However, it was only for a moment. Choi Suho forgot that he had shattered the small mirror installed on the minibar in a fit of rage and ended up stepping on the shards. As the mirror fragment drove deep into the sole of his foot with a sickening push, Choi Suho couldn’t even let out a groan. Trembling violently, he crouched down, curling his knees in an unsteady posture.
“Fuuuck! I’ll kill you! I’m like this because of you, fuck, because of you…!”
Even so, Choi Suho—who had never once knelt before anyone—still did not kneel. Ji Haesu watched him quietly, clenching and unclenching his fists while swallowing dryly, pretending to be terrified.
But his true thoughts were different.
For a trash Alpha bastard who couldn’t bring himself to kneel even under that kind of excruciating pain—if I force him to his knees physically, and then make him kneel on his own psychologically afterward… just how intoxicating would that pleasure be?
This was like a Christmas present granted not as part of a job, but to Ji Haesu as an individual.
“A d-doctor… please, a doctor…!”
Ji Haesu staggered backward, stammering as if flustered. Choi Suho, who still hadn’t knelt until then, seemed to finally feel the pain and bleeding in his foot worsening; his already pale face turned even whiter.
“Ugh…!”
“President!”
“Fuck, get lost! Don’t touch me!”
When Ji Haesu tried to support him as Choi Suho grabbed the minibar to stand up, he fiercely rejected it. Driven by the single thought that he couldn’t kneel in front of such a worthless nobody, he forced himself upright, relying on only one foot. Panting harshly—huuk, heok—Choi Suho spoke with a deathly pale face.
“Get lost.”
“…Yes?”
“I said get the fuck out!”
“B-but the doctor—”
“I’ll handle it myself, so get out!”
Unable to withstand Choi Suho’s temper—or rather, pretending not to—Ji Haesu turned pale and left the room.
“I-I’m sorry, President.”
“Aren’t you leaving already?”
“I’m sorry!”
Startled, Ji Haesu shouted and slammed the door shut. Only after he left and Choi Suho was truly alone did he begin trembling violently, finally kneeling down as he pulled the shard of mirror embedded in his sole out with his own hand.
“Khk!”
Blood streamed down in a thin line. Cold sweat beaded across his handsome face as he clenched his eyes shut to endure the pain. His lips, bitten tight, stood out even redder.
“Haa…”
Barely cracking his eyes open, Choi Suho let out ragged breaths and lowered his head. Perhaps because he was enduring such agony, within his clouded vision he seemed to see Do Si-in’s Omega-typical face—delicate, slender, and beautiful.
—Are you okay, Suho? Does it hurt a lot?
“Fuck.”
It was because he’d stupidly started living together in that Pyeongchang-dong house. Because whenever he was hurt, that person took care of him. His body, accustomed to those hands, was now craving that person in its pain.
“Fuck… I already threw that bitch away, so what the hell am I doing.”
His body shaking, he let out a low, breathy laugh before biting his lip. It wasn’t like he’d just thrown them away casually.
But what was the point of regretting it now? I took Do Si-in’s child away.
And I had the right to do that. I didn’t even know whether that child was mine or someone else’s.
What if I’d insisted it was my child and Dad had abandoned me because of it?
Limping on his injured foot, Choi Suho justified what he had done to Do Si-in.
I had no choice. All I have is Dad. I didn’t want to be abandoned by him.
There’s no way I could’ve loved you, a recessive Omega. There’s no way a recessive Omega like you could’ve been pregnant with my child.
That’s why I abandoned you.
Now I just need to forget everything.
It was only because he’d lived together with Do Si-in for three years that the imprint ran so deep into his body, making it hard to forget.
If we hadn’t lived together in the first place…
“Fuck!”
Thinking he’d taken too long getting to the bed because his mind had been overtaken by thoughts of Do Si-in, Choi Suho slammed the bed repeatedly with both hands.
“Aaaaargh!”
Who the fuck do you think you are, who do you think you are! Do Si-in, who the fuck do you think you are!
“Ugh!”
With his thoughts completely dominated by Do Si-in, Choi Suho reflexively braced himself against the floor with his injured foot. In an instant, he collapsed and fell to his knees on the floor.
That was the day Choi Suho knelt for the first time.
***
Sensing that Choi Suho’s condition was serious, Ji Haesu ultimately called a doctor. That news reached Honorary Chairman Jang Yuguk’s ears almost immediately.
And that was also the day Chairman Jang Yuguk—who rarely ever showed his face at XX Hotel—appeared without warning. The moment his Maybach slid to a stop out front, the face of Suite Manager Jang Haejin, who had been just about to clock out, turned deathly pale. Jang Haejin, along with other high-ranking staff at XX Hotel whose Jang-family blood had been diluted to near nothing, all turned white, not knowing what to do.
