"we are here today for a sad matter. today, we are all saying goodbye to park aera and park insu, victims of humans' stupidity..."

jisung stared blankly at the two wooden coffins circled by flowers, not even paying attention to the speech that was being given in honour of his parent's death.

he was standing in the middle of the cemetery, the 22 other members of nct by his side, and some of his parents' friends as well. the leaders of each branch of the mafia were there, heesun standing right next to jisung, and the others by heesun's side. all had blank faces on, too used to death for it to be exceptional.

they weren't supposed to come to this banal ceremony, but they were all here for jisung's sake. they knew his group members would be there, and that they would find it weird if no one was there at jisung's parents' funeral. they were just there to make it seem like jisung's family was a normal one, when it was in fact very abnormal.

another special ceremony was planned at night, the official mafia ceremony, in which jisung would officially become the head of death park.

after the long speech, jisung gulped as the two coffins caging the bodies of his parents were carried towards the crematorium and placed in front of the small hole from which heat was escaping.

a single tear rolled down his cheek, crashing on his black tuxedo and making a stain appear on it. but he couldn't care less.

the last pieces of jisung's youth were taken away as the two coffins were pushed inside the oven-like place. his parents disappeared for good, giving him all the responsibilities that they previously had. bills, taxes, bank accounts, but also a whole ass mafia.

as he was about to close his eyes, the sight of the coffins burning horrifying him, jisung felt something warm slowly slipping in the crook of his palm.

with a quick look to his side, he noticed that chenle had stepped closer to him and that his small hand was sliding against jisung's to hold his.

jisung gladly accepted it, intertwining their fingers as he pulled chenle closer, allowing the chinese male to lean against jisung's side while their grip on each other's hand tightened.

jisung took deep breaths as more tears rolled down his cheeks without him trying to contain them and wipe them off. he stayed silent; his eyes fixed on his parents' bodies that were slowly tuning into ashes.

the simple presence of chenle next to him had seemed to calm him down, and to help him dealing with this.

he had promised himself long ago that he would try keeping chenle's innocence and purity intact as long as he could. but in fact, at this very moment, it seemed like it was the other way around. it seemed like chenle was the one keeping jisung's sanity. and jisung was thankful for that.

"thank you..." jisung whispered, his voice barely audible despite the killer silence of the room.

chenle lifted his head, looking at jisung's face in confusion. was this 'thank you' meant for him? or was he thanking his parents? or someone else?

"thank you for preventing me to break down." jisung spoke again, on the same tone as before. he even turned his head slowly, his lifeless eyes full of tears meeting chenle's glistening orbs, making the chinese male understand that he was the one being thanked.

"it's normal jisung." chenle smiled the brighter he could, despite the situation. "that's what friends are for, right?"

jisung couldn't deny that.

friends were supposed to be there for you.

friends were supposed to take care of you.

friends were supposed to make sure you were okay.

friends were supposed to help you if something was wrong.

and jisung's friends did exactly that. 21 members of nct were his friends and acted like friends.

but how could he explain that everything was different with chenle?

chenle wasn't only there for him. he was there with him.

chenle didn't only take care of him. he cared for him.

chenle didn't only make sure he was okay. he made him feel okay.

chenle wasn't only helping him if something was wrong. he was always helping him.

there had to be something jisung missed.

⇄

jisung was sitting at the end of a long wooden table that had been covered by a large black tablecloth, and a variety of plates, cutlery and glasses.

his parents' funeral had ended hours ago, and jisung had been given the whole afternoon and night to spend with the remaining members of his family – his managers assumed he would be staying with his godfather.

and so, here jisung was, in the middle of the official mafia ceremony that would make him the leader of the criminal organisation that his family had been ruling for decades.

"gentlemen."

all the members across the long table stopped talking, diverting their attention to the man who had just spoken.

jisung's godfather stood up, taking his glass of wine delicately before looking at all the men surrounding the table.

jisung sighed, knowing where this was leading.

heesun would do a small speech, and then, jisung would officially become death park's next leader.

