sacrifice [sakrəˌfīs] n. - an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

“It’s been two days,” Baekhyun whispered quietly as he tucked his face into the crook of his arm. “Two days since Mihyun was taken.”

“You think I don’t know that already?” Sehun snarled in return as he shot the boy a nasty look.

“Don’t talk to him like that, he’s just worried!” Chanyeol growled as he wrapped a protective arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. He pressed the shaking Baekhyun’s head against his chest and glowered up at Sehun. “We’re all worried, Sehun, not just you, so could you stop acting like such a ?”

He and Sehun stared hard into each other eyes until Sehun finally let out a small sigh. “Yeah, I know, sorry,” Sehun muttered as he ran his fingers through his coarse hair. “I just… I can’t…”

He concluded his words with a loud shout of distress, slamming his fist against the wall. After registering no sense of pain, he let out another loud growl and smashed his other fist into the wall with a helpless cry.

“Hurting yourself isn’t going to save her,” Jongin’s voice piped up. Sehun’s head turned to the boy who was leaning against the cage door with crossed arms and cold eyes. “Take it from me.”

Sehun turned and pressed his back against the wall, slowly sliding down into a helpless heap. He clenched tight handfuls of his hair with his fists, “What am I supposed to do, Jongin? How can I save her?”

“Pull yourself together,” Jongin growled, snatching Sehun by the collar to pull him up. He shoved him against the wall, ignoring the cry of protest from Baekhyun. “You pull yourself together, Sehun.”

“I know, I know,” Sehun murmured as he stared down at his feet. “I know I have to pull it together, I know. I just… I just don’t know what to do, Jongin. I’m so pathetic, aren’t I? If Mihyun was in my shoes she would have come up with ten different ways to save me already, but I just… I just can’t and it’s so frustrating and I can’t think about anything else except for how useless I am to her.”

“Oh Sehun, you need to calm down right now,” Jongin glared as he slammed Sehun against the wall again. “If you don’t calm down you’ll never be able to save Mihyun, do you understand me?”

Sehun paused for a second before slowly nodding his head.

“Good,” Jongin nodded as he let go of Sehun’s collar. “Now that you’re calm, I’ll tell you what I found out while you were here being hysterical.”

“She’s being kept here, Mihyun, here at the Noye house,” Jongin crossed his arms as he stared hard at Sehun. “Don’t say anything before I’m done,” Jongin quickly added in once Sehun’s eyes widened with surprise. “I’m not going to tell you where she is until I’m finished talking so you better keep quiet.”

“Jongin! She could be--!” Sehun exclaimed, this time taking Jongin’s collar into his grasp.

“Oh Sehun,” Jongin stated firmly, not even flinching at the rough handling. “I don’t care what she could be. What I do care about is you not letting your emotions get the better of yourself because you’ll only make the problem worse.”

Jongin was so sure that Sehun was about to punch him in the face for a few seconds from how the other glared at him, but to his relief and surprise, Sehun simply nodded his head. “Make it quick,” he spoke in a strained voice.

“I overheard Jaemin telling a guard not to give Mihyun any food until she confesses that she’s been plotting to act against the Noye House,” Jongin explained in a hushed voice. “And the—”

“Where?” Sehun growled as darkness shaded over his face. “Where the hell is she?”

“I’m not telling you yet, Sehun,” Jongin replied firmly. His face snapped to the side, a pulsing pain running down the other side of his face from Sehun’s sudden punch.

“Sehun!” Chanyeol called out in protest, rushing forward to restrain the male from hitting Jongin once more.

“What if this was Kyungsoo, Jongin?! What if it was Kyungsoo in her place?!” Sehun roared, thrashing against Chanyeol’s arms.

“If it was Kyungsoo then I would lose control of myself!” Jongin shouted back with a strong glare. “If this was Kyungsoo then I wouldn’t care about reason or logic, and I’d do anything to save him and probably end up with both of us getting killed! If it was Kyungsoo… I would hope that you would get me to calm down before I do anything stupid.”

“So you calm down, Oh Sehun, because believe it or not I’m doing you a damn good favor you insolent ,” Jongin growled in a low voice.

The two of them stared at each other for a long period of time before Sehun finally backed down. He pulled away from Chanyeol’s arms and took a long, deep breath to calm himself. “Sorry,” Sehun muttered, shamefully training his gaze on the ground. He knew Jongin was right, and he was grateful that he at least was being level headed.

