"Three days to get to Houston, 20 hours of driving, hotels, food," Hak mumbled to himself as they drove down the mostly desolate roads. I-69 proved mostly cracked and old, showing its age. Corn fields lined the roads as cars dove by going much faster than Hak. He flipped between radio stations finding mostly fruitless stations, finally landing on a classic rock station playing "Aja" by Steely Dan that sounded more like waiting room music than the music played on a rock station.

The ride felt surreal to him as Yona, while awake, stared out the window quiet and unmoving. The cornfields, poor pavement, and obscure rock, along with the movement of the old truck felt more like they were moving through space and time rather than a cross country road trip. Small towns passed by occasionally as the sun followed them, reminding Hak of the time that so quickly followed them.

"Yona, were out of Michigan." Hak looked over at her. She said nothing, possibly thinking, or maybe just focusing on something else, corn fields did have a sort of hypnotic quality to them that somehow made you feel somber. Like your "just passin' through".

After waiting for a response he simply sighed and looked back out onto the road as the flat terrain seemed to reach out and greet them.

Finally they happened upon the much bigger town of Indianapolis, Hak decided he had, had enough of driving and needed food.

"Yona do you have a preference?" He asked as he looked over at her. She didn't say much, finally she shrugged a little as Hak caught a glance of a KFC near the entrance of the city. "Well, I guess were having KFC." Hak turned towards the building as he finally parked and walked around to let Yona out. She stepped out and then followed Hak as they wandered into the restaurant.

"It's a pity they don't have an A&W attached isn't it" Hak joked as he almost saw a smile curl up a little on Yona's lips. He took it as an internal victory as they stepped up and ordered a 10 dollar chicken bucket. While Hak wasn't particularly a man of many words, he decided to fill their lunch with talk starting in the much better chicken restaurants in Michigan that they got up north (Freeway Fritz) all the way down to what he would be singing in Houston.

"Hey Yona, you know, you could totally join me on stage and sing. You have a great voice and we could do a duet."

She finally looked up at him from her food, "Hak, I can't sing, you know that."

All the fusteration of the past night suddenly bubbled up inside of him, "Yona! I'm here because you told me to sing. I think that people would love you! You sing so well yet never in front of an audience! Even your father wanted you to sing!"

"That's because I'm no good." She started to cry. Big, fat tears pooled at the corners of her eyes as she made ugly half hiccupping noises. She didn't even care at that point that they were in the middle of a KFC during the lunch rush, she didn't care that Hak meant good things from his words, she just wanted to go home and pretend the whole thing was a dream. Her father wasn't dead. Soo-won loved her. She just had to have a happy life with her friends and not worry. But somehow that was all gone.

Hak hastily tried to pull her into a hug as she pulled away.

People looked at the two as Hak tried to cover Yona. He wanted to keep her away from the world. Panicked he looked around and he finally picked her up from her crouched position and hastily exited the restaurant.

He juggled keys and Yona as he fumbled trying to get the key in the lock. Finally he managed to twist it just enough to get the lock to give. He slowly, carefully put Yona in the seat as he walked around the side and climbed in, slamming the door behind him. He promptly turned toward Yona.

"What the hell Yona?!" He yelled his anger and frustration begging to show itself. "Why?!" After the words jumped out of his mouth he instantly regretted it. Yona looked up at him and instead of crying more she looked at him intensely. Her violet eyes making contact with his. In that instant something snapped inside of her. Why was she like this, this was not her, and how dare he yell at her when he had never once yelled at her in the past, why now of all times?!

"Who are you to talk to me like that? I should be allowed to be sad you know?!"

"I know that!" Hak yelled. He pulled his hand through his hair as he looked at her.

"Then why?" She asked, her voice pleading with him.

"I makes me mad when you sell yourself short. You're more talented than you realize."

"No I'm not, why do you think Father never wanted me to sing on stage and had you do it instead?"

"Because I'm not you Yona, he wanted to protect you from all those people who come into his restaurant. He loved you so he kept you from preforming on stage."

"I honestly don't see the point? It's just singing."

"Its so much more than that, men are dirty and they will do and say terrible things to you, they have no regard for who you are as a person or all the talent you have, they just see you as a pretty face. He wanted to protect you from those terrible people."

"I still don't see it. I just think it was him saying you're a better singer, and he was right, you are a better singer than I am!"

"Don't even compare us Yona," Hak gritted his teeth a little, holding back his real thoughts, "you are far better than you realize, and that's the end of that."

Yona folded her arms and sunk into the seat as she grew quiet. She was mad but mostly at Hak, this small difference somehow made her feel a little bit courageous. She thought for a little bit as Hak finally calmed down enough to go back to eating the chicken he had carefully carried out with Yona. After some time, Yona finally broke the silence.

"Hey, if I'm such a great singer, how about we do a little wager, we sit on different sides of the street across from each other and see who earns more."

Hak looked over at her a little surprised and slightly suspicious. "Princess, there is no way that's fair, I can play my Bass but you don't know how to play any instruments and it would be just you singing, that's not a proper competition."

Yona paused, while he could be rude, his argument was sound.

"But we need to settle this once and for all, there's no way I'm letting you say I can sing when you've never heard me sing in a public area."

"Okay then, how about this. We each have 1 hour, you sing and I play for 1 hour, and I'll sing and play for one hour and whoever earns more wins? Sound fair?"

Yona was hesitant but reluctantly agreed. Hak knew however this was indeed unfair but if nothing else, his point would be made to Yona, she could sing, and she was about to prove it.