Ganghyuk’s eyes darkened as he thought of Nayeon. At the feeling of his body shivering, the subordinate sitting in the driver’s seat gripped the steering wheel tightly. A tension flowed as if a blade was close to his throat.
Right on cue, a message flew into Ganghyuk’s phone. Chairman Tae, whom Ganghyuk had served for a long time, had died.
ლ
“Father, sob…”
“Kuk…”
“Dad… What will we do if you leave like this…”
Various crying sounds overflowed in the hospital room decorated like a hotel. From Tae Minsu with pale skin to Tae Minjae with bloodshot whites of his eyes, and Tae Nayeon in plain clothes unlike usual—all three twisted their faces and cried.
Behind them, medical staff stood with complicated expressions. The doctor and several medical staff who had performed CPR after Tae Hyeonseong’s heart stopped were drenched in sweat.
However, there was no one in here who truly mourned Chairman Tae’s death. Even his children all pretended to sob on the outside while checking each other with their eyes.
Especially the sidelong glances Minjae and Nayeon gave Minsu were so cold they couldn’t be considered the looks given to a blood sibling.
A short while later, the directors who were the real power of Taehyun Group filed into the hospital room. They wailed at the sight of Chairman Tae with his eyes closed.
Especially the directors who had been with the chairman since his younger days seemed frozen, unable to believe the scene before their eyes.
“Director Kang, Director Baek. You’ve come.”
Wiping the tears gathered around his eyes with a handkerchief, Minsu first spoke to those with the strongest power among the directors. Director Kang, who was standing with a cane, let out a groan.
“…Was the chairman’s final journey peaceful?”
“Yes. He passed without pain.”
Though his ribs had broken from performing CPR for nearly 30 minutes, he didn’t mention that part.
“Why don’t I see Ganghyuk?”
Director Kang, who let out a sigh filled with regret, looked around for Ganghyuk. At the words that seemed to say he should naturally be present for the chairman’s deathbed, the expressions of Minsu, Minjae, and Nayeon all hardened.
The moment Ganghyuk was mentioned, the emotion that flashed through the eyes of the three was identical enough that you could feel they shared blood.
Jealousy, anger, resentment.
It was emotion toward Chairman Tae, who had cherished an unrelated person more than his own children while alive, and toward the directors who thought of Ganghyuk as the successor in accordance with his will.
Director Baek, who checked his phone, whispered in Director Kang’s ear. At the words that Ganghyuk had gone down to Ulsan for business and was on his way up, he rubbed between his eyebrows tiredly.
“Let’s move the chairman to a comfortable place first.”
“Yes.”
Minsu bowed his head obediently on the outside. He still needed the directors’ power. Especially Director Kang had been Chairman Tae’s right-hand man, taking the lead in dealing with enemies before he took in Ganghyuk.
The fact that he needed a cane and limped on one leg was also because his body had been damaged from taking a knife to the thigh in place of Chairman Tae. As such, Chairman Tae had also handed over much real power to Director Kang.
More than Minsu, who was president of Taehyun Construction. He was also a figure who could manipulate the shares the directors held.
Since he was supporting that if a successor had to come from the three of them rather than Ganghyuk, it should be the eldest son Minsu, Minsu pushed down the surging emotion so it wouldn’t show.
But Minjae couldn’t hide his unpleasant feelings. He’d never had a good relationship with the directors from the start. Because unlike Minsu, he couldn’t hide his emotions, and unlike Nayeon, he couldn’t put on a mask to curry favor.
“We three siblings will take care of Father’s funeral ourselves. Director Kang, your health isn’t good, so please go home and rest. We’ll contact you again when the funeral home is ready.”
At Minsu’s coldly spat words as he twisted up the corners of his mouth, Director Kang’s wrinkled eyes hardened. The face of Director Baek standing beside him showed anger.
The directors standing behind them were the same. Chairman Tae had cherished those who had worked by his side since his youth.
