The raven took a deep breath out, shoveling the sidewalk gravel with his charcoal Chuck’s, flicking the silver flakes of ash from his cigarette.Sadly, those shoes wouldn’t last much longer. By the way were looking these days, they were two strides short of splitting clear in half. Knowing this, the fleeter could only shake his head. He flicked again.

A long stream of air left his lips and a large halo of marbling smoke weaved around him, looking around he could see sticking to the Daegu area was a bad idea. These days he’d been constantly harassed by prosecutors and “squeezed” by thugs. He had enough of his own problems, and that was just something he didn’t have the energy to deal with. Stomping out his stub he’d been lucky to find that morning he leaped to his feet, brushing off his grass stained tommy jeans and checked the sky.

“Two in the afternoon.” the brunette scoffed lightly as obnoxious winds swirled up behind him and through his hair. It was around this time everyday that was considered crunch time. All the other fleeters were trying to work their corners, or their stories. But not him, he used talent instead of con tactics. Fighting was his haven, his safety net. And he needed to find a ground. And fast, otherwise books will be closed and he’ll lose out on eating dinner tonight.
 

--- 

A random brunette wandered down the sidewalk, not really having any inkling of where he was, but sure enough that he would find his way. His brothers words traveled into his mind, telling him to be careful when he realized there would be no stopping the dancer. He was determined prove to Taesun that he could survive in the city by himself, and that started now. Well, it started as soon as Taemin actually figured out how to get to his apartment. He reached into his pocket and looked at the small slip of paper now cradled in his hand, displaying his new address. He nodded to himself silently. He could find his way. Even without the GPS Navigator on his dead phone. He hadn’t meant to pack the charger, it just kind of...happened.

He shrugged it off, his trademark smile blooming across his bright face as the sun beat into his eyes. He would be fine, as long as he remembered the directions the kind lady behind the counter had given him. It was a left two blocks up, then across the big road, and he would see the apartment complex next to a noodle house. Right? Or...had the people in line been talking about a noodle house near their apartment complex? The woman had been talking an awful long time for such simple directions...but he wasn’t that scatterbrained, no matter what his friends back home said.

He continued on, smiling when the big road she had described appeared before him. He stuffed his hands in his pockets looking around for the building he was supposed to meet the movers at. Was it a blue building? Or a white one? Or was he just being hopeful, since those were his favorite colors? He shook his head absently, noting that there was an off-white building across the street that looked like an apartment building. He decided to go there, hoping that even if it was the wrong building, someone would be able to point him in the right direction. He would have taken a cab...but he packed his wallet too. He shook his head again, then stepped off the sidewalk and into the busy street without much thought.
The fighter had already made headway down the street, moving briskly but not so quick to turn into a sprint. His strides were big-- he was tall enough, over 180cm he was sure of that much. He hadn’t even gotten a full middle school education so he wouldn’t even know what certain measurements even looked like. The fleeter suffered a lot from his lack of education, he was quick, but lacked simple knowledge and it killed him.There were no jobs these days for people like him, and without someone who shared the same blood, he felt this was the only way to go.

Meanwhile, the string bean pressed on, keeping alert and quickened his pace. “Two forty one.” Gritting his teeth lightly his eyes combed the area and searched for any sights that may be close by. Sights were markings that signaled fighters from an area that there was a ground nearby. Grounds are where fighters gathered, and books are betting books. That’s where money comes in. The youth knew only that much, and couldn’t really tell if he was ever being swindled or not. He didn’t care much either way, as long as he had enough to eat.

He cursed himself for choosing this time of day over a midnight match. He really hated the lunch rush hour. Too many people have gotten hit on this road by s who only care about where they’re going, not how they get there. (Those people usually end up being gangsters.) The brunette sighed as he halted himself at the intersection. His restless body wiggled to and fro waiting for the light to signal. “Come on...” he mumbled irritably.

Taemin stretched his arms as he wandered into oncoming traffic, his eyes closing as he strolled along, not a care in the world except maybe getting some lunch. He was already late to meet the movers, and they had a key to get in anyway, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if he stopped for some ramyun or something, right? He nodded contentedly to himself, barely noticing when a car breezed past him. If one got close enough to hit him, it would stop anyway, that much he was certain of, and so he just continued on.

He was stepping across the median when another thought occurred to him. He didn’t even know where to get food around here, and all those fancy apps his brother made him download before moving did nothing to help him when his phone was dead. He sighed, feeling a bit put out as he realized he would have to stop at home first so he could find his charger - and his wallet! He shook his head, then rolled his eyes. “Keep it together Taemin.” He told himself, not realizing he was babbling out loud. He looked around as he stepped into the flow of traffic once more, wondering if he could find someone to help him out.