“Keep going, Jongin,” Baekhyun whispered in a voice hoarse from crying. “What are they doing to Mihyun?”

“I don’t know much of what they have been doing,” Jongin admitted as he ran his hand through his hair. “But I know what they plan to.”

There was a moment of pause, and each of the occupants in the cage leaned forward with anticipation.

Jongin’s eyes flashed, and the corner of his lip curved upward into a small smirk, “And I know exactly how we’re going to stop them.”

Mihyun stared up at the cracked ceiling, wondering how many days had passed since she was captured. She let out a soft sigh as she pressed her cracked lips against her cold arms, thinking about what the others must have been doing.

“Probably going crazy at this point,” she chuckled quietly to herself. Her stomach strained in protest at the action, and she let out another sigh. She hated being in this position, but there was truly nothing she could do. They hadn’t fed her for two days at the very least, only offering her a cup of water every few hours. She didn’t know it was possible to literally feel the strength slowly seep from one’s body, but now she did.

The bruises she had received from the beating a few days prior had begun to shift into a shade of yellow and green, but they still hurt all the same when she pressed on them. A little bit of her was actually happy that the others weren’t here to see her in such a state. She bit down on the inside of , thinking about how enraged Sehun would become once he was to come rescue her.

And how would he do that?

Rescue her, that is.

She didn’t know how he would, or when he would, but she still held onto the belief that he would. It was a bit irritating, to be quite honest, for her to accept the position of being a damsel in distress, but at that point she couldn’t care less.

Mihyun just wanted to go home. She wanted to go home to the small cozy house they had just moved into, and snuggle on the bed with Sehun and read stories with Luhan and joke around with Baekhyun and Chanyeol. She wanted to work with Jaesuk and argue with Jongin and tease Minseok and –

Her thoughts were suddenly jerked away from her as a large explosion shook the room. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she registered the sounds of shouting guards and pounding footsteps outside the door of her jail. The dust that caked the walls fell down like rain, and she held in her breath to prevent herself from inhaling the dirt.

What the hell was causing the ruckus? Mihyun froze in realization, and her hand slowly dropped to her side. They wouldn’t.

She stared at the door in horrifying anticipation, silently pleading to the gods that what she assumed was happening wasn’t actually happening. They weren’t ready for it, none of them were ready for it, and she’d be damned if they risked everything just to save her.

A loud thud banged against the door, and she took a step back as a safety measure.

“Mihyun?! Mihyun are you in there?!”

Mihyun recognized that voice all too well, and her insides began to quiver in fear. She dropped to her feet and wrapped her arms around her knees, hoping, pleading that this was all just a dream.

The door to her room burst open and she squeezed her eyes shut. She felt a pair of warm arms wrap tightly around her, and the familiar scent of Sehun wafted around her like a protective shield. “Mihyun, you’re here,” Sehun whispered as he squeezed her as tightly as he could, as if she would disappear from his sight once more if he didn’t.

“Se… Sehun,” Mihyun whimpered in response as she slowly responded to the hug, clenching handfuls of the back of Sehun’s shirt into her small fists.

"You're here, you're here," Sehun breathed in relief as he pressed kisses all over Mihyun's face. His hands patted her body to see if she had any serious wounds, and he let out another breath of relief when none were found."You're here and you're okay. I was so worried, I thought... I thought that you might have... but you're okay."

"Y-Yeah," Mihyun chuckled as she wrapped her arms around Sehun's neck to pull him in for another hug. It was only now that she realized how much she had really missed him, and how relieved she was to see him once more. "I'm okay, I'm okay."

A hard tremor shook the room, and Mihyun pulled back into reality.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Mihyun whispered as she slowly pulled away from Sehun.

“What are you talking about?” Sehun demanded as he stared into the girl’s tired and weary eyes. He felt a sudden anger spread through his chest as his fingers brush against the girl’s fading bruises. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay? It’s going crazy out there so we have to be quick.”

“Sehun, you shouldn’t have done this. We’re not ready for this, Sehun, so many people are going to die,” Mihyun’s voice shook as she held onto his shirt. “It wasn’t worth it. You can’t do this just to save me.”

Sehun stared at her with momentary confusion until he finally realized what she meant. He let out a soft chuckle and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Mihyun, trust me,” Sehun replied as he cupped the girl’s face gently with the palms of his hands.

