Prey - Chapter 52
“Ah, understood.”
After the young man hurriedly left, the man called Chairman looked at me again.
In the empty hospital room, with only the two men left, the Chairman narrowed his eyes and asked,
“Is it true that both your parents are dead?”
“Yes.”
“…”
Various emotions filled the Chairman’s sharp gaze for a brief moment. Anger and despair seemed to be reflected in the eyes of this man in his fifties, emotions that a child of my young age couldn’t fully comprehend.
“You have to…”
When the Chairman closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, his expression barely changed, but his eyes were red.
He looked down at me with those reddened eyes and said,
“You are no longer Lee Suho from today. You are Do Jeonghan.”
“Excuse me?”
After saying something incomprehensible, he continued speaking with a serious expression.
“I’m your grandfather, so from now on, you must live as Do Jeonghan, not Lee Suho. Do you understand?”
“……Yes.”
When I answered without any particular reaction, the Chairman’s eyes narrowed again.
“It seems you’re not happy to have a grandfather now.”
“……”
Even though I didn’t feel like this stranger was my grandfather, it didn’t really matter to me. Ever since my parents passed away, any attachment to life had vanished.
“I’m not sure.”
When I answered honestly, the Chairman smiled very faintly.
“That’s how it is now.”
…Ah.
In that brief smile from the Chairman, I realized who this man resembled.
Mom.
He looked like my mom.
“Are you perhaps my maternal grandfather?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The Chairman, who answered right away, smiled faintly again.
At that moment, I strangely understood something. All my blood relatives had left, and this man and I were left alone together. Because of my mom’s death, this man had also become alone in this world.
After that, I lived with the Chairman for a while before going to the United States for my studies.
“You’re the only heir to inherit Cheonkyung, so there’s a lot you need to learn. It might be a bit late, but you’re smart, so you’ll catch up quickly.”
The Chairman was right.
At first, I fell behind in class due to the unfamiliar culture and language, but once I picked up the language, I caught up in no time.
During that time, it naturally spread through the domestic media that the heir of Cheonkyung was studying abroad.
The only daughter of Chairman Do Pil-yong secretly got married in the U.S., and her son was living there, noted for being exceptionally intelligent—a narrative carefully crafted by the media.
A few years later, that became a fact. It was the result of ongoing media work.
Then, a few years later, paparazzi photos of a tall young man captured from afar spread across various social media platforms, revealing the reality behind the rumors.
In his late teens, over 185 cm tall, with a chiseled, handsome face, he was exposed to the public for the first time.
“Idol-level looks”
“An heir of a wealthy family with refined charm”
“The identity of a privileged teenager who has everything: looks, height, and wealth”
These paparazzi photos, described with various flattering terms, were carefully planned and distributed by Cheonkyung.
On the day I was discharged from the military service at HID, a photo taken that day suddenly adorned the media and portals,
“A sensible man who gave up his permanent residency and completed his military service secretly at HID.”
“The hidden heir of a conglomerate suddenly discharged from the military in Korea?”
This headline article was also distributed through the same channel.
Thus, “Do Jeonghan” established himself as the heir of Cheonkyung without ever appearing at an official event.
And during that process, I gradually began to find a purpose in life.
It wasn’t that I suddenly became the heir of a conglomerate and life became bearable. After my parents’ death, my life was still essentially dead.
…But isn’t revenge possible?
Perhaps, for revenge, God allowed me to rise to this position.
If there is a God.
When I first had that thought, I twisted my lips and let out a bitter laugh.
There couldn’t be a God. If there were, why would those innocent people have died? So cruelly.
But there was a devil.
I had seen the devil with my own eyes. It felt like fate was telling me to take revenge on that devil directly.
I convinced myself that the reason I gained such immense wealth through Cheonkyung was because of this.
In any case, that goal gave me a reason to live.
“Are you not coming back to Korea this year either?”
I looked up during a meal with Chairman Do, who was on a business trip in the U.S. Chairman Do was watching me with a sideways glance.
So that’s what he would say again.
I knew it, but I wouldn’t be able to give the answer that the Chairman wanted this time either.
“I still have a lot I want to study there.”
“How long are you going to just study? Are you going to keep studying until this old man dies? You should have come back by now and started laying the groundwork! It’s been years, and all I hear is that studying nonsense!”
