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Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
There had to be order for things to work out smoothly, and for there to be order, there had to be a system.
The late leader's first system was simple: finish the job well. Even if you couldn't, you should die trying.
Or die when you get caught by the Lee leader. The price for cowardice had always been heavy.
Lee Taeyong respected that, honestly. It pulled out the capable and loyal from the weak and cowardly, but unfortunately, a whole lot of the Clan was the latter. You could hunt one or two down if they tried to run from their fate, but not a hundred. Especially if they split and went very different directions.
Where were you going to find the manpower to hunt so many people down?
Lee Taemin's first system eventually failed, but at least he tried.
The two Lees were unexpectedly close when Taemin was still alive. It all started off with a gin bottle, two cups and a bunch of crazy secrets- things escalated from there on. Taeyong became the second-in-command a year into Taemin's reign and everyone thought he'd end up in the heir position. Well everyone but the shady middle-aged workers who knew the younger of the two boys' heritage. The bleached-haired boy had to admit, he had once thought he could surpass the old traditions with his late leader's favour, but things that weren't meant to be would never happen. He was strongly voted against by those who'd sworn their lives to keep their mouth shut about his mother's identity.
His mother's identity, Taeyong laughed bitterly. The stupid Clan made not being a Lee sound like a sin, how irritating.
He once hated his late mother, for bringing him into this fucked-up world and then fleeing in the face of the slightest danger without even thinking of bringing him along when she left. But when he got a little more matured, he realised she had done what was realistic. To run fast, it was better to run alone. And running with a child with her would straight out just be stupid. It would also decrease his chance of even living till the next year.
But the life he had been living wasn't all that pleasant, and quite honestly, he wouldn't have minded dying occasionally.
After his dad had 'mysteriously' passed on when he was ten, he was taken in by Taemin and Mark's father, but the two had never seen him about since Mark was always sent away on boarding schools after boarding schools and Taemin had chosen to live on his own after he turned legal. His opinion and mental health didn't matter in the household- heck sometimes even his physical health didn't matter-, only the things he could do for the master of the house did.
No one knew about this, of course. At least no one who was currently alive. Taemin had pried and found out on one drunk night- Yes, the very same drunk night they finished the entire gin bottle and started becoming unspoken friends- but there was no other except for the late leader. Not even Dongmin, the odd yet close friend he'd picked up over complaining about the flaws of the Lee Clan.
