Minseok quickly scrambled to his feet and hastily retreated from Yixing, who was bending to meet eye contact with him. “Hyung?” He cursed when he heard his own shaky voice. “What are you doing here? Triple Y Threat? What are you talking about?”

Yixing let a small smile creep onto his face. “Oh, Minseok. Silly Minseok. This was all planned from the start.”

“What?” Minseok took a step back as Yixing took a step forward. “Don’t you think it was so easy? That when you turned 18, a supermarket popped out of nowhere? Didn’t you ever question the fact that no customer came in?”

Minseok’s face darkened as the idea dawned to him. “You guys set me up?” He curled his hands into tight fists. “So everything was fake?”

Yixing let out a bloodcurdling laugh, plopping onto the ground. He held onto his stomach, “I can’t breathe. The look on your face is too funny.” His face turned blank suddenly, “Of course everything is fake. Don’t you agree? The past 2 years of your life was too easy.”

He chuckled before going on. “You’re too weak, Minseok. You don’t deserve to go to the ceremony. Why would you go? It’s a ceremony for the elites. I’m sure you have questions; let me answer them for you. This ceremony? It’s a bloody battle. The sons and daughters of filthy mafiosos come together to ‘test’ their potential. The strong survive and the weak get tossed away.” Yixing looked directly into Minseok’s eyes, trying to provoke him, to get him angered, engaged. “Do you know who you are? You are the weak that will get tossed.”

Minseok looked away, casting his eyes downward for just a second. He looked back up, his gaze almost causing Yixing to stumble backwards because of the intensity. “I don’t care about the ceremony. At this instant,” he pointed to the ground. “What I care about is the hyung that I knew. The hyung that helped me out when things got slightly tough. The hyung that - yes a little on the slow side - truly cared for people, for things that are precious to him. The hyung that always had the brightest smile on his face. That’s what I care about right now.”

“I’m weak? Yes, you are right. I’m useless as a human being. I barely passed high school. I’m barely hanging on at college. I don’t have any talents or anything that I can brag about. I’m not good at anything. All I’m good at is making a mess and letting people down.” Yixing looked into his eyes. His eyes are burning with the same passion… I never thought I would see that passion again.

“I know I shouldn’t be keeping my hopes high, not only because I’m a good for nothing, but also because this whole inheritance thing sounds illegal. But do you want to know something? I’m going to the ceremony, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to-” He turned to Yaeji (a blush spreading across his face), “Wait, what happens at the ceremony exactly?”
 

“The top 7 survivors are able to become the next Father/Mother of each of their respective mafia groups.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to become one of those 6-”

“7”

“-7 survivors. I will,” he stressed on the ‘will’. “become the next generations leader.”

Yixing smirked, “And what makes you so certain that you can make it up there? Like you said, you are worthless. You don’t have any skills. You are going to be up against hundreds of competitors who have trained for this all their lives. They are going to be deadly. What makes you so sure that you can come even close to be on par with these monsters?”

Minseok stared at his shoes. “I’ve seen my mother cry today. She cried because of me. She never cried in my life, other than when my dad decided to leave us. I pro