The silver metal plaque of "Seorin Royal Medical Center" gleamed under the night lights. Luxury cars were lined up neatly in front of the entrance, while security guards and reporters blocked off the area, waiting for updates.
Not long after the accident, the Kang family began to arrive.
The first to step out of a white sports car was Yoo Seohyun, Kang Taejun's current stepmother. Only twenty-seven years old, she was strikingly beautiful and dressed in elegant designer clothing. She was only a few years younger than Taejun himself. The sharp click of her high heels echoed urgently against the marble floor as she hurried inside.
The moment the emergency room doors opened, Seo-hyun rushed toward the doctor.
"Doctor! How is Taejun?!"
Her voice trembled. Tears welled in her eyes as she covered her mouth, as if barely holding back sobs.
The doctor answered with a grave expression.
"The patient is still in a coma. His condition is critical. We're monitoring him very closely."
Seohyun swayed slightly, as if her legs had gone weak.
"No… Taejun…"
Under the watchful eyes of everyone around, she looked every bit like a devastated wife worried sick over her stepson. A bodyguard quickly stepped in to steady her and guide her to a seat so she could "compose herself."
Not long after, the doors on the other side opened.
Choi Insook, the chairman's second ex-wife, walked in calmly. The forty-five-year-old woman wore a tailored suit, her sharp eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts.
Beside her stood her son, Kang Minjae, twenty-four years old and already a general manager in one of Kang Motors' subsidiaries. He carried himself with quiet composure, his expression unreadable as he stared through the ICU glass at Taejun's motionless body.
Insook glanced briefly at Seohyun, who was still wiping away tears, before turning her attention to the authorities.
"Officer," she asked evenly, "has the brake system been inspected yet?"
The question was not filled with concern.
It carried something else, something calculated.
One of the two detectives waiting outside the ICU answered carefully.
"We are currently investigating."
The atmosphere in the hospital lobby grew even more tense.
"Um… may I ask, Chairman Kang…?"
"I wouldn't know," Insook replied sharply.
Her cold tone made the officer flinch. He lowered his gaze and fell silent.
"As for Chairman Kang..Kang Do-cheol…he has not come in person. He is currently attending an overseas business meeting in Singapore and is giving instructions by phone only."
Minjae, the general manager of a Kang Motors subsidiary, answered politely on his mother's behalf. He offered a thin, formal smile, his hands clasped neatly in front of him.
"The representative sent in his place is Han Jungwoo, the chairman's personal secretary….and a close friend of the first wife… Taejun's late mother."
Minjae gestured toward Jungwoo.
The two detectives followed his motion with their eyes, while In-sook merely glanced in that direction from the corner of her gaze.
Han Jungwoo stood quietly near the ICU window. His expression was heavy, burdened. It was clear he was more genuinely worried about Taejun than any of the so….called family members present, almost like a real father would be.
In this luxurious hospital lobby, tears could simply be an act.
Silence could conceal hidden schemes. And while Kang Taejun lay motionless behind the glass…
The war within the Kang family had already begun, though no one spoke of it openly. The first son of the Kang family now lies in a coma.