This World Is a Fucking Shithole
You only had to walk a few steps through downtown Seoul to spot that logo everywhere. A dragon gripping a yeouiju in its claws. If you didn’t think too hard about it, it just looked like a plain circle with some cute little claw marks. The moment your eyes landed on it, you instantly knew it meant Guryong.
A corporation that had dominated and shaken the Korean economy for decades, and still did. If you heard that the son of a family like that was in the same department as you, how would you feel? Insanely curious, obviously. Even if you pretended not to care on the surface, you’d still wonder what kind of person he was. You’d secretly hope you might get close to him.
Hey, you. You’re the bastard who gave that presentation from the podium, right?
…Huh?
That’s exactly what I used to think. Until I met that fucker in the same department.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Over the neatly set table, the only sounds were the stifling clack of chopsticks. Everyone else was probably just focused on eating, but my silence came from somewhere else entirely.
What the hell is this situation…?
I’d closed my eyes and opened them again in a completely different body. Sitting right next to me was the bastard who had beaten me half to death in my previous life. Across from me sat his father—the chairman of Guryong, a man I wouldn’t have dared look in the eye back then.
It was too sudden to process logically, so I decided to just roll with the context. Even if I accepted the whole thing as some kind of fantasy, one part still stuck in my throat like a fish bone.
Did Gu Jayoung even have a younger brother?
No matter how many times I turned it over, I’d never heard anything about a sibling. There’d been no reason to dig into the inner workings of the Guryong clan anyway, and every ounce of my attention had been fixed on Gu Jayoung—the one who’d tormented me so viciously.
I kept replaying old conversations in my head, searching for any hint I might have missed. While my chopsticks moved on autopilot—shoveling rice into my mouth or possibly my nose, I couldn’t tell—Gu Jagyeom set his chopsticks down with a crisp clack.
It was a simple gesture, the kind that happened at any dinner table when someone had eaten enough. Yet when he did it, the tension in the air became unbearable. I flinched before I could stop myself. Even Gu Jayoung, who had been eating with a blank face beside me, froze.
“Right. I heard about your admission.”
“…Yes?”
I answered because his sharp eyes had locked onto me. The pressure was so heavy it felt like he was choking the life out of me. I tried to act like the real owner of this body so I wouldn’t get caught, but my throat only worked enough to swallow dryly.
Then he grinned.
“What are you so tense for, boy? You got in as top of the class, didn’t you? That news reached your old man a long time ago.”
“Ah… uh…?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. The sound I let out was just an awkward filler, but Chairman Gu Jagyeom took it as understanding and softened his stiff expression.
It was true that someone had entered university at the top of the class. But that had happened a full year ago—in my original body. Which meant this current “me,” now the second son of Guryong, had apparently just started school.
He grinned wider.
“You little rascal, why act so humble in front of your own father! Your little brother worked his ass off and got in as valedictorian. You should be bragging, puffing up your old man’s shoulders with pride!”
He’s… laughing?
And not just any laugh. It was the bold, booming laugh of Chairman Gu Jagyeom. From the first impression, I’d been certain that tightly shut mouth would never smile. He was famous for never once smiling in interviews or photos—every image of him was stern and rigid.
Yet here he was, laughing. Even with the housekeeper watching, he roared with hearty laughter, as if he owned the entire world. The kind of laugh that made you think he’d pat your ass if you stood next to him.
“Good. So what do you want?”
“…Yes?”
“Hey now, too much humility is poison, ain’t it?”
He tapped the table sharply to get my attention.
“So tell me—what do you want from your father? For getting into university, it’s gotta be a car, right? Or are you at the age where you want to live on your own? Should I get you a decent house?”
…Do chaebol families just hand out houses for good grades?
The outrageous offer left me smiling awkwardly. I still couldn’t fully accept this body as mine, and rather than lusting after a sudden car or house, I was far more fascinated by the chairman’s overjoyed face.
In his eyes, my entire existence seemed utterly lovable. The concrete-hard atmosphere from our first meeting had vanished, replaced by a flood of laughter that looked like he’d been holding it back the whole time. A bundle of pure happiness.
So my name is Jaryong.
An extra hint had come along with everything else. Since we were the Gu family, my full name must be Gu Jaryong.
When the heavy presence of Chairman Gu Jagyeom laughed, the whole mood instantly warmed. The housekeeper looked startled but smiled along with him, clearing the cold side dishes from the table one by one.
What threw ice water on the cheerful atmosphere was, of course, the other son.
“Hah… getting all fucking cocky just ‘cause you got top of the class. Pathetic.”
Gu Jayoung had only taken a few spoonfuls, as if the food had tasted like dirt from the start. The moment he opened his mouth, the words that came out were exactly what you’d expect from a bastard like him.
The atmosphere froze over as if the entire table had been flipped. Gu Jagyeom, who had been spitting praise and nearly drooling while looking at me, changed faces in an instant. It was the cold, businesslike mask. Like swapping masks in a Peking opera, he became Chairman Gu Jagyeom again.
“Gu Jayoung.”
“……Yes.”
“What’s your current occupation and how old are you?”
“I’m twenty-one… soon to be a college junior.”
The moment his father called his name, his shoulders snapped straight with military discipline. I’d never seen it before. The tyrannical Gu Jayoung who refused to accept anyone above him became a mouse in front of a cat when his father was around.
It made sense. The man was his only father, and that father happened to be a charismatic chairman.
So even that bastard knew there was a sky above him.
Still, the sight was incredibly refreshing to me. Watching Gu Jayoung cower like that was so satisfying I didn’t want to blink.
“That’s right. It’s already been two years. The bastard who swore he’d catch up to everything once we got him into school is now entering his third year—so what kind of grades have you pulled?”
