Collide

Reunion

A beating heart means there's still life on a human body, a beating heart is proof enough there's still hope, but there are certain cases in which, no matter how hard or how strong a heart beats, there's no hope for them, there's no life in them. To Chaerin this was no less, she was sure she had lived, she was certain about her memories, of her life, of her trainings and her heartbreaks. She knew by the way her heart beated that she was still living, walking, breathing, but now, at that exact moment, she wasn't sure how wrong she had been.

Jiyong was holding her tight on his arms as the noises around them died into mere whispers, into leaves moving with the wind. His beating heart calling her name countless times as she so desperately clung to him, inhaling his scent, feeling his heat, embracing his self. She had been wrong, this was the true meaning of life, this was a true heartbeat, a living heart, and with him, it was like all the missing puzzles on her life had took place, had found their way home. She closed her eyes, hugging him tighter, and he did the same, letting out a sigh as he inhaled the aroma of sweat and blood on her hair, mixed with a faint scent of vanilla. She slowly looked up, his smiling yet bruised face looking at her as she did.

"Let's go," He said, slowly pushing her away to grab his own bag of weapons from the floor. She nodded slightly and followed him, their hands intertwined as he opened the door to where James had disappeared, to where the true battle awaited.

There, people were running around, some fighting on corners, she could see there were snipers all over the place, and the moment they put foot out of the building, they set fire towards them. Jiyong pushed Chaerin hard, making her fall on the floor. She put her hands on it to avoid hitting her face, and before she could look up, there was someone dragging her hands. She felt stupid, light headed as she felt her body being dragged, as she felt a pair of hands pulling her up from under her shoulders. She looked to her front and saw Jiyong screaming something at the man who had pulled her up, she noticed a new bleeding wound on his left arm as his right hand held a firing gun. She tried to reach for her own gun when a piercing pain on her stomach suddenly made her flinch and scream in pain.

"I need backup!" She heard the man holding her, realizing it was no other than James holding her tight. She looked down at her waist and saw blood oozing out of it, and a burning pain took the best of her.

"Fuck! It's a sniper; we need to take the bullet out now!" Jiyong yelled and James dragged Chaerin quicker towards the back of the building where a huge metal box gave them cover. She felt her body fall hard on the floor as James looked at her, his blond hair sticking to his face, which he hastily moved out of the way, his eyes fixed on her wound. He didn't said a word, he just fished out one knife he had on a belt, and as he was going to open her skin, Jiyong appeared with a bottle of rum, handing it to her.

"Take a sip." Jiyong said and she grabbed the bottle, her hand trembling as she did. There was blood dripping from Jiyong's hand as he gave her the bottle, but his face didn't showed signs of pain. His eyes, his deep brown eyes quickly looked at her bleeding wound, they showed pain, agony, sadness, worry, all mixed into a lovable stare as he realize how bad her wound was.

"I don't think it got any organs, she will be ok." James said, and slowly inserted one finger on her wound, making her cry in pain. Chaerin threw her head back, biting her lips hard to avoid screaming in agony as James search which organs the bullet could had harm. Jiyong grabbed her shoulders, slightly hiding James behind his back so she didn't had to see what he was doing to her. He grabbed her face in both his hands and pecked her lips. She closed her eyes as she felt the warmth of her lips on hers, and he took the bottle from her hands and took a sip, then handed it to James.

"Look at me baby, look." Jiyong said, Chaerin felt her eyes disorienting as James poured some of the rum on her wound. Her lip was already bleeding, and by the moment she looked at Jiyong, James had inserted the knife on her waist, and she whimpered, the tendons on her neck tensing as she moved her head back, her eyes looking distant, she couldn't see, all that was keeping her there was the agonizing pain on her waist as James inserted his long and boney fingers on her flesh, searching for the bullet that was having a rest within her.