~~~~~~

"What did you do Myungsoo?!" Min Ah said shrilly as she staggered backwards and looked up at him in a mixture of shock and fear.

"They were going to hurt you!" He explained nervously as he reached for her through the dark night, pulling her away from the men on the floor and towards the alley wall at the back of the restaurant they had been at.

"But you... this is too much. You were like a..." She began nervously, the word monster dying in as she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

"I wasn't going to let them hurt you. I had to do it. They weren't leaving. Remember I warned them" Myungsoo explained calmly as he placed a cool hand on her cheek and he willed her to calm down.

Min Ah stared at him in surprise, the taste of fear bitter in as she nodded nervously. His hand touched her tenderly and for some bizarre reason she eased up. She looked into his eyes, now cold and calm as he wiped away her tears with the tip of his thumb. Those men had wanted to hurt her... and he came to save her she told herself as she pushed away the fear. Her breathing slowed and Myungsoo smiled as he saw her began to relax.

He knew she would understand.

"What are you going to do about them though?" She asked.

"I'll just call my dad and it'll be fine" He said as he placed a small kiss on her forehead.

~~~~~~

Min Ah pushed past him and ran over to Jong In. She stopped short when she reached him, the image of him so... hurt stopping her before she could touch him and confirm that it was all real. Her body tensed as she took in his injuries. His  head tilted to the side almost lifelessly as blood dripped down from various spots on his face. Her eyes flickered to the table, it's surface stained with blood and thrown backwards by someone. Min Ah struggled to keep her composure calm and from looking too worried as she knelt beside the unconscious man and felt his pulse. It was faint, but it was there.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” She screamed as she whirled back to confront Myungsoo.

Myungsoo simply stared as Hoya and Dongwoo gathered behind him. Their faces showed their shock as they stared at the man on the ground. Myungsoo looked merely disoriented as he tried to calm down and grasp the consequences of what he had done.

“We need to get him to a hospital” Min Ah ordered as she reached for her phone, “Dongwoo, call the legal department, get them to send someone over and Hoya take Myungsoo up to his office, don’t let him out” She ordered, fixing a livid glance on the blank looking man.

“Don’t call anyone. He’ll be fine” Myungsoo said suddenly, as he snapped out of whatever haze he had been in and his mind started to think again.

“Are you crazy? He could have serious injuries” Min Ah snapped as she pushed herself up, the fact that she almost slipped because her hands were slick with Jong In's blood almost sending her over the edge. She unlocked her phone and dialed for an ambulance.

“So? He’s some lowlife piece of we caught this morning we’ll catch another” He said anxiously. He didn't want to involve the legal department. One whiff of this to internal affairs and his fast track to promotions would be gone. He felt fear and anxiety claw away inside of him and suddenly the room itself seemed to be shrinking.

“Don’t be an idiot” She said angrily, forgetting the fact that he was her boss at the moment as she barked out order for an ambulance and quickly hung up, “You could have a murder on your hands. I’m taking him to a hospital you don’t want to cooperate then fine I’ll see you at his trial when he sues you and this department for abuse”

"Hoya you go with him to the hospital. Min Ah, you stay with me" Myungsoo ordered quietly as he silently hoped she would stay with him. This time it had been worse, he needed someone to talk to. He wanted to talk to her, to make her see he wasn't the type of person he knew she must think.

"No. I can handle this better. Plus if Jong In wakes up he'll jump for a lawsuit as soon as his eyes land on any of you. I haven't interrogated him, I might have a shot at helping this die down" She said, grasping at any excuse she could think of so that she could stay with Jong In.

Hoya looked up nervously at his boss, who was simply frowning and he wondered faintly why he had requested Min Ah specifically. Was there really something going on between them? He didn't have time to think about it any deeper though as the loud voices of the paramedics streamed in from down the hall. Hoya looked at Min Ah, who hadn't moved an inch, and back at Myungsoo who seemed to be getting angrier by the second. Finally, the paramedics burst in and immediately went to treat the suspect as they carefully monitored his vitals and placed him on a stretcher.

“…Just go” Myungsoo finally said, fixing a somewhat look of resentment on her that she swiftly ignored.

She looked at their team as each set out to their own task, including dragging Myungsoo away and she quickly turned her attention back to Jong In. She followed the paramedics down to the bottom floor where they carefully loaded him into the ambulance.

"Are you coming with us miss?" One asked.

Min Ah simply nodded as they helped her into the back of the ambulance and the doors shut behind them with a loud thud. A small monitor blinked to life and she heard the strangely reassuring series of beeps that told her he was still alive. They quickly cut away his shirt as the examined his torso. She looked on, her hands trembling as her eyes tried to make sense of what was serious and what wasn't. Her eyes landed on old scarred over puncture marks on Jong In's arm and she felt her mind spin. As one of the paramedics touched his chest, Min Ah jumped when a loud groan came from Jong In.

"What's wrong?" She asked nervously, leaning forward.

"He's got a broken rib, probably a few, it's probably hell trying to breath. What happened to him anyways?" He asked as he cleaned away the blood.

"...He fell" She answered hollowly as she remembered her job and that as much as it pained her, she had to lie right now.

The paramedic gave her an incredulous look before returning back to try to stop the bleeding from the cut on his patient's forehead. Not soon enough they reached the hospital. Doctors were already waiting as they immediately took the stretcher and pushed it past a series of doors.

"Miss you can't go there! You have to wait in the waiting room" A nurse explained as she grabbed Min Ah's arm when she tried to follow along.

