Baekhyun kept his arm around your lower back to steady your weak body, throwing you worried glances as you walked towards the staircase. You turned your head towards him, about to tell him you were fine when you noticed something.

From the corner of your eye, you saw movement behind you. Alarmed, you looked over your shoulder. Your heart stopped. Jiwon was still alive—and he aimed his gun at Baekhyun. Your mind exploded with panic as you realized that he wanted to kill him.

You didn’t think. Your body acted on its own. Using all the strength you had, you shoved your body into Baekhyun, pushing him out of the line of fire.

The earsplitting bang of a gunshot pierced the silent night. Your gaze met Baekhyun’s as both of you fell. He looked confused and shocked, but then realization made his eyes widen considerably. He opened his mouth, screaming your name.

Your world tilted in slow motion. Shapes and colors blurred. You hit the ground hard. Without warning, agonizing pain shot through your body. You screamed, pressing your hand on the side of your stomach. Hot blood gushed over your trembling fingers. It hurt more than anything you had ever experienced in your life. You writhed in pain, taking short and panicked breaths. With your desperate gaze fixed on the dark night sky, you wondered if you would die tonight. Tears pricked at your eyes.

Another gunshot sounded through the night, ending Jiwon’s life. The loud noise had you quake in fear.

Baekhyun appeared in your line of vision, leaning over your fallen body. He touched your cheek to assure you were still awake, frantically checked your pulse. His expression was distorted. He fought back tears, holding in his sobs with difficulty.

“No, this can’t happen,” he choked out. “Not you!”

Minseok and Jongdae shouted something, but you couldn’t make sense of what they were saying. With the little strength you retained, you focused on Baekhyun. Through a haze of pain, you watched him and attempted to speak. There were so many things you needed to tell him, but your damn body wouldn’t listen to you. Your mouth didn’t move and neither did your arms. Like a broken puppet, you laid on the ground and had lost all control of yourself. Cold seeped into your limbs as more blood gushed from your wound. Your life was steadily fading.

Baekhyun pressed his hands on the injury, desperately trying to halt the blood loss. His tears were overflowing, running down his cheeks. “Please, please don’t leave me,” he pleaded with you. The fearful trembling in his voice was something you had never thought you would hear from him.

Your heart shattered in your chest. You wanted nothing more than to comfort him and tell him it would be fine… but you couldn’t speak. And you were sure that you would not survive this night. The thought of leaving him after the entire ordeal you went through devastated you. You loved him—you didn’t want to leave him. Especially not when he was crying.

“Can you hear me? Don’t fall asleep, love,” he sputtered nervously. You almost didn’t recognize him anymore. He never wavered, never gave up, not even when someone held a gun in his face. Seeing him like this hurt so ing much.

“Stay with me,” he said desperately. You blinked, scrunching your brow. His mouth moved as he continued to speak to you. He yelled, screamed, but his words were swallowed by the fog that clouded your mind. You were slowly fading. The pain finally receded and made way for paralyzing numbness. Somewhere in the haze, you thought about how grateful you were to at least have kissed him before you died. You wished you had confessed to him too… just once.

You breathed in, breathed out. Your eyelids fluttered, closed. Your broken body reached its limits, and then you knew no more.

“No, open your eyes!” Baekhyun cried, keeping his blood-covered hands on your injury. “Please, you can’t just leave me!”

Loud footsteps neared from the stairs and only moments later, six other men reached the rooftop. They froze when they saw the scene in front of them. You were covered in red, the color blooming on your shirt like a deadly flower, originating from a terrible wound in your abdomen.

“Help!” Baekhyun shouted, waking them from their paralyzed state. They began to move quickly, Sehun hurrying back to get a medical kit from the car. Yixing and Junmyeon kneeled next to Baekhyun, assessing the damage within seconds. Junmyeon checked your pulse, finding its weak beats with difficulty.

“She needs a blood transfusion. The loss of blood is concerning,” Yixing muttered, narrowing his eyes. As a former surgeon, he possessed vast medical knowledge, but he couldn’t do much to help as long as they were here. “We have to carry her to the car… fast!”

The Exo members worked quickly and efficiently, using a makeshift bandage to keep the blood loss under control. Together, they carried you down the stairs and to their car where they laid you on the backseat. Baekhyun was shaking, not leaving your side. His eyes drifted from your stomach to your face and back. You were so damn pale, he couldn’t take it.

“Floor it, Chanyeol!” he called just when the red-haired man started the engine.

Immediately after reaching Exo’s property at the edge of town, they prepared the surgery room in the basement for emergency surgery. Since they were notorious criminals, they couldn’t rely on hospitals. It didn’t happen often that one of them was severely injured, but the room had already proven itself as useful. Yixing, Minseok and Kyungsoo stayed with you to perform the surgery.

They told the others to leave them alone since they would only be in the way. Jongin and Chanyeol dragged Baekhyun away forcefully since he refused to leave. He was shaking still, and the hopelessness that manifested in his eyes wasn’t a sight his friends were used to.

They gathered in the living room of the expensive mansion they owned, spreading out over the sofas in the middle of it. At first, they were covered in heavy silence. Nobody spoke, nobody knew what to say. They were all shocked that their rescue attempt had backfired like this.

In the end, it was their leader who broke the silence first. “How could this happen?” Junmyeon asked. “We made sure to shoot them all.”  

“It really looked like they were dead,” Jongdae said, restlessly shifting around. “They were covered in blood and motionless… We didn’t bother checking, and that was a mistake.”

“I hate Jiwon,” Sehun hissed, crossing his arms. “He only ever caused trouble. We should have gotten rid of him much sooner.”

