Episode 17

“Even a ghost that died from eating has good complexion.”

It didn’t take long to calm his mind. After all, Seung-hyun’s life had always been like this since the accident he experienced just before being possessed. Seung-hyun, who checked the time, put on the clothes he had taken out in advance.

“11:55. They won’t say anything about being a little late, and it won’t take long to get there since it’s in the same building.”

Seung-hyun opened the door and came out in light attire. And almost simultaneously as he opened his door, the door to the next room opened.

Seung-hyun, who was about to pass by thinking it was a coincidence, discovered a familiar back of the head and let out an ‘uh’ sound.

“What. I thought you left already.”

“Why are you here, Jae-young-ssi?”

Seung-hyun looked at Jae-young with a dumbfounded face. Why is this guy coming out of the room next to mine?

“Well, I need to have a room to stay in too, right?”

“But why is it the room right next to mine?”

“The room next door just happened to be empty.”

Seung-hyun, who was at a loss for words, slightly opened his mouth, forgetting the throbbing pain in his knees. But he soon nodded his head. It seemed he had gotten a little used to Jae-young’s behavior in just a day.

“Yes. I guess so.”

“Our destination is probably the same, so shall we go down together?”

“…Are you stalking me?”

“As a member of this hotel, there are things I notice while taking care of work matters.”

He’s lying without even wetting his lips. Next time, I should avoid Y Hotel when making a reservation. Thinking that, Seung-hyun walked side by side with Jae-young.

“Are you hurting somewhere?”

“Pardon?”

“Your walking seems a bit uncomfortable.”

Jae-young said, pointing to Seung-hyun’s legs. I thought it wasn’t that noticeable. Seung-hyun unconsciously reached out his hand towards his knee.

“Ah… I fell while coming out of the bath.”

It wasn’t a lie, although something was omitted in the middle. Fortunately, Jae-young took it lightly and quickly lost interest.

“Well, the bathroom floor is marble after all. Be careful. How did you fall?”

“Just… because.”

Although he hadn’t fallen in the bathroom, Seung-hyun didn’t bother to correct that misunderstanding. Rather, he preferred that he thought that way.

“Then a schedule with a lot of walking today might be a bit difficult.”

“It’s not to that extent.”

“No, it is. You’re limping even now.”

Is that so? I can’t really tell. Seung-hyun tried rolling his foot on the floor. He felt a slight tingling pain, but it wasn’t to the point of being unbearable.

Meanwhile, the two arrived on the 10th floor where the buffet was located. Seung-hyun, who looked at Jae-young sitting across from him with a look of ‘I knew it,’ moved to get food.

‘Oh, as expected of an expensive place… it’s completely different from the buffets that cost around 10,000 won in the early part of weekdays.’

Seafood that’s quite expensive like king crab and abalone. Sushi made by slicing the fish right there and chefs working at each station.

So many varieties of food that he was certain he wouldn’t be able to eat it all even if he ate a little of each. Seung-hyun wasn’t a big eater, so he would barely eat two or three plates at most, but it was a sight that delighted his eyes just by looking at it.

“This spot has the best view. You can see the ocean nice and refreshingly.”

As he returned to his seat with only the most appetizing items, Jae-young boasted about the view of his hotel while looking to the side. As he said, the scenery looking down was really nice from that spot.

“You woke up late. I was waiting to see what you’d have for breakfast.”

“…Are you a stalker?”

“Isn’t it also an employee’s duty to check on a customer’s condition by waking up early?”

“That employee excuse again…”

Seung-hyun shook his head from side to side and started eating. Still, it was nice to have someone to eat with.

“Did you sleep in late?”

“No. I guess… I was just a bit tired. I did fall asleep early, but when I opened my eyes, quite some time had passed.”

Unlike the previous day when he had barely fallen asleep at dawn, he fell asleep a little past 11, but perhaps because he had been out all day, he fell asleep as if he passed out and slept for about twelve hours.  

“I think there would be many people looking for Han Seung-hyun-ssi. Is it really okay to stay here for a whole week?”

“If it’s not right in front of my eyes, I can just ignore it, right? For now, the spouse of that side’s closest friend is being the most annoying.”

“There must have been… a lot of calls from family members too. Isn’t former CEO Han Taehyeop a scary person?”

Former CEO Han Taehyeop. It referred to Seung-hyun’s father. Seung-hyun spoke indifferently.

“Speaking of which, I got a call to meet on Sunday.”

“Oh my. Then you won’t be able to stay for the full period.”

“Is there a need for that? I told him I can’t go, so set a new date.”

