Seungri couldn't find his cellphone. It wasn't in his jeans and it wasn't in his jacket pocket, where he normally kept it.

Realisation hit him a split-second later.

He had been admitted to the hospital and so his clothes had been taken. His brother had brought him something else to wear only that morning. And so his phone was either back at the hospital, in amongst countless other 'personal effects' or SeungHyun had filled out the necessary paperwork – and all of his things were now safely ensconced in their car.

Neither option was particularly helpful to him. He could only rely on someone else to call the cops – and his faith in that happening was a long way removed from overwhelming.

He glanced towards the counter. The waitress who'd grabbed at the phone still held it clutched in her fist. Seungri wasn't sure whether she'd dialled out or not.

He looked at the other patrons – but all of them seemed intent on pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It was always better not to get involved.

After only a brief moment, Seungri realised that it didn't matter if the waitress had made the call or not. She only had the barest minimum of information – two men had chased another man from the café. It hardly constituted an emergency.

He had to contact the police himself; talk to Jae Sang, or even Police Chief Jin. Let them know that Arashi was now more than a perceived threat. He was real and he was here.

Out of the café window, he saw the familiar sight of a payphone and headed towards it without even giving pause for thought.

SeungHyun pounded down the street, amazed at how quickly both his dad and Arashi were moving. Even as he ran from the café, he only just exited in time to see his dad disappear around the corner at the end of the road.

He sprinted after them, fear gnawing at his gut. Arashi was a very dangerous man – there had never been any doubt of that – but, deep down, SeungHyun also shared his father's belief that the revenge driven felon was responsible for the death of his mom. He wasn't about to let the man do anything to harm his dad as well.

Forcing even more speed from his athletic frame, he rounded the corner – and then saw only an empty street ahead of him.

SeungHyun barely slowed down from his breakneck pace. The two men he pursued couldn't have gained that much distance on him and they hadn't simply disappeared off the face of the Earth. He kept his sharp eyes peeled – trusting his senses and his instincts to lead him in the right direction.

He ran past an alley and half-glanced towards it; he knew it to be a dead end and the last place that a hunted man would flee. Then an image slammed into his adrenaline soaked mind and he skidded to a halt and let that image fully register:

Two men: one prone and one threatening.

There was no time for caution. The prone man had been his father.

Seungri was just about to cross the street and head towards the payphone he had seen, when he was suddenly forced to leap back onto the sidewalk by a dark sedan speeding around the corner to his right.

It slewed to a halt directly in front of him and, before Seungri could even register any more detail, he heard a door open and then found himself staring directly down the barrel of a gun.

"Police! Put your hands where I can see them!"

Seungri could barely register the face of the man shouting orders. He could only see that wide black gun barrel and the danger – even death – it promised.

"Put your hands up!"

He had heard a gun being cocked before; had even heard one being fired – but the threat had never been this immediate and it had never come from the right side of the law. The man wielding the weapon had identified himself as a police officer.

Slowly, Seungri raised his hands.

"Get to your knees and clasp your hands behind your head!"

Numbly, Seungri complied. Then, before he knew it, he was lying face down on the ground and his vaguely identified assailant was standing over him. Cuffs bit into his wrists and his arms were twisted with unnecessary force.

Too late, Seungri regretted his easy acquiescence. He hadn't seen – or asked to see – a badge; he hadn't even had any charges levelled at him.

Sudden questions fired through his mind: Didn't the police usually work in pairs, so where was this man's partner? What had he done to draw the law's attention to him? Was he actually under arrest – and, if so, why?

His face pressed into the concrete, Seungri couldn't even ask those questions that only came to him with hindsight. And then one final, chilling thought came to him: Why had this happened the first time he had been on his own since Arashi escape from prison?

Too late, he began to struggle – and was rewarded with a sharp blow to his already aching head.

He had no strength left as he was hauled towards the dark sedan.

SeungHyun yelled as he ran full tilt into the alley. Surprise was the only weapon he had.

For a moment, it worked – and it quite possibly saved his dad's life.

The second man, predictably, was Arashi and he had a knife. There was also a bloodstained two-by-four lying nearby and SeungHyun guessed that to be the cause of his dad currently unconscious state.

At least he hoped it was. A brief glance at the fallen man wasn't enough to provide even a cursory examination – and his attention had to remain wholly fixed on Arashi. The psychotic man seemed intent on working his way through the entire his family.

SeungHyun took a deep breath and sought out his martial arts training. He was more than equipped to deal with a knifeman – but that was without the distraction of his father lying bleeding at his feet. And there was a niggling worry over Seungri, somewhere in the back of his mind, that would just not go away.

Then Arashi laughed and SeungHyun tensed.

"Make your choice, boy," the felon sneered. "Me or him."

Arashi threw the knife directly up into the air and SeungHyun had no choice but to watch it through terrified eyes. The knife was short-handled and long, heavy bladed, with a serrated cutting edge on both sides. Gravity demanded that it land blade side first; trajectory dictated that it would squarely strike his father's exposed and vulnerable chest.

There was no choice to make.

SeungHyun dived forwards – Arashi forgotten – but with no definite plan in mind. His actions were instinctive and more hopeful than premeditated. He needed to deflect the knife. But, failing that, he needed to protect his unconscious father – and the only defence he had to offer was his own body.

He lunged with only one aim in mind: to save his father's life; to stop the blade from finding its target of his unprotected chest.

He couldn't catch the knife – that would have taken a miracle and SeungHyun had long since learnt not to rely on those.

And while he was prepared to risk his own life for his dad, that option wasn't exactly at the top of his list. For Seungri it would have been a different story, but his dad? Maybe some resentment did still linger.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, time ran out.

Instinct was his brother's forte, while he relied primarily on logic. But at that moment instinct was all he had.

He dived low and fast; fists clenched – his intention being only to try and deflect the deadly blade. Pain slashed through his left hand, but a split-second later it was forgotten as he landed heavily.

He still did not give pause to think. At the edge of his awareness, he heard the clatter as the knife hit the concrete; thought he might have even seen sparks fly in the periphery of his vision. But he ignored it all as he hit the ground shoulder first and let his momentum propel him into a controlled roll that carried him clear of his father.

Immediately, he sat up into a crouch. An inherent sense of latent danger had him rapidly scanning the alley. Self-preservation had to come first: he'd be of no use to his dad if he was hurt.

But Arashi was long gone and SeungHyun could finally allow himself some semblance of relaxation. He could take control again – he could focus on the 'now'. He could care for his dad without worrying too much about anything else.

Except…

Where was Seungri?

SeungHyun knew he had left him back in the café, but that didn't fill him with the utmost of confidence. Seungri wasn't one to stay put – especially in such a dangerous and emotionally charged situation.

He couldn't expect his brother to be sitting on his hands and waiting for the cavalry to arrive. SeungHyun deliberately didn't think about what his brother might have been doing instead.

He had to take care of his dad and pray that Seungri hadn't done anything even remotely rash.

But questions nagged at him, as his accursed logic once again took over. Why had Arashi lured them away like he did? If his intention was to kill his dad, then why not finish the job before he got there? And why had there been triumph in his eyes the moment before he fled?

'Seungri!' SeungHyun thought – but it was no more than a gut instinct. And he still had his dad, who had yet to regain consciousness, to take care of.

Fishing a handkerchief out of his pocket, he wrapped it around his bleeding left hand. Then all he could do was pull out his phone and call Chief Inspector Jin.