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Hak sighed for the umpteenth time that day, he had been wandering the cold and dreary streets trying to find a job with no luck. He looked up the smog filled sky wondering when his luck would change if it would ever change. His mind clouded with thoughts on where it all went wrong. He often contemplated dying, after all his life wasn’t worth much to him anymore. He had nothing to live for, no one cared about him, he’d been on his own for quite a while now and it could get rather lonely. As his mind wandered about he suddenly bumped into someone who knocked him to the ground. He cursed as he fell to the ground and hurt his back. Quickly he sat up and glared at the person he’d bumped into only to see they too, had fallen to the ground. What surprised him more was that it was a small red haired girl. How in the world had she managed to knock him down? She was literally tiny compared to him. The girl sat up groaning and rubbing the side of her head before getting up quickly and reaching out to help him up. Hak accepted the help, slightly in a daze.
“I’m so sorry! I was not aware of where I was headed!” The girl spoke up bowing to him slightly in apology. Hak just stared at her but then quickly got his bearings.
“Yeah, that’s obvious, you should watch where you’re going stupid.” He muttered to her, though he knew he was partly to blame for the situation as well. The girl looked up at him, a frown decorating her pale features. Hak took the time to really study her, he’d only paid attention to her face at first, but now he noticed the small amount of grime and dirt that clung to her thin white shirt and dark blue jeans. She wore a black jacket that was much too big for her slender frame. Her tennis shoes were slightly worn as if she’d been walking in them all day. Her short red hair was somewhat greasy and unkempt. To be perfectly honest, she looked a lot like him. Like she was living on the streets. But Hak didn’t think that was possible for some reason. She had an air around her, an air that deemed her important, someone too good for the streets, made her seem somewhat like royalty. But that too was absurd, there was no way someone with an air of importance would be dressed like that.
“Who are you?” He finally asked after a rather long silence where they’d both analyzed each other. The girl didn’t answer at first as her eyes continued to take in his appearance. Hak was well aware he didn’t look good. His hair hadn’t been washed in weeks, his clothes, consisting of loose gray jeans and a black shirt with a blue hoodie, were covered in soot and he probably smelled like smoke seeing as he’d slept in a building that had burned down a few days ago. While it probably wasn’t the best place to sleep, it was abandoned and it didn’t seem like there was going to be any attempts to fix it anytime soon. Plus, it was way safer than many of the other places he knew of.
“My name’s Yona, and you are?” The girl finally spoke, raising an eyebrow in question.
“Hak.” He replied simply.
“Hmm…” Yona hummed still observing him.
“Would you quit staring at me so critically?” Hak gritted out, annoyed at this point.
“Critically?” She asked once again raising an eyebrow. “Why do you think I’m being critical? It doesn’t seem I have much right to do such a thing, seeing as we’re probably in similar predicaments.” She continued and finally looked away.
“You talk weird,” Hak said, thinking her speech was odd. Yona glanced at him once more and shrugged before walking away back in the direction she’d presumably come from. Hak didn’t know why but he had a strange feeling that he should follow her and make sure she was going to be ok, which was weird since he didn’t even know if he’d be ok these days.
“Wait! Where are you headed.” Hak called out to her, catching up to her quickly. She didn’t stop walking but glanced at him quizzingly before turning her attention back to the path in front of her.
“I don’t see why that should matter? Much less why I should tell you? I barely met you a few minutes ago.” Yona answered picking up her pace. Hak continued to follow not faltering one bit.
“I’m just asking. You don’t look like you belong on the streets. So I’m just wondering what you’re doing here.” Hak started trying to figure out where she was headed. As far as he knew the direction they were going led to a park that would most likely be empty this time of day since it was already turning night.
“I do not understand why you should care about such things. I did not ask you anything, so I would appreciate you do the same, and leave me be.” Yona replied stopping to glare at him. Hak immediately stopped in front of her and looked at her. He really didn’t know why he cared either, he just had this gut feeling that she was in danger or something and he wanted to protect her, weird as that might sound.
“Hey I’m not pushing you for answers, I’m just saying it’s weird. You look like you’ve been on the streets for a while but at the same time, you don’t. And you talk funny, like what I’d imagine rich people talk like, so why would you be here if you are rich?” Hak asked bluntly. Yona scoffed, seemingly offended.
“What right do you have to judge my way of speaking? And why would you automatically assume I’m rich just by the way I am talking? Can a common girl not have a polite form of speech?” Yona said through gritted teeth.
“No, that is not how anyone on the streets speaks, even if you are new to the streets you wouldn’t be talking like that. You aren’t a common girl at all, are you?”
