Chapter 38: Dinner with Devils

“Wow, must be nice living such an easy life. Showing up exactly at dinner time and all.”

The moment they stepped into the main house for dinner, a crooked voice greeted them. Apparently, she’d been standing there waiting for them to arrive.

“Says the person who didn’t even come to their little brother’s wedding.”

“That’s because Dad said he’d kill me if I showed up! What was I supposed to do?”

Woo-seok shot back effortlessly, like this sort of exchange was routine for him.

“Hello, I’m Go Ha-jin. Nice to finally meet you.”

“Exactly. If it’s your first time here, shouldn’t you have come to greet me yourself? Seriously, were you raised without any manners?”

Ha-jin recognized her immediately. The eldest daughter of the Chae family, the woman from that infamous clip where she’d beaten someone while holding a raw chicken with the expression of a demon. Probably everyone in the country knew her face.

If you searched “Chae Jae-yi” online, that image showed up first every time: Jae-yi glaring like the devil herself, raw chicken in hand.

“What are you even talking about? Since when were we close enough for greetings? Stop trying to throw your weight around even at home and reflect on yourself for once. After causing that kind of disaster, you should lock yourself in your room and stay there.”

The mention of the chicken incident immediately twisted Jae-yi’s face. No matter how you looked at it, she and Woo-seok definitely didn’t get along. Though honestly, what siblings did? They looked exactly like the kind of siblings every family had, constantly at each other’s throats.

“I’m warning you in advance. Don’t even think about touching F&B or retail. They’re going to be mine again eventually!”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got zero interest in selling bread crumbs for a living. And as for retail, give up already. Learn your place.”

From their conversation alone, Ha-jin could tell Jae-yi had already been pushed out of the succession race. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be obsessing over something as small as the food business.

And Woo-seok’s attitude toward her was complete dismissal, as if she wasn’t even worth considering competition.

The unpleasant exchange finally ended when Lee Ah-seong’s voice echoed from afar, telling them to stop.

Following Woo-seok inside, Ha-jin entered a dining hall centered around a massive dining table. But the layout was strange. The large table was divided into two sections.

“You’re late. Next time, arrive earlier.”

“Yes… Father.”

A line of servants stood to one side, and Lee Aseong was among them. Beside him stood another familiar face. Jae-yi moved to stand next to Lee Ah-seong with an annoyed expression, and Ha-jin couldn’t understand what exactly was going on.

Only Chae Jun-seok, Woo-seok’s older brother, was already seated at the table. Woo-seok sat across from him, and soon Chae Il-joo entered and took the seat of honor.

Something about the atmosphere felt wrong.

Ha-jin glanced around cautiously before plopping down beside Woo-seok in an empty chair.

“Hey! That’s not your seat.”

Jae-yi’s voice sounded completely different now. Unlike earlier, when she’d been openly hostile toward Woo-seok, she lowered her voice and scolded him quietly instead. Apparently she was conscious of Chae Il-joo watching.

“Why…? Are there assigned seats?”

Ha-jin had already guessed as much. The arrangement was strange. Chae Il-joo sat at the head of the table, with Woo-seok and Jun-seok seated opposite him. There was no place for Lee Ah-seong. Ha-jin had knowingly pretended not to notice and sat down anyway.

“It seems Ha-jin still doesn’t understand yet. Explain it to him properly.”

“…Yes.”

Laughing heartily, Chae Il-joo shoved the responsibility onto Lee Ah-seong.

“Come stand beside me and learn properly. Who told you to shove yourself into any seat you please?”

Under the combined stares of Lee Ah-seong and Jae-yi, Ha-jin reluctantly stood again.

Only after Chae Il-joo announced they should begin eating did the servants and the omegas of the household begin to move. The servants carried in dishes, which the omegas smoothly received and arranged on the table with practiced motions.

Lee Ah-seong attended to Chae Il-joo. The omega Ha-jin had seen once before attended to Jun-seok. Jae-yi supervised the servants.

And in front of Woo-seok, there was nothing.

Seeing that, Ha-jin almost laughed instead of getting angry.

What kind of ridiculous nonsense was this? There were countless servants in the house, yet the omegas were the ones serving meals? And why did these omegas accept such treatment like it was normal? Even in the Joseon era, it probably hadn’t been this bad.

“What are you doing?”

At Lee Ah-seong’s quiet prompting, Ha-jin had no choice but to move. He took the utensils from a servant and placed them in front of Woo-seok.

Back when they first met, Woo-seok had told him that even in Korea, where omega rights were already poor, his family was especially terrible. This must have been what he meant.

“Can’t we stop doing this already? This is why I hate eating here.”

Woo-seok’s irritated voice broke the silence.

“Don’t talk nonsense. You can’t change tradition overnight.”

