April 11th 2019, 2:33 AM

"Sir, wake up. Your father's dead."

Taemin bolted upright. The lights were on in his room, and there was an informant standing before his bed. 

"What?"

The informant shifted uncomfortably.

"He's dead. Died in his sleep. The Advisor sent me to tell you. You're needed at Head Office." 

"Oh for 's sake..." Taemin grumbled, getting out of bed. "Give me a minute to get dressed." 

The informant left the room. Taemin rubbed his eyes. How could his father be...? He was only in his early 50's, and as far as Taemin knew, perfectly healthy. It would've made more sense if he'd been assassinated or something, but passing away in his sleep? It made no sense.

He went to his closet, taking out the first suit he saw. He felt numb. He was barely even aware of his own actions as he prepared to go out, his body working on autopilot while his mind remained elsewhere. 

He wasn't ready to take over his father's operation. How could he be? He hadn't become involved until he was eighteen, and even then, he hadn't done much. He was supposed to have years to learn and prepare. How was he going to manage this? 

Taemin left his room. The informant didn't speak as he led him down the hallway, but even if he had, Taemin wouldn't have known. He was lost in his head, dazed by the whirlwind of emotions that had overcome him. Outside, there were guards waiting by a car. Once he'd gotten in, they sat next to him on both sides, forcing him into the middle seat, which he hated. This was too much. His claustrophobia was hitting him full force, and he tried to ignore the sudden urge to vomit. 

If his father had just died peacefully, why were there guards with him now?

The ride to Head Office was miserable. The entire car was silent, and Taemin was struggling to keep what shreds of composure he had left. He was sweating profusely, and his head was beginning to throb with an awful migraine. And of course, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his father was dead, leaving him--a twenty year old college student with very limited experience--in command of the nation's biggest crime organization. 

He began to feel light headed. He swallowed hard, begging himself not to faint, not right now of all times. He had to pull himself together. Now especially, Taemin couldn't show any signs of weakness. He had to become a leader, and an iron one. However, this damn claustrophobia was kicking his , and there was nothing he could do about it. As for everything else, he just needed to force it down and forget it, at least until he could be alone again. He'd be fine once he got out of the car, he told himself. He just needed to get through the next five minutes without fainting or vomiting or having a complete mental breakdown. He could do that, right?

As it turned out, he could. When they pulled up at Head Office, Taemin got out of the car as quickly as possible, relieved to finally be in an open space again. The guards followed him into the big brick building, and while Taemin knew that they were just doing their job, he couldn't help but to feel uneasy in their presence. He walked up the red carpeted stairs to the second floor of the building, mentally bracing himself for whatever awaited him in his father's office. From down the hall, he could see that the large mahogany doors of the office were wide open, as usual. He could hear muffled voices coming from within the office, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He took a deep breath, and hurried into the office. 

A few people were clustered around his father's desk, facing the door. Taemin didn't recognize most of them, although he knew he probably should. Strangely enough, his good friend, Kibum, was among them. His father's advisor, Jinki, spoke. 

"Taemin, you're here. Good. Let's get started." He motioned to the people behind him. "You know everyone here, yes?"

"No." Taemin inwardly cringed. He didn't know most of these people. What were they going to think of him?

"Well, I guess we'll have to introduce ourselves then." 

Taemin swore he could hear disdain in Jinki's voice, but no one else seemed to pick up on anything. 

"This is Tiffany, she runs our underground gambling operation," Jinki gestured to the woman standing beside him. He turned to the man on his other side. "This is Heechul, he's the head of our firearms trade."

Taemin nodded. 

"And I know you already know Key, the head of our drug operation and your father's right hand man." 

Taemin tried to hide his shock. Kibum, one of his closest friends, was what? How did he not know about this? Also, why the hell was Kibum going by 'Key'? 

"And then this is Changmin, he's in charge of all things security." Jinki finished, motioning to the tall man leaning against the desk. 

"It's nice to meet you all," Taemin nodded respectfully to them. "I'm sure you all know who I am." 

"Yes, and we have a lot to talk about, so now that we're done with that I think we should get straight to the point." Changmin said, standing up straight. 

"Why don't you sit? I'm sure you're tired." Kibum approached Taemin, placing a hand on his shoulder. It took everything Taemin had to swallow his absolute bewilderment and respond normally to the man he'd thought he knew so well.

