Time flew by like an arrow, and finally, the long-awaited day of the KD Group founding party dawned.
The atmosphere was different from the breakfast table that morning. A strangely excited feeling. Though perhaps it only seemed that way to Seong Yeohwi.
Taking a deep breath, Yeohwi spoke to Dowon, who was drinking from his coffee cup as usual.
“It’s today, Dowon-ssi.”
Dowon’s gaze briefly left the tablet where he was checking stock prices and flicked toward Yeohwi. Just when it seemed he would be ignored, unexpectedly, a reply came back.
“…Yeah.”
Yeohwi, who had been eating a cream cheese bagel topped with avocado, lifted his head with a sparkle and looked at Dowon.
Dowon, having finished his coffee, stood up from his seat. Picking up his jacket, he informed Yeohwi, who was looking at him like a baby bird.
“6 PM. We’ll meet in the lobby. Don’t be late.”
“Uh… Yes! Of course.”
Yeohwi jumped up from his chair and chased after him to the entrance as he always did.
“See you later! I’ll be waiting for you, Dowon-ssi, and getting all prettied up! Have a good day at work! Fighting for a energetic day today too!”
Looking only at the back of Dowon, who walked away with steady steps without looking back, Yeohwi shouted vigorously.
“Oh, and please check your messages too! I’ll only send one today too!”
Dowon calmly walked out the entrance. It seemed he had become completely accustomed to the noisy send-offs that followed him. And to the fact that the house, which had always been desolate, now never had a quiet moment because of Seong Yeohwi.
***
When afternoon came, the mansion became busy. A director from a top luxury brand and a team of professional stylists visited the mansion, and dozens of suits endlessly entered the house.
Once the professionals finished setting up in the drawing room, Mrs. Park called for Yeohwi.
“Young master, this way…”
Somehow Mrs. Park seemed even more nervous than Yeohwi. Yeohwi grinned and whispered confidently to Mrs. Park as if telling her not to worry.
“It’s okay. I exercised a lot for today.”
The drawing room. Yeohwi stood before the professionals’ cold gazes, still in his usual tracksuit.
The middle-aged director leading the team looked Yeohwi over from head to toe through green horn-rimmed glasses.
“Director Do ordered the very best.”
The director’s eyes gleamed like a hawk’s. It was the look of someone who had discovered a raw gem.
“Natural beauty. One’s inherent beauty that suits them best is what meets the standard of the highest beauty. You can trust us and leave it in our hands.”
Soon, undressing and fittings were repeated.
Dozens of the finest fabrics passed over his body.
“Oh my…”
When all preparations were finished, Mrs. Park, who had been watching him anxiously, let out an exclamation without realizing it.
Standing before the mirror was not the Seong Yeohwi who got popcorn all over himself and spilled milk everywhere.
A white suit that stood out at a glance even from afar. After completing the fitting perfectly tailored to his body measurements, it blatantly revealed how much taller he had grown over the past few months, how much broader his shoulders had become.
Moreover, his soft light brown hair, touched by the stylist’s hands, was neatly arranged while maintaining its dandelion seed-like free-spirited nature, nakedly revealing the sharp forehead and facial lines that had been hidden until now.
That wasn’t all. His perfectly symmetrical features, three-dimensional eyes with no bad angles no matter where you looked, his high nose bridge, and below that, red lips.
Most overwhelming of all were his eyes that sparkled like the universe.
Because they were still unrefined, they were precarious and rough, and because they remained unexplored, the light of the wild that remained a mystery of the unknown rippled brilliantly in his light brown pupils.
It was as if the Milky Way, a galaxy, flowed within Seong Yeohwi’s open pupils.
“Young master, truly… magnificent…”
“Haha, do I look okay?”
Yeohwi asked, awkwardly adjusting his tie.
“Of course! You’re so tall and handsome, oh my.”
“Right? I think I got even taller. What if I reach 2 meters at this rate? Should I start playing basketball or volleyball even now?”
At his playful joke, Mrs. Park burst into laughter as well.
By the time they finished the final check with posture and gait correction, the awaited time had come.
6 o’clock sharp. In the first-floor lobby, Dowon had already come down and was waiting for him.