He spotted the other standing on the sidewalk, and for the first time he had the thought that he wasn’t in his little town anymore. There were crosswalks and traffic signals to be obeyed here. He grinned sheepishly despite himself, and hoped he wasn’t causing much trouble. In any case, he promised himself that he would remember to use the crosswalk next time. He glanced around quickly, but didn’t speed up his pace at all as he stepped in front of a car that was definitely going over the speed limit. The driver laid on the horn, causing Taemin to jump and turn his attention on the car flying toward him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very proficient with multi-tasking, he was certain the phrase ‘can’t walk and chew gum’ was based solely on his his incompetence, and he stopped walking in favor of letting out a terrified scream.

The fleeter’s head whipped at the sound of a blaring symphony of horns, only to find some twiggy idiot standing in the middle of the intersection, just standing there! Move, you idiot, he thought. Run. They’ll definitely hit you if you don’t move. The brunette’s vision slowed, everything did.  The man’s jaw clenched slightly from whatever slight anxiety he had for this random kid in the street. It was then that he realized this boy really had no intention of moving, and was going to continue screaming in hopes that he wouldn’t die.

The loner checked the sun again. Two fifty four. He smacked his teeth. His body was itching to move on and make his money, yet he knew that he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of someone’s death over him. Rolling his eyes, he shot out, a little faster than a bullet and just as deadly. Moving all of his strength from his shoulders to his arms, he pushed the other to the grassy sidewalk.

Just then he embraced himself for impact and turned his body to the side in hopes for only a bruised kidney or a couple broken ribs. Slamming his eyes shut, the car plowed him full force and he tumbled over the hood but not before doing a triple axel in mid air before returning back to the asphalt. A loud thud followed his rough landing and it was then he thought he might die. A slight agonizing grumble left him as he lay there in the middle of the street.

The fleeter curled in on himself and tried to concentrate on sitting up rather than the pain in his shoulders and back. Most of all he couldn’t stand all the people just staring and whispering.

It was too bad he felt more inclined to apologize to the driver for his shattered windshield, and he felt even more sorry about that careless kid. Nevertheless, he was curled up on the ground now, causing quite the spectacle as more and more nosy people came to huddle over him and repeatedly ask the same questions. By now he could guess that his line up was already called, and not only was he going to need to recoup, he was going to starve in the process. He grunted, rolling himself over and pushing himself up to a seated position. He whimpered irritably. “Nae tton...nae ttooooooon.”

Taemin didn’t even know what happened. He was still screaming when the impact hit, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as he anticipated. He opened his eyes, knowing he was on the ground, and he would have to do some damage assessment, but he was surprised to find himself in the grass. How had that happened? He sat up slowly, looking around to find some explanation. It was offered readily when he saw another male sitting in the middle of the street, whining miserably, and he moved quickly toward him.

“You need to get up!” He insisted, trying to lift the other off the ground. He had never been very strong, though, and so the results were minimal at best. He could see cars still flying by, and an angry driver with a cracked windshield pulled off to the side, but he was focused on the boy in the road. “Hyung!” He said, automatically assuming the other was older. “Please get up! These cars don’t stop! You’ll get hurt!”

The elder growled at him, ripping his arm from his grasp as his legs mechanically pulled him from his uncomfortable position to an even more uncomfortable stance. Nosy passerbys fanned and dispersed after seeing that the brunette was still alive, he sighed quietly.

An enormous scrape covered the apple of his right cheek, and his whole upper body kissed with purpling bruises. Thick maroon filled his mouth and spilled from his chin. In order to make sure he didn’t get any blood or glass in his left eye, he’d kept that one shut. Turning his one-eyed gaze to the cause of his pain, he spit a wad of blood by his feet, probably just as a warning to the other that he was lucky nothing was broken, because if there was, he would break him.

Without another word he limped his way over to the sidewalk, keeping his arms close to his chest for fear that either or both of them had been sprained or fractured. The slender raven hobbled over the curb, dragging his left leg right behind him. That, for sure, he knew was at least fractured. The fighter wobbled a few more strenuous steps into a familiar alleyway and rested his battered body against a brick building. That short walk had taken so much out of him already, he’d been panting heavily.  He chortled a bit to himself between breaths. Why are you so tired? he thought. I must be getting soft or something.

He spit another blood wad onto the pavement near his own feet. “Agh...” he winced a bit at the shooting pain in his back. Hopefully that driver didn’t come looking for him. The last thing he needed was to go to a court room.

