I become a firefighter after getting abandoned by my ex-wife, who's a domestic abuser.

At first, I thought my fiancee and the heroic Captain Cassadee Flack will be my salvation. But at the blazing scene, the warehouse explodes for the second time due to the scorching temperature. What makes things worse is that the oxygen in my tank will deplete soon.

I reach out to Cassadee for help, only to witness her passing the last spare oxygen tank to Colin Halfpenny, the teammate standing next to her.

"This is Colin's first time entering a blazing scene. He's terrified, whereas you have enough experience under your belt to deal with this situation. You should hang on for a while longer."

I'm choking on so much thick smoke to the point that I almost suffocate from it. Angered, I point at the blinking red light on the control panel.

"If I keep suffering from the lack of oxygen, my brain will eventually die! This is the standard procedure of a rescue mission!"

Cassadee wears an impatient look.

"Why are you being this petty? I promised Colin's dad, who sacrificed himself for me, that I'd take good care of Colin! Can't you be more empathetic?

"I thought you could endure pain the best! Back then, you didn't even let out a groan when your ex-wife broke your rib! How is it possible that you can't endure such a small difficulty in this mission?

"I finally understand what kind of person you actually are! Someone who's grown up in nothing but pain and misery is bound to be selfish!"

I no longer utter a single word to Cassadee. Instead, I use all of my strength to press the emergency SOS button on my helmet.

"Command center, please send help immediately. The on-site commander has demonstrated severe misjudgment in handling the situation. I request compulsory intervention."

###CONTENT

####CHAPTER-NAME:

The words had barely left my mouth when my helmet was yanked off with such force that it nearly snapped my neck.

Cassadee Flack—the hero I once looked up to—stood before me, her face twisted in fury. She glared at me, her expression livid.

"Emmett Doherty, have you lost your mind?" Her scream cut through the roar of the fire, crashing into me along with a wave of scalding heat.

"You're going to use the Incident Command Center's emergency override authority over something this trivial? Do you want the entire station laughing at us?"

She raised her hand as if she were about to hurl my helmet—my only means of communication—against a storage rack that was glowing red from the heat.

I wanted to stop her, but the lack of oxygen was making my vision go dark. I could barely stand up straight, and my body swayed before I dropped heavily to my knees.

Thick smoke was everywhere, burrowing its way into my lungs. Every single breath felt like torture.

My consciousness began to fade. As the flames before me blurred into a distorted wash of color, a pair of brand-new firefighting boots stopped in front of me.

It was Colin Halfpenny.

He was wearing a pristine turnout suit, and strapped to his back was the spare oxygen tank Cassadee had just given him.

"Don't be mad at the captain, Emmett," he said, crouching down and pretending to help me up.

"The second I stepped into the fire, my heart started racing, and my legs went weak. I really couldn't hold on much longer."

As he spoke, he casually adjusted his oxygen mask. The valve connecting his mask to the tank was clearly engraved with the words "For Emergency Use Only".

It was a special-issue tank reserved for the leader of the tactical rescue team—our company's absolute last resort for carving out a life-saving path during the most critical emergencies.

Cassadee, deeply concerned, immediately moved behind Colin and carefully checked his gear. When she looked at me, it was as if she were looking at a pile of trash that was just getting in the way.

"Ignore him, Col. A guy like him who grew up wallowing in misery doesn't know the first thing about gratitude."

She turned back to me, looking down on me from above, her eyes dripping with contempt.

"Stop with the act, Emmett. If you're short on oxygen, just find a spot downwind and lie low. Push through it, and it'll pass. Col's health is way more important than yours!"

I didn't have the strength to argue. I could only struggle desperately, trying to reach the emergency first-aid kit hanging from my belt.

However, when I finally got my hands on it, I found that the clasp was undone and the pouch was empty.

I looked up just in time to see the kit in Cassadee's hands.

"Col will take this too, just in case," she said, sounding completely entitled.

"Look at you. You can still yell and shout, which means you've got plenty of energy left. Don't be so selfish. Our company doesn't need troublemakers like you who have no sense of team spirit!"

She'd so casually stripped away every last chance I had to survive and handed it to another man.

