Lee Byul sighed to herself as she dragged her feet out her former home. She knew it had almost been like a dream come true when she finally settled down in this small place on the eastern side of Incheon and managed to get a job at a convenience store. The hours were tough and the living space wasn't much but she was proud that she even managed to get this far on her own. Just a few years ago, Byul had resorted to petty crimes such as stealing wallets, learned from her brother, Donghae.

As usual, her good-for-nothing brother had come back in shame of leaving his little sister with all his debt. As usual, he left with absolutely with no remorse just a few days later. It was a miracle to see him just once every few months nowadays. Sometimes, Byul thought Donghae must have inherited those good-for-nothing genes from their good-for-nothing parents who abandoned them when Donghae was only 16 and Byul was 10. At least he had been a good brother back then...

After Donghae had stolen her house deposit money and ran off to who knows where, Byul was promptly kicked out. At least the landlady was kind enough (if you could even call her kind at all) to let Byul leave her things there for a week until she could find another place to stay. 

What am I going to do now? Byul thought to herself, worried. If she couldn't even find a place nearby, she'd have to quit her job when things were just starting to go well. Even tears were threatening to spill over, which meant a lot considering Byul hated to cry in public. The frustrated girl put her head against a brick wall in the alleyway and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to block out all her problems.

Just then, Byul heard some men making a huge ruckus coming from the direction of her old place. She quietly walked to the corner and peeked up the alley, seeing the men dressed in black and looking dangerous. They kicked over some trash bins and knocked loudly at the landlady's door, demanding the ahjumma come out at once. When she opened the door hesitantly, the leader stomped out his cigarette and talked menacingly at her, "We know Lee Byul is here. Tell her to come here immediately."

The landlady protested, "She's not here! She left just a moment ago, I swear!"

One of the lackeys scoffed at landlady, "Stop trying to pretend, ahjumma. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Your decision." He cracked his knuckles and stepped closer to the door.

Byul had a habit of biting her lip in nerve-wracking situations, and this was definitely one of them. While she never particulalry liked the landlady, she didn't feel like it was right to let those gangsters terrorize her either. Before she could think it over in her mind, her body acted on impulse and she threw a rock smack into one of the gangsters' heads, "Looking for me, boys?" Before they could act, Byul quickly sprinted off, breaking out in cold sweat.

"Yah! Get back here! I just need to ask you some questions about that brother of yours, girl!" The burly gangster roared, just a few feet behind of Byul. A whole swarm of them were chasing her down an alleyway in the quiet neighborhood, "How can that midget be so fast?"

Does he actually think I'll stop when I know he's gonna cut me open and sell all my organs?! Byul let her hyperactive imagination take over. While she had never actually heard of that happening personally, she did have plenty of experience with gangsters and knew what they were capable of. Where is freaking Oppa at times like these?

"Aish! I don't know where he is either!" Byul screamed back at them. Although her legs were short, she was used to running away quickly by now and gained some momentum against the gangsters.

She could see that there was a high fence just at the end of the alleyway. Where do I go now? Byul acted on her adrenaline and climbed onto a garbage can nearby. She looked back one last time to give the gangsters the finger and waved bye-bye, "So long, ers!" Since time was running out, Byul didn't have time to give a quick scan to see if a car was coming by. Just as the gangsters reached the fence, she jumped over it, falling smack onto the concrete road, and immediately saw a black Mercedes Benz heading directly at her. Although logically it wouldn't do her any good in a situation like this, Byul defensively made herself smaller and covered her hands over her head.

Byul waited for the bloody pain to come, but it never did. All she could hear was the screech of tires and the sound of her heart beating out of her chest. The gangsters were about to take advantage of the situation and jump over the fence, but the driver of the Mercedes Benz frantically hopped out of the car and put his hands on her shaking shoulders, "Are you alright?! How can you just come out of nowhere like that!"

All Byul could do was look into those brown eyes in shock, and then the world went black...