Chapter 56

Chapter 56

At Seokchan’s words, Sungang’s brow twitched and contorted.

“If you want to climb higher, you need to know how to change. You’re too consistent for your own good. Shouldn’t you be the one to hold back?”

With eyes burning with the urge to throw a punch right then and there, Sungang glared at Seokchan. He let out a huff of fury and abruptly released his grip on Seokchan’s collar.

He yanked so hard in his rage that Seokchan’s body was pulled forward a good few inches. Seokchan gave a short, derisive snort and began dusting off his rumpled shirt.

“It’s strange. The kids at the bottom here are much easier to talk to. Executive Director Kwon really trained his boys well.”

“Shut your hole, you traitorous prick. Don’t think I’m letting you slide because I like you.”

Giving up on smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt, Seokchan pointed his thumb at Sungang.

“Gang-ah here has a kind heart, but his mouth is just too foul.”

“I’m too kind, am I? Seeing as you’re still breathing?”

“Watch your tongue if you don’t want to make things difficult for your boss, Gang-ah. I’m still your superior. Don’t go starting a mutiny.”

“Who do you think you’re giving advice to? You thick-skinned bastard, I’ll—!”

As Sungang raised his fist to lung at him again, Chulhyun grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms.

“Calm down. You’ve got blood coming out of your ear, you idiot.”

Just as Chulhyun said, a streak of blood was trickling down from Sungang’s ear, where the gauze had been ripped away.

Amidst the volatile atmosphere that felt like a shootout could erupt at any second, a sudden beep echoed. Chulhyun had pressed the call button for the medical staff.

“Sungang, get treated. Director Yoon, a word?”

Gukhyun tapped Chulhyun on the shoulder. Seokchan, who had been trying to slip out of the hospital room, wore a disgruntled expression.

“Me? I’ve seen Sungang’s face, so I was just about to head out. I’m already late for my next appointment anyway…”

“If you want to keep scurrying away like a rat, go ahead. It’s actually more convenient for me to meet quietly in some dark alley tonight.”

“…Is that a threat?”

“Would I bother?”

Gukhyun let out a dry, dismissive smirk. It was a look that made it clear Seokchan wasn’t even worth the effort of a threat.

“I’m just suggesting we have a talk.”

“I’ll pick the place.”

Seokchan reluctantly began to walk. He headed toward a cafe located in the hospital lobby. It was a wide-open space with plenty of foot traffic passing by. A place where the chances of being assassinated without a soul noticing were slim to none.

Perhaps because Seokchan’s secretaries looked so menacing to anyone who saw them, the surrounding tables quickly cleared out.

“Since we’ve met, let me ask you point-blank.”

Seokchan took a sip of the cappuccino foam and set the cup down with a sharp clack.

“Are you going to marry Kwon Suah?”

“You tell me, Director Yoon. What do you think I’ll do?”

A muscle near Seokchan’s foam-stained mouth twitched. For some reason, Gukhyun was scarier when he used formal speech. It was a sign that he was drawing a clear line between them. Their once-intimate past—back when Seokchan used to call him Hyung—felt like a distant memory.

Of course, it was a past he had thrown away and walked away from with his own hands.

Gukhyun was a man of love and hate, someone who was heart-wrenchingly reliable when on your side, but who also made you feel a crushing sense of inferiority and the misery of facing an insurmountable mountain.

Seokchan had thought that if he became part of Chairman Kwon’s family, if he reached a higher position first, he could finally escape this bottomless sense of defeat. But what about now?

“The Kwon Gukhyun I know is a frighteningly calculating bastard.”

Seokchan slowly rubbed the rim of his coffee cup with his fingertip.

“You’re a cold-blooded man who isn’t swayed by emotion. If it serves your own interests, you’ll dive in headfirst and devour it like a monster. So, you’ll be accepting the Chairman’s proposal soon.”

“I see.”

Gukhyun gave a nonchalant laugh. His dry attitude, neither affirming nor denying, made Seokchan swallow a sudden surge of anger.

“But you found a woman, didn’t you?”

Seokchan pulled up the corners of his mouth in a smug grin.

“That’s the one thing that must’ve slipped your calculations. You started keeping her by your side under the guise of being your personal doctor, but I guess you like her more than you thought? Right now, that woman feels like the only obstacle in your way, doesn’t she?”

His eyes, gleaming with twisted interest, watched Gukhyun tenaciously.

