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Translator: uly
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Young Master I Must Protect
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- I have to protect the Young Master.
- The benefactor who saved my daughter. I must pledge my unwavering loyalty, even if it costs me my life.
- He's such a pitiful and heartbreaking figure. I need to stay by his side.
'....'
Reading Yoon Tae-ho's emotions, Lee Dae-hyuk felt a lump in his throat.
Contrary to his suspicions.
The affection that the man named 'Yoon Tae-ho' harbored was utterly pure, without a speck of impurity.
'This man is treating me solely out of loyalty to repay the favor, not for any personal gain.'
He himself had been betrayed by the 'master' to whom he had pledged his loyalty and the 'brother' with whom he had shared life and death, leaving him with an indelible wound.
Yet.
Yoon Tae-ho's untainted, steadfast loyalty brought him a measure of solace.
However, when Lee Dae-hyuk's touched expression hardened rigidly, Yoon Tae-ho asked cautiously, looking worried.
Of course, this was another misunderstanding.
"Young Master, what's wrong? Are you hurting somewhere again?"
"No, it's nothing."
Snapping back to reality at the sound of Yoon Tae-ho's voice, Lee Dae-hyuk replied in a curt tone.
He felt embarrassed for having let his mind wander in front of someone else.
At the same time, Lee Dae-hyuk flashed a meaningful smile.
'At the very least, 'this man right now' is someone I can trust. In that case… I should make use of him.'
Yoon Tae-ho would become his finest weapon.
For revenge, even a person's trust must be exploited.
Wiping the smile from his lips, Lee Dae-hyuk said.
"Manager Yoon. Call the security team. There's somewhere I need to go with you."
"…Pardon?"
***
The time Lee Dae-hyuk left his house with the security team.
VIP room at a hotel in Seoul's Gangnam.
A handsome man in his mid-thirties, having just finished a passionate affair, was dressing in his suit.
"You're leaving early today."
Behind him, a woman with long blonde hair cascading to her waist and a dizzyingly curvaceous figure stood in a bathrobe.
"Does that mean the CF contract ends here?"
She had just landed the CF for Daehan Construction apartments under the Daehan Group.
"Five billion for six months isn't a losing deal for them either, is it?"
The man replied in a cynical tone.
Even with his high-end shirt and jacket on, his upper body's firm muscles were evident—he possessed a well-trained physique.
The woman gazed at his body with satisfied eyes.
However, she knew full well.
To this man, she was nothing more than a 'toy' in bed.
But that was fine.
Her feelings weren't genuine either.
Jin Soo-young, one of Korea's three top innocent beauties, provoked her sponsor.
"Our bed relationship is getting boring. Maybe it's time we end things."
"Fine by me."
"Ha! As expected, I like how cool you are, President Lee Dae-hwan. Daehan Group's future looks bright. Hehe."
As she called his name, Lee Dae-hwan, who was tying his necktie, went cold.
"…You broke the promise."
"What promise? The one where you told me not to dirty your name with my filthy mouth? Lee. Dae. Hwan. Di. Rec. Tor?"
The eldest son of Daehan Group, with a pregnant wife at home, Lee Dae-hwan occasionally indulged in affairs, leveraging his looks and position.
Each time, he made one demand of the women.
Never call his name, whether in private or public.
Thud. Thud. Thud—!
Suddenly turning around, Lee Dae-hwan strode toward Jin Soo-young.
"Don't you dare."
Grab—!
"Eugh!"
Gripping her throat, Lee Dae-hwan growled.
"Didn't I tell you not to flap that trashy mouth of yours?"
"Eughhh."
Jin Soo-young let out a groan entirely different from the moans she had made in bed moments ago, speaking in a strangled voice.
"If… you're not gonna… kill me… let go… right now."
She had come this far on pride alone.
Even in terror, her tone brimmed with defiance.
Backing down here would turn her into 'real trash' in his eyes.
Snicker—!
Gazing down at her for a moment, Lee Dae-hwan let out a scoff and released her throat.
"Right. That's the Jin Soo-young I know. It was fun while it lasted."
Thud. Thud—.
Bang—!
Without giving her a chance to respond, Lee Dae-hwan stormed out of the room.
This was how he treated women.
"...."
Rubbing her sore throat briefly, Jin Soo-young gritted her teeth.
She was no toy, no trash.
'Just wait a little longer, Lee Dae-hwan. I'll teach you who the real trash is.'
***
Thud. Thud. Thud—.
One might doubt it was the same man who had just choked an actress—Lee Dae-hwan's face remained impassive as he walked to the VIP elevator.
To him, the earlier incident was as trivial as a daily meal.
This was how he had lived his entire life, obtaining everything he wanted.
Except for his father's affection.
Well, that was fine.
A little deprivation made things fair, didn't it?
He had married Yoon Ji-eun, the announcer hailed as Korea's top beauty, and would soon become Daehan Group's heir.
His current assets were merely tens of billions, but inheriting the group would bring tens of trillions into his hands.
So, yielding his father's love was no big deal.
Lee Dae-hwan had lived by that creed.
But the problem was.
'He went to that bastard on my birthday… Hah! Damn. Haha.'
Past thirty, he no longer craved his father's love and attention.
Still, the attention on that 'pet' grated a bit.
'Disgusting.'
Crunch—
Lee Dae-hwan felt rage after a long time.
He had vented it rolling around with Jin Soo-young, but what good was that when the true culprit stoking the fire in his chest remained untouched?
'When was the last time I disciplined him…?'
Thinking about it, he had neglected his father's pet for far too long.
Lee Dae-hwan saw this as his own failing.
How could he become Daehan Group's chairman if he couldn't even tame a single pet?
It was time to educate the pet.
