Sunday April 14th, 2013

When Joonmyun was six years old, his father died. When he was thirteen, his mother remarried and all of a sudden, he was an older brother. As unexpected as it sounds, it was actually a fairly smooth transition. He and Jongin got on well and easily adapted to being brothers.

The only problem, was that his new father (who he calls and treats like his real dad), was a super powerful and influential individual. This resulted in hiding his existence from the world. It wasn’t always like that however. Joonmyun could easily remember spending his days after school with Jongin watching cartoons or playing in their enormous back yard. However, as Jongin grew older and their father’s company reached new heights, Jongin became wary of spending time with Joonmyun. Once he hit middle school and Joonmyun was in high school, did their first family ‘fight’ occur. Jongin expressed his wish to limit his interactions with his brother to just while in the safety of their home. Joonmyun, for obvious reasons, opposed this decision. Surprisingly, their mother agreed with Jongin and their father with Joonmyun. After that dinner, things weren’t exactly the same. Sure they were still brothers who cared for each other very much, but they weren’t as close as they used to be. At the time, Jongin was just thirteen and Joonmyun was sixteen.

It wasn’t until four years later that Joonmyun finally understood. When he was twenty and Jongin was seventeen and just about to finish high school, the news broke out. Somehow, the press found out that Jongin had a brother. Due to the lack of information surrounding this unknown family member, it was assumed that Jongin’s brother was younger than him and no one ever bothered to correct them. That evening, the same discussion from four years ago resurfaced. Once again, Joonmyun saw no problem with coming out and announcing himself to the world, but Jongin and their mother would not relent. After a week of walking around the estate on eggshells, Joonmyun grew annoyed and asked Jongin why.

“Because. You didn’t grow up being scrutinized for every small thing you do. You don’t have to experience reporters asking you how you feel about this past quarter’s financial stability, even though you tell them time and time again that you have no interest in taking over the company. You don’t have to live knowing that all you are going to amount to, is your last name.”

That broke Joonmyun’s heart. Jongin was seventeen when he said that. He was even younger at thirteen when he first opposed to Joonmyun living in the public eye. At such a young age, Jongin already knew what it was like to grow up with a huge weight on his shoulders. Joonmyun finally understood. He understood that Jongin just wanted to protect him, for him to live a life that Jongin may never get to experience.

“I’m sorry hyung.”

“You don’t need to worry about me Jongin. You did enough of that when we were growing up.”

[A/N]: As promised, a more detailed look into the Jongin/Joonmyun situation. Hopefully this explains some things about their characters and why they act certain ways. This is a fairly important sub-plot (though what is the main plot to be honest?) and will definitely resurface, things will go sort of down hill from here (not really though?)