Naturally, Chae Il-joo wasn’t swayed in the slightest. To him, toxic customs were “tradition,” and there was no room for compromise.

Until now, Ha-jin had found Woo-seok thoroughly unpleasant, but seeing him here made him realize something.

Woo-seok was actually surprisingly decent.

At least he was the only one who understood how wrong this situation was. Despite growing up in such a backwards household, he didn’t look down on omegas. He’d never separated meals by status or demanded they personally wait on him.

That alone made him seem fairly admirable.

Well… the problem was that he treated everyone equally badly, not just omegas.

“Eat a lot.”

For some reason, Ha-jin couldn’t dislike him then, so he patted Woo-seok lightly on the shoulder.

Only after the three alphas started eating were the others allowed to sit at the side table prepared nearby. Following Lee Ah-seong, Ha-jin sat down as well.

His appetite had completely vanished already, but he didn’t want to complain on the first day. It wasn’t like this kind of treatment could change overnight anyway.

“Let’s eat.”

But something else felt strange.

At the head of the second table sat Lee Ah-seong. Jae-yi and Ha-jin sat opposite him. And beside Ha-jin sat the omega he’d met before, Jun-seok’s spouse.

Tae-seol.

Because he wore clothing nearly identical to the servants’, Ha-jin might not even have realized he was family if he hadn’t seen his face before.

Why was the eldest omega spouse sitting at the very bottom?

“It’s been a while.”

“Ah… yes…”

When Ha-jin greeted him, Tae-seol answered quietly, almost swallowing his voice. He wouldn’t even make eye contact.

“Hey. The soup’s cold. Heat it up again.”

Jae-yi shoved the soup bowl carelessly across the table. Soup splashed over the tablecloth from the rude gesture.

Ha-jin looked up, wondering if she was talking to him, but the man beside him rose like the wind, wiped the table clean, picked up the bowl, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“I seriously can’t tell whether he’s clueless or shameless.”

“Be quiet and eat.”

Lee Ah-seong didn’t stop her behavior either.

The voices definitely carried to the other table, yet none of the three alphas reacted at all. Apparently this was perfectly normal to them.

Watching all this, Ha-jin finally understood Tae-seol’s position in the family.

Considering he hadn’t even been invited to the wedding, he was clearly treated like an outcast. In terms of hierarchy, he was probably dead last… maybe even beneath certain servants.

And so the deeply uncomfortable dinner began.

For the first time in a long while, Ha-jin left food on his plate against his own will.

The entire meal had been unbearable.

****

“Wow. Are you insane?”

“What now?”

“How do people wake up at five in the morning?”

Ha-jin suddenly felt relieved he hadn’t eaten much earlier. If he’d stuffed himself during dinner, hearing this afterward definitely would have made him sick.

While the alphas chatted in the living room after dinner, Lee Ah-seong had given Ha-jin an order: breakfast was at six, meaning preparation began at five.

“I don’t even eat breakfast.”

“Exactly! There are dozens of servants in this house, so why does the entire family have to wake up and prepare breakfast?”

“I told you already. My family’s a little unusual.”

This went far beyond “unusual.”

It was basically modern slavery.

The entire household revolved completely around alphas. Omegas existed solely to provide comfort and satisfy the alphas’ possessiveness and desire for control.

And because they’d lived like this for so long, nobody even realized how wrong it was anymore.

“Seriously… I can do whatever I want, right? I can handle anything else, but waking up at dawn is absolutely impossible for me.”

“Obviously. Honestly, I’m disappointed you behaved so obediently today. I was secretly hoping you’d flip the dining table over.”

Woo-seok’s words made Ha-jin burst into laughter.

Just moments ago, he’d been so angry his head hurt. Yet somehow, the only person making him laugh here was Woo-seok. It was bizarre. In this household, Woo-seok actually seemed almost normal.

“Want a beer?”

“Sure. I’ll get it.”

Even seeing Woo-seok go fetch the beers himself felt strange. In the Chae family, alphas ordered omegas around, and omegas ordered servants around.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

There was something Ha-jin absolutely needed to ask tonight.

He wasn’t sure whether he should bring it up or not, but he needed to understand the relationships in this family beforehand.

“That omega who collapsed in the lounge before…”

“My brother-in-law. Tae-seol. Just Tae-seol.”

“Yes, Tae-seol. What exactly is his situation?”

During dinner, Ha-jin had thought carefully about why Woo-seok had dragged him into this household.

And eventually, he’d arrived at an answer.

Tae-seol.

Hadn’t he already noticed during their last meeting?

Maybe… Woo-seok had feelings for Tae-seol.

He didn’t know how deep their relationship went, but perhaps Woo-seok had brought him here to protect Tae-seol, who clearly held a terrible position within the family.

“There’s… a long story behind it.”

Woo-seok very obviously did not want to talk about that “story.”

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