"Sure," He walked over to his father's desk, taking a seat in the large leather chair behind it. "So... let's begin."

Tiffany cleared . 

"Now that your father is gone, the chain of command dictates that you're to take over for him. However, that would mean that you would have to give up almost everything about your current life. You'll have to drop out of college and cut ties with most of your friends. This is a full time commitment and it'll be your life's work. Just so you fully understand what you're getting into."

Taemin nodded. 

"I understand."

"Or," Jinki spoke up. Taemin caught him shoot Tiffany a pointed glance, which she was clearly ignoring. "You could just walk away from all this and live a normal life. We could skip over you in the chain of command and transfer the power to someone with more... experience." 

Something was off. Taemin could sense it in the way Tiffany narrowed her eyes as Jinki spoke, and he certainly didn't like Jinki's overtly condescending tone. Should he be worried? He wasn't sure, but there was no harm in proceeding with caution, right? Even if he was worried, he had to remember to stay composed.  

"That's not going to happen, Jinki. But thank you for offering." He said. Jinki's expression remained neutral. 

"Glad to hear. Now these can always be changed, but you have to make some decisions. The five of us are your father's inner circle, but since you're the boss now you can choose to either replace us or keep us. So for example, you could choose to keep Tiffany, but replace Heechul." Changmin said.

Heechul scowled at Changmin, who smirked in response. Taemin shifted in his seat. 

"So I could also appoint a new advisor or right hand man if I wanted, right?"

Changmin nodded. Taemin glanced at Kibum, then at Jinki. He had no problem with keeping Kibum, but Jinki... He definitely didn't trust Jinki. But Jinki also had the most experience as an advisor, and he knew that his father had trusted Jinki greatly.

"Alright. I think for now, I'll just keep all of you. It makes my life easier, and you're all experienced so it should be helpful to me to keep you at least while I'm still new."  Taemin folded his arms across his chest, not entirely happy with his decision. Hopefully it'd turn out to have been a good one. 

"You know you really don't have to do this, Taemin. Wouldn't it be a better decision for the whole organization if you just stepped down?" Jinki looked to the other circle members, obviously searching for support. 

"Jinki, respect his choice. Everyone in here is in favor of him except you. You won't get our support." Kibum said, clearly irritated. 

"Actually, I'm also not in favor of Taemin." Heechul spoke for the first time. "But two out of five isn't a majority, so it's not like it matters anyway." 

Taemin studied Heechul. He honestly hadn't really noticed the man when he'd first been introduced, but now he was realizing that this man was probably not someone he ought to ignore. If Heechul was opposed to him, it meant that he had to prove himself to someone more than just Jinki. That certainly wasn't good, but at least he had the support of the other inner circle members, right? But he'd also have to make sure he kept their support...

"You're right. Taemin is the new boss, and there's nothing you can do but accept it," Kibum's voice snapped Taemin out of his thoughts. "Is there anything else we need to discuss now?"

Changmin shrugged.

"I don't believe so. I guess we're done, then." 

Despite what Changmin had just said, nobody moved. The room was silent, and everyone seemed to be looking at Taemin expectantly, as if he was supposed to say something. Was he? Taemin swallowed nervously. He didn't know.

"Okay, you're all dismissed." Kibum broke the silence.

Taemin sighed. . Everyone began to leave the room, Heechul was the first to leave, not even acknowledging his colleagues as he made his exit. Taemin frowned.

"Hey, Key. Stay behind a moment. Oh, and Jinki? Can you close the doors on your way out? Thanks." 

As soon as the doors had closed behind Jinki, Taemin felt himself relax, if only slightly. He turned to Kibum, not even knowing where to begin. 

"Kibum, I have so many questions." 

Kibum smiled sheepishly. 

"I'm sure."

"Most importantly, how the hell is my father dead? It's three in the god damn morning, so how did anyone even know that he's dead?" 

"Honestly, Taemin, I don't know. Jinki was the one who called the inner circle and told us. Tiffany asked him how he knew, but he didn't really answer her. Something about he'd stopped by because of an urgent matter only to discover your father's body. It's weird." Kibum paced the floor in front of the desk. 

"It is, isn't it? I don't trust him, Kibum. You saw how he was in here too. You can't deny that he's acting very strangely."

Kibum nodded. 

"I want you to look into him."

