PUCKD Ch 26

Two months ago, at Junghyun’s family home.

That day, there was a dinner to celebrate Junghyun’s 30th birthday and Kihyuk’s 35th birthday.

The birthdays of the two half-brothers were, coincidentally, exactly two days apart.

The family home in Seongbuk-dong was a mansion built by Myeongjeong’s founding chairman, Kwon Deukjeong. Inside a high wall reminiscent of a fortress, a modern building and a hanok stood in harmony.

The modern building, where his mother and father primarily lived, was close to the main gate. This building, having undergone repeated extensions and renovations during his grandfather’s time, had a long, L-shaped form.

And at the head of the L-shaped building, behind the mansion where the foot of Bugak Mountain touched, stood a solitary hanok.

It was where his grandfather had resided when he was alive, but after his passing, it was used as a dining space for the family or to welcome guests. The reason was that the view of Bugak Mountain from the numaru here was particularly beautiful.

“It would be nice to keep the doors leading to the numaru open if the weather were good. It’s so cloudy today.”

At his mother’s words, Junghyun looked outside through the octagonal window with its delicate decorations.

Spring came late to the family home in Seongbuk-dong, which was situated on high ground. Because of this, the trees in the garden and the slopes of Bugak Mountain were still bare. Even if the weather had been nice, the view would not have been pleasant.

His mother lamented this every year, saying that if only a little more time passed, new green shoots would sprout and flowers would bloom on Bugak Mountain. As if their sons’ birthdays could change.

Perhaps that was why. In place of the Bugak Mountain scenery, a luxurious twelve-panel folding screen, embroidered with a landscape painting on silk, was set up in the dining area.

It was something he hadn’t seen since he was a child. His mother, who had been busy deciding on the menu and decorating the room for today, must have taken it out on purpose.

It was said to be a folding screen that his grandfather had gifted to his wife, who cried every night, homesick.

His grandfather was always proud of his grandmother, who had passed away early. The reason was that she had given birth to three healthy sons and had made every single one of them manifest as an alpha.

The alpha succession in chaebol families has been a matter of course since ancient times, but among them, Myeongjeong Group had a particularly strong reverence for alphas.

Therefore, Kwon Myeongcheol, the son of the founding chairman and Junghyun’s father, had a deep worry.

The alpha manifestation rate for Kihyuk, the son born to his legal wife, was a mere 30%. On top of that, he had passed the age of 18 without showing any signs of manifesting.

In order to follow Myeongjeong’s principle of being able to pass on management rights only to an alpha, Kwon Myeongcheol needed a new child to carry on the line.

He had three other children. All of them, except for Kihyuk, were born from extramarital relationships. Among them, the one with the highest alpha manifestation rate was none other than Junghyun.

When his legal wife died early in an unexpected accident, his father came looking for Junghyun’s mother as if he had been waiting. It was when Junghyun was 15 and Kihyuk was 20.

“How is Sohyun doing? The morning sickness should be over by now. It would have been nice if she came today too.”

Jeon Sohyun was the granddaughter of a media conglomerate, married to Kihyuk for a little over a year. Kwon Kihyuk replied in a calm tone while cutting his meat.

“Sohyun doesn’t like coming to Seongbuk-dong. She says the food here is a bit fishy.”

“Oh my, is that so? If you had told me in advance, I would have told the Suncheon lady. Or it would have been fine to call Chef Kim for the first time in a while.”

“It’s probably just an excuse because she doesn’t want to come here. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, why? It’s not like I ever made her suffer as a daughter-in-law.”

“You should understand, Mother. She’s young, so she lacks refinement.”

His mother glanced at his father, who was sitting at the head of the table, and laughed awkwardly.

“Why do you say that. She looks nothing but pretty in my eyes. I wasn’t like that when I was pregnant, but how can my new daughter-in-law be so slender and pretty?”

“That’s what I mean, she’s just pretty and vulgar.”

Kwon Kihyuk curved his snake-like eyes into a smile and placed a piece of dried herring on his tongue.

“I take after Father, so my taste in omegas is similar.”

“……”

His mother’s pupils trembled slightly. Junghyun quietly placed his chopsticks down on the table. The grains of rice he had swallowed felt scratchy in his throat, as if they were sand.

However, Junghyun did not rebuke his half-brother or defend his mother; he just waited silently. Finally, his father spoke.

“Let’s eat quietly during the meal.”

“Yes, Father.”

Kwon Kihyuk grinned, showing his teeth, as if a mischievous son were acting cute.

It was not an action befitting a man of thirty-five, a vice president of a giant airline company, but it was tacitly accepted in the Kwon household.

Junghyun’s half-brother had suddenly manifested as a recessive alpha at the age of 21, well past the usual manifestation period. It was when Junghyun had been at Myeongjeong for just over a year.

Kwon Kihyuk never forgot that time. The humiliation and sorrow of that year when he was thoroughly excluded from this family, when he almost had everything he owned taken away by his half-brother who was 5 years younger.

