Chapter 51: First marital argument

<S Group Chairman’s Son Mr. C, Now Involved in Group Assault?!>

It was an extremely provocative headline. By now, everyone already knew. S Group meant SHS, and Mr. C meant Chae Woo-seok. Whenever “Mr. C” appeared in the news, people simply read it as Chae Woo-seok. He caused trouble so often it had practically become a nickname.

“…Again…”

This time too, the problem had started at a drinking party. Apparently, while drinking at a luxury lounge, he got into a dispute with another group of alphas.

According to the article, Chae Woo-seok, who had already been partying surrounded by omegas, had tried to touch an omega from another table first, which led to the fight.

“That bastard still hasn’t come to his senses even after getting married? Dragging the family name through the mud!”

Crash!

With a loud noise, the dining table overturned. Chae Il-joo, who had heard the news article while eating breakfast, could no longer contain his boiling rage. A massive marble table, no less.

And apparently that still wasn’t enough to calm him, because he snatched the tablet from his secretary’s hands and smashed it too.

“S-Still, it’s not like he was the one getting beaten up…”

Lee Ah-seong must have lost his reason as well. He added a pointless comment and received only Chae Il-joo’s icy glare in return.

“Will you shut your mouth? How old is that brat already, and you still coddle him like this!”

Chae Jae-yi, Chae Jun-seok, and Tae Seol quietly excused themselves from the room. Long experience had taught them that nothing good would come from staying. Only Lee Ah-seong remained behind alone, enduring the torrent of fury as though he himself were Chae Woo-seok.

Of course, if it meant his son could get through this incident unharmed, he would do it a hundred times over.

“I’m not letting this slide this time. Five people? Haa…”

Not one or two, but five alphas beaten into bloody pulp. And to make matters worse, they were all children of prestigious families, which only made the scandal bigger.

As Lee Ah-seong said, the only fortunate thing was that Chae Woo-seok hadn’t been the one beaten up, but that was so obvious it barely counted as fortunate at all.

Around the same time, Go Ha-jin, who had also heard the news, was equally dumbfounded. Strangely enough, though, he wasn’t angry.

While reading the article, curses like bastard, worse than an animal, f*cking lunatic endlessly crossed his mind, but… if he had to define what he was feeling right now…

Yeah. It was closer to emptiness.

And self-loathing.

What on earth had he been thinking, waiting for him all night?

Looking at the cold dishes left on the dining table made him feel like a complete idiot. Chae Woo-seok was still Chae Woo-seok. A bastard crazy about alcohol and obsessed with omegas. What, had he really thought there was some hidden reason behind it all?

That Chae Woo-seok only pretended to be promiscuous because of unavoidable circumstances?

As if.

He was just trash.

Only now did Go Ha-jin realize he’d been looking at Chae Woo-seok through ridiculous assumptions. People never change. Of course.

“What the f*ck are these side dishes…”

The rice had hardened like stone, and the side dishes were ice cold. He shoved them into his stomach anyway, even though he no longer felt hungry. The grainy texture scraped down his throat like sand, making it hard to swallow, but he forced it down.

Why bother starving himself? For whose sake?

He continued the meal mechanically for quite a while before he heard the faint sound of the front door opening.

“You’re already up? How’s your body feeling?”

At that casual question, anger surged up before he even realized it had been building.

“I didn’t know you were the kind of person who cared about things like that.”

“What’s this? You’re eating properly after all. I brought porridge.”

Chae Woo-seok approached and placed a paper shopping bag on the table. Go Ha-jin set his spoon down with a sharp clack.

Should he just flip this whole table over or not?

Should he tell him this was the dinner he’d prepared to eat together last night? That he was only eating it now because Chae Woo-seok never came home?

“Don’t you have anything else to say?”

“What?”

Chae Woo-seok looked down at him, his face full of confusion. There was exhaustion there too, and irritation. His expression practically asked, What’s your problem, glaring at me the second you see my face?

Seeing not even the slightest trace of guilt on him made even getting angry feel exhausting.

“Haa… never mind. Go wash up and head to work.”

He gave up. Abandoning the rest of his meal as well, he pushed himself up. He hadn’t really noticed before, but his body still wasn’t fully recovered. Maybe because he hadn’t slept properly, but even the smallest movement made his whole body tremble.

“Why stop halfway through talking? Finish what you were going to say before you go.”

Chae Woo-seok had restrained himself too. Go Ha-jin clearly looked awful. Still, he felt like he couldn’t just let him walk away like that, so he grabbed his arm as he turned around. There was a weak resistance, but it was useless.

There was no way Go Ha-jin could shake off a grip Chae Woo-seok had intentionally tightened.

“Haa. You said there was nothing to talk about. So I’m saying there’s nothing for me either. Why?”

Thinking about it, Go Ha-jin almost found himself ridiculous. He’d assigned far too much meaning to s*x that had happened only once. That night had clearly been nothing more than fulfilling the obligations of their marriage.

And even the marriage itself was just a contract neither of them had entered with feelings involved.

So in that situation, was Chae Woo-seok remaining the same really something to get angry about? No. He had always lived drowning in alcohol, always surrounded by omegas. He’d only gone back to acting the way he always did after being quiet for a few days.

What exactly was the problem with that?

Even if Go Ha-jin had married him while harboring feelings for him, he wouldn’t have had the right to complain if he already knew what kind of person Chae Woo-seok was.

“What, are you nagging me because I didn’t come home last night or something?”

“As if. We’re not really married anyway. Right?”

“Exactly. Which is why I can’t understand why you’re acting like this.”

“…I guess I’m sensitive because I’m tired. I’m going inside.”

