Hhhh.. hhhhh.. hhhh..

A loud pant could be heard in a dark alley deep inside the city of Seoul. A young man in his twenties was running with every last ounce of power he had in his thin and wounded body. He didn't even know where he was, all that he knew was that he should run.

He needed to run.

"Don't lose him! That brat stole our precious bread again!" An angry shout from the road just behind him made him look around to find a place to hide. 

This was his umpteenth time to be caught in this messy situation. Actually, it was his second time today. This morning he actually got caught and beaten up badly. He didn't want to get caught again tonight. He didn't want to add another fresh wound to his already weak body.

He turned to his left and the road leads him to a much darker place than before. Upon seeing a tremendous size of a garbage bin, he hid himself behind it. It's fortunate that he was quick in his movement, because in a split second he heard footsteps and an annoyed sigh coming from his chaser.

"Let's just go back, next time we'll definitely catch him." 

He sighed as he heard the footsteps walk farther and farther away from him. He looked down at his now empty palms and cursed himself for dropping his precious dinner while he ran earlier. He felt his heart sank when he realized that it means that there's no food again for him today. He closed his eyes tightly and felt his stomach growls in protest for not having anything to digest again. He clutched his stomach with his right hand, trying to make the painful feeling disappear. He's hungry, it was already his third day without eating, and he wasn't sure whether he could spend another day like this. The fact that he could still run even amazed him.

He rested his back on the wall as he scooted deeper to what that might likely be his bed for tonight. His stomach still hasn't calmed down. His mind wandered off to the now lost tasty looking bread he stole earlier. He needed to eat sooner or later, his weak body told him that over and over again. He did the only thing that he could do right at the moment; imagine.

He imagined a table with variety of foods. Foods he could grab with ease and satisfy his hunger in an instant. As he reached out his hand to his favorite ramen, he realized that he was familiar with the scene displayed in his mind right now. It wasn't his imagination. It was his memory. As he dwelled deeper in his thought, he now could see a face across the table. She was smiling proudly as she watched her son ate the foods she specially made for him.

He opened his eyes and the cold air greeted him again once the warm image in his mind slowly disappear. He looked up at the sky and asked what he have been asking himself for weeks now.

"What am I going to do now?"

♦ ♦ ♦

Yongguk wasn't always like this.

He wasn't a homeless person from the beginning.

He used to be the only son of a well-respected family coming from Incheon, Seoul.

Everything changed when his father died leaving a huge amount of debt behind. As the only son, it was a given that the debt was his to deal with. Unlucky for him, the man whom his father borrowed money from wasn't a nice man. Much to his dismay, his father owed billions of wons to one of the most ruthless loan shark in the whole underground world.

Hwang Byungjin.

It was just days after his father's funeral when Yongguk came home only to be greeted by the sight of his family house being in a disastrous condition. Broken furnitures were everywhere to be seen in what used to be a beautiful house. The only thing he could think of at that moment was his mother who was supposed to be home. He searched every room while calling out to his mother but then his hope shattered when he saw a short note his mother succeeded to stick on one of the mirrors in the room.

Son, run and never come back..

Abiding to his mother's order, he ran with nothing but his backpack. Did he succeed? Unfortunately, no.

He was stupid to hide in his friend's house. It wasn't even a day and he already dragged out to the loanshark's place. He could still remember the laugh they all gave him when he said he was going to pay his father's debt and that he needed more time to collect the money. The smirk on Byungjin's face was still clear in his mind, along with the realization that hit him at the time. They didn't drag him in there to demand his payment.

He was the payment. His body was, to be spesific.

He knew that there are boys out there who were forced to do this kind of work. That wasn't the first time he heard that such a disgusting thing existed. But he never knew that he would be one of them. He never even imagined that he would have to do what he always thought as disgusting and inhuman; he was forced to please the man in front of him.

The man inside of him screamed in anger, he wouldn't let these filthy men took away his pride. There's just no way, even if he had to die protecting it. As a result, he spent everyday making himself familiar with the countless beating Byungjin's men more than happy to do. His arms, his stomach, his legs, even his head. Not even a single part of his body survived the day without fresh wounds.

The only thought keeping him alive to this day was his mother. He have to find her, and to do so, he needed to run.

So he did.

When most of the men was out doing their work, he succeeded in finding a chance to slip past the guard and ran away. He smirked to himself imagining how Byungjin would explode in anger when he realized that Yongguk was nowhere to be found. But his satisfaction didn't stay long enough because he soon realized that he really didn't have anywhere to run.

His friends and relatives' places were out of the question. Byungjin would easily found him if he went there.

As a result, he ended up living on the street. He searched for his mother like a lost kid, which was exactly what he felt then. His muscular and toned body went thinner and weaker by the day due to the lack of food. Ignoring his moral, he started to steal when the hunger got too overwhelming.

No, he wasn't a lost kid. He thought to himself.

He felt like a lost dog. Stealing food and sleeping at random places he could found everytime the night took away all his energy. And today, nothing's change.

He fell asleep at the dirtiest place in the whole city of Seoul, with his eyes still wet from tears of longing and hopelessness.

AN:

So, the first chapter is up :)

I'll do my best not to take too long to post the next chapter. See you ^__^