A/N: Thank you all for joining me on my new fiction! I hope you all stick around and see Taeyeon's journey! There might be some bits of fantasy/shamanism in this, haven't completely decided yet. I hope you all enjoy! Please pardon any grammar/spelling errors. 

 

Chapter 2

Taeyeon was the first to wake up in the family, like always. He quickly went downstairs to start making the family breakfast. His life was like this for the past couple of years, he was nothing but a live-in son-in-law after all. He didn’t work and all his duties were household chores for the family. Meals, laundry, and cleaning were all they expected from him. Besides he was “worthless” to them. 

“The only thing you’re good at. Making us food” jabbed early in the morning by his mother-in-law. 

Internally rolling his eyes, Taeyeon kept mum as he served her pancakes, eggs, and slices of bacon. “Good morning mother,” he said politely. 

Taking a seat at the table, she picked up her fork and began to eat. “I will be out with some friends today, I will not be home for dinner tonight” 

“I understand. I will leave some leftovers in the fridge for you if you are hungry” 

His mother-in-law didn’t say anything and continued eating. 

A beautiful young woman walked into the room. It was no other than his wife. “Good morning Taeyeon. Thank you for breakfast,” she politely said. 

“Good morning Tiffany,” he smiled as he served her breakfast. 

It wasn’t before long before his father-in-law had walked into the kitchen. He sat at his usual spot at the table and waited for Taeyeon to serve him as usual. When he was served, he picked up his fork and ate immediately. “Taeyeon, I will not be home for dinner tonight. I have some plans with my buddies” 

“I understand father” Taeyeon nodded politely. 

Taeyeon grabbed himself his own plate before taking a seat at the table with the rest of the family. He sat next to his wife and ate in silence. 

“I guess it’ll just be you and me tonight” mentioned his wife. 

“Yah! No funny business you two!” Snapped his mother-in-law, causing his wife’s cheeks to turn a shade of pink. 

“Mom! Don’t be so… forward…” Tiffany groaned looking down at her plate in embarrassment. 

Her mother scoffed, “I would never allow such filth-“

“That’s enough!” Barked Tiffany glaring at her mother before looking at her husband apologetically. 

With a huff, Tiffany’s mother walked out of the room. 

Quickly remembering the whole issue, Tiffany’s face turned a light shade of pink. “Sorry about mom… you know how she can be…” she softly said. The young lady couldn’t help but sigh. What’s the use of apologizing… she knew she was just making excuses for her mom. But she couldn’t bring herself to really stop her… yet. Feeling slightly awkward, she quickly left the room to get ready for work. 

Taeyeon just smiled in understanding. There was no use to being angry over something so silly. As he cleared the table the only person left sitting at the table was his father-in-law. He was busy sipping his coffee and reading today’s newspaper. 

“Can you tell me honestly… how did you and dad cross paths?” His father-in-law said without looking away from the newspaper. 

This had caught Taeyeon by surprise. He paused what he was doing to process if he had heard his father-in-law ask that to him. He quickly thought of the question before answering. 

“If I tell you the honest truth, would you even believe me?” he responded honestly but with a slight jab at him. 

This caused the older man to raise an eyebrow. He slightly scoffed before turning back to his newspaper. “You’re right. But I guess it all just depends on if I like your answer or not” 

“I will tell you the honest truth,” Taeyeon said firmly. “I was only thirteen when I met Grandpa Hwang. I was at Busan Family Orphanage. Ran by some church. I think Grandpa was in Busan for a business trip. The orphanage at that time had been dealing with a lot of money issues. Grandpa Hwang wanted to sponsor the orphanage. As he was touring the orphanage he got to meet all of us. There were like fifteen of us there ranging from five years old to the oldest being 17…” his voice trailing off. He thought back fondly as small smile crazed his lips. “He met with each one of us individually for a good ten minutes each. He bought us a meal too. But I don’t know what I said… he wanted me to go home with him. And they all said okay and here I am today”

His father-in-law was silent. He couldn’t help scoff as he processed the words his good for nothing son-in-law just told him. He knew that everything that this kid just said, was factual truth. There was no hint of any sort of lie or bad ideas with it. This displeased him a bit more. It was easier to displace his anger towards Taeyeon. He was nothing but an orphan to the outside world. But his anger was really meant for his father. 

“That old man,” he cursed. “Why does he have to be such a generous person? Why did he have to offer you guys such a large sum of money? Our family would be better with that half a million dollar check rather than some smoothers.” 

Taeyeon took a deep breath in. He held back his annoyance and just kept quiet. ‘Always thinking about the money…’ he complained to himself. 

“If only my father was not such a generous man, we would be a half a million richer and less of a pathetic son-in-law like you” he jabbed. 

The young lad kept mum as he finished watching the dishes. Wiping his hands on a dish towel, Taeyeon slipped out of the kitchen and up towards his bedroom. He let out a sigh of release, releasing his anger. ‘I will teach you a lesson one day’ 

Quickly looking at the time, he realized he was running late for his meeting. Quickly walking into the room, he got ready to leave. HIs wife was no longer in the house and was gone, his mother-in-law had left, but his father-in-law should be leaving soon. Grabbing his wallet, he slipped out of his bedroom door and down to the front door. 

“I’m off to the market!” Taeyeon announced before leaving the house. He felt relieved to have left the house. It was full of bad vibes and he hated every ounce of it. 

