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If you happened to be walking around the sidewalks of this place, the natives would scold you out of the kindness of their hearts. They would mention this scary Yin-Yang mafia gang who loom over the area. They would tell tales on how the Yin-Yang are merciless beings, frequently killing anybody who gets in their way no matter how innocent. Blood would stain the mafia gang's members' hands, and the members would act as if it was only water.
The Yin-Yang are among many mafia gangs in the vicinity, but they are the most powerful and terrifying to civilians. They corrupt the government, filling in the most powerful positions with their people. They assassinate whoever they want. They steal and rob government supplies whether it's from the military, the cybersecurity task force, or the president's personal files. They establish drug deals of cocaine and heroin, and they would spread around the substances like no tomorrow.
The last one is the Yin-Yang's most known "effect." People would be addicted, their brains spiraling to the point of no control. Meanwhile, the Yin-Yang got richer and richer. There are rumors to this day of them swimming in their own money, all paper cash.
Arguably, the biggest benefactor behind the success of Yin-Yang is no other than the mafia leader himself. He successfully leads the charge behind the political, financial, and killing war zones. He has gotten so much success, both money and power, that some civilians say he's more powerful than the president. Those civilians even claim that he's the most influential and powerful figure in the entire country.
But the mafia leader has one child, a son named Jeongin. He has quite a reputation.
Is it good or bad? Well, it depends on who you ask.
To many, Jeongin is the future clone of his father. Prodigious. Merciless. Cold. Something of the sort. In their rigid and shallow minds, he is a soul-less genius who wields a gene for being good at everything from his father. He's the cunning fox of their stories, going all out to steal everything and anything.
To the ones who know him much better, also known as his seven personal bodyguards, Jeongin is a very strange person that defies all expectations.
The seven bodyguards may fear Jeongin, but they fear him for a much different reason than the others.
###
Welcome to hell.
Actually, let's reword that. Welcome to the youngest's private life.
That's how Jeongin calls it anyway. All of the bodyguards know not to mess with him. He calls the shots and is very much on top.
A yellow UNO card is placed onto the stack of cards designated as the discard pile.
"Plus two," says the eldest bodyguard, Chan.
You see, for Jeongin, the war zone lies in the depths of UNO cards. Sabotaging the people beside you with cards of +2s and +4s is hilarious and satisfying.
Felix, the only Aussie bodyguard out of Jeongin's entire protection squad besides Chan, groans from the side. He places down a yellow +2 card. "Take two more."
"Nah, not me," Jeongin shakes his head as he places down a +4. "Now, you, Chan."
"I'm not a shy person and I'm most certainly not dealing with your baggage. Not me either," says Chan, placing down another +4.
Felix aggressively slaps the card on top of the discard pile. "Another +4 for the pile, here we go. Chan, pick up 20 right after Jeongin puts down his card into the pile. Suck it."
Jeongin, with his remaining deck of 5 plus fours, defends himself 9th a counter-attack. He has a sharp smirk on his face. "Don't jinx yourself, Felix." Felix laughs before doing that exact thing, a hyena-like noise coming out of his mouth.
"Pick up..." Felix dramatically pauses. "Twenty! Twenty now!"
Chan does his congested howl of a laugh while covering his mirth-filled eyes with his right hand. Felix is smiling as bright as the sun while giggling along with Chan. Jeongin watches them in eagerness as they do. He isn't the only one witnessing the ordeal; Hyunjin, Jisung, and Minho are at the kitchen doorway quietly witnessing the moment after hearing the initial loud commotion. Jeongin wouldn't have caught them hadn't it been for his foxy sixth sense.
The three of them have come at such a good time. Because they are behind the UNO players, those three know what each player had in their deck. Note: Felix has no more +4s in his deck. Jeongin basically hoards them all, except one.
Felix had no idea what would come next.
Chan, once he got out of his euphoric moment, gives a serious glance to Felix.
"Pick up..."
"No..." Felix stops giggling and his facials are replaced by one of horror. His eyes widen so large that they could probably fit silver dollars in them.
