In this part of town, it was unfortunate to be alone. The boy walking through this side street, alley way was very much alone and also very unfortunate.

The small street was littered with old newspaper reading off headlines about illegal doings and bad politicians and covered with the green and brown shatters of old liquor bottles. The sound of the old tarnished paper and broken glass crunching beneath the soles of the boy’s shoes was muted by the sound of the rain coming down around him.

His old white school shirt and over-sized, wrinkled hoodie was getting drenched by the down pour coming out of the fat, grey clouds lingering in the sky. His nice dress shoes were being covered in mud and other, unspeakable substances, which were littering the alley ways floor.  However, even though the conditions he was in, he continued his voyage through the dark, secluded street.

He was thin, quite tall and lanky. His body didn’t seem built for running or for any type of activity involving force. His eyes were unfocused and he looked like a lost little kid. He walked with his head down, avoiding the rain getting in his eyes. By the way he was distracted and small; it would be an easy task to catch him off guard. He was an easy target. A small, lonely boy walking through a secluded alley way in a bad part of town; it would be stupid to think his face wouldn’t be plastered on the side of a milk carton with the words “MISSING” as the caption in the next twenty four hours.

So, it was no surprise when this poor misfortunate boy’s shoulder was tapped by a large, strong man. The boy was pulled out of his small dreamland by the hands of a large burly man. When he turned, his eyes met a man with large, broad shoulders and a face that looked tight and rigid. His skin didn’t seem to fit on the large frame of his face. His cheek bones were too wide and too tall for the small bit of skin that he was given. The skin looked even more taunt with the wide, somewhat, threatening smile that was spread across his face.

The younger boy shivered when he turned to face the man, partly from the cold, rainy winds and partly from the menacing look he was receiving from the stranger. They made eye contact for a few seconds, the small boy’s deep, caramel brown eyes meeting the dead black eyes of a shark searching for prey. The boy felt his heart jump when he saw the deep blankness of the huge man’s eyes. They were like an open, gapping pit, empty and vague. They didn’t show a bit of human life behind them, not even a spark of mercy or compassion. They were just black, merciless holes in his face. The kid gulped down the lumps of fear that had knotted up and laced themselves in his throat.

I’m dead now, he thought bitterly to himself.

“What is a small, cute boy like you doing here by yourself?” the man’s voice boomed out of his throat, filling the space of the alleyway with his dark, menacing words. The younger boy cringed and stepped back a bit. As soon as his foot moved an inch, the burly man’s hand that had once tapped softly on his shoulder clamped down upon it, rendering him helpless.

“I’m… I was about to meet up with a friend. He’ll be expecting me any minute….” The boy lied. He knew no one was waiting for him, no one knew where he was. But, he felt the menacing eyes and thick breathe of the man and he felt fear down to his core. He was hoping his hot white lie would make the man think that someone was just down this alley way waiting for him. Someone was there willing to walk down this narrow, dirty walk way calling his name any second. Someone was there that was worried and tapping their foot on the pave way and looking at his watch every few second wondering where their friend was. But it wasn’t true. No one was there and no one was going to hear if he screamed out. But, the boy was trying with all his being to make the man believe that there was.

The man was unfazed. He didn’t care if anyone tried to stop him from deflowering a young boy in an alleyway. He had alcohol on his breathe and running through his veins. With the taste of old beers from the bar down the street, came the need to taste another’s lips against his beer stained pair.

“Forget them. You can stay with me.” The man said with a dark grin and lifeless eyes directed towards the boy.

“He’ll be here any second… I really should be going now…” The kid pulled against the heavy hand that was adding weight to his small body.  But the man just chuckled at the boy’s feeble attempt to get out of his grasp. He gave a small pull and the boy came toppling forward, his body crashing into the larger man.

“You are staying here with me.” He said, his sour breath grazing the boy’s face, sending more raking shivers through his body. The boy held his own breath, trying to calm himself down enough to speak to the man who was pressing his body against him.

“No… I have to go now….” The younger said, his words masked with the weakness of whispers. The man, acting as if he didn’t hear the feeble words, grabbed onto the back of his neck, turning his small face towards the man’s face. The child’s eyes grew wide looking up at the man with the cocky smile. He looked like a dear in headlights, the whites of his eyes growing larger and larger.

The man let out a low chuckle and shoved his hot lips against the others. The boy cringed and gagged at the taste of old alcohol and cigarettes that was pressed against his tender lips. He yanked his body and yelled out.

“stop!” he cried out, trying to pull away from the grasp of the grubby man. The man started to feel angry. The boy let out a choked cry when he felt the harsh brick off the wall he was slammed into by the strong hands of another. His brown, leather bag fell into the dirty mud puddles in the alley way, his papers spewing across the concrete. The name “Taemin” was scrawled on the top right corner of every piece of soiled paper.

The man kept one hand firmly laced into the fabric of the boy’s shirt and with the other; he reached for the brown tinged sheet. He smiled cockily and he read the name written upon it in curvy, feminine lines.

“Taemin is your name then? I like that name.” He said, his voice lowering an octave. Taemin resisted the feeling of the man’s lips pressing against him. The man was easily angered however. He let out a low growl when Taemin twisted his frail body against his attacker. He shook the kid in his hands. Taemin’s head went spinning as his world was jumbled around.

He wasn’t strong. Taemin was intelligent, but his arms and legs were thin and mostly bone was hidden by his skin. There was no muscle. He was the kid you picked last in gym class because he could never run fast and he wasn’t coordinated. However, Taemin had an attitude. He had a snappy tongue. He was a smooth talker and he prayed to every God and higher power he could think of to let him be able to talk his way out of this situation. 