Under the conviction that loyalty must remain alive no matter how much the Hyunho faction had come into the light, he’d seated all the subordinates who had devoted their youth during the Hyunho faction days as directors.
This was the background for why Ganghyuk was the youngest among the current directors. Ganghyuk had also followed Chairman Tae and the directors around doing all kinds of rough work when the Hyunho faction still remained.
The reason Chairman Tae and the directors cherished Ganghyuk was simple. They had all owed him their lives at least once.
“Ahem, how could that be? We’re all like the Chairman’s younger brothers.”
When Director Baek didn’t back down and revealed his displeasure, Director Kang grabbed his arm.
“Alright. Contact us when you’re ready.”
Director Kang gave one last glance at Chairman Tae’s face, which had no trace of blood, then limped out of the hospital room first. As Director Baek and the other directors followed him out in a rush, the hospital room quickly became empty.
The medical staff who had been standing in one corner also read the room, greeted the three siblings, and quickly disappeared. Minjae sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“Phew, this is really shitty. If others saw this, they’d think Tae Ganghyuk was father’s real son or something.”
Nayeon opened the refrigerator door, took out a bottle of sparkling water, and drank it. Her eyes looking at their father who had become a cold corpse were dry. The appearance of her shedding tears just moments ago was nowhere to be found.
“Everyone watch what you say. You know there’s nothing good about making enemies of the directors.”
When Minsu said this while loosening his necktie, Minjae smiled crookedly.
“That only applies to you, hyung. Must be nice, getting to secure the next chairman position by clinging to Tae Ganghyuk.”
“What good does it do you to talk like that? If you want to keep even your vice president position, you need to fix your habit of spouting off without thinking.”
Minsu warned him at his sarcastic words. Though he was the weakest among the three siblings, now that Chairman Tae was dead, he wasn’t going to stay still.
Watching his siblings today, he’d realized. The two of them hadn’t given up on Taehyun Group yet. Even though he’d received Minjae’s shares through Ganghyuk, he felt uneasy.
He wasn’t too worried about his second sibling who let out his emotions without holding back. Though he had the disadvantage of being uncontrollable, it was precisely because of this that he knew Minjae had absolutely no talent for hiding anything.
“Nayeon, you’ve been busy with company work lately, right? I saw the article that came out recently. It seems the project group your company raised made it to Billboard. Congratulations.”
What concerned him now was his youngest sibling whose thoughts he couldn’t read. Though a woman, she resembled their father’s personality the most. Perhaps if she had manifested as an alpha instead of an omega, Minjae and her positions would be reversed now.
Following their father’s and the board’s firm stance that a female omega could absolutely never sit in a central company position, she’d been handed an entertainment company early on, but Minsu knew well that Nayeon wasn’t someone who would quietly step aside.
“Thank you, big oppa. Where are we going to hold father’s funeral?”
“I’ve already called Bongseongsa Temple. We should do it according to father’s wishes while he was alive.”
Chairman Tae was a devout Buddhist. His wife who had died young had also received a Buddhist funeral. Bongseongsa was a temple he’d donated to whenever anything happened. He’d also been close with the temple’s head monk.
The monk who received Minsu’s contact answered in a troubled voice that he would proceed with the funeral without any issues.
“Our father must be happy. Now he’ll finally see mom too.”
Nayeon smiled thinly while grasping Chairman Tae’s cold hand. It was when Minsu shivered as if getting goosebumps.
A knock was heard from the hospital room door. The three people simultaneously turned their gazes toward the door.
The hospital room door opened and Ganghyuk, dressed in a jet-black suit, entered. Ganghyuk’s eyes, which had been walking with an impassive expression, trembled finely the moment he spotted Chairman Tae.
Over the peacefully closed eyes, the image from when he’d first met him overlapped. Back then, Chairman Tae had such an impressive physique that anyone could tell he was a dominant alpha.
‘This boy, this one is quite something.’
If Yeon Cheolho had been his benefactor who showed him kindness for the first time, Chairman Tae was the person who made him feel paternal affection.
