The shou has suffered from hereditary cardiomyopathy since childhood. He spent more time in intensive care than at home, and doctors all said he wouldn't live to see fifteen.
Endless pain made him temperamental and quick to anger. His parents spoiled him, too, turning him into an arrogant tyrant. Then his mother adopted a younger brother from an orphanage, saying the boy was meant to keep him company.
The shou stopped smashing things and suddenly became a little interested.
On the surface, he held the gong's hand and sweetly called him his little brother. In private, he grinned as he called him a bastard again and again, then shoved him into the pool and nearly drowned him.
He was jealous of the gong's healthy body.
He was jealous that after his death, the gong would rightfully take his place in everything, including their parents' love.
So, with his parents' tacit approval and indulgence, he bullied the gong in every way he could.
For example, he would sit on the gong's lap, put an arm around his neck, and snip his hair into ragged pieces, then deliberately slash his face and grin as he held up the scissors. "Well, do you like this hairstyle?"
Or he would kick him down the spiral staircase from behind, then hurry down and press hard on his broken leg, blinking with concern. "How could you be so careless? Good thing I was behind you. What would you have done if I hadn't been there?"
Or he would crouch in a dark alley and watch the gong get bullied from beginning to end, then pretend to chase off the thugs and pour milk over his head. "You're covered in blood. Gross. I rinsed it off for you, so don't mention it."
He carried on unchecked until he was twenty-two. He didn't die, and instead got the news that his parents had died when their car plunged into the sea.
His illness had left him paralyzed from the waist down, and now he was entirely at the gong's mercy.
To his surprise, the gong had no plans to repay every cruelty in kind. He still cared for him as tenderly as if he were made of delicate porcelain.
The only thing that unsettled him, perhaps, was that on the few occasions each month when the gong was rarely home, the servants would dress him in a frilly doll's dress, package him up like an exquisite, lavish gift, and wait for his nominal younger brother to unwrap him.
The sound of leather shoes echoed clearly down the empty hallway. The servants' greetings grew closer. The shou was so frightened that he fell out of his wheelchair and crawled toward the curtains in the corner.
A pair of hands lifted him from behind off the cold floor and placed him securely on the bed. The gong knelt before him and kissed his numb feet, kissing his way upward, his breath reverent and fervent.
"How could you be so careless? What if you fell while I was away?"
The shou was held tightly around the waist. His legs were useless, so he couldn't run, and he couldn't push the other man away. He was so frantic that he cursed aloud. "What are you doing? Let go! I said let go! You filthy bastard!"
The gong raised his face from between the shou's legs and gave a faint, cold smile. "You forgot again, ge. Today's my birthday. It's time to give me the coming-of-age present I was owed three years ago."
Theme: Good and evil each meet their just reward
