After making my final piano selection, I looked around the showroom a bit more since it felt too soon to just leave. The staff also told me to feel free to touch the instruments, and Cha Juheon was talking with the staff about delivery issues, so I browsed around comfortably on my own.
I don’t even know how long it’s been since I came to a music store like this. Moreover, even when I was studying hard, I couldn’t easily see expensive instruments like these. The only times I could play them were during competitions or school regular concerts.
When Dad was alive, our family was quite well-off, but even so, it wasn’t easy to bring instruments worth hundreds of millions into the house one after another. But Cha Juheon, who’s buying it for me as if it’s nothing, what even is he…? I looked at Cha Juheon, who was talking to the staff with his mask pulled up below his eyes, with wonder.
Since this place only has expensive things, I’m even experiencing the magic of feeling like 100 million won is cheap. Among them, a piano often used in concert halls caught my eye, so I carefully pressed it.
A thrill that started from my fingertips continued all the way to the top of my head. The sensation flowing through my fingertips, the vibration resonating through the space, and the brilliantly clear melody that gave me goosebumps—it all made my whole body break out in goosebumps.
“That one’s good too, right? You can cancel and change to this one.”
I don’t know when he came, but I heard Cha Juheon’s voice from behind my head. But without time to turn around to look at him, I pressed the keys. At Cha Juheon’s words that I could change it, I remembered the price the staff told me earlier and burst out laughing alone. The disconnect was so great that I didn’t even feel greedy.
“For now, I’m satisfied with that instrument from earlier. If I really want it, I’ll buy it myself later when I move out. I have a lot of money now. Executive Director and Chairman gave me a lot, didn’t they?”
“That’s rightful compensation. Don’t waste money on pianos, and whenever you want it, just tell me anytime. Or I’ll give you this one as a gift on the day you move.”
It was something I said casually just to change the subject, but Cha Juheon reacted quite seriously. It seemed like the same repertoire would repeat if I didn’t give in, so I nodded inadvertently, saying I would.
“Executive Director. Thank you for the instrument. Thanks to you, I think I’ll practice comfortably. I’ll play it a lot for the baby too.”
“…Please do. Not just for the baby, but if Eunwoo-ssi is happy, that’s enough.”
I quietly stared at the back of Cha Juheon walking away after casually dropping those words. I had always thought everything he does for me was only for the baby’s sake. And that’s also true…
But all the behavior he showed today was just bewildering. I could understand buying the piano as him being generous to someone carrying his baby, but what does he mean by those words just now? Would one normally say such things to a contract party? I don’t know. I was even more flustered because I didn’t understand his intention.
We are, literally, just in some kind of relationship as a surrogate and exist for the sake of the contract. That’s why those affectionate words felt a bit uncomfortable, lodging in my chest.
Since I can’t know whether the goodwill contained in those words is for me as a person or just words of concern for a contract party, it’s perhaps natural to have such doubts.
But regardless of the reason, I think that given Cha Juheon’s personality, those can’t be empty words. His sincere heart showing appreciation to the contract party carrying his baby must be genuine. The feeling was strange, but it wasn’t entirely bad either.
***
-Did you eat? Make sure to take your nutritional supplements after lunch too.
Ding.
A moment later, he heard the sound of a reply arriving from Eunwoo. Messages had always been answered right away, but today the reply arrived only after about 15 minutes had passed. Just as he was wondering if something had happened, the message arrived, so Juheon checked the reply without hesitation.
-I ate lunch and took my supplements too. Fruit juice too. I’m playing piano right now. Want to hear it?
Along with that message, a voice file soon arrived. When he opened the file, long, pretty fingers came into view. The slender fingers filling the phone screen moved incessantly, producing beautiful sounds. Juheon, reacting to that sound, brought the phone a little closer.
It was the usual greeting he sent, but an unexpected video had come. As if reporting to Juheon who bought him the piano, Eunwoo sent a short performance video. It was just a video showing only the piano keys and fingers, but strangely, Eunwoo’s excited mood seemed clearly visible.
Juheon couldn’t take his eyes off the video with an interested expression. And before he knew it, he was repeatedly watching that short video of just under a minute. With even a faint smile showing at the corners of his mouth, Juheon, who had been focused on the video, turned his head to the tablet.
