Jang Jihun clutched his nose as twin streams of blood poured down, spitting curses—“Ngh! You son of a bitch! Fuck!”—but Jang Jihae only smirked, not even bothering to bring him a tissue. Having effortlessly subdued Jang Jihun despite his continued needling, Jang Jihyeok rested his chin on his left hand, swept his gaze in order over the advisor, the lawyer, and finally Jang Jihae, who sat at the very bottom of the pecking order, and then spoke.
“So that inheritance only applies if Choi Suho is a dominant Alpha, right?”
“Yes. It’s specified very clearly.”
Having barely managed, with desperate effort, to pull the fork out, Jang Jihun hastily wrapped his tie around the back of his hand, which had been completely pierced through. In a rasping, metallic voice, he asked,
“Th-then, ngh, what does that mean?”
“You really are slow.”
Jang Jihae replied in a flat voice.
“It means Choi Suho became an Omega. But how did he become one? Did you do it, hyung?”
“No.”
Jang Jihyeok stared at the tea—almost empty now—with utterly emotionless eyes as he answered.
“The bastard’s own karma did that.”
“Well, whatever. Doesn’t matter how. If he’s an Omega, then he doesn’t inherit anything at all, right?”
“Yes. The Chairman explicitly stated that he would not leave any inheritance to recessive Alphas or recessive Omegas, not to Omegas within the family.”
“Hah. Filthy bastard.”
Jang Jihun lowered his head, clutching his blood-soaked hand, and laughed.
“How much fucking around did he do to spray out a kid like that?”
“He spent his life chasing after Omegas who looked like Choi Juho. What’s new? Of course he’d want to give everything to the bastard. He didn’t want to give anything to the recessives he himself sired, but who would’ve thought Choi Suho would become a recessive Omega and lose his inheritance? Hyung, did you really not know that would happen? Or did you know and do it anyway?”
Jang Jihyeok finished his tea, stood up, and casually tossed something out from inside his jacket. Photos spilled out in a scatter.
“And Father seems to want the child Suho will bear.”
The corner of Jang Jihyeok’s mouth curved upward.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we personally showed him?”
In the photos Jang Jihun and Jang Jihae picked up, Choi Suho was kissing an unidentified beautiful man. The image was blurry, but it was unmistakably Choi Suho. Seeing Suho being pinned, overwhelmed, kissed as if held in the man’s arms without being able to resist, the two brothers first smiled in rapture—then frowned.
“He still looks like an Alpha. He’s a dominant Alpha, isn’t he?”
“Based on the hair sample the Vice President provided, it was confirmed that he has manifested as an Omega—”
Jang Jihun’s expression shifted wildly.
“What the hell are you planning, Jang Jihyeok?”
“Nothing special.”
Slipping his coat back on and slowly pulling his gloves on again, Jang Jihyeok slid both hands into his pockets and continued in an even tone.
“Alias Ji Haesu. A man presumed to be Korean who crossed over from Hong Kong. He’s the one who made the bastard into an Omega. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters to us is that he turned him into an Omega. Father said he wouldn’t pass his wealth on to recessives because he didn’t want to give assets to the sins he committed himself—but he didn’t know that the child he loved most had become a recessive. If we let him know that, what kind of reaction do you think he’d have?”
“He’ll change the will.”
“No.”
Jang Jihyeok covered his mouth, barely suppressing a laugh, and said,
“He’ll be so shocked he thinks he’s seeing Juho hyung that he’ll go straight to heaven. We’ll send him to heaven—where Juho hyung is—just like he wants.”
Finally revealing his true colors, Jang Jihyeok burst into mad laughter—“Hahahaha!”—clapping his hands. Jang Jihun, clutching his bleeding hand, stared at his brother with a deathly pale face and took an involuntary step back.
“You really want to… kill Father like that? Hyung, are you insane?”
“Yeah! Jihae, you want that too, don’t you?”
“I don’t care. Just like Father never thought of me as his son, I don’t think of him as my father. Honestly, it’d be entertaining to see him die that pathetically. A father dying after seeing the ugly state of the bastard he loved so much—doesn’t that sound fun? And as for the casino Choi Suho is supposed to get, and—”
“Fine. I’ll give that to you, Jihae.”
Jang Jihyeok patted the shoulder of the cooperative Jang Jihae, but Jihae clicked his tongue as if irritated and slapped his brother’s hand away.
“And how do you plan to—”
“You’re insane.”
Muttering to the lawyer who’d asked him, Jang Jihun spoke with a ghostly pale face.
“Completely insane! Even if Father just stays still, he’ll die soon anyway—!”
Mid-mutter, Jang Jihun recalled the conversation between Jang Jihae and Jang Jihyeok, then spoke again with a stiffened face.
