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My steps were faster than ever after parting ways with the two.
However, it was closer to anger than briskness, and it was similar to an act that represented my emotions that were pressing down on me.
I had to return to the dormitory.
There was an evening roll call at the dormitory, and if you were absent, you would get demerit points, and if you accumulated too many demerit points, you would be kicked out.
Now that the semester had started, I didn’t want to accumulate demerit points from the beginning.
But I was already heading somewhere else, not the dormitory.
Creak.
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A luxury sedan parked on the side of the road.
I sat in the back seat without hesitation and caught my breath.
“I’ll take you right away.”
It was a face I had never seen before.
A sharp jawline, a black suit, no smell, a low voice, and a small dot on the back of his neck.
He had many characteristics and treated me with great care, trying not to make any mistakes.
His driving was smooth but fast, and I could feel his determination to make me as comfortable as possible.
Again, it was a face I had never seen before.
I don’t even know his name, position, or affiliation.
Nevertheless, he tried his best not to make any mistakes with me.
This was the life I lived.
I don’t know who they are at all, and I don’t even care.
When dealing with me, they tried their best to assist and support me as if it were their whole life.
“What’s your name?”
“Ki, Kim Chang-ho!”
Also, one of my actions can bring unexpected consequences.
The tension in the car.
A drop of sweat on the back of his neck.
I wonder if I did something wrong.
The rearview mirror that I checked frequently because of my doubts.
It felt like I was petting an ant.
I just wanted to pet it because it was cute, great, and thankful.
But they could die from it.
I just asked for his name.
I wanted to thank the person who came to find me late at night and drove me here.
But he was afraid because I asked for his name. He looked around, not knowing what to do.
What’s important.
We are not in a relationship between a human and an ant.
It was a relationship between humans.
I decided not to ask any more questions.
No matter what I say, he will try to find the meaning behind it.
I keep my mouth shut and look out the window.
Silence was the most considerate thing I could do.
* * *
“Thank you.”
I get out of the car and close the door.
I gave him a short thank you as he tried to open the door for me, and I looked at the huge mansion.
I thought it was natural when I lived here.
After living in a one-room apartment and seeing it again, I began to realize how luxurious a place I had been living in.
The door opened without me even touching it.
The servants bowed their heads to greet the third son who had returned home after a long time.
They wouldn’t listen to me even if I told them not to.
I walked inside quickly because I didn’t want to see them, and my mother welcomed me into the house.
“What? What’s going on? Why are you here all of a sudden at this late hour?!”
My mother was the same as usual.
She smiled brightly and welcomed her youngest son who had returned after a long time.
I also hid my intense emotions for a moment and gently hugged my mother.
And.
“I came to see my father.”
My mother’s expression darkened as soon as I revealed my purpose.
I’ve never been on good terms with my father, so I guess she realized that it wasn’t a good story that I suddenly came to visit.
As I passed my mother.
“I’ll tell you one thing.”
She sighed and grumbled at me.”You call me ‘Father’ because your older brother does? Your father is fine, but you should call me ‘Mom.'”
“……I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“You don’t know how cute the kids are. You should have had a daughter? That’s why I was more that night….”
“Don’t say it!”
She was serious until just now, but the atmosphere lightened up as soon as she started talking to her mother.
“Oh, it’s good to fight. Have dinner and go. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“I’ll make your favorite foods.”
“Are you doing it, Mom?”
“The chairman’s wife gets scolded when she goes into the kitchen. The kitchen aunts tell her to stay still if she doesn’t know anything.”
“…….”
Wow.
I think the reason we can connect as a family is because of my mother’s personality.
I take another step.
My mother cleverly lightened the mood so that I could relax a little.
If it were normal, I would have thought, let’s not say anything too harsh.
But it was different now.
– It’s the moment I’ve been dreaming of.
Still.
Oh Yoon-ji’s faint voice still lingered in my ears.
Clatter.
I opened the door and went inside, and my father, who was wearing glasses and reading a book, slowly looked up at me.
It was the same.
It was the same as when I said I was leaving home.
“What did you do to Yoon-ji?”
Even though I went straight to the point, my father slowly closed the book with a bookmark and took off his glasses.
The flow of the conversation went to my father with just those series of actions.
He made me wait semi-forcibly, as if I was about to boil over at any moment.
“Tsk, you can’t even greet your father.”
“What did you do!”
“Do you know whose daughter that is? My son is interested in the daughter of a death row inmate, and I’m just going to let it go?”
“What did Yoon-ji do wrong? She’s never even seen her father’s face!”
I heard that he went to prison when Yoon-ji was in her mother’s womb. I didn’t ask why.
Because the child didn’t want to talk about it.
I could have found out if I looked it up, but I didn’t do that either.
Because I didn’t want to know.
Yoon-ji also lived completely separately from her father.
“If you had done a background check, you would know! That there’s no relationship at all! Huh? What did she do wrong?!”
“There isn’t.”
“……Huh?”
There was not a single glimmer of hope in my father’s blunt gaze.
“She didn’t do anything wrong, that child.”
“Ah, no… even though you know that!”
“That’s what bloodline is.”
My throat was stuffy.
It felt like something thin but unbreakable was strangling my neck.
“That’s, that’s what bloodline is.”
The feeling of guilt grew stronger.
