“What?” Mir exclaimed into the mouth-speaker that was connected to his earpiece. “Hyung, I can’t hear you!”

“A distraction Mir!” G.O repeated his words urgently, his voice kept low as though he was trying to hide from someone. “I need you to cause a distraction for us to get out of this building.”

“Don’t you see those two guys guarding the door outside?” Seung Ho’s voice spoke up suddenly. Mir turned to look at Ji Yoon who nodded at him.

“There, right outside the door. I think they can’t get out without going by unnoticed by those guys,” she informed him as she pointed towards the huge steel door connected to the building.

“Oh, alright. I know what to do,” Mir nodded in understament. “Just wait for my cue hyung.”

Immediately, Mir got into his position, lying flat on his stomach once again with his rifle propped up on his right shoulder. Ji Yoon watched him in awe as he narrowed his eyes and looked into the rear sight of his weapon.

Shifting the rifle slightly towards the right, Mir’s eyes remained concentrated on his target as he aimed for a perfect mark. Ji Yoon could see a small grin appearing on his face after he found a clear shot.

Ji Yoon bit her bottom lip hard from calling out to him; distracting him. Part of her knows that he was doing this for a good cause, to save her brother and his friends. And it wasn’t like he was going to deliberately shoot someone. He would just cause a distraction so that Seung Ho and G.O could get out of the place safely.

But there was another nagging part of her that was afraid.

Afraid of what she would see after this.

“Ji Yoonie...get back. Get behind me,” Mir said quietly, without looking up at her.

Surprisingly, Ji Yoon did as she was told, not wanting to mess up the process of saving her friends. What matters most right now, is that all of them gets out of the place safely.

Ji Yoon crawled towards Mir cautiously and positioned herself behind her, just like how he had instructed. She held her breath momentarily, afraid to make another small sound.

And then...it happened.

Like a predator in the dark, the bullet travelled the distance silently. Ji Yoon wouldn’t have known Mir had actually fired the shot if it wasn’t for the fact the two guys had suddenly duck for cover, their hands covering both of their heads.

Impulsively, Mir lowered his gun and hid himself behind the roof bricks. Ji Yoon did the same behind him, clutching at the hem of his shirt as she did so.

Ji Yoon hadn’t realise the tight grip she had on him until she felt Mir’s arms enveloping her into a hug. He pulled her closer to him and she didn’t resist, she didn’t fight back. She rested her head against his chest gratefully, both of them still in their lying down positions.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry. I’m-

But no sooner the words were out of his mouth; Ji Yoon heard a loud thunk hitting the metal plate strapped against the rooftop’s wall, causing them to jump in their place.

“What the- Ji Yoon, get down. Whatever you do, do not look up,” Mir told her seriously as he grabbed the rifle from his right side. “Do not look up.”

“Mir, Ji Yoon!” G.O’s anxious voice filled their ears all of a sudden. “Are you guys okay? I saw them shooting at your position!”

“We are okay,” Ji Yoon answered shakily when she noticed Mir had yanked away his earpiece. He now has a determined look on his face, like he was ready to take these guys out himself. “W-what about you? Is Hyuna okay? What about my brother?”

“We’re okay Yoon!” G.O informed her, his voice starting to sound a little breathless. “We’ve managed to make a run for it, thanks to Mir’s distraction. But Joon’s not with us.”

“What? Where is he? Why didn’t you guys wait for him?”

“Don’t worry Ji Yoon, he’s fine. Don’t worry about him. Just make sure both of you get away from that place as soon as you can okay? We’ll meet you back at the warehouse.”

“B-but...”

“And Ji Yoon,” this time, it was Seung Ho who was talking to her. “Don’t let Mir’s anger get the best of him. I’m sure you know what I mean.”

Ji Yoon turned around to look at her boyfriend once again and saw that he was readjusting his rifle restlessly, his fingers enclosing the trigger.

He was going to shoot for the second time.

And no doubt, this time he was really aiming for someone’s head.

“Mir! No!” she cried out, placing her hand on his arm to stop him from doing something regretful. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“No Yoonie, I have to get them!” he said stubbornly, his eyes never leaving the rear sight. “They almost shot you just now!”

“Chul Yong!” Ji Yoon mustered all her strength into that one name, desperate to get his attention back to her. “I’m fine. Can’t you see I’m fine? Let’s just get out of here!”

