By Zephyria 
Judging by Father’s attitude, it didn’t seem like he would explain anything, and in many ways, it seemed better for my well-being to follow Kwon Yi-kang.
“Let’s go.”
As I reached out my hand to Kwon Yi-kang, Father’s expression became even more menacing.
“Cha Soo-kyung. Are you going to disobey your father?”
“Since when did I ever listen to you? You’re acting strange all of a sudden.”
“You! You ungrateful brat!”
With his face completely contorted, Father struck the top of my head with his palm. With a loud slap, my body staggered, and Kwon Yi-kang, who had stepped forward in a single bound, caught me.
“Are you alright?”
“Of course I’m not.”
I could see stars. It took a moment for my white-out vision to return to normal. I blinked my eyelids slowly to focus and stared at Father. As I licked my lips, I tasted blood; it must have split.
“Wow… if I get married twice, I’ll be beaten to death.”
“Cha Soo-kyung.”
“You’re not going to tell me to stay home after this, are you? I’m leaving happily. Let’s go.”
“Cha Soo-kyung!”
“Let’s go.”
Turning my back on the shouting Father, I grabbed Kwon Yi-kang’s hand and walked away. Before we even reached the entrance, the door opened, and Chief Bae appeared with several men.
“Grab Soo-kyung and drag him to his room. Throw the other guy out. Make sure that bastard isn’t seen near this house again.”
Perhaps because he had more people on his side, Father shouted in an even louder voice. I guess the only thing that grows as you get older is your vocal cords. I scoffed, picking at my ear with my finger.
“Take one more step. I’ll report you for domestic violence and kidnapping.”
I took out my phone from my pocket and spoke warningly.
“Chief Bae, I told you not to come close. Should I call 112? Do I look like someone who cares about family shame? You still don’t know my personality.”
As if to prove it, I dialed 112 on my phone and hovered my finger over the call button. Chief Bae, who had been approaching, hesitated.
“What are you doing? Have you only seen that brat’s madness for a day or two? Hurry up and drag him up.”
“Shall I say it here, Father-in-law?”
Kwon Yi-kang, who had been watching the situation, turned and asked Alpha father.
“The eldest son is here, and there are so many employees… Shall we talk here? About what happened in the past. What was done. How the relationship got twisted, and how the result manifested. Why you oppose this marriage so strongly… Shall I try telling it? I’m fine with it, but are you fine with it, Father-in-law?”
Kwon Yi-kang maintained a relaxed face throughout. He seemed angry after I was hit by Father, but his expression, which feigned composure, did not crumble.
Suddenly, Kwon Yi-kang looked like an adult. An adult who could leisurely spout what he wanted to say without whining, getting annoyed, or complaining. It was an annoying yet infinitely reassuring image of an adult to have on my side.
“You hate it when things get noisy and you love maintaining your dignity, don’t you? Let’s just let this pass amicably. I’ll keep Soo-kyung with me and send him back once the conversation is over.”
As if the men surrounding them were invisible, Kwon Yi-kang leisurely draped an arm over my shoulder and walked away. I glanced back at Father, whose face looked like he was suppressing something. I became unable to bear the curiosity of what that man was hiding inside.
“Your lip is split. Is the inside okay?”
As we put on our shoes and left the entrance, Kwon Yi-kang asked in a tender voice.
“I think it’s slightly torn on my tooth.”
I don’t know why it feels exactly the same whether I was hit by Grandfather or Father. Being father and son, even the way they hit is similar.
“You should have dodged it.”
“When someone hits, I feel like I have to take it for some reason. My body won’t move.”
This was Min Jae-hee’s bad habit. Even though I was now in a position where I didn’t have to be hit, my body froze as if I had to take the blow without moving whenever someone swung their hand.
“I’ll have to stay right next to you from now on. I thought you’d at least know how to dodge that, but you just took it like a fool.”
“I know. I’m always getting hit. I’m so pitiful.”
When I wailed pitifully, Kwon Yi-kang lifted me up. I hugged his neck tightly at the movement he made ostentatiously. Beyond the closing entrance door, I caught a glimpse of Alpha father standing there in disbelief and my eldest brother, who for some reason was smiling, before they disappeared.
∞ ∞ ∞
“Water?”
“Coffee. Do you have mix coffee?”
Kwon Yi-kang took off the coat he had draped over my shoulders, hung it on the sofa, and sat down as if lying back. I don’t know why I feel so chilly whenever I come back from going out. When I muttered that I was cold, Kwon Yi-kang raised the boiler temperature and brought a thin blanket to cover my lap.
“Caffeine isn’t good for the body. I’ll make you some fruit tea.”
“Alcohol would be fine too.”