“So what if I’m not? Need I remind you, you just met me. You know nothing of me, and I would very much like to keep it that way. So please excuse me. Stop following me.” Yona said forcefully and then began running away still in the direction of the park. Hak was surprised that she’d suddenly decided to run but was quick to catch up and stop her. He grabbed her arm pulling her to a stop.
“Let go! Why do you insist on bothering me?!” She screamed and thrashed in his grip becoming very annoyed at him and slightly worried he was some kind of creep who’d harm her.
“Wow calm down! I won’t hurt you! I just want to make sure you will be alright!” Hak said recognizing the slight fear in her eyes. The worry didn’t leave her eyes but she stopped struggling.
“Why do you care so much?” she asked haughtily.
“I...I’m not sure...to be honest. But anyway, the streets are a rough place to be and you look kinda new to them. So I just want to give you some advice. Whatever it is that caused you to run away from home, it’s not worth staying on the streets for. You should go back to wherever you came from, kid. Trust me, the streets are no place for a little girl like you.” Hak said thinking about some rather unfortunate events that occurred only a few months ago to other girls he knew.
Yona gave him a thoughtful look realizing he really was just trying to give her advice, but she quickly shook her head.
“You are not aware of the situation I am in. So please, do not think you know best. I am aware of the risk the streets pose. I am prepared. Thank you for your concern.” Yona said shaking his hand off her arm and once more walking away. Hak sighed again and rubbed the back of his head. He was probably gonna regret what he was gonna say, but he really didn’t want to leave this girl alone on the streets. He was more than certain there was no way she would be able to fend for herself, especially not for long. And he could tell, she wasn’t going to listen to him and return home.
“Hey wait a minute! Geez...fine, you’re right I don’t know your situation, but you won’t survive long on your own...so... let me help you for the time being...just until you finally realize that you should go home.” Hak said gazing into her eyes as the sky darkened around them. Yona’s facial expressions weren’t that hard to read. He could tell she was trying to figure out if he was going to harm her if she accepted his help.
“..Just come with me for now, I know a better place to sleep than this park. I promise I won’t do anything to you.” Hak continued when she hesitated too long. She thought for a few more seconds and then finally nodded allowing him to take her hand and lead the way back to the building that had burned down a few days ago.
A Few Weeks Later
Yona and Hak had somehow managed to become friends despite the somewhat unsure start they had. They both learned more about one another. Hak told her he had run away from home and upon realizing how horrible it was to live in the streets immediately went back only to find his family gone. He never knew where they went and hadn’t bothered searching for them since they never searched for him. Yona had sympathized with him and claimed her story was similar. Except... it really wasn’t. Yona’s family was rich as Hak had suspected. Yona told him that her parents had recently died and so she was under the care of her uncle. Her uncle had been trying to convince her to marry her cousin (the Uncle’s son), but she had adamantly refused. After a while, her uncle stopped trying to convince her to marry his son and instead began to plot a plan to force her into marriage or kill her. And so she’d run away.
They also shared other stories about their lives before they ended up living on the streets. They slowly learned more and more about each other and as they did they slowly but surely began to understand and admire the other more and more. Hak and Yona grew close and helped one another out. During the day the two would go out around the town and look for any job they could possibly get, at night they would huddle together wherever they could find shelter. They traveled from town to town searching for steady work rather than the few odd jobs they sometimes managed to score.
A month later Hak found himself a job. A security job where people could hire him as a bodyguard. When he told Yona about it she had asked him to quit immediately, saying there wasn’t any good in a job like that. Hak adamantly refused to quit but promised to keep searching for another job. Yona had made him promise to quit the moment things got too dangerous, and Hak reluctantly agreed. Yona managed to find a job as a waitress a few days later and was very happy about it.
“Hak! They have another position available for a waiter! You should see if you can get it, then you could quit that dangerous job!” Yona said excitedly. But Hak didn’t want to work as a waiter, he was really good at being a bodyguard and he was really enjoying the pay. It was thanks to the job that Hak had managed to rent an apartment for the two them, and he knew that a shitty waiter job would never be enough to cover the rent.
“Come on Yona, you know that a job there wouldn’t be enough to cover the rent. I’m getting paid really well just for using my strength. I haven’t been any really dangerous situations either, so let me stick around a little longer.” Hak argued causing Yona to frown.
“Hak...you really need to quit before it’s too late. Pretty soon you won’t be allowed to.” Yona answered not meeting Hak’s gaze. Hak ignored her and continued to work as a bodyguard.
Weeks passed and both Yona and Hak were starting to drift apart. Yona was still upset that Hak would not quit, and Hak thought Yona was being unreasonable. Pretty soon they hardly talked to each other except for a quick greeting and farewell whenever the other had to go their job.
