Seung Hyun’s father only came home once or twice a week.

Mom said it was because dad was too busy with work. Having grown up that way since he was very young, Seung Hyun thought that’s just how fathers were, that all other dads were like that too.

Still, dad would always come home on important days like mom’s or Seung Hyun’s birthday, but when he was about seven years old. For the first time, dad said he couldn’t make it on Seung Hyun’s birthday.

When asked why, mom said this:

[That day is when your father becomes the chairman of Daewon Group. Since it’s a happy day, don’t you want to go congratulate him too, Seung Hyun?]

In truth, Seung Hyun didn’t know what ‘Daewon Group’ or ‘chairman’ meant, and didn’t particularly want to go. He just nodded obediently because mom said so.

[I want to go.] [Then call dad and ask if you can go.]

Mom immediately called dad and handed the phone to Seung Hyun.

[Dad, can I come watch you become chairman too?]

After a long silence, dad finally answered.

– Alright. But you must stay quiet and well-behaved.

On Seung Hyun’s birthday. Mom dressed Seung Hyun in nice clothes from head to toe, and called a hairstylist to the house to carefully get herself ready too. Mom, who had Seung Hyun at twenty, wasn’t even thirty yet. Dressed up and made up, mom was dazzlingly beautiful.

And so on his seventh birthday, instead of a birthday party, Seung Hyun went to an event with the difficult name of ‘inauguration ceremony’.

– Going forward, I will thoroughly uphold the will of our predecessor, Chairman Kang Sun Ho, and continue to further develop Daewon Group…

Seung Hyun felt so proud as his father, dressed in a fine suit, climbed onto the high stage amidst cheers and applause to give his inauguration speech. He wanted to shout out loud that this man was his dad.

In the end, when his father finished his speech, Seung Hyun couldn’t hold back and called out to his dad in a loud voice.

“Da…!”

But Seung Hyun couldn’t even finish that short word. His father’s secretary standing next to him hurriedly covered his mouth.

“…!”

As Seung Hyun blinked in surprise with his mouth covered, a boy who looked a few years older than him went up onto the stage.

Though he didn’t know who it was, even to his young eyes the boy looked like a prince. It wasn’t just a matter of clothes. The boy was wearing a suit that looked quite nice for a child’s, but in terms of attire alone, Seung Hyun was certainly not inferior.

His upright posture and composed gait, his handsome appearance. That child just exuded a dignity unbefitting his young age. As if he was born with it.

That boy handed a bouquet to Seung Hyun’s dad and said maturely:

[Congratulations, dad.]

Seung Hyun was shocked. Why is he calling my dad ‘dad’?

What was even more incomprehensible was why he couldn’t call him dad, but that kid could. And so boldly in front of everyone too.

An uncontrollable hostility welled up, even though he didn’t know who the other person was.

“Watch closely, Seung Hyun.”

Mom, wearing a hat with a veil, bent down and whispered in Seung Hyun’s ear.

“Everything that child has, I’ll take it away one by one and give it all to you.”

The calm tone, as if reciting a poem, sounded chilling even to Seung Hyun’s ears.

“If mommy can’t take it all, you have to take it.”

On his seventh birthday, that’s how Seung Hyun gained a goal in life.

Over twenty years since then. His mother had indeed taken away quite a lot.

The position of the group’s first lady.

Father’s love too.

But Seung Hyun was still not satisfied. Thinking of the humiliation he suffered on his birthday as a child, it seemed he would only be content if he took away even the last remaining thing.

The problem was that it wasn’t as easy as he thought.

For one, Seung Hyun’s innate intelligence was far inferior to Seung Joo’s. Having heard somewhere that sons take after their mother’s brains, his mother Ji Yeon Hwa was practically cross-eyed trying to teach Seung Hyun.

Thanks to that, he had private tutors for all subjects since elementary school, but his grades always remained stagnant. Forget Korea University where Seung Joo entered and graduated as valedictorian, he barely got into a school several tiers below after retaking the entrance exam. He even went abroad for an MBA to polish his credentials, but was still unable to complete it after 3 years.

But then his father suddenly called him back. Wondering what was going on, it turned out to be thanks to his brother’s absence. Apparently he suddenly went into seclusion under the pretext of recuperation after a traffic accident.

‘Why did that tenacious bastard show a weakness all of a sudden?’

His half-brother, Kwon Seung Joo, was a man who showed no flaws. If there had been even a small weakness, his mother would have already dug in and taken him down.

For such a person to go into hiding, it was unsettling enough to make one wonder if there was some kind of trap.

Arriving at the mansion in Pyeongchang-dong, Seung Hyun quickened his steps.

“Mom.”

“Seung Hyun!”

Yeon Hwa, who had been waiting in the garden, cupped her son’s face with both hands and caressed it with tears in her eyes. It had only been half a year since they’d seen each other in the summer, but anyone watching would have thought it was a reunion of a separated family.

“Our son, you must have had such a hard time studying, huh? Your face is half gone.”

Despite spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on tuition and still being unable to complete his MBA after 3 years, her son looked so pitiful in Yeon Hwa’s eyes.

Only after being fussed over by his mother for a long while was Seung Hyun finally able to break free and sit down across from her.

“By the way, you said my brother went into hiding suddenly after getting in a traffic accident?”

