Everyone has secrets. From the moment we gain an understanding of private thought, we learn to keep some things to ourselves for gains, or to prevent losses. In the upper-class society where peoples’ lives are sometimes either held together or destroyed with something as simple as a secret, the value of truth holds an even greater significance.

*

Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy businessman. He had everything anyone ever wanted—money, family, health, and contentment. No one could rival him in the whole of Asia, which was where he chose to start and spread his business. He was satisfied with his dominating power over all enterprises on this continent, and so when he passed away after equally dividing his riches among his three children, there was a peaceful smile on his face, believing that his descendants would also live comfortable lives just like he had.

But as all stories go, greed is what results from a large fortune, and what separates previously loving families apart. Of his three children, the eldest son was the first to act. He had begun to plot against his younger sisters with the goal of taking over their businesses, yet his two best friends whom he had placed total trust into betrayed him, for they had fallen in love with the people they were meant to make victims. If the four of them had worked together, they might have been able to make the eldest son’s plans backfire and take all the wealth he valued so much away from him. Yet the saddening truth was, the sisters had also been eyeing the other’s properties and had tried to use this chance to steal some away from the other. After everything came to an end, the family broke into three, separating their late father’s inheritance into three different names, since the sisters had changed their last names into that of the one they had married—the respective two best friends.

And so, as a name that used to dominate all major business over Asia, Lee Enterprises now only holds a third of its past power. The other two-thirds are owned by the second oldest sister’s Kim Corporations, and the youngest sister’s Park Organisations. Each franchise tries its best to stay away from the other two, because although they used to be a family, no one knows what their siblings might do for money and power.

As the generations passed, blood relations between the three groups thinned out, while business relations grew stronger. Even though the descendants were taught to stay on guard against the other two companies, no one could deny that they all gained more profits when they worked together. So the situation of this current generation was that the businesses did have small partnerships here and there, while they still remembered the warning that was passed down from generation to generation—

Trust no-one; not even your family.

*

City X.

Lee Enterprises central office.

9pm.

“Eunhyuk, are you coming with us? It’s Saturday night, come on, live a little.” A tall, dark-haired man in a crisp office suit called over to the man still working at the table.

From this angle, all that was visible was the back of soft chocolate locks moving idly left and right while he concentrated reading on a document in front of him, his fingers typing fluidly on a keyboard at the same time. His ears were pale, just like the small expanse of skin above his stiff collar, and his broad shoulders seemed to suggest warmth and protection to anyone who needed it. Just a back view was enough for ‘love at first sight’ to happen, which said something about the number of confessions Eunhyuk had to turn down every single day.

“No, you guys go without me. I’ve got to finish this tonight.” Even his voice was attractive, running smooth and low, a magnetic steadiness over the chaos of the workplace. It also made the rejections more bearable for some.

Disappointed with the response, the man turned to another, “What about you, Jinwoo? Don’t be as boring as Eunhyuk, come with us and I’ll promise you’ll not end up alone when you wake up tomorrow.” As if to support his statement, the handsome male added a wink at the end.

“Thanks but no thanks, Sekyu. I don't want to be murdered before I’ve even turned twenty-four. You know my girlfriend—if I even so much as chatted with another girl for longer than ten minutes—”

“Ok, ok. I don’t need to hear about your over-controlling girlfriend for the millionth time this week. Fine, you guys stay here and rot in work while I go out and have fun. But don’t blame me when you get jealous of my snapchats tonight.” He slung his jacket over one shoulder and left the room.

One by one, all the other workers left too, and soon there were only the two of them inside.

“Don’t you trust him?” Jinwoo suddenly spoke up. His eyes scanned the room to double check that they were indeed alone.

“Who?” Eunhyuk asked absent-mindedly.

“You know who I’m talking about. Dong—”

“Minsu, are you staying late tonight as well?” Eunhyuk cut in. Slowly, a woman rose from a far corner with an embarrassed, fake smile on her face.

“Ah, n-no. I was just about to go now, actually. Y-you guys have a good night.” Her smile got impossibly more fake, then she fled out of the office.

“Sangyeob, you’re still too young.” Eunhyuk sighed, finally stopping his fingers and turning to the younger male.

His eyes were wide, confused and angry with himself. “I checked there! I swear, there was no one there a second ago, how did she…”

“Blind spot. You’ll learn to recognize those in the future with more experience.” He picked up his phone and moved to sit closer. “Anyways, back to Dongha—you’re right. I don’t trust him at all.”

“Why?” His anger had dissipated, and now there only left confusion towards the older man’s actions. “Dongha is our brother. He wouldn’t harm us, right?”

Eunhyuk sighed, reaching up to ruffle his adored younger brother’s hair. “Remember what our ancestors told us?” he reminded.

“Trust no-one; not even your family.” They recited at the same time.

Despite the sadness in his brother's eyes, Hyukjae did nothing to appease him. He needed to learn some things the hard way, so he was just preparing him for what was to come. “You’re the only family I can trust now, Sangyeob. Jaehan may be our father, but I’m not sure about where he stands yet. Don’t worry though. We’ll always have each other.”

Jinwoo nodded, trying his best to smile.

“We’ll always have each other.”

*

Across the sea, City Y.

Kim Corporations Headquarters.

9am.

“Heechul, do you think he’ll get caught?” A short male with platinum orange hair whispered to the person beside him, staring anxiously at the clock on the wall. His fingers kept rotating his phone over and over in one hand as if it could somehow make the wait less nerve-wracking.

