78.
#Blaming the Lowly Bloodline?
Bang! The servants in the main house flinched at the sound of the door being roughly opened and closed. The Chairman’s secretary followed him with hurried steps, carefully observing his mood.
“How about dinner…?”
“Forget it.”
Chairman Jeong left only a cold breeze behind as he entered his bedroom. Once again, the door closed with a bang.
“Did something happen outside?”
The butler of the main house approached the secretary and asked. The secretary looked at the butler with a troubled expression.
“To be precise, there was an incident at the Vice Chairman’s house, not at the company.”
At the mention of the Vice Chairman, referring to Hayun, the butler tilted his head. He seemed to wonder what could have happened at the house where the grandchildren lived. The secretary sighed softly and shook his head. He felt it wasn’t his place to gossip about such matters.
“It’s before the Chairman’s dinner time. Please prepare something in case he asks for it later. If possible, something easily digestible.”
Although the Chairman was angry and said he wouldn’t eat anything now, considering his age, it wasn’t advisable to skip meals. The butler nodded in understanding at the secretary’s request.
“Chairman.”
The secretary lightly knocked on the Chairman’s bedroom door, but there was no answer from inside.
“All of today’s schedules are finished, so I’ll be heading out now. I’ll come to pick you up tomorrow morning.”
There was still no reply, but the secretary quietly withdrew. He gave the butler a look asking him to take care of things and left the main house.
Standing by the window, Chairman Jeong watched as the secretary left the mansion and returned to his car. The secretary hadn’t done anything wrong, but right now, he didn’t want to see anyone. He felt that if he faced anyone, he might end up venting his anger on an innocent party.
‘There’s no need to send unnecessary things through Madam Kim anymore.’
When Chairman Jeong had thundered at him to at least get engaged, Hayun had replied without changing his expression.
‘If there’s someone you have in mind, bring them.’
Whoever he brought, they wouldn’t be better than the candidates carefully selected by Madam Kim.
‘There’s no way I’d have such a person.’
Hayun had answered with a smirk. Chairman Jeong had suspected as much. For the past few years, Hayun had shown no signs of dating women. Even without investigating his background, Hayun’s schedule was packed with company work, and when his schedule ended, he would leave work promptly and return home. So there was no way he could have a woman. If there was one, it was likely someone working within the mansion.
Could it be that one of Haram’s tutors had bewitched Hayun? He had such suspicions when Hayun rejected all the blind dates arranged by Madam Kim. That’s why he had shown up at the mansion unannounced.
But he never expected to hear suspicions about Hayun’s relationship with Dawoon.
‘I don’t think it’s possible, but really, with Dawoon…’
He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. How dare they even suggest such a thing? It was nonsense, impossible. The servant must have seen something wrong. Why would Jeong Hayun be interested in Jeong Dawoon?
He wanted to believe that he was being too sensitive about Hayun’s reaction to giving Dawoon to someone else. He thought it was just a warning not to push arranged meetings on Dawoon, as they did with Hayun, because Dawoon was still young.
In response to Chairman Jeong’s words, Hayun didn’t avoid his gaze and just slightly raised the corners of his mouth. That smile raised the Chairman’s uneasiness to the extreme.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. A few years ago, when he tried to set up Dawoon with Congressman Choi Min-guk’s granddaughter, Hayun had reacted overly sensitively. Moreover, he had never heard of this thirty-year-old man dating a woman even once. Now that he thought about it, that was really strange. As he grew older, Hayun occasionally attended social gatherings in political and business circles, but there were no rumors about him even there.
Until now, he had thought Hayun was just restraining himself from casual relationships, befitting the heir of the Haedo Group, and had found it admirable. But that wasn’t it. Recently, Hayun didn’t care about his opinions at all. He did whatever he wanted without regard for anyone.
Could it be…? His brow furrowed involuntarily at the ominous feeling. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, could Jeong Hayun be gay? As Chairman Jeong, he absolutely couldn’t accept it, but he had heard that there were quite a few such people, and in fact, some famous businessmen abroad had proudly come out as homosexual.
‘If by any chance your sexual preferences are biased towards one side…’
As soon as he said that, Hayun burst out laughing. So he paused for a moment and looked at him, but Hayun shook his head saying it was nothing and told him to continue.
‘I’ll turn a blind eye to you having a separate lover. But our country still can’t ignore what’s visible. Make sure you get married.’
