Dirty Sweet Baby Chapter 64

The result was absurd. Cha Kwon Il chose an unofficial succession to a mere sixteen-year-old heir. Blinded by love, Cha Kwon Il’s scales seemed to have tipped not towards the Musan Group, but towards Lee Eunhong. Thus, the reorganization of the Musan Group’s governance structure proceeded, and he came to receive the shares of the holding company under a borrowed name.

The inheritance of succession rights in a large corporation is not completed all at once. Slowly, over a long period of about half a year, Cha Moogyul came to own the shares of the holding company, and although it was not known to the public, he unofficially became the majority shareholder with management rights of the Musan Group.

The day the last of the shares were transferred and the succession process was complete. It was a hot summer day with the monsoon pouring down. Cha Moogyul, who had consistently been absent from meals, showed up for the first time. He entered the shabby traditional Korean restaurant without even holding an umbrella in the pouring rain and took the stage of the comedy.

The three tiresome actors were waiting for Cha Moogyul on stage.

The beloved woman, Lee Eunhong. The loving man, Cha Kwon Il. The foolish and ordinary Baek Heeheon, who knew nothing.

Right. Let’s see you try, he thought.

Playing at love. Playing at marriage. Playing at family.

He was planning to just watch the ridiculous sight of them getting along in the same mundane way as most people in the world, to see what was so great, so poignant, and so special about it.

And so, the wedding ceremony proceeded safely and grandly.

The remarriage of a poor, wounded, widowed woman with a child to the owner of the Musan Group. It was quite a commotion. A truly great scandal. However, despite the countless concerns and glares from those around them, both the bride and groom were smiling brightly. They seemed overwhelmed with overflowing happiness.

Watching the moment they exchanged wedding rings and shared a kiss of vows, Cha Moogyul felt an intense otherness. The only person who felt nothing was Cha Moogyul. Like a one-eyed man dropped alone in a world of the two-eyed, Cha Moogyul was detached and separate from the world.

‘Am I the only one?’

The group and the individual. The majority and the minority. The species and the mutant.

Cha Moogyul newly realized and was convinced of his own position. That a life lived in the way ordinary humans feel would be an impossibility he could never achieve. That from the moment he saw the light of life until the day he died, Cha Moogyul would be one and alone.

And the being who fanned the flames of that conviction was none other than Baek Heeheon.

The legal brother created by his father’s remarriage. Lee Eunhong’s son. That very same Baek Heeheon, one year his senior.

He had felt the eyes following him from the very beginning. Baek Heeheon seemed to watch Cha Moogyul quietly for a while, but after that, he began to avoid Cha Moogyul as if he had come to a clear conclusion. It was as if he was drawing a line.

That Cha Moogyul was not family, not a brother, but an abnormal entity different from them.

It wasn’t difficult to read the unnatural stiffness and uneasy fear in Baek Heeheon’s gaze, gestures, and actions. Because Baek Heeheon was a simple child. His choices and decisions were the easiest to make, his tastes were distinct, and his likes and dislikes were certain…

Liking what he likes, and disliking what he dislikes,

Baek Heeheon, who was easy for anyone to understand.

That’s why Cha Moogyul also knew. There was no way he couldn’t know. How much Baek Heeheon detested and avoided him.

Of course, he thought that it might be unpleasant to have a brother through a parent’s remarriage, and since Cha Moogyul also found Baek Heeheon tiresome, it wouldn’t have been particularly bothersome even if he showed his dislike. That’s how he judged it. However, as the years passed and time went on, a strange displeasure built up. The true nature of the emotion was vexation.

The three family members, excluding Cha Moogyul, were all haha hoho, acting like a happy family among themselves, but it was Baek Heeheon alone who ostracized Cha Moogyul. Lee Eunhong, with her naturally soft disposition, doted on Cha Moogyul devotedly, and Cha Kwon Il took on the appearance of cooperating on group matters, beyond their father-son relationship.

But Baek Heeheon.

‘Who the hell does he think he is.’

If anyone was going to feel disgust, shouldn’t it be Cha Moogyul? If anyone was going to avoid the other, shouldn’t it be Cha Moogyul? Cha Moogyul had more than enough reasons to disapprove of Baek Heeheon. Sometimes, he was on the verge of impulsively wanting to crush that clear, pale face.

When he avoided his eyes after seeing Cha Moogyul, when his body flinched as he approached, when his expression stiffened and he became less talkative—the reactions that conspicuously rejected only him began to get on his nerves to an unbearable degree. At some point, he found himself more infuriated with Baek Heeheon, who stood silently behind Cha Kwon Il and Lee Eunhong, than with the couple who were head over heels for each other.