It was throbbing like a heartbeat, tinged with red, and it was even hot.
“Even though she did nothing wrong, she has to take responsibility because of her bloodline. You’re the same.”
That is.
“Because she’s my bloodline, I’ll hold her no matter what she does.”
What gives me the feeling of strangling my neck.
It was my father’s bloodline.
“Woo-jin-ah.”
A bitter sigh escaped.
My father’s eyes were asking me.
“Why do you think I tried to designate you as the successor, not your older brother… Do you understand now?”
“How would I know something like that!”
Thinking about that again.
The emotions that had been pent up burst out as if to vent.
“Don’t you know how hard your eldest son worked! He’s been living his life trying so hard to please you! Do you know what your eldest son’s expression was when you said you would pass it on to me?!”
“…….”
“That’s not right! Huh? It shouldn’t go that way!”
That’s why I left home.If I continue to stay home, I’m afraid I’ll steal all of my older brother’s hard work.
I’ll steal his life.
“Hoo, you’re foolish.”
Despite my cries, my father clicked his tongue and replied.
“Hard work? Knowledge? Ability? Those things. In the end, everyone has them. I’ve never seen anyone without them as I climbed to this position.”
“……”
“What’s important is one’s nature. You can’t imitate that. It’s something that’s set from birth.”
“What nonsense…”
“Your older brother has a weak heart. He hides it through hard work and acting, but it’s all fake.”
“……”
“Your second brother is a good person. He takes after your mother. He was out of the question from the start.”
“……”
“You, Woojin-ah.”
The smile that slowly formed contained both eeriness and heaviness.
“It’s you, Woojin-ah. You’re greedy, selfish, and opinionated.”
“What do you know!”
“I made a bet with that girl. I told her that if she could save enough money to support herself without my help, I would allow it.”
Allow it.
Believing that, Oh Yoonji has been working hard until now.
“However, I told her not to contact you. I told her not to meet you. I heard that she was trying to leave a letter that wasn’t like her, so I took care of that separately.”
“You, bastard…!”
“Don’t interrupt and listen.”
There was a smile on my father’s lips.
It was the kind of smile that formed when things went his way.
“So, how was it?”
The result was the me of today.
“You forgot about that girl without a care. You were sad during the break, but in the end, you went back to school.”
If.
He continued speaking, adding that.
“If the break had been shorter, you would have gotten over it even faster, and if it hadn’t been a break, you would have come to your senses the next day.”
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting!”
“No, that’s the kind of person you are. And because I know that about you, I chose you as my successor.”
“……”
“Is that all? I heard that you’re meeting several women now. It didn’t end with simply losing Oh Yoonji. You’re meeting other women without a care.”
“……”
“You’re greedy. Don’t you think about how they’ll suffer because of you? You’re very selfish. That’s how those at the top should be.”
Ah.
“And yet, you smile in front of them. You enjoy yourself under the pretense of being serious with each and every one of them.”
“……”
“You must have given them some justification for your actions. You made them accept an unrealistic situation without a care.”
I couldn’t say no.
The countless hours I had spent with them were now holding me back.
“Woojin-ah, you.”
I didn’t want to hear it, but.
“You’re exactly the kind of person I thought you were.”
My father’s declaration struck me like a nail being driven in.
* * *
I let out a long sigh as I stepped outside. My head was filled with all sorts of thoughts, but there was no sign of it getting better.
He told me to eat dinner and go, but I didn’t feel like it.
I quickened my pace, trying to sneak out without my mother noticing.
However.
Two familiar faces entered the front door.
“Did you talk to Father?”
My older brother, the vice president.
“I can tell it didn’t end well.”
It was my younger brother, who had started his own company.
“Hyungs? Why are you here…?”
I didn’t know if I should be happy or keep my distance.
As I stared blankly at my brothers, my younger brother came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and shouted.
“We came together because we heard you were back. But first, let’s go to the sauna! A sauna is the best when your head is all messed up! Hyung, are you coming too?”
“I don’t know if I have a change of clothes.”
I shrugged my shoulders, but I didn’t refuse to go to the sauna.There was a small bathroom and sauna in the basement of the house, so it didn’t take long to get there, but to be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood.
But as always.
In the end, I was dragged along by my brothers.
“Where are you guys going? I made dinner.”
Mom tilted her head and asked.
“To the sauna! We’re going to have a body talk with our brothers!”
“Is Jae-un going too?”
“Yes.”
“Woo-jin too?”
“Well, he said he wanted to go.”
To be honest, I was a little uncomfortable going to the sauna with my older brothers as an adult. But I couldn’t help it when they asked me to go so enthusiastically.
“Hmm.”
Mom looked at us and said.
“Then what about me?”
She was about to follow us.
“What do you mean, Mom?”
“Oh, my.”
My brothers stopped her right away.
If they hadn’t, I would have tried to stop her.
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“What, do you think you have something to hide, you men? I’ve washed and wiped you since you were little.”
She shouted, but.
“But I heard that you left the washing to the maids?”
I asked, puzzled.
“……If I washed you, you would cry. So I told the maids to go away and not bother me.”
Mom muttered, embarrassed, and then walked quickly to the kitchen, unable to bear our gaze.
“Master! We’ll do it!”
“Just sit on the sofa and watch TV!”