“Please tell me this isn’t happening. Tell me this is a dream.”  I whispered to myself while running blindly across the street, holding tightly onto an unfamiliar hand like my life depended on it.  Who was I kidding? My life actually did depend on it.

 I could hear the bullets slicing through the air near my face as we ran away from the men chasing us. My feet were aching and were threatening to stop at any minute; I wasn’t really a physically fit person to begin with. I looked back to see if they were still chasing us, whoever they were. Unfortunately, they still were and I was sure that they were gaining on us.

“Hold unto me tighter and close your eyes! This is the only way we can escape from them!” The unknown person leading me to who-knows-where shouted. In an instant, I cling unto his arms and tightly shut my eyes. The minute I did what he said, air started rushing against me. The events that occurred during that day flashed in my head like a film strip being played on screen. I don’t even know how it led to this, today started out like an ordinary day.

I was on my bed, scribbling random ideas and dreams on my notebook. I cleaned up the living room and the kitchen of my orphanage home and I just came out of the shower. I decided to write in my dairy as I waited for my hair to dry up before going down and eating the usual bread and strawberry jam breakfast. This was my ritual, every morning and I didn’t want it to change. Too bad it did, when a guy about the same age as me came crashing into my room from my window.

“OHMYEFFINGHELL!” I screamed as I clutched on the object I was holding, which was my dairy, and started hitting the unwelcomed visitor. “Take that! You better not stand up or else I’m going to kick you were it will hurt!”

“! Would you stop it?!” He exclaimed as he tried standing up. I did warn him that if he stood up, I would kick him so I did, hard.  It was successful except for the fact that my kick was totally off aim which led me to fall flat on my . I was expecting laughter to come any minute but instead, I hear ruffling of papers and things.  “Look, this isn’t time for games. There are guys that will barge in here and kill you any minute now so I want you to get all the stuff that you need. After, we’re going to escape from here by jumping out your window. Understood? Now, go!”

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. I scoffed then stood up and walked in front of him. “What makes you believe that I will follow you? What if you’re some dealer that wants to sell me to the pirates or something?” I said as I crossed my arms on my chest.

“Why are you so difficult?! I am trying to save your life here!” He groaned as he continued to grab things from my room and put it in his knapsack. My eyes widened as a sudden realization hit me.

“You..you’re a burglar! You’re getting my stuff and stealing them!”

“No I am not. If you don’t want to believe me then count to three, maybe after you will see that I am telling the truth.”

“Like I will” I blurted out as he rolled his eyes, “Just do it” he commanded while walking towards the window

“Fine. Gosh. One. Two. Thr-”

BAM! I heard the front door of the orphanage break. Next were screams and loud footsteps. This can’t be happening. What the hell is going on? I was panicking and when I do, I am unable to speak or move.

“Do you believe me now?” I heard his voice, bringing me back to my senses. “Now move quicker, get all you important stuff and some clothes” he added.

I quickly sprung on my feet. I grabbed the bag on my bed and stuffed my dairy, random pieces of clothing, and a picture of my parents that was on my desk. The doorknob started turning as I heard deep voices coming from the other side of the door. I hurriedly ran to whoever he is and took his hand. The minute we leapt out the window, I heard my door slam open. Thank goodness my room was only on the second floor or else we would have been dead by now. We ran as fast as we could go, ran away from the orphanage. Leaving everything I was so used to behind. Leaving the secluded building and running towards forest.  I saw the guy that barged in my room pointing at us and telling his companions to chase us. Not even after a second, I heard bullets being shot everywhere.

“Aughh” He winced. We slowed down for a bit but caught up to our previous pace in just a matter of seconds. I looked down and caught a glimpse of a red stain near his ankle. He’s been hit. I looked at him and saw how much pain he was feeling.