The brunette trailed along behind the raven, a concerned expression on his face. “Hyung, hyung!” He called, trying to get the other’s attention though the other seemed not to hear him, or was simply ignoring him. He tried again, reaching out to touch the taller male. “Hyung? Do you need to go to the hospital? I can get a cab if you want.”

He watched the other hopefully, but there was no response. He opted to shake the others arm, since obviously his hearing had been damaged in the accident. And really, how rude was the driver to not apologize for nearly killing them both? He felt an urge swaying through him to pull out his trademark aegyo pout, but he stifled it momentarily and waited for the other to acknowledge him. “If you don’t want to go to the hospital you should at least let me get you a ride home. Or you could come to my house, so I can watch you so no one else hurts you.”

He leaned in with wide eyes and a concerned expression. “I could make you food, if you want. You’ll need to build up your strength to get better, right? People around here don’t seem very nice, so I don’t think anyone else will help you, and you got hurt because of me. So that makes it my responsibility to make you better.”

The battered youth’s single eye snapped and flickered toward the hopeless dongsaeng’s face, shrugging the other off repeatedly, though he still didn’t seem to understand the principle of personal space. Hospital? What was this kid trying to pull? The fleeter,let alone anyone else he knew never went to the hospital. What the hell did they do there that he couldn’t find out here? The brunette shook his head a bit, pushing his obsidian waves away from the cuts and scrapes adorning his face.

He smacked his teeth. This kid really must have wanted his attention for him to be hanging all over him and calling him annoyingly. After a moment or so, the young man’s ears pricked. The sudden mention of food; that offer really stuck to him. He hadn’t eaten since early hours that morning at the soup kitchen and for a body that burns the same amount consumed within two hours, it was nothing at all. The back of his head was pulsating now and he could feel the palpitation grow stronger the longer he hopped along. This time it was hard to tell whether it was from his head meeting cement, or lack of food throughout the day.

Just then he winced, a thunderbolt of pain struck his temple. Feeling around the back of his skull for a bit, he found a nice walnut-sized lump rested there.  Great. He grunted. The fighter sighed, wiping his blood-caked cheek with the long sleeve of his knit sweater before returning his gaze to the wide eyed younger. “You’ll give me food?”  his other eye remained closed due to accumulated swelling.

The brunette nodded easily, glancing around quickly to try and orient himself. He looked back at the elder, then held up a single finger. “Wait a minute. I need to ask someone for directions so we don’t get lost.” He said, turning and taking off down the street toward the closest person he could see.

He returned a few minutes later with a piece of paper in his hand and a smile on his face. “That nice lady wrote down the directions for me!” He announced happily, not realizing he had mistaken the gender of the person helping him. “Come on, hyung! Can you walk? It’s only down the road a little bit.”

He took hold of the other’s hand easily and started walking down the sidewalk, his eyes glued to the paper in his hand. He was too far gone in his own world to really be sure the other was still in agreement, but even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have minded. His brain was too full of fluff and cotton for much to bother him, anyway.

The raven grumbled in dissatisfaction as they pressed forward, and as the airhead ahead of him pulled him along. He gritted his teeth a bit at the bruising pains in his yanked wrist as his one working leg continued in broken strides, his gimp leg dragging helplessly behind him. With his eyes turning to pointed daggers they reached a familiar corner, one he knew too well. This neighborhood was terrible to live in. Whether you’re inside or outside, there was trouble around here.

The fighter craned his neck a bit at the ditz in front of him, who the hell in their right mind would leave him here alone? Maybe he ran away and this was all he could afford. The hyung chortled quietly to himself at the thought, basically thinking that he could live better than this kid with or without a home. Then, he halted for a moment as the younger before him seemed to have stopped. Was this it? The wanderer’s eyes shot up at the building; battered, worn, and in shambles was the only way to describe it. By the looks of it, it used to be a eggshell off-white color. Now the paint rolled off the concrete walls in uniform line, yet asymmetric strips.

“I think this is it.” Taemin announced, nodding to himself. He finally looked up at the building for the first time, and his smile faded just enough to be noticed. Was this really the place he would be living? Taesun’s friend had been the one to get him the apartment, so he had never put much thought into the state of it, but judging from the outside it wasn’t very well taken care of.

The smile wormed its way back onto his face a moment later, though, as the thought came to mind that the inside was probably just fine. Taesun wouldn’t have let him move here if it was going to be dangerous - Taemin knew that for a fact. The elder was stiflingly overprotective. In fact, he was supposed to be coming for dinner that night...Taemin shook his head, suddenly remembering his dead cell phone and heading toward the building entrance. If he didn’t turn it on and call Taesun, he would be in big trouble.