“You already changed the will. That’s why Father has to die. You’re going to kill him and then announce the will…”
Without realizing it, Jang Jihun collapsed onto the board that was already in motion. Everyone was in on it together. Slowly turning his gaze over the advisor, the lawyer, and Jang Jihyeok, Jang Jihun swallowed dryly. Clutching his bleeding hand, his face slick with cold sweat from suppressing the pain, he asked Jang Jihyeok in a hoarse voice,
“Do you really need to take revenge on Father to this extent?”
“It’s all Father’s karma.”
“Hah!”
Jang Jihun sneered, his hand trembling as he held it.
“Oh, so this is revenge for killing the person you loved?”
For the first time, Jang Jihyeok’s smiling face hardened. Meeting his brother’s exposed emotions head-on, Jang Jihun continued,
“Say it straight. It’s not because you hated Father for discriminating against us, despising us, and doting on the bastard—you just want to kill the man who took Choi Juho away from you!”
“……”
“Fuck, how long do I have to be dragged into this disgusting father-son love triangle?”
Bang!
Jang Jihun kicked over the chair he’d been sitting on, gasping—huff, huff—then blinked slowly, as if sinking deep into thought. Even in this chaos, the advisor and lawyer didn’t move an inch. Staring at them—men whose thoughts were utterly unreadable—Jang Jihun quickly grasped reality.
Father didn’t have long left. The will had been tampered with. The bastard would be discarded swiftly. And his brother was merely pouring a little more oil on the fire.
Fine. This was better. Rather than letting this endless, nauseating affair and family war over Choi Juho keep spreading, it was better to end it here.
“Then let’s end the fighting over Choi Juho here.”
“It ends once Father dies quietly. And there’s one thing you’re misunderstanding.”
Jang Jihyeok said, his eyes flashing with a cold, razor-sharp light.
“Juho hyung was mine from the beginning. Father stole him from me.”
“Fuck off. What bullshit.”
Jang Jihun laughed, his face drenched in cold sweat.
“Choi Suho is Father’s son. We even did a genetic test, just in case.”
“……”
“You hated Choi Suho because he wasn’t your son, and yet you’ve got a whole lot of fucked-up shit to say.”
Jang Jihyeok slowly closed his eyes. He clenched his fist hard enough for the leather glove to creak, but that fist never lashed out.
Choi Juho was already dead, and Choi Suho truly was Father’s son.
What began as a sordid love affair between Jang Yuguk and Choi Juho—into which the eldest son, Jang Jihyeok, had inserted himself—became a family war, and it didn’t take long before Mother found out. The house filled with her screams and pent-up fury, and Jang Jihyeok was married off as if he were being sold.
And in the meantime, Choi Suho was born.
The very origin of every problem.
If that child had never been born, would our family have had to fall this far? As if cursed, unable to cut away the rotting root, karma kept cascading down. Father’s love was directed solely at Choi Suho, and because of that, the children resented Father while still craving his love; Mother hated Father but couldn’t divorce him for the sake of her status and children, and that hatred turned toward Choi Suho.
I’m no different.
If Choi Suho had never been born, things wouldn’t have become this irreparably tangled. Jihun’s ribs wouldn’t be shattered like this, and he wouldn’t be the only one unable to attend Father’s funeral!
Father—why is it that you never loved me, leaving me this miserable, and forcing me to resent that child to the very end?
Jang Jihun resented his father, who had loved only that child and Choi Juho, who had given birth to him, until his dying day. As he closed his eyes, tears of deep, unresolved bitterness spilled from them—still endlessly thirsty for his father’s love.
Knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door. Visiting hours were already over; no one should have been coming. Jang Jihun had been so critical he’d needed emergency surgery after his lung was punctured by a broken rib, and even now he could barely breathe without an oxygen mask—he couldn’t even speak properly.
Before he could say for them to leave, the door abruptly opened. The moment he saw the person revealed through the gap, Jang Jihun’s fingers twitched and his face froze solid.
“Hello.”
His wheezing breath grew rough, like something scraped across sandpaper. The person standing there was none other than Ji Haesu—the unidentified being who had smashed his ribs to pieces with a body slam. Wearing a friendly-looking smile and carrying pure white lilies, Ji Haesu closed the door behind him and stepped inside. Just as Jang Jihun was about to tell him to get out, Ji Haesu tossed the lilies casually between Jang Jihun’s legs, shoved both hands into his pockets, and bowed his head slightly.
“I’ve got something to say, and I’m kind of on a pilgrimage to see all the Jang brothers right now.”
“F-fuck… you—! Cough—!”
Ji Haesu grinned, showing his teeth.
“Don’t touch Suho.”
“Cough—what? Who the hell do you—”
Suddenly, Ji Haesu leaned down, bringing his face close until their eyes lined up, his glossy gaze locking onto Jang Jihun’s. In a chilling voice, he said,
“He’s an Omega I made with my own hands. So don’t lay a finger on him.”
Tilting his head, Ji Haesu smiled with his pretty face.
“You’d be pissed if someone touched your Omega, right? Same thing. So don’t touch my Omega, okay?”
“Touch my wife and I won’t let it go!”