“There’s not a f(c!ng reason to refuse the Chairman’s offer, but you’re worried that woman might leave you if you take it.”

Gukhyun retorted indifferently. “Is this a confession?”

“…What?”

Seokchan’s mouth, still fixed in that smile, gave a fine tremor. Gukhyun narrowed his eyes as if Seokchan’s face was the most amusing thing he’d seen all day.

“There’s a slight difference. You’re the one who’s terrified that Kwon Joo-ah won’t choose you because of the woman you’ve kept by your side,” Gukyhun said.

“…”

“I’m talking about Ko Heejin. Your ex.”

Not a single emotion surfaced in Gukhyun’s dark gray eyes. It was only Seokchan whose face contorted, as if something deep inside him was collapsing.

“I’m trying my best to tolerate you, so don’t provoke me. Given Kwon Joo-ah’s personality, she wouldn’t let it slide if she found out you were hiding a woman behind her back and weighing her against yourself.”

Gukhyun leaned back loosely in his chair and gave the table leg a sharp kick. The table rattled, and the cappuccino in Seokchan’s cup came surging out. Even as the hot coffee scalded his hand, Seokchan didn’t pull away; he simply stared at Gukhyun with murderous eyes.

“I’m saying, if you want to keep your spot as the Chairman’s son-in-law, don’t make me feel like shit.”

It was around the time Seokchan had just started seeing Heejin that he heard the news that Kwon Joo-ah had marked him as her potential husband. Very few people in the organization, so few they could be counted on one hand, knew that Seokchan had started a relationship with a physical therapist who commuted to the headquarters.

Since everyone knew all too well that Kwon Joo-ah had a volatile personality and a naturally cruel disposition, Seokchan’s first instinct had been to protect Heejin. He knew that if Kwon Joo-ah found out Seokchan had another woman, she wouldn’t give up on him. Instead, she would try to tear that woman away from him first.

They never went on proper dates; the only time he saw Heejin was during hours disguised as physical therapy sessions. Even then, he eventually grew worried about being caught and couldn’t call for her often. So, Seokchan made a request. Rather, a plea, to his closest younger brothers, Sungang and Chulhyun.

It was from then on that the two began scheduling sessions under the pretext of receiving physical therapy, taking turns to help Seokchan meet his lover in secret.

Because they had witnessed Seokchan struggle to refuse the marriage to Kwon Joo-ah in front of the Chairman several times, Sungang and Chulhyun didn’t doubt him. At the time, that had likely been Seokchan’s sincere heart.

However, it was impossible to pinpoint exactly when his heart began to shift. Kwon Joo-ah, whom he thought would turn away to save her own pride after a few rejections, remained unexpectedly interested in him.

Since he was inherently weak toward the Chairman’s biological children, Seokchan couldn’t bring himself to refuse Kwon Joo-ah harshly in the first place. While he gave roundabout excuses, saying he had no intention of marrying yet, he would go running whenever she called, just like a dog at its master’s whistle.

As he repeated his refusals, the Chairman offered him better terms. They were conditions so attractive that Seokchan found them impossible to turn down.

And so, last spring, Seokchan finally married Kwon Joo-ah. With that choice, he let go of the brothers he had grown up with like family for so many years. In exchange, he gained massive wealth, power, and the unwavering trust of Chairman Kwon.

His pitiful former lover, who had never once been on a date outside of a cramped back room, quietly exited his life. Of course, Sungang and Chulhyun lashed out at him, calling him a traitorous bastard, but that was the extent of it.

Seokchan rose to the position of Director in one leap and became part of the Chairman’s family, and his relationship with his wife was decent enough. Though he occasionally felt sorry or pained when he thought of his ex, he never once regretted his choice.

So, imagine the sheer sense of dismay he felt the day he heard that the new personal doctor Gukhyun had brought in was none other than Ko Heejin’s younger sister.

Seokchan was on edge, wondering what kind of sinister ulterior motive that bastard had for keeping Ko Heejin’s sister by his side. He spent his days and nights in constant anxiety, thinking Gukhyun might use her as a weapon to attack him.

When he began to suspect that the relationship between the two wasn’t just doctor and employer, but something deeper, he found it hard to judge whether this was a good or a bad thing.

If Ko Heeju became someone so special that she turned into an obstacle blocking Gukhyun’s path, he would be moved to tears of gratitude, but that was a premature hope.

Gukhyun would surely discard Ko Heeju, just as he had discarded Ko Heejin.

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