“GET BACK HERE YOU STREET VERMIN!” yelled an overweight baker as he held his rolling pin above his head.

A group of young children, all dressed in rags, sprinted away with the baker right on their tails.

The blonde headed girl who was in the lead of the pack, whistled and the pack of children split into two. One group towards an alley and the other dispersed into the crowded marketplace. The baker scowled and cursed as he had lost them.

At the poorest part of the kingdom, where most people did not even know where their next meal was going to come from, stood a rundown building. It once flourished with staff who would care for the orphaned children. The king had cut the taxes that once founded it and the staff vanished; the orphaned children did not.

The older children had left in search of jobs. But the younger ones had no choice but to stay. After the first cold winter night, the littlest ones had remained silent and were no longer of the world. There now only remained a handful of children. None of them knew what to do. In the face of such harsh realities, only one brave soul stood up.

She was barely seven years old then, but was the oldest one there. Her name was Kim Hyoyeon. She was the one who devised the first plan to steal food. On their first heist, the group of children raided an army camp’s rations. That first night since the orphanage had closed, Hyoyeon had gone to bed with a full tummy, and she promised herself she would never let any of them go hungry again.

From that moment, everyone naturally looked up at her as the leader. She made sure that they had enough food and protected everyone from the rival gangs. The streets were filled with too many gangs of poverty stricken children.

Only a week into Hyoyeon’s plans to find more food, she had run into the leader of another gang. They had beaten up her good and took off with two weeks’ worth of food. The young girl did not let her humiliation stop her. Once she was healed, she fought back and took off with double the amount of what was taken from her.

Overtime the group of ratty street children, led by Hyoyeon, became infamous. Hyoyeon herself became known as the Yellow Tiger, from her blonde hair and fiery personality. She was dangerous and stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. At only eleven, she was wanted by both the law and gangs alike.

Hyoyeon breathed a sigh of relief once she took a head count. Min, Amber, Key, Luna, Minho, and Taemin all made it back to the hideout safely. Waiting for them were the rest of the gang, Sulli, Krystal, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol. Krystal bounded to her happily, the first one to greet her.

“Hyo-unnie! What’d you bring us?!”

The blonde girl chuckled and motioned at Minho. She had handed him the bundle which was filled with a variety of bread, including a strawberry pastry that she had stolen just for Krystal and Sulli.

“Here Krys~ share this with Sulli. You two have been working hard to fix the hideout.”

She squealed excitedly and hugged the older girl.

No one complained at the special treatment of the two younger girls. Hyoyeon had always favored the two and she was the one who called everything. No one challenged her, besides she was never unfair. She made sure everyone got something special at least once a month.

Taemin, Min, Key, and Amber began to empty their pockets of the people they had pickpocketed within the crowd. Since it was at the marketplace, they did not steal a fortune, but it was enough to buy the few supplies they needed. Luna had not managed to pick anyone’s pocket but she did manage to run off with a small bushel of apples.

Ten pairs of eyes stared eagerly at their leader. Hyoyeon smirked slightly as she began to empty her pocket. Not only had she been able to get away with the baker’s heavy money bag, but she had been able to nick a large dried ham from the marketplace.

Everyone’s eyes widened with happiness and a few were even salivating. But before they could divvy up the food, the Yellow Tiger had a few rules she had them follow.

The group never stole from someone who did not have enough, only from those who had more than enough. Hyoyeon also made sure to share some of the food and money with people who were even poorer than them.

She set aside two large of loaves, some of the apples, a good portion of the ham and some of the money. Whatever was left was taken to the back by Luna and Amber who would organize them later. Minho grabbed the youngest boys, Baekhyun and Chanyeol to go into the woods to hunt and get some firewood (they couldn’t steal everything). Min joined Krystal and Sulli who were in charge of laundry that day.