“Everybody’s going to die and it’s going to be all my fault,” Mihyun whispered, fear spread throughout her body, and she felt her frame begin to shake.

“Mihyun, listen to me,” Sehun stated firmly. He pressed his lips gently against hers, and stared straight into her eyes as he pulled away. “Trust me, okay? Just trust me."

“But Sehun I- Ok-okay,” Mihyun nodded her head slowly as she knits her fingers through Sehun's.

“Good, now we have to get out of here,” Sehun stated as he pulled her to her feet. “Can you walk?”

Mihyun nodded her head. “Where are the others? Where are Luhan and Baekhyun? Chanyeol, Jongin, and Minseok? Are they safe?”

“I don’t know,” Sehun honestly replied as he wrapped an arm around her waist after noticing her weak steps. “We all agreed to meet up at the end of the 5^th hall, so let’s head there now.”

The sights that met Mihyun’s eyes the second they stepped out of the room were ones that she knew would haunt her for days. The rebellion had started not more than ten minutes ago, yet so much destruction had already hit the area around. Buildings were on fire, the screams, shouts and pounding footsteps were deafening to her ears, and she would have remained frozen if it wasn’t for Sehun who was tugging her along.

She now realized that it was the dead of night, but the sky was lit up by the fire that was the air. Another bomb exploded, and Sehun caught her before she could topple over. “Are you sure you can walk?” Sehun asked as he glanced down at her with worry. “Do you want me to carry you?”

Mihyun shook her head and urged him to continue forward. They moved faster now, the adrenaline that was pumping through her body gave her a surge of strength. She realized now that something was missing. “Where are the guards?”

“Most of them are still in the guard house,” Sehun answered as he wrapped his arm protectively around her head to shield her from any flying debris. “It’s 3 AM right now, so most of them were sleeping when the first bomb went off.” He let out a dark chuckle, “They didn’t even know what was coming to them.”

“What about Jaesuk? And Yixing? What about everybody who was supposed to help the Noyes?” Mihyun asked as she stumbled after him.

“They’re all here, Mihyun,” Sehun reassured her. “I told you to trust me, didn’t I? Now watch your step or you’re going to fall.” Sehun continued to lead her through the destruction and fallen bodies, and she blindly followed after him, not allowing herself to look very far. She knew she would remember every detail of it. Every dead body that littered the grounds would remain engraved into her memory.

Mihyun cringed every time she heard a shot being fired, knowing fully well that it was most likely a Noye at the receiving end.

She watched as a watch tower toppled over into a building, a number of screams shortly followed after wards. Would it be worth it? In end, would it all be worth it?

Mihyun froze once she caught sight of a lone figure standing in front of the guard house.

“Mihyun what are you doing? We have to go!” Sehun exclaimed as he tried to pull her from her spot.

“Luhan…” Mihyun whispered, recognizing the small white board that laid at the figure’s feet. She pulled away from Sehun and burst into a sprint, “Luhan!”

Luhan’s head slowly turned towards her and he gave her a small smile. He slowly parted his lips, and spoke in a soft, gentle voice that contrasted the chaos that was happening around them, “Mihyun.”

Mihyun froze midstep, her eyes widening in shock as she processed the word and the unfamiliar voice that said it, “Lu… Luhan?”

“Mihyun! Hyung! What are you doing?!” Sehun exclaimed as he caught up with the pair. “Hyung, let’s go!”

“Sehun,” Luhan nodded slowly, feeling the familiar word roll of his tongue like an old friend.

“Hyu— Did you just… did you,” Sehun’s jaw dropped. He swallowed down his words to concentrate on the situation at hand.

Luhan’s head turned back to face forward, and the two now noticed what Luhan was standing in front of.

Guards.

About 200 guards remained in the resting house, still clad in their pajamas as they stared at Luhan with a mix of fear and anticipation.

“Luhan, walk away slowly,” Sehun murmured under his breath, his eyes trained on the guns that were in many of their hands. “Luhan, let’s go or they’ll kill you.”

“They won’t,” Luhan shook his head.

The two stared at him in confusion – how was he so sure they wouldn’t shoot him when they were completely capable of doing so? Mihyun now noticed the device that was in Luhan’s closed fist, and her eyes slowly widened in realization. It was a hand grenade. “Luhan, don’t.”

Luhan shook his head again, “It’s too late.”

Mihyun eyes zeroed in on the pin that lied on the ground, and her breath got caught in . “Luhan, please.”