Chan cheerfully finishes his victory line, putting down his trump card. "Twenty four!"
Felix's mouth falls open into a giant circle that resembles a black hole. It could probably fit a dozen eggs and maybe even the egg carton. There’s a subtle noise coming from it, a small unintentional vocal fry. Chan, meanwhile, is busting a lung as he watches Felix’s “misfortune” and is struggling to keep himself composed as he does so. Changbin and Seungmin join the others at the doorway; all of their laughs are very evident. Jeongin glances at them for a quick moment then to Chan before shaking his head in disbelief.
This moment is hilarious.
Next thing Jeongin knew, Felix starts picking up the twenty-four cards he’s “jinxed” himself with with a sigh. Felix does the card slaps of shame as he counts the new cards one by one.
SLAP. “One.”
SLAP. “Two.”
SLAP. “Three.”
SLAP. “Four...sh/t.” Chan proceeds to howl laugh even harder at Felix’s swearing.
SLAP. “Five.”
SLAP. “Six.”
SLAP. “Seven.”
The list went on.
Felix couldn’t hold all of his cards by the end of the slaps of shame.
###
Another tradition that the Yin-Yang leader's son and his bodyguards had was the humiliating yet enjoyable egg game.
Everyone sat nervously around a single empty glass wine bottle in the living room, all anxiously wondering whether they were in for an evening of enjoyment or misery. Their fate, which was currently up in the air, all rested on the spin of this bottle. Jeongin sat contently in the human circle, knowing that misery's hand would not lay a hand on him with the power he held. The others just hoped that the bottle wouldn't land on them. If it did, it would be absolutely terrible.
"So," Chan calls out the rest of the group. "Ready to play the tradition?"
Jeongin clicks his tongue. "You guys are doomed but yes. I'm ready to see people suffer."
"How dare you?" Hyunjin dramatically exclaims to the youngest.
Said privileged person shrugs. "Not my problem."
"Yah, maknae, what do you mean not your problem?"
"Changbin, I meant what I said." Jeongin snickers. Changbin tries to lunge at Jeongin from his spot in the circle, but he is unsuccessful because of his short arms and Jisung being in the way.
Chan gets a grip of the body of the glass bottle and applies enough force with his motions to get the bottle to spin. As they watch the apparatus spinning round and round like a hawk, everybody holds bated breaths until the bottle lands on its first victim, Minho.
Everyone cheers at the sight save for Minho, who falls backwards onto the carpet floor out of frustration. He yells out incoherent sentences, even throwing out a few curses here and there.
"That son of -- bottle cursed -- no, no, I don't wanna -- victim of -- circle. Why -- happen -- I -- the unlucky one!"
Seungmin picks up an imaginary mug and pretends to drink the contents of the cup. “That’s quite the tea.”
“Yeah. Nice...tea.” Hyunjin’s eyes, anxious but daring, glance at Seungmin.
“This is coffee.”
Hyunjin sputters and nearly chokes on air. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Seungmin -- I’m so --”
Chan sarcastically coughs behind his hand. "Now to find Mr. Double Unfortunate, Changbin, you spin it. It’s closer to you."
Changbin rolls his eyes as he gently spins the wine bottle, hoping that the bottle lands on the person in his mind.
Turn, turn, turn ~~
The celebration was an uproar this time, contributed primarily by Changbin, who happened to jinx his reality.
When the bottle finally slowed to a stop, the bottle cap end pointed to Jisung.
“YOH! LET’S GET IT!” Changbin screams, flailing his muscular limbs everywhere.
Everyone knew the relationship between Minho and Jisung stemmed far beyond simple work respect. It surely and clearly wasn’t the typical relationship co-workers usually had with each other with all of the sneaking and avoiding that they did. The two chosen ones knew this for sure, making no attempt to make eye contact with each other, red slowly spreading through their faces. They didn’t even bother to move, just sitting in the circle with tomato faces.
