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RI SUNG YANG.</DIV>
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twenty four; vagrant; won jong jin (the j); zion; twenty five;<P></DIV>[/DOHTML]

[DOHTML]<CENTER><DIV STYLE="WIDTH: 400PX; TEXT-ALIGN:; FONT-SIZE: 3.3EM; LINE-HEIGHT: .8EM; FONT-FAMILY: TREBUCHET MS; LETTER-SPACING: -3PX; COLOR: #9CA496;">THE NIGHT IS DEAFENING<P></DIV>[/DOHTML][DOHTML]<CENTER><DIV STYLE="WIDTH: 300PX; TEXT-ALIGN:JUSTIFY">He slams his fists into the older man's chest but it's a measured strike, no bruises will be left behind and no pain will be felt. He's not sure if he's angry or if he's upset because he's already lost. No matter what he says the other man won't change his mind and the boy really hates it. So long he'd thought he was a man in this person's eyes but he's always been a child to him, just like he has been to everyone else. <br><br>
Still he doesn't shy away when lips brush his and finger tips trace the faint scars on his skin. Ones that could have been worse if it weren't for the Undertaker taking him away from bad people. He doesn't think of things as much as he used to. The night mares that would have him screaming, those images of someone gripping his body too tight and a scissor grazing his skin, pressing to his neck at times have almost completely faded. He doesn't know what he'll do when this man's arms aren't there anymore to keep them away.<br><br>
In the morning he kisses the tiny heads of all the little children lying around the floor. Pulling blankets up closer as the chill of the night seeps through the cracks of their home, he'd been meaning to patch the roof and that wall where Monkey drove his car in after he drank too much soju. He had hoped it would be him coming with him but instead he follows the sound of Undertaker's wheel chair to the entry way and the shadow of Rat.<br><br>
Biting on his plump bottom lip to hide the sneer that wants to come out. Of all people it had to be the bastard that smelled like shit and always had secrets to tell with his hands. Just remembering the first time Rat tried to touch him makes him want to reach for the knife in his boot but he holds himself back. He's sixteen now and bigger than Rat will ever be, he's already wilting at forty from all the booze and pot.<br><br>
He waits for the conversation to end then moves between the two men to lean over Undertaker's wheel chair, kissing him sweetly as if he's just going scouting for babies like he used to do each night. Bringing back the unwanted to join their little street tribe. It's not so little anymore. Undertaker's fingers slide into the river of his black hair, pulling him onto his lap. He doesn't realize his pony tail is gone till he gets up and the hair barely brushes the back of his neck.<br><br>
He nods to him and lightly touches the bead on a thin piece of cord he wears around his neck. For the last time he's called Ghost as he catches up with Rat and slides into the passenger seat of the car he and Monkey restored together. Looking at the back seat where Pearl is all curled up with her teddy bear and barely any pink left on it back pack. This is all for her, the little girl Undertaker calls his daughter.<br><br>
That's the only reason he doesn't cry when they pass the border and Rat's papers are accepted along with those of his teenage son and young daughter. He slides down in the seat, not interested in the supposed riches and beauty Seoul has to offers. He's only there for the money so after they settle in their two bedroom apartment he showers and puts on the outfit that always had Undertaker all over him. Rat licks his lips and he brandishes his knife, coming down onto the older man with a power that makes him tremble.<br><br>
Only after he's made it clear what the stray dog they found will be fed if he touches Pearl while he's gone does the boy leave the apartment. The place that sits right above a funeral home where Rat will keep doing the job Undertaker has taught him. The people of Seoul are just as loose with their money, maybe even more, than the people outside of it. He makes enough to stock their fridge and cabinets on the first night and only needs three showers and one tube of ointment to feel human again after.<Br><br>
Rat keeps drinking but in the mornings can at least speak with clients while he handles the rest. He puts Pearl in the hospital on the third week and stabs Rat in the hand on the fifth. It leaves him working with the bodies but they start to get compliments from the customers after that. He comes to the city wall every so often to pass Monkey a bit of money at the border and whisper to him the names of the children he's found.<br><br>
Their only car is totaled when Rat decides he can drive with his eyes closed and his blood turning into liquor. So he's left to work without any sleep for nearly a week to make enough to get a second hand car because someone needs to drive Pearl to and from the doctor's office and home. It doesn't surprise him when Rat lives as more children come into the house, there's too much temptation and Rat knows his threats are never empty.<Br><br>
He feels cold the first time someone comes from the outside and calls him by the name that was for him and Undertaker only. What he's been doing eats away at him but it's not just Pearl around that needs him anymore, it's all the forgotten ones he's collected throughout Seoul and stuffed into the little house he got when a high class resident died and wanted him to do all the work. <br><br>
He can't stop what he's doing because if he does there will be no one to feed them. No one to care for them. He puts a roof over their heads, clothes on their bodies and food in their bellies. All he has to do for it is take off his own clothes and paint the bodies of the dead. Now he's starting to understand why Undertaker jumped in front of a car. So he sometimes walks through traffic on the dividers and gives himself a rare smile, whispering about Yaris the Street King and how stupid people are not to realize Yang Ri Sung the mortician is the same person as him. It'll all work out so long as no one realizes his permit is fake and Ri Sung doesn't really exist.<P><P>

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