the ground and running over to help Yuri, “What the hell were you thinking?! You shouldn’t even be moving around!”

“Jessica? Jessica, I’m fine. Listen I need to go out for a while. I need to go get something.” Yuri lied.

Jessica raised her eyebrow as she lightly pushed Yuri back onto the bed. “If you’re looking for Eunhyuk, he’s fine. He should be up by now since I only gave him a diluted dose of the tranquiliser.”

“How did y—“

“Yuri, I’ve been following you. Ever since that night where you broke down at the carpark, I’ve been following you everywhere. I heard your entire conversation with Eunhyuk and saved you just before he ruined your arm.” Jessica answered.

“Everything was under control.”

“You were getting your sorry kicked all over the place.”

Yuri opened to reply but soon realized that she couldn’t rebutt what Jessica had just said. “I’m sorry, but you know it’s true.” Jessica added, “Right now, you need to rest. I already took care of things; like I always did.”

This immediately brought Yuri back on her toes. “Where is he?”

“Geez, not even a thank you?”

“Jessica.” Yuri said sternly, her eyes telling Jessica that she was in no mood to ask twice, “Please.”

“Hey.”

“What the—Get the out of my home.” Eunhyuk said coldly, “I’m done with you.”

“No.”

“What?”

Yuri stood there, digging her heels as much as she could into the hard ground. “I said, get out.” Eunhyuk repeated, pointing Yuri towards the open, “I don’t need the sympathy.”

That sparked Yuri’s anger and she immediately went up, grabbing Eunhyuk by the collar. “Who said I was giving you sympathy?” she questioned harshly, “Grab your gun, we’re going for round two.”

Eunhyuk casually pushed Yuri’s hands away before sitting calmly on the damp soil. “I’ll repeat myself, I’m done with you,” he said, “Now get out before I change my mind and kill you for dinner.”

“Kill me for dinner?” Yuri laughed, tears brimminng in her eyes as she looked at the current state of the person who had almost killed her last night, “Is that how desperate you are? You would eat me for food? Eunhyuk, I landed you into this. It’s my fault that your leg is now made of metal. Please, could we just go for round two and settle this debt. I owe you a debt, right? I want to wipe off that red mark in book.”

“Please,” she added in a soft whimper.

“You’re mocking my poverty now? You’re mocking me because I’m living under an abandoned bridge?” Eunhyuk asked.

“No, n—“

“Yuri,” he continued, showing a little smile, “I was slightly connscious yesterday night when Jessica shot me with herr tranquilizer darts. I couldn’t move, but I could think. Maybe that was all I needed; I needed time to think.”

“I spent two years planning out my revenge on you, trying to get my physiotheraphy done, I was so busy trying to walk and resenting you for making me like this that I didn’t give myself any time to think.”Eunhyuk said, sitting by the edge of the stream, “When I finally found you, I found out that you were still afraid of me, you still feared me, but only because you were guilty. That’s why I stole your necklace. If I didn’t, you’d simply stay at home and avoid me.”

“But last night,” Eunhyuk sighed as he threw a stone into the water, causing a ripple to expand over the surface of the water, “You showed me that you were genuinely concerned for me, and you were right about how I wasn’t the old Eunhyuk you knew.”

“No, Eunhyuk, I ruined your leg. It’s all my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Now that I think of it, it wasn’t your fault at all. Thank you, Yuri, for trying.”

Eunhyuk smiled as he stood up and reached into his pocket, fishing out a silver necklace with two rings dangling from the necklace, glimmering in the late afternoon, “Youu’ve earned this.” He said, putting the rings into Yuri’s hand carefully.

“Eunhyuk, please, take it back. I want to win this fair and square.” Yuri insisted stubbornly.

“You already won when the guilt in you died,” Eunhyuk saiid calmly, “Don’t you feel it?”

“I..”

Eunhyuk was right, Yuri was definitely feeling a lot less stressed out than before and she was now able to look at Eunhyuk eye to eye without avoiding eye contact; she was guilt-free.

“Eunhyuk!” Yuri yelled out as Eunhyuk started to walk away, his hands tucked casually into the pocket of his tattered jeans, “come back to the police force! We could use someone like you!”

Eunhyuk paused for a while before saying , “I don’t think being in the police force is something possible for me anymore. I can’t outrun thieves with one of my legs made of metal.”

“What are you going to do?”

Eunhyuk shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I haven’t found my reason for living yet. I’ll just wander around until I do.”

Holding back her tears, Yuri gave one last shout towards the man she was indebted to, to the man, who shared the same dreams with her, to be friend, whom she had wanted to have for her entire life. “If you ever need any help, just call me!”

Eunhyuk smiled, givinng her thumbs up to Yuri in response to her previous statement as he started to head out from under his temporary home. “Oh, and Yuri,” he called out, causing Yuri, who was crying her eyeballs out to look towards him.

He gave a last, heart warming smile; one of genuine relief and gladness and letting the moment where their eyes met last a little longer before finishing his last sentence.

“Your debts are cleared. You’re free now.”

Well, that sure took a long time. Sorry if this chapter isn’t too good, I just needed to get this done and over with and I didn’t wanna drag it out too long, know what I mean.

Anywho, I don’t have much to say to you guys, just wanna tell you guys to stay frosty and drink more water so that you won’t fall sick like me. My throat’s ed lol. I’m coughing like mad now and well, nobody cares really, so I’ll just stop here. Tomorrow I’m just gonna do some planning of my fics.

Sigh, I really hate school. Probably gonna blog bout my first week later.

Time out.