The Fastest Current

The classroom fell silent in an instant.

The boys who had been laughing and tearing him apart under the shield of his indifference turned pale as paper.

“You have two sons. One is as good as dead.”

“Then even if the other is illegitimate, shouldn’t he be used properly?”

“What do you think?”

No one answered.

Even as an illegitimate child, Do Jiwan was still a son of the Domun Group.

Only then did the boy seem to remember that his own family survived by eating scraps from Domun Group’s subcontracting deals.

“I-I’m sor—”

“Even if you beg, I have no intention of forgiving you.”

“….”

“Why?”

“Because I’m illegitimate, does that mean I’m obligated to forgive you too?”

Jiwan smiled coldly.

It was not a loud threat.

It was worse.

The boy’s face drained of all color.

In truth, he had simply been unlucky.

Jiwan had endured countless insults before without reaction.

They had mistaken silence for weakness.

They had mistaken restraint for powerlessness.

They had miscalculated.

Within a month, the boy’s family company collapsed.

Domun Group quietly severed the subcontract.

No public scandal.

No shouting.

Just a signature.

Once one person fell, no one dared to provoke Jiwan again.

He did not need to shout.

He did not need to strike.

Quietly, firmly, he became the center.

“…Life really is boring.”

His eyes, when he said that, resembled those of his biological mother that day.

Empty.

Dull.

As if the world were a stage already watched too many times.

I reached out and stroked his hair.

He did not stop me.

Eventually, his stepmother and father divorced.

After months of therapy, she asked for it herself.

“I don’t want to become a monster anymore.”

She said she would take the younger brother overseas.

Many interests were tangled together, but somehow they untied them.

Money moved.

Lawyers worked.

Documents were signed.

She never apologized to Jiwan.

“Don’t forgive me for the rest of your life.”

That was her farewell.

Then she left.

The house grew quiet.

Only father and son remained.

But Jiwan’s trials did not end.

What had once been a whispered family secret was now ammunition.

Rivals used his birth to attack his father.

Rumors twisted.

Some even claimed the younger brother’s accident had been orchestrated to clear the path.

No one dared say it to Jiwan’s face.

But whispers never truly disappear.

He behaved as usual.

People called him heartless.

They called him cold.

They said he had no blood, no tears.

Only I saw the truth.

‘His grades slipped.’

Still first place.

But he missed questions he would never have missed before.

Careless mistakes.

Tiny cracks.

“Of course it’s Do Jiwan.”

“He’s a monster.”

They mistook endurance for indifference.

The more they misunderstood, the heavier my chest felt.

If I could support him, even a little.

If I could take even a fragment of that weight.

I embraced him quietly.

His hand came up and rested over mine.

After that, something changed.

He stopped being a voluntary outsider.

He stepped into the center.

He was not cheerful.

He did not joke.

He did not laugh loudly.

But people gathered around him anyway.

His presence had weight.

Money for those who wanted money.

Recognition for those who wanted recognition.

Opportunity for those who sought opportunity.

Jiwan learned quickly how to use people.

Those who wanted approval worshiped him.

Those who wanted wealth bowed to him.

Those who wanted power aligned themselves with him.

No one called him illegitimate anymore.

No one dared.

“Back then, I didn’t understand why she kept saying everything was mine.”

“….”

“I didn’t think I could ever really take it.”

“….”

“Now I understand.”

“….”

“You need power to protect yourself from people.”

He stepped closer to Domun Group’s core affairs.

For the first time, he openly revealed ambition.

With no alternative left, his father declared him successor.

“An illegitimate child daring to reach higher!”

The elders protested fiercely.

Some cousins wanted to follow him.

Others saw the stain on his name as an opening.

Then the world changed.

Dimensional boundaries thinned.

Monsters poured into reality.

People awakened powers.

Jiwan was one of them.

He did not hesitate.

He gathered people immediately.

Money flowed.

Connections formed.

His father backed him completely.

They were tied together now.

If one fell, both would fall.

Before any standards were established, Jiwan moved first.

I knew he would succeed.

I had seen the future.

Still, unease gnawed at me.

“During a flood, the current is strongest when the dam first breaks.”

“….”

“The world is the same.”

“When change begins, that’s when speed matters most.”

“If you fail to ride the current, you’re left behind.”

He might have been convincing himself.

Or me.

I did not argue.

If something went wrong, I could heal him.

That was what I believed.

He entered the dungeon wearing steel armor, not artifacts.

It was his first true battle.

Tension flickered across his face.

“There’s something ahead!”

A guild member shouted.

Something moved.

Fast.

Too fast.

It reached Jiwan in the blink of an eye.

Chaos erupted.

Steel clashed.

Blood sprayed.

The monster’s body split under his blade.

“Haah… haah…”

He had killed.

Even if it was a monster, it was still the first life he had taken.

Strength drained from him.

I stepped forward to heal him.

The world shook violently.

Black energy seeped from his body like smoke.

The others noticed nothing.

“This cowardly trap!”

It had waited.

It waited until he ripened.

Until he was strained.

Until he was vulnerable.

He had pushed himself to the edge.

To protect himself.

To secure his position.

To prove himself indispensable.

And now, at that fragile moment, it tried to swallow him whole.

“Hey!”

“….”

“Do Jiwan!”

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

No response.

I released divine power.

It dispersed uselessly.

“Guild Leader!”

“….”

“Wake up!”

I slapped him.

I shouted.

Nothing worked.

Until—

“Hyungnim!”

His body twitched.

Again.

“Hyungnim! Hyungnim! Wake up!”

Light flickered in his eyes.

The black energy cracked.

“Hyungnim?”

Darkness fell away from his face in fragments.

“Why am I your hyungnim?”

His voice was rough.

Alive.

I almost laughed from relief.

Then his expression shifted.

“You…!”

“Huh?”

My hand had turned translucent.

My arm followed.

Through my fading palm, I could see his stunned face clearly.

The trap had not failed.

It was collapsing instead.

And I—

I was the one being released.