He analyzed his surroundings when the man grew tired of shaking him around. He let his eyes focus in the dark, murky night as the man continued to try to mark and kiss his neck. He saw the buildings the stretched out above him, the bricks grimy and disgusting even past the second story. But, up above there was a window. About 6 feet above the ground, there was a small, broken looking ladder that led to a fire escape. It all led to that one window.  He wasn’t sure if anyone was there, he wasn’t sure if they could even hear him through the glass if he got up there, but he had hope that if he screamed at the right time someone would hear in that building. Maybe if he fought at the right time, or somehow got away for a moment, he could be fast enough to climb up that ladder and get to that window.

Taemin had dignity, but in desperate times, you lose dignity and pride. He took a deep breathe to clear his scared and bustling mind. He tried to steady his shaking hands. He had read once in an article that you shouldn’t fight off attackers but submit and then try to get away when they are done with you. Taemin wasn’t one to submit so easily, and he wasn’t one to be used and thrown away like the trash that littered the floor around him.

“Oppa…. Tell me your name….” He said, swallowing his pride. He was trying to get information off of the drunken man, and trying to bid his time. The man looked at Taemin with his blood shot eyes and his beer-stained breath hit the young boy's face. Taemin tried to steady his breathing and stay calm, just as the larger man did.

"my name... " the man drifted off. His eyes were hazy and unfocused. Taemin decided to take this time to squirm out of his reach. The man continued to stare out with his unfocused eyes that were swirling with his alchol breath.

He was broken out of his trance when he felt one of his loosely clasped hands lose grip on the frail boy. Taemin was already half out of his reach, sliding against the wet wall and venturing towards the fire escapes's ladder. The man felt anger running through his veins as he realized that Taemin was weasling his way from his grip. That's when the yelling started.

Up in the protected building above, there was no yelling and fear and fights. Actually, it was quite tranquil. A man was walking into his apartment, his hair wet and matted from the rain outside. He took off his jacket and laid it down on an old wooden chair next to his desk. A soft sigh left his lips and he down into his seat. From his slumped posture and the dead look in his eyes, you could see the man's exhaustion. But, his bowed head raised when he noticed a noise.

At first, he thought maybe his mind was playing a joke on him, decieving him on a cold night. Then it appeared again, and he wondered if maybe it was only the rain pounding against the sullen city. But, clear as a bell, the noise again rang through the air; a yelp of distress pierced his ears. He wandered to his window in confusion, unsure of what he was hearing. He was sleep deprived and he had the bags under his eyes to prove it. it wasn't a uncommon thing for a tired man to hear noises. But the man thought, it wouldn't hurt to look at the window.

When he pushed back the blinds, the first thing he was the impending darkness. Streams of water flowing out the clouds and filling the alley way before him. But, in the dark he could make out a few wet, soggy papers laying out. A back pack with it's contents spewed across the alley was getting drenched in the down pour. It was then he saw where the noise was coming from; a boy, young and frail, and a man, burly and crude, were fighting. To the man n the apartment it didn't seem much like a fair fight. The young boy weakly pounded his fists against the man who merely chuckled and swatted his hands away. The man, with a surge of emotion, flung his window open, making a loud noise as the pane hit the brick wall of the building. Both the man and young boy, looked up startled by the noise. 

In the burly man's eyes, the man in the window didn't see much, not even light reflected back from them. But when he looked at the young boy's, he was a pure innocent look, something between fear and hope were displayed in the dark brown orbs. Before the man knew what he was doing, he was climbing out the window and onto the fire escape, venturing down to somehow save this boy who's eyes had mesmerized him.

"Get away from him!" the new found player in thie game of cat-and-mouse said and he jumped down from the ladder onto the dirty concrete. The dirty man in the alley way laughed softly, his voice raspy and dark. The young boy still tried feebly to pull out of his grasp, his attempts remaining futile.

"You don't want to get involved, kid." the man's words slurred and were twisted with his alchol breath. The other man snorted, mocking the drunk man's comment. As the young boy's new found hero approached, the crude man let go of him, facing his opponent head on. They looked at eachother, both of their eyes narrowed and analyzing the other.

"We don't want any trouble." He said, his eyes locking with the young boy for the first time. They had a common understanding that they both wanted to get out of this situation as easily as possible.

"If you leave now, we can all forget this is happening." He added, hoping the man would just leave into the rain and let them all go quietly. Sadly, that didn't work. The drunk man lunged foreward, throwing his clumsy weight towards the man in front of him. Taemin's new-found hero dogded easily, his body was fluid and agile. The man let out a snarl and lunged again, his hands outstretched ready to punch and grab at the more nimble man. Again, he was dogded. Frustration was easily shown by the drunk man. Then, punches were thrown.

As Taemin watched, he let out litle yelps of fear when he was sure that a punch would land on his protector. But, every time, his hero would dodge and instead land a punch on the drunken man. After a few minutes, the large, burly man stumbled, unable to catch himself, he finally fell. When Taemin saw him fall on the dirty ground, scrapes of paper and trash surronding him. A noise between a sigh of relief and a soft cry left his lips. He looked up at the man that had came down the ladder into the alley and had saved him.

A few tears had slide down Taemin's face; relief floodd through him. He realized he could ahve been the one laying their on the cold floor, abandoned. He didn't realize how much trouble he could have been in, how hurt he could have gotten. The more he thought, the more the tears came out of his eyes. He tried to wipe them away with his palms, but the rain mixed with them anyway.

"you're okay now..." the other man said, he walked foreward to the Taemin. Taemin let out a soft whimper and nodded. He felt more tears come out of his tired eyes and then the embrace of two strong arms were around him. He cried a little bit harder when he felt the warmth of his savoir calm him. All he could feel was gratitude and the gentle affection of the other man.

"I owe you so much" He whispered.