“You should leave,” Luhan whispered, a small tear escaped from the corner of his eye and slowly rolled down his dirt smudged face.

“Hyung, don’t do it,” Sehun shook his head, a sudden panic surging through his chest. He reached forward to take the grenade from Luhan, but Luhan blocked it with his other hand.

“Sehun please,” Luhan’s voice shook as he turned to stare at him. His eyes were swimming with tears, and he was trying his hardest not to let any more of them fall. “I have to do this.” The two continued to stare at each other, years of silently communicating with their eyes told Sehun all he needed to know.

“No you don’t,” Mihyun pleaded as she pulled at Luhan’s arm. “You don’t have to do this, Luhan, let’s just go, okay? We can all go and live happily together in our little house, and we can all be together and –”

“Mihyun,” Sehun whispered as he placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Mihyun’s head spun around to face Sehun and she stared at him incredulously, “Sehun! You can’t just – This is Luhan!”

Sehun’s face set into a straight, rigid line as he stared at Luhan. He wrapped his arm around Mihyun and began to turn around, “Let’s go Mihyun.”

“Sehun!” Mihyun exclaimed as she pulled away from Sehun’s grip. “We can’t leave Luhan!”

“I said let’s go,” Sehun responded in a hard voice. He picked Mihyun up off her feet and gently hung her over his shoulder, ignoring the kicks and punches she threw at him. “He’ll die! Sehun! Stop it he’ll die!”

Sehun turned around to face Luhan, and his voice cracked as he softly spoke, “Bye Hyung.”

Luhan nodded his head, an endless stream of tears now running down his face. He sloppily wiped them away with the back of his arm. “Thank you for everything.”

“Sehun please, Sehun please stop,” Mihyun begged as Sehun began to walk away. “Sehun don’t leave him. Sehun, Sehun! Sehun let me down! Luhan! LUHAN!”

Luhan tore his gaze away from the departing pair, and focused his attention once more on the guards in front of him. Luhan recognized so many of those faces, for those were the faces that haunted his nightmares, his dreams, and his reality. They were the ones who would send shivers down his spine whenever he saw them turn the corner or walk in his direction. They were the ones who laughed at his face, who ignored his cries of mercy, who would whisper profanity into his ears as they touched him in unspeakable places.

They were the ones who stole his voice.

And now they were the ones who would pay for it.

“He won’t do it,” one of them sneered loudly in Luhan’s direction. “If he kills us he’ll die too, and he’s too scared to do that.”

Luhan could see the way the corner of the man’s mouth quivered in fear.

“He’s too much of a coward to do it,” he continues, his hand tightening against the stock of his gun. “He’s too much of a coward to let himself die. I bet that’s a fake bomb. It’s a fake, isn’t it, huh? You’re just trying to scare us when it’s actually fake.”

Luhan smiles.

He holds the grenade up in his hand and recites the lines he had heard whispered into his ears too many times to count,

“Now, why don’t you be a good boy and keep quiet?”

“The others should be coming soon,” Sehun murmured as he places Mihyun back down on her feet once they reach the end of the 5^th hall. The hallways remained relatively untouched, and not many people remained.

Mihyun spins around on her heels, her face twisted into an expression of rage and desperation.

“Sehun!” Mihyun screamed, tears running down her face as she slammed her fists repetitively against Sehun’s chest. “He’s going to die! Why did you do that, we could have saved him!”

Sehun stood there silently taking all of the hits without even flinching. He clenched down hard on his teeth to stop himself from breaking into tears as he recalled the look on Luhan’s face. After a few minutes, he caught the girl’s thin arms easily with his hands. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he murmured as he stared down at the sobbing girl.

“Why di-did you d-do th-that?” Mihyun cried as she fell to the ground. She pressed her hands against her sobbing face. “Why didn’t you save-ave him?”

“Because this is his way…” Sehun’s voice cracked as he swiped at his eyes with the back of his arm to wipe the spilling tears, “This is his way of saving himself. This is his way of ending the years of torment he suffered through.”

“But Luhan, he’ll…” Mihyun choked, gripping the front of her shirt to cope with the way her heart was painfully pounding against her chest.

“What happened?”

Sehun and Mihyun both looked over at Jongin who had just arrived with raised eyebrows.

“Jong-Jongin, Luhan’s… Luhan’s going to!” Mihyun cried, wrapping her arms around Jongin’s waist as she cried into his chest.

