A House Made of Cards {Ateez au}

♢Prologue #4 - San♢

 San and Jongho. The two brothers grew as rivals since they were born. They were told that only one of them would take their father's powers and become the black witch.

Both of them were determined to win.

"Again," Yoongi ordered as the brothers fought. They landed hit after hit on each other but their father was never satisfied. Each fight ended the same way.

Jongho was on the ground after San had beaten him. San always beats him. San always wins.

Because he needed to.

He was the oldest after all.

Min Yoongi, the father of both Choi San and Choi Jongho, made the boys start training as soon as they could walk. They fought together, trained together, played together, and grew close for a little while.

But that was all torn apart once Yoongi revealed that they would have to compete to earn the abilities of the black witch. There was only one black witch, they should have known sooner, honestly. But the boys were young, they just wanted to be brothers.

But the competition divided them.

They no longer fought with each other, only against each other.

San knew he was better. He beat Jongho repeatedly. He had better control over his emotions, unlike his younger brother. Jongho almost always lost control. But San never did. For obvious reasons, San was favored by his father. Jongho hardly even stood a chance to get the powers.

But as much as San wanted to get the powers, he desperately wanted to reconnect with his younger brother. It was hard watching him succumb to his anger and obsession. He was concerned for him and he knew his father wouldn't help him.

The older boy made his way over to the training room, where he knew Jongho would be. He walked in on the younger practicing with a punching bag. Both his knuckles were bruised and bloody, a sign that he'd been overworking himself.

The black-haired boy sighed and walked towards his brother.

"Jongho," he started, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.

The boy knocked San's hand off his shoulder and turned around with an irritated look. "What do you want, San".

"I want to make sure you're okay," San frowned.

"Since when did you care?" Jongho scoffed, turning around to continue punching the bag.

San stood up a little straighter, "I want to make sure you don't hurt yourself," he said, his voice raising slightly.

"You didn't answer my question," Jongho said, his voice still steady even as he punched the bag, "since when did you care?"

"I've always cared, Jongho, I've just been busy with-"

"With what? Being father's favorite? Being better at everything? Huh?" Jongho snapped, cutting his brother off in the middle of his sentence.

"Father doesn't have a favorite," San protested.

"How blind do you have to be to believe that?" Jongho said.

"Jongho, listen-"

"No! I'm done listening to you!"

And with that, a bloody fist connected with San's jaw, sending him to the ground. But he didn't stop there, he kicked and beat his brother until his father came in and separated them.

Jongho was always stronger than San, but San could've stopped him. Instead, he just laid there and let his brother let steam off. Maybe it's because deep down he knew his brother was right.

++

After that day, Yoongi announced that San would become the next black witch. He told Jongho that he was too inexperienced and emotional.

That was the day that Jongho cursed both of them, saying he would come back to get them.

That was the day that San got his powers.

But most importantly, that was the day his little brother left, never to come back again.