"What?" Kibum stopped pacing.

"Please. I don't know who else to ask."

"Taemin... I'm really busy. I don't think I have the time to do that." 

"I know you're busy, trust me. I haven't seen you in weeks! But you work for me now, so I'm asking you to do this for me. As your boss." 

Kibum was clearly taken aback. It was so weird for Taemin to know that he was Kibum's boss now, and surely Kibum felt the same. 

"Okay, I'll put some of my best men on it." 

"Thank you," Taemin took a deep breath. He could finally let go of his composure. "Now as your friend, what the  Kibum? How could you lie to me like this? How long have you been working for my father?" 

Kibum scratched the back of his neck, looking at the carpet. 

"I'm sorry. Your father asked me to keep it secret from you. He didn't want you be like me. But to answer your last question, I've been his right hand man since my father died. I started getting involved in the operation when I was fifteen, so it's not like I just inherited the position without experience or anything. I wasn't in your situation." 

Taemin didn't know what to say. Since he was fifteen? Kibum had been involved for seven years, and the entire time, Taemin had been completely unaware. 

"Why... why did he not want me to be like you?"

"Taemin, you have to understand, your father tried to shelter you as much as he could. He wanted to protect you. After all, you were his only heir. So I think he saw how much you looked up to me and decided that he didn't want you to follow in my footsteps. He didn't want you to get involved super young and endanger yourself. So he asked me to lie, and I did. I'm sorry that you had to find out like this."

"I don't understand."

"What don't you understand? Your father wanted you to grow up normally. When he realized I could ruin that, he made me lie. Personally, I think that was a bad decision on his part because now you have no idea what the hell you're doing, but I understand where he was coming from." 

Something buzzed in Kibum's pants pocket. He pulled out his phone. 

"Oh, um, I have to go. I'm sorry, Taemin, really. I promise I'll help you out and I'll try to explain anything else you want to know later, okay?"

Taemin nodded. Frankly, he had no idea what the was happening anymore; he'd been overwhelmed with information and he had no idea what to make of any of it. He couldn't even be bothered to ask why Kibum suddenly had to leave despite the fact that it was almost four in the morning. He watched dazedly as Kibum hurriedly left the room. 

He was alone. 

His father's office--no, his office now--seemed huge now that there was no one else in it. So much responsibility had suddenly fallen onto his shoulders, and he was ill-prepared to handle it on his own. Yet, it seemed that he would have to. Kibum had said that he would help, but Taemin wasn't sure he would. After all, Kibum had lied to him for the past seven years, so another lie wouldn't be surprising, would it? Could he even trust Kibum anymore?

No, no, he couldn't start thinking like that, it would get him nowhere. Kibum meant well, even if he was misguided, and he was one of Taemin's oldest friends. If Taemin couldn't trust Kibum, he couldn't trust anyone. He had to trust Kibum. 

Taemin sighed. He could go home and try to get some more sleep, but it would probably be a waste of his time. How was he supposed to sleep after everything that had just happened? But there wasn't anything for him to do at Head Office, at least not that he currently knew of. Perhaps he should just stay there anyway...

His stomach rumbled. Taemin realized that he hadn't eaten before he left home, and even though it was the middle of the night, he was hungry. He could go get food, that would give him something to do. Yes, that sounded good. He'd go get something to eat. Glad for the opportunity to invest his energy in something that might distract him, Taemin strode out of the office. He didn't feel like stressing out over his new job anymore right now. That was for later. 

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A/N

Hi there!

I don't know how many of you have read my other fic, but generally at the end of every chapter I'll do an author's note. Not sure if I'll do that for this fic, but for this chapter I am. I don't really know what to say right now to be honest, haha, but I hope you enjoy this fic. I've certainly had fun doing the planning for it, and I had fun writing this chapter. I'll try to update as quickly as I can, but since school starts really soon for me we'll have to see how things work out because this is going to be a VERY busy school year for me. :((

Please bear with me if updates don't come as often as you'd like, I do try really hard to make time for writing.

Also, just to explain things a little, each chapter is a different POV so the title of each chapter will be the name of the character who's POV it is. I currently have no intention to switch POVs in the middle of a chapter anywhere in this fic, but if that ends up happening for some reason I'll make sure it's absolutely clear that the POV has changed. :)

Anyways, thank you for reading! <3

-H