The Days After

Running

Running.

That's all he could do.
What else could he do?
He was being framed for murder. The murder of his own sister.

Tae Joon Park ran for as long as he could, in and out of alleyways and small markets. He knew his face would be everywhere in just mere minutes. He needed to find his mom and make sure that she was safe- no, no, he couldn't do that. He stopped in a dark corner to regain his breath and checked his remote control cube.

The Syndicate was a whole lot smarter than that. First they'd search his apartment, and Mila's if they haven't already. Then they would find his last familial link, his foster mother, Mystik. He hoped she wouldn't be targeted. He picked back up his pace, propping up his collar more as he ran. He had to get away from the main city, or at least out of their eyes.

Where could he go? Where could he go when he had nothing left?

He decided that he would find that out later. All he wanted to do right now was to survive, by any means possible. He'll worry about everything else later.

And what a horrible decision that was.

A couple of days later, it was almost like he was a different person, or he was. He cut off most of his hair, and in turn, added multiple cybernetics to his face and neck. He had been able to get a job at a coding center, and worked in the same department from the same people he was running away from- the Syndicate. They controlled the Apex Games, and practically his life now. It was risky, he knew this, but he had to do it. He had to be the spy of his own army.

He went into the job with a fabricated background of a man named Hyeon Kim. He didn't like the name, but he had to use it. He didn't want to be on the streets anymore; he'd be out in the open, ripe for the picking of wicked, horrible people. He grew up as an orphan on the streets, with Mila...

Oh, Mila...

After his adrenaline rush of running from gun fire died down, he fell down to the ground in an old, abandoned apartment. He cried, and cried. He didnt know what to do. His forever family had been shattered, and he didn't even know if his mom would be the next one.

He couldn't properly mourn the loss of his sister for God's sake, and yet he had to put on this facade of a whole new person to survive.

He decided to work for the Syndicate. The Syndicate.

He wasn't going to let them get away with this.