"you all surely know about the unfortunate events that occurred a few days ago. dark danger, our main rivals and threat attacked. and they hit us right in our heart. it has now been three days since the great park and lovely trap were killed, bombed in their own house on a peaceful sunday morning. this terrible incident left us without a leader, which is why we are all reunited today. first of all, to drink in the remembrance of the amazing people that were the great park and lovely trap. but also, to make young skull our new leader." heesun declared, his eyes going from member to member until they ended on jisung.

the godfather smiled at his godson sincerely, jisung's heart being hit by a wave of warmth and comfort after this dull day.

"gentlemen, please stand up and lift your glasses high in the air as a final goodbye to our loved ones who left us too early."

the noise of chairs screeching against the floor and rings colliding with glass were heard as the men around the table stood up, soon being all standing with their glasses full of liquid in hand.

"cheers to the great park and lovely trap. i hope you will take care of us from up here." heesun spoke, raising his glass high in the air.

"cheers!" the whole table said in unison, their glasses joining heesun's high above the table before they all took a sip simultaneously.

jisung's eyes never left the dozens of males standing around the table.

from where he was, they almost looked like an army of robots, trained to do what their boss wanted them to do without thinking. he had seen them since he was young, and he had always had this impression.

but for the first time in forever, jisung noticed something different. for once, they didn't seem completely emotionless and blank. their faces were contorted by sadness, and they were obviously affected by the death of his parents.

jisung somehow admired the love and devotion all the mafia members were showing.

"now, you all know young skull, the heir to the head of death park, son of the great park and lovely trap." heesun continued speaking, gesturing to jisung. "he will now be our new leader. please, follow me to the master bedroom."

jisung was the first one to follow behind heesun, soon joined by all the other members of the mafia.

they travelled across the small corridors jisung knew too well.

they were in the suburbs of seoul, in the house where the mafia had been created, by one of jisung's ancestors, decades ago. this house was the origins of death park and it held so much importance...

the house was the meeting place of the mafia whenever they had a new addition, or a new leader. there was a ritual that they followed very precisely every single time someone knew became part of the mafia.

heesun stopped walking once he had stepped into a large room, empty of any furniture.

the whole mafia stood in the middle of the room, looking at the walls that once were white.

three of the white walls had been written over with a dark ink. but it wasn't vandalism, far from that actually.

this was the initiation ritual that every member of the mafia had gone through when entering death park.

every single one of the men present in this room had written their names on that wall with a black permanent marker, and placed their fingerprint on the wall in a reddish ink that was nothing else than their blood.

the new members had then headed to the room attached to this one to have their tattoo printed onto them: a skull, the symbol of the mafia, placed on their chest, between their pectorals. all of them had it in the room. even jisung. he had been tattooed when he was young, and mortal hand – their tattoo artist, and one of the only girls in the mafia – had had to rearrange the drawing multiple times after jisung had grown up

"please, bring in the deathly blade." heesun spoke.

mortal hand appeared, holding in her hand a shiny blade that she handed to heesun.

the man then turned towards jisung.

"young skull, write your name on that wall with your blood, and become our next leader."

jisung took a deep breath, taking the blade carefully in his right hand and looking at his left palm. the boy took a few steps towards the only wall that wasn't covered of names and fingerprints.

the last wall of the room was different form the three others. it was the wall of the leaders.

each leader had to write with their blood their name on the white wall, and then print their own hand next to it.

the young boy slid the blade across his left palm, cutting the flesh open, and making blood ooze out almost immediately.

after handing the blade back to heesun, jisung placed his pointer finger in the pool of blood that was forming in his hand, then tracing with is blood a beautifully written 'y' on the white wall. after a few seconds, the members of the mafia were able to read the words 'young skull' just under 'the great park'.

coating his right hand with his blood, jisung pressed his right palm against the wall, just next to the name he had written, finishing the process of becoming the leader of death park.

the men behind jisung clapped as the young leader turned around to face them.

"i am young skull, your new leader." he told, under his godfather's proud gaze. "and now that i have the power to do so, i'm asking all of you to be more careful than you ever were. dark danger is trying to find our identities because they want all of us dead. but we won't give them the pleasure of killing us and taking over death park. we will get rid of them first."