Himchan's footsteps stuttered to a stop when he saw Sang Hee staring at the weapons he had set out for her while she dried her short hair. It was a sight for sore eyes, after spending so much time iced out and away from her, to be able to see her, in a house with him, doing something as mundane as drying her hair felt so right. 

Even though everything else about the picture was so distorted and disfigured, she managed to be the one thing that he saw clearly. 

He felt that there was some irony in the fact that he found so much beauty in something so tragic and painful but he figured that, that's just how his life was always going to be.

He was broken and the beauty that found him would also be broken.

That was how he was standing in a room with a woman that he was so hopelessly in love with that he was willing to do anything for her despite how much she vocalized her dislike for him.

That's how he was left with the most simplest of thoughts. 

He wondered how it would feel when he threaded his fingers through her hair.

"You're still here." He blurted out.

Sang Hee's head snapped up as she pulled the towel off her head, "Yeah, why? Did you think I walked out on you? Isn't that your specialty?"

She pretended not to see the brief moment of pain that flashed past his eyes. Himchan let out a quiet sigh as he walked closer to her, making sure he left a gap between them.

"Do you know when you need to leave?" He asked while he eyed the different weapons.

She had 1 hour before she got her next task. "Not long."

Himchan his dried lips and nodded, trying to hide to disappointment. A part of him hoped that she'd ask him for more help.

"Did you look through everything? Do you know what you want to take?" He asked while eyeing the weapons that he hadn't touched in years.

She scratched the back of her head, "I don't really know what I'm looking at, to be honest. I only recognize some of them. I just know that I need another gun and something small for close combat."

"Another gun?" He asked in surprise.

Sang Hee reached into her belt and pulled out her gun.

"Jesus, tiger." He breathed out before taking it from her. He inspected it before looking at her, "This is a cop gun. The precinct confiscated yours. Whose is this?"

She kept her eyes down, "One of the guards that were transporting me."

Himchan opened the chamber and counted the rounds, silently grateful that they were all accounted for. He handed it back to her before scanning his table and picking up an average sized gun.

She watched him weigh it in his hand and hold it out in front of him before he checked the rounds. It was intimidating to see him handle all these weapons so well, like an expert.

But in a sense, that's what he was.

"This should suffice." He said while opening a box of bullets and pulling three out and sliding them into the chamber. "It's pretty light weight so you should be fine traveling with it. It doesn't carry that many rounds but it has the ability to hold multiple types of bullets which could come in handy."

She pointed to the box, "Why did you put three in?"

"Because it was three short." He said without looking at her.

She gulped at the thought that him and his 'family' had fired these weapons before.

"Here." He said while pushing a smaller box at her, "This has a mix of ammo. The ones with the green rim are suppressing blanks. They aren't fatal, they have the same impact of a bean bag round. It just hits you hard but rarely pierces skin. The blue ones are better for wounding. The red ones are sharper and their custom, so they'll kill and it'll be hard for someone to trace it back to a specific gun."

She nodded, absorbing the information until he pulled out a familiar silver blade. Her eyes widened as she looked at him with an uncertain look.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I promised Eun Ah that I'd give my blade to her son when he turned 21, but I think she'll understand. This is your best bet. It's flies over your knuckles and opening and closing it is faster so you can pull it out when you're in a mess." He said while setting his butterfly blade on the table.

"I suggest practicing with some gauze over your knuckles, but other than that you should be fine." He said seriously.  

 She nodded as she pushed the lump down . "Alright."

"I don't think you need anything more." He said as he watched her carefully put all her weapons in her bag. "Where are you going to go after this?"

She shrugged as she zipped her bag up, "It's sort of up in the air."

"Sang Hee…why do you even need to be armed? Do you really think you can shoot your way through a mass of cops?" He asked.

Sang Hee slung the bag over her shoulders and met his eye, "It's not for the cops."

"What the hell does that mean?" He balked.

She was about to answer when her burner phone started to buzz. She saw the BLOCKED ID before shooting Himchan a look. "I need to get this."

He nodded and stepped back as he watched her walk passed him into the bathroom. The door closed and she the faucet, to muffle her voice.

"Hello."

"I thought I made it clear that you weren't supposed to ask for help." The distorted voice said.

She stared at Himchan's blade in her hand and chewed on her lip, "I wasn't asking him for help. He offered me a place to stay and I took it. I didn't break 'character' and he isn't suspicious of anything. He still thinks I tried to kill Chin Hwae."

"From now on you stay away from anyone at your old precinct unless you are given orders."

Sang Hee felt her brow twitch in aggravation, "What's my next step?"

"I'll text you an address. This will be the last one. You'll have 5 hours to get there."

Before she could answer, the line went dead and a text message popped up on the screen. Her eyes ran over the words and her brows furrowed.

She knew this address like the back of her hand.

It was the location of where her parents were killed by Himchan's mom. Getting there, especially from the safe house only took 20 minutes.

Why was she given 5 hours?

Not wanting to arouse concern, Sang Hee shoved her phone into her pocket, turned off the faucet and stepped outside to see Himchan coming out of his room while putting something in an envelope.

"Here." He said while sealing it up and handing it to her.

She frowned and refused to take it, "What is it?"

"$2000 in cash."

Her eyes widened as she took a step back, "I don't need any more money. I have enough."

"I have no idea how long you're going to be out running and there's no way you'll be able to access your bank account either. The more money you have on you, the better, tiger." He muttered while holding it out for her.

She raised her hands up, "I'm not taking your money."

Before she could blink, he had her stomach pressed against the wall, pinning her against it, while he ped her backpack and slipped it in before zipping it up.

"That was unnecessary." She muttered when he let go of her.

He stepped away with a blank face, "Who were you on the phone with?"

"No one you need to concern  yourself with." She said offhandedly.

He stared at her for a long time as she shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinizing gaze until he decided to give it one more shot.

But instead of asking the same questions that she would always deflect, he took another approach.

"From the moment we found you standing over Chin Hwae's body to this very moment, has any of it had anything to do with me, BAP or my past?"

All he needed was that one second that moved in her eyes.

Sang Hee was an amazing liar when she had time to prepare herself and rehearse her lies in her head, but when she was put on the spot, the truth was so evident no matter how hard she tried to play it off.

So when he saw her struggle with finding the right answer, he knew the truth.

He knew that somehow, he was the reason for all of this and the only thing playing in his head was Hong's words.

He leaned over, faster than she could stop him, and kissed her on the cheek.

Why are you still lying about this?

-----

When Sang Hee had deflected his question and informed him that she was planning on staying for a few more hours, he brought in some people to protect her while he left to run a very important errand.

Important indeed.

"Where are we going?" Dong Chul asked as she gripped on the passenger seat of Himchan's car. His friend was driving at a speed so fast that he was sure they were breaking every speed law possible.

"I need to do something and I need you there." Himchan said under his breath as he gripped the wheel tighter.

Dong Chul looked over at Himchan, inspecting his tensed face, "Is everything alright?"

"It's going to be."

He became a cop to make a difference. He wanted to be a good person and stop hurting people through his actions. He wanted to start living a more meaningful life and become someone that he could be proud of.

But when he realized that Sang Hee was turning her back on her own values and principles because of him, he knew that he was doing exactly what he was working so hard not to.

He was hurting people.

And although it was against his better judgment and although he'd have consequences he'd need to face, he could only think of one way to start to make things right.

H