*
“Just what kind of behavior have you been displaying outside!”
Thwack! A glass ashtray struck his forehead. The ashtray shattered into pieces and scattered, red droplets of blood dripping down onto it.
Even as blood spread across his pale skin, Dohae kept his head lowered and eyes cast down. Though he appeared powerless without a shred of will to resist, his golden eyes hidden beneath long lashes were coldly frozen.
“That child had a seizure the night before last. Because you brought malice with you!”
“I apologize, sir. I thought there couldn’t possibly be anyone who harbored that degree of malice toward me…”
“Silence! Useless bastard. Can’t even sell a proper smile!”
The old man who had thrown the ashtray leaned back in his chair to calm his anger. That’s when a small picture frame on the desk caught his eye. Inside the frame was captured a happy moment of his son and daughter-in-law who had left this world first, and his grandson who was the apple of his eye.
The beautiful child with blonde hair and blue eyes brought to mind an angel from a famous painting. The child’s name was Do Dohae. The old man’s one and only grandson.
If this child had grown up properly, by now… The old man looked with distaste at Dohae, who had the exact same face and exact same name as his beloved grandson.
“Do you know why I don’t acknowledge you as my bloodline?”
“Because… I am severely lacking.”
“Because you’re greedy.”
“…”
“Tsk, even after educating you that way, you still have those wicked eyes that want to steal everything from that child.”
“…I know full well that obedience is the only way I can survive.”
“You’d better. Aren’t you the one who even killed your own mother to live? I don’t trust you, but I do trust your obsession with survival.”
For a moment, veins bulged in Dohae’s jaw, and a black shadow rippled on the old man’s glossy nameplate. The shape of a crow seemed to reflect on the nameplate, but it disappeared the moment Dohae squeezed his eyes shut.
Not yet. I can’t be discovered. Wait. Dohae repeated inwardly to someone.
When Dohae opened his eyes, his face was still obedient. As if he had no idea what the old man was saying. Each time the old man’s gaze touched him, it felt like being stripped naked, but he had to endure it.
“Find and eliminate the malice. Before something happens to that child.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And keep Taehui by your side for the time being.”
“Understood.”
Dohae bowed his head respectfully in greeting, then turned around. With each step he took, one step, two steps, his face mercilessly contorted.
Damn old man. How long is “for the time being”? If my actions are restricted, it’ll disrupt my future plans. And of all people, to be monitored by pervert Hui…
“Hey there, honey? Smooth out that expression. You planning to advertise what a dog-shit personality you have?”
Opening the guild master’s office door and stepping out, Dohae saw pervert Hui leaning against the wall and muttered a curse under his breath. He tried to ignore him and pass by, but pervert Hui followed closely behind Dohae.
“You pissed off over spilling a little blood? Haedo apparently even got narcotic painkillers yesterday~”
“Shut up.”
“Actually, Haedo was curious about you. Said you haven’t been answering lately? Can a dog ignore its master’s calls or not?”
Without answering, Dohae entered the men’s restroom. Pervert Hui, wearing a short leather skirt and high heels, followed without hesitation.
Standing before the sink, Dohae cast a recovery skill on the wound on his forehead and washed away the bloodstains with water.
Passing by him, pervert Hui stood in front of the men’s urinal and lifted his skirt right up. A man’s genitals popped out from inside.
“Tomorrow the old man’s going on a business trip and won’t be coming to the main house.”
“So what.”
“Haedo seems to need some transgression for the first time in a while. Must be upset about last night too.”
“Hah… I have a schedule at dawn.”
“Oh my, that’s your problem. When Haedo calls, honey shouldn’t you follow even to hell?”
Having finished his business and approached, pervert Hui patted Dohae’s shoulder with a smirk.
Fuck, how disgusting. When Dohae roughly shoved him away, pervert Hui shrugged and squeezed out soap foam.
“What can you do even if it’s unfair? Think of it as karma. Karma for stealing a Constellation.”
Dohae’s eyebrows twitched. Pervert Hui didn’t know the truth of that day so it couldn’t be helped, but being treated like a thief was still unpleasant.
In an instant, Dohae’s golden hair and blue eyes were dyed jet black. Unaware that an abyssal darkness might be looking down, pervert Hui hummed while washing his hands.