For Chairman Jeong, this was already a big concession. However, finding something funny, Hayun chuckled again.
‘Turn a blind eye, huh, kuk, haha…’
He seemed to try to hold back his laughter, but eventually, it burst out.
‘You’re mistaken.’
Hayun, having finally stopped laughing, faced Chairman Jeong with a grinning face.
‘I don’t need your blind eye. You shouldn’t think I’m still a youngster who needs to watch out for grandfather’s mood.’
‘You…!’
‘I’m not getting married.’
Hayun clearly stated his intention again. Chairman Jeong clenched his fists and glared at him.
‘Really… Do you really have something going on with Dawoon?’
Finally, those words came out of Chairman Jeong’s mouth. Even as he asked, he hoped and prayed that Hayun would deny it, saying it was nonsense. However, Hayun just smiled faintly without denying or confirming. As his silence lengthened, Chairman Jeong felt dizzy.
It can’t be. Why… Why of all people…
‘Jeong Dawoon, this…!’
‘I clearly told you not to touch him, not to do anything.’
As anger rose to his head and he was about to shout, Hayun cut him off.
‘Jeong Hayun!’
‘If you lay a hand on what’s mine, you should be prepared to become my enemy, even if you are my grandfather.’
The smile disappeared from Hayun’s face. A cold gaze, as if already facing an enemy, was directed at Chairman Jeong. At that cold tone and gaze that seemed to freeze the air, his whole body trembled with anger and disbelief.
Although he didn’t openly admit it, Hayun’s words already contained many hints. He didn’t deny the servant’s suspicions, and he referred to Jeong Dawoon as “his.” No matter how old-fashioned he had become, it was impossible not to understand what that meant.
‘Shall I have dinner prepared?’
Hayun asked as if nothing had happened, while Chairman Jeong felt dizzy with heat rising to his head. For the first time, he got goosebumps at this duality. Even if dinner was prepared, there was no way food would go down his throat. With his trembling body, he turned abruptly and left the mansion, returning to the main house.
All sorts of thoughts ran through his mind on the way back. What exactly was the problem? Why was Jeong Hayun so obsessed with Jeong Dawoon?
Remembering Dawoon, who had always been there, barely noticeable, made his anger rise. Kim Min-seo, Dawoon’s mother, had been the same. Among Jeong Seo-hoo’s secretaries, she wasn’t particularly eye-catching. Until Jeong Seo-hoo himself confessed that she had given birth to his child and that he would take care of her, Chairman Jeong hadn’t even known of her existence.
They say the quiet cat is the first to climb onto the stove… Both Kim Min-seo and Jeong Dawoon were exactly like that.
What on earth did they do to bewitch a normal person? How did a man, not even a woman, manage to make Jeong Hayun act like this? It was a problem of bloodline. He should have driven out that boy who inherited Kim Min-seo’s blood earlier… To do such things with a half-blood brother…
The more he thought about it, the more his teeth chattered. It wasn’t enough that Kim Min-seo had ensnared his son, now her son, Jeong Dawoon, was trying to ruin Hayun’s life. That lowly bloodline hadn’t gone anywhere. Who would have dared to imagine that Jeong Dawoon would become someone who bewitched another man, his own brother at that?
What would happen if someone found out about Hayun and Dawoon? The mere thought was horrifying. It wasn’t simply a problem of them being of the same sex.
His jaw trembled as he clenched his teeth. Hayun had absolutely forbidden him from touching Dawoon, but this wasn’t a problem that could be overlooked. Before it got more serious, before rumors spread, he had to resolve this somehow.
He took out his phone and called Secretary Kim, who had just left work.
“Contact the butler of Vice Chairman Jeong’s mansion and order him to fire all the servants immediately.”
The secretary was taken aback by his order, but he didn’t ask why or say it was unreasonable. There was too much anger in Chairman Jeong’s voice to argue, so he just answered that he understood.
***
Knock knock. At the sound of knocking, Hayun looked up from the report he was reading.
“Come in.”
At his response, the door opened and the butler entered the study.
“It’s valerian root tea.”
He set down the tea and cup he had brought on the desk.
“Sounds like you’re telling me to go to sleep soon.”
Hayun laughed, looking at the tea in front of him. The butler didn’t deny it and quietly smiled.
“I just received a call from Secretary Kim.”
At the mention of the Chairman’s secretary, Hayun’s hand stopped as he was pouring tea into the cup.