Then one day, he suddenly thought, I wish he would disappear.

It felt like if only the eyesore Baek Heeheon was gone, this damn displeasure would subside by half. Being tied together as family or brothers seemed ridiculous, and anyway, Baek Heeheon was just an ordinary person. Even if he disappeared after getting caught up in an unfortunate accident, it wouldn’t attract much social attention, and cleaning up the aftermath wouldn’t be difficult.

Even trash, if it’s an eyesore, gets thrown out. He wondered if there was any reason why Cha Moogyul couldn’t get rid of one Baek Heeheon from his life. A third accidental car crash could happen, couldn’t it? So he watched a little longer. He didn’t know it at the time. That the first person Cha Moogyul harbored murderous intent for was not Lee Eunhong, but Baek Heeheon. Not even that he didn’t feel anything strange about that fact.

The problem, which had its roots in marriage and family, had at some point moved beyond that scope. Cha Moogyul felt more revulsion for Baek Heeheon, who shunned him, than for his father who had become so alien, or for his family, or for Lee Eunhong, who was the cause of the situation. A bitter irritation surged whenever those clear, grayish-brown irises easily sparkled and reacted to something other than himself.

Baek Heeheon had so many things he liked. The color white, circles, math, corner seats, tying his shoelaces tight, and folding umbrellas that popped open with the press of a button. His heart was so transparent, but the fact that Cha Moogyul alone was excluded from it grated on his nerves.

And this was when Cha Moogyul hadn’t even done anything yet to truly deserve being hated.

He could have, at any time.

He could have beaten Baek Heeheon until he vomited blood, or broken his legs so he would live with a limp for the rest of his life. The option of cleanly taking only his life was, of course, also on the table.

However, Cha Moogyul did none of those things.

He only made plans and thought about it. He never laid a finger on Baek Heeheon. He just let him be. Even on the day the whole house was noisy with talk of putting candles on a cake for Baek Heeheon’s birthday, and on the day they talked about presents for Christmas. It was all fucking annoying, but he just watched and let it pass.

He just let the smiling face, wearing a smile he never showed to him, keep on smiling.

But the fucking bastard… what the hell was his problem? Was he turning his back on Cha Moogyul because he was spoiled by good fortune?

Even Cha Moogyul was putting up with this much and letting it go.

Who the hell did Baek Heeheon think he was, to be unable to swallow his distaste and show it so openly everywhere?

‘What the hell, should I really get rid of him?’

If he did, his father might become a bit annoying, but if he touched the son instead of Lee Eunhong, he might be able to wrap things up without major problems.

‘No, the risk is still too great for now.’

He had to wait at least a few more years. Although Cha Moogyul was the majority shareholder when counting the borrowed-name shares, the public owner of the Musan Group was still Cha Kwon Il. Naturally, he held a significant number of shares in the holding company. If his father had a change of heart, there was a risk that future management would become difficult, so it was premature at present. At the very least, he had to endure until Cha Moogyul became an adult.

Just as he was enduring, an unexpected variable occurred.

The year Cha Moogyul turned nineteen and Baek Heeheon turned twenty. Baek Heeheon, after undergoing the second mandatory Awakening test, manifested late as an A-rank Guide.

‘A Guide…?’

Baek Heeheon Awakened?

Awoken must register in a special residential district and cannot leave it without permission. They must spend their entire lives undergoing arduous training and fighting Creatures. They could die in battle with a Creature, and even if they didn’t, they could not return to a general residential district.

If so, this should certainly have been welcome news.

Because it meant he could get rid of the eyesore Baek Heeheon without lifting a finger. Could there be a more perfectly fitting solution than this?

However, it was a truly strange thing.

The news that should have been most welcome did not feel so welcome. Even though he was finally getting rid of the source of his annoyance and the unnecessary trash, his vexation only grew. Cha Moogyul could not welcome Baek Heeheon’s absence. Instead, a quiet anger simmered and his mood soured.

For some reason, it felt as if Baek Heeheon had run away from Cha Moogyul.

Why? What was this feeling? Now that Baek Heeheon had disappeared from his sight, his existence should have been erased from Cha Moogyul’s as well, yet even after he left for the special residential district, Baek Heeheon remained lodged squarely in Cha Moogyul’s heart.

Only then did he realize. That at some point, Baek Heeheon’s existence had taken root deep inside Cha Moogyul.

It was a mysterious thing. For one person to contemplate another so deeply was impossible without profound interest and intense emotion, and Cha Moogyul had never in his life felt that much motivation towards anyone. And he thought he probably never would in the future.