Chapter 4

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Rebel or Favorite Son
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**Chapter 4. Rebel or Favorite Son**

The morning paper flew through the air, hitting Taeseo’s body. The crumpled newspaper struck his broad chest and fell to his feet.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!”

Taeseo glanced down at the paper with an indifferent expression. Two newspapers had run a photo of a man, presumed to be him, on their front pages.

[Chaebol Heirs: How Far Will Their Moral Decay Be Tolerated?]

[Chaebol Heir Caught in Entertainment Industry Collusion]

Taeseo’s prediction had been correct. The next morning’s paper featured a massive photo of him leaving the entrance of the residence.

The sudden flash had blinded him, making him instinctively raise a hand to his face, but the newspaper had chosen that very photo for the article, his face not clearly visible.

In the photo, he looked like a man hiding from the camera out of guilt.

To an uninformed observer, Taeseo, who had done nothing more than drink a bottle of Glenfiddich at the residence, would appear to be the poster child for the crumbling discipline of third-generation chaebol heirs.

The whole affair had started a few months ago with the entertainment industry’s “sponsor gate.” Chaebol heirs had been deeply involved, and those implicated were arrested by police who raided the residence.

But amusingly, the news of their arrests was buried on the back pages, while the front pages were adorned with articles exposing the decadent lifestyles of the chaebol scions.

Whoever the editors-in-chief of those two papers were, they were certainly competent.

After all, they had chosen Kwon Taeseo, widely regarded as the most handsome of the chaebol heirs, to fill their front pages.

Their prediction that exposing the reality of the chaebol heirs would generate more buzz than the already stale sponsor gate scandal had proven to be on the mark.

Since early that morning, online news outlets had been copying and spreading the articles.

With the change in government administration, the transition team was said to be tightening the leash on the chaebols. This crackdown, which began with the sponsor gate, now seemed poised to bear fruit by targeting the third-generation heirs.

Although Kwon Taeseo’s name wasn’t explicitly mentioned, to anyone who knew him, the man in the photo was undeniably Kwon Taeseo.

His hand covered part of his face, but his elegant features couldn’t be hidden. If anything, the hand covering his face only made his proportions look even better.

Taeseo smirked as he looked at the newspaper featuring his picture. The sight further provoked Chairman Kwon Seongtae of Namgyeong Group.

“Kwon Taeseo, you son of a bitch!”

Chairman Kwon roared. Taeseo looked at his father with a smile.

“If I’m a son of a bitch, does that make you a dog?”

“What? You goddamn bastard!”

“So you’re a bastard, then?”

With a nonchalant air, Taeseo picked up the newspaper and swept his messy bangs back with one hand. Seeing his son’s righteous-looking face, as if he had no idea what he’d done wrong, Chairman Kwon Seongtae clutched the back of his neck.

“Hey, you idiot! Haven’t I told you time and time again not to cause trouble!”

“I didn’t cause any trouble.”

“This isn’t trouble? This? Getting your face plastered all over the newspaper isn’t trouble? You dumbass!”

As Chairman Kwon feigned collapse, clutching his neck, his eldest son, Taejin, rushed to his side.

“Father.”

Taejin helped the chairman to the master bedroom, muttering that he needed to watch his blood pressure and that he would talk some sense into Taeseo.

“Talk some sense into me? Bullshit.”

Taeseo muttered the curse under his breath.

Of Namgyeong’s two sons, the eldest had grown up hearing he was a model student. In contrast, the second son, Taeseo, was always causing trouble, big or small.

People whispered that the saying “no younger brother is a match for his older brother” was coined for the Namgyeong siblings.

A moment later, the bedroom door closed, and Taejin turned to face Taeseo.

“Kwon Taeseo, you went too far this time.”

“This is something you could’ve handled, big brother.”

“Every reporter out there is chomping at the bit to dig up dirt on chaebol heirs. Do you really think that’s possible in this climate?”

True, when public sentiment was hostile, even legitimate stories couldn’t be suppressed. With the sponsor gate scandal fueling not just the press but also online media and YouTubers to preach conspiracy theories about chaebol ties, his point was understandable.

Taeseo scanned the article with his photo. It rambled on and on about the profligacy of chaebol heirs, but there was no mention of what Kwon Taeseo had actually done.

“They just used a photo. There are no criminal charges, so don’t worry about it.”

Having grasped the article’s content in a short time, Taeseo tossed the newspaper onto the corner of the sofa as if it were no big deal.

“There’s an old saying: a crow flies up, and a pear falls. Your position is secure if you just do as you’re told. Why do you go out of your way to create problems?”

“I didn’t create any problems. Is this the first time people have stared at my face when something happens?”

Taejin let out a long sigh, then looked up at Taeseo, who stood there nonchalantly.

“I told you to lay low.”

Here comes another lecture. This time, it was Taeseo who sighed.

“What did I do that wasn’t laying low? Did I do drugs? Did I sleep with some woman?”

“So you think you did nothing wrong?”

“What did I do wrong? Is it a crime to have a drink at a bar? Oh, and for the record, the drinks weren’t free.”

“Father is determined not to let this slide this time.”

