#152

Side Story Episode 3

His mother, Shin Ho-jae, and even Jung-hyun stood frozen in silence for a while. The story was simply that unrealistic.

As if he had anticipated the reaction of the three, Lawyer Kim spoke nonchalantly while placing the will into an envelope.

“Procedurally, the board’s approval will be necessary, but given the current situation, I don’t foresee any major issues.”

As he spoke, the lawyer glanced at the father sitting in the wheelchair. The father merely stared blankly into space, as if he couldn’t hear a word being said. The lawyer then asked Jung-hyun.

“Shall I try to convene the board on a date of your choosing?”

“……It’s too sudden. Could you give me some time to think?”

“As you wish. Since the President has stepped down from the front lines, you are currently the sole final decision-maker of Myeong-jeong, Mr. Jung-hyun.”

“…….”

“Any further necessary discussions can be handled through President Kwon Myung-chul’s executive secretary. You have the number, correct? I have already conveyed the details, so there is no need for further explanation.”

The lawyer gathered his documents and rose from his seat. Jung-hyun, who had been spacing out, hurriedly followed him out of the room.

“Lawyer.”

At his call, Lawyer Kim turned his head with a polite demeanor.

“You said you served my grandfather for a long time, right?”

“Calling me ‘Lawyer’ is far too formal. Please, feel free to speak comfortably.”

“…….”

“To answer your question, yes. Chairman Kwon sponsored many young Alphas from poor villages, and I was one of them. I caught the Chairman’s eye and entered this house around the age of sixteen, where I even lived and ate.”

“…….”

“It seems you didn’t expect today’s will at all.”

“…Yes. Even if it were my father or brother, they probably would have felt the same.”

Lawyer Kim nodded deeply and told his secretary standing behind him to excuse themselves.

“Opportunities to see you in person like this won’t be frequent, so if there is anything you wish to ask, please ask anything.”

This was exactly what Jung-hyun had hoped for. He moved with Lawyer Kim to another room in the hanok. Soon, Suncheon-daek arrived with tea, her face full of curiosity, and Jung-hyun only spoke once she had completely moved away.

“I cannot understand the very existence of this will. Did my grandfather know that I would manifest as an Omega?”

“To be more precise, it would be more accurate to say he kept the possibility in mind.”

“…….”

“It must be difficult to understand. The late Chairman always preferred only the Alpha trait.”

Lawyer Kim moistened his throat with tea before continuing. Jung-hyun waited for him to speak.

“The will revealed today was written in secret three days before the Chairman passed away, after he summoned me.”

“…….”

“Are you aware? The Chairman’s spouse—that is, your biological grandmother—was a male Omega.”

Jung-hyun narrowed his eyes at the unexpected revelation.

“You likely didn’t know. The Chairman kept that fact strictly confidential until the day he died. Even his children probably didn’t know for certain that their mother was a man.”

……A male Omega.

The first thing that came to mind was that black-and-white photograph.

“Then, is the man in this photo my biological grandmother?”

Jung-hyun took out the photo he had kept in his pocket and showed it to the lawyer. To look closer at the photo, the lawyer adjusted his round horn-rimmed glasses. For the first time, the corners of the man’s usually cold face curved into a smile.

“That’s correct. It is Mr. Choi Myung. I met him exactly once while I was living here. Of course, at the time, I never dreamed he was the mistress of the house.”

“This person is Choi Myung….”

It was the name of the grandmother he had only known by name. Since it was an ambiguous name, he had naturally assumed she was a woman.

Jung-hyun looked at the photo once more. Now that he thought of the person as his grandmother, several things looked different.

The way he wore men’s hanbok. The posture, which felt distant for a photo taken with a spouse, and the expression that seemed dark….

“You must have learned this as well, Mr. Jung-hyun. In the early 19th century, the very concept of a trait-bearer was very unfamiliar. In an era when even men and women were strictly separated, it was only natural that men with Omega traits were tabooed by society.”

“…….”

“Many male Omegas hid their traits and took wives while pretending to be Betas, or some lived their entire lives without knowing they were Omegas.”

“But I don’t understand how it’s possible that even my father didn’t know this person was his mother.”

“In those days, nothing was impossible. The President and the other siblings were taken by wet nurses as soon as they were weaned, and Mr. Myung was kept hidden separately.”

“Hidden? A person?”

“Yes, right here in the hanok annex.”

“…….”

The main residence in Seongbuk-dong had become what it is now through repeated expansions and remodeling. Now, a long corridor connects the modern main building and the hanok annex for easy access, but he had heard that during his grandfather’s time, the main building and the annex were completely separated.

This could be easily confirmed by the old photos hanging in the study. In those photos, only the magnificent main building was captured, as if no annex existed in this house.

If one stepped out onto the wooden veranda, it was a beautiful place where the scenery of Bukaksan Mountain could be seen in all four seasons, but if one had been confined here the whole time, it would have been no different from a prison.

The folding screen in the photo caught Jung-hyun’s eye. Yes, this folding screen.

