Tae Shin is a simple boy with simple dreams, who likes to hide his half-forgotten past into the shadows of his low self-esteem. Kim JaeHwan is a sole heir to a gigantic multi-billion conglomerate, who likes to reminisce the ghosts of his happy child...
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JaeHwan was nine when he found out what it meant to be the sole heir of Empire Corporations.
He was just out of his Taekwondo classes, eating ice cream with his batch mates. One of the kids said, "Hey JaeHwan, why don't you pay for us?"
JaeHwan shook his head. "I don't have money."
"Then ask your father to pay when he comes."
"Okay." JaeHwan didn't put much thought to it. In fact he didn't even like these boys but he was forced to stay with them, just an evidence that he did have friends.
But their behavior continued.
Each time, JaeHwan found himself as the one who paid. Every damn time. He got so tired of it, that he began to keep money with him everywhere he went. For everything. One day when he got late to class, he overheard his batch mates speaking to one another.
"My mom says it's good to keep JaeHwan around. And also that his dad has a lot of money."
JaeHwan ran to his father that night, and asked him, feeling angry. "Why do people ask me to pay?"
"You could always say no." His father shrugged.
"But..."
"Listen here, son." Kim DanTae closed the book he was reading and took off his spectacles. "People would always beg. That's what they do."
"Like beggars?" JaeHwan asked, starting to climb on the chair his father was sitting on.
"Most people are like beggars anyway. You know about parasites?"
"Hmm." JaeHwan nodded ferociously. "They don't have backbones."
"People are also like that. There are some people who are like parasites. And they never have a backbone. You can easily look at them and realise who's who." DanTae sighed, his hand threading in his son's hair. JaeHwan grew up fast. None of his parents wanted him to be like that but they couldn't help it.
"My HwaShinnie never asked for anything," JaeHwan snarled. "He was better than these parasites."
"People ask stuff from me all the time. You know what I do?" DanTae looked at his son, who was growing in a scary resemblance to him day by day.
"You tell them to piss off. That's why they call you mad. Yet they stay around you like weeds because they need you. I know about it, Abbeoji." JaeHwan narrowed his eyes. "Now they're doing the same to me."
Months passed, and JaeHwan continued his life. The only difference was JaeHwan became a bitter to everyone. He realised that even if he was rude to people, they'd still stay around him- just because they needed him. Money was the most powerful thing in the world. JaeHwan simply wanted to make lots of it.