“……”
“I believed your bullshit when you said college would change everything. I waited until college for the son who claimed his flowers bloom late. I endured two years because you said you’d adapt after the first one!”
BANG! BANG!
“They say when the flounder ruins the fish market, it’s the sand eel that does it—and you’re that damn sand eel!”
When he slammed the table hard enough to break it, the impact seemed to rattle my bones. The housekeeper carrying dishes quietly retreated to the kitchen. No one dared look directly at Gu Jagyeom in his current state.
This is fucking terrifying…!
I finally understood the rumors. They said when Chairman Gu Jagyeom got his hands on an employee, he could make grown men cry like children and crawl away. I was convinced in a single moment. His old-school, fist-first style didn’t belong in the 21st century, but when you looked at the results and the power he wielded, no one could criticize it.
“After I spent all that money sending you to college, what the hell have you done? What?!”
“……”
“Be honest. You went around yelling that you were the chairman’s son and chased after every girl you saw, didn’t you? Wasn’t it enough that your father had to bow and scrape, setting up scholarship foundations and development funds just to get one worthless son into school?!”
Crash!
A bowl finally shattered. Gu Jagyeom’s swinging arm had knocked over Gu Jayoung’s half-empty rice bowl, smashing it on the floor.
…So that’s how it was.
The rumors had been loud, and now it made sense. No matter how you looked at it, the chairman’s son couldn’t keep up with classes. The natural tag that followed Gu Jayoung was that he had entered through the donation-based admission system. He’d greased the right palms, and the story that he’d slipped into the prestigious university bloodlessly as the son of a chaebol chairman seemed to be mostly true.
Of course everyone had suspected it, but no one had dared say it to his face. Professors visibly hated him and avoided him like the plague, terrified of getting burned.
Like charcoal catching fire, the chairman’s rage showed no sign of cooling. As if he needed to vent the heat to feel satisfied, Gu Jagyeom’s finger finally pointed back and forth between his two sons.
“I told both of you every single day without fail from the moment you entered high school! Whether older or younger, the second you become adults, prepare to stand on your own two feet! Getting into some prestigious university is only the beginning!”
“……”
“Yes… yessir…”
“You’re both properly of age now, so listen up. If you want to keep eating proper meals at this Guryong family table, you’d better keep your heads on straight from now on.”
We kept our mouths shut and simply bowed our heads. It seemed this was a regular occurrence; Gu Jayoung looked used to letting it slide, and I copied him by reading the room. I didn’t know the details, but Gu Jagyeom was apparently strict about his children’s education. How a piece of trash like Gu Jayoung had still come out of it was beyond me.
“Aish, I’ve lost my appetite. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and clean this mess!”
Only then did the housekeeper return to clear the table. She stacked the broken bowls neatly. We used the lull to escape the dining room.
The place we ended up was the garden. The house still held the heat of Gu Jagyeom’s rage, making it hard to breathe. My lungs needed fresh air.
“Fuck, seriously…”
Gu Jayoung had followed me out. He rummaged through his pockets, clearly looking for the cigarettes he usually smoked. It was strangely fascinating. I’d once thought that if I ever saw this bastard again, I’d rip his throat out with my teeth. Yet after replaying the dinner scene and accepting this as reality, his existence no longer felt that important.
“What the fuck are you staring at?”
Why was that? I wasn’t scared of him anymore. I didn’t even feel angry.
When I thought about it, the reason was simple. No matter how I’d gotten here, the path for me—the second son of Guryong—was now painfully clear.
“Hyung.”
“…What.”
“Let’s be careful from now on.”
“…………What?”
My challenging tone must have caught him completely off guard; he even dropped the cigarette pack he’d finally found. But the warning I had for him wasn’t finished.
“Because of you, I got dragged into the mess for no reason. Why would you say shit like that in front of Dad when he was in such a good mood?”
“You little fuck, what did you just—”
“Didn’t you hear me? If you want to act like a jealous little kid and ruin Dad’s mood, do it by yourself.”
I spoke calmly, without raising my voice, delivering each word clearly.
Grab!
He yanked my collar again, stretching the round neckline. It was the same one-dimensional, tyrannical move he’d pulled in the hallway.
“You’ve been getting really fucking bold lately, haven’t you?”
“Let go.”
“Your tone keeps getting shorter. This little bastard, after I’ve been letting it slide!”
“What, you want to start swinging after Dad just finished warning us? He told us that since we’re adults now, we need to stand on our own. How happy do you think he’d be to see us yelling at each other outside?”
“……”
His lips pressed into a tight, ugly line. Gu Jayoung’s greatest weapon had always been his fists. The two things he boasted about his entire life were how hard he could hit and the fact that he was the chairman’s son. But now I possessed both of those things he could no longer look down on.
On equal ground, I was confident I would never lose to a bastard like him again.
“……”
“……”
“Ha, fuck!”
After crumpling my shirt in his fist for a long moment, Gu Jayoung finally turned and stormed back into the house. He stepped right on the cigarette pack he’d dropped. As I watched his back, I made myself a single promise.
Enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t be long now.
Since this would soon be my house, I picked up the flattened cigarette pack.
Crush!
I mangled it even more brutally, grinding it in my fist before throwing it into the ashtray trash can in the garden. I whispered the truth so quietly it was almost a sigh.
“Everything that was supposed to be yours… I’m going to scrape it all up and take it for myself.”
I still didn’t know how or why I had become the second son of the Guryong family—a son whose existence I had never even known about. But I made a firm vow: I would thoroughly steal every single asset and privilege that the chairman’s son should have possessed. On a day when snow poured down like crazy, I would kick him out of this house completely naked. I swore it.