Work Text:
Yeo Jin never felt such fright. She is rushing through the hospital door, her heart beating somewhere in her throat, ready to explode at any given moment, and all she feels is this overwhelming fright. The last two days were hell, something she would never imagine even in the worst of her nightmares. Fear. Anxiety. Anger. Helplessness. Loss. Despair. Sadness. Everything combined creating a mixture that at times made it difficult to breathe; yet, she still was able to function in overdrive, not succumbing to the overwhelming powerlessness. The hope was alive, and therefore she had things to do. Despite it all, she moved forward, hiding those feelings deep inside her, doing everything in her power to change the outcome that seemed more and more inevitable with every passing hour.
But then the phone call came, and she realized it was it. No more fighting to save them before it would be too late, no more struggling against their restrictions, no more wrestling with time. It was done, and she could do nothing about it.
That was the moment when she could no longer contain it. She was strong, maybe even stronger than ever throughout those two days; but now, she is no longer a fierce Senior Inspector dedicated to her job and her people, focused to such a degree she didn’t sleep or eat. No, now she is a desperate partner, praying to all the gods in the world for it not to be too late, for them to spare the man she loves.
The call didn’t say much - only that the two John Does that arrived a couple of nights ago may be the people they were looking for. One of them awakened briefly and managed to reveal their identities before losing consciousness once again. The hospital staff needed some more clarifying, but given the state the patients were brought in, they believed they might be the missing police officer and prosecutor. One shot in the stomach, the other beaten badly enough to suffer damage to internal organs.
Yes, it fits. But Yeo Jin is not able to process that thought. She is not able to even decide if it would be better if they are, in fact, Hwang Si Mok and Park Soon Chang. The injuries seem bad, and there is a possibility they may not recover. If these people are not them, then there is still a chance they are somewhere there, safe and sound, without any harm. Or on the contrary, they may be standing on the brink of death, or...
Or. She cannot go this way.
No, it will be better if they turn out to be these patients. If it is all for nothing, if she has to come back to searching for them... She doesn’t think she can do that without collapsing. Her mind switches its direction, pointing her to her relationship, remembering, hoping. There are still so many things left unsaid, too many words she should have spoken but never did; they are rushing through her head now with such an intensity that she is barely verbal once she reaches the reception desk.
They know why she is here. They tell her the floor, and she runs there mindlessly, not even checking if the rest of her team heard the information. She needs to know, she needs to be there. She needs to see for herself which parts of her nightmare actually came to be.
A nurse at the entrance of the Intensive Care Unit stops them in their tracks - only one person is allowed inside. Yeo Jin just gazes briefly at her companions, and no one says anything: she has to be the one, and they all know it.
The moment when she puts on a mask and slowly follows the nurse into the ICU seems to last the whole eternity. Never before a few seconds meant so much, nor prolonged so unbearably. Her heartbeat transforms into the slowest fluttering, threatening to revoke its cooperation at any given moment.
Inside the room, a doctor reveals the first patient, and Yeo Jin’s heart makes a somersault. The man she is looking at is Park Soon Chang, and so she knows it is true. They are really them, and the search is over. They are still alive, still here.
The doctor tells her softly that the young detective was shot in his stomach and lost a severe amount of blood. But he survived the first night, and they believe he is on the path to recovery. His organism is young and strong, and the fighting spirit in him helped him defy all odds as far, therefore they are optimistic. It doesn’t look bad, even though he is yet to regain consciousness.
Yeo Jin nods anxiously, feeling terrible for her young colleague, and just as terrible at the squeeze in her heart that urges the doctor to say these things quicker, to move on to the second patient. She cannot help it. She has to see him to truly know, to truly believe he is still here.
The doctor finishes her report and moves on to the patient next to detective Park. This time, Yeo Jin’s heart stops entirely. As the physician asks her if the man on the bed is in fact Hwang Si Mok, she can only slightly nod her head, barely forcing herself to breathe. He looks terrible, pale as the walls that surround him, with needles sticking from his arms and oxygen mask on his face, the beating of his heart displayed on the monitor next to the bed. But it is beating. She stands in front of the undeniable proof it is beating and still cannot let herself believe it.