“Maybe, we should have done seven minutes in heaven instead!” Felix slyly comments. Despite his angel appearance and usual personality, Felix had secret devil horns on his head, using the knowledge about the two’s abnormal tension that he obtained from drunk Jisung. He, Seungmin, and Jeongin were the three devils of the group who took great pleasure in teasing the other members, especially the destined couple.
The tension of the two soulmates heightened at that comment, their faces nearly bursting from their embarrassment However, the game had to be played and the choices had been made.
Minho and Jisung slowly get up to stand in their middle of the circle and look each other in the eyes. Hyunjin, with a mischievous smile, eagerly gathers the eggs from the fridge. Jeongin could hear his loud giggle from the other room as he did so.
“Have fun, just make sure to keep this game kid-friendly for my innocent eyes!” Jeongin adds in, although all of the bodyguards could easily call out Jeongin’s lie.
“You can look excited guys, don’t be shy,” Seungmin teases. The crowd, besides the two in the middle, erupt in laughter out of the hilarity in Seungmin’s teasing.
Certainly, today will be joyful for most and misery for a certain few.
Hyunjin helps put in the two plastic pink spoons in Minho and Jisung’s mouths. He takes an egg from the carton, balances it on Jisung’s spoon, and stands back to watch the upcoming spectacle.
“Ready…” Hyunjin announces. “Start!”
Well, there is one problem. The spectacle Hyunjin was waiting for didn’t really happen, at least at first.
Nothing began. Jisung looks very hesitant to use the spoon in his mouth and Minho slowly shuffles backwards, not inviting the egg to himself either. Rather than converging, the two diverge, cautiously inching back in opposite directions. A few moments passed with blushed faces and awkward silence, the crows outside their window mocking them.
"This game is boring! Why should we do it between them two?" Changbin whines, his excitement wearing off. Perhaps the chance pairing of Jisung and Minho had not been such a great idea.
Suddenly, with a gesture of a finger, Jeongin calls Hyunjin over to him. Hyunjin, at first, thought he was in trouble and was hesitant to come over, but the sharp smirk on Jeongin’s face said otherwise.
Jeongin whispers something into Hyunjin’s ear. The receiver’s eyes widen, but then, a light-bulb lights up and a Cheshire grin appears on his face.
“I have the perfect plan for that,” Hyunjin says. He whispers something else to Jeongin, Jeongin nodding along with understanding. In the end, he does a silent acknowledgement nod and the two do a fist bump for their temporary alliance. Hyunjin leaves for a moment to grab a small plastic porcelain bowl from the kitchen and then comes back for the plan.
They sneak up behind the still awkward Minho and Jisung, the latter two having no idea what is in store for them.
Jeongin tip-toes behind Minho, slips the spoon out of his mouth, and leads the latter slightly forward to meet the other pair. Hyunjin does likewise to Jisung, but he cracks the egg the spoon held in the bowl. The others, meanwhile, watch with confusion, but they don’t question Jeongin’s antics. The special day’s number one rule had that type of effect on them.
“What’s going on?” Jisung questions as he watches Hyunjin crack the egg he was supposed to be using.
Minho, on the other hand, looks at Jeongin with glee. “Did we get a free pass today? Are we finally free from our punishment?”
Next thing those two knew, Jeongin and Hyunjin grabbed the other two in the circle by their collars and pushed those collars forward. Minho and Jisung met in the middle.
Lips colliding is part of the package deal.
The bodyguards sitting in the circle snap out of their stupor as they watch Minho and Jisung kiss on the lips. When Felix finally realizes, he screams in a high-pitched voice like a dolphin. For once in Jeongin’s life, he can say that he met a competitor to his own legendary dolphin scream.
When the two bounce right off each other, the two stand as far away as they can in that circle. Minho is shaking in tremors meanwhile Jisung stares at Minho, a hand on his mouth out of shock.
Oh my god...oh my god...not -- Why now? Why?” A tear comes out, and Minho hides his face in his hands out of response.. “Oh my gosh, I just can’t...I can’t be here. I can’t...I’m sorry.”
