A shot was fired and the sound echoed throughout the empty warehouse.

A man was thrown to the ground, a gun aimed right in the center of his forehead.

“Sir! Please spare my life! I’ll… I’ll tell you anything, everything you want to know…” The man immediately dropped to his knees and begged for his life.

The armed man snickered a little, not removing his finger that was on the trigger.

“Who sent you?” A teenager asked. As young as he was, his voice carried strength and power radiated off that small body. He stood at a safe distance behind the armed man; two other men positioned themselves around him, ready to take a bullet for him anytime.

“The Khans!”
A bullet went through the begging man’s head immediately. His blood spurted out on the armed’s man black suit and he collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

The teenager flinched at the sudden act of cruelty and his head turned to avoid the gruesome scene.

“We don’t need a liar,” The armed man kicked the lifeless body away.

He turned around to face the teenager who had a frightened and pained expression on his face. The teenager had seen so many of such scenes, one would have expected him to get used to it. However, it was nothing like that. Nightmares drown him every night and he would always wake up to his own screams and cries.

The armed man slowly walked towards the teenager.
“Young master, you shouldn’t stay here any longer,” The armed man went on one knee and spoke to the teenager softly.

“How many times have I called you not to do that, Sunggyu?” The teenager immediately motioned for him to get up.

Sunggyu did as he was told and got to his feet, still bending his head in respect.

“And call me by my name,” instructed the teenager once again before spinning around and heading for the warehouse’s exit.

“Yes, young master Myungsoo,” Sunggyu obeyed and followed his master.

Myungsoo smiled. This man was his only solace.

Myungsoo remembers the first time he was introduced to Sunggyu as if it was yesterday. He had always admired those small but strong eyes. That sense of certainty and confidence that emitted from the man attracted Myungsoo.

From young, Myungsoo had to carry a certain fate: to inherit the Gen clan. However, Myungsoo had never thought of himself suitable. He was weak and hated violence. He dreaded the clan and those trials that they forced him to undergo.

However, all that changed when he met Sunggyu. Sunggyu was only three years older than him, but the latter was strong from young. His parents had been killed by an opposing clan and Myungsoo’s parents had picked him up and trained him to be Myungsoo’s bodyguard.

At a small age of 10, Sunggyu was put through all kinds of training and always ended up with bruises, cuts and scratches all over the young boy’s body. Still, Sunggyu had never complaint or cried. His gaze was always focused and unwavering. Myungsoo would watch from the side as Sunggyu trained. A sense of admiration and respect developed inside Myungsoo’s heart as he took Sunggyu as his role model.

~

“soo… Young master Myungsoo,” His able bodyguard’s voice had snapped Myungsoo out of his thoughts. Myungsoo spun his chair around to face the bodyguard.

“Sunggyu…” Myungsoo started, leaning forward and supporting his hands on the table. “That man, was really sent by my uncle right?” His tone still held a little doubt.

Sunggyu kept silent for a while, before replying, “We found this on him.”
With that, he handed Myungsoo a badge that was unique to the clan.

“This is dumb,” Myungsoo had thrown the badge onto the floor.

“Young master,” A knock went on the door. “Your second uncle’s here to see you.”

Sunggyu was taken aback at that, his eyes scanning the young teenager. A smile crept to Myungsoo’s face.
‘Fast, isn’t he?’ Myungsoo thought to himself, fully aware of Sunggyu’s shocked expression.

The door opened to reveal a panicking fat old man, dressed in a suit that seemed about to burst because of his overwhelming tummy.

“Kim Myungsoo, what the hell are you doing?” The man strode towards Myungsoo and demanded.

“Watch your tone, sir. Know who you’re talking to,” Sunggyu hissed,  reaching out a hand to restrain the man.

“Shut up! You’re just a dog!” The man had stared hard at Sunggyu and barked back.

“Well uncle, what’s with the outburst?” Myungsoo taunted. His tone was haughty and eyes became serious. He was trained to speak to people that were of lower status like this.

“You! Why did you freeze all my accounts?” The fat man sounded like a small kid who was arguing with his mother. Myungsoo chuckled.

“Well, was I supposed to feed the dog that bit me then?” Myungsoo had replied, throwing photos and papers at the rude man, not even bothering to look at his face.

Myungsoo’s uncle stared at the documents in disbelief. In those documents was evidence of the uncle’s bribing events and his interaction with the man who attacked Myungsoo before.

“Kim Myungsoo, you!” The fat man had yelled and grabbed a letter cutter from Myungsoo’s table and aimed it straight at the young man.

The letter cutter didn’t even make it close to Myungsoo as the man was restrained and received a blowing punch from the alert Sunggyu. The man immediately fell to the floor, unconscious.

“Take him away,” On Sunggyu’s command, security guards entered the room and lifted the man off the carpet.

“Nothing’s scarier than a man that has nothing to lose, was that it?” Myungsoo had commented.

“You knew about it before the attack?” Sunggyu questioned.

Myungsoo walked up to his handsome bodyguard and grinned.

“I’m no longer the kid 10 years back you know,” Myungsoo winked and gave Sunggyu a peck on the cheek, trying to prove his point.

The older one gave no reaction and Myungsoo just looked away sadly. If that worked, Sunggyu’s heart would have been his a long time ago.

Now, 10 years down the road, Sunggyu was the clan’s pillar and Myungsoo’s able right hand man. Myungsoo’s parents had retired and left Myunsoo to inherit the clan. However, Myungsoo’s position was eyed on by all his relatives and they would stop at nothing to remove Myungsoo from that position.

“You can’t trust your own family huh?” Myungsoo snorted.

Myungsoo wasn’t going to let them have their way. That position was the only way he could continue seeing Sunggyu.

“Prepare Sunggyu. I’m going to school,” Myungsoo instructed.

“Yes, young master,” Sunggyu replied.

~

“Nam Woohyun, wake up!” A woman shouted.

He took the pillow under him and threw it on his head so as to block out the noise the woman was making.

“Nam WOOOHYUN!!” The voice came again, this time with increased power and volume. The blanket was pulled away from him and the pillow was snatched away from him.
The curtains were drawn and the morning sunlight greeted him, its rays too overwhelming for a half-awake Woohyun. Still, Woohyun wasn’t going to give up at that as he remained rooted in his position.

“I told you not to play those video games! What’s so fun about killing people with a gun?” The nun had asked and smacked the pillow on Woohyun.

Seeing that he had no chance of winning, a sleepy Woohyun rubbed his eyes and stretched.

“Noona… they’re so …” Woohyun yawned, not bothering to cover his mouth. “Cool…”

“Yeah, like getting yourself killed is cool,” The woman hit Woohyun with the pillow again, not aware of how her words had hurt the boy.

“You’re going to be late for school!” The woman warned before she went out of Woohyun’s room. She still had other half-awaken kids to wake up.

‘Today was just another day…’ Woohyun thought to himself.

He looked to the side and smiled at the photo frame that was by his bed. A couple dressed in black suits with a small boy holding a toy gun was smiling blissfully at the camera. That was his favorite family photo.

“Umma, Appa, today I’m finally going to move a step closer to my dream,” Woohyun had spoken to the couple in the photo.

With that, he got up excitedly and dressed up.