Not Broken. Jaehyun Mafia Au

Turn Back Time

"Hey, Jessi?"

"Yes?"

"Since you brought him up, I wanted to ask. Who is Taeyong to Jaehyun?""

"Oh, you don't know? Jaehyun and Taeyong have been friend since Jaehyun and Ji-eun arrived here."

"Really? That long?" I asked.

"Well, Taeyong's lived here at the estate since he was a little boy. Even longer than Jaehyun. His parents were actually members of our staff."

"Oh, so do the staff's children often live at the estate?" I asked.

"No, never. Taeyong was a special case. His father, Jong-in, was one of Jaehyun's guards while his mother, Jennie, was head of staff. When Taeyong was only five years old, there was an attack on the manor and his father died after taking a bullet for my husband. To repay Taeyong's father for his sacrifice, Sooman covered all of their family's expenses and allowed them to move into the estate. Sooman makes a point of it to always repay his debts, but if we're being honest, I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to lose her as a staff member. Like Jeno, she was very good at her job."

I nodded as she continued to talk about Taeyong. I knew that he and Jaehyun were close, but I didn't know that they grew up together.

"Besides, Ji-eun, Taeyong was Jaehyun's closest companion although they didn't get along at first. Taeyong was a bit rebellious growing up but he wasn't a bad kid. He got into fights nearly every week and even got kicked out of school. We ended up having to send him to the same private school as Jaehyun. When Jaehyun started talking, he'd always try to play with Taeyong but I think Taeyong saw him as more of a nuisance than anything else. The only reason they got close was because of Ji-eun. Taeyong had such an obvious crush on her, it was adorable, really. He'd follow her around all day like a puppy dog, asking if she needed anything or if anyone was bothering her at school. Instead of asking anything for herself, she'd ask him to take care of Jaehyun when they were at school. Since Jaehyun was the sensitive type, he was often picked on by his peers. Ji-eun was in high school so she couldn't do anything while Jaehyun was at the middle school. So, despite him being the same age as Jaehyun, Taeyong became Jaehyun's protector. Now that Jaehyun's become so much larger than Taeyong, it's hard to believe that he was ever the one who needed protecting."

Jessi stood up from the vanity to head to the nearby dresser.

"Taeyong and Ji-eun." Jessi hummed their names.

"I always thought they'd end up together. It's too bad. I know I'm hard on the kid, but you really couldn't ask for a better son-in-law."

Jessi picked up a pair of earrings, taking care to put them on.

"I hope you don't mind me asking but what type of man was his father?" I asked.

"To say that he was a kind man could only make a devil laugh, though he did have his moments. You might have heard already but our marriage wasn't originally out of love, or at least not mutual love. I apparently caught his fancy at an event meant to celebrate my parent's gang joining EXO. He asked my parents for my hand before even asking me. Despite my wishes, they agreed. I tried to get out of it, but to no avail. It was hard at first, but I eventually accepted my new life. It wasn't all bad. Sooman was a fair man who respected my boundaries. He always repaid his debts, which is how we ended up adopting Jisung and Chenle."

"Wait, what?"

"As you've probably already guessed it, we didn't adopt Jaehyun and Ji-eun simply out of the kindness of our hearts. I'm unable to have children. Finding that out was extremely hard for the two of us but Sooman never showed me any resentment. If anything, he was more worried about me than about his lack of an heir. After we found Jaehyun and Ji-eun, we had no need for any more children, but we adopted them out of respect for their fathers. You see, after the mission failed and several NCT member's lives were lost, Sooman did everything he could to repay the debt he owed to those who lost their lives due to his own negligence. While most of his reparations came in the form of financial assistance, for two of his men, repaying his debt wasn't so easy. Both of the men had son's. Jisung's father, Taemin, ran away from his family when he was only 12 years old. His wife died during childbirth so there was no one to take care of his son when he died. Sooman decided to adopt him."

"And Chenle?"

"Chenle's father had a similar situation. He was one of the Wayv members who ended up in jail following the mission. He was killed in the prison yard by a rival gang. Unlike Jisung, Chenle had an older sibling, but the two had never met. His father had an affair with a woman outside of his marriage and had gotten her pregnant. He rented out an apartment for them in Itaewon so he could keep their existence a secret. Sooman only found out about this when he received a call from the man's lawyer. The lawyer gave him an unofficial version of his last will and testament which specified where to find the son and mother. It also requested that the two of them be taken care of if anything were to happen to him. He also requested that Chenle be kept away from anything relating to NCT or gang activity in general."

"Wait so Chenle's mother is still alive?"

Jessi noticeably hesitated before going on.

"Sadly, no." She answered.

"Oh."

"Instead of calling, Sooman immediately went to the address listed on the document and thank god he did. Nobody answered the door when he knocked but he could clearly hear a child crying on the other side. He ended up breaking the door down to find Chenle lying beside his mother's body."

"Holy shit."

"She must have found out about her lover's death and decided life wasn't worth living. At first, Sooman wasn't even planning to support the two. He thought that the will could have been a scam and that the woman was trying to get a free lunch or something. But once he realized that he was responsible for not only the father's death, but the mother's too, he accepted Chenle as his own son. Jisung was six and Chenle was seven when we adopted them, so they were old enough to remember some of their past lives but Chenle wasn't old enough to understand what happened to his mother that day.

"Does he ever ask about his parents?"

"A few questions here and there. He knows they both died but he doesn't know how. We told him it was a car accident. He doesn't even know that his father worked with NCT and I'd like to keep it that way. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I won't say anything." I promised.

Jessi stared at me as if gauging her trust in me.

"Good, Let's head down to the dining room. We don't want to keep everybody waiting now, do we?"