Minho runs out of the circle as fast as he can, going to who knows where. The door dramatically slams when he leaves the room.
Jisung stands there frozen in confusion and disbelief.
The silence is broken as soon as he leaves the room. The room bleeds with discord and misunderstanding.
“WAIT, MINSUNG KISSED? RIGHT IN FRONT OF US? NO WAY!” Chan yells, reacting to the scene with exaggerated hand movements.
“I never thought one of them had the guts to!” Changbin exclaims.
Seungmin, sitting to the left of Changbin, slaps Changbin lightly in the head. “No, you doofus! The collars!”
“What was that?” Felix says in wonder, mouth happily gaping open.
“Did anyone catch Jeongin and Hyunjin doing something?” Chan gestures his eyes to Jeongin and Hyunjin, who stood smugly in the middle of the circle.
Seungmin rolls his eyes. “Of course we all did. We literally had the best views out of everyone in the circle, even better than the victims themselves. What do you think?”
“Actually,” Felix snaps his fingers. “He’s the one closest to the two, besides Jisung, who is off doing...that. So, Chan, what did you hear?”
“I just saw them whispering to each other, that’s it!”
Seungmin clicks his tongue. “Are you sure you are involved in this? Seems like you are to me.”
“No! I told you guys; I don’t even know what they said!”
“Sure, you are! You’re always simping for the maknae!” Changbin retorts.
Chan throws up his hands in defense. “Aren’t we all though?”
At the same time, Jeongin and Hyunjin stood with a shooken and blushing Jisung. Hyunjin with crossed arms shakes his head at Jeongin.
“This was your idea.”
“Yeah? I don’t regret it.”
“If you don’t regret what you did, help poor Jisung here out. It’s called common courtesy.” Jeongin takes a glance at the shocked boy behind him.
“He needs to go find wherever Minho is. I’ll help him with the rest.”
###
Jeongin, from his spot at the dining table, takes a sniff of air and knows there’s something wrong instantly.
“Hyunjin,” he calls out to the bodyguard sitting across from him. “Did someone burn something in the kitchen again?”
Hyunjin looks up at Jeongin from his phone, eyebrows clearly knitted with confusion.“Excuse me, what?”
“It smells like burnt fish...oh, and there’s smoke too.” Jeongin plays with a tiny wisp that flies past. “Just saying.”
“I thought they had all of it under control? They were under Minho and Seungmin’s supervision, and I’m pretty sure they are good chefs.”
“Seungmin, a good chef? Did you forget that he and Felix burned pancakes in the kitchen?”
Hyunjin sighs. “Everyone burns pancakes sometime in life. Felix is a good chef and he burned pancakes.”
“Correction?” Jeongin sticks an index finger in the air. “Baker. He makes good pastries, especially brownies and cookies.”
The door from the backside of the room randomly opens with a clatter, and Jisung stumbles through the door carrying a few shopping bags. He nearly trips on his own feet as he approaches Jeongin and Hyunjin at the dining table. Chan just gives them a wave before walking over the kitchen empty-handed to assist whatever is happening in there.
Jisung places the shopping bags on the table with a huff. “Did I hear the word cookies? Aish, you guys are making me hungry.”
“Aren’t you betraying your wonderful cheesecake now?” Jeongin quips. “I remember you and Minho were trying to get some in New York City but…”
Jisung interrupts him by covering Jeongin’s mouth with his hand. “No no no, we don’t talk about that…”
“Ah, New York Sh/tty. They didn’t know how to English, so Jisung couldn’t get his NYC cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. The one and only legend in this not-so-tiny household.”
“HYUNJIN!” Jisung shouts.
At that moment, there was a loud yelp from, presumably, the kitchen. The discordant clanging of metal followed, startling the maknae and the bodyguards sitting in the dining room. Chan’s voice rings loud from a distance.
“Changbin! You promised you wouldn’t do that again!”
“Aish, I spent 3 hours on the cake! I’m not letting you waste my efforts.”
“Minho, I helped you with that damn cake!”
Well, thanks for spoiling the birthday surprise, Felix.
