Ding.

Jin Cheol looked at where the door had opened. The person standing there was Yu Min.

“Oh, it’s Yu Min. Where’s your mom?”

Jin Cheol asked with a bright smile.

“Mom is just outside. I said I wanted to come in alone.”

Yu Min had been wanting to do everything by himself lately. Seol Ah tended to let Yu Min do as much as he could on his own within safe boundaries.

“I see. Is there anything you want to buy?”

At Jin Cheol’s question, Yu Min took out a banana milk from the refrigerator.

“I’ll have this please.”

Jin Cheol looked at Yu Min speaking firmly, finding him cute, and scanned the barcode on the milk.

“I’ll pay for this one. Go enjoy it.”

“No. I have money too.”

Yu Min said seriously as he took out some crumpled bills from his pocket. It was money he had diligently saved from organizing shoes, giving massages, and doing various errands.

Jin Cheol couldn’t bring himself to take that money. Because he knew how Yu Min had earned it.

“It’s okay. Your uncle can buy you this much.”

“No. I’m going to pay for it.”

Looking at Yu Min speaking stubbornly, Jin Cheol unknowingly raised the corners of his mouth.

He was reminded of when he first saw Seol Ah. With a frail body that looked like it would collapse at any moment and a pale face, she sat weakly.

But after giving birth and recovering, her face gradually became more lively. Jin Cheol felt himself becoming more and more attracted to her, with her calm demeanor and intellectual charm.

Yu Min too was intelligent and wise, perhaps taking after Seol Ah. Sometimes he acted like a little adult rather than a child.

“Alright then.”

Jin Cheol realized he couldn’t dissuade Yu Min any further and nodded. When he finished ringing up the purchase with the money received, Yu Min held out the banana milk to Jin Cheol.

Jin Cheol looked at Yu Min with a puzzled feeling.

“This is for you, uncle.”

At Yu Min’s smiling words, Jin Cheol shook his head.

“Hey, this isn’t right. How can I accept something you bought for me? Huh? Are you looking down on me for being unemployed too?”

Jin Cheol spoke jokingly with a laugh, but self-loathing seeped through his words.

He had planned to confess once he had a proper job. But still being unemployed, he couldn’t help but shrink in front of Seol Ah.

“No. I don’t care whether you’re unemployed or not, uncle.”

Yu Min looked at Jin Cheol for a moment as if gathering his thoughts, then spoke as if he had made up his mind.

“Please become our dad, uncle.”

“What?”

Jin Cheol’s eyes widened at Yu Min’s straightforward confession.

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean marry our mom. I don’t have a dad, you know. So I keep feeling uncomfortable at kindergarten.”

Yu Min bit his lip and sniffled.

After that ticket incident, Shin Young didn’t openly tease or exclude Yu Min anymore. But there was always a subtle atmosphere.

Especially when stories about ‘dad’ came up in picture books, when the teacher casually talked about ‘dad’, when drawing family pictures and all the other kids drew their ‘dads’.

Yu Min always felt small and shabby. But he couldn’t tell his mom about it.

“Really? Why?”

Jin Cheol recalled the incident at the playground before. Were the kids still teasing him like that?

“Then I’ll talk to the teacher. But I don’t think that’s why you’re asking me to be your dad.”

As Jin Cheol spoke hesitantly, Yu Min held the banana milk closer to him and said:

“I don’t want you to tell the teacher. Then the teacher will tell mom, won’t she?”

That’s true.

Jin Cheol was a bit surprised at how deep Yu Min’s thinking was.

“I really want you to become our dad, uncle.”

Yu Min stared intently at Jin Cheol with wide eyes. So Jin Cheol couldn’t avoid that gaze.

It was an emotion he had only kept in his heart before. Learning that Yu Min felt this way gave him cautious courage.

Can I try too? Even though I’m still lacking.

The corners of Jin Cheol’s mouth lifted slightly.

*

“The biggest problem is that JK Foods’ sales are on a downward trend. Can’t you see UA Foods is catching up fast? At this rate, we’ll definitely be overtaken before the year ends.”

At the JK Group executive meeting. Executives over fifty bowed their heads in front of Seung Jun.

Among them, JK Foods President Im Geun Su was fidgeting nervously, sweating profusely. His complexion wasn’t good, as if he hadn’t slept the night before.

“What happened to everything we discussed at the planning meeting? I told you to focus all efforts on new product development and to actively seek out products from small businesses. It’s been half a year, what’s changed?”

“I’m sorry.”

Im Geun Su wiped his neck with a handkerchief and bowed his head again.

It was then that someone at the very end raised their hand.

Seung Jun’s eyes turned in that direction. It was Seung Heon, Seung Jun’s cousin, but in fact his twin brother born on the same day from the same womb.

Until they were seven, they were close as twin brothers, but their relationship grew distant after Seung Jun’s adoption. Seung Heon had been at the American branch until last year and became the head of JK Foods’ Marketing Strategy Department this year.

Though twins, they were fraternal, so their facial features were different. Moreover, their personalities were completely different. While Seung Jun was a direct leader type, Seung Heon was a gentle and moderate support type.

“JK Foods is currently discovering and reviewing products from small businesses. If there are good products among these that we can support, we plan to develop them together with JK Foods.”

