Yongguk didn't show up on the third day in succession that Wooyoung marched into the institute. He knew the other man was around, for the door was already unlocked despite the sun not having risen yet. It was five in the morning. Wooyoung was sure that Yongguk watched over him from the confinements of his office, but he didn't go to check. Something inside of him knew that this would be the last attempt Yongguk allowed him on this suicide mission. If Wooyoung didn't make it this time, Yongguk would call it quits. No need to challenge his favour.

After changing his clothes and strapping the remote to his body as before, Wooyoung took another deep breath.

He could do this. He knew the shooting started at around eight, so he had some time. As soon as he woke San, they would get the hell out of there, somewhere safe.

Wooyoung wanted to stay and explain everything to the man, but he feared Yongguk would come after him in person if he didn't hurry. After getting San out, Wooyoung would have to place all of his hopes on the man's wisdom to stay off any war sites for a few months.

Wooyoung straightened his back.

Last attempt. If this one didn't work, salvation wasn't meant to be and San would die, no matter what he tried.

Wooyoung once more stepped out into the muddy and rainy morning of France. The rain was not as heavy yet, still wetting the ground and the bleak winter nature with its cold drops.

The sun hadn't risen yet in Falaise either, and it had a few more hours to do so. In the dark of the night that was only sparsely lit by some lanterns on the watchtowers, Wooyoung marched over the field.

He didn't duck, didn't sneak. As if he belonged there, he walked over to the pit and once more peered his head inside the tent.

This time, he was in luck. San was already up and aided the other nurse with preparations in the tent. They spoke with each other in hushed voices as not to wake up the exhausted soldiers. The smiles on their faces were full of hope, full of reassurance. Unknowing of what the day would bring.

Wooyoung leaned in the entry to watch as San put the crate down.

"Louis," he called out, garnering the man's attention. His face remained carefully neutral since he didn't know if taking San away from the camp would fuel the French army's suspicions towards either of them. If San got shot as a renegade, he still got shot.

The woman glanced at him only once, then she continued working. San, on the other hand, looked at Wooyoung with gigantic eyes. Surprised yet again about the man's sudden appearance, he schooled his face so not too much abrupt glee would show through.

"Hongjoong is sending for you," Wooyoung said. He didn't know what rank Hongjoong had here and if he would ever send for a nurse in the morning, but the words had the desired effect. San immediately put his box with bandages down to approach Wooyoung.

"I will be back later," San informed the nurse before the two of them left the tent. Wooyoung knew his missing played no role here. All lives saved and lost under his hands would get the same fate even if he wasn't there if Wooyoung's theory was true.

San helped Wooyoung out of the pit before he scrutinised him. In the area's twilight, his eyes were filled with adoration despite their strained situation.

"Wooyoung, why are you here?"

Wooyoung looked around, not at ease enough to explain himself.

When his finger reached for San's sleeve, he planned to drag the man off hastily, but San had different plans. His fingers interlaced with Wooyoung's and gave a doting squeeze that had Wooyoung's heart stutter.

He was weak. Every little gesture, every smile on that dimpled face that Wooyoung had feared he would never see again; they all had his resolve crumble. He had to push through for the two of them.

"Come," Wooyoung muttered, unable to keep up his strong facade when San reacted to him so lovingly.

Confused but happy to see Wooyoung again after such a short amount of time, San followed Wooyoung to the back of the building. He helped Wooyoung in his paranoid glances around, making sure they weren't followed.

A stone the size of an entire person dropped from Wooyoung's heart when they reached the parking area. The men in the watchtowers must be so accustomed to movement on their own land, they hardly watched over their own men. Since their eyes were directed at a far distance, Wooyoung and San could duck out of there smoothly.

Leaned against the side of a washed-out, turquoise Citroën 2CV, Wooyoung glanced at San at his side.

"Can you drive?"

San's eyes flicked between the car and Wooyoung.

"I can, but why, Wooyoung? Is something going on? Are you stuck here?"

Wooyoung shook his head, his smile softening around San's concern.

"I'm fine, and I will explain it to you once we are safe. For now, please trust me. Give up your duties and come with me," Wooyoung begged. His voice must have been desperate enough that San didn't contemplate any longer.

His eyes lingered on the camp for a while. Maybe he knew of the incoming attack, maybe he could figure it out by Wooyoung's unexpected visit. Guilt crossed his features about having to desert his comrades.

Before Wooyoung had to grit his teeth and apologise, San rose to his feet with a nod. He opened the car door with stable hands while Wooyoung dashed to the other side to scramble into the seat.

The interior differed from Wooyoung was used to from their modern automatic cars, so Wooyoung was glad he didn't have to try driving. He might have been able to figure it out, but old cars were never part of his jobs. It would take him precious time they didn't have.

Wooyoung sunk into the seat, tense and full of worry. He wanted to gnaw on his fingernails.

What if San died through a coincidence still? What if he crashed the car with Wooyoung in it? What if fate reaped his life no matter what?

"Drive slowly," Wooyoung pleaded as San reached for the ignition. "Fast enough that we can get out of here, but not so fast that you might risk anything."

The ominous warning had San swallow. His eyes flickered over Wooyoung's hunched body, fingers lingering on the steering wheel.

"Is it that bad? You're shaking so hard right now... I wish I could kiss you."

Wooyoung tried to hold back his disbelieving smile.

"We'll figure it out. Come on, let's go. Once we are safe, you get all the kisses you want."

The consolidation helped both of them. Reassured that there was a later to this, a safety waiting somewhere, San started the car and pulled out of the spot. If the French saw a problem with the odd timing of departure, they didn't mind it. They were too busy preparing for their attack.

Every second of the bumpy ride through the forest path was agitating. Wooyoung cowered with his hands tucked between his thighs to keep himself from digging his fingers into his own flesh. He trembled from the nerves and the cold.