The suffocating sensation grew heavier and heavier. Using the last of my strength, I squeezed out a few words from the base of my throat.

"Cassadee… If this keeps up… I'm going to die."

####CHAPTER-NAME:

"Die?" Cassadee scoffed. "Col is shaking way harder than you, and he isn't crying about dying. I think you're so obsessed with getting credit for yourself that you've completely lost it, Emmett."

Colin took the cue to lean into her and started trembling even harder. But there was an almost undetectable trace of smugness in his voice.

"I know you're highly experienced, Emmett. The captain said you're good at judging where the safe zones are, so you'll definitely survive."

After saying that, he lifted his head from Cassadee's shoulder and flashed me a provocative smile.

Seeing his smug face and Cassadee's unquestioning protection of him, the rage in my chest finally overwhelmed my fear of death.

I lunged forward, trying to grab my oxygen tank off Colin's back.

"Emmett!" Cassadee roared, shoving me away roughly. "Touch him and see what happens! If anything happens to him, I'll make sure you never work in the fire service ever again!"

My back slammed against a piece of broken rebar, and a tearing pain exploded through my abdomen. As I curled up on the ground, I watched the two of them head toward the exit, holding each other.

I grabbed a warped crowbar next to me, using it to prop my swaying body up onto its feet. Then, using every ounce of strength I had left, I swung the crowbar hard into some blue chemical drums stacked right next to them.

With a loud bang, a drum ruptured, and pungent liquid burst out in a spray.

"People like you don't deserve to be firefighters!"

Cassadee pulled Colin out of the way just in time. Chemical foam splashed across her, making her fly into a rage.

"You lunatic!"

Frank Pollock, our lieutenant who'd just arrived on scene, jabbed a finger at me and yelled, "You've gone too far, Emmett! Col isn't feeling well, so what's wrong with the captain looking after him? Yet you tried to attack your own people?"

I opened my mouth, wanting to explain that it wasn't an attack—it was a warning. But thick smoke poured down my throat, and not a single word came out, only a violent fit of coughing.

Colin's eyes reddened as he leaned heavily against Cassadee. The way he was trembling like a leaf made my stomach churn in disgust.

"Don't blame Emmett," he said, sobbing. "Maybe I shouldn't have accepted the captain's help. But she's always said we're a team and that equipment and medical supplies should go first to those who need them most."

With a single sentence, he'd successfully washed his hands of any blame while also smoothly painting me as selfish and self-serving.

As expected, Cassadee's expression softened immediately.

She held him closer, and the way she looked at me was as if I belonged in a psychiatric hospital.

"You did nothing wrong, Col. He's the one making a mountain out of a molehill. He has no mental resilience at all."

"Those who need them most?" I rasped out, finally managing to force the words out. "Taking lifesaving equipment away from a frontline tactical firefighter is called 'prioritizing'?"

Cassadee's face darkened.

"Stop being ridiculous and causing trouble, Emmett! Col is my mentor's son. This is his first time entering such a dangerous fire scene. You're the senior firefighter here. Can't you cut him some slack?"

I froze.

Cassadee and I had been partners for three years. We'd survived death together. Yet, she'd never once mentioned she had such a person in her life who required this level of coddling.

My body grew heavier by the second, and the flames in front of me began to fracture into countless dark spots. My legs buckled, and I could only lean on the blazing-hot storage rack behind me to stay upright.

I raised a trembling hand and pointed at the oxygen tank on Colin's back that was engraved with "For Emergency Use Only", desperately wanting to expose his lie.

But I couldn't utter a sound. Nothing came out of my throat except for a hoarse wheeze.

Frank exaggeratedly mimicked me, pitching his voice mockingly. "Oh, no! Has the smoke damaged our great hero Emmett's brain? Pretending to be all woe-is-me now? If you were going to be this fragile, you shouldn't have become a firefighter in the first place!"

The disgust on Cassadee's face could no longer be hidden.

"That's enough. Stop embarrassing yourself."

She roughly grabbed the strap of my extinguisher harness and forcefully dragged me to a crumbling corner of the wall as if she were dragging a dead carcass.

