✔ 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 [𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒]

«Commencing at ...»

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟐𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓. 𝟗:𝟑𝟎 𝐏.𝐌. 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐒.

𝟗 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄.

Minhyuk had dropped in on Jieun and her family from time to time since she had reappeared. But the girl's tension seemed to have eased a bit, because she was busy keeping Chen and his wife's baby happy. She was also making sure that the little rascal kept his fever down. Jieun was a born nurse. Therefore, Minhyuk had to worry less about her and could go back to his usual duties. In between, Minhyuk also checked in on Xiumin and Suho, inquiring about their well-being, although he was less worried about the former than the latter.

Still ...

Surprisingly, Suho had shed some of his nervousness and regained more of his policeman's courage. As far as Minhyuk could observe, his older colleague was handling the situation better and acting like a normal police officer in his everyday life. Minhyuk was really relieved about that.

Some of the injured, who had been brought in a while ago, were out of the woods again, and fortunately they had been saved despite the poor medical equipment.

Otherwise, it was relatively quiet in the safe zone.

A good feeling, as Minhyuk felt, because the tension of the last excitement was still in his muscles. Aimlessly, he wandered through the hall, approaching some of the residents and inquiring about their feelings. He also exchanged a few words with the volunteers. Finally, when he took a short break, sat down on a bench and took a sip of water, he saw Jieun's father limping in his direction. "Are you all right?" asked Minhyuk politely once the elderly gentleman was only three arm's lengths away from him.

Mr. Chae nodded, waved his hand away, and finally sat down next to Minhyuk.

"I wanted to thank you again for finding my daughter," he said with a heavy groan, propping himself up on his walking stick while sitting down.

Minhyuk wondered what this man must have experienced to sustain such an injury in his mid-fifties. "Don't mention it, after all this is our job and I wouldn't have forgiven myself if anything had happened to the girl," Minhyuk replied. "Although she actually found Xiumin and brought her back. - Can I ask you something?"

The man nodded and the wrinkled corners of his mouth pulled up into a friendly smile.

"Go ahead."

Minhyuk let his gaze wander, searching the crowd for his superior. "Xiumin mentioned that he knew you and that you had been in the police force. May I ask what kind of operation it was in which you were so injured?" All this time Minhyuk had had this question burning on his tongue and now he could finally get it off his chest.

The older man bobbed his head thoughtfully, letting his gaze wander over the people, avoiding looking at the young policeman. He was probably uncomfortable with the situation, or it was a very unpleasant memory. More likely the latter, because if he had been retired for this, then it was more likely that he would not want to be remembered. The old man grumbled: "My colleagues and I, there were five of us at the time, were called out on a mission. A hostage situation. We basically assumed it would be a dangerous situation for us, because the man - the hostage taker - had his son in his power."