Han Yunseong picked up three or four slices of boiled pork at once with his chopstick covered in red pepper powder, dipped them thoroughly in salted shrimp sauce, ate them, and knocked back a shot of soju. Once his stomach was somewhat full, his rationality seemed to return a bit, and he opened his eyes wide—which still looked like a toad’s due to the swelling that hadn’t gone down—and pointed at the pork with the tip of his chopsticks while looking at Jaeha.
“It’s delicious. Hurry up and eat.”
He seemed to have good social skills. And he was stupid. Jaeha didn’t dislike this type. It would be the icing on the cake if he had a lot of money too.
“After my grandfather passed away, he left me a huge inheritance, but even if I want to try doing business, I need to have learned something, right? Still, when I was young I followed my grandfather around looking at land and watching buildings being constructed, so I’m thinking about trying my hand at the construction business.”
“Mm, I’m against it. You saw me get beaten up, right? There are only fucking gangster bastards here, so even when you try to talk nicely, fists fly first. You look young too, so just go abroad, abroad. Whether you play the stock market in America or do AI business, it’ll be better than digging up and living off this cramped piece of land. Ah, I’m jealous. Me too, fuck, if I could just get the money together, I’d go to America right away.”
Han Yunseong put down his spoon dejectedly. Whether the American Dream was still valid or not, he seemed to have suddenly become pitiful about his own situation of having to ‘dig up and live off this cramped piece of land.’
“Can’t you just go to America too, ahjussi? You said the president of Yeonggang Steel is your father.”
“Ha, fuck, it’s because of that old geezer. Even though he’s senile, his obsession with the company is enormous, so he’s going on about how he won’t give me money unless I’m going to inherit it. It’s not like he has plenty of cash to begin with.”
Han Yunseong sighed and plopped several pieces of pork into his soup. Then he scooped up a generous amount with rice and crammed it all into his mouth.
“He goes around doing all the dirty shit himself, but he’s ruining his only son’s future. Ah fuck, honestly I’m jealous of you. Your grandfather and our old geezer are probably around the same age, right? He had me when he was old enough to see grandchildren.”
“You must have been a precious son?”
“I guess I was when I was born. They apparently did exorcisms, took medicine, and made all kinds of fuss. But still, if you desperately had a child like that, shouldn’t you raise them well? Why should I pay for the karma of him swinging his lower half around everywhere?”
Swinging his lower half around everywhere and its karma.
Could it be that Taesung wasn’t Yeonggang Steel president’s adopted son but a child he had outside?
Jaeha had once heard Chairman Hyun Hongwon talking with someone else before. Let’s not do business with Yeonggang Steel. Our Han Taesung is working so hard for me, I should at least do that much for him.
So Jaeha only knew that Taesung had been given up for adoption by Yeonggang Steel’s president when he was young. He’d also speculated that the reason Taesung particularly followed Chairman Hyun Hongwon, and the reason he showed complete loyalty like a dog being raised despite suffering all kinds of humiliation from Jang Hyeokjin, was probably because of the trauma from being given up for adoption.
But the idiot in front of him just happened to be named Han Yunseong.
And he said he was Yeonggang Steel president’s late-born only son.
And he’d directly witnessed him lashing out at Taesung with all sorts of emotions from this morning.
“Does that gangster have some kind of relationship with your father?”
Han Yunseong dropped his chopsticks in shock. Unable to swallow what was in his mouth, his cheeks puffed up as he shook his head vigorously.
Instead of pressing him further, Jaeha poured soju into his empty glass. Han Yunseong had just swallowed his food and seemed to have something caught in his throat, so he gulped down the soju urgently.
“Why are you so surprised? What, are you half-brothers or something?”
“Hey, what a horrible thing to say!”
So they’re not blood-related. Well, the two had no resemblance. The human in front of him had small eyes, a low nose, and only a mouth that was long like a catfish—a vague and dull impression where you couldn’t find even a trace of sexiness no matter how hard you looked.
“S-sorry.”
Jaeha filled the glass with soju again. Han Yunseong emptied it once more.
“It’s embarrassing and sordid so I can’t tell this to just anyone, but you—you saw all my dirty state today and you said something about doing construction business, so I’ll tell you specially. You might step in shit if you meet that bastard wrong.”
Jaeha leaned toward him with an extremely innocent expression. Han Yunseong rubbed the wound on his forehead and hesitated once more. But he couldn’t bear to ignore Jaeha’s eyes staring only at him, so he eventually opened his mouth cautiously.
“That, that gangster. You won’t believe it, but he’s an omega.”
Ah, fuck.
The smile disappeared from Jaeha’s lips. But Han Yunseong, busy being mindful of people around them, failed to notice the change in his expression.
