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A merchant family from the famed and feared Low Down had been targeted by a lesser known clan to gain popularity for having had the balls to harm "Mad Demon" Jaha Lee's people.
In the cold and bleak winter, the scent of charring wood and blood-curdling screams for mercy filled the property and travelled far into the town.
The manor was burnt to ashes and the entire bloodline was slaughtered mercilessly, from women and men to the elderly and children.
Of course, Jaha crushed that clan like it was no big deal, not even entertaining the idea of inducting anyone from that shit stain of a group into the Low Down.
He severed the hands and feet of every member and tossed their writhing, screaming bodies into an incinerator so that they may suffer the pain the family had been delt.
As some people in the town began deconstructing the house to look for any survivors, a young child of barely 2 years old was found amongst the rubble in a crumbling closet.
At the time, no one could take care of the child, since they hadn't taken another person into account when preparing for the winter, so everyone gathered to discuss what is to be done with the orphan.
"Why not leave the child for Master to care for?" An old granny who often peddled radishes suggested among the murmuring crowd.
Everyone froze to look at her, shocked by her suggestion.
"We couldn't bother Master Jaha with this task!"
"He's busy, he doesn't have the time to take care of a child!"
"He's already done so much for us, why would we shove this responsibility on him, too?"
"Would a martial arts group really be a good place to raise a child? Especially with our Master's bloodthirsty nature..."
"Are you going senile granny? Why would our Master take care of some random family's kid?"
She smacked the last person on the head with her cane.
"Our Master is a kind man!"
The imagination of an awestruck follower.
"He has lots of money, shelter, food, a place to bathe, he's never cold in the winter and has incredible martial arts skills. The child would be taken care of! And haven't any of you been paying attention to the gossip of his students? He's been looking for a student to teach!" The granny explained, punctuating her seriousness with a huff as she stared down the group.
The majority eventually came around to the idea, and sent an errand boy to deliver the young child to the residence of Master Jaha Lee.
The boy trekked up the frozen mountain with the little one bundled up warmly in tattered blankets, until he reached the imposing gates of the Black Rabbit Clan.
Passing through the gates quietly with the approval of the stationed guards, the errand boy looked around for a familiar authority figure he could hand the sleeping kid to, but with much dismay, the expansive courtyard was entirely empty.
That did make sense, since it was almost 3am by that point.
After a little while of peeking around, too nervous to venture further in, the boy resigned himself to returning to the town and returning in the morning.
That was until he heard the noise of grunting and slashing.
He assumed it was a student training, so he tentatively rushed over.
A tall man with white hair and a grey training uniform hacked away awkwardly at a tree with a sword. His muscles were tense, looking completely out of his element.
The intense panting, coupled with the very little damage he had done on the tree eventually drew the conclusion that this man was Seongtae Cha, the secretary of the Low Down.
It was known throughout Ilyang that the secretary of the Low Down was a quick-witted, handsome young man with pale, short hair and was infamously trash at martial arts.
Eventually, after a little bit more hacking and slashing, the man tossed the sword away with a vengeance and collapsed onto the ground, his muscles screaming in pain and his chest heaving. The boy took this opportunity ran up to him, the child strapped to his back with a sling.
"Mr.Secretary! Is Master awake at this moment?" The boy asked, looking around to see if there was anyone else with the man at the moment.
Barely turning his head to look at the boy, Seongtae gave him a nasty look from the corner of his eye.
"What's a brat like you doing here? Why do you want to know about that Jaha bastard?" He spat, clearly harboring a grudge for having been forced to train throughout the night by the subject of their conversation.
The boy removed the sling from his back and cradled the child in his arms. "You remember the Gong family murder a few weeks ago? We found a child in the rubble and the townsfolk wanted to give this baby for Master to take care of since none of us can do it."
Seongtae nearby coughed up a mouthful of blood at the statement.
Jaha Lee taking care of a child? He would have more luck taking care of a weed on the side of the road.
Sitting up almost immediately, Seongtae looked at the building Jaha slept in, then sighed heavily and shakily stood up on both legs.
"Go bring your words to the man himself. I'll lead you to his resudence." Said Seongtae, an amused grin growing on his face. Suddenly being given a child would certainly put a surprised look on Jaha's face.
A soft knock came to Jaha's door as he was meditating. He ignored it of course, since it was past midnight and most likely not important.
After a minute or so of silence, the door was suddenly being pounded on.
Then came Seongtae's familiar screeching. "Open the door, Jaha, there's a boy here to see you!"
Extracting himself from his meditation, Jaha opened the door.
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Doctor Baek and he had discussed raising a student, but not a child.
