As the sun rises, the birds chirp and sing, and the mice come out to play, a peasant boy wakes up. His name is Jihoon, the only son and heir to the Lee Manor. His mother passed away when she had given birth to him and his father remarried seeing that his son needed a motherly figure in his life. His step-mother brought along two other boys who were younger than him by a year. Them too sharing the same mother but different fathers, hence they have different last names. Others may say there might be unfair treatment between the brothers, but there wasn't. The three brothers cared for each other and looked out for one another.

Jihoon being the eldest out of the three had took upon the duty of being protective of his step-siblings. 

Although their mother did not treat them as a mother should. Their mother could careless about them in general. She would always leave her own two boys with Jihoon and their new father (Mr. Lee). She so claimed to be doing business within the palace and that she was away most of the day. When Mr. Lee passed away from and unexpected illness, Jihoon, Seokmin, and Seungkwan were devasted with the news. It was only til the day he had passed away that the boys knew they had truly lost a dear parent at the time.

Now that both of Jihoon's parents had passed away, he thought to himself a lot, about his future and his own goals in the present. His present goal was to always look out for his siblings and to always take care of them despite anything else. His future was to be able to be find true happiness, somewhere where he can be at ease and focus on himself in some way.

"Jihoon hyung, it's time to wake up. I can help you cook breakfast." Seokmin peered into Jihoon's room which was the attic. Step-mother forced him to move out of his old room in the Manor and move into the attic. She so said, "You are not my son, you don't deserve to sleep in here." She was truly wicked and cruel but nonetheless, she is Jihoon's step-mother. At that time, Seokmin and Seungkwan offered tolet Jihoon stay with them in their shared room but their mother refused and punished them for interfering in her business. Jihoon was furious that his brothers were punished because of him. 

"Thanks Seokmin, I'll hurry down before mother wakes up." Jihoon arose from his bed and walked over to his vanity. He combed his fringe and threaded his hair with his fingers. He quickly got up and went over behind the screen and changed his robes into his casual wear to do house work in. After he checked himself in the mirror, he headed down the old dusty stairs that led to the attic into the main foyer. 

From there he met up with his other brother, Seungkwan. "Mornin' hyung! How was your sleep?" Seungkwan was as bubbly in the morning. "It was great honestly, after cleaning the whole barn, the bath and the bed felt great to relax in." Jihoon replied. Seungkwan's gaze went down, "I really wished we could've helped to be honest.." Seungkwan replied with a pout. "It's okay, Kwannie. You guys do so much for me anyway." Jihoon gave his brother a reassuring smile and linked arms with his brother and walked towards the kitchen.

Seokmin already got a headstart on making rice and had bacon frying on the fire. "Hyung, go ahead and cook the omelets." Seokmin asked. Jihoon went ahead and started whisking the eggs and dicing up the different toppings to add into the omelet. Jihoon knew exactly what everyone liked in their omelet. Step-mother liked hers with spinach and tomatoes, Seokmin liked his with lots of cheese and ham, and Seungkwan liked his with mushrooms and cheese. Specifically everyone was really busy and rushing to get breakfast finished before Step-mother wakes up. 

A bell had rung from the side of the wall, it was coming from mother's room.

Jihoon rolled his eyes and already got into his routine, he just finished with everyone's omelet and went ahead to prepare his mother's morning tea. He grabbed the kettle from the furnace and poured the scalding water into a porcelain teapot. He also arranged the silver tray with the sugar cube bowl and a porcelain teacup. "Wish me luck guys!" Jihoon exclaimed before he used his foot to open the door, his two brothers gave a 'hum' of acknowlegement and hurried on to finish preparing the food.

Jihoon made sure to knock twice to indicate he's here. A faint, 'Come in' was heard from the otherside and Jihoon opened the door gently. "I've brought your tea, Mother." Jihoon said in a small tone. "Jihoon. How many times do I have to tell you to not use this particular teacup?" Jihoon was already shrinking at her question. "You know how much I despise this cup yet you bring it forth to me? This disrespect is what I do not tolerate in this house." Mother was too calm for her well-being. BAM. Glass was everywhere, shattered all over the floor. "Clean this up quickly and get out of here." JIhoon bowed and quickly picked up the pieces. 'Ugh that hurt..' Jihoon quietly winced as he accidently cut himself while picking up the broken pieces. He quickly hurried out her room and shut the door.

"Hyung! Are you alright?" Seungkwan quickly jogged to Jihoon's side. "I'm fine, you guys go ahead and eat, I'm gonna take this out and finish up with chores." Jihoon said as he grabbed a cloth from his pocket and wrapped his wound. "Aren't you gonna come eat with us?" Seungkwan asked. "I'll eat later, Mother is quite mad at me today. She probably doesn't want to see me for the rest of the day." Jihoon gave Seungkwan a smile and went climbed the stairs to his room. "Make sure you eat today okay?" Seungkwan said as he left his brother. Jihoon nodded his head and continued to his room.

Jihoon, you need to be strong.. For dad and for your brothers.. Jihoon closed his eyes. He quickly put medicine on his cut then quicky ran downstairs to get a headstart on his chores for the day.

a/n 

hey guys im back (not really). in all honesty i was super bored and i just had to write a jicheol fic based on a fanart i saw on twt but not exactly inspired by it (??) anyways, here's the first chapter, im gonna be real with yall, the only time i might update this is when im not busy. im on break right now and its gonna end soon meaning i'll be going back to school soon. i'll try my best to update soon!

xoxo, heyyz_ima_taemin_fan