It was about a month into the job that Hak began to notice just what a bad idea it was to become a bodyguard. He noticed that the people he was assigned to protect were rather shady. He began to suspect the company that hired him was not actually a legit company, and so he began digging around.
His suspicions were confirmed a few weeks later, turns out the company was in league with the mafia, and a very powerful one at that, and lately, it seemed Hak had been getting more difficult assignments, so he decided Yona was right and it was time to quit. Of course...it wasn’t that easy. The company found out he knew about their involvement with the mafia and so he was given two choices. Either he could continue working for them or they would kill him, and so given no real choice he stayed.
“Good choice Hak, now I have a new assignment for you. This time we’re giving you a mission rather than a person to protect we want you to kill someone for us.” Hak’s boss said handing him a file. He opened it hesitantly and shuddered when he saw Yona’s picture. His boss picked up on this.
“Hak...do you know her?” his boss asked. Hak immediately shook his head in denial.
“Hmm...well this is your assignment. Find and kill her. I’m giving you precisely a week and a partner.” his boss muttered.
“Partner? Don’t you mean babysitter?” Hak grumbled knowing having a partner was to make sure he didn’t run.
“Call it what you will. Anyway go home for now, but know we’re watching you from now on.” His boss warned as Hak got up and left. Hak walked out of the building and went towards the park, what was he going to do now he wondered. He couldn’t go home, Yona would be there if she wasn’t already and whoever was watching him would see her and things would get messy. He sighed realizing his choices were rather limited. He could either kill Yona, get himself killed, or try to run away. None of those were ideal. He knew the answer wasn’t the first choice. He’d never hurt Yona on purpose. The second choice wasn’t really helping because Yona was in danger, she needed protection. That’s just left the third choice. Running away...returning to the streets. Hak sighed and wondered how he was supposed to contact Yona now, he really wasn’t sure if he should just go home, what if someone followed him?
He was so deep in thought he didn’t notice someone else was nearby until they sat down beside him. He immediately tensed up ready to fight but then relaxed seeing that it was Yona. Wait...Yona!
“What are you doing here?! It’s not safe!” He yelled at her quietly. She quirked up an eyebrow in question.
“What do you mean?” She asked. Hak looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone else around before he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him.
“Look...you were right...I shouldn't have taken that job…” Hak muttered as they walked at a fast pace, Hak continued to glance around making sure they weren’t followed.
“Hak...what happened?” Yona asked sensing something was wrong.
“You...we...we need to leave town...your uncle has the mafia looking for you and has hired men to kill you,” Hak said neglecting the fact he was one of the hired men. Yona pulled him to a stop a frown on her face.
“How do you know this?” She asked glaring at him.
“I...I’m really sorry. The company I worked for...they’re in league with the mafia...I found out, now they threatened me...I have to do their bidding or I’ll be killed...but they wanted me to kill you. And I will never do that...so we...you need to run.” Hak finished.
“What do you mean ‘you need to run’. Why isn’t it, we? You’re not actually staying here, are you?” Yona asked looking worried.
“Yona...they hired me to kill you! There’s no way you’re safe with me.” Hak stated.
“And I’ll be worse off on my own! You have to stay with me! We have to run together.” Yona replied.
“But...how...do you still trust me Yona?” Hak asked looking at the ground.
“Of course,” Yona replied.
“Then it’s best if we part ways here. I’m not sure if I can keep you safe if you stay with me. There will be people after me as well, I’m probably going to live on the streets again, I can’t expect you to do the same. You can leave town with the money we’ve earned and start over, I’ll make sure everyone thinks you’re dead, so no one will come after you.” Hak said trying to formulate a plan on how he was going to accomplish this. Yona shook her head.
“No Hak. We stick together. You didn’t leave me when we first met. I’m not going to leave you now. Whatever comes, we’ll face it together. I’ve lived on the streets with you before, I don’t mind doing it again.” Yona said pulling Hak towards her and pecking his cheek before hugging him. Hak was surprised by the sudden action but he hugged her back and as he did he realized just how much he wanted to protect her and never let her go. And so he made up his mind. He wouldn’t leave her now, they’d run away together, and he’d take on whoever came after them. He’d keep them safe, so long as Yona stayed by his side, he would keep her safe. And in his heart he realized that she would too, she would keep him safe by keeping him sane. She was his new reason for living, just what he’d been looking for.
“Ok...ok, I’ll keep you safe...just stay with me.” He mumbled into her hair.
“I’d never dream of leaving” she whispered back. And that was that. They left town right after that and remained in hiding for a long time. They fended off attacks and faced everything together, never once leaving each other’s side.