Jaha was a busy man, and while he could teach lessons, he couldn't raise a child.
So who else would he give the job of overseeing care of the child but his loyal secretary who did nothing all day, Cha Seongtae.
Chasing the 4 year old boy Jaha had nicknamed Little Tiger, Seongtae earned a dirty look from his martial arts teacher.
"Come on you little brat! Sit still so I can learn how to use the new technique Master was going to teach me!" Seongtae pleaded with the child, his arms out as he crouched down low to get to it's height.
The Black Rabbit Clan leader exited the meeting room, and was headed towards the first training courtyard to check on how his students were doing.
Spotting the man dressed in black, the little boy raced to his side, clinging to his leg tightly as he turned to stick his tongue out at Seongtae, who had leaped to catch him and was now laying at Jaha's feet.
Looking at the scene below him, Jaha couldnt be more amused. Lifting the boy into his arms, Jaha kicked at Seongtae's shoulder.
"Get up. What kind of an example are you setting for this boy, Seongtae? Splayed on the floor, obstructing the way for your Master? Are you teaching him to be a rug instead of a strong young man?"
Seongtae scrambled to his feet, his head angled downwards and his hands clasped together as he bowed respectfully. "No, Master..." He grumbled, glaring at the child who looked at him so smugly.
Looking Seongtae up and down, his disheveled clothes and messied hair catching Jaha's attention. "That's what I thought. I want to see how you have been doing in terms of raising this boy. I'll assume he doesn't like you very much."
The man in black began walking to his favourite plum blossom tree, the one Seongtae had seen him training under so many times and wondered what exactly what was going on through his head, how it was that he always stayed so focused, how his his raven hair flowed so perfectly with the falling blossoms as he meditated, how he managed to move so gracefully with each swipe of his sword.
Perfectly normal thoughts to have about someone you dislike a normal amount.
Jaha sat down in his usual spot, setting the boy down in his lap.
"Have you cut your hair?" Jaha asks, seemingly to no one as he fixes his robes to make sure they sat properly over his legs.
Seongtae looked around, wondering who else he could have said this to, before proudly running his hands through his hair. "Yes, I have. The ladies at Plum Blossom Pavilion all say it looks very charming." He boasted. In the back of his mind, he hoped Jaha thought that as well.
Jaha stared at him blankly before rubbing the young child's hair.
"I was talking to Little Tiger, you narc" He explained, his eyes on the boy as he gently pinched the ends of his hair, eye-balling how long it had been before.
Seongtae lowered his head in agreement, responding stiffly. "Yes, Master. I cut his hair just yesterday."
Jaha looked his companion up and down, before reaching over to smooth out his platinum hair that shimmered a silver, almost pale gold colour in the sunlight. Shocked by how silky it was, Jaha couldn't help but pet his head a few more times.
"What are you, an escort? Why does you hair feel so nice?" Jaha questioned, not wasting a moment to poke fun at Seongtae even while complementing him.
Seongtae was frozen stiff on the spot. What? What was on his head? It was warm, but rough. Seongtae looked up, seeing Jaha's hand gliding through his hair. What the fuck. What the fuck? What the fuck?!
Suddenly at a loss for words, Seongtae tried to utter a response. He had never been so flustered before. Even when embarrassed in front of all of Jaha's men, he had never gotten this warm in the face, never felt this terrible twisting feeling in his stomach, like it was going to burst and empty it's contents in his body, killing him instantly.
Was this some new torture method Jaha was using him as a test subject for?
Jaha couldn't help the smirk on his face when he saw how Seongtae reacted to being touched so casually.
"So? Are you going to answer my question, or keep bumbling like an idiot?" He asked, interrupting Seongtae's stuttering carelessly. As he leaned in slightly, Seongtae could suddenly see a warm shard of pink glittering in Jaha's violently red eyes. From this angle, he noticed a small scar above his eyebrow, typically covered by his hair.
Seongtae attempted to regain his composure, coughing into his hand as he sat back up properly, slipping out from under Jaha's hand.
"If you have to know, I often wash my hair with the soap the women at the Plum Blossom Pavilion use. Sometimes it's nice to scrub all of that blood and sweat out of your hair, wouldn't you agree? Or has all of that gore you've slashed through accumulated on your scalp? Let's see-!"
Seongtae raised his hand and pulled it through Jaha's raven hair, starting from his scalp.
While it was neatly brushed, Seongtae was right.
Jaha's scalp felt like a gravel road. With a violent gag, he swiped his hand across the ground over and over again, trying to clean it of whatever was on his master's head.