He didn’t get shot, but sustained severe injuries to his organs resulting in internal bleeding, and needed abdominal surgery as well. He was also the one who woke up for a moment before falling unconscious once again due to something that looked like a severe migraine. The staff didn’t have his medical records then as they waited for their identities to be confirmed until this very moment, therefore they didn’t know anything.
Yeo Jin is afraid. She feels like her own insides are being pulled out and torn apart as she looks at him, sleeping peacefully on the sheets, his skin paler than them. She fears that there can be some damage done to his brain as well, that she will lose him for good even if he survives all the other injuries. What if there was some kind of a clot that would eventually kill him? What if he wakes up and has no recollection of her, of the moments they spent together, of the life they could have had?
The doctor says something about checking the emergency contacts now that they are no longer just two John Does. Emergency contacts? Yeo Jin has no doubt she will be one. She has been Si Mok’s window into the world in general, and in the situation of life and death, it has to be her as well.
In life and death. Until it does them part. Are they here already?
She numbly follows the doctor outside; she has to inform her team they are in the right place. Their eyes are wide and in utter shock as she tells them what she learned. She doesn’t let them see how affected she is by everything that just happened. She doesn’t let them know about the pain that is tearing her apart from the inside, because that is just who she is. She suffers quietly, by herself.
But they are not buying it, any of it. They know her too well, they care too much to let her suffer quietly, and before she even notices there is Jang Geon’s hand on her shoulder as he is pulling her closer, letting her feel she is supported here. They know. She is not alone.
The medical records are here, and Yeo Jin discovers she was right. She is Si Mok’s one and only emergency contact, because who else could it be? Her team promises to call detective Park’s parents, as they are listed on his chart, and then they wait.
“Senior Inspector Han!” The nurse rushes her back inside suddenly, and her breath ceases. Every moment she doesn’t know what is going on turns a part of her heart numb, freezes it, inadvertently kills something in her. Her legs are heavy as she walks back in, preparing for the worst, preparing for the nightmare to fully materialize.
But what she sees is not a nightmare. Si Mok just woke up.
“I’m here,” she whispers immediately, sitting on a chair next to his bed, reaching for his pale, cold hand and squeezing it between her fingers. He looks at her hazily, and for a moment she just prays for him to remember her, to know who she is.
His gaze clears slowly, and she sees a glimpse of recognition there. It helps her breathe again.
He slowly moves his other hand to his mask, and she quickly shakes her head.
“Don’t, you don’t have to say anything now.”
He doesn’t listen, and she doesn’t try to stop him again.
“You need to find him,” he whispers once he deals with his mask, his voice hoarse and barely louder than the faintest whisper.
“Who?” She leans in and lets him tell her what happened in the last few days.
As it turns out, a culprit Si Mok and detective Park encountered was not the culprit they were looking for in the first place. No, that man just wanted to know what they found out, so he could pursue the main criminal himself. That was why he didn’t kill them, dumping them in the field instead to either die or somehow survive. It makes the case even more complicated than it was before - now, they have to look for two people, and ideally should find the one that tortured them first, or else he will bring justice to the culprit himself.
“You need to go catch them,” Si Mok ends, staring at her solemnly. She returns his gaze, knowing he means it quite literally, and something in her twists. He doesn’t think his well-being could be more important than catching a criminal, does he? He has no idea how much his life means to her, and most probably not only her. “Go.”
She looks at him blankly for a while, before murmuring quick, “I’ll be right back,” and leaving the room.
The team is still there, anxiously awaiting further news. She briefly tells them what she already knows, sending them to work. No one complains, even Captain Choi, whom she has no authority over. They know what to do, and there are no other people in the world she would trust more.
She comes back to the room to resume her previous position and is immediately met with Si Mok’s surprised gaze.
“You should...” he starts, but she doesn’t let him continue.
“If you thought I’d leave you here alone you are out of your mind.” There is no other place she would rather be than here, by his side.
“But justice...”