A file containing information about Eunwoo that his secretary had investigated along with Kang Gyuho’s family background was displayed. Perhaps because he had instructed them to investigate everything they could find out about Eunwoo, there was quite a lot of content. Juheon read through the contents as if he wouldn’t miss anything.
Baek Eunwoo, born between a dominant alpha father and an omega mother. Thanks to his father who ran a successful business, he lived affluently, going back and forth between the US and New Zealand during his childhood. That’s why he was fluent in English, and it seems to have had some influence on his choice of English Literature after quitting piano.
Due to his music-loving father’s hobby, he was exposed to classical music from childhood and received lessons before going down the path of majoring in music. Since the family was well-off, he received ample support and could fully display his abilities. An incident that completely changed Baek Eunwoo’s affluent life occurred when he was in his first year of high school.
The fire that started on the lower floor instantly engulfed Eunwoo’s home, and in that fire, his mother was seriously injured and his father sadly lost his life. Fortunately in the misfortune, only Eunwoo, who was at school, could avoid the accident. With his father’s death, the business fell apart and eventually went bankrupt, creating debt.
Most of it was resolved well, but with the remaining debt and his mother’s injury, Eunwoo became the head of household at a young age. The hard road opened for Eunwoo, who knew how to do nothing and was raised preciously doing only music. At this time, Eunwoo gave up music without hesitation and transferred to a regular high school.
He judged that he couldn’t continue with music, which costs a lot of money and makes employment difficult. Perhaps because of the genetic advantage of being a dominant omega, Eunwoo, who had a very good head, adapted to classes and curriculum in a short time and continued studying while working part-time jobs.
“So it was that Kang Gyuho’s mother who helped at this time. He went into that house at such a sensitive time.”
Kang Gyuho’s mother’s actions were certainly well-intentioned. But that goodwill ultimately became the beginning of another wound. For Eunwoo, who had lost his parents, a full-fledged hard road opened. In that difficult environment, Eunwoo endured and endured again before deciding to carry Juheon’s baby and even become a surrogate.
Besides that, the file contained quite a lot of trivial details, such as his smooth and good peer relationships and receiving teachers’ trust. Juheon, who had been looking at the file, leaned his head back on the chair and closed his eyes.
When he first saw him, his young and youthful appearance showed directly, so Juheon was quite flustered too. Conflict arose about whether it was okay to ask for and demand such a contract from such a young person, and his conscience pricked him.
But Juheon needed Eunwoo enough to ignore even that pricking conscience. His upright appearance, clean living habits, stupidly earnest demeanor. And on top of that, those dominant genes that were so tempting. Eunwoo, who appeared before Juheon, was perfect in everything. Even to the point of not causing any aversion. That’s why he absolutely needed a baby born from his body.
It was just a meeting formed by contract, but strangely, he was concerned. From the moment he felt that strange feeling of his own pheromone scent coming from his body, there wasn’t a day he wasn’t concerned. Yes. It started from that moment. From the first time he saw him, there was no aversion to Baek Eunwoo.
Juheon couldn’t even look at people’s faces due to nausea, and it’s still the same now. All people except Eunwoo remain filthy. Eunwoo was strangely neither dirty nor unpleasant, and he even leaned his body against his clothes. He was a person who was complicated and unknowable in every way.
In Juheon’s mind with his eyes closed, Eunwoo’s appearance appeared repeatedly. The sight of him playing piano under the cozy and warm lighting was quite different from the appearance he showed every time he was with Juheon. Unlike the eyes always filled with tension and cautious behavior, there he was lively and vibrant.
The sight of Eunwoo joking around freely while talking loudly and laughing with fellow performers was unfamiliar. Seeing that, Juheon realized that Eunwoo was someone who could laugh like that.
If the environment hadn’t changed, he would have always lived the life he dreamed of, smiling brightly like that. Even though it was none of Juheon’s business, his heart felt complicated somehow. Juheon, who had been staring at the tablet with his eyes open, reached for his phone. And he ended up doing something he had never done before.
[The music sounds good. I hope the next video is a complete performance video all the way to the end. I want to see it again. I’ll look forward to it.]
Juheon, who completed the sentence, didn’t move his finger for a while without motion. And his finger, which had been conflicted for a moment, carefully pressed ‘send.’