“He won’t get in our way anymore,” Jongin said defeatedly. “Now we can only hope that this will end well. Yixing is good at his job… there is a chance she will make it.” His gaze came to rest on Baekhyun who sat on the sofa with his elbows resting on his thighs. His head was lowered as he stared at the wooden floor. He was covered in blood and looked as if he had gone through hell and back.

“You have to calm down,” Chanyeol said to him, patting his back. “Take a shower, get rid of all the blood. And maybe when you’re done, Yixing will have good news for us.” As usual, the redhead kept a positive mindset, even putting a weak smile on his lips. Baekhyun wasn’t in the mood to do anything right now, but having your blood sticking to his skin wasn’t particularly comfortable. It reminded him constantly of his own failure.

He had come to that rooftop to save you, not to see you bleeding out on the ground. Maybe all a criminal like him was good for was killing. Maybe someone like him was unable to protect.

He clenched his hands to fists. Why had you taken the bullet that had been meant for him? Just why would you go that far? It should have been him. If you died tonight, he would forever feel guilty.

With a heavy heart, he got up from the sofa, feeling everyone’s eyes on his back as he trudged towards the bathroom.

Hours later, he found himself standing at your bedside with Yixing. You were unconscious, connected to a blood transfusion and an IV drip. They had moved you to one of the bedrooms so you could rest properly. The surgery had taken a long time, and to Baekhyun it had seemed like an eternity.

The sun was rising outside and he was spent, exhausted. Yet, he was too scared to go to sleep. What if you ended up dying while he was gone? He couldn’t bear the thought of that happening. You were far from safe, had yet to recover from both the wound and the surgery.

“She is tenacious,” Yixing said. “I’m confident that she will make it. You shouldn’t worry, Baekhyun.”

“Can you blame me? She bled so much,” he breathed, closing his eyes. “I’m surprised we even made it here without her dying.”

“As I said, she is tenacious, and she is going to pull through. The bullet was lodged in her body, but it didn’t damage her organs. I removed it and took care of the injury. If she rests sufficiently from now on and doesn’t strain herself, I don’t see a reason why she wouldn’t make it,” Yixing explained, his calm voice serving to reassure Baekhyun who let out a breath he’d been holding.

“Jiwon deserves nothing but the worst for this. If he was still alive, I would give him hell,” he snarled, glaring at the window.

“What’s done is done,” Yixing replied. “He is dead and that should be enough.”

Baekhyun chewed on his bottom lip, swallowing his anger when he looked back at you. The paleness of your face bothered him as it made you look lifeless. He wanted you to open your eyes and smile at him. If he ever got the chance to speak to you again, he had a million things he needed to tell you.

“What will you do now? Stay here with us?” Yixing asked, leaning his back against the wall. Baekhyun had his own flat, but he occasionally stayed at the mansion that they used as their meeting spot.

“Of course,” Baekhyun said. “My apartment is ruined thanks to Jiwon, and besides, I want to be here when she wakes up.”

“Fair enough. Don’t forget to sleep, though. You look terrible.”

“Thanks, Yixing,” Baekhyun said sarcastically, managing a crooked smile.

The blackness that surrounded you was eternal. It engulfed you like a blanket and held onto you. The sensation of being trapped in darkness should have scared you, but it didn’t. You felt no pain in this state and there was no reason for you to worry either. Since your memory was fuzzy, it was hard to remember what exactly had led to this.

The loud bang of a gunshot and the excruciating pain in your abdomen were all you could recall, along with Baekhyun’s heart-wrenching pleas for you to stay with him. They still tore you apart. Never in your life had you heard anyone speak with so much desperation in their voice. It broke your heart. He had to have been so scared for your life. Just as scared as you had been to die.

But you weren’t dead yet. There was no doubt in your mind that you were alive.

The more of the fog in your mind faded, the more of your senses you regained. You heard the quiet murmur of a familiar voice not far from you. It was impossible to tell what it was saying, but it was soothing to you. Soon, an uncomfortable throbbing in your entire body followed. It was the strongest in your stomach where the bullet had torn into you. Your lips parted slightly, a groan building in your throat.

You were lying on a soft surface, presumably a bed, and your left hand was warm, held by someone. When your soft moan filled the room, something changed. The hand holding yours shifted and the muffled voice from before was back, but now you were able to discern it.

“Are you awake, love?” a hopeful voice asked. You recognized it, and you knew instantly that it was Baekhyun’s. “Can you open your eyes for me?”

The impatience and tiredness layering his tone spurred you to fight the exhaustion that held you back. You wished to see him and to assure him that you were fine. Mustering all your strength, you forced your heavy eyelids to open. At first, you only managed a short blink, but once the soft light in the room reached your vision, it became easier. You opened your eyes, letting them adjust to the brightness.

You heard a gasp, and not a second later, Baekhyun appeared over you. His blond hair framed his face, uncombed and messy. He had a bruise on his cheek and gazed at you with tired yet relieved eyes. Considering how pale he was, he must have been worried sick about you.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “Are you in pain?”

You weakly shook your head. “N-No,” you answered with difficulty, your throat dry from not speaking for so long.

He didn’t quite believe you, that much you could see when he looked at you skeptically. The worry in his expression was overwhelming. “I will get you something to drink,” he said. “And I need to tell Yixing that you woke up… I’ll be back in a moment.”

He left you for a short period of time, but he was back within only a few minutes, and he brought along a man you had never seen before. He had short black hair and seemed to be more easy-going than Baekhyun who was still tense from head to toe.

“Hello, my name is Yi