To Fall In Love Again [JEONGKYU FF]

Chapter 60

JeongWoo felt the shift in the room's atmosphere the moment his father stood. It wasn't just the physical change—Hong Jun removing his jacket, rolling up his sleeves—it was something deeper. The air itself seemed to thicken, charged with the promise of violence.

The crushing weight of Hong Jun's presence made the three siblings unconsciously retreat. For a moment their confidence cracked as memories of their father's brutal punishments during childhood came flooding back. That glacial, merciless expression on Hong Jun's face sent familiar shivers down their spines.

Hong Jun stalked towards the center of the study with deliberate, predatory steps. Each footfall seemed to reverberate through the floorboards, as if the very foundation of the house was announcing his approach.

As if by instinct, Jihoon's hand drifted toward his back, fingers seeking the weapon tucked into his waistband. But before he could draw it, Hong Jun's commanding voice cut through the tension, "Guns. Only for the weak. You're better than that, Jihoon." His steely gaze fixed on the guards who had carried Max, silently commanding them to seal the door.

The heavy oak door swung shut with a resonant thud that seemed to echo in their bones. The siblings felt a collective chill—this scenario was hauntingly familiar. Closed room. Just their father and whichever child needed discipline. Back then, the other two would huddle outside, knees drawn to their chests, praying their sibling would survive his punishment.

But that was then. Now they weren't terrified children cowering before his wrath. Now they were the ones bringing judgment to the old man.

"Fine. Let's settle this like high-level alphas." Jihoon's words had barely left his lips when Rose exploded into motion.

No warning. No hesitation. One moment she was standing beside her chair—the next, her pheromones detonated outward like invisible grenades. JeongWoo caught the periphery of her assault—whispers of phantom agony clawing at buried traumas. But Rose wasn't targeting him.

Hong Jun's expression went completely blank for exactly three heartbeats. JeongWoo watched his father's eyes lose focus as Rose's ability burrowed into his mind, hunting for his darkest memory, his deepest wound. For one crystalline moment, JeongWoo thought they had him.

Then Hong Jun smiled.

"You always were too obvious, Rose."

The atmosphere around their father shimmered like heat waves, and suddenly Rose's pheromones twisted back on themselves like serpents turning to bite their own tails. JeongWoo watched in horror as his sister's face contorted in pure anguish. She crashed to her knees, hands clawing at her chest as phantom torment—the memory of losing Lisa, of her fated mate dying in her arms—ripped through her body with renewed savagery.

"No!" Jihoon was already in motion, his own pheromones flooding the room like a tsunami of manufactured torture.

JeongWoo felt the edges of it—white-hot needles of fire racing along his nerve endings—and nearly stumbled. But once again, their father was prepared.

Hong Jun's pheromones coiled around Jihoon's like a python, constricting, redirecting with precision. Jihoon's scream tore through the study as his own ability boomeranged back at him. He collapsed beside Rose, his weapon sliding across the room at the impact, body seizing as his mind experienced every torture he'd ever inflicted, amplified beyond endurance.

How is he doing this? JeongWoo's thoughts raced as he watched both siblings writhe on the Persian rug. He's not just deflecting—he's turning everything into ammunition—

"Twenty-four years of service, and you still haven't learned the most basic lesson," Hong Jun said conversationally, pausing his advance in the study's center. "Power without control is just destruction waiting to happen."