"Keep up," Daleun said urgently grabbing my hand and dragging me forward. I was too tired to run, to sick of being chased.

I turned and spoted police cars on our left and a guard on our right, there was another car coming up behind us.

"Daleun they're bound to recognize us! We can't exactly hide our faces against a brick wall!"

Daleun nodded, stressfully running his fingers through sweat drenched hair, "No, no I know. I know."

"Daleun!" I said sternly, "Right now would be a good time for a plan, you know, one that keep us away from the cops."

Daleun's eyes lit up and the corner of his mouth twitched just a little.

"Do you trust me?" He said dead seriously.

"Yeah," I laughed. "Enough to let you take me to another country."

"Alright, then do exactly as I say."

I nodded instantly and followed him over to an alley.

"What are you doing?" I laughed.

Suddenly tears began to well up in his eyes.

Daleun was crying?

The to my horror he began to scream at the top of his lungs.

"Help!"  He yelled in Korean, his voice so loud it made me cover my ears and stumble backwards.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I yelled back as the cop cars turned and headed in our direction.

"Punch me in in the gut!" Daleun demanded, "If you wanna get out of here just do it!"

I winced at the thought, I wasn't sure I could punch another person. Just the idea of making them hurt made me feel sick.

"I can't!" I told him fiercely, "I physically can't!"

Daleun took a deep breath, "Then go back where you came from you bottom of the pit orphan. No one ever wanted you anyways."

I felt my fist clench and anger boil in my chest. "Don't." I whispered angrily, "Just don't."

"Good Luck finding anyone who could love someone like you."

Suddenly the very thing I knew no one dared to do, was the only action that could come into my mind.

Someone had to take this guy down a notch.

"Please stop," I stated firmly.

"Please," Daleun laughed harshly, "We all know that your mom was probably some stupid ape who didn't want you in the first place. And what kind of father wants to stick around with a kid who can't say two words in front of ten people? Huh?"

He was right.

And that was what broke me.

And for a moment all I could think about was proving him wrong, proving to him that I had more guts without parents than he did with half absent ones.

And so, in a moment of blazing anger I took my fist back and punched him in the ribs, hard up against the wall.

He went stumbling backwards, doubling over in pain.He had threw his head back against the brick in the impact and now his lip was bleeding also.

"Nice arm American." He stated, "Now get lost, jump that fence, follow Hyung, he'll take you to my old place. You got it?!"

I stood in an awestruck horror of the pain I had caused him. But that was soon replaced with the processing of what Daleun had just said.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, "You knew the cops would find us?!"

Daleun wiped his lip and gave a brisk nod, "They're not stupid they can track iPods with or without navigation services.

"And you let me have it still!?" I scoffed, "You let me be an idiot and risk everything we are trying to escape here."

"I needed you to have the music," Daleun said sternly, handing me small card with Korean on it. "I needed you to understand the music when the time was right, because I can see that you feel it, that punch showed you feel just as much anger and pain as the rest of us. But I needed you to listen, and now I need you to go."

I turned and heard the patter of running footprints down the street.

"Daleun," I said sympathetically trying to hand the small card back, but he pushed it into my hand and sank onto the corner of the street, clutching his side.

"GO!" He shouted pointing to the metal fence.

I nodded and took off running, too scared to look back.

Too scared to face Daleun and the pain I'd caused him ever again.