'Right. When should I do it?'
The sooner the discipline, the better.
Hehehe—!
Imagining the pet groveling at his feet, a grotesque and chilling smile crept across Lee Dae-hwan's lips.
***
Fall 2006.
There was one pundit who rocked Korea's internet stock forums.
Known as Athens.
The gender-unknown writer gained massive popularity serializing columns that accurately predicted global economic and financial crises.
However, after basing columns on rumors like the government banning dollar purchases, they faced arrests amid plenty of ups and downs.
Fortunately acquitted and released within a month, they then became a famous stock YouTuber leveraging their financial intuition.
And now, that legend was being born in a PC bang.
Slurp—!
A shaggy-haired man, slurping cup ramen while pounding the keyboard, scowled.
"You think you're hot stuff now. But the world's about to turn upside down. You'll all be unemployed soon."
Kim Jae-un, the shaggy-haired man reading internet financial news, was filled with discontent.
From a young age, he had a genius-level instinct for stocks.
His exceptional chart-reading eye meant he had never once lost money.
But he had never made a fortune either.
His gambling-addicted father left him without even pocket money for stocks.
From middle school, desperately paying off his father's debts, he had barely held money in his hands and dropped out of high school.
What good was seeing opportunities if they were out of reach?
Trading meager stocks yielded only tens of thousands in profit.
Plus, with his father's debts, even that pocket change was snatched by loan sharks.
Of course, he could have borrowed money if he wanted.
But Kim Jae-un suppressed that desire.
The crisis he predicted was imminent—stocks would crash.
Crashed stocks always rebounded. Debts or loans, he needed money then.
'To make real money, I must endure now….'
Thwack!
Dreaming of the future, someone smashed the back of Kim Jae-un's head with a fist.
"Argh, shit! Who the…."
Clutching his head, Kim Jae-un whipped around.
And there.
"Oh dear, if it isn't our Kim Jae-un."
"Hey, why the sour face? Wanna die?"
Two men grinned mockingly in front of Kim Jae-un.
"How… how did you know I was here…?"
Stammering at the thugs' menacing faces, Kim Jae-un faltered.
"How? We chased your ass down."
"Let's talk outside, Kim Jae-un, you little shit."
The man with a scar near his left eye slung an arm around Kim Jae-un's neck.
Pretending to be friendly chums with a bright smile, but his glare was vicious.
"...."
Dragged along, Kim Jae-un glanced around.
But PC bang patrons were glued to their screens—no one helped.
Or rather, they pretended not to notice.
"Drag this out, and we might pay your mom a visit."
"!!"
Whispering to the frozen Kim Jae-un, the shaggy-haired man in front smirked.
At 'mom', perhaps.
Nod—!
Resigned, Kim Jae-un bowed his head and followed the two out of the PC bang.
Kim Jae-un honestly admitted he resembled his father in many ways.
Of course, while despising his father, he loved money suspiciously like him—genetics, maybe.
Money was the only weapon to climb classes.
Wanting a better life was human instinct, wasn't it?
His father and Kim Jae-un followed that instinct.
But there was a clear difference.
His father abandoned conscience for gambling, ruining his own life, his wife's, and his son's.
Kim Jae-un, however, stayed on the straight path.
He never chased money at others' expense.
Even at the ghost company introduced by a damn middle school friend.
A pyramid scheme targeting the elderly.
Thugs peddling mystery powders for hundreds of thousands each.
Kim Jae-un was the whistleblower who reported them to the police and bolted.
Not out of burning justice.
Money was urgent, but a speck of conscience and righteousness made it possible.
Fired before his first paycheck, he regretted nothing.
He had consoled himself: finally did something 'human'.
Yet somehow, the pyramid scheme thugs tracked him down after his report and escape.
.
.
.
Alley behind the PC bang.
Thud! Thud—!
"Gahk!"
The moment they entered the alley, Kim Jae-un was beaten down and sprawled on the ground.
"You fold in two hits and call yourself a justice warrior?"
The scarred thug sneered, but Kim Jae-un, pain shooting through his jaw, couldn't respond.
Cursing himself for choosing conscience and blaming the heavens.
'Damn it. I'm an idiot! It's always been like this—good deeds bring punishment, not reward.'
Never once rewarded for good deeds.
Instead, beatings like this were routine.
But today was different.
Thud. Thud—
"The times change, but trash like us live the same."
A young man's voice came from behind the thugs.
'Huh?'
Sprawled on the ground, Kim Jae-un tilted his head at the sudden interruption.
A charismatic baritone with precise pronunciation.
Confidence and leisure seeped into the tone.
The voice alone screamed extraordinary.
'Who is it?'
No such 'voice' in his memory.
Unlike the puzzled Kim Jae-un, the scarred and shaggy-haired thugs scowled at the intruder.
Tap—!
At shaggy-hair's glance, scar shoved Lee Dae-hyuk's shoulder roughly as he approached.
"Mister, don't regret it—beat it quietly. No need to shit on each other's faces."
Scar tried a 'friendly' dissuasion.
But Lee Dae-hyuk just smiled alternately at scar, shaggy-hair, and Kim Jae-un.
Yet, contrary to the soft smile, venom spewed from his mouth.
"What face? You half-assed punks?"
"What? This scrawny bastard…."
Scar's face twisted.
The words stung, but what enraged him more was the informal speech.
"Can't talk right to elders 'cause your tongue's too short? Want me to rip it out?"
Fuming at Lee Dae-hyuk's taunt, scar glared murderously.
"Kim Jae-un, right?"
"…Y-yes?"
"That's you. Nice to meet you."
Ignoring scar entirely, Lee Dae-hyuk beamed at Kim Jae-un.