“I guess he crawled up from the bottom with nothing, and he apparently even sold his body during his heats. Ah fuck, I couldn’t even imagine it. But our old geezer…”
“Did it?”
A chillingly frozen voice cut through his eardrums like a sharply honed blade. Only then did Han Yunseong stammer and look at Jaeha. Just moments ago he’d clearly had a bright and innocent impression, but Jaeha’s face with the smile gone was cold enough to send chills down one’s spine.
“Huh?”
“That body-selling gangster bastard and the old geezer—did they do it?”
“Huh? Uh uh, uh… People who used to do business back in the day liked that sort of thing, I mean, I think it’s dirty too…”
Not even knowing why he was making excuses, Han Yunseong shrank like a child being scolded.
“And you told the gangster bastard that?”
“Of course I tried not to say anything. But when he was trying to completely back out of the contract we’d agreed to, I needed something to use…”
So that’s why our hyung was so angry.
How frantically must he have worked his body that he didn’t even know who his clients were?
And then finding out that the dick of the bastard who threw him away saying he was useless had been inside him must have felt disgusting.
When even he felt this fucking shitty about it.
“It’s not ahjussi’s fault though.”
“Well, that’s true. I’ve never done anything like that.”
This time Jaeha poured all the remaining soju from Han Yunseong’s water cup. Then he gestured to Han Yunseong, who was looking around warily with bewildered eyes, to drink it all cleanly.
Han Yunseong squeezed his eyes shut and emptied the water cup.
So meek, and diligent.
Yeonggang Steel’s president must have some talent for raising kids. How did he manage to raise both his sons to be obedient like well-trained dogs?
“How could your old geezer say something like that to his own child?”
“That’s what I’m saying. If I hadn’t known anything, I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“Well, you did say he was senile, right?”
“Huh? Ah, he has Parkinson’s disease but his mind is clear.”
“Then he’ll live a long, long time.”
“Well…”
Sensing that the conversation was flowing strangely somehow, Han Yunseong trailed off uncertainly.
“He went around doing all that sordid shit himself, but now that he’s old and sick, isn’t he trying to stick a straw into his good son’s spine and suck out the marrow while living however he wants? Did he fucking have a child just for this?”
“Sometimes I do think that way… I mean, if you really wanted to raise me happily, you shouldn’t do this to me.”
“It’s no different from having a child because you needed a slave to take care of you in old age.”
“That’s what I’m saying. You understand well because you’re in a similar situation, right? Whenever I try to complain about this somewhere, I just hear things like ‘that guy who lived well thanks to his dad’s money is saying that because his belly’s too full.'”
“Kids who grew up with nothing think money solves everything.”
“Wow, you!”
Han Yunseong extended his hand cheerfully. Jaeha clasped his hand as if shaking hands and pulled him sharply toward himself. Han Yunseong showed an awkward smile, trying not to reveal his flustered state. Jaeha quietly brought his lips to Han Yunseong’s ear.
As soon as Jaeha’s breath touched his earlobe, Han Yunseong gulped down his dry saliva.
“It’s really nice to receive an inheritance. Because I can spend it however I want and no one can say anything about it.”
“That’s, that’s true. But an inheritance is…”
“I’m twenty-three years old, you know? Twenty-one in international age. But how old will ahjussi be when your father passes away? Forty? You’d be lucky if you’re only forty.”
“Hey, you’re twenty-three and you’re calling me ahjussi…”
“Ahjussi, do you know what’s scariest in the world? Living ghosts. Dead ghosts just startle people, but when a human who should be dead clings to life, they suck the life force out of the people next to them. That’s probably why you looked like an ahjussi to me. Then by forty, you might look like a grandfather to others.”
Perhaps feeling offended, Han Yunseong tried to pull his body back. But Jaeha grabbed him and pulled him in more forcefully.
“By any chance, doesn’t the old geezer pressure you to get married? From what I can see, your old geezer will live to be a hundred. Maybe ahjussi will go first. Then he’ll make ahjussi’s kid his new host.”
Han Yunseong’s eyes wavered. It was natural talk since he was at the age when marriage talk would start coming up, but it seemed to sound different to Han Yunseong.
“I’m wasting my time because I don’t know how to do anything, but ahjussi has vision. The inheritance should go to ahjussi, not a bastard like me.”
“Even, even so, what can I do about it? I can’t exactly perform an exorcism asking him to pass away quickly.”
“Killing him illegally is obviously wrong. You want to ruin ahjussi’s future? But starving an old man to death isn’t actually difficult.”
Jaeha finally let go of Han Yunseong’s hand. But this time Han Yunseong didn’t pull away. As if there was more to hear, he pressed his ear close to Jaeha’s lips.