*
Long ago, there was a woman who desperately wanted a child. Despite her poor health, she attended an infertility treatment center and underwent in vitro procedures. After several attempts, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but the woman gradually grew weaker.
Beside the woman was a greedy friend. The friend was jealous and envious of the woman who had married the heir to a large guild. She also coveted the enormous fortune the child would inherit.
The friend secretly stole the couple’s frozen embryos and implanted them in her own body. She gave birth to a baby boy a few days before the woman, then disappeared with the child.
Several years later, the ailing woman passed away. At the funeral hall appeared the woman’s friend, breaking her long disappearance. Bringing with her a child the same age who looked exactly like the woman’s child, like twins.
The friend falsely confessed to having had an affair with the woman’s husband. The woman’s husband jumped up and down denying it, but the genetic test matched perfectly. Following his father’s orders, he had no choice but to bring them into the house.
The two children not only looked alike but even had the same name. One of them had to change their name, but neither would yield.
The woman’s husband insisted that the child born by his dead wife was the true owner of that name, and the friend stubbornly opposed, saying it was her child who was born first and used that name first.
A rolling stone couldn’t remove an embedded stone. The one loved by everyone was the woman’s child.
The woman’s child had brilliant blonde hair and blue eyes from a contract with a powerful Constellation, and with an affectionate and sweet personality added on top, earned the nickname “baby angel.”
On the other hand, the friend’s child had jet black hair like a crow’s feathers, and his personality was also prickly and sensitive. There wasn’t even a speck of cuteness to be found.
No one called the friend’s child by his name. That name belonged only to the baby angel. To them, the friend’s child was just a fake.
Under years of continued disregard and contempt, the friend poured cruel venting onto the child.
Same name and same face, so why won’t the same Constellation come to you! Useless child! If I’d known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have had you! Aren’t you even resentful? Steal it, and if you can’t steal it… kill him!
Crushed under his mother’s madness, the child couldn’t bring himself to confess. That he already had a contracted Constellation.
“Huuu…”
Dohae exhaled deeply, his breath full of alcohol scent, as he loosened his necktie. He also undid a couple buttons on his damp shirt and leaned his back against the wall.
At the end of his gaze was a dome-shaped greenhouse. Colorful lights flashed dizzyingly on the greenhouse’s translucent glass walls. From inside flowed noisy club music and the clamorous voices of men and women.
It’s about time they start rolling around like beasts. He didn’t want to get involved with disgusting humans who had nothing but instinct left. Dohae thought he should quickly get away before Haedo called for him and staggered forward.
“Mother…”
Mother, look at the baby angel waiting for the day of his death inside the greenhouse. As you wished, he handed over the name and Constellation to your son, and is now steeped in alcohol, drugs, and women. Are you satisfied now?
A self-mocking laugh spilled out. She probably wouldn’t be satisfied. Because she was a greedy person, like a bottomless jar that couldn’t be filled no matter how much you poured in.
This is why I hate alcohol. When I drink, the past comes back and I can’t breathe. That bastard knows this too, so he forces me to drink to vent his anger…
‘Because you don’t want to be alone in hell… Poor bastard…’
Staggering along, Dohae opened any random door and entered. It was a storage room piled with bed sheets, blankets, and gowns. In the middle of the storage room was a long chair.
Dohae laid his body down on the chair. It bothered him that there was someone already there in the corner, but once he lay down, it was hard to get up. It was because he’d far exceeded his drinking capacity.
“Oh my, you didn’t just drink alcohol, you took a full shower in it?”
The identity of the person already there was pervert Hui. Looking at his disheveled hair, blouse stained with someone’s makeup, and wrinkled skirt, it was easy to guess what he’d been doing here.
Dohae’s brow furrowed deeply as if displeased. Pervert Hui sneered at Dohae’s appearance like a mouse fallen into a vat of alcohol, as always.
“Well~ you have to endure this much venting~ How anxious must our Haedo be? Even the hacking company failed to track down the malicious commenter, so who knows when he’ll have another seizure?”
Dohae didn’t answer. Pervert Hui had the bad hobby of deliberately getting on his nerves and enjoying the reaction. Ignoring him was the best option.
“The old man said so? That you couldn’t possibly not know about malice this big. That you must have some scheme, so watch you closely from the side.”
At pervert Hui’s words, Dohae scoffed with his eyes closed. The real scheme hasn’t even started yet, so their flailing about was amusing.