Ignoring my last words as if they weren’t worth responding to, Kwon Yi-kang headed to the kitchen. I heard the sound of water boiling, and after a short wait, Kwon Yi-kang approached with two steaming mugs.
“Your cheek is starting to swell. You need a compress.”
“Forget it. It’s a hassle, just leave it.”
“Then let’s at least apply some ointment.”
“Do that later too. You can apply it after I drink this.”
Feeling lazy about everything, I leaned back and waved my hand. In truth, I didn’t even feel like drinking the fruit tea in front of me.
“It doesn’t seem like a problem between you and Father, and since you said it’s a problem of the older generation, is it a problem between the fathers? Did they fight and grab each other’s collars?”
I leaned my neck against the back of the sofa and tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. The fluorescent lights were dazzling, so as I blinked, Kwon Yi-kang switched them to a soft light and turned on the floor lamp.
“To be precise, it’s closer to a problem between your grandfather and my father. And I’m the one caught in the middle.”
Kwon Yi-kang took a seat at the end of the long sofa where I was sitting. I turned my head to the side and stared at him, who was sitting one space away.
“Why are you sitting there?”
It’s uncomfortable to look at your face. Either sit facing me, or sit close beside me like usual.
“Because I don’t want my expression to be seen. At the end of the story I’m about to tell… I don’t know what kind of face I’ll have.”
It wasn’t a happy or joyful voice. Nor was it a voice of anger or sadness. It was simply a voice that sounded a bit exhausted and drained, which actually made me more worried.
“The beginning… is a very common story.”
Taking a sip from the mug, Kwon Yi-kang began the story in a flat voice.
“A love story between a young lady who grew up loved in a wealthy home, knowing no fear of the world, and a low-life gangster who experienced all the bitterness of the world in the back alleys. It’s a common love story if you will, but one with no realism.”
The wealthy Omega lady, who grew up refined among kind and gentle people, was pure and naive. In other words, she was completely clueless.
She became a college student and, led by friends, went to a nightclub for the first time in her life. The first time she stepped into the underworld, the first time she drank alcohol, the first time she glimpsed a promiscuous world.
The usual harassment and quarrels. It escalated slightly into a fight, and while she was being dragged away, the one who rescued her was the low-life gangster who managed that nightclub.
If it had ended there, it would have been a common happening, but the connection continued, starting with a contact to say thank you. In the eyes of the refined Omega lady, the gangster Alpha, who reeked of danger, must have been a strange yet sufficiently attractive existence.
Through one or two meetings, they became lovers, and the matter escalated when life sprouted in the womb of the precious Omega lady.
They promised a future for the three of them, including the child in the womb, but the gaze of those around them and the situation did not flow as the lovers had thought.
The Omega lady’s family was in an uproar. It was a world-shaking event that their cherished child had become pregnant before marriage, and to make matters worse, the father of the child and the Alpha brought for marriage was an uneducated low-life gangster.
There was no way a deep-rooted family that produced doctors for generations and owned a large hospital would permit such a marriage.
Despite the abuse, coldness, and insults, the Alpha man cast aside his pride and even knelt to seek permission for the relationship, and the Omega woman rebelled against her family for the first time and left home.
The woman, who was dragged back home before they could even start living together, wept and pleaded when her family told her to abort the child.
Please just let me give birth to the child. If you just let me give birth, I’ll do whatever you tell me to.
The woman’s family agonized and agonized. Meanwhile, the woman’s belly grew, eventually reaching five months, and the family, judging that a late-term abortion would be dangerous for the mother, shook the woman with all sorts of threats and coaxing.
The Alpha boy was sent to his father immediately after birth, without even getting to nurse from his mother.
The Alpha man, who spent his time unable to meet his beloved Omega due to strict surveillance, collapsed in despair while holding the piece of flesh that had come into his arms.
The man realized poignantly that if one has no money, no power, no parents, and no background, one cannot even protect their own people.
He did not want his child, the only result of his love for that person, to go through the same things he did. Unlike himself, he wanted to raise his child with confidence.
Rather than being bullied because he lacked money, he wanted his child to be the one who bullies because he has money; rather than being despised because he lacked power, he hoped his child would be the one who despises because he has power.
The Alpha man stubbornly fought his way up, swallowed the organization, and built a business to move from the shadows into the light. He expanded the business rapidly with money and fists, and thirty years was enough time to turn his company into a leading enterprise.
“Haven’t you heard? That Hwang Seong Group started from a violent organization. It was a story that spread by word of mouth for a while.”
“Not at all.”
“Rumors circulated, but they subsided quickly. As time passed, it faded from people’s memories. It’s a back-story that only those in the know are aware of.”
I really didn’t know. So Kwon Yi-kang’s father was a gangster? From a low-life gangster managing a nightclub to a gangster boss, and from there to a group chairman? That man lived quite a spectacular life.