"The violin," I said, pointing to the picture hanging on the bedroom wall. "It's the same one that Daleun brought on the plane."

Han gave a nod, "My dad got it when I was younger, I played the life out of that thing."

I closed my eyes and remembered the music.

"Daleun plays violin?" I questioned awakening from my momentary glance.

"Yeah, when my dad was around, and mom hadn't died, he used to sit around this fire we had in the living room, just saw away at it like a mad man. Then he'd stop and run over to the piano, and then to the guitar. And if you listened, if you just stopped and listened, you could hear all the parts at once, and it was perfect." Han looked out the window at the city below and repeated the word to himself, "Perfect."

I gave a nod, I understood what he ment.

"It's funny, but there was this one time, Daleun heard this crash outside and he stopped playing. And we all looked up and stared out that window there. And for one moment, one split second," Han emphasised putting up a single finger, "all of us were thinking exactly the same thought. And it wasn't so much the thought that mattered but the fact that we heard it. We heard that note from a great beyond. And for some reason, I can't forget that one note. I know it's stupid."

I looked out the window, the sky was getting dark and the lights were glowing brighter.

"When memories aren't often made, it's hard to forget the little things in life that make one happy."

Han looked at me funny and for a moment I thought it was stupid to say something like that to a guy, stupid to think that they wouldn't laugh at such an absurd statement.

"You know, I think you hear the music too." Han stated resolutely, "you just hear it in people, the way they speak, the way you think. But it's there, just as strong as it is in Daleun. You hear it too, you listen."

"I listen." I said slowly with a nod. It was true, to me there was always music, even when there wasn't. Life itself was music, and I didn't need to compose it, I could feel it.

"What a bunch of ninnies." a voice scoffed from the doorway. I swiveled on my heels and we both stared at the darkness figure.

Hans face fell white, "Dad?"

Daleun stepped out of the dark, and for a moment I thought I saw pain on his face, hurt and offense.

"No," He stuttered, "It's, me."

Han gave a huge sigh and ran up to him pulling him into a hug.

"Don't, miss priss over there punched me hard."

Han let out a laugh, "She did?!I like her better every second."

I smiled a bit of a blush, I gave a nod to Daleun, "Are we good?"

"We're all good. I had a connection, he got us out." Daleun nodded. "Samchon took me home."

Han nodded, "Is he mad? About the violin?"

"All is forgiven, we needn't worry about it."

I tapped my foot impatiently, "Tell me, please." I said sitting down on the blanket in the middle of the room. "About the violin, where you got it."

Daleun look to Han and then to me, "If we tell you, you can never go speaking of it, you musn't ever share it,"

I nodded.

"The most important thing," Daleun sighed, "Is that you listen. No matter how shocked, how angry you become, no matter what life may throw at you, listen."

I nodded, and so the story began.

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Looking back, I marveled at his perseverance, how anyone so young could have taken on so much responsibility. It seemed impossible for anyone to survive what he did. But they did together, and become the stronger for it.

I can't possibly write everything that was said in the course of those three hours. The horrors that were spoken, the truths that if the police had gotten their hands on would have landed the both of them in jail for life.

He told me how him and his dad had started, rocks in phone packages, shrink wrapped under public hand dryers.

No one questions shrink wrap.

The response you get when you say your trying to place 16 and 11 year old siblings, with a dad in jail and a mom gone from the very beginning. No one wants a kid like that. And with an uncle, out 24/7 on the police force, to ashamed to face them, no one else was left. Just each other, just the echoes of music that used to be there.

I used to think that life went by fast straight and simple. We are a species so ordered by our perception, so forced to see things front to back. But even at the end, there seems to be a song, a single note, that takes you back to the beginning.

I refuse to die with regrets. I will live life to the fullest, never asking myself 'What if.' I will take on every adventure that presents itself to me. Because you never know how far you can go until you run.

It seemed Daleun had spent his whole life running and getting nowhere. I think though, that he was just running in the wrong direction: Away. 

It seemed like the danger sought him out, that the music followed him everywhere, drawing people to him like magnets. And as a con man, attention is the last thing you ever want.

for a musician, it's all you could ever want.