He ran as fast as his legs would allow him. Anger, so much anger filled him whole as his heart accelerated from the emotion. A glimpse of her smile and twinkling eyes flashed into his mind as he continued to run. He reached to his father's office and barged right in. His father looked up at him, then back at his paperwork. Infuriated, Jinki walked to his father's desk then slapped him across the face.

“What did you do to her?” he whispered with trembling lips and tear-filled eyes.

His father provided him with no response.

“Tell me,” he shouted at him, “what did you do to her?”

“You're only sixteen,” his father continued flipping through his files, “Don't you feel this is overly dramatic of you to do?”

“I don't care, tell me what you did to her!” His body began to shudder from the amount of anger that was dying to rupture out of him.

“I simply put her back to her place. She was causing too much of a ruckus,” he looked at his son. “Look at you, crying over a girl. Is this the type of person that will be inheriting Glory Hotel?” He opened his drawer and threw the tissue box at Jinki, “Wipe your pathetic tears and wash that damn face of yours.”

“You're weak,” Jinki snarled under his breath, “You're the pathetic one here. You're old and helpless. If it weren't for the filthy money that you own and the thugs you hire, you would be absolutely nothing.”

The older man chuckled at his son's remark, “What would that make you? If I'm nothing then that must mean you're significantly lower than me, right?” He glared at his son, “Get out of my damn office before I make use of my resources.”

“What did you do to her?” he asked again, much calmer this time.

He pressed the buzzer, “Hana, please have Chung my ungrateful son out of my goddamn office.”

“Of course, sir. I'm sorry about the inconvenience, we couldn't get a hold of him.”

“Yes, I understand that therefore you're fired.” Before the woman could respond back, he pulled his finger away and crossed his hands together. “Someone's here for you,” he pointed at the big suited man behind Jinki.

Jinki looked back and saw one of his father's many “professional thugs”. He turned back to his father, “First tell me what you did to her, then I'll leave here in peace.”

“Are you perhaps deaf? I told you, I simply put her back to her place. Her placement in Iseo Academy just wasn't doing our education system justice.”

“If I was the problem, why didn't you just taken me out?!” he shouted at his father. He lunged at the man but was pulled back by Chung. “Why did you force her out? Why didn't you just harm me instead of her?!”

With the wave of his hand, the resisting Jinki was taken out of the room. “You already know what to do,” his father told the thug.

Chung nodded then dragged Jinki away to the alleyway of the corporal building. “Let go of me you ape!”  Jinki spat on the man's face.

He threw Jinki at the brick wall, knocking the air out of him. “You know you talk way too much for a kid your age.” He wiped Jinki's spit off of his face then grimaced. Chung cupped Jinki's cheeks in his large hands. “It could really do you damage,” he warned. He shoved his face away and pulled out a pocket knife.

Jinki resisted the man, seeing that he had a weapon with his hands. He was pushed to the wall but kicked the huge man away. He punched Chung in the face then ran but was pulled back before he could've gone any further. He was struck by the man as the knife pierced through his flesh and into the back of his left shoulder. Jinki staggered back, struggling to breathe. He fell down and his face smacked the ground. He felt like his upper body was completely paralyzed. His left shoulder down to his fingers left numb but there was an evident pain spreading throughout his body. The cold pebbled ground and dirt scraped his skin, his blood ran down his arm as he forced himself to drag away from his own pool of blood.

“Your father wants to speak to you.”

Chung pulled the boy up by his wounded arm. Jinki shouted from the unbearable pain with tears streaking his cheeks along with the dirt from the ground. Chung held the phone to the boy's ears. Jinki sat there almost lifelessly as he listened to his father's words.

“You think you're a man now, don't you? You think you're all grown up huh?” His father maliciously chuckled over the phone. “This is just the beginning, my dear son. I have high hopes in you; you are my prized child. But if you dare disrespect me or my authority ever again, I will not hesitate to end you. Don't be stupid and cliche. Love will never prevail especially with money and business in the way.”

The dial tone trailed aloud. Chung grabbed the phone and shut it. He bent down and slapped Jinki's face, “Look at me kid.”

Jinki refused to look at the man who stabbed him. Chung frowned then swiftly pulled the pocketknife out of Jinki's shoulder. He gasped from the pain and more blood spilled out. Jinki slid down to the ground and groaned from the pain, concealing his cries from the man.