He was in his usual flawless black tuxedo. Like someone who had been born wearing a suit from their mother’s womb, the glossy black three-piece tuxedo suited him perfectly.
Just then, footsteps were heard from the central staircase.
Dowon casually lifted his head.
And then, he hesitated.
Because for a moment, he didn’t recognize that the person coming down the stairs was Seong Yeohwi.
‘That’s…?’
Seong Yeohwi standing there in the appearance of an unfamiliar and splendid man.
It wasn’t the stupid puppy-like state of crouching at the entrance, having fallen asleep waiting for him to come.
Nor was it the childlike appearance of turning bright red and trembling on their first night, unable to do anything.
He exuded the aura of a male with equal or perhaps even greater potential than himself, enough to make one forget they had a 12-year age difference.
An unfamiliar expression crossed Dowon’s eyes for the first time. A faint spark flew in his lightless pupils. It was different from the irritation or annoyance he had felt until now. A strange sense of crisis. Or wariness.
However, that spark died down in an instant and soon disappeared behind a calm, expressionless face.
“…Dowon-ssi.”
Yeohwi also spotted Dowon standing in the lobby and stopped walking.
His heart, which had been beating rapidly since earlier, turned up the volume and pounded loudly, thump, thump. It was as if all the colors of the world had disappeared and only that man was visible clearly.
Light poured and shattered over his smooth tuxedo, and the sight of him slowly turning around and approaching him stretched out enchantingly like slow motion.
Even though he was merely approaching, his presence was indescribable. More than any expensive masterpiece or art piece decorating this lobby. No, even compared to this entire mansion, Dowon was overwhelmingly more valuable.
Yeohwi gazed at Dowon’s face, swept up in an unreal feeling.
His black hair, slicked back without a single strand out of place. Even though it was a sight he saw every day, it seemed to shine especially today. His heartless face, his jet-black pupils too. All of this just felt like a dream.
What had he thought when he faced him on their first night? Arranged marriage. Twelve-year age gap. Married couple. Husband… He hadn’t been able to measure up at all to him, who had seemed so much more adult than himself, but now he felt like he was floating.
He felt dazed and anxious, yet his cheeks grew hot with excitement.
He felt like he would go crazy wanting to rush over and grab hold of him right away.
He wanted to stand proudly beside him and show the whole world that this person was his person. No, actually, he wanted to show Dowon more than anyone else.
Only to him. To that one person.
Twenty years old, it was the beginning of first love.
And Seong Yeohwi at that time didn’t yet know how terribly intense it would become later on.
***
The two of them got in the car without a single word of conversation.
In the suffocating silence, Yeohwi looked out the window, desperately suppressing his heart that felt ready to burst.
Just before arriving at the party venue, Dowon opened his mouth for the first time.
“Don’t bark until I tell you to.”
At those words, a small smile spread across Yeohwi’s lips, which had been stiff with tension. As soon as the car stopped, Yeohwi brazenly linked his arm through Dowon’s.
Dowon glanced at him as if surprised. In response, Yeohwi winked one eye and whispered.
“Of course. A trophy has to make its owner shine, right? Woof.”
Dowon almost let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, but soon composed his expression.
“You’re getting photographed. Smile.”
After getting out of the car, instead of unlinking their arms, Dowon pulled him even closer to his side. And he wrapped his arm firmly around Yeohwi’s waist, gripping it tightly.
As warned, flashes burst all at once in unison. In the dazzling stage, Yeohwi leisurely showed a bright smile.
“Director-nim! Please look this way!”
“We’re from Seyoung Daily. Would a brief interview be possible?”
They passed through the requests flooding in from outside the photo line and entered the party venue. It was truly a feast of lights.
As if flaunting KD Group’s wealth and power, the entire Dynasty Hall of a domestic five-star hotel had been prepared for this day.
Thousands of crystal chandeliers pouring from the ceiling were so splendid it was blinding, and the sounds mixed with the laughter of South Korea’s highest society figures over the softly playing classical quartet’s melody.
Their gazes all turned toward the hall entrance at once.
Director Do and his young spouse.
It was the moment when the truth within the scandal that had been circulating mysteriously under wraps was revealed to the world.