This left Hyoyeon with Taemin and Key. The three worked quickly to cut the loaves and ham into sandwiches. Once they were done they donned on their cloaks and set off into the street to distribute the food to the other less fortunate street children.

~~~

“HYO!” greeted a group of dirty children.

They were covered in dirt and only god know what else.

But their eyes shone happily when they saw the Yellow Tiger.

Hyoyeon grinned and had Taemin and Key hand out the sandwiches.

She left them to devour the sandwiches and the three went off to their next round of responsibilities.

“Soldiers to the left Noona,” whispered Taemin as he casually sat down and pretended to beg for money.

The Yellow Tiger growled in frustration and ducked into a nearby pub, while Key casually kept walking.

“Don’t worry I’ll go handle the apples,” he whispered as he made his way down the street.

The soldiers were obviously hunting for her and the other street gang leaders.

They loved to take them and put them into boot camp training.

Luckily the pub that she stepped into was owned by someone she knew.

“Hey Teuk-oppa!” she greeted the young bartender.

He shook his head at her as he continued to clean the brandy glass in his hands.

“Who have you pissed off this time Tiger?”

“Pfft… didn’t piss off no one. Just hiding, the soldiers are out scouting again.”

Leeteuk nodded understanding.

“Ahhhh… well you’re too young to join them anyway Hyo. Anyway you came at the right time, mind coming with me to the back?”

She nodded and he led her to the back. He pulled back some boxes of hard liquor and soon came into view with a small handsome wooden box.

“The handgun you requested.”

The Tiger grinned and eagerly lifted the weapon from its box. Her old one had been lost in a fight from last week. This one was much lighter than her other one. It was perfect.

“Thanks oppa~ I reckon they’re out of the area now. I’ll be off then.”

She handed him one of the gold coins. Before she could leave he placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Hyo, I want you to be careful out there. Rumor has it that my brothers are back in town again.”

Leeteuk had been in a large gang of thirteen boys before he had left the streets. They disbanded once their leader left, but a few of the younger members had gotten back together a few years back. They were dangerous and extremely violent.

The group was known to target the poorer families to recruit members. They not only stole but they occasionally served as mercenaries as well. Rumor had it that they even killed for fun. Hyoyeon had gotten on the bad side of their leader, Eunhyuk, when she refused to join them.

She thanked Leeteuk for the warning and left the pub. Taemin was waiting outside for her.

“Key-hyung headed back towards the hideout. Seems like Eunhyuk is coming back into town soon. It’s got the soldiers riled up. We should get going, I think I spotted Donghae in the crowd just now. They must be looking for you.”

Hyoyeon bit her bottom lip in thought.

“You go back first Taemin. It’ll be less noticeable if I’m by myself.”

He nodded and scurried off into the shadows of the nearby building.

The Yellow Tiger took a deep breath and pulled her cloak tighter around her to hide her blonde hair. Once she made sure both her knife and gun were belted in properly, she hurried towards the dark alley.

She hated going through this particular alley. It was where her old home had been before coming to the orphanage. There were too memories she longed to forget when she walked through there.

*TRIGGER WARNING! Mentions of physical, verbal, and ual abuse*

Hyoyeon’s father was an alcoholic who frequently exercised his anger on his wife and children.

Every day they would endure his painful beatings.

It wasn’t uncommon for Hyoyeon to have black eyes. She even got used to the constant throbbing in her arms, where her father liked to grab her after a night of drinking.

Unable to hold a job due to his drinking, her mother had no choice but to sell her body for money.

The whole neighborhood scorned their family.

Adults would spit at them as they walked by and the other children would throw rocks at them.

Some of the older children would take turn using her or her brother as a punching bag.

Mostly it was her elder brother that bore the burden.

As she got older though, Hyoyeon began to fight back and to ignore the stares and murmurs.

In order to survive she couldn’t feel.

Her mother’s odd working hours led to a strained relationship with her family.

Hyoyeon and her brother could never look at her in the eyes as she prepped for a night on the job.

She hated the smell of perfume that her mother sprayed to attract her customers and the smell of men when she came back to the house in the early hours of the morning.

But her husband was worse. He would beat her and verbally abuse her right after she had been used by other men.

The small house would always resonate with her father’s cruel shouts in the morning.

It became a cruel alarm clock for the children.

“YOU F@CKING ! Out sleeping with some others huh?! Well let me show how a REAL man does it!”

Her brother would take her away from the room and they would huddle underneath an old blanket to block out the shouts.

Sometimes when it got really bad, he would lead her deep into the forest.

This was their only solace where no one bothered the two.

The quiet sound of the forest critters as they picked berries or fished were the only happy memories she had while she was growing up.

Together the two siblings tried their best to help their mother.

Most of the food that they ate, they would gather in the forest.

But money was always an issue especially when it came to paying the landlord every month.

Thus this led to them both pickpocketing, this was how she had acquired her skills.

Most nights Hyoyeon would lie on her sleeping mat with her body bruised and sore, praying for an escape.

Her prayers were answered in an unexpected way on one particular night.

After being in another of his drunken stupors, her father had taken a beer bottle and soon their mother was lying in a pool of her own blood, unmoving.

She remembered screaming at her mother but not getting a response.

The blood stained her clothes, her hands… There had been so much blood.

Her brother though was silent.

He took the now broken beer bottle, his hands shaking slightly.

Their father lay in a corner, fast asleep and now snoring.

He had raised the bottle and it came crashing down their father’s head.

Her brother did not stop even after blood gushed from their father.

It mixed with her mother’s, covering the floor.

Hyoyeon remembered begging and pleading for her brother to stop but he hadn’t.

She could never get the sound of her father’s last strangled scream, before he fell silent, out of her head.

And the look of pure evil and rage on her own brother’s face.

Hyoyeon did not remember running.

All she remembered was the stinging rain on her skin in the cold night air.

The next day she found herself stumbling towards the orphanage.

A couple of months later she found her brother’s body out on the streets.

He had tattoos covering his body, which was evidence that he had joined a gang.

From the circumstances of his death, he had become a victim of a rumble.

She buried her past along with her brother. She swore to never speak of them.

That was the last she had seen of her family.

The familiar alley sent shivers down her spine.

She remembered how bad her life had been but she had forgotten just how bad it was once before.

This happened to be the worst part of the city.

People who lived here literally lived among their own waste.

She pushed her cloak up higher to cover her face as she quickly glided through the crowded alley filled with people with dead hopeless gazes.

It was eerily silent, even the children were quiet.

Hyoyeon quickened her pace and soon found herself back on the bigger streets.

To her bad luck, she ran right into the scene of some of Eunhyuk’s gang beating up some random girl.

She should have just walked away and gone straight back to the hideout.

But the girl’s eyes bore right into hers as the three older boys kicked her.

They were barely open as she kept screaming in pain.

“PLEASE STOP!”

The Tiger closed her eyes and clamped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the noise.

Yet the screams resonated within her mind and tugged at her heart strings.

The girl’s helpless brown eyes that begged for help… She could not stop herself.

In moments she landed a blow to the stomach at Siwon who immediately stumbled back and hit his head.

Before Sungmin could react, she had dislocated his jaw with her right hook.

Kibum launched at her back and she lost her footing for a mere second.

But she managed to throw him to ground, making him unconscious.

Hyoyeon grabbed the girl’s hand, making the girl look at her.

She froze for a moment as the brown eyes pierced into her heart

“Move quick if you want to live!” growled the Yellow Tiger.

To her surprised the latter was at least a head taller than her as she got to her feet.

They ran through the crowd of people, as Hyoyeon quickly led them back to her hideout.

“God dammit I have some explaining once I get back.”