Mir paused for a moment, regaining awareness of his surrounding, of Ji Yoon’s firm grip on his arm. Slowly, he unclasped his fingers from the trigger he had almost pulled seconds ago, suddenly realising what he had almost done if Ji Yoon hadn’t stopped him.

Mir had done many different, wrong things in his life. He’s hurt a lot of people in the past, causing them physical and emotional injuries.

But he was not a killer.

“Let’s get out of here. Okay?” Ji Yoon softened her voice, releasing her grip on him yet she still let her hand lingered on his arm for awhile. To give him comfort, to give him reassurance.

Mir’s eyes travelled down to the two attackers, watching them as they looked around their surrounding wildly, wondering if they had gotten their shooter.

They were not done searching and it was probably a bad idea to stay there for much longer.

He turned to face Ji Yoon who was staring at him with a concerned expression on her face, the fear in her eyes still visible. She wasn’t afraid of the danger they were in; she was actually afraid of what he might do.

With a heavy heart, he placed his hand over hers and gave her a slight nod.

“Let’s go.”

“Where’s my brother?” Ji Yoon demanded the moment both of them reached the warehouse after a mad drive back. Her eyes wandered around the huge space anxiously, searching for Joon’s familiar face but found that he was nowhere in sight. The unsettled feeling in her stomach had only worsened.

“We’ve tried contacting him,” G.O answered grimly. “But he’s not answering and I’m guessing he has already thrown away his earpiece. The only thing that we can do now is wait and-

“Wait?” Ji Yoon cried out in disbelief, and started storming over towards where G.O was standing beside Seung Ho but Mir held her back.

“Yoonie, don’t. Let’s just see what we can do here until he comes back okay?” Mir advised her, her back gently. “Lee Joon hyung can take care of himself Yoon, he knows what he’s doing.”

Ji Yoon definitely doesn’t agree with just sitting back and doing nothing when her brother could be fighting like mad for his life out there but Mir was right. There wasn’t really anything they could do right now.

And besides, Ji Yoon had just noticed a weak and fragile figure lying down behind Seung Ho, on one of the long tables which had been set up in the room.

Hyuna’s beautiful blonde locks which had turned greasy were kept unkempt with her clothes torn and tattered in some areas. Ji Yoon walked over towards her slowly, the sadness inside of her piling up miserably.

Hyuna’s youthful face was badly bruised, with dried blood staining the corner of and also on the cut on the left side of her face. The red marks on her wrists and legs which had come from the tight ropes used to tie her up were still very much visible.

At first glance, anybody would’ve thought the poor girl was already dead; seeing how much she had gone through by the injuries on her body and face.

But as Ji Yoon neared her, she could see Hyuna’s chest heaving up and down in a painfully slow motion, causing Ji Yoon to collapse right there and then in front of the table.

What was wrong with her? What kind of a police detective was she if she couldn’t even protect her own friend?

Was it because of her own negligence that she didn’t notice something was troubling Hyuna? Was it because of her own ignorance that Mir was able to keep his ‘other life’ a secret from her for a long period of time?

And when the door suddenly flew open behind her, Ji Yoon whirled around hastily, hoping to see the one person she wanted to see.

But then, she couldn’t help thinking too...

Was it also her fault that her brother was staggering into the room, with his right hand grasping on to his shoulder dreadfully as he tried to make his way towards them but only to fall down face-first when he was just a few steps into the room.

“Joon!” both G.O and Seung Ho rushed forward to his aid with Mir trailing right behind them.

Frozen on her spot, Ji Yoon was only able to watch in horror as the three of them helped Lee Joon up and hauled his weight to the nearest chair that was available.

“What happened?” Seung Ho asked urgently while G.O went off to make an important phone call. Mir started to ransack the cupboards for their first aid supplies, throwing stuffs all over the room as he did so.

“Them...bastards...” he cussed angrily and let go of his hand which was used to cover his wound earlier.

Ji Yoon clamped her hand over her moth to stifle a gasp when Joon finally revealed the injury which he had been concealing from them.

Blood was gushing out like a flowing river from the spot right below his left shoulder. The wound was so terrifyingly huge that Ji Yoon couldn’t help but to avert her eyes away from her brother. But not before she managed to catch a quick glimpse of his face.

His face which had started to turned hauntingly pale all of a sudden.

Lee Joon...he had been shot.