"Y-you don't understand. I'm with the police, see?" She said quickly as she clumsily pulled out her badge, her nerves getting the best of her, "I have to make sure he's alright"

"You still have to wait. The injuries weren't as life threatening as they look. Please be patient" She said sternly and Min Ah finally gave in as they handed her a a stack of paperwork to fill out and sat her down among the other waiting people.

She gripped the pen tightly as she remembered her friend Jong In. The innocent boy she had left behind was now in a hospital, even worse, he was technically still under arrest. She thought about his injuries and her hand trembled as she messily tried to fill in as much as she could. She watched as a drop of liquid fell onto the page and she realized she was tearing up. Min Ah swore quietly as she looked up and forced herself to stop. She couldn't show this much emotion, not right now. She looked in front of her to find a woman staring at her with wide eyes before looking away in embarrassment when Min Ah looked at her. It was no wonder she realized as she looked down at her blood stained pants.

 Even as she told herself everything was going to be okay the minutes slowly passed by with no words from anyone. It was a full two hours later until a doctor finally came up to her.

"Officer Han?" He asked as she scrambled up and nodded, "Well we've stabilized Mr. Kim. He suffered a very brutal beating, but thankfully there were no serious complications with treatment. Many of his wounds were superficial, the broken ribs will be a problem as they heal, but they should heal fine. Of course we want to keep him for a few days to monitor his heart condition—"

"Heart condition?" She asked quietly, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Yes, his heart was very weak when we found him. He's most likely suffered some sort of cardiac arrest as early as a few years ago, probably due to the signs of drug abuse we found"

"So he's a drug addict?" She whispered.

"No, rather he was. We've found no trace of it in his systems for quite a long time which means he's most likely cleaned up his act in that respect. We've placed him in a room now, I assume you'll be keeping watch over him? He's going to wake up soon so he can probably explain these things better than what I can hypothesize. You can go right ahead" The doctor explained as he showed her the way and left her at the entrance to the room.

Min Ah didn't waste any time as she stepped into the hospital room to find him asleep. He had stitches on his forehead and bandages all over. She kept her distance as she tried to assess the damage. White bandages were also wrapped around his right wrist, the one that had been handcuffed to the damn chair and she painfully wondered how hard he must tried to break free. She turned around and stepped up to the hospital door. She locked it quietly and went to his bedside. With little effort she pulled a cold metal chair up to the bed and sat silently in it. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and looked down to see it was Myungsoo calling. She frowned, feeling a sudden surge of resentment and silenced it.

Her eyes slowly trailed up to settle on the old scarred over puncture marks.

Kim Jong In had been doing drugs. Not just some drugs, but enough that he ended up with a weak heart that was the deciding factor in whether he would have survived this at all. She finally let her tears fall down freely as the weight of this all landed on her in full force. With a firm hand she reached out for his and held it tightly as she cried. This was not how it was supposed to be. She was supposed to find out that they had made it out of that small hellhole they grew up in to become better men. Min Ah cried as guilt for leaving them behind swelled in her chest.

A small part of her... it wished that she had never found him so that she could stayed living the lies she had built up. The lies that let her sleep peacefully at night and ignore the reality.

"What the..." Came a groggy voice as Jong In came back into consciousness.

The first things his eyes landed on was the girl crying besides him. Her hands gripping his tightly. He frowned as he tried to remember her when  he suddenly realized it had been the cop that had arrested him. He took a sharp breath, that only caused a wave of extreme pain through his torso, and pulled his hand away with as much force as he could. What the hell was this psycho doing acting like she cared what happened to him?!

"Jong In... it's me" She said tearfully as she looked at him straight on.

"What the hell are you... talking about" He said angrily as he felt all the pain soak back into his body. It echoed through every bone and muscle so that he felt as if his whole body had just been ripped to shreds.

"My name is Han Min Ah... don't you remember me? We grew up together..." She said desperately and Jong in frowned, he remembered his friend Min Ah, but this wasn't her. Min Ah had left a long time ago, she never looked back, was this just some lie to get him to talk?

She ran a hand through her hair as she stood up momentarily and pulled out her wallet. There was a deep frown on her face until she finally pulled out an old folded up photograph. Jong In looked at her wearily as he grabbed it carefully from her outstretched hand and opened it up. The image hit him like a ton of bricks as he nervously looked at the girl in a whole new light. His head suddenly began to hurt, but he didn't move. He looked down at the photograph and back at her as she waited patiently for him to say something. He tried to make sense of it, he tried to find excuses as to why someone else might have this photograph, but he knew from experience it was the only one and if this woman had it... then it meant that she really was...

"Is it really you...?" He asked  breathlessly as he tried to stay calm and ignore the nasty thought that this was some cruel nightmare.

She opened to say something when there was suddenly a loud bang on the door. Min Ah reached out and put away the photograph quickly and she leaned in.

"Pretend you're asleep, don't open your eyes until I tell you too alright? I'm going to get you out of here" She whispered as she planted a small caring kiss on his forehead and ran to the door. Jong In blinked, was he dead? Was this all some sort of afterlife dream? He hadn't had a dream about her for some years now, but suddenly he felt small and young again. Like he once again needed her protection and like he could run to her being the crybaby that he used to be so that she would protect him.

A strike of longing went through him and he didn't have to chance to think about it as he heard the door unlock with a loud click and he closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and pretended to be asleep.

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Hurray for random updates! Thanks to the new subcribers! I hope you guys enjoy the fic and thanks to those that left comments! ^__^