Jiyong turned towards Daehyun and I, his face dark. I shuddered involuntarily and felt the lump in my throat grow. The men beside him began to advance on us and Jiyong said nothing to stop them. “This is best,” he said, almost sounding as if he was trying to reassure himself.

Daehyun, as if he had been listening to the conversation, stirred and his eyes shot open. I gasped and the thugs froze, bewildered that he was even alive. However, his eyes were foggy and his skin was sallow. He stared up at me, disorientated and drifting in and out of consciousness.

“_____...” he breathed, his voice choppy.

Grasping onto his cold hand, my heart broke at the state he was in. “Don’t talk,” I urged.

“_____...run…”

I frantically shook my head causing the tears that I had been fighting back to spill down my cheeks. “No…”

“Please… go.”

“No! I’m not leaving you.”

“Oh, c’mon already,” The short-tempered man beside Jiyong clenched his teeth, aiming the pistol in his hands in our direction. “This is annoying. I’ll kill ‘em right now.” He cocked it, and I held my breath. I waited for the sound of another shot being fired, but instead, a different, unexpected noise came from off in the distance. Sirens, first faint, but they grew louder and louder with each passing second.

Daehyun mumbled something like, "They're here," but I could barely understand him.

“Hey!” Panic filled me as his eyes rolled shut and his head snapped back. I shook him a few times, but he didn't respond.

The gang had frozen, many of them looking to Jiyong in their current confusion. The man with the pistol looked at a loss for words as he hesitantly shifted back and forth on his feet. Once the wailing sirens stopped in front of the school, fear really began to fill all of their faces. Jiyong's expression turned solumn and his eyes even colder.

“C’mon we have to get out of here,” one of the younger teenagers spoke up, stealing a few glances our way. “If they find us here, it’s over.”

“It’s already over for us…” Jiyong uttered, but none of the others seemed to have heard him.

One by one, the gang furtively hurried off, retreating the same way they had came in. Even the man who had just moments before been so eager to end us left with his tail between his legs. Jiyong, the last one to leave, reached the rooftop doorway. He turned and peered back at us, the same indistinguishable look plastered on his face as before. Standing alone in the starless nighttime light, he looked lonely, pitiful.

Then, as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone.

We had escaped death on a whim, our lives barely having been spared. But time was running out for Daehyun and I could feel his life ebbing away. Holding his body close to mine, I hoped and prayed for some kind of miracle. But not able to do much, all I could do was wait.