"That was disgusting! That's it, the next time I wash my and the boy's hair, you're coming with us!" Seongtae cried, snatching the boy out of Jaha's arms and into his own.
Jaha had no words. How dare Seongtae, the infamous weasel, speak about his personal hygiene in such a way? The man in black narrowed his eyes and glared dangerously at his secretary, daring him to say one more word.
Seongtae understood that look all too well, so he quieted his words down to a whisper so only Little Tiger could hear him, "Don't ever let your head get that dirty, Little Tiger! Your master is setting a bad example!" He began stroking the young boy's smooth hair with relief. The toddler just stared up at him, before reaching up for Seongtae's face.
The older man's eyes began to sparkle with pride as he leaned down closer to the child in his lap, hoping he had finally touched the boy's heart.
Little Tiger's little pudgy fist closed in an iron grip around a tuft of Seongtae's hair, and yanked on it with the force of a fully grown man.
Seongtae yowled in pain, his hand rushing to grab Little Tiger's, trying to pry the boys fingers off of his precious hair. All the while, Jaha was slapping his knee at the scene, laughing heartily, having forgotten about the animosity he held towards Seongtae in that moment.
Little Tiger giggled happily, and let go of Seongtae's hair in favour of his collar, tugging at it with a wide smile, giving the poor man a moment of relief.
"Mama! Mama!" The young boy exclaimed, patting Seongtae's chest, causing Jaha to freeze mid laugh, now staring blankly at the two before him.
He looked to Seongtae's face to see how surprised he was at this sudden development.
"Ugh, you little runt! Your master has longer hair than I do, why don't you pull on his hair instead?!" Seongtae scolded, seemingly unbothered by the title of 'mother'
Jaha held a hand up to Seongtae's forehead, a dark expression on his face. "You heard that, right? Are you okay? Are you sick? What's wrong with you?"
Seongtae just slapped his hand away and put his focus back on the fussy child. "He's been under my care for the past year or so. I've obviously heard him call me Mama before. What, you don't think I tried getting him to stop? But he kept saying I wasnt his daddy, so I stopped trying," he explained with an exasperated huff, fixing his hair and rubbing the part of scalp that nearly went bald thanks to the little boy.
Jaha paused, taking Seongtae's point into account, before shrugging. "Makes sense that he doesn't call a dumb fuck like you dad. Because he calls me daddy."
Seongtae felt his heart stop, and he had a feeling Jaha did, too.
The two looked down at the child, then back at each other, a dark blush crawling up their necks.
"No, no that would never happen, no,"
"Yeah, no no, this child is crazy"
"Why did I adopt such a psychotic boy?"
"He must call everyone dad and mom, by that rationale"
"This stupid child can't tell a man from a woman"
"I would never be with you"
"Is there something wrong with me?"
"Of course there is, that's why you raised such a ridiculous child"
The little boy just stared up at the two who he saw as parents while they bickered over his intelligence.
Seongtae would often take him down to the village to play with kids his own age, so when he saw what his friends would do when their parents fought, he wanted to emulate that.
Little Tiger crawled out of Seongtae's arms and took each of their hands into his smaller ones.
"This reminds them that they love each other" an older sister in the village once told him with a cheeky grin. So he held their hands together like she showed him.
Feeling the other's hand sliding into their own, Jaha and Seongtae froze in place.
"Master! A wall in the courtyard broke during training, what would you..." A student asked, rushing up to the famous plum blossom to speak to his master, before trailing off at the sight before him.
Seongtae wanted to die of embarrassment, so he rushed to snatch his hand away, but Jaha held on firmly. Steeling his expression, Jaha acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Employ the help of the villagers to fix the wall. Now get out of here." Jaha dismissed the student with a wave of his hand, and he heeded his master's order with much confusion.
Once the student was long gone, Seongtae attempted to remove his hand from it's captivity in his master's surprisingly clammy hands. But yet again he failed.
"What the hell are you doing?? Let go!" The agitated secretary hissed, shooting glares at the smug looking boy who's hands were clasped over the two men's.
Jaha avoided his gaze mutely. He couldn't admit that he liked the feeling of Seongtae's hands. He really did seem like a woman in the way he took care of himself.
But he did give the young boy an approving nod.
Was Seongtae a whiny bitch who couldn't even hold his own against a leaf? Yes
Was he also gorgeous, intelligent, a hard worker, and took good care of his 'son'? Also yes
So after taking no time at all to think about it and only knowing what he wanted in the moment, Jaha was content with holding Seongtae's hand, and didn't mind that much that Little Tiger thought of them both as his parents.
For the moment.