Go Ha-jin shook off Chae Woo-seok’s hand. This time, Chae Woo-seok didn’t stop him. The words Go Ha-jin had left behind echoed in his ears.

****

“You little bastard! How old are you to still be getting into fistfights?!”

A crystal ashtray flew past Chae Woo-seok’s head and smashed into the wall. It had been a close call. If he’d turned his head even a second later, his skull would have cracked open.

Years of experience had taught him how to dodge with the smallest possible movement.

“You little-!”

Knowing full well that it only made Chae Il-joo angrier, Chae Woo-seok still couldn’t help it. No matter how superior an alpha he was, getting hit by a flying crystal ashtray would still split his head open.

“That’s not what happened. How many times do I have to say it?”

“What does that matter now?! Then why did you start trouble in the first place?!”

Chae Woo-seok felt wronged too. The reason his father was this furious was entirely because of fake news.

The five-against-one fight was true. Turning their faces into bloody messes was also true. But the reason for the fight was completely different from what the articles claimed.

Chae Woo-seok had gone to the lounge because of a prior engagement. A fairly close friend was getting married, and he couldn’t exactly skip the celebration.

Honestly, he’d wanted nothing more than to just send congratulatory money and stay home, but his friend had threatened to cancel the entire gathering if Chae Woo-seok didn’t show up.

If he had to deal with this kind of thing eventually, it was better to get it over with quickly.

Then he overheard the conversation from the table next to them.

It was vulgar, filthy talk too disgusting to even repeat aloud. Something about holes, about flipping someone over and f*cking them senseless. Their voices were so loud there was no way not to hear it.

At first, he ignored it. Men were all the same, after all.

But then he heard a name.

Go Ha-jin.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the champagne bottle by the neck and lunged over the table.

There had been no reason to hold back. How dare they attach filthy words like that to him?

The only reason he hadn’t killed them was because he’d barely remembered social appearances.

“Haa. Fine, then I’ll handle it myself.”

“How?!”

“I’ll just kill them all. If there’s no mouth left to spread rumors, things’ll quiet down.”

Chae Il-joo’s vision blacked out for a moment. At this rate, he genuinely thought he might collapse from high blood pressure today.

Still, if Chae Woo-seok was speaking like this, then the article probably was false. Despite his reckless personality, his son wasn’t the type to make excuses or lie about things he’d done.

“…Sit down first.”

Chae Il-joo forced himself to calm down a little. Love him or hate him, he was still his son.

“You do realize I can’t hand the company over to you if things continue like this.”

“I told you already, I’m not interested in the company. How many times do I have to say it?”

“Haa… you stupid bastard. So you’re saying you’d have no complaints if I gave everything to your older brother?”

“Please do. Seriously. Hand it over to him already, retire, and get some rest while you still can.”

It drove Chae Il-joo insane. Countless people would kill to possess SHS, yet Chae Woo-seok had absolutely no interest in it. He definitely seemed smart enough, too.

Of course, from Chae Il-joo’s perspective, handing things to Chae Jun-seok wasn’t necessarily bad. He was still his son.

But somehow, it didn’t sit right with him. He couldn’t pinpoint why, but something bothered him.

Maybe it was because if Chae Jun-seok inherited the company, they could no longer rely on support from Lee Ah-seong’s family. After all, Chae Jun-seok wasn’t Lee Ah-seong’s child.

“Whew… well, it’s not like I’m stepping down immediately anyway, so I’ll think about that later. In any case, you’re stepping away from all practical work for now. And as for that media company and the families involved in this incident—I’ll deal with them myself. Don’t you dare lift a finger.”

Chae Il-joo clenched his jaw tightly.

They had picked the wrong target to mess with.

These days he restrained himself because he sat in the chairman’s seat, but his true temperament was far more vicious than Chae Woo-seok’s could ever hope to be. Especially when it came to damage to his reputation. Even if the source was his own child.

“Father.”

“What.”

“At times like this, shouldn’t you be more concerned about your married son running around looking at other people instead of the fight itself? Ah… right. So that’s why you were angry…! Okay, I’ll get going.”

Chae Woo-seok stopped midway through speaking. Then, as though something suddenly clicked in his head, he muttered nonsense and bolted out of Chae Il-joo’s office.

He’d apparently even forgotten he’d just been scolded, because there was a grin on his face.

Watching him leave, Chae Il-joo thought,

‘Tch. That bastard’s completely useless.’

****

Ever since exchanging unpleasant words with Go Ha-jin that morning, Chae Woo-seok had been in a foul mood all day.

His secretary hadn’t even dared speak to him. The atmosphere around him had sunk so low he’d already snapped three pens in half just from spinning them between his fingers.

‘Seriously, why?’

How dare that tiny little thing glare at him and get angry?

The fact that he couldn’t even guess the reason only made his irritation grow. Then, during his conversation with Chae Il-joo, he finally arrived at a vague answer.

Still, he wasn’t completely certain it was right.

Because honestly, it sounded ridiculous.

But if it wasn’t that answer, then nothing else made sense.

“Where are you going, Director…?”

“What?”

“Where are-”

“I’m leaving.”

“It’s only eleven… Have a safe trip home. I’ll handle the signatures myself…”

The delinquent bastard was leaving work whenever he pleased again today. His secretary didn’t dare stop him.

Looks like he’d be forging Chae Woo-seok’s signatures on documents again. Not that the man was useful in the office anyway.

As Chae Woo-seok left the company building, his steps felt light. His back even looked a little excited.

He wanted to confirm the answer floating around in his head as quickly as possible.

‘Go Ha-jin.’

‘Go Ha-jin…’

‘That arrogant little thing…’

No, maybe he was having some pretty cute thoughts after all.

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