“In life, know your responsibilities. Know them, follow them, and live by them,” Chung stood up, “Or else you'll end up like this.” He walked away from Jinki and left him in the alleyway. Jinki's breath grew uneven and every part of his body ached. Tears slipped from the corners of his eyes and his lips grew dry. With much difficulty, he reached into his pocket and dialed a number.

“Hyung.”
 

“But what about Nayeon?”

Nayeon stopped once she heard the presence of her name. She peeked behind the wall and saw her mother speaking discreetly to her older sister, Chanyeon.

“Nayeon is so useless, we can't do anything with her. Your father and I have our faith in you, Sangwon, and Aeyoung; you three are the backbone of this family.”

Nayeon felt the pang in her heart crush every little vital thing in her body. She knew that she wasn't as loved or praised by her parents, but hearing this come from her mother hurt more than all of her thoughts combined.

“I don't think this is fair for Nayeon,” Chanyeon argued with a worried expression.

“Of course it is! Sangwon already has Moon Enterprise. Since you're the oldest daughter, you get Midnight Mall and Aeyoung gets XX Cosmetics.”

“What about Nayeon?” The eldest daughter asked again. She knew that her youngest sister wasn't the prized child in the family, but her parent's treatment towards the girl was absolutely cruel.

“She's only fourteen,” her mother shrugged, “We'll figure out something for her.”

“But Ae is only sixteen and already she's given a company to herself,” Chanyeon sat in her seat, “Mom, this isn't right.”

“Are you suggesting that you want her to inherit Midnight Mall instead of you?”

Chanyeon shut her lips and looked down.

Her mother smirked, “Exactly, so I'm assuming everything is settled then. I'm sure Aeyoung would be glad to hear about the news. As for Nayeon,” she looked at her daughter, “What she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?”

Nayeon pursed her lips, concealing her cries from the two. Life had never hurt so much before. It pained to know that you were your parents' only useless child but to actually hear your mother say so herself definitely killed her. She felt her head pulled back and arms wrapped around her, covering her ears specifically. Already, she could smell the familiar scent of the person. She looked up and saw her brother, Sangwon. “Don't listen, it'll only hurt more.”

She nodded and continued to quietly cry in his warm chest. The cold reality of her life was unbearable, but her brother was the only who managed to make it tolerable. She wrapped her arms around him and muffled her cries in his chest.

Sangwon had just come back from a meeting where his father discussed splitting the inheritance between Chanyeon and Aeyoung only. Nayeon had absolutely nothing to call her own whatsoever and that infuriated him. He grew up knowing what to expect from a chaebol family such as his. At nineteen, he was given the family's modern technology industry and was forced to manage it with whatever his father had provided for him. His entire life he grew up learning how unfair the world was, but Nayeon was the epitome of the words “unfair”  and “cheated.”

He looked at his mother and sister discussing amongst themselves. Chanyeon looked behind her, feeling a presence upon her, and saw Sangwon's harsh glare. His eyebrows furrowed and the fine line became permanent on his face. Her gaze on her brother faltered, knowing how shallow the situation was. She felt so shameful, but at the same time, she felt like she had no choice but to accept her mother's decision.

Sangwon pulled Nayeon away, “Go to your room before they see you.”

Nayeon nodded then walked away to the stairs. On the stairway, she saw Aeyoung with a grimace. As Nayeon passed her, Aeyoung forcibly pushed Nayeon with her shoulders. Nayeon gave her sister a shocked expression.

“Watch where you're going,”  Aeyoung hissed at the younger.

Nayeon in her words then proceeded to her room. Aeyoung looked at Sangwon and saw his displease face.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked purposely as she walked towards her brother.

“What's wrong with you, really?” He hissed at her, “You saw and heard everything, yet you continue to be so evil to her. Don't you have any empathy?”

Aeyoung scoffed, “Oh please, she's as lazy as they come. Like mom said, she's all looks but no substance.”

Sangwon looked at his younger sister, completely convinced that she was his mother's child. “You all are so heartless, you disgust me.” He walked towards the stairs, “This family is so ed up and corrupted!”

Chanyeon and her mother stopped talking once they heard his exclamation. “Sangwon's home?”

The girl nodded in response to her mother's question. Aeyoung walked past them, “You guys are really bad at whispering. Nayeon heard everything and of course, Sangwon had to be the superhero and save the day by shutting her crybaby up.”

Their mother shrugged, “Well at least she knows now, right?”

Chanyeon nodded, but inside she was crumbling and burning from the immense guilt that was eating her alive.

There's the update! Thank you for everyone who subscribed. Comments are loved!