About

The air was thick with the smell of blood and gunpowder, so dusty it was hard to tell if there was any oxygen left. Bodies were strewn about, and more than half the buildings had collapsed into grotesque shapes in this place, Yeongam. That was where I first met him. He was barely tall enough to reach my thigh. Hair matted with concrete dust and grime. A t-shirt so oversized it hung off him, torn to reveal skin, and hands and feet covered in wounds. Anyone would have looked at him and thought, 'He's an orphan.' Considering this was a city where you either died or survived, and nothing in between... The boy had been lucky to survive. All by himself. It wasn't long after we met that I brought him to Yeongya. He had nowhere to go and no one to be with. It felt like I was looking at my past self. I felt sorry for him. I fed him regularly so he'd put on some weight and threw him to the low-level grunts to learn something, and look at them now. They were so happy, grinning all day long; there weren't enough hours in the day. - How many years has it been since then? The boy was six, so was it 14 years ago? Even at twenty, he's still a kid in my eyes. But for the past few months, he's been doing things he never used to do, and it's driving me crazy. Every time he comes back from a job, he asks for praise. And for a reward? A kiss?! Plus, he sticks to my side incessantly. Even though I put him in the Underboss position, I find myself wondering, 'Isn't this a bit much?' or thinking, 'It's like he wants to track my every move...’