The Things My Eyes Have Seen (Minor Family Supremacy Series: Macau)

Chapter 1: Macau

    Over the years, being the younger brother of the infamous Vegas Kornwit Theerapanyakul has exposed me to many things unsavory in nature. I have lost count of the number of men my brother has killed in front of me. It was never on purpose, he was not that cruel. It usually happened when I was ditching school and came home early, or when he thought I was in another part of the mansion we called home only in the loosest definition of the word. When the room was cleared, or later when I was alone in my bedroom, he would always apologize for exposing me to such violence. I shrugged it off. It was expected; growing up within one of the nation's most powerful mafia families was certainly a different world.

    Part of me felt special whenever we had these moments. It almost made the trauma worth it, because my Hia never apologized to ANYONE. I made sure never to let on that I was elated to be considered his most special person. On the contrary, I made sure to play it extra cool. I muttered things like, "Yeah, whatever," when my heart was beating in my throat from the shock of heading into the kitchen to make popcorn only to see the cabinets splattered with the brains of whoever had pissed him off on that particular day.

    As an unspoken rule, my brother and I rarely interacted with our three cousins from the Main Family when we got older, despite being fast playmates when we were young. As the youngest, I looked up to each of them in one way or another, though none were as impressive as Vegas. Thankhun used to make me laugh, acting out scenes from our favorite cartoons, even though he was much older than me. He always seemed to want to play with me and Kim more, as if desperately trying to preserve any inklings of innocence that he could. Kinn never wanted much to do with me. He was more occupied with whatever contraption my brother was building in his room or whatever book he was reading, scoffing at each one like there was no way my brother could actually understand all the English, French, German, Italian, or Japanese in the novels he read. Little did he know that our father used a heavy hand to make sure Vegas and I spoke multiple languages, although I shirked off my studies much more than Hia.

    Kim was close in age with Vegas, so there was a time I was insanely jealous of him. They would disappear into the library or the music room for hours and I wasn't allowed in. Occasionally Kim would play with me when we were very small, but he always seemed too serious and lost in his own world, humming constantly to music only he could hear. I never let him or anyone know that I secretly bought all his albums and followed his socials on a burner phone using bogus accounts. I would be absolutely mortified if he ever learned I was a fan. Just thinking of the satisfied smirk he would wear made me want to punch him on the rare chances I did see his face.

    Once Kim and I were the only ones left in school (even though Kim never attended enough for it to really count) we were all barely on speaking terms. Hia would sit in his room, his face a cave painting bearing our father's red handprint, mumbling about how their family was always so happy while ours was broken beyond repair. Sometimes I would pat him on the back, but after a while, I got tired of the reminders so I would silently pass by his door without indicating I was there. I felt a little guilty when I sat on my bedroom floor, but I was dealing with my own shit. I didn't want to burden Vegas further, so he was only aware of a fraction of the bruises and lacerations I bore.

    When Vegas reached a certain age, my father began to pimp him out to his business partners and their sons. I shuddered thinking that I would be next, so I began to rebel. I wore cool yet unappealing clothes and spoke roughly, never leaving my room without my trademark scowl. I wanted everyone to know that I was untameable. Off-limits. Vegas would shake his head in exasperation when I would act out, but he never tried to correct the behavior. Part of me thought that he could see right through my plan and was showing his support in the only way he could.

    Things were working like clockwork in the two households: in the Main Family everything was going well and in the Minor Family everything was going well on the surface. Until one man changed everything.