“Mihyun? Mihyun, calm down,” Jongin responded with a worried voice as he patted the girl’s back. “What’s wrong with Luhan?”

“Luhan won’t be coming,” Sehun explained in a strained voice.

Jongin looked over at him and bit down on his lip, not knowing what to say. He cared for Luhan like a brother, but he knew he meant the most to Sehun. “Sehun… Sehun, I—”

“Sehun! Jongin! Please help me! Chanyeol’s –!” Baekhyun’s voice echoed against the hallway, and all three of their heads shot to the direction of his voice. Baekhyun was slowly making his way down the hall with Chanyeol’s arm thrown over his shoulder. Chanyeol’s shirt was drenched in blood, and he was letting out grunts of pain as he clenched his side.

“He was shot, he was shot in the side,” Baekhyun explained frantically as Jongin and Sehun helped pulled the male off of the smaller.

“Re-relax, Chanyeol, you’ll be al-alright,” Mihyun reassured the other as she wiped the sweat off his forehead. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves – she couldn’t afford to get over emotional when there were others in danger.

“You’re okay,” Chanyeol groaned as reached over to pat Mihyun on the head, his eyes crinkling into small crescents. 

“Ye-yeah, and y-you will b-be too,” Mihyun gave a shaky smile before examining his side. She let out a sigh of relief after check the wound, “It’s j-just a flesh wound. The b-bullet grazed his side but he’ll be okay. We’ll get you patched up once we get home, okay Chanyeol? Just bare with it for now.”

“Where’s Jaesuk? He should have come to get us by now,” Jongin exclaimed with frustration as he pressed cloth against Chanyeol’s side to stop him from bleeding.

“Is everybody else here?” Baekhyun asked as his head darted from side to side. His face twisted in horror as he realized the absences. “Where’s Luhan? And Minseok?”

“Luhan’s right here.”

Heads darted up at the voice, and they saw Jaesuk making his way down the hall with Luhan trudging behind him. His clothes were ripped and torn, and there was blood splattered against his clothes, but altogether he remained relatively unharmed. His face was gaunt, and his eyes remained dull and empty as if he was recalling the scene that had happened just minutes prior.

“Lu… LUHAN!” Sehun shouted as he sprinted forward to wrap his arms around the elder, with Mihyun not far behind him.

“Luhan you’re safe,” Mihyun cried, a fresh batch of tears streaming down her face as she cupped Luhan’s face into the palms of her hands. She pressed kisses against his forehead and sobbed as she pulled him in for a hug. “I thought you were – I thought – ”

“I’m here,” Luhan’s soft voice whispered into her ears as he slowly responded to the hug. “I’m here.”

“Yeah,” Mihyun replied in a mix of laughter and crying. “You’re here.”

“What happened, hyung?” Sehun whispered as he stared at the elder, trying to convince himself that Luhan was really there in front of him.

Luhan turned frigid, and a few tears rolled down his cheeks as he slowly murmured, “Minseok… he… he…”

“Minseok saved him,” Jaesuk answered as he placed a hand on Luhan’s shoulder. “But in the process…” He didn’t need to continue his words for them to know what had happened.

“We need to leave,” Jongin called out. “Chanyeol’s bleeding a lot even if it’s just a flesh wound.”

“I have the car parked right down the next hall, let’s get going,” Jaesuk informed them as he placed a hand on Mihyun’s shoulder. “I… I’m glad you’re safe Agashi.” He would have seemed almost indifferent if his voice hadn’t cracked at the end of his sentence.

“We can save the reunions for later, let’s get out of here first,” Jongin demanded once another explosion shook the building.

“Come on,” Jaesuk nodded as he led them in the direction of the car. Once the seven of them were buckled down, with Chanyeol stretched out across the back seat of the car, Jaesuk immediately got the engine running. Government officials would arrive any minute now, and they weren't about to be caught at the scene. At this point, hopefully most of the Noyes had fled the grounds.

Mihyun watched through the window as the car quickly drove them away from the chaos left behind. She felt Sehun wrap his large, warm hand against her own, and she glanced at him with a small smile. She turned back around, and continued watching the Noye house until all that was left was in the distance was a flickering orange glow.

“It’s over,” Baekhyun’s shaky voice interuppted the pregnant silence that had taken over the car. He let out a small laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was finally saying.

 “It’s all over.”