“Priorities change, Si Mok.” She leans her chin on their joined hands, staring at him solemnly. She is going to tell him some truths, and it is up to him to interpret them as he wishes to. “I’m not saying I won’t do my best to fight for justice until the last drop of my blood, but... but at times, there are things more important than that. Like family. Like love.” She pauses for a moment, wondering. “Maybe this is a little bit selfish, but right now selfish is what I want to be. Besides, I’m not alone in the world fighting for the truth, we are not alone in it. I have my people. This time, they’ll do what needs to be done without me. And I hope you can understand it.”
She really does. If he fails to understand, they may not have any future going forward from here.
He looks at her for a moment, then slowly reaches his hand to touch her cheek where her mask ends. She moves closer, wishing to give him some of her warmth as he still feels like he is balancing on the life-death border.
“Detective Park asked me how I did that,” he whispers, his thumb slowly stroking her cheek.
“Did what?”
“Convinced you to be with me.”
“Oh.” She smiles at the memory - it was a highly awkward moment on her roof, filled with misunderstandings, longing, and mutual feelings that could not be fully expressed. But it was a long time coming back then, and she would not change a single thing about it. Nothing could make her forget it.
“I still don’t know,” he admits, his gaze sliding down her face and stopping on where her lips are beneath the mask. “I still don’t understand how it all happened. But it did, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.” His eyes come back to hers, and there is something peculiar in them, something she doesn’t know how to name. “I do know I want to be a little bit selfish with you, right now and forever.”
Forever. It echoes in her ears, and apparently is here to stay.
“Marry me, Yeo Jin.”
Her heart makes another somersault, this time for entirely different reasons. That definitely is not something she expected to hear this day, or maybe not any day in fact.
“Are you serious?” she asks, her eyes wide, because the absurdity runs high in this situation - minutes ago she was afraid he would die, and he is still lying in his hospital bed barely alive, looking as lively as a ghost. His heart rate on the monitor is very non-ghostly, however, being much quicker than it is supposed to. She feels like it is cheating as she can literally hear his physical reactions.
He nods his head, his expression deadly serious. This is absurd, but this is also highly real. It is happening.
She nods as well, first slowly, then ardently.
“I'll be selfish with you, forever,” she says through the clenched throat, and almost leans down to kiss him, remembering in the last moment she is still wearing a mask for visitors. Stupid ICU and its rules.
There is a faint smile on his lips as he acknowledges her answer, a flicker of joy appearing in his eyes.
There is a rustle coming from the entrance to the room, breaking the moment. Yeo Jin turns around to witness detective Park’s parents storming through the door. She remembers her fright from before and feels guilty at being filled with joy now when they surely feel worse than she did, seeing their child lying like that, wired to the machines. He will surely wake up pretty soon, but soon is not now, and that now can last the whole eternity. She contains herself outwardly, but inside her there is a feeling rather contrary to that terror and fright. She already used up her reserves of them, quite probably.
“I am sorry, but there are too many people now.” The nurse looks at her apologetically, indirectly suggesting she should leave the room.
“I am here as a police officer,” she says, quickly letting go of Si Mok’s hand and straightening up, trying to look professional. “It is still not safe, the culprit is on the run. Someone needs to protect them.”
The nurse looks at her skeptically, entirely not buying it, but eventually doesn’t pester her and retreats, leaving them alone.
“That was an egregious lie, Senior Inspector Han,” Si Mok notices with a smile, and is rewarded with a not-so-gentle hit to his arm. He grimaces in pain as she does that, but she is not apologetic; he deserves it after all he put her through in the last days.
“That was a fully justified half-lie,” she corrects him with a small laugh, careful not to interrupt the Park family. “Someone needs to protect you both in case he wants to finish what he started.”
“He won’t. But maybe someone needs to protect me from you.” He pouts, as always whenever she hits him, and she cannot contain another laugh.
“I have to ask your doctor what organs you managed to damage, so I’ll know which parts of you I shouldn’t hit,” she teases him, and everything feels back to normal again. Or maybe even better.
“You may get some clues from the scar.”
She grins at him widely through her mask.
“I heard scars are in fashion these days.”
An hour of their restless banter later, detective Park wakes up, which erases the last traces of anxiety in Yeo Jin. Now, she can be happy.
And she intends to remain happy for some time to come.