It was the year 1996.

Alpha Boss Jungwoo was in the midst of attacks being made by an unknown party against him and the Beta Family. 

The Alpha Family and the Beta Family were the only families that were allowed to run business in Seoul. Seoul was a big city, and there was enough territory and space for more than one family business. The two families had a friendly partnership, and they never had a problem with one another. In fact, the bosses were practically brothers, having been longtime friends. Once Alpha Boss Junghwa had passed away, Jungwoo, who was Junghwa's son and underboss*, filled the position. Beta Boss Choi Baekho acted as a second father figure to Jungwoo, and the unbreakable partnership between the two families continued ...

Until they became targets for a mass murder.

Several times a month, both Alpha and Beta family would become ambushed during clientele jobs, and the death toll per family would add up after each month went by. They sent out their own soldiers* to find out who was behind all these attacks as well as the purpose for these attacks, but everyone came back empty as time went on. It wasn't until that unfortunate day did Bae Jungwoo piece together what was the main cause of all this violence. 

"Light this place up, tell me where Mr. Choi is," Jungwoo strode his way towards a parked Escalade, his henchmen following right on his tail. The family was under attack at their very own warehouse, and the attackers were greatly outnumbered. It wouldn't be long until they were all dead.

"He's at his estate, Boss," one of the men barked, checking the GPS signal on his phone, "he's been there for two hours. The attackers must have infiltrated the estate by now."

"Get to the estate," Jungwoo ordered after he and his men rushed inside the vehicle, "we're in for a war, soldiers."

The estate looked to be in ruins as the vehicle pulled up in the driveway, screeching to a stop. While other vehicles containing more of Jungwoo's armed men pulled up behind them, Jungwoo and his men ran inside the estate, guns blazing. They blasted anyone that came at them and fired shots in their direction, and spent hours scouting the area to make sure that no attacker was left alive. The sight before them resembled that of a warzone -- bodies lying lifelessly across the estate, and blood spatters coated the long walls and marble tiles of the mansion. The scene was almost surreal to them, seeing their allies go out in the worst possible way: by the hands of an enemy. 

Jungwoo searched through every room with a small group of soldiers, making sure that no attacker was left unharmed. As he burst through Baekho's office, he became witness to Baekho's stiff, bloodied body that lied across his desk. Voice caught in his throat and mind going blank, he stared with disbelief at the incident in front of him.

"Boss," one of the men's voice shook Jungwoo back into reality, "we should finish scouting the rest of the estate."

Jungwoo just nodded, turning his back to the men quickly, not wanting them to see the anguish on his face.

After hours of scouting, they found nothing but dead bodies after dead bodies, and had lowered their weapons once Jungwoo had concluded that they roll out back to headquarters before the authorities show up. Some henchmen lingered around in the estate while they waited for Jungwoo, who had asked to be left alone in the Beta Boss's office for a few minutes. Hand rubbing his forehead as he furrowed his eyes at the ground, Jungwoo tried his hardest to wrap his head around the situation. Who would do this? And why?

While Jungwoo was lost in his thoughts of grief, anger, and sorrow, he heard a bump come from the other side of the bookshelf.

Jungwoo immediately drew his weapon, pointed it towards the bookshelf, and panted. 

He knew that there was a secret room behind the bookshelf, and was on high alert after hearing movement come from behind it.

"Who's there?" Jungwoo raised his voice, hearing nothing come from the bookshelf. His men, who were right outside the office, barged in and ran to his side.

"What's wrong, Boss?" One of them asked. He turned to Jungwoo, whose eyes never left the bookshelf.

"There's a secret room behind that bookshelf ... I think someone's behind it," Jungwoo mumbled, and the men nodded, drawing out their weapons, "open the bookshelf."

His men made no hesitation in their step as they stealthily made their way to the bookshelf, taking a hold of one side of it. At Jungwoo's given signal, the two pulled against the shelf, revealing a very tiny, but well lit room ... with seven small boys curled up under a table. 

The boys shook as they saw Jungwoo point his gun towards them, but as Jungwoo realized who they were, he lowered his gun to take a better look at the sight before him. He slowly put his weapon away and held his arms out. 

"Uncle?" What looked to be the oldest of the bunch spoke with fear resonating through his voice. 

"Sunggyu," Jungwoo breathed out, feeling the most relief he had felt the entire night, "it's alright, it's me. You're safe now." 

The week following the attack on the Beta Family estate was a hard one for the Alpha Family. 

A private vigil between the families was held for the lives lost at the hands of the unknown attackers.

Once the vigil had come to a close, the Alpha Family and whatever little was left of Beta Family were loading weapons into their business vehicles. They were preparing for the last battle that would end this war once and for all.

Jungwoo had come to the conclusion that the troublesome Gamma Family was behind all of the violence against the Alpha and Beta Family for the past few months.

The Gamma Family, which was the third mafia in Seoul to be founded, was sent to Incheon permanently by the Alpha and Beta Family after the Gamma Family started conducting most of their business there and was no longer needed in Seoul. The two families had figured out that Seoul was definitely too big for one family, but three families was too much for one territory. 

From then on, the Gamma Family resented the Alpha and Beta Family, but had no reason to cause any harm to them -- until their Boss, Lee Jungwon, had come up with a master plan to regain their original territory.

Jungwon had come up with a grand plan to wipe out the majority of the Beta Family. A family with almost little to no members wouldn't have enough people to run the other half of Seoul, and therefore would need numbers to replace the lost members -- which was where Gamma Family would step in. The Gamma Family longed for their original territory, which made it obvious that they were the culprits behind the mass murder on the Alpha and Beta Family. Luckily for Jungwoo, however, Jungwon had messed with the wrong families -- and Jungwoo wasn't going to let Jungwon off scott-free.

Prior to the private vigil, Jungwoo held a meeting regarding their plan that night. Jungwoo had developed an elaborate plan to exterminate the Gamma Family name for good. 

"This is for all of our fallen brothers. The Gamma Family must be wiped out, for the sake of vengeance for our family," Jungwoo's voice boomed, "no Gamma is to survive after tonight. Give no absolute mercy; these are the people who have threatened our family and our ally's family with the intent to steal our territory."

A thousand men each were sent to three of the Gamma Family's establishments: their warehouse, pier, and estate. Despite having been the target for months, the Alpha Family was still well off in all terms. Gamma Family, however, dwindled in numbers as the rest of the families' did as well, but still wasn't as large as Alpha ...

That was what caused the downfall of the Gamma Family line, and the end of one of the most infamous mafia wars in South Korea.

* soldiers: the bottom-level member of an organized crime Family

* underboss: the second in command to the Boss.