As a plastic surgeon, Kim Jaejoong has seen the best and the worst of human appearance.

But there was, standing shell shocked with two of his co-workers on either side of him; both mirroring the look of absolute horror on his face. Words were futile during moments like this. The room was eerily silent and tense; a horrific atmosphere looming over those in it. Yunho had thought he had seen the worst but nothing compared to what he was staring at right now.

“What…” Jaejoong had to force the words out of his mouth. “What happened to… her?”

“You can see now why this is confidential, Doctor Kim?” Lieutenant Choi Siwon sighed from his place by the foot of the hospital bed. “Her name’s Choi Sooyoung. She is the girlfriend of gang leader Yong Bong Chol.”

“You mean ex-girlfriend.” The officer standing behind him, Jung Yunho, corrected his partner’s sentence; a look of complete disgust on his face. “That bastard.”

“What did he do?” Jaejoong’s colleague and fellow plastic surgeon, Kim Heechul, dared to ask, speaking for the first time since he entered the room.

Siwon pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke. “Long story short… We raided their hangout. Poor girl didn’t even know that he was a notorious gang leader. She just thought it was his hangout place with his friends. He used her as a shield when we tried to catch him. Officer Jung managed to save her and Bong Chol tried to throw acid at Yunho. She tried to talk some sense into the dip and the acid hit her face instead. Bastard left her there with her face burning. I was one of the backup officers and our group arrived last in the scene. She already lost consciousness when we came.”

Im Yoona frowned heavily from Jaejoong’s side; the only nurse who was involved with the confidential matter. “Only a highly poisonous acid would do that kind of damage on human flesh.”

“Would you be able to…” A distraught Yunho spared a glance at the woman lying in the hospital bed. “Would you be able to fix her?”

Jaejoong and Heechul exchanged a look; a grim expression on their faces as they gave the only answer they could muster.

“We’ll do everything that we can.”

o-o-o-o-o

“What do you think, Jae?”

He pursed his lips together; the two men currently inside his office. A sigh escaped his lips; his eyes never leaving the picture of Choi Sooyoung – of how she used to look like. “I don’t know what else to think about aside from wanting the police to kill that jackass.”

“You and me both, dude. You and me both.” Heechul sighed, sitting down one of the couches in front of Jaejoong’s table. “There’s no way in hell that we won’t operate her. We can do a lot of major repairs… but I don’t think she can look the same like she did before.”

“She can.”

His eyes went wide. “Are you crazy? You saw how much damage was done to her face. It’ll be a miracle to completely fix her up.”

“There is a way. You know that, hyung.” Jaejoong replied firmly. “I can make her look like the way she did back then… even better.”

“It’s too risky.” The older man protested. “What if we up somewhere along the way?”

“Then we make sure we don’t.”

o-o-o-o-o

                He was kept away from her most of the time thanks to the search operations for her jackass of an ex-boyfriend and his men and when he did get the chance to be around her, she was always asleep – either by her own choice or she was heavily sedated. The first time she woke up after she had been brought to the hospital was not the best of scenes. She had woken up screaming and sobbing, fighting against the hold of Siwon and Jaejoong as she struggled with reality. Yunho was on his way to see her that time when he ran into Yoona; the young nurse sporting tears in her eyes as she told him that she had sedated Sooyoung back to sleep.

                Now, here he was, seated by the side of Choi Sooyoung’s bed. Again, she was asleep and right now he didn’t really want it either way. He needed the time to think, the time to figure out what he needed to do. Yong Bong Chol was still out there and it was his very intention to catch him and let him rot in jail. It wasn’t going to be an easy task, considering how they’ve failed to capture him so far.

But he also knew they owe it to her to try.

“Who… Who are you?” A voice he had never heard before croaked softly.

                His eyes shifted until he was looking at the woman in the hospital bed. Choi Sooyoung was awake. There was not much he could see of her face, sans her eyes, nostrils and lips. Every other inch of her once flawless face was wrapped up in white bandages. Yunho opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out of his mouth. All he could focus on was the haunted look in her beautiful, chocolate brown eyes.

“I-I’m Yunho. Jung Yunho.” He finally managed to stutter. “I’m one the officers assigned to you… the one you saved.”

“Are you alright?”

The shock of the question nearly had him flying out of his seat. How could she think of him first before herself? “I-I’m okay. Thank you.”

“Am I… Am I going to be alright?” Sooyoung asked; doubt flickering in her haunted eyes.

His reply was one that was full of promise. “You’re going to be alright.”

o-o-o-o-o

                Much to the amusement of the little who were let it on the confidential matter, Yunho had spent most of the time by Sooyoung’s side. She was an orphan and therefore, had no one to watch over her. For some reason, the two had formed a bond that no one else could quite understand and Yunho had become Sooyoung’s security blanket. Fear often paralyzed her when he wasn’t around. It was like as long as he was around her, Sooyoung believed that she was going to be alright.