Hopping on his bike, he quickly rode off to town to go to the meeting point, Cafe Zero. It was a small cute cafe right before the city limits. It had a homey feel to it but still had a modern look. The bike ride down from his house and the cafe was just a good fifteen minutes. 

Upon arriving to the cafe, he locked his bike up on the bike rack before heading inside. He wasn’t wearing anything fancy and only wore something quite simple. Jeans, a plain grey t-shirt, and a plain blue zip up hoodie. He looked very normal. 

Entering the cafe he sat at a window seat waiting. A cafe worker had walked up to him and asked or his order. He simply ordered a plain black coffee and a small croissant. Then he was left alone to wait. He looked at his watch and it only showed 11:20. There was still ten minutes left till their meeting. 

Five minutes had passed and a middle aged man in a nice clean business suit walked into the cafe. He had spotted Taeyeon and walked up to him with a small smile before bowing 90 degrees towards him. “Young Master Kim” 

Quickly standing up, he bowed himself and quickly told him to stand up, “Song Seung-Heon-shi? Please, take a seat. I cannot have many eyes looking at us” he quickly said. 

Once they were seated they sat in a slight awkward silence. “How did you find me?” Taeyeon said breaking the silence. 

Just as the other man could speak, the waiter had come with Taeyeon’s order. With a small exchange, they turned back to look at each other to continue their conversation. 

Looking out the window Seung-heon’s face was serious and rigid. He let out a small sigh before talking, “We’ve always had eyes on you. But your father believed that even if we had come after you, you’d do anything in your power to run away” 

Taeyeon clenched his jaw and fist. He kept his voice low but very strict. “You knew where I was and you let me continue this life?” 

Seung-Heon looked down and took a deep breath, “Honestly, we didn’t know that the Hwangs had taken you in. We knew you were at the Orphanage and your father was sending money over to the orphanage. But when your grandfather had gotten ill he had to step up as the new head of the family. He was bombarded with a lot of things. He had… dare I say… neglected you” 

“So why would I ever go back to my father,” Taeyeon scoffed, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“He understands that whatever happened those years ago, he can never be forgiven. He doesn’t ask to be forgiven. But he believes you have suffered enough because of his own wrong doings and his neglect. He has given you Seoul Hill’s most powerful and influential company. Most of the top leaders in the company had left from the ownership change, and are now held by Kim family’s most trusted people. The current chairman was from the old ownership, wanted to stay to help keep the company afloat. Promised to step down once you want to take over. His name is Kim Heechul,” 

Taeyeon sat in silence and he tried to process what was being told of him. He was conflicted. His father had been a wretched man and had put him in his misery. He knew his family background was powerful, they were the richest and most influential family in the country. Yet he lived for so many years as the orphan boy and was always called worthless. Always treated as garbage.

But now he had the power. He had come into some money. Now, he was going to make everyone pay. Right? 

He continued to think to himself before he looked at Seun-Heon. “Fine. I’ll take the gift. However, I demand my identity is kept secret” 

Nodding in understanding he smiled, “Yes young master Kim, as you wish” 

Taking a sip of his coffee, Taeyeon looked out the window and then at his father’s personal assistant. “Seung-Heon-shi, how did you find me with the Hwangs?” 

“When we found out that you had been adopted out from the Orphanage, your father felt anger and shame. He spent a lot trying to find you. Honestly we didn’t know if you would have kept your name. If we knew that, we would have looked that up first,” Seung-Heon scoffed in a playful way. 

“Honestly, it was Jameson Hwang who had reached out to us,” 

This caused Taeyeon to lift up an eyebrow. “Jameson Hwang? Grandpa Hwang?” He asked taken aback. 

“Yes, Jameson Hwang. At first, your father thought he adopted you for ransom since he might have found out your true identity. But after a few more exchanges, when he revealed the truth we were all in shock….” 

This left Taeyeon at the edge of his seat. He listened intensely at what Seung-heon was saying and the rest of the story. It had left him rather confused. It was definitely a lot to take in and a lot to think through. 

“Thank you for telling me. All facts will be taken into consideration when I figure out what I really want to do,” Taeyeon said calmly and firmly. 

“You’re welcome young Master Kim,” nodded Seung-Heon. He quickly reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and handed an envelope to the young master. “The envelope has the details of your new bank account, the pin, and the debit card to the account” 

Taking the envelope from his father’s assistant, he smiled politely. “Thank you Seung-heon-shi. I will most likely drop by 11:11 in the next few days. You can announce the new ownership, but I will like for my identity to remain a secret. You can say the Kim family has taken over, but my name stays out of it,” 

“Understood,” 

XXXX

After their conversation, Taeyeon quickly got on his bike and was about to head to the market when his phone started ringing. It was from his father-in-law. This had him raise an eye-brow. 

Answering the call he greeted, “Yes father?”

“Taeyeon where are you? You must get home quick!”

Taeyeon furrowed his eyebrows. “Is something wrong?”

“Lady Hwang has asked for everyone to come to the family estate this instant,” he said.

Quickly checking his wrist watch he quickly turned his bike around and started peddling home. “I’ll be home in five minutes,”

“Good, we are all headed home,” he said before hanging up. 

Taeyeon let out a long sigh. Another damn meeting at the most annoying place in the world. The Hwang family estate, where the most annoying and self-centered group of people would gather together. But with his new secret identity… lets see if he can use it to his advantage tonight.