“Don’t underestimate Dongha. Although he’s known for being Sekyu, the oldest Lee heir who knows nothing but partying and drinking, you and I both know he’s deeper than that. He will be the most important pawn for us to do what our ancestors were unable to do. If you trust me, then you’ll have to trust him.” Contrasting the man next to him, the world famous Kim Heechul with his shoulder-length locks and large double-lidded eyes sat relaxed into his own chair. Even though he too kept close watch of the time.

“Is he still not here yet?” Someone called from another table. His dark hair matched his eyes, and on his index finger there was currently a small turtle being propped up by its under shell, four tiny legs kicking into mid-air as it struggled to find the ground again. “I told you, Lee Dongha can’t be trusted.”

“Kim Jonghoon, go play with your turtles somewhere else.” Heechul threw him a sharp, ‘shut-up now’ look, “Have you gotten anything from the Parks yet?” His eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly.

“No, I haven’t. Why do you expect me to find stuff that hundreds of people working for years haven’t found? They are as what they’re described in the files. There’s nothing to find out about them.” He flipped open a case on the table in front and started reading.

“Park Sunwoo: youngest son of Park Organisations. Age: 19. Occupation: student.” He lifted his head to see if anyone was listening. Receiving no response, he continued.

“Park Haeyoung: second oldest son of Park Organisations. Age: 28. Occupation: Police profiler.” Jonghoon scoffed lightly as the sentence ended. “More like a weirdo who’s in love with his walkie-talkie.” He flipped the page.

“And lastly, Park Jeongsu: oldest son of Park Organisations. Known as Leeteuk to the public. Age: 33. Occupation: Businessman.” Everyone pretended not to notice how hard Heechul’s eyes had gotten, or the almost deadly aura that had formed around him. “He’s the only one we might find an opening on, but these days, no-one knows where he is,” Jonghoon muttered to himself, picking up the turtle again. “There’s so many lies and secrets here… only my Ddangkkoma is who he says he is. Not that he can talk, but… he’s the turtle he shows himself to be. Right.” He hummed in approval.

“Shut up, Yesung.” The first male complained. His hands grew sweatier as the clock hand moved closer and closer to the point they had all been waiting for, but there wasn’t any signal from the phone or the door.

“Ryeowook-ssi, there is someone wanting to see you about an interview. Are you free at the moment?” The secretary’s face appeared on the screen before them, her face formal and expressionless.

“Not now, Bora, tell them to wait for another hour or so.” The man with platinum orange hair answered.

“Wait.” Heechul interrupted. “What’s the name of this person?”

“His name is…” Bora lowered her head to read from the completed form. “Lee Dong…ha?” She frowned with confusion for a second, but it was quickly replaced by that same neutral professionalism. 

Heechul smiled, ignoring the sharp sound created by Ryeowook’s chair as he jumped out of it in relief and surprise. Yesung placed his pet back in its box and straightened his suit.

“Lead him to the private meeting room,” Heechul ordered. He then remembered something as an afterthought.

“Also, use our private elevator.”

*

Today had not been a good day for Lee Donghae. First, his mother had not only washed his good shirt (his only good shirt!) in the morning, but also burnt his breakfast, making him late for the bus. Then he had a cup of coke spilled onto his pants (luckily, not too high up) after a sharp brake by the bus driver. Although his black pants showed nothing, it still felt extremely uncomfortable and he couldn’t wait to wash it off his skin.

The problem was, due to the toast disaster in the morning he was already late for an important interview, so he didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom before running to the front desk, fringe sticking to his flushed cheeks and eyes wide with desperation. Luckily, the secretary only told him to fill out a form and then to wait for a while, so he heaved a sigh as he let the soft sofa take away some of his exhaustion. Yes, it was only 9 in the morning, and he was already exhausted.

Donghae sometimes wondered, was life basically just a series of ups and downs? You go uphill until you reach the top, then you come tumbling down again? If that was the case, then could his good luck start, say, anytime now?

Maybe the gods answered his prayers (he was an atheist) or maybe his luck was really due for a change, but Donghae found himself being called for the interview after only a short wait, and was led by the pretty secretary herself up an empty elevator that allowed him to take deep breathes with no-one watching.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. It was everyone’s dream to work under one of the top three franchises in the continent, and he had always like Kim Corporations better than the other two. Lee Enterprises seemed too stressful, while Park Organisations was known for being uneventful.

Donghae looked at the sign ‘Private Meeting Room’ on the door for a long time without actually reading the words. Bora did not say anything, but he knew she was getting impatient.

He took another deep breath, put on his brightest smile, and pushed open the door.

ma-jewelry a/n: 

!!!!!!!!!!! can my excitement be felt through the screen xD

i'm looking forward to and dreading (not in a bad way lmao if that's possible) what missxielan will do to this because although i wrote most of this chapter without a plan (the first time ever i've done so!!), there are some things i had in mind for later. i don't know if i'll get the chance to write them out and this is what makes this whole thing so ing exciting ><

there are lots of characters, some adored by her (cough-haeyoung-cough) and some owned by me (lee hyukjae. that's right, i wrote 'owned'. come fight me.) and some others we fight over about hahahahahah. i can't wait to see how they will act and interact and maybe even create a sjxsignal pairing(?) omg i just seriously can't wait for the second chapter so that i can start on the third xD