“We should stop”

“We can’t. If we do, they’ll catch up to us and you’ll get caught. I can’t let that happen” He said as he concentrated on the path that we were taking. “Me? Why worry about me? You’re the one who got hit! You’re in pain. You should rest.” I said with a mix of anger, fear, worry and shock in my voice.

“You’re more important than me. Look, I need to concentrate. I’ll explain everything to you when we lose them. Right now, you just have to shut your mouth and follow me.”

And that’s what I did. Which leads us to right now...

We were walking through a forest of trees, more like I was walking through a forest of trees. He was more of limping than walking. His arm was thrown around my shoulder as I assisted him. Every minute that would pass I would hear him wince in pain and then we would once again argue if we should either stop and rest or continue. He would always win of course, to my displeasure.

“Honestly, we should stop. I can’t take you making noises every single second.” I stopped walking causing him to stumble a bit. He groaned and glared at me.

“I can’t believe how difficult you are. I already told you that we can’t stop.”

“Why not? It’s not like anyone is following us anymore. I doubt that they are even a mile from us. Besides it will only take a few seconds for me to clean it”

“You cleaning it? No way, it might get worse and infected by your touch.” He said, I rolled my eyes. I guess he felt that I was really irritated by his statement that’s why he finally agreed to my request. “Fine. Gosh, just make it quick. We’re almost there and the others are waiting for us.” He sighed as he proceeded to sit down on the ground. After assisting him, I sat down next to the foot that was shot and looked for a piece of cloth in my bag. I got one of my shirts and ripped a strip of cloth from it using my teeth.

“Here” I looked up at him and saw him offering me a bottle of water. I smiled at this gesture, maybe he wasn’t as bad as I though. I opened the bottle and was going to drink from it when a hard object hit my head. I looked at the object that fell on my side, a rock.

“Yah Pabo!” He exclaimed, I glared at him. “That’s for my foot, not for your drinking purposes!” Never mind, I take back what I said about him not being that bad. Obviously, he was worse. I saw a smirk form on his lips. I swear, I would have ripped that off if only he didn’t save me life. I sarcastically smiled at him and pressed my finger near his wound causing him to let out a yell. I couldn’t help but snicker.

“” I heard him whisper. I lifted his foot and laid it on my leg, this will help the blood flow decrease. I slowly poured the water on the wound while rubbing the sides of the wound slowly and carefully. I looked at him and saw his eyes shut close. I looked back down at the injury and proceeded to wipe it dry. I then tied the cloth around the part that is injured to cover it and prevent it from infections.

“All done” I smiled, looking at my work proudly.

“Alright, lets go. The headquarters is really close, it will take us just about 5 minutes to get there.” He said as he tried standing up. He held the tree for support.

“Yeah, you don’t have to thank me for cleaning your wound, it was nothing” I sarcastically said as I rolled my eyes and put his arm around my shoulder once again for support. “I didn’t ask you to do that, you were the one who wanted to”

“Yeah, yeah. Besides, I kind of knew you weren’t going to say thanks in the first place anyways.”

Silence enveloped us as we walked to the so-called head quarters he was talking about. A realization hit me all of a sudden, I didn’t thank him yet for saving me life. Although I was too proud to do that, I knew it was the right thing to do. I cleared my throat a couple of times before opening my mouth but when I did, nothing seemed to go out.

“Do you have a hairball in your throat or something?” He raised an eyebrow as he looked at me with his what-the-hell face. “No! I was just...” I said, stopping myself before the words thank you slipped out. The smirk on his face was really convincing me not to say thank you at all.

“You were just?”

“Ijustwantedtosaythankyouforsavingmylifebackthere” I said rather quickly and in one breath, he chuckled. Great! I lowered pride and said thank you to him and all he can do now is laugh at me. God, this guy is really a jerk. This guy...I don’t even know his name yet.

“My name is Jiyong, Kwon Jiyong if you’re wondering” 

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Writer's note: Sorry for the ugly beginning. I'll try to make it more interesting. :)