Chapter 32: The Golden Child and the Shadow of the Past

Since joining Seoil, Chief Choi Jin-yong had spent years laboring to suppress rumors surrounding the owner’s family. To him, the current situation was far from welcome—especially since the protagonist of the latest gossip was the Chairman’s crown jewel, Min Seonghye.

Even as the head of the Secretary’s Office, Choi could see that Chairman Min’s favoritism toward his second son was excessive. Any loose talk surrounding Seonghye was guaranteed to sour the Chairman’s mood more than anything else.

With the Chairman’s relationship with his second wife, Madam Hwang, already past the point of no return, it was obvious that any fallout from these rumors would be aimed directly at her and the eldest son, Executive Director Min. That was simply how fiercely the Chairman loved his youngest.

“I suppose it’s only natural… considering who his mother was.”

Decades ago, Chairman Min had visited a research site to encourage clinical trials for Seoil Pharmaceuticals. There, he met a researcher in her early twenties. She had been scouted by Seoil for her brilliant results at a young age, but the moment she caught the Chairman’s eye, she was confined behind the high walls of the Seongbuk-dong estate overnight.

She was the woman who would become Min Seonghye’s biological mother. And it was Chief Choi who, under the Chairman’s orders, had personally brought her to that house.

She had dreamed of returning to her old life every single day. When she finally left that place, it was in a casket—and Choi was the one who carried her out.

Since then, Choi had been the first to report any issues with Seonghye to the Chairman. He was the one who handpicked the trustworthy people to surround the boy. Looking back, he felt a sudden pang of futility, as if it were finally time for him to retire. Perhaps this path had been fated since the moment he pushed that innocent-faced woman through the iron gates all those years ago.

Choi returned from his break and knocked on the Chairman’s door. Permission to enter was granted immediately.

Inside, Chairman Min sat on a spacious sofa with his eyes closed. Although he was over eighty and the world was obsessed with who his successor would be, the sheer weight of his presence—the root and pillar of the conglomerate—was still formidable.

“Report.”

At the command, Choi began.

“As you ordered, I have bypassed Director Min and dispatched veteran personnel from Seoil Shielders to Sanghee-ri. The previous staff were assembled by Manager Park, but these veterans will be more reliable in professional terms. Given the recent seizure, I selected experts in crisis management for any future contingencies.”

Last week, upon hearing that Seonghye had collapsed coughing up blood, Chairman Min had been ready to rush down to Sanghee-ri himself. Even now, the memory seemed to cause him physical pain as his face contorted. He opened his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath.

“…Professor Jang says the imprint treatment is progressing well, but what good is that if I can’t see him myself? What kind of father can’t even see his own son’s face?”

His lament quickly turned into rage directed at the person he blamed for the entire mess.

“If only Dong-uk hadn’t pulled that stunt… Seonghye would never have ended up like this.”

Executive Director Min Dong-uk, the Chairman’s eldest son, was back on the chopping block.

“To think an older brother could be so pathetic toward his own sibling! Chief Choi, my heart breaks every time I think of it. No matter how great the sin of raising a child poorly, how can I be repaid like this?”

The Chairman’s fury was not easily quelled. Whenever the topic of the disappointing eldest son arose, Choi remained silent and listened.

“Dong-uk… I still don’t know what he might do if he sees Seonghye again.”

Min Dong-uk, the son of the Chairman and his second wife, Madam Hwang, had been in his father’s bad graces since his third divorce. Aside from official business, they rarely met. Madam Hwang had tried to bridge the gap multiple times, but those meetings invariably ended in shouting matches.

What provoked Dong-uk wasn’t just his fractured relationship with his father; it was the Chairman’s long-standing, blatant favoritism toward his youngest half-brother, Min Seonghye. The fact that they were half-siblings only made the rivalry more lethal.

While Choi felt the Chairman’s parenting was certainly flawed, he was merely an observer. However, that observation had reached a breaking point months ago when secret intelligence was intercepted from the Capital branch.

“We are continuing to monitor Director Min’s movements. It appears they still haven’t discovered that the Young Master is in Sanghee-ri.”

Just as the rumors in the smoking room suggested, when Seonghye’s appointment to Seoil Pharma became imminent, Director Min had felt threatened enough to take a step he shouldn’t have. Fortunately, Choi had intercepted the report and hidden Seonghye in a safe house before the Director could act.

“He can’t stay there forever. Professor Jang says the surgery can be done within a month. Once the operation is successful, I’m bringing him back immediately. If he stays there any longer, I’ll be the one dying of anxiety.”

The Chairman was losing patience. He had even grilled Choi about the man staying with Seonghye.

“Hmph. At least it’s a Beta and not an Omega. With Seonghye having already imprinted, imagine the disaster if that person had been an Omega. Good grief.”

It was clear the Chairman considered a country bumpkin to be nowhere near the level of the “ideal spouse” he had spent years vetting for Seonghye. With his other children’s marriages ending in divorces and broken engagements (save for the eldest daughter), he was determined to find a “perfect” match for his favorite son.

His list of potential daughters-in-law was vast, ranging from the children of four-term assemblymen to those of rival conglomerate heads. Compared to them, the fact that a rural commoner was Seonghye’s imprint partner was something the Chairman found utterly distasteful to even mention.

“The moment the treatment is over, fetch him. Understood?”

“I will make sure everything is prepared for his return without delay,” Choi replied with a bow. Though he hadn’t mentioned it yet, as a loyal subordinate, he had already finalized the logistics for Seonghye’s extraction.

Since switching from injections to oral medication, Seonghye had stopped complaining of anxiety. Yunhwan was meticulous, handing him his pills twice a day to ensure he never missed a dose. However, there were moments—like now—where he slipped up.

Holding a pill in one hand and a glass of water in the other, Yunhwan spoke with a pale face.

“I’m sorry. I completely forgot…”

He was flustered because he had missed the afternoon dose. Seonghye looked down at Yunhwan’s anxious face for a moment before taking the medicine and the water from his hands.

“I already took it.”

“…The medicine?”

Seonghye nodded, placing the items on the table.

“I took it on time this morning while you were on the phone, so you don’t have to worry.”

He watched Yunhwan’s frozen expression and added, “Didn’t I do a good job?”

“…Uh… yeah.”

While Yunhwan searched for the right words, Seonghye reached out and gently tugged on Yunhwan’s worn-out sleeve. Brown eyes naturally drifted downward.

“When someone does a good job, aren’t they supposed to get a compliment?”

“A compliment…?”

“Yes.”

As Seonghye continued to tug playfully at his sleeve, Yunhwan’s lips parted. Seonghye’s ink-dark eyes, unusually calm today, crinkled at the edges into a soft smile.

“You used to stroke my hair before.”

The thin fabric between his fingers was released. No longer satisfied with just a sleeve, Seonghye took Yunhwan’s hand and guided it toward his own head, letting Yunhwan slowly stroke his fine hair.

Pure satisfaction bloomed in the eyes of the man who had claimed Yunhwan’s warmth. Seonghye, who always seemed to hunger for affection and crave Yunhwan’s gaze, wished this moment could last forever.

“Your hand…” Seonghye swallowed hard, his throat moving visibly. “It’s so warm. I love it.”

Having suppressed an overflowing expression of affection into those simple words, the man stared at Yunhwan without even blinking. Yunhwan’s gaze was trapped, bound fast by that singular, obsessive devotion.