Her friends had been convinced that she went away for a vacation and much to Yunho and Siwon’s mild surprise, Yong Bong Chol had not made any contact to his friends and family. That didn’t help the police’s case any as the operations were still being continued for the wanted gang. But that was of least concern to Yunho… for now; the tall officer finding himself standing by the foot of Sooyoung’s bed as he watched the medical team prepare her for her operation.

“Is she going to be okay?” Yunho asked in a whisper; his eyes never leaving what was happening before him. The question seemed to be overused lately but it really was everyone’s main concern.

Jaejoong sighed from his spot beside the officer. “I think she will.”

“You think she will?” He repeated, finally prying his eyes away from the scene in front of him to arch an eyebrow at the doctor.

“We’re going to do all we can… but you saw the damage to her face. It’s not going to be easy.”

“Yunho oppa?”

                The soft voice had the room going dead silent and everyone’s attention fell on Sooyoung; her eyes intently fixed on Yunho. Though she didn’t say anything, he moved closer until he was standing by her side. She really didn’t need to say anything. He just knew. A look of pure amusement crossed Heechul’s face but a not-so-kind jab to his side thanks to Yoona kept his mouth shut; a scowl soon directed at the tall nurse.

“Will you be here?”

It was a simple question but he understood her need. “Of course.”

                Once Sooyoung was inside the operating room with Heechul, Jaejoong and Yoona, Yunho had already led the way out of the hospital; Siwon silently trailing behind him. Yunho really didn’t want to think of her being surrounded my all the machines; her face getting fixed by all those tools. No, he owed it to the girl who saved him to find that bastard who destroyed her like that. Jaejoong had told him that the operation would take a couple of hours, pointedly telling the younger man the he should use his time wisely.

“Any news?” Yunho asked as they made a beeline for the police car.

“We have nothing concrete yet but we assume that he isn’t far because he still needs control over his affairs.” Siwon answered promptly. “We believe that he’s just in the outskirts of Seoul.”

“That bastard can’t hide for too long.”

o-o-o-o-o

                Hope rose in his chest as Yunho and his team waited outside an abandoned-looking building. They had received a tip from someone anonymous, saying that Yong Bong Chol and his gang were there. Yunho silently debated, thinking what to do when he went face to face with him. As much as he didn’t mind killing him at the first opportune moment, he wanted him to suffer just as much as Sooyoung had been.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” He yelled out, leading the way to the building. A swift kick to the door led it to fly off its hinges; the team soon flooding inside to search every possible hideout.

                Yunho went straight for the first door he set his sights on; his gun in his hand and ready to fire. It was a bathroom. He searched it thoroughly, checking for any concealed doors. He found none. Growling in frustration, he stalked out, hoping to hear better news from his comrades. Was the tip given to them a hoax? Yunho scowled at the possibility.

Siwon appeared from the next room; a heavy frown on his face. “Clear.”

“Clear.”

“Sir, it’s clear.”

“Clear.”

“Damn it!” Yunho bellowed, kicking the object nearest to him.

“Sir! Sir!” One of his juniors, Kris Wu, came rushing in from the back door followed close behind by Park Chanyeol. “We found something.”

                The whole team hurried to the back and much to Yunho’s complete and utter dismay, they found a fence with a hole right smack in the middle – a hole large enough to fit a person. He felt his body tremble in anger; something much worse than disappointment sinking in. Just when he was about to tell his men to move out, his phone rang in his pocket. It was Jaejoong.

“Go back.”

o-o-o-o-o

“You said you’d call right after operation.” Yunho made a face at the older man as they stepped inside the hospital.

“It’d be useless if I did.” Jaejoong replied. “Her anaesthesia is bound to wear off… She’s going to wake up soon.”

He nodded briskly. “How… How did it go?”

“It went well… all things considered. We did everything we could and we’re expecting positive results.” The older man sighed. “All we need to do is to wait for her to heal and see what happens.”

“How long is it gonna take?”

“A few days… weeks… maybe months.”

Yunho grimaced. “That doesn’t sound promising.”

Jaejoong smiled glumly. “I never said it would.”

o-o-o-o-o

                His body was awake before his mind even knew it; Yunho tumbling off his seat at the sound of screams from the hospital bed. He scrambled off the floor and onto the bed, narrowly avoiding receiving a kick to the face. Hurriedly pressing the button that would alert the nurses, he took her hands as she thrashed about and screamed. This wasn’t how he expected her to wake up from her surgery.

“Hey, hey! Sooyoung, it’s me, Yunho.” He squeezed her hands reassuringly. “You’re going to be fine. I’m here. It’s me, Yunho.”

She stopped kicking but a whimper escaped her lips. “Oppa, I can’t see anything.”

“You have this round cotton like things on your eyes.” The dark haired man explained quickly. “They had to fix your eyelids.”

“H-How did the operation go?” Sooyoung asked; her voice badly trembling. “I feel so caged.”

“Your whole head is bandaged up… save for your lips and a part of your nose.” He sighed, noting that she was much calmer now.

“How long?”

She didn’t need to elaborate for Yunho to know what she meant. “A few days or weeks… months at worst.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I won’t be okay anymore, won’t I?”

Yunho sighed, hearing the approaching nurses and doctors. “You’ll be just fine.”