The morning after the protest felt like a funeral.
Not the chaotic, grief-drenched kind with crying relatives and old priests—but the cold, rehearsed kind. The kind where everyone wears black and talks about "legacy" over champagne. The kind Yoochan had grown up watching through frosted glass, always on the outside.
Today, he stood at the center of it.
The boardroom smelled like fear masked with cologne. Executives sat straight-backed, silent, as the news played on the wall: footage of Yoochan in the crowd, the photo of his mother passed from hand to hand like some relic of atonement. Headlines flashed—"Kang Scion Promises Reform," "The Youngest Heir Breaks from Legacy," "Blood and Remorse: The New Face of the Chaebol War."
Kang Joonho watched it all with clenched teeth.
"You upstaged me," he said, voice barely a whisper but every syllable sharp.
Yoochan didn't look at him. "The people needed a villain. I gave them a mirror."
"You dragged our name through the mud."
Yoochan finally turned. "I cleaned it."
The silence snapped when Chairman Kang Daehyun entered. His presence, even in a wheelchair, was a gravity shift. The air got colder. His eyes, rheumy but still dangerous, scanned the room like a predator aging but undefeated.
"Leave," he said to the board. "Except for my sons."
The others scrambled to obey. Yoochan stayed seated, meeting his father's gaze. So did Joonho—barely.
Daehyun stared at them both, then spoke slowly. "You think because I'm old, I'm blind. But I see it now. The old blood and the new."
"Which one am I?" Yoochan asked.
The old man smiled, yellow teeth flashing. "You tell me."
Joonho leaned forward. "He endangered company property, weaponized your dead mistress, and alienated core shareholders."
"And you," Daehyun cut in, "have spent the past three years funneling company funds into private holdings in the Caymans. Don't test me, boy."
Joonho stiffened.
Daehyun looked back at Yoochan. "Tell me. Why shouldn't I cut you both out and hand it all to Soomin? Or Hyejin?"
Yoochan took a breath. Then, slowly, he reached into his coat and laid a small, velvet-lined box on the table. Inside: a vial of ash.
Joonho flinched at the sight of it.
Yoochan spoke evenly. "This is what the Kang name has become. Burned factories. Dead children. Silent bribes. We can hide it. Or we can build from it."
Daehyun looked at the vial for a long moment.
"You want to build?"
"I want to win."
Daehyun nodded. "Then clean house. You have one month. Fix the subsidiaries. Silence the press. Make the blood disappear."
"And Joonho?" Yoochan asked.
"Convince me he's obsolete."
---
Later, Yoochan stood on the roof, letting the wind whip at his coat. From up here, the city looked orderly. Predictable. Like something he could actually control.
"You keep that vial on you all the time?" Sooyoung asked, stepping beside him.
He didn't answer.
"You really think Daehyun is testing you? He's not grooming an heir. He's laying traps."
Yoochan's voice was low. "That's the point. If I survive the traps, I deserve the throne."
She shook her head. "That's what Joonho used to say."
"I'm not him."
"No. You're worse."
He turned to her sharply, but she didn't flinch.
"You remember the names of the workers who died in that factory?"
The question landed like a slap.
"I remember why they died."
"So do I," she said. "My father was one of them."
The silence was absolute.
Yoochan stared at her. "You never told me."
"You never asked."
Her eyes were shining—but not with tears. With something colder. Something earned.
"I thought you were different, Yoochan. That you'd burn this place down to build something better."
"I will."
"No," she said. "You'll burn it down. And you'll sit on the ashes. Just like the rest of them."
She turned and walked away, her heels echoing like gunshots.
---
That night, Yoochan opened a private server tucked away on his encrypted tablet. It contained the full surveillance dossier he'd been assembling: board movements, financial leaks, blackmail material.
He updated a folder: Targets for Removal.
He added Joonho. Again.
Then, with a pause… he added Cha Sooyoung.
Just a placeholder. A warning to himself.
Trust no one.
Not even the girl who made you feel human.