Redamancy | BTS

1 - The Will

"What? I don't understand," you gasp in shock, glancing back and forth between the neatly signed document and the lawyer gazing at you with sad eyes. The young male has the faintest bit of a frown tugging on the corner of his lips as you continue to stare at him in disbelief.

"It was your grandfather's only wish before he passed," he explains gently. He can't even begin to imagine the grief you must be experiencing following the death of your grandfather. But now he has to dump all of this new information on you, adding confusion to your raging emotions. "He said you are the only one that deserves this. The only one he trusts - the only one he loves."

"What about everyone else? They've all spent, at the very least, the past 20 years trying to kiss up to Grandfather," your eyes widen in shock. The gravity of the entire situation is finally dawning on you and the nerves accompanying this realization is an immediate reaction when you think about the rest of your family.

On one hand, you're extremely flattered your grandfather decided to give you all of his inheritances. In fact, you're overjoyed because you know that your grandfather's judgment of the rest of your family is spot on. Yet, on the other hand, you know how ruthless your family is. The moment they hear about Grandfather's will at the reading, you'll quite literally be at their mercy.

Your family is huge and wealthy. When you were younger, you used to tell your friends that you 'live comfortably' whenever they had asked about your family's income - an automated response that was drilled into your mind by your parents. However, you quickly learned how foolish that response is. Only filthy rich people say they live comfortably and the thought of being labeled as a snotty rich girl made you feel ashamed.

Unfortunately, you are the only one in your family that feels this way about your wealth. The rest of your family flaunts their assets every chance they get. Family gatherings were never spent cherishing time together. Instead, they were turned into competitions where everyone paraded their newest purchase as if it were the cure to all cancers.

You will never forget the one time your uncle had arrived late to a dinner party, on purpose. When he drove up the lavish driveway of your parents' mansion, everyone had rushed outside to see the commotion caused by the unnecessarily loud engine of his new ride. Your mother, who had plastered on an incredulously fake smile, congratulated her younger brother on the new purchase. But alas, the moment all of your guests left, her expression soured and she immediately began planning with your father on their 'next big purchase' to 'one up that little bastard'. 

Underneath the facade of being the 'big, happy, rich family', lies a cold and greedy broken family. For as long as you can remember, your parents spent every waking moment discussing ways to outperform their siblings and how to earn the approval of your maternal grandfather.

Ever since you and your cousins were old enough to hold a job, you were all pushed to your limits to outperform each other - to 'make Grandfather proud' by climbing the office ranks and holding high authority jobs. Even when you weren't old enough to obtain jobs, your parents pushed you to study hard in order to outperform your cousins in school. You took on countless extracurricular activities, stayed up countless nights to study for all of your honor classes, and practically sold your soul to your money-hungry parents all to 'impress' your grandparents.

As much as you hated being your parents' puppet, you enjoyed the attention you got from your grandparents. Among all of your aunts, uncles, and cousins, you had a slight advantage over everyone else. 

You had spent a lot of time with your maternal grandparents starting at a young age. The moment your parents noticed your grandparents' strong attachment to you, they took immediate advantage of the situation. Every summer and winter break, your parents dropped you off at your grandparents' house where they left you to travel the world for months on end. While your parents were away discussing business deals with multinational corporations, you were having the time of your childhood - bonding and living a somewhat normal life under the loving care of your grandparents.