Jang Jihun tried to force out a long sentence for the first time, then clutched his side and started coughing violently.
“Touch Jiyeong again—khk—I’ll kill you!”
Ji Haesu laughed as he grabbed a fistful of Jang Jihun’s hair and flung his head down, the oxygen mask tumbling off the bed with him.
“Aaagh!” Jang Jihun screamed, clutching his side as his body shook uncontrollably. Ji Haesu kicked the side of the bed—tap, tap—and spoke in an indifferent voice.
“That’s why I’m saying we don’t touch each other’s wives. If you do.”
Ji Haesu seized Jang Jihun’s hair again, yanking his head close, and whispered brightly into his ear.
“I’ll turn you into an Omega too—and knock you up.”
Jang Jihun’s face drained completely of color. Ji Haesu snorted a laugh, let go of his hair, and left at his leisure. Jang Jihun glared at his retreating back with eyes full of humiliation, then picked up his phone with a trembling hand.
“Khk… uh……”
[Oh dear, sir. Yes. What can I do for you?]
A slick, ingratiating voice. No matter how successful Ji Haesu was, could he really beat this guy? A blood-tinged smile curled on Jang Jihun’s lips as he spoke.
“Don’t you want to fuck a sturdy Omega? With your friends?”
[Huh? A sturdy Omega? Ah, that’d be great!]
At the eager response, Jang Jihun replied immediately.
“Prepare about fifteen of them.”
A bastard with no family anyway—who would care if he got gang-raped?
***
Choi Suho’s father died overnight.
When Suho first heard the news of his death—and the existence of a will—he couldn’t accept it. But when the news reported that the funeral altar had been set up in the basement of the hospital where his father had been hospitalized, reality began to sink in, slowly and vividly.
His father had died right in front of him. He died after witnessing Ji Haesu and Suho having sex. If that wasn’t shock, then what was? Watching the only dominant Alpha son he loved being fucked by another dominant Alpha.
Then why had he come to the Pyeongchang-dong residence that day—at that exact time—when he believed Suho was staying at a hotel?
At the time, all three brothers—Jang Jihyeok, Jang Jihun, and Jang Jihae—had been there, along with a lawyer and a doctor. Ji Haesu had seemed to know as well, because he quietly stepped back.
—It’s your father’s karma. Because of his karma, Suho ended up like Juho hyung—becoming an Omega and even getting pregnant. You’ll be seeing your grandson soon. A grandson Suho gave birth to himself!
Jang Jihyeok knew that Suho had turned into an Omega.
How did he know?
No one could have known unless it was Ji Haesu.
So what had Ji Haesu done on the day Suho’s father died?
Nothing.
He had simply dressed neatly, watched as if it had nothing to do with him, and then vanished without a trace at some point.
After that, Jang Jihyeok told the police that Ji Haesu and Choi Suho were lovers. To the police, who suspected Suho had been subjected to long-term abuse after seeing his physical condition, Jang Jihyeok said calmly, “Suho’s lover is violent.”
He spoke as if he knew everything about the relationship between Ji Haesu and Suho. On top of that, he explained Suho’s trait transformation by saying, “Suho took medication to change his traits because he wanted to have his lover’s child.”
Just like that, everything slid by in a haze.
He made it sound as if everything had happened because Suho wanted it—because Suho had chosen his lover. And thanks to that, Ji Haesu slipped cleanly out of the police investigation.
At that moment, sitting alone on the bed in a single-patient room with the lights off and blackout curtains drawn, a cold glint flared in Choi Suho’s eyes.
Unable to suppress the rage boiling inside him, he grabbed the mug Ji Haesu had left on the bedside table and hurled it at the opposite wall.
Bang! Crash!
The mug shattered cleanly in half and rolled away.
Still sitting on the bed, staring at it with eyes gone cold, Choi Suho covered his face with both hands and let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha… hahaha.”
—It’s okay, Suho. Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility and completely fuck him up for you.
The way Ji Haesu had said it while holding him tightly—it had almost sounded like affection.
For a moment, Suho had almost leaned on him.
The fact that his heart had fluttered at the words I’ll fuck him up for you—that alone proved how trash he was.
He couldn’t stop laughing at the absurdity.
Getting excited because the trash said he’d make someone else’s life hell—he really had lost his mind.
How insane did someone have to be to want to rely on that?
Especially when that same person had raped him countless times and turned him into an Omega.
He had been brainwashed. By someone who went beyond Do Si-in—by someone standing firmly on the same side as Jang Jihyeok.
Why hadn’t he realized it sooner?
Do Si-in had handed Ji Haesu hundreds of millions just to ruin Suho’s life. So why would Jang Jihyeok be any different?