Only the quiet clatter of cutlery echoed in the spacious hall.

Occasionally, his father would ask his brother about business, and Kihyuk’s replies were the only sounds that intermittently filled the silence.

His mother, her face pale and stiff, was only occasionally moistening her throat with wine. He was concerned about his mother’s condition, but there was nothing Kwon Junghyun could do in this place.

He was no different from that landscape folding screen. A decoration that his mother had painstakingly dressed and washed for the ‘ideal family meal’ she desired. There was no way a decoration would have the right to speak.

It was a knock that broke the uncomfortable meal.

While the family’s hands stopped, the sliding door rattled open. Two men in suits came inside.

“You are…”

A vertical line formed on his father’s brow.

The man with white hair and round, horn-rimmed glasses was his deceased grandfather’s personal lawyer and his secretary.

“Excuse me for interrupting your meal. I will now disclose the will of the late Chairman Kwon Deukjeong.”

At his words, the family’s gazes intertwined.

To be precise, it was the gazes of the three people excluding Junghyun. Junghyun quietly wiped his mouth with the napkin on his lap.

He was not curious about his sudden visit, nor did he have any interest in it. He was just slightly glad for the interruption to the food he had been forcing himself to swallow.

“What is the meaning of this all of a sudden. The disclosure of the will was all finished right after he passed away, wasn’t it?”

“There is a remaining will. It was left on the condition that it would only be disclosed when a certain condition was met, so please understand that we could not inform you in advance.”

“What is that…”

Kihyuk let out a cynical laugh.

“What is this condition? It’s not like the four of us are having dinner, is it?”

“The condition for the will to be disclosed was after Kwon Junghyun-nim’s 30th birthday, without having manifested as an alpha, in a gathering with the President, Madam, and the Vice President all together. You were half right.”

“……Kwon Junghyun?”

“My goodness…”

Only after Kihyuk frowned and his mother let out an exclamation did Junghyun belatedly realize his name had been called.

When he looked at Lawyer Kim with his eyes only slightly widened, he opened the envelope handed to him by his secretary with a blunt face.

“This will concerns the succession of Kwon Junghyun’s management rights.”

He heard the sound of Kwon Kihyuk bursting into a hollow laugh.

“For this purpose, the next year will be designated as a succession training period, and Kwon Junghyun will be given a position of director or higher and the authority befitting it. After one year, he will share management rights equally with Kwon Kihyuk in accordance with due process.”

“Ha… A senile old man. Stabbing me in the back even after death.”

“Kihyuk, watch your mouth. Lawyer Kim, what is all this? Junghyun has a different role to play, what is this about a position now?”

“If the will is not carried out, all of the President’s business management rights will be transferred to your younger brothers.”

Displeasure rarely appeared on his father’s face, which always maintained a poker face.

His father, Kwon Myeongcheol, had two younger brothers with whom he had a fierce succession battle.

Now, they had each inherited different family businesses and were adhering to a pact not to interfere in each other’s businesses, but originally, their relationship was so bad that the brothers would have shed blood.

From his father’s perspective, he would not want to hand over the business he had built to his eyesore-like younger brothers when his own alpha son was perfectly fine.

Kwon Kihyuk was the same. Kihyuk slammed his fist on the table and growled.

“Kwon Junghyun is a beta. You’re telling me to share Myeongjeong with a beta bastard? Is that really what it says? If that’s the case, you should have done it when I was 18, when I hadn’t manifested!”

“Kihyuk.”

“As you said, this succession is conditional on Junghyun-nim manifesting as an alpha before his 31st birthday.”

At Lawyer Kim’s words, Kihyuk laughed out loud.

“Right, that’s more like our grandfather.”

“Manifestation? Does that mean Father thought Junghyun would manifest as an alpha?”

“That is correct. The late Chairman Kwon Deukjeong was concerned that Junghyun-nim might also manifest late, just as he himself had manifested at the age of 30.”

“Heh…”

The air in the dining room stirred, but the person in question, Junghyun, only gathered his eyebrows slightly in the middle before relaxing them.

It was a story that didn’t make sense, logically. Trait manifestation typically occurs between the ages of 13 and 18. Even cases of being slightly late, like his half-brother, were extremely rare.

His grandfather must have been mistaken about something. Manifesting at 30. Since it was in an era when medicine was not developed, he must have just learned of his trait late due to some mistake.

So, it couldn’t help but be strange.

Did he really leave such a will thinking I would manifest? Is it just a groundless fear to think that succession is not the goal?

“Then what if my dear younger brother doesn’t manifest by then?”

Kwon Kihyuk asked, as if he had the same thought.

Lawyer Kim nodded and answered in a business-like manner.

“If he does not manifest by his 31st birthday, Junghyun-nim will have to contribute to Myeongjeong in a different way. Regarding that method, the Chairman stated in his will that he must enter into a political marriage as a live-in son-in-law to a family of a vice-ministerial rank, or an equivalent family.”