Song Min sat against the wall, his face was swollen and parts of ribs sore.
His voice cracked. "Why me? Why the hell is it me?"
A tear slid down his cheek. He wiped it, but more followed.
The boy beside him whispered, "You're crying?"
Song Min's voice rose. "What else can I do? Look at me! Chained like an animal. Beaten. Humiliated. I had everything planned. Everything!"
A woman's soft voice cut in. "Maybe he finally understands despair."
Another muttered, "Finally? Took him long enough."
Song Min covered his face with his shackled hands. "I worked three jobs! I buried my own mother! I tried to fight the world and I still lost anyway!"
One man coughed. "We all lost something. Cry quieter."
"No! You don't understand! None of you understand!"
He cried harder. His sobs echoed against the stone.
Some captives bowed their heads. Tears welled in their eyes.
A young woman whispered, "He misses his mother. Like me."
An older man sniffled. "Damn it. Now I'm crying too."
But the others groaned.
"Stop making noise," one snapped. "We get it. You're sad. We're all sad."
"Pathetic," another muttered. "its not like crying would release you from your chains."
"Shut him up," someone else complained.
Song Min ignored them as he wept louder. "I lost everything! And then I scammed my way up! I lied, I cheated, I'm a horrible person you know, At one point I thought I had won in life! But turn's out I was wrong! I'm nothing! Nothing!"
His shoulders shook violently.
The boy sighed. "This idiot."
Hours dragged on but his tears didn't stop.
Some cried with him, others cursed him and Some simply turned away.
When dawn finally crept in, Song Min collapsed into shallow sleep, his cheeks still wet.
---
A dream took him.
He stood in golden robes, a crown on his head.
His servants bowed in unison to him.
As he was sitting on a majestic throne of jade.
Dozens of beauties surrounded him; tall, short, pale, dark, exotic. They massaged his shoulders, pressed fruit to his lips and fanned him with peacock feathers.
"Emperor Song Min," they sang in unison.
He leaned back, grinning wide. "Yes… yes, this is how it should be."
He laughed richly as grapes brushed his tongue. "Finally, this world belongs to me...and this is my throne. Life doesn't get better than this."
---
Meanwhile outside the dream, his lips curled upward, as he showed a satisfied expression.
A trader passing by paused. "The fuck is this one smiling about?"
Another shrugged.
The first trader filled a bucket and splashed it over Song Min's face.
He jolted awake, coughing and sputtering. "Wha—what the hell?!"
"Up. Time to work."
Song Min blinked. The cell was empty. The other slaves were gone and only he remained.
"What happened? Where's everyone else?"
"Out. Now move."
The trader yanked his chain and dragged him out.
The sun stabbed his eyes as he shielded his face.
Then he froze instantly.
Stretching before him was a massive field. Corn and wheat stalks towered like walls.
And at every corner stood enormous grasshoppers, complete with green, armored, legs coiled like springs and antennae twitching.
Song Min's jaw dropped. "Hell no. Hell nah. Fuck no!"
He spun and sprinted back toward the cell.
The trader rolled his eyes. "Here we go."
Song Min clawed at the doorway. "I'm not going out there! You see them?! They're monsters! Mutants! Overgrown bugs!"
The trader grabbed his ankle and yanked him down.
Song Min kicked, scrambled, screamed. "No! No! No! I don't want to die! I don't want to die at the hands of overgrown roaches!"
The grasshoppers turned their heads.
One tilted its antennae. "Did he just call us roaches?"
The other clicked its mandibles. "That's mad disrespectful."
Song Min's eyes bulged. "They talk?! Oh fuck me, they talk!"
He tried to crawl back inside as his nails scratched the dirt.
The trader sighed, rolled his eyes, and dragged him across the ground.
"Noooooo!" Song Min screamed, kicking and thrashing. "Send me back! Take me home! I don't want to be bug food! Please!"
The grasshoppers hopped closer, casting a shadow over him.
The trader muttered, "Should've stayed quiet."
Song Min wailed loudly. "Nooooooooooooooooo!"