Chapter 1 - Street rat

Street rat.

Lily Hyun was very familiar with that word.

It was what they called her the most. By 'they', she, of course, meant the un-street ones.

The ones she envied.

When they were eating in restaurants, she forced herself to swallow the organic waste she found in the streets.

Every night was one of pain and nightmares, in which she had to calm her rumbling and poisoned stomach down.

Most of all, they had their family.

Family.

F, A, M, I, L, Y.

The word was unfamiliar, yet she held it close to her heart.

She always remembers the last time she was with her 'family'.

A room underground, crowded by trash.

Home to the cockroaches and rats, with the only human occupying the space being her and her once mother.

The only tie to her mother was her white hair, and the only remaining traces of her father, whom she'd never seen before in her life, were the 

Shaking her head, she forced herself to cloud her memories with other thoughts.

*rumble*

Her stomach growled, causing her to frown. It meant that she had to go to the street markets again, to where the non-streets were.

She hated the looks they gave her, of disgust and pity. The looks of disgust made her want to burrow a hole and hide in it, and the looks of pity only made her more miserable than before.

She would have appreciated them a lot more if they gave her more than just looks of pity, but they would all turn their eyes from her and shift on their lives.

Putting on her rugged and torn jacket, she put the hood on and scurried to the market.

The market was a bustling place of sellers yelling for one to buy their products and the non-streets hanging out.

Noticing that her favorite spot was far away from many, she cracked a faint smile. It meant that not many would see her picking up the wasted food.

"Sweet..."

She exclaimed as she saw all the wasted food untouched and in all its glory. Today was her lucky day, as there weren't many times where she encountered such feasts before her eyes.

Quickly picking up the food waste, she ran away as far as she could from the place, to where she felt most comfortable. The narrow street up the hill, where it was safe.

The narrow streets offered her the feelings of safety and hiding. Not many could see a homeless girl eating her food waste with dirt on it if she was on a narrow street, far from anyone's eyes.

*munch*

As Lily indulged in the salty taste of the crab legs, she made sure to swallow every part possible. She couldn't waste a single bit of anything, since she didn't know when she could experience such a feast again. She wanted to let her stomach swell up as much as possible from the food.

Thankfully, it seemed that her body had now been used to the wasted foods, as there were no signs of herself gagging or throwing up.

"The hell's this?"

Lily turned around only to see what she had feared the most would happen.

An encounter with another homeless person. A tall adult one at that.

The man was wearing a tattered hat with dirtied and stretched-out clothes, with yellow teeth and marks of infection across his skin.

Covering her face and body with her large jacket as much as she could, Lily managed to hide her appearance from the man.

The streets weren't too kind to young ones, especially to girls like her.

"This is my spot! Get the hell out of here!"

".....!"

'I can't lose this spot as well...!'

Lily knew that this new spot she found was one of the best there was in Gangdong. She couldn't give up this area as well, she's been pushed out of her original place by many other homeless people up to now as well.

This was the last spot she could find. If she got shooed out of here as well, she'd have no choice but to reveal her embarrassing, street-rat self to the non-streets.

She'd rather choose hell than that.

Getting up, Lily packed her things. Her jacket and the tattered red shirt.

*Crack*

Pretending to leave, she passed by the homeless man, grabbed a wasted glass bottle of Soju on the ground, and smashed the man on the head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

'It's ok... It's ok...! I've done this before...'

*Crack*

*Crack*

*Crack*

Not letting the man recover, Lily kept smashing the bottle into his head until it broke, being cracked into pieces which even hurt her by flying her way.

"huff.... huff... ugh....!"

Groaning out of pain, Lily approached the man to carry him away. Perhaps throw him in the Han River, or push him down the hill...

"You f*cking a$$hole!!!"

Unfortunately for her, the man was still conscious and was not knocked out.

'Was it because of the hat?!'

"Come here!!"

Sprinting away, Lily leaped on top of the fences and ran away from the man. She didn't care if her already-skinny legs were trembling, nor if her lungs were about to give up. The yellings of the man behind her were all she needed to know that she mustn't stop running.

Not looking back, she managed to come across a warehouse to hide in.

Hiding behind a box in the corner of the warehouse, she silently prayed to whatever being could save her in the situation.

'God... if you exist... please... please... I don't want to die here...!'

*Step*

*Step*

She could hear the footsteps of the man coming closer. Trying to calm herself down, Lily covered her mouth and forced herself to breathe smaller. She wanted to close her eyes and believe that it was all a dream.

*Crash!*

A sudden crashing sound caused her to jolt, and almost to let out a scream. Tightening the grip she had on her mouth, she closed her eyes shut and tried her hardest to crouch down smaller, ignoring the pain in her back and knees.

"AAAAH!! You-"

*Crash*

"Meow!"

*Crash*

She could hear the homeless man's voice, but it was... not what she was expecting. He seemed to be fighting someone... Fighting something.

After some time, the man's screaming stopped along with the crashing sounds.

Peeking out just a bit, Lily managed to see the results of whatever she had been hearing. The Homeless man was lying down on the ground, knocked down with blood coming out of his nose and mouth.

Next to him, was a boy searching through his clothes, rummaging and fumbling through the man's belongings, with a small cat meowing on his side.

".....!"

The boy suddenly noticed her presence and turned his head to her.

That moment, to her...

It was like...

Seeing an Angel from Heaven.

"...."

"...."

That was...

The first time...

"What are you looking at? You little b*tch."

".....?"

....She met Eli Jang.