🍵Chapter 1🍵

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The Choi Mansion had heard many things in its lifetime.

Boardroom negotiations echoing off marble walls. Polite laughter from charity galas. The quiet click of polished shoes belonging to people who never raised their voices.

What it was not built for was Beomgyu sprinting down the hallway like a man running from his own execution.

“Mom… mom, pst pst, MOM,” Beomgyu hissed urgently, skidding around a corner and nearly colliding with a decorative vase that probably cost more than his future car. He slapped a hand against the wall, chest heaving, eyes wild. “Mom, I need sanctuary.”

From the doorway of her private lounge, Choi Youngha looked up from her tablet, one perfectly groomed eyebrow arching in slow, familiar amusement. She did not even ask what was wrong at first. She already knew.

“Beomgyu,” she said calmly, closing the screen. “Why are you whispering like a criminal… and what did you do this time?”

He clasped his hands together dramatically, dropping to his knees on the polished floor like a fallen knight. “I cheated,” he confessed in a tragic whisper. “In Snakes and Ladders.”

Youngha blinked once.

“…That’s it?”

“But,” Beomgyu rushed on, pointing frantically behind him, “Soobin Hyung found out. He saw me move my piece two steps extra. TWO. He is currently experiencing a moral crisis and I am about to be murdered in the name of justice.”

She sighed, rubbing her temple. “Beomgyu, you cannot cheat at a children’s board game and expect mercy.”

“When I die,” he said solemnly, crawling closer and clutching the hem of her pants, “please make my favorite dishes for my memorial. Bulgogi. Tteokbokki. Extra cheese. Erect a massive statue of me in front of the mansion so future generations remember my sacrifice. And please tell Yeonjun hyung that he was my favorite brother.”

“That’s funny,” came a voice from the far end of the hallway, sharp and approaching fast. “Because you’re not dying.”

Beomgyu froze.

Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head.

At the other end of the hallway stood Choi Soobin. Sleeves rolled up. Hair slightly messed. Expression terrifyingly calm in that way that meant he had reached the end of his patience.

“Choi Beomgyu,” Soobin called, voice echoing. “Stop. Right. There.”

“Oh my god,” Beomgyu gasped, scrambling to his feet. “It’s too late. The law has arrived.”

“Do not run,” Soobin warned.

Beomgyu ran.

“SHIT, MOM, GOTTA GO,” he yelled, taking off down the corridor.

“HEY,” Youngha called after him instinctively. “Mind your language!”

Her scolding dissolved into laughter as she watched her sons disappear around the corner, the sound of hurried footsteps and shouted threats bouncing off the walls. Some things never changed. No matter how powerful their last name was.

Yeonjun was lounging on the couch in the family sitting room, legs stretched out, phone in hand, completely unbothered. His screen glowed with unread messages and notifications he was only half paying attention to. Peace. Rare. Precious.

It lasted approximately three seconds.

“Ow ow ow ow OW,” Beomgyu’s voice suddenly shrieked, followed by frantic scrambling. “Soobin Hyung, PLEASE, I’M SORRY, A THOUSAND TIMES SORRY.”

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