Episode 9



After leaving the company, Seung-hyun took off on a trip without looking back. After all, he had an abundance of money. He didn’t even need to pack his bags. He could just buy whatever he needed when he got there.



“Taking a taxi all the way to Busan. This is the first time I’ve had a passenger like this in my years as a driver.”



“Is that so?”



“I’ve heard there are passengers like that, but train or plane would be cheaper and faster.”



“I wanted to go quietly by myself.”



Leaving behind numerous modes of transportation and the car at his house, Seung-hyun, who took a taxi down to Busan, tipped the driver double the requested fare for the long journey and headed to the hotel he had reserved with refreshed steps.



‘I’ve always wanted to do this kind of useless splurge just once.’



“I’ll help you check your reservation.”



“I made a reservation under the name Han Seung-hyun.”



The accommodation he had booked without even checking the price was the place with the best ocean view in this area. How long had it been since he last saw the ocean? Seung-hyun sat lightly on the sofa with a good view and observed the people passing by.



There weren’t many people since it was a weekday and still business hours. But just watching people passing by in the background seemed to bring peace to his mind.



“Now that I’m trying to have fun, this isn’t easy either. Only those who have fun before know how to really have fun.”



 If he was going to splurge without worrying about money, he wanted to do it properly, but he didn’t even know what to do to have a good time. Unlike Han Seung-hyun in the novel who roamed around nonchalantly, Seung-hyun’s stamina had become quite weak.



‘To think he went around tormenting others so energetically with this kind of physical condition. That’s really venomous, venomous…’



It wasn’t to the point where it was difficult to walk around, but he got tired quickly and it was hard to do activities for a long time due to intermittent migraines.



Unless he had considerable determination, it would have been too much to do something all day, but he had even gone to work and did his job with the sole thought of tormenting Han Tae-sung.



When he discovered the forest of suits categorized by brightness and saturation in the dressing room, he felt it too, but Han Seung-hyun was a truly crazy guy, properly crazy.



“No wonder he has no friends.”



Seung-hyun muttered while fiddling with his cell phone. Having fun is more enjoyable when you have someone to do it with, but Han Seung-hyun had no friends. No matter how much he searched through the messenger window, all that came up were work-related contacts.



The only personal contact was the annoying message from Ju Jae-young recently, so it was fortunate that no one who knew Han Seung-hyun well would find him suspicious.



It was no different with family. Seung-hyun’s father was also an extreme trait discriminationist, no different from Chairman Han, so he was an outsider even among his family.



‘After all, he also entered HJ Group thanks to that trait.’



To the public, Seung-hyun’s father was known as Chairman Han’s son, but in fact, he was not Chairman Han’s son but a distant cousin’s nephew.



However, due to his extremely dominant alpha trait and his outstanding mind shown from a young age, he caught the eye of Chairman Han and moved his family registry to Chairman Han’s before becoming an adult.



Both Chairman Han and Seung-hyun’s father must have expected that a child born from an extremely dominant person would at least be a dominant too. But Seung-hyun manifested as a recessive, and Seung-hyun’s mother became unable to have children after giving birth to Seung-hyun.



“Useless fellow.”



It would be stranger to have a good relationship with such a family. Looking back, he was a person with no one to rely on. Seung-hyun’s father was covering up corruption as a representative and reflecting, was it? He was a character who rarely appeared in the original work, so there was no need to pay attention to him.



The only person who cared for him was his cousin, but after making the wrong suggestion to him, contacting him became quite awkward.



“I naturally thought he liked Han Seung-hyun. Well, there are various types of liking too…”



Seung-hyun leaned his body on the sofa, regretting a little his remark that had become his own dark history. Could he make new friends? They say there’s nothing money can’t buy, but where do you have to go to buy friends?



“…Should I really meet Ju Jae-young?”



Seung-hyun, who came to think about contacting even Ju Jae-young whom he had blocked with his own hands, shook his head. He thought he wouldn’t get involved with the original story anymore since he left everything behind, but Ju Jae-young was still a bit of a burdensome person.



Moreover,  if he contacted him first now, he would rather find it suspicious, thinking there was some ulterior motive. He didn’t care  if he was suspicious or not, but he didn’t want to be watched.



Before dying, he had thought he should have sex at least once before he died. At this rate, he might end up with nothing but sex before he died.



‘That’s a bit…’



Seung-hyun took out the only item he brought from home, his tablet. He was going to search for what he could do to have fun.