Seung Hyun asked about the facts he had roughly heard over the phone.

“Well, that’s what they say.”

“What’s with the sudden traffic accident?”

“How would I know?”

Yeon Hwa fiddled with her well-manicured nails and played dumb.

“And you had nothing to do with it, mom?”

Startled, Yeon Hwa looked around and lowered her voice instead of answering.

“Someone might hear, hey!”

As expected, Seung Hyun thought. He had been suspecting since hearing the news of his brother’s accident over the phone.

“Mother, please don’t do this.”

“Then what should I do? If we left things as they were, you would never have a place.”

Seeing his mother pout with her lovely lips, Seung Hyun sighed.

“Extreme methods should be used only once. If the tail is too long, it might get stepped on.”

Yeon Hwa shook her shoulders as if throwing a tantrum.

“I’m already dying of anxiety. I really wonder if that bastard sensed something and ran off. He left the hospital in such a hurry, he didn’t even take his phone or wallet!”

“And then? No contact other than calling to take sick leave?”

“Complete radio silence. I had people look for him but they couldn’t find where he is, just that he was seen with some older woman.”

“A woman?”

Yeon Hwa relayed the account of the Memorial Center employee.

“He even took her to the columbarium where his mother’s ashes are, so they must be more than just casual acquaintances. They were hugging tightly and crying there too.”

“Really?”

Kwon Seung Joo crying? Seung Hyun could hardly imagine it. Wasn’t he the man who didn’t shed a single tear throughout his mother’s funeral when her remains were found?

“That woman, you know. Judging by how that guy called her ‘elder sister’ and spoke formally to her, she’s probably not just a year or two older, but she looked like she was in her twenties. Isn’t that strange?”

“What’s so surprising about that? You’re over fifty but still look like you’re in your thirties, mom.”

“Oh you, such a flatterer!”

Yeon Hwa pretended to glare but seemed pleased.

“Anyway, don’t worry too much, mom. I’ll look into it too.”

“Alright. I can always count on you, my son.”

Yeon Hwa looked at her son with reassured eyes, then quickly made a sympathetic face.

“By the way, are you upset about entering as an assistant manager?”

Yeon Hwa spoke as if consoling him.

“We can’t just plop you in as an executive from the start in the company that bastard built up. It’s already the end of November, so just bear with it for exactly one month. We’ll promote you straight to manager during the year-end personnel changes. Then you can be a team leader too.”

Seung Hyun replied nonchalantly.

“It’s fine. I needed some time to get a grasp on the work anyway.”

What did some title matter? The chairman’s heart is with me anyway.

In the eyes of his father Chairman Kwon, Seung Hyun was the pitiful son who couldn’t call his dad “dad” and grew up in the shadows. So no matter what trouble Seung Hyun caused, he would turn a blind eye, and didn’t say anything even when he spent money like water. The comical part was that he didn’t feel the least bit sorry towards his eldest son, whom he hadn’t treated as his child since middle school due to living separately from his first wife, and instead found fault with everything he did.

Well, it was advantageous for Seung Hyun.

In any case, his father’s affection was clearly with his mother and Seung Hyun. If not for people’s eyes, his father would have already made him the successor long ago.

In fact, he had been curious which company he would go to after completing his MBA and returning home. Straight to headquarters?

But Daewon Construction? Seung Hyun actually thought it was for the best. More than headquarters, more than any of the well-performing affiliates, he was gladder to enter Daewon Construction. If he was going to take something away, wouldn’t it be better to take the company his brother had built up with his own hands?

He was going to take away the company that annoying bastard had built up, starting from the roots. With that resolution, Seung Hyun got up.

“Where are you going? You came home after so long, won’t you have dinner together?”

“I’m sorry, mom. I have an appointment today.”

Brushing off his mother’s attempts to keep him, Seung Hyun left the mansion while mulling over what he had heard earlier.

“An older woman…”

Did he run away with her, abandoning everything because the family would oppose?

“Pffft!”

In the middle of that thought, Seung Hyun burst out laughing. He couldn’t even imagine Kwon Seung Joo falling in love, let alone throwing everything away for love. Even to himself, it was truly an absurd notion.

If Seung Hyun’s life goal was to take from his brother, his brother’s goal was the opposite – to protect. And so far, he had been protecting everything to an irritatingly perfect degree. Would he really throw away everything he had achieved so far like an old shoe because of some woman?

Seung Hyun thought it was more likely that, as his mother worried, he had sensed something and gone into hiding. Wasn’t he probably hiding somewhere collecting evidence in his own way?

But his mother was not such a careless person. Despite her youthful and innocent appearance that belied her age, even seeming pure and pitiful, her son Seung Hyun knew best what a terribly poisonous snake was hiding behind that innocent-looking face.

Long ago, didn’t that incident also end up as a perfect crime in the end?

Since it was something his mother had handled, there was no way it would leave such an easy trail to follow. Seung Hyun set his mind at ease for now and thought about his brother again. More precisely, about his brother’s woman.

‘In any case, it’s clear they’re not just casual acquaintances…’

Who could that woman be, whom even the great Kwon Seung Joo called ‘elder sister’ and spoke formally to?

Out of curiosity, Seung Hyun’s body was restless.