Ji Haesu was the kind of man who would do anything for money. So why had Suho believed so blindly that he wouldn’t join hands with Jang Jihyeok?
“……”
—Suho, when I look at you, I think you’re way too weak to the affection people give you. That’s what worries me.
—What?
For some reason, at times like this, fragments of everyday conversations resurfaced.
Choi Suho stared at the cast on his left ankle, his face looking like it had lost half its will to live.
After receiving a full arm cast for his right wrist with a six-week diagnosis, his left ankle had been crushed this time—bones realigned, metal pins inserted through surgery.
The kind of case people only talked about in disbelief: discharged, then immediately hospitalized again.
And both times, by the same person—his wrist shattered, then his ankle.
—You trust people no matter what they do, just because they give you a little affection. Don’t trust people so easily, Suho. Once you’re out in society, there are a lot of strange people. You grew up cherished, so you don’t really know that—that’s what worries me.
—I’m worried about you, you know? Because you’re too pretty.
—What? How can you say something that embarrassing so casually?!
If he got down on his knees and apologized, could things go back to the way they were?
Choi Suho blinked dry eyes that wouldn’t even produce tears and leaned back against the headboard.
What more do I need to suffer now, Si-in? How much further do I have to fall before you’ll forgive me? If I do, will you take me back? Will you… love me again?
“Ha……”
He wanted to ask.
But he didn’t have the courage.
He didn’t even have the right.
Because he knew too well that he didn’t deserve to be loved.
Don’t fall into ugly self-pity, Choi Suho. You don’t even have the right to that.
He was someone who didn’t deserve it. No right to be loved. No right to be forgiven.
Then was there any reason left to keep living?
Was this what you wanted?
Did you ask Ji Haesu to do this because you wanted to see me suffer like this?
Did you suffer this much because of me?
I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.
It wasn’t that he wanted forgiveness.
He just wanted to say this—so he thought he had to find him, no matter what.
At the very least, there had to be a final goodbye.
As that thought crossed his mind and he closed his eyes while leaning against the headboard, his father’s funeral altar suddenly came to mind.
Because he was a bastard who wasn’t even registered in the family registry, no one had told him about his father’s funeral. But he knew which hospital it was being held at.
Even without the news, the hospital itself had once belonged to his father—and now belonged to Jang Jihyeok.
So the best funeral hall there would almost certainly be his father’s.
In that case, there was no need to search desperately.
Maybe this was one of the few conveniences of not being a bastard from an ordinary family. Even without the media making a huge fuss, he could roughly guess these things.
Still, a self-mocking smile tugged at his lips.
Lowering his head and dragging a hand down his face, Choi Suho became acutely aware that in this empty hospital room—where no sound could be heard and no warmth could be felt—he was truly alone in the world.
He really had become an orphan.
There wasn’t even time for tears to well up.
What do I do now?
That thought didn’t even form properly.
He simply couldn’t think of anything. As if he’d never existed in this world to begin with, his head was empty, and his eyes held nothing.
The person called Choi Suho had become not even ruins, but barren land— a place no one ever comes looking for.
After going to his father’s funeral… after going to see Do Si-in… After that…
What was he supposed to do?
Kreeeek.
At that moment, the sound of the door opening echoed.
Choi Suho’s eyes—so close to spilling tears when he was alone, like a calf being dragged to the slaughterhouse—turned sharp in an instant.
Don’t show your weakness in front of others, Suho. You are the son of Jang Yuguk and Choi Juho.
I am Choi Suho, who inherited the blood of Jang Yuguk and Choi Juho.
So what if he wasn’t a Jang?
He had inherited Juho’s surname, and thanks to that, he had grown up drenched in his father’s love.
That love was never a lie.
“Hi.”
Ji Haesu stuck his pretty face in first, then shoved his massive body inside.
The moment Choi Suho saw him, he grabbed the cup on the bedside table and hurled it as if he’d been waiting for this.
Thud!
“Die, you fucking bastard!”
“Haha, I knew you’d do that, so I replaced everything with plastic cups! You didn’t know that, did you, Suho?”
Ji Haesu joked as if trying to lighten the mood, watching Suho’s expression as he approached—but to Choi Suho, it looked like nothing but mockery.
Now that he thought about it, too many things didn’t add up.
Why had he been crying like some pathetic mess?
What if all of this had been a trap set by Jang Jihyeok and Ji Haesu?
His father had died on the spot—so how could Suho have been removed from the will immediately? The very next day?
The will had been notarized by lawyers. It shouldn’t have been possible to tamper with it so easily.
Above all, given his father’s meticulous personality, there was no way he would have entrusted his will casually, even to a lawyer.
He’d heard it had been placed in a bank vault.
And besides…
The key wasn’t with the lawyer.