However, most of the search results seemed fun only if you had someone to do it with. Although his hobbies were reading BL novels and comics, that was only something he enjoyed at home, and Seung-hyun was originally not used to having fun alone. In the end, he threw the tablet on the bed as well.



“A year isn’t that short of a time. For now, I’ll just do what I can do alone. I can make friends anytime…”



Until then, he thought it would be good to just spend time watching movies, dramas, webtoons, and web novels. There wouldn’t be a lack of money to charge. Seung-hyun filled the maximum one-time charge amount on all platforms and made a satisfied face.



‘Every time I saw the charging page, I wondered who would pay this much at once.  If I want to see everything, it might even be insufficient.’



The first day of the trip passed like that. Spending the whole day watching all kinds of works on his tablet without taking a single step out of the hotel room, Seung-hyun fell asleep around sunrise.



However, unlike Seung-hyun who spent a peaceful day, the day of the people left in Seoul was not so peaceful.



***



“Isn’t there some misunderstanding?”



“Didn’t he say he went to see the chairman and got direct approval? To endure this long with that treatment is already something.”



There was no one in the company who wasn’t talking about Seung-hyun. It wasn’t just inside HJ Group either.



The fact that the grandson of Han, an extreme trait discriminationist, was a recessive alpha, and that he stubbornly held on and maintained his position as a director, was a well-known story among chaebol families.



He was a person who was constantly sarcastically praised for being tenacious whenever there was a chance, but suddenly submitting his resignation without any signs overnight.



“Isn’t there some ulterior motive?”



“Even without Director Han, the succession structure would have been the same… but I thought he was someone who would hold onto that title until he died.”



“Executive Director Han’s side will have to lie low for a while. He might be trying to catch him off guard and stab him in the back, right?”



“If it’s Director Han, he’s more than capable of doing that.”



No one believed Seung-hyun really quit the company with the intention of resigning. Various conspiracy theories were circulating in the company.



“I heard he’s trying to get rid of Executive Director Han and leave only himself in the succession position to gain an advantageous position in negotiations.”



“Come to think of it, Secretary Lee also viewed information related to the construction contract a few days ago, otherwise there’s no way he would suddenly submit his resignation.”



“Someone said they saw him meeting the son of Y Hotel’s CEO in a private room… Ahem.”



The people exchanging all kinds of speculations shut their mouths at Tae-sung’s appearance. The person who would benefit the most from Seung-hyun’s resignation was none other than Tae-sung.



In the first place, he was in an advantageous position thanks to his innate dominant trait, and his natural intelligence and work handling abilities also gave Tae-sung the upper hand, but there was a clear difference between having a competitor and not having one.



But unlike others, Tae-sung found this situation neither interesting nor unsettling. Seung-hyun’s face as he was leaving the chairman’s office just lingered in his mind all day.



‘Then go ahead and watch closely. Whether I cause trouble or not.’



‘I hope we don’t get involved with each other again. Executive Director Han.’



Those words alone were surprising enough, but.



‘What the hell was that expression?’



Han Seung-hyun, who didn’t glare at Tae-sung as  if he was resentful, nor smile while hiding his obvious ulterior motive. Han Seung-hyun, who had a face without any lingering attachment. His face was so surprising that it made him doubt what he saw.



From the moment they first met until now, Seung-hyun had never been friendly to Tae-sung for a single moment. Tae-sung also didn’t have a very good personality, so he didn’t find such Seung-hyun pleasant.



Whenever he felt a sharp gaze, Seung-hyun was at the end of it. He thought it was a bad relationship that would only end with death, but Tae-sung became confused by that attitude that didn’t feel like an act.



“Executive Director. A contact from the person attached to Seung-hyun Han… no, Seung-hyun Han.”



“What did they say he’s doing?”



But rather than Seung-hyun changing, the inference that his energy was great seemed a bit more credible. He must be up to something.



“Well… they said he took a taxi and got on the highway, so I looked into it more, and he seems to have gotten on the Gyeongbu Expressway. When we tracked the taxi number, it shows he went to Busan.”



“In Busan… is there a company that needs to be contacted? Where did he go?”



“…He went into a hotel famous for its good ocean view… and hasn’t come out.”



However, Tae-sung’s thoughts were nicely missed. Surprised by the unexpected answer, Tae-sung let out a small hollow laugh.