The three troublemakers look at each other, a wide Cheshire grin appearing on each of their faces. Felix mentioned a cake? There are plenty of pranks that they could do involving a cake. They could do something with the icing, the candles, or perhaps…
“I have an idea,” Jeongin randomly says.
Hyunjin sighs, as he had done this before and they wreaked quite a bit of havoc the last time this happened. “What is it?”
“It’s the cake. Instead of dropping it, we smush it in someone’s face. That way, we piss off Minho and whoever’s face is headfirst into the cake,” Jeongin explains.
“That sounds…” Jisung ponders for a bit before beaming. “Wonderful! Let’s do it!”
“Should we talk to Felix about it first? I mean, he made the cake too, and he’s too much of a sweet angel to…” Hyunjin trails off.
Jisung interrupts. “He’ll definitely be on this prank. He’s been vying to do something like this ever since he and I watched those cake smush pranks on Tik Tok. I’ll ask him -- hold on, I’ll be back.”
The boy briefly leaves the table, going to the kitchen and pulling Felix out for a pep talk before coming back. He pulls back his chair and lounges comfortably in his seat.
“He loves the idea; he’s going to be helping us out on this one. Said he’ll be carrying the cake, and I sure do hope so. ”
“And about his efforts?” Hyunjin questions.
“He said that you, Jisung, Jeongin, and I can make another cake some other time.”
“Splendid,” Jeongin claps his hands in glee. “Let’s do this. So, I wanted to add a few things…”
###
“Happy birthday, our one and only birthday boy!” Felix smirks as he comes singing from the kitchen and places the cake on the dining room table.
To say that the cake looked great would be an understatement, it looked absolutely incredible. The cake, which was of the cookie variant, had two layers stacked on top of each other. Each layer was surrounded by a very neat and exquisite coating of white buttercream.
Not to mention, there were decorations surrounding that. Someone in the kitchen took the time to make fancy gold swirls on the bottom base of the cake and lined the cake with fake white butterflies. Apparently, someone knew his weakness of liking white-winged butterflies more than they should; Jeongin hasn’t revealed his fascination with butterflies with anyone.
Besides that, the visible parts of the top of the cake’s bottom base was lined with alternating white and gold edible sugar pearls. On the other hand, the top layer of the cake was kept very simple. A series of piped basketweaved turquoise icing lined the outside edge of the top layer, and the top of the cake read “Happy birthday, Maknae!” in very messy handwriting.
Felix continues to sing with jubilance even after he places the cake down and sits at his seat at the dining table. “Happy birthday to you ~”
Chan comes running out of the kitchen immediately. “Wait, wait,” Chan glances around the room in confusion. “We’re singing Happy Birthday already?”
“Yeah,” Jisung, sitting smugly at the table, quips.
“Why has no one told me yet?”
“Because,” Hyunjin explains with his hands. “You’re old. Your senses aren’t working. Therefore, your ears can’t hear. Therefore, as the Boomer Code says, nobody told you yet because we’ve announced it already and you didn’t know because you simply are too old. You can’t hear.”
“Bruh, I’m 23.”
“That still means that you are old. Your secret age is...” Jisung does a drumroll on the table with his fingers. “50.”
“Right, right, whatever you say,” Chan scoffs sarcastically. “Now, the cake. MINHO-SSI! SEUNGMIN! IT’S TIME!”
Minho and Seungmin, tired and zombie-like, limp out from the kitchen. The exhaustion on their faces are very eminent; even from a distance away, you can spot the imaginary yet existing black cloud that surrounds their heads. They adorn cooking aprons battered with multiple black spots and remnants of gray smoke.
As Jeongin would say, they were both tired as hell.
Jisung looks over to the two of them in near horror. “Oi, what happened to you two? You looked like you came out of a volcano eruption.”
“Something like that,” Minho says as he sits next to Jisung. Seungmin takes the spot right of Hyunjin. He closes his eyes briefly, attempting to take a nap by snuggling on Hyunjin’s shoulder.