As everyone scrambled to straighten their posture and receive Chairman Jang Yuguk as he strode in like a natural disaster, Choi Suho—his left foot badly injured, leaning on crutches—and Ji Haesu, who had caused this whole situation, both wore calm expressions. That was one thing for Choi Suho, but for Ji Haesu, who should’ve been groveling on the floor begging not to be fired, his composure left the employees frustrated.
When another employee cautiously approached Ji Haesu to tell him that the Chairman was arriving and that he should hurry and prostrate himself to beg forgiveness, Choi Suho suddenly swung his crutch and smashed it into the employee’s shin with a loud crack.
“Aaagh!”
As the employee collapsed in pain, Choi Suho went even further, venting the stress of having his father summoned on that employee. He struck the employee’s back hard with the crutch.
Thud!
“Who the fuck do you think you are.”
Thud!
“Ah! P-President! I-I’m sorry!”
Thud! Thud!
Supporting his body with the left crutch while beating someone with the right was a disturbing sight. It took quite some time for the seventy-eight-year-old Chairman to walk from the main entrance to where the employees were lined up. And from the entrance where the employees greeted him to the far end where Choi Suho stood would’ve taken even an ordinary person a full ten minutes to walk.
Though he was a president, Choi Suho was an illegitimate child, and thus had no right to proudly receive the father who had brought him into the world. The place designated for him to meet Jang Yuguk was none other than the laundry sorting area. Past the information desk, past the grand piano worth hundreds of millions and the café, all the way to the laundry space where Choi Suho and Ji Haesu stood as if hiding.
Already in a foul mood because he felt his foot had been injured because of Ji Haesu and Do Si-in, having to meet his biological father—who’d rushed over out of concern—secretly in a first-floor laundry room made him feel even more fucking miserable.
“Who the fuck do you think you are! Touching my things without permission!”
And you dare try to touch Jang Jisu—who I thought I’d fuck—behind my back?
From the employee’s and Ji Haesu’s perspective, it was nothing worth mentioning, but to Choi Suho, even the slightest brush felt like a spark ready to ignite everything.
Watching this, Ji Haesu stood with his hands clasped behind his back, about to say something—then, seeing the employee being beaten into a bloody mess, he curved his lips into an intrigued smile.
My things?
Since when did I belong to Choi Suho? If anything, it’d make more sense the other way around. Honestly, the more I look at him, the cuter the nonsense he spouts, Choi Suho.
“Hhk, h-hng… President, P-President, I-I’m sorry!”
“President Choi, the Chairman is coming in!”
Realizing the violence from inside, a secretary shouted urgently. Ji Haesu grabbed Choi Suho’s solid arm as he continued beating the employee with his crutch, seemingly not hearing a thing.
Perhaps because he worked out extensively, his arm—befitting a dominant Alpha—was packed with solid muscle, but to Ji Haesu, it felt endlessly fragile.
Having subdued others countless times but never been subdued himself, Choi Suho looked genuinely startled and dropped the crutch. Unfortunately, the crutch he’d been holding fell with a dull thud onto the employee, who was curled up trembling and shielding his face. He nearly screamed, but Ji Haesu swiftly released the frozen Choi Suho, scooped the employee up in one motion, and carried him behind the stacked laundry to deal with the situation.
“The Chairman is coming in, so I’ll hide with the employee.”
“What? Dad’s coming, and you too—!”
But just as Ji Haesu said, the laundry storage door opened, and Chairman Jang Yuguk’s booming voice echoed through the space.
“Where’s the bastard who hurt my kid!”
Jang Yuguk was the kind of man who would force his sons to come into work even after a traffic accident, but toward Choi Suho, he showed a distinctly different kind of affection. Upon hearing that a large shard of mirror had embedded itself deeply into Choi Suho’s sole, making it so difficult for him to walk that he’d need to be in a cast and on crutches for at least a week, he flew into a rage. Demanding to know how the suite had been managed so poorly that his child was injured, he ordered all employees responsible for the suite to be assembled.
“Dad…”
“Oh, my poor boy. What are we going to do with your foot hurt like this? I told your team—you’re resting for two weeks. I saw you had a business trip scheduled; how could you possibly go on a trip with a foot like this?”
It was practically an open declaration that Choi Suho was Jang Yuguk’s illegitimate son, even with Jang Jihyeok serving as Vice President at Free Enterprise—but what did that matter? His father was alive and well right here.
Unlike with his brothers, his father had come straight to his hotel the moment he was hurt and worried over him. Overwhelmed by that love, Choi Suho’s eyes stung with tears.
“Yeah. Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for? More importantly, where’s the bastard who did this to you? Hm?”
