Junsu's long fingers drummed on his knee, eyes locked on the tiled floor in front of him. I watched him from the corner of my eye from my perch on the hospital bed, left leg held tight in a cast. For once, Junsu was upset, in an angry sort of way. If it was at me or UKnow, I couldn't tell at that moment. But he was silent and his eyebrows were knitted together in an angle that was only brought on by a form of anger.

“Junsu, say something.”

He leaned his elbows on bony knees. “What am I supposed to say? If he would have aimed any higher, he would have killed you...”

“But he wouldn't do that.”

“How the hell do you know that?” My eyes widened. Junsu hardly ever swore. “Its not like he really had your best interests at heart!” My eyebrows in a sorta 'how do you know?' look. “What? The guy has a crush on you or something?”

“Something like that. Listen,” I interjected, when Junsu went to open his mouth, “the guys a little obsessed with me and—”

“Obsessed with you?” demanded Junsu, getting to his feet. “Obsessed with you? You make that sound like its not a big deal!”

“Well, you're obsessed with me to an extent.”

Junsu spluttered. “I am not obsessed with you. I care about you, which is why I don't know every small detail of your life.”

“What's my shoe size?”

“Four.”

“Wow...”

“I've bought you several pairs of shoes over the years,” he defended and crossed his arms. “And I'm your friend. This guy sounds like a complete psychopath. Look,” he sat on the bed and took my hand in his. His face softened, “I'm just really worried about you. Next time something worse could happen. You could have been killed, Jin Ae. It only would have taken that bullet to be a little higher and I would have lost you.”

I turned my head away, “Aish, don't make me feel any more guilty,” I growled. “I feel bad enough that Park got a concussion out of the whole thing.”

“Another thing you're going to have to worry about.”

Junsu and I both looked to the door. My stomach plummeted at the sight of Chief standing there, arms crossed, with an obvious displeased scowl on his face. “Sir,” I said, sitting up straighter since I couldn't exactly stand at attention.

“If I could have a moment alone...”

Junsu got up from his seat, bowed his head to Chief, and gave me a worried look before leaving the room.

“Sir, I can explain...”

“Please, do,” he said, shutting the door behind him. “Please, inform as to why my orders apparently don't matter in your book. Why you decide to go in after a dangerous criminal without backup.”

“Sir,” I started, “I was given a tip about UKnow that I had to check out.”

“Why didn't you let Detective Woo know about it?”

“Because Detective Woo would be laying in the morgue rather than a hospital bed if it had been him facing UKnow!” Chief's eyebrows raised at the rise in level of my voice. I inhaled deeply, trying to get a grasp on my flaring temper. “UKnow won't fatally hurt me; he's too into this 'game' of his to do so. But if you let anyone else on this, he won't hesitate to kill him. Don't ask me why, I just know that's the way his mind works.”

“So you're taking advantage of his...attraction towards you.”

“If it keeps anyone else in the department from getting killed, yes. He won't kill me.” I patted myself on the back for how sure my voice sounded. “I'm sorry I went against your orders, Sir, but its what I had to do.”

Chief sighed, arms still crossed over his barreled chest as he observed me for several silent seconds. Finally, he said, “well, I would put you on suspension, but you're going to need enough time to heal so...I can't really do that much with you.”

I tried to suppress the smile from my face as I bowed my head. “Thank you, Sir. I'll try to follow orders more closely.”

“I'm sure...” he replied dryly as he opened the door. “Heal fast. The precinct is going to be empty without you {C}and{C} Shim. Oh, and Kim,” he held the door open only a little to give me a small smile. “When you get back, you're back on UKnow case.” And the door closed.

Silence as thoughts raged through my skull. I should be afraid or worried or upset that I was back on the UKnow case, but I was unhealthily ecstatic. Just because the bastard had shot me and broke my femur—which was only dully throbbing thanks to medication—didn't mean I didn't want another shot at him(literally). If I was serious before, I was even more serious now. He wanted a war, I'd give him a war.

The door suddenly flew open and I jolted out of my gleeful accounts of revenge. Changmin stood, breathing still ragged, face distorted in an obvious form of rage. He had one hand wrapped around the IV pole.

“The ...did you do?” he demanded, shuffling into the room in nothing more than his gown.

I tried my hardest to keep a straight face, but the drugs were working against me. Everything was putting me in a good mood that day. “I have no idea what you mean.” He glared at me, wheezing. “Changmin, you shouldn't be out of bed. I don't want you dying of respiratory failure in my room.”

“I about died of a {C}heart attack{C}hen I heard that you'd...been shot!” A string of coughs wracked his form. “For Christ sake's, Jin Ae—”

“I went after him because K told me she wounded him,” I explained quickly. “I went after him because I thought we could catch him, but...” My eyes trailed down to my leg, “that didn't exactly work out.”

“Obviously,” Changmin growled. “And when I'm not...sounding like I'm...going to die, you're dead.”

“Threat acknowledged,” I replied with a smirk. “Let's see who can kill me faster: you or UKnow.”



Two days. I'd only been in the hospital for two days and I was ready to tear my hair out. Sitting still, having people constantly check in on you, the whole nine yards with that. It was annoying, infuriating. When I got quiet time, it was the greatest gift in the world. However, my mind would begin overflowing with ideas as to how I was going to put UKnow six feet under for real.

The halls outside were quiet, shades drawn over my window. I looked to the clock. Two in the morning.

“Alright, you don't need to keep creeping around,” I sighed, looking to the dark corner that was blocked by my curtain. At first there was no answer. “I know you're there, K.”

The curtain was drawn back slowly, revealing the ninja herself. “I didn't want your friends outside to think I was coming to finish what UKnow started.” 'Friends' meaning the guards that had been stationed outside my room.

I shrugged, ignoring the annoyed look on her face. “Look, I tried,” I sighed. “I did what was expected...”

“And you ran in, didn't take him seriously, and ended up with a broken leg. Jin Ae—”

“I already got this speak from Junsu and Changmin,” I groaned, smacking my forehead. “Not you too.”

K hated it when I interrupted her; it was one of the worst things you could do when you were around her. “I'm telling you because I know what he's capable of and how dangerous he really is. I gave you an opening, Jin Ae. An opening you might not get again.”

“I shot him though,” I said, giving her a determined glower. “I shot him and there was anticoagulants...” Trailing off, I wiggled my eyebrows.

She narrowed her eyes. “You're too pleased with yourself.”

“You're just jealous because I actually hit him.” I smirked and she rolled her eyes.

“Don't get too comfortable, Kim. If he survives this, he'll be coming after you with a vengeance.”

“And I'll be waiting.”

K studied me, eyes surveying my overly-open face for several seconds before crossing her arms and shaking her head slowly. “You want him to come.” My silence confirmed it. “This attitude of yours is going to get you killed, not just a broken bone.”

“I've lived a good life,” I said. “So he can kill me, but not before I kill him.” Really, that made no sense, but the pain killers were still blabbering. “I'll come for him and when I do, I'll shoot the son of a , make him go down and make sure he stays down.”

“So you think he's going to pull through this.”

“Don't you?”

“Of course. You never underestimate someone of his level.”

“Then, I'll be planning for him to have that vengeance,” I stated, voice dropping low. “I'll be ready to put him the ground.”

K looked me over for another few moments before a small smirk crawled across her lips. “Invite me to the funeral,” she said.