His grandfather had said that the pair of butterflies admiring the beautiful things in the world of the folding screen represented himself and his grandmother.

“He couldn’t have been here the whole time. My grandfather clearly said he visited many beautiful places with my grandmother, just as depicted in this folding screen.”

“No.”

Lawyer Kim smiled bitterly.

“After entering the Myeong-jeong family, Mr. Myung was unable to take a single step outside of this place.”

“…….”

“Not a single step.”

Lawyer Kim repeated the same words while looking outside through the octagonal window with its delicate decorations. An indescribable feeling of suffocation washed over Jung-hyun.

Jung-hyun lowered his gaze and took in the image of his grandmother once more. The pale complexion, the dark expression.

In contrast to his grandfather, a powerful businessman wearing a Western suit, he was wearing a hanbok durumagi. Even though it was someone he had never actually met, perhaps because they shared the same blood, or perhaps because of their commonality as male Omegas, his mouth felt dry.

“Chairman Kwon was terrified that it would be revealed that his spouse was a man.”

Lawyer Kim slowly continued.

“As is the case now, the high-ranking officials of that time were a group more cowardly and narrow-minded than anyone else. To the point where they would cut off business if they found out a porter they dealt with was a freak married to a male Omega. Even though the gender of the porter’s wife had absolutely nothing to do with the business.”

“…….”

“It is said that the Chairman had immense strength since he was young. While working as the best porter in the village, he realized this could make money, and the scale grew gradually until it could be called a business. However, if the Chairman had not manifested as an Alpha, it would have been difficult for the scale to grow this much.”

Lawyer Kim began the story slowly.

The A-frame carrier became a cart, and the cart became a carriage. And the carriage became ships and automobiles. That was the starting point of MJ Transport, Myeong-jeong’s first business.

Born as the son of an ordinary farmer, it was impossible for Kwon Deuk-jeong to have received formal education. Nevertheless, the fact that he grew the business to this extent was all thanks to his extraordinary business acumen.

However, an invisible ceiling always frustrated Kwon Deuk-jeong. Even when he owned two ships at the age of thirty, the so-called high-born nobles still treated him as a mere porter. It was because of his origins.

So, how could he ever forget the day he manifested as an Alpha?

While the concept of traits was primitive, the longing for Alphas was far higher then than it is now.

The rumor that he had manifested as an Alpha at a late age spread faster than a thousand-li horse, and a noble family that claimed to have produced a Chief State Councilor during the Joseon Dynasty even secretly requested to take him in as an adopted son.

Deuk-jeong seized that opportunity. Having completed his social laundering as both an Alpha and a nobleman, Deuk-jeong was no longer called a porter by anyone.

He was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the children of noble families, and by building friendships centered around high-ranking officials, he came to be in charge of very important national transportation.

It was a natural consequence, like a needle following a thread, that the ideology of Alpha worship became firmly rooted in his mind.

He wanted his trait to be passed down to future generations, and he realized that to do so, he had to take a trait-bearer, not a Beta, as his spouse.

However, the fact that he was already over thirty—well past the marriageable age of that time—and his humble origins once again held him back.

Furthermore, at the time, there was a prevailing sentiment that a woman’s trait was something to be ashamed of. If a woman was an Alpha, they hid it, saying she would devour the men of the house; if she was an Omega, they hid it, saying she was not modest and was vulgar. In an era where everyone hid the fact that their daughters were trait-bearers, finding a spouse was even more difficult. Deuk-jeong was very anxious.

“It was then that he heard a rumor. That in his hometown of Hamgyeong Province, there was a man who had manifested as an Omega early on, and his parents, being very ashamed of their Omega child, kept him locked in a storehouse to hide him from others.”

Jung-hyun frowned. No matter how long ago it was, to be locked in a storehouse simply for being an Omega. It was a horrific time.

“The fact that he was a man bothered him until the end, but eventually, the Chairman decided to bring that Omega man here, paying a hush-money fee in the name of a dowry.”

Choi Myung, who arrived at the main house after a full week’s journey from Hamgyeong Province to Gyeongseong, was in a wretched state.

Having lived locked in a storehouse his entire life, it was impossible that he had ever ridden in a palanquin or a car. Suffering from severe motion sickness, unable to eat or drink properly for a week, Myung arrived at the front yard of the main house in a haggard state, and the grandfather did not show him even the minimum of human kindness.

Before even greeting the person who was to be his spouse with proper etiquette, Deuk-jeong took him to the bed and stripped him. He had never seen an Omega in person, but rumors said that even for a man, their appearance was so coquettish and beautiful that it was alluring.

Since he didn’t look the part on the outside, Deuk-jeong thought something might be different once he stripped him. Those expectations were crushed. The body beneath the shabby hanbok, which the in-laws had dressed up in their own way, was no different from that of an unremarkable man.

‘I wondered if something was different because he’s an Omega… he’s just a scrawny man.’

With those words, he turned his back and left in displeasure, marking the end of their first meeting.

– PUCK DROP