[Just letting you know; I woke up today and chose angst and violence.]

[disclaimer: mentions of violence, blood, and a whole lot of just WRONG.]

"I've managed to stitch him up and give him a few doses of PCEA* and IV antibiotics, it's didn't help at all that his body was exposed to all the bacteria down there for so long. He's definitely going to run a fever, so I'll give you these for when he wakes up." Minhyuk said as he handed Shownu a container with some pills inside.

"It was a very close call, Hyung. Doing a procedure like that in an unsterile environment was extremely dangerous, you should have just taken him to the hospital. I tried my best, but we jumped the gun on the pre-surgery tests, so I still don't know how bad the infection has spread." He continued as he watched Mae sooth her brother's hair, as the man slept in his bed. Minhyuk had refused to let Mark get operated on in the basement, so Shownu and Wonho had to carry him out and up to his bedroom.

"I know, I'm sorry. But you know he hates hospitals, I couldn't-" Shownu started, his guilt written all over his face.

"It's okay, I know you care for him like a brother. But next time-" Minhyuk paused, saddened that he knew that there would definitely be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that, "- next time, please don't let Michael go so far. He's so young, Love. He doesn't deserve to be treated like this." He continued as he brought his hand up to his lover's faces, pleading with his eyes.

But he knew there was nothing Shownu could do. There was nothing anyone could do to free Mark from the hell he walked through every day. Michael made sure of that. If it wasn't for the fact that the man had a meeting in Chiang Mai that he had to urgently attend to, Mark would have for sure died in the basement tonight.

Shownu said nothing but leaned into his lover's affections. Oh, how he had tired. He had been trying for years. Trying his hardest to find a way to save Mark and Mae from that cacodemon, it was the only reason he came to work every day. He was the first one to arrive and the last one to leave, the more time he spent beside Michael Osaka, the more he could try his best to protect the siblings. And it was no easy feat- Shownu had learned ten years ago that Michael was indeed the Devil personified, when he watched in horror as the man beat his thirteen-year-old step son, nearly within an inch of his life, when he had found out that he had survived the massacre. Ever since then, no matter the many meetings Shownu had set up for him as a distraction, the monster still managed to make time to torment Mark.

"Oppa, he's waking up." Mae's alarmed voice immediately drew the lovers' attention to the bed. Minhyuk rushing to Mark's side as he tried to keep him laid down, Shownu instantly beside him to help.

"Mark, please. Don't try to get up, it's too early for you to move. Lay back down." Minhyuk said in as calm a tone as possible. Mark shouldn't have even been awake so soon.

Mark tried in one last vain effort to sit up, but Mae's shaking hand on his shoulder had him stilling. He was worrying her- something he hated doing. But it was better him in this bed, than her. God, if anything ever happened to Mae, he'd kill himself. The look in her eyes was any day better than seeing her in his condition.

He slowly nodded as he watched his sister silently plead with him. Minhyuk let go off him, breathing in a sigh of relief. Shownu held out a glass of water with a straw, helping him drink it.

"Don't try to talk just yet, you had a punctured lung, that's going to hurt." Minhyuk said as he gently rubbed over Mark's arm, the younger nodding again slowly. "Also please don't let me do this again- you know I will, but it's not safe to do emergency surgeries like these outside an OT**."

Minhyuk knew that Mark trusted him with his life, and even more, with Mae's life. He was a senior in the Medical department when Mark had first joined their university, three years ago. Mark, back them was just a no one, a body in the crowd. That was until he had found the boy limping his way up the International building's stairs one day on his way to clinic duty, the weeks after that Minhyuk would notice more unusual things with the boy. Like him wearing a full sleeve sweater in the middle of the August, or the whole week Mark wore scarfs. At first Minhyuk thought that Mark was probably just a masochistic young blood, but then he realised that there was no way anyone would look the way Mark did, if they were doing it just for pleasure.

It was by mere chance- a few days later- that he had walked into the same washroom that Mark was in, trying to change one of the bandages on his lower abdomen. Minhyuk knew right that instant that that wasn't right. That there shouldn't be those many bruises decorating such a young man's body. He had instantly confronted him, (because Minhyuk was never one to run around no damn bush) the younger denied it as much as he could, until weeks later.

Again, it was by mere chance, but this time there was no washroom. Minhyuk had just finished his last day of interning at the university clinic, when he headed to the parking lot. It was really late, so Minhyuk for sure didn't expect to see a grown ass man nearly crushing Mark's head into the ground with his foot. It was Minhyuk's startled gasp that saved Mark's life that day. But it was also the day that Minhyuk's life was threatened by the devil himself, if he was to so much as to breathe a word of that to anyone.

The man had left Mark to wheeze on the ground as he got in his car and grove off. Anyone would have assumed it was a hit-an-run, or even just a mugging, but anyone didn't hear Mark profusely apologise while blood ran down the side of his head as he tried to sit up and move towards Minhyuk's shaking form to see if he was hurt.

Minhyuk, from that day on- aware of the risks- decided that he was going to help Mark. He may not have been able to report or even save Mark the countless times he saw the boy covered in bruises (because he had learned of who Mark's assailant actually was, depressingly quick), but he could help patch him up and give him any medical aid he knew how.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Mark's constant need for medical aid brought along Shownu (or Son Hyunwoo, as he'd requested the young doctor to address him by after their first encounter)- who, Minhyuk instantly fell for- a few weeks after he had graduated. Those muscular arms that held an unconscious Mark, at three in the morning at his door step, had him distracted the whole time he cleaned up the first-degree burn wounds on Mark's legs.

At that point Minhyuk hadn't even bothered to ask why Mark had never gone to a hospital, he just knew that irrespective of whatever Mark was put through he would only show up at Minhyuk's. And the times when Mark couldn't show up, Shownu would have Minhyuk on speed dial- the now ER doctor, showing up at Mark's door step... or wherever Michael had left Mark to bleed out.

Fast-forward three years later and Minhyuk was now the only person Mark would trust to help him deal with his serious injuries.

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*Patient Controlled Epidural Analgesia, a form of pain relief medication usually used after certain types of major surgery

**Operation theatre. 

[Also do kudos and comment. Tell me if you think I'm a bitch for doing this to poor Mark. (P.S- I already know)

oh, and also if there are any grammatical errors. Thanks<3]