“I didn’t get enough sleep last night for this,” Seungmin mumbles as his eyes rapidly flicker.
Hyunjin giggles lightly and pats his head. “I don’t think you did. You look dead.”
“I feel dead.” Seungmin fell asleep right after.
Jeongin takes a glance towards Hyunjin and the sleeping Seungmin and coughs. He points towards them with a subtle index finger.
“Heh. You get a sleeping beauty on you.”
“And you’re single as a pringle,” Hyunjin retorts back.
“HEY! You didn’t have to call me out like that!” The two of them start kitty-fighting with each other, slapping their hands against each other.
Chan breaks up the fight with the shopping back, making Hyunjin and Jeongin slap the shopping back instead. The objects in the bag, presumably candles, rattle inside. “Yeah, yeah, you’re single ready to mingle. We get it. Now, can we go on with the proceedings?”
“Sure, Chan. It’s my day today; I’m the maknae on top after all.” Jeongin gets out of his chair and stands next to Chan. The people who know about the plan take notice and try to watch Jeongin’s movements as discreetly as they could.
“Whatever you say, maknae.”
Chan takes a small box the size of a matchbox. He opens the tab on top and places a large candle with the numbers 20 on it. It’s a really obvious one too. The numbers are outlined in a blindingly hot pink.
“Whose decision was to make the 20 candle hot pink?” Jeongin asks out of the blue.
Jisung smirks, nods towards Jeongin, and answers curtly. “Me.”
Jeongin gives him a distant high five. “Good.”
Chan rolls his eyes as he reaches for another candle from the box. “I’m so sick of y’all, what…”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Chan, obviously, couldn’t see what was coming.
Next thing everyone knew, Chan’s face was smashed headfirst into the now messy cake. His face was smeared with white icing everywhere.
As Chan lifted his head in confusion, Chan could see nothing but white for a moment. These thirty seconds gave the pranksters an upper hand, even if it was so little. Jeongin’s right hand, the main catalyst of the “accident,” immediately retracts itself from Chan’s neck and Jeongin took off running right afterwards. Jisung, who took the pictures of Chan’s icing-smeared face, quickly sends Jeongin the pictures he had taken and puts away his phone as soon as possible. Hyunjin and Felix’s faces are smug and uptight, and they are trying not to laugh. Seungmin, somehow, is still asleep.
Minho’s face on the other hand…
Oh boy, he is pissed.
He looks towards Hyunjin, ready to cook him in an airfryer at 180 degrees for quite a bit of time. It would definitely be longer than the expected time of 20 minutes.
To be honest, with the very disgusted look on Minho’s face, the cooking time would probably be forever.
“What. The. Hell. Did. You. Guys. Do.”
“Jeongin better run,” Changbin mutters.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Hyunjin comments. “He already did.”
###
Meanwhile, as the bodyguards bullied Patrick Mahomes and his performance during the Super Bowl, Jeongin snuck out of the group huddle and went into Chan’s private office. He took control of Chan’s laptop Lappie and did a few things with it.
The next day, Jeongin “needed” a favor from Chan.
“Chan-hyung?”
One should note: Jeongin never calls Chan hyung unless he desperately wants something.
“Yes, Jeongin? Anything you need?”
“I want some salt and vinegar chips from the 7-Eleven.”
“Sure, do you want it now or…”
Jeongin interrupts. “Now would be good.”
“Alright, I’ll be out for a bit. Call or beep me if you wanna reach me.”
“Will do.” Jeongin clicks his tongue.
When Chan went outside and saw a picture of his face being smushed into a cake on the hood of his red Lambo...let’s just say that he let a very horrendous shriek. And, when he went back into the house to find the culprit, Jeongin, there were those pictures everywhere. The walls. Every counter. Every table. Every fridge. Even the couch.
How did Jeongin put up those photos so fast? Who knows? We do know his fate on the other hand.
“YANG JEONGIN!” Chan yelled. “YOU’RE GROUNDED! NO CAR PRIVILEGES FOR THE MONTH!”