At his side, San drove cautiously, as Wooyoung had asked him to. From time to time, he glanced at Wooyoung or out the back to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Please tell me why you came here. You never were early before and it's risky."

Distressed through his link to Wooyoung, San sought answers. When Wooyoung just gnawed at his lip at first, San threw him another worried gaze. His dark eyes swam like pools of emotion as they looked at Wooyoung.

Wooyoung didn't want to tell him, unsure if a strike of misfortune would take away his opportunity to save San. If he kept silent, however, San's restlessness might prompt misfortune to have him mess up as well.

"I waited for you in Munich, but you didn't show up. In the future, I mean," Wooyoung began. His voice was subdued over the roaring of the engine, and San had to lean closer to understand him. The confusion in his brow exposed his dismay with himself.

"Then we found out that you died. Today on that field, in that battle, you would die. So I came here to stop that from happening."

San's mouth dropped open in shock. He nearly turned to Wooyoung to search his face for a lie but fixated on the street instead. His fingers tightened around the round wheel.

"I... die?"

"Yes," Wooyoung whispered. "You get shot today. We found out because another immortal showed up in my time. After shooting you, your immortality lives on. That's how you became immortal. And it also means you can die."

It was a lot of information on San's already dazed mind. He took a moment of silence to regain his senses. After a long pause, he spoke again, as if in a trance. His features had got paler.

"Can you do that? I thought you couldn't change the flow of time and that everything happened inevitably."

"That's what I'm trying. Hence why I needed you far away from the obvious danger. So that hopefully, you could live."

Caught between his fascination and his shock about the news, San just drove, speechless.

The next time he opened his mouth to ask another question, gunshots disrupted their conversation.

The first whizzed past the car, alerting both of them. The second one embedded itself in the front window and had a web of cracks spread through the glass.

Wooyoung acted between the first and the second shot. He threw himself across his seat, over to San without a second of hesitation. Startled, the man ripped the wheel around, trying to stay on the narrow path between the trees. He reached to protect Wooyoung and wrapped an arm around him tightly, forgetting that if anyone shot at a car, they would shoot at the driver.

The third shot penetrated the glass and sent it splintering over their laps. Sharp pain flared in Wooyoung's right shoulder that protected San's head where the man had just ducked to reach for the glove box on the other side of Wooyoung's knees.

With a sharp jerk, the car halted when San hit the brakes. His thighs shifted and hardened under Wooyoung's body as Wooyoung sunk onto his lap without a sound. His left hand cradled his wet shoulder, not a single noise escaping his grit teeth.

San found the gun he had been searching for. As he aimed it outside of the open window, his elbows held Wooyoung pushed down and restricted him from any other movement.

Through his nauseating pain, Wooyoung doubted he could have moved, anyway. He just laid there as the jerks of the gun travelled through San's arms with each blast. He prayed that shot had been the one meant to kill San. If something else happened, Wooyoung wouldn't be able to help.

No other blast flew at them. Four bullets out of San's gun later, the forest fell quiet again.

Before a potentially hidden shooter could regain his courage, San hit the gas again. Glass crunched under his boots as he raced off this time, not caring anymore for Wooyoung's warning.

The hand on the steering wheel still held his pistol while his other arm draped around Wooyoung. San barely glanced at him, too busy checking for enemies on the winding path.

Only when he touched the blood Wooyoung was leaking all over the seat, his body stiffened. His voice dropped into panic immediately.

"Wooyoung!"

"'M fine," Wooyoung grit out between his teeth. He was queasy, black spots dancing in front of his vision. His good hand unbuttoned his shirt with an effort to reach for the remote.

"Keep driving. We need to get out of the forest and... Into an open area where you are aware of threats." His speech slurred, panic and blood loss pulling him under. The wound hurt so badly, and his entire body was paralysed in his uncomfortable position on San's lap.

The man grabbed at Wooyoung tighter, trying to help him up without leaving the road out of his sight.

"I need to patch up your wound!"

Wooyoung shook his head while his fingers turned the little wheels on his remote. The digits lost all feeling rapidly, even if that arm was unscathed.

"Wooyoung-" San choked out, but he obeyed the command. It took them only a few more minutes out of the forest. In front of them stretched the glorious vast fields of France's landscape, but Wooyoung's sight was too blurry to marvel at it.

The second they were out of the forest, San pulled off the road and onto a patch of grass that wobbled under their tires. The engine died as San cradled Wooyoung in his arms and gingerly pushed him back up in his seat to check on him. Panicked, he studied Wooyoung's green face, and the bloodied shoulder.

"Let me look if the car has anything I can use to help," San said so fast his words blended into each other.

When Wooyoung shook his head and reached for the man's nape, San froze in his movement. Scared as if he could lose Wooyoung any second, he sat in his spot with the gun still in his lap.

"It's fine, I'll go home... Our medical care is better."

His reassuring smile ended in a grimace.

"Please take care, please. Let's meet later."

Wooyoung could hardly speak anymore, so he dropped his arm. San came after him, reaching out for Wooyoung to support him.

With his last strength, Wooyoung opened the door behind his back and put his full weight into the drop. His back crashed onto a marble floor and more pain that his mind couldn't even fathom in its intensity flared in his shoulder.

Wooyoung's consciousness drifted away, but he dimly noticed two people yelling his name and pulling at his body.

"I did it." He announced sleepily to Yongguk's terrified features. Seungyoun called an ambulance, his voice hectic and rushed over the phone.

Yongguk was glad about the comment, but his rage returned tenfold. His hands pressing Wooyoung's jacket to his shoulder became punishing.

"What did you do, get yourself killed??"

Wooyoung's dopey smile turned smug.

"I saved San."

After that, he passed out.