"Stay here and calm down first. You can come out when the fire dies down."

####CHAPTER-NAME:

"Cassadee… I really… can't hold on much longer…"

I grabbed the corner of Cassadee's turnout coat. My fingers had already begun to cramp and curl from the lack of oxygen.

But she just shook me off impatiently.

"Stop pretending, Emmett. I'm sick of your act," she said, her voice icy and dripping with years of pent-up contempt.

"In the past, whenever you couldn't keep up during physical evaluations, you'd fake having heatstroke. Whenever a rescue assignment got too tough, you'd suddenly say your old injuries were flaring up. And now, you're pulling this crap again just to garner sympathy?"

Suddenly, a massive concrete panel crashed down beside me with a loud boom, sending shards of debris flying.

But she didn't even spare it a glance, instead turning and walking away.

From the other side of the wall, I heard her voice—so gentle that it felt almost unfamiliar—as she coached Colin on how to regulate his breathing.

"Ignore him. He's always had a hero complex. He can't stand seeing someone else get the attention and care they need."

Then came Colin's voice, laced with the smugness of a victor. "Cassie, do you think Emmett really hates me?"

"No, he just has a rotten temper. He'll get over it in a bit."

Curled up in the corner, I felt my consciousness slipping away little by little. I didn't even have the strength to shiver anymore.

Just then, someone appeared in front of me. He removed his oxygen mask, and a cold smile spread across his face.

It was Colin! The look in his eyes was one of unadulterated malice and contempt.

"Did you know, Emmett? Cassadee got tired of you a long time ago."

My eyes widened as I did everything I could to yell at him, but all that came out was a faint whimper.

He laughed.

"She said you're too competitive, always wanting to be the best at everything. She said you're like an emotionless rescue machine, and that it's too much pressure working alongside you."

He lightly patted the specially issued oxygen tank strapped to him as he flaunted it.

"This oxygen's pretty pure, huh? What a shame you'll never get to breathe it again."

I wanted to lunge at him, but my body felt as though it had been pumped full of lead. I couldn't move at all.

Suddenly, he grabbed the fire axe from the floor and, with a brutal swing, brought it down on a nearby oxygen pipeline.

A piercing hiss sounded.

That was the main supply line feeding the entire fire suppression system! Once it came into contact with open flames, the entire warehouse could erupt in a flash fire.

Everyone would die.

"You lunatic!" I screamed.

Driven by a sudden, inexplicable surge of adrenaline, I leaped off the ground and shoved him aside.

"What's going on here?"

Cassadee and the other firefighters had been laying down hose lines not far away. Hearing the noise, she strode over, frowning.

The next second, tears welled up in Colin's reddened eyes as he darted over to her.

"Captain… I was just trying to help Emmett check his equipment," he explained, his voice choking. "But… But he shoved me and accused me of deliberately destroying fire equipment…"

Cassadee's gaze swept over the gashed pipeline. When her eyes landed on me again, there wasn't even a trace of warmth left in them.

"Emmett, you're absolutely ridiculous! Col was just trying to help you, and you're framing him like this?"

"It wasn't me!" I rasped out.

I pointed at Colin, my hand shaking violently from the lack of oxygen. "It… It… was… him…"

Every word came out broken and fragmented.

The axe was clearly sitting right there at Colin's feet, yet Cassadee didn't even bother looking.

Frank immediately piled on. "If you ask me, he's just jealous that you're looking after Col, so he intentionally sabotaged the pipe to drag us all down with him!"

"Yes! He's always been the biggest attention seeker in the entire company. A flashover is imminent now! He wants to take us all out!"

The other firefighters chimed in one after another, throwing accusations at me.

"Don't be scared. I'm here," Cassadee said as she gently rubbed Colin's back, her voice carrying a level of patience I'd never heard before. "That's just how he is. The more talented someone is, the more temperamental they become."

Colin sniffled against her shoulder. "Captain, should I not have touched his stuff? Does he really hate me that much?"

"You did nothing wrong."

Cassadee looked up at me, her words shattering the last shred of hope I had.

####CHAPTER-NAME: