DOTH Volume 3 Chapter 9.4

If he had been a few years younger, would he not have been pushed back? Such a useless thought flickered through his mind for a moment, but Chairman Jung shook his head internally. It was because he had just recalled why he had sold off the man before him so early. Facing Director Yeon now, the memories that had aged along with him began to surface little by little.

The alpha sitting across from him had never once feared Chairman Jung. The man may have felt loathe, but he had never bowed his head in submission to fear. Even though he could have been sold at a higher price as an adult, he had been sold off quickly for that very reason. Because he had seemed like someone who would one day sink his teeth into his master’s throat. The most well-trained fighting dog was just that much more dangerous to its owner.

He had been sold to a gangster who ruled South Korea at the time, so Chairman Jung naturally expected him to die young. No matter how naturally gifted he was, he had been just a high schooler at best. And yet, he had survived that cesspool and climbed all the way up to this point. It was far too late for regrets now.

“You were staring so blatantly. I think it’s about time you dropped that habit of putting a price on people.”

Director Yeon curled the corners of his lips and deliberately stretched out his words. The old man’s serpent-like gaze made his intent obvious. Those eyes, unable to break the habit, still assigned value in terms of money.

Even though it had been well over a decade since they had last faced each other, Chairman Jung’s expression remained the same. His snow-white hair and the wrinkles covering his body could not conceal the greedy glint in his eyes. 

Director Yeon meticulously scrutinized the old alpha’s face.

There was not a single trace of that old man in Jung Heeyeon.

“…I made a mistake.”

Chairman Jung replied in a calm tone, as if he had never trembled with humiliation just moments ago.

“Chairman, it looks like age has caught up with you…”

Director Yeon propped up his elbow and tilted his head at an angle, as if bored with the situation. The old man frowned slightly at the gesture. The way the younger man crossed his legs and idly touched his temple made it perfectly clear just how little regard he held for the elder.

Even that polite-sounding ‘Chairman’ grated on his nerves. It was not a mocking tone, but the composed way he addressed him only made it feel more like ridicule. The old man stiffened, an inexplicable sense of humiliation prickling at him. He reassured himself—he was just one of the many fighting dogs he had sold off.

“You sure have quite the thick skin to walk right into my company.”

Director Yeon lazily narrowed his eyes. Chairman Jung sat with perfect posture, but the only thing upright was his body. It was not difficult to see that the old man’s confidence was wavering.

“Your company? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard.”

Chairman Jung clicked his tongue and responded harshly.

“You didn’t build that company with your own strength. You must have killed the benefactor who took you in and fed off his blood to climb up here. If you’re going to talk, at least say it right.”

It was an insult that held no weight with Director Yeon. Could buying someone with money really be considered “taking that person in”? Even if that were the case, Director Yeon felt no guilt over climbing to where he was now by killing the so-called benefactor. He hadn’t lived a life comfortable enough to regret something so trivial.

If anything, it was laughable that the old man even brought up the word ‘benefactor’.

“Why are you pretending to be all high and mighty? You and I are both the same—just bastards who crawled through the gutter. Or… has our dear Chairman forgotten his past now that people actually call him ‘Chairman’?”

Director Yeon casually dug into Chairman Jung’s past.

“A dog butcher selling off pups doesn’t suddenly become a ‘Chairman’ just because he washes his hands clean, does he?”

Chairman Jung glared at Director Yeon with piercing eyes. He was the same man who had once strutted around with his head held high in front of debtors but bowed his head low when selling off the dogs he had raised. Loan sharks were always like that.

He had scraped together every last coin just to escape that groveling, clawed his way to secure the title of Chairman, and lived under that name ever since. Now, he was reduced to running from the alpha before him, but even the Sunha’s heir still respectfully called him ‘Chairman’. He knew it was only because of the grandson he had raised, but it was not an entirely unpleasant thing to hear such deference from an elite corporate successor.

Director Yeon, seeing right through the old man’s thoughts, twisted his lips in ridicule.

“And whether I killed my benefactor or not, that’s none of your concern, is it? Were you screwing him or something?”

“You vulgar bastard.”

“Can’t help it, I suppose. A thug who crawled through the filth stays true to his roots. I don’t see why I need to be polite to you, Chairman.”

His dragging tone dripped with boredom. Director Yeon was growing tired of the conversation.

Suddenly, he had the urge to hold Jung Heeyeon close. By now, the omega was probably out walking the dog with Kim Jiwon. Holding an Americano in one hand—one he wouldn’t drink but wouldn’t throw away either.

“Let’s get straight to the point. For someone who should be hiding from me, I’m curious what brought you all the way here.”

“My grandson. You have him, don’t you? Now it’s time for you to return him.”

A laugh rumbled through Director Yeon’s throat, slipping through his slightly parted lips. He had expected that reply, but hearing it out loud irritated him even more.

My grandson. He rolled the words around in his mouth as he straightened his body from its previously relaxed posture. As he slowly lowered his elbow, he could feel the old man’s gaze trailing after the movement of his fingertips.

Chairman Jung looked as if he were bracing for his throat to be squeezed at any moment. But if Director Yeon had intended to lay hands on the old man right now, he wouldn’t have wasted time talking. The old man’s irrational, instinct-driven wariness was nothing short of laughable.

Director Yeon casually tapped the armrest with his fingers and responded nonchalantly.

“All your blood relatives are dead, aren’t they?”

“Are you pretending not to know?”

There was a growl of fury beneath the old man’s gravelly voice. Chairman Jung knew all too well that Director Yeon was the one who had reached for Lee Yootae, the guy who had served faithfully as his butler for over a decade. Even if the alpha before him hadn’t used his own hands, it was no doubt that someone tied to him had been involved. Feigning ignorance, as if he had no idea the chairman’s kin had all been wiped out—that mock innocence made Chairman Jung’s rage boil over.

“I know my grandson is in your hands, bastard. And I assume you’re also behind Lee Yootae’s disappearance. Is he even alive?”

He had received the news of the butler’s disappearance only a month ago. It had been a day like any other—until reports that were supposed to come in like clockwork failed to arrive. That was the first day the old man had felt a sliver of doubt.

The moment he realized that the alphas and omehas he had once sold off had joined forces to bite back at him, Chairman Jung fled overseas like a man on the run. Even so, he had left behind the grandson he had raised so meticulously, along with the people who would serve as his eyes and ears in Korea. One of them was Lee Yootae.

It was also Lee Yootae who had diligently sent him surveillance footage from the house. Chairman Jung hadn’t bothered to check those himself—not out of trust, but because he had calculated that Jung Heeyeon would never act out of line. What could possibly happen to a docile grandson who had only ever learned obedience?

But then, at some point, Lee Yootae’s reports had stopped. With his line of communication with Korea severed, the old man had reached out to the alpha from Sunha Group who was supposed to take his grandson. It was around that time that he first heard the rumor—Director Yeon was going around with an omega no one had seen before. For Chairman Jung, who had fled the country specifically to avoid Director Yeon, it was impossible to ignore such a rumor.

It hadn’t taken a long time to confirm that the omega in question was his grandson.

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