~~~

Krystal looked sourly at the leader as she dabbed the girl’s cut eye.

“So explain to me again WHY you brought her here AND put yourself back in Eunhyuk’s radar again?! He’s going to target you AGAIN!! Do you even remember what he did to you?! You couldn’t walk for WEEKS unnie! He’s going to kill you this time! What were you THINKING?!”

Hyoyeon sighed.

“Krys I know it was stupid... But we can figure out something later. Please leave now. Go help Luna guard.”

The younger girl stomped away angrily leaving the Yellow Tiger and the stranger alone.

They were actually seated in Hyoyeon’s own bedroom with the taller girl on her bed.

Her hands trembled slightly as she reached up to stop Hyoyeon’s.

“H-Hey about what that girl said… maybe I should leave. I’ve obviously caused you trouble.”

The girl was much taller than her, with short black hair that framed her round face.

What stood out the most was her large expressive brown eyes and mouth that quivered slightly.

She was gorgeous; it was no wonder why Eunhyuk wanted her.

Hyoyeon rolled her eyes and went back to tending the girl.

“Stop being stupid. It was my choice to save you. Besides I’m the boss here. If I brought you here that means I want you to stay. Now stay put and close your eyes, unless you want this to sting you eye.”

The tall girl immediately shut up and closed her eyes.

She worked silently for a few minutes, washing and carefully cleaning the various cuts on her face and arms.

It was the taller girl that broke the silence first.

“You’re Kim Hyoyeon aren’t you? The Yellow Tiger?”

“How do you know who I am?”

The girl pointed at her hair and the sword strapped to her side with its metal tiger head.

“Everyone talks about the girl that has blonde hair and the fang of a tiger.”

“Ahhhh~ well yes the rumors are half true. It’s just a normal knife.”

She winced as Hyoyeon applied an ointment on her cheek.

“Didn’t think the Yellow Tiger would be so young...”

The blonde chuckled.

“Speak for yourself. How old are you uhhh-

“My name is Sooyoung, Choi Sooyoung and I’m ten.”

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