Clang, almost simultaneously as Seung-hyun finished speaking, Jae-young’s fork fell on the plate. At the ear-splitting sound, a few people briefly looked at the two’s table but soon lost interest.

However, Jae-young’s state remained the same. Is that so surprising? After looking at Jae-young like that for a moment, Seung-hyun moved his hand again.

‘He must be joking again.’

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. I told him to readjust the date to after Thursday.”

When Seung-hyun answered nonchalantly, Jae-young blinked dumbly. Isn’t he joking? After looking at that for a moment, Seung-hyun asked.

“Why are you so surprised? No matter what I hear, I have no intention of returning to the company anyway, and it’s not like something big will happen if I don’t meet right away.”

“Even I, who has no interest in this field, know what kind of person former CEO Han Taehyeop is to that extent.”

Although Seung-hyun spoke indifferently, anyone who knew what kind of person Han Taehyeop was would be surprised.

Han Taehyeop. He, who was recognized for his excellent nature and competence despite not being a direct descendant of the HJ family, became Chairman Han’s adopted son and was famous in many ways.

Although he was so distantly related to the direct line that it was ambiguous to even call him a relative, his extremely dominant alpha nature was a characteristic that Chairman Han, a genetic discrimination, liked.

Moreover, he was someone outstanding in every aspect as if showing what an extremely dominant alpha is like. With looks that wouldn’t lose even when compared to most celebrities, and abilities that matched his appearance.

The winter when Taehyeop caught Chairman Han’s eye was when he was nineteen and the only one to receive a perfect score on the college entrance exam that year, which was evaluated as an unprecedented disaster.

To Chairman Han, whose insides were turning upside down because his only son turned out to be not just an alpha but a recessive alpha, the news of his distant relative’s nephew was quite an interesting matter.

‘The guy who will inherit my position, what does it matter if he’s my biological child? If he ruins this company that I’ve built up…’

With that thought, Chairman Han registered Han Taehyeop into his family register. And Han Taehyeop was a person as ambitious as he was capable.

He established himself as the perfect successor to the point of completely erasing the existence of Han Kyungseok, the chairman’s biological son, and Han Kyungseok gave up all expectations for his father and stopped caring about company affairs. People naturally thought that Han Taehyeop would become the next head of HJ.

At least, until Han Seung-hyun manifested as a dominant alpha.

‘I heard he thoroughly hid it until he fully manifested, even though he knew there was a high probability he would manifest as a dominant.’

After Seung-hyun manifested as a dominant. Since Tae-sung entered Chairman Han’s residence, just as Han Taehyeop had taken over Kyungseok’s position, Han Taehyeop began to have his position as the perfect successor threatened.

What is called the foundation of HJ is none other than construction. Han Taehyeop, who couldn’t feel at ease even after being promised the representative position there in advance, ended up making the worst choice. 

‘I heard he tried to force Chairman Han to hand over the position by pushing the corruption that someone had to take the fall for towards him, but his tail got caught and he was kicked out of that position instead.’

In a way, it was a really bold decision. To try to kick out Chairman Han in advance when Tae-sung was still inevitably lacking to succeed the entire company. If it had succeeded, it would have been a legendary story.

But he failed in that plan, and conversely, he had to take the fall for that corruption and suffered humiliation such as being in a detention center for a while.

The position of the representative of the construction company, which would become the position of the next successor, was passed back to Chairman Han. He probably intended to pass it to Tae-sung once the succession structure was completely sorted out. Seung-hyun thought as he chewed the food in his mouth.

“Although the former CEO is a ‘former’ CEO now… he still has influence in HJ, right? I heard there were quite a few people who saw the succession structure as Managing Director Han and former CEO Han rather than Managing Director Han and Director Han.”

“But now it’s a story that has nothing to do with me.”

“That may be so since you’ve completely stepped down from your position… but you haven’t cut family ties, have you?”

Family ties, huh. Seung-hyun briefly recalled the Han Seung-hyun’s family history in ‘The Law of Conservation.’ Although they appeared a couple of times, whenever they appeared, he remembered having the impression, ‘Is personality hereditary too?’

“Above all… it doesn’t seem like he would leave Han Seung-hyun-ssi alone.”

“Well… for now, it’s a vacation.”

Surely nothing will happen. Seung-hyun checked his cell phone indifferently. Unlike the two missed calls from his mother while he was washing up for a bit, there were no calls coming in now.

‘Well, it seems like he’s already lost interest too.’

But when the week-long vacation ended and he returned to Seoul. Seung-hyun would think that he should have ended the bothersome talk early.