A pluck of your guitar string

Lonely, but never alone

As Kim stood on his balcony looking at the view, he tried to sort through the thoughts whirling around his mind. These thoughts ranged from lyric ideas and chord progressions to his brothers and the family business. From up here, the world looked so much more peaceful than what he knew was going on behind closed doors and dark alleys. He wished he lived a simpler life where he didn't know about the violence that went on in the city, but for that, he would have had to have been born into a different family.

Music was his escape. When he moved out of his family home and pursued his love for music, he was running away from what he had been raised to become. Inventing a new persona and giving himself a new name gave him a way to separate himself from that side of himself. It worked, most of the time, until a reminder of the life he tried to leave behind came knocking at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Mr Kim."

Kim recognised the voice as Big, one of his brother's bodyguards. Reluctantly, he let the man in. He kept his back to him but he knew when Big bowed in greeting and hovered in the doorway to the balcony.

"Aren't you in the wrong place?"

One of his brother's bodyguards had no place visiting him, so there must be another reason for Big to be there.

"I was injured, so your father reassigned me to you."

"Who replaced you?"

"A new guy."

"A new guy?"

"I thought it was odd as well. Usually, we do a thorough background check but for this guy, we don't know anything about him. But your father insisted on hiring him as Mr Kinn's bodyguard."

Although his face remained neutral, inside Kim was curious. The whole thing sounded off to him and he wondered what his father's agenda was this time. One of the reasons he left home was because he didn't feel safe being so close to his father, but that didn't mean he had abandoned his brothers.

"If you don't need anything, Mr Kim, I will leave."

"What's his name?"

"Porsche."

Big bowed again before leaving the apartment and Kim to his thoughts again. Now his mind was focused on who this Porsche was and what possible reason his father could have for wanting to hire him, specifically to be Kinn's bodyguard. His brother needed to be protected, if for no other reason than he was the one thing standing between Kim having to take over the family business.

Putting those thoughts away for another day, Kim walked over to where his guitar was and picked it up. He was playing at his university soon. It was a small gig, just to encourage high schoolers to enrol on the music program at their university, but he took every performance he did with the same level of seriousness. After all, who knew who he could inspire this time.