As Taeseo saw it, the one not letting it slide wasn’t his father, but his brother.

Unlike his father, who, despite his anger, didn’t hold grudges, his brother had a knack for screwing people over in subtle ways.

“If you don’t like it, put a leash on me and lock me up.”

“And you’re the type to stay locked up if I did?”

Taeseo just stared at Taejin with a “what do you want from me” expression.

“Father wants you out.”

But the words that followed made him laugh as if he’d been caught off guard.

“What are you talking about?”

Even when he had caused much bigger trouble, Taeseo had never been kicked out of the house.

For Namgyeong Group’s eldest son, Kwon Taejin, there were many rules to follow and things he couldn’t do. But for the second son, Kwon Taeseo, everything was permitted as long as it wasn’t a crime.

Having caused trouble big and small since he was young, the second son, Kwon Taeseo, was treated as a lost cause, and for that reason, he always seemed to have a free pass.

“Father says he can’t stand the sight of you and wants you out of his sight.”

But not this time.

Kwon Taeseo, the second son of Namgyeong who had been living a precarious, rebellious life, was finally being kicked out of his home.

***

Sitting in the back of the sedan heading down to Chungcheong Province, Taeseo recalled, with a bored expression, the personnel announcement that had been posted today.

Until yesterday, Taeseo had held the title of Managing Director at Namgyeong Development, a subsidiary of Namgyeong Group.

It had been a nominal title from the start, but as long as he did what his brother, the management genius, told him to do, there was no problem in maintaining it.

But that was yesterday. Now, he was being exiled from Seoul. Taeseo had been demoted and transferred to a planned golf course construction site in Chungcheong Province.

It was obvious his brother had played a part in kicking him out of Seoul. His brother was a crueler man than his father, so there was no telling what kind of storm was about to hit his life.

For now, even being kicked out of Seoul was unprecedented. How long would this punishment last? How long would he have to lay low? A month? Two, at most?

When he was told he’d be kicked out, he had assumed it would be somewhere in Seoul. He’d figured he would just have to lie low for a month in an officetel his father’s secretary arranged for him, but he was wrong.

Even his mother, who had always taken his side no matter what her late-born youngest son did—saying things like, ‘He’s just young,’ ‘He’ll get better when he grows up,’ or ‘That’s just how Taeseo is’—had joined in, demanding he be sent away.

Taeseo uncrossed his legs and leaned his head between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

“Fuck, the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. There are directors, deputy directors, and section chiefs galore, so what the hell is a manager!”

His executive assistant, Hyunwoo, sitting in the passenger seat, widened his eyes and put his phone down on his lap.

“Well, Managing Director—I mean, Manager—at your age, even being a manager is considered a high rank—”

Taeseo cut Hyunwoo off, clearly not wanting to hear it.

“Hey. You.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What’s your rank?”

Hyunwoo’s jaw dropped as he looked into the back seat, as if to say, *You don’t even know that?*

It had been two years since he started as Taeseo’s executive assistant. He was struck by the sudden realization that in two years, he had never once been called by his full name, let alone his rank.

“Are you deaf? Why aren’t you answering?”

“I’m a manager, sir…”

“Wow. So they’ve put me on the same level as the lowest grunt in the secretarial pool. The old man must be really pissed this time.”

“The old man, sir?”

“Yeah, the old man at my house. If he was going to treat me like this after giving birth to me, why did he even bother? It’s not like he got horny in his old age.”

Another shocking statement came out of Taeseo’s mouth.

Who was Chairman Kwon Seongtae of Namgyeong?

He had inherited the spirit of his father, the founder of Namgyeong Group—Taeseo’s grandfather—who had been a brawler. He was a man so fearsome that he was second to none in all of South Korea.

And Taeseo was calling him an “old man” and saying he “got horny.”

Every word Taeseo uttered made Hyunwoo’s heart shrink.

Hyunwoo discreetly reached toward the front windshield and turned off the dashcam’s power. The driver, seated next to him, gave a short nod of understanding.

“Hey, you. So where are we going?”

“Sir?”

“Where and for how long do I have to lie low?”

“The duration is until the Chairman permits it, and you are currently heading to Seongwu-eup…”

Taeseo’s pupils dilated at the unfamiliar place name.

“What, eup? Eup, what did you say?”

He had heard of districts and counties, even townships, but this was the first time he’d heard of an *eup*. Wasn’t *eup* something you only heard in old dramas when they talked about the village center?

“I said Seongwu-eup, sir…”

“Wow, fuck.”

After that, Taeseo repeatedly muttered things like “I’m going crazy” and “I’m losing my mind.”

“Hey, you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are there any hotels there?”

“From what I’ve gathered—”

“Just the bottom line.”

“There are none.”

“Bars?”

“There is one Two Dari, sir.”

“Two what?”

“Two… Dari, sir…”

“Wow, I’m fucking losing it.”

After hearing Hyunwoo’s words, Taeseo spent the next few minutes spewing an endless stream of curses.

Hyunwoo moved only his eyes to confirm that the dashcam was properly turned off, then clutched his chest in relief.

It seemed Hyunwoo wasn’t the only one whose heart was pounding; the driver’s hands were also gripping the steering wheel tightly.