Seung Jun looked at Seung Heon with furrowed brows.

Seung Heon continued speaking with a bright smile on his pleasant face.

“If you could wait a little longer, I’ll bring results that will satisfy you, Vice Chairman.”

Though born and raised in the same chaebol family as Seung Jun, Seung Heon inevitably received less spotlight compared to his brother.

Even though he studied well, he was always below Seung Jun, and even when he went to America, his achievements were hardly reported. Even after returning to Korea, he was appointed as the head of JK Foods, which wasn’t even a core business of the group.

“Let’s take a break.”

Seung Jun said that and stood up from his seat.

A moment later, facing Seung Heon in the smoking area, Seung Jun saw the white smoke rising from the other’s mouth.

Seung Jun didn’t smoke, but he wasn’t particularly averse to others doing so.

“Want me to send you somewhere else?”

JK Foods President Im Geun Su was someone who had risen to his current position by just staying in line through his wife’s family connections to Hyo Young, without actually doing any work.

Of course, he didn’t know the work well and didn’t do much. But Chairman Han sent Han Seung Heon as the department head under him despite knowing this situation.

Seung Jun couldn’t oppose the initial decision. Instead, he planned to move him when the opportunity arose.

“What? I like it here.”

Seung Heon raised the corners of his mouth.

“The food business is fun too. It’s different from what I did in America, but above all, I can eat a lot. It’s the first time in my life I’ve eaten so much ramen.”

Seung Jun watched Seung Heon laughing as if he had no worries, with a bitter heart.

Although Seung Heon was born on the same day from the same womb as Seung Jun, he was destined to be cast aside.

When Seung Jun becomes chairman, Seung Heon will be pushed out. Just as Seung Heon’s father, Han Sung Woo, did. Sung Woo left JK voluntarily for Seung Jun’s sake. It was to avoid casting a shadow on his son.

Seung Heon was destined to walk the same path.

The executives in the group already knew publicly that he would just be given some shares of the least influential company in the group and sent away, just to avoid hard feelings.

“Why, you still don’t trust me? I don’t know if you remember, but I was born with a good palate.”

Seung Jun silently slapped Seung Heon’s shoulder once.

In the end, he would be the one to become chairman, and he didn’t like seeing Seung Heon just serving below.

It also hurt to see his brother smiling carelessly while knowing this.

“Just tell me anytime. I can move your position, or if there’s any affiliate you’re interested in.”

“Don’t do that.”

This time, Seung Heon slapped Seung Jun’s arm.

“The Chairman doesn’t like that. You’ll end up on his bad side too. Instead of that, be good to the Chairman.”

Seung Jun lowered his eyes, not wanting to hear those words.

Why do people always tell me to be good to the Chairman, when he’s the one who made my life like this? Even Seung Heon, who’s the biggest victim.

“The small businesses, have you finished the document screening?”

Not wanting to argue with him, Seung Jun changed the subject.

“Yeah. Now we need to visit and inspect the companies that passed the document screening. Looks like I’ll be stuffed again next week too. I don’t know why I have such good fortune with food.”

Seung Jun nodded as he stared at Seung Heon laughing loudly.

“Alright, then please work hard. Let’s go back in.”

Seung Jun said that and turned to leave, but stopped and asked.

“How’s your mother?”

“She’s healthy. Come visit when you have time. Both father and mother talk about you a lot.”

Seung Jun pressed his lips together and started walking again.

Come visit, he says.

He had never gone back to that house since being forcibly separated at age seven. Hye Won, Seung Heon and Seung Jun’s birth mother, and Sung Woo, their birth father, were sent away to America as if being chased out.

It was a measure arranged by Chairman Han to sever the bond between Seung Jun and his birth parents.

When he met his blood relatives again after 10 years had passed, it was only awkward.

Now they only met occasionally at events.

Seung Heon’s gentle face gradually hardened as he watched Seung Jun’s retreating back. And in the end, it changed to a pale expression filled with malice, which Seung Jun failed to see.

*

After the meeting ended, Seung Jun was lying back in his chair with an ice pack on his eyes to cool down his heated face when he suddenly received a phone call.

Since his eyes were closed, he couldn’t check the caller ID.

But if it was someone who knew this phone number, it would be one of the few people who could communicate with Seung Jun without going through his secretarial office. So Seung Jun let down his guard and answered the phone.

“This is Han Seung Jun.”

Finding it strange that there was no response, Seung Jun spoke again.

“Who is this?”

[It’s, it’s Yu Seol Ah.]

Seung Jun jumped up.

[It’s just that, I have something to tell you.]

Her voice was trembling.

Suddenly, Seung Jun recalled her coming to JK headquarters. There was a food court in the headquarters.

JK Foods had said they were discovering products from small businesses. And according to the investigation on Seol Ah, she worked at a small food company.

“Ha……”

Is that why?

Hoping to be looked upon favorably even through me.

She had been naive but not servile. But had her personality changed now that she was in dire straits?

“What is it?”

Seung Jun’s voice hardened.

[But I think it would be proper to tell you in person.]

“I’ll contact you later.”

Seung Jun hung up the phone. One corner of his mouth lifted crookedly.