His mother was flustered and said there was no need to go this far.
However, Seo Sihan didn’t back down. He explained something with a smiling face, and from his mother’s perspective, she didn’t understand what he was saying but was persuaded by his smiling face alone and ended up agreeing.
Watching his mother finish signing the contract while going “Uh, uh,” Jeong Minha thought:
‘So I took after my mom…’
Jeong Minha looked at the table on the opposite side. It was a familiar spot. That was because this cafe itself was the very cafe where Jeong Minha had worked to the point of boredom.
Thinking about how he too had once made a contract with Seo Sihan at the table on the opposite side, it looked exactly the same as his mother’s current situation. In the end, it was nothing but good things for them, but still, it was scary. Ah, so scary. With hyung’s face, he’d probably do well even as a cult leader.
His mother, who had somehow ended up with a luxury house, came back to her senses and asked:
“Are… are you sure it’s okay for me to accept this…?”
“I would be happy if you would comfortably accept it.”
“Oh my….”
She almost fell for his face again and hurriedly looked at her son.
“?”
“Whew.”
His mother, having calmed down, continued speaking.
“Why do I become calm when I look at you?”
“You’re already living together with Minha, so I was wondering if… my child isn’t causing you any trouble….”
“Why are you disrespecting me… no, when did I ever!”
“You’re paying all that money on the condition that Minha goes to the Olympics… In the end, isn’t it only good for our Minha? And paying for my hospital bills too…. Why would you go that far….”
“……”
Jeong Minha was about to speak again but stopped. That question was definitely something he had always been curious about too.
The two people who looked like fish-shaped pastries stared intently at Seo Sihan alone. Seo Sihan organized his thoughts for a moment, then soon opened his mouth with an embarrassed smile.
“Because I really… like Minha.”
As soon as he uttered those words, Jeong Minha choked and his mother opened her mouth wide with her eyes wide open. It was practically an area-of-effect skill.
“I want to give him everything he wants… and I was worried too when I heard you weren’t feeling well, ma’am…. And it’s fun living together.”
Unlike his perfect speech from moments ago, various thoughts came out jumbled. Jeong Minha, who knew Seo Sihan’s Korean conversion time, could tell that what he was saying right now was sincere.
“As you know, Minha is really good at shooting….”
Seo Sihan, who had been embarrassed until just now, changed to a serious expression as soon as he brought up the topic of the Olympics.
“I really wanted to see that again. So I want to do… anything I can to help. I want Minha to continue doing what he loves without any worries….”
He soon smiled brightly again.
“Because I… sincerely wish for that.”
Seo Sihan spoke while unconsciously looking at the table nervously, then slightly raised his head.
“So… huk.”
Sobbing sounds came from both sides. Jeong Minha had turned his head and was fanning his face with his hands, while his mother was sniffling while holding tissues. The flustered Seo Sihan offered his handkerchief for them to use. And he apologized.
* * *
Not voice phishing, but an angel. 17:12
See, I told you he was a cult leader
No wait, he’s not a cult leader either
Angel agree 17:14
But Melon. Too much. Why are you giving me what you want to eat 17:17
I’ll go eat it later 17:17
Whatever 17:19
After replying to the message from his mother, Jeong Minha turned off his phone and looked at Seo Sihan.
After talking at the cafe for a while, they had all gotten into Seo Sihan’s car, first dropped his mother off at the family home, and were now heading back home, just the two of them.
“…Thank you.”
“Hm?”
Seo Sihan was looking ahead since he was driving. Thanks to that, Jeong Minha also comfortably spoke while looking ahead.
“Just… everything… all of it. For being good to me, and even to my mom…. Though trying to give her a house is still a bit much.”
“……”
“More than anything, seeing my mom healthy again like that…. Ah, how can I ever repay all this….”
The red light came on. Seo Sihan turned his gaze toward Jeong Minha, who had stopped talking. He could see him with his head down, silently opening his mouth and then closing it again.
Seo Sihan turned his body toward Jeong Minha and approached closer.
“……Huk, why, why?!”
“It looked like Minha was crying….”
“I’m not crying!”
Jeong Minha quickly turned his head to the opposite side and brought his sleeve to his eyes. Ah, I shouldn’t rub them. My eyes and arms are both national treasures. Jeong Minha, who genuinely cherished his eyesight, just gave up and blinked hard.
“I put in artificial tears.”
At the shameless lie, Seo Sihan just smiled silently. Then the green light came on, so he looked forward again.
“Come to think of it, what Minha asked about earlier….”
“Huh? …Ah.”
He was talking about his hair that had suddenly been neatly swept back, unlike in the morning. Now that he mentioned it, Jeong Minha was curious and waited for Seo Sihan’s answer.
“After hearing it on the phone… I tried to go right away, but I didn’t think I looked good enough….”
“Huh?”
When are you ever not looking good, hyung? Even when you come to wake me up in the morning, you always wake up with a perfect face…!
When Jeong Minha scoffed in disbelief with a “huh,” Seo Sihan spoke while still looking forward and driving.
“But… I wanted to look even better for Minha’s mother…. So I prepared in a hurry.”
“…What?”
“That’s why I was late and felt sorry…. I was so nervous during our conversation earlier…. Was I weird?”
“…No?”
For someone nervous, he seemed to have spoken incredibly well. No, more than that, right now… what? Hyung wanted to make a good impression on my mom? Hyung isn’t even the son of this household, so what’s the point of making a good impression? This, this is too much…….
‘It’s like meeting the parents…!’
Because he had looked up marriage before, he kept imagining it in that direction. What am I even thinking about someone who has become my life’s benefactor…. Jeong Minha tried hard to think of something else. Regardless, Seo Sihan continued speaking.
“Minha really resembles your mother.”
“Huh?”
How am I like that scary person? Jeong Minha kept asking because it bothered him, but Seo Sihan just smiled.
However, from Seo Sihan’s perspective when he saw the two earlier, they were identical in appearance as well as speech and personality. Knowing that Jeong Minha had lived only with his mother since childhood, Seo Sihan understood that he couldn’t help but resemble her.
“Geez…. Who does hyung resemble then?”
“Me?”
Jeong Minha froze like someone who had made a verbal mistake after asking the question himself. Thinking about it, Seo Sihan had never brought up stories about his family first.
……Thinking about it again, it wasn’t just family—he just wasn’t the type to talk about himself first. That’s why he only found out much later that he was mixed-race.
Anyway, since family talk could be a sensitive topic no matter what, he was about to change the subject when—
“Me too… I guess I take after my mother? People said so anyway.”
At those words, the worry he had been concerned about disappeared and curiosity arose.
“Really? Ah, I’m curious. If hyung is at this level, then your mother must be… Are you perhaps a celebrity?”
“Ah, no.”
Seo Sihan suppressed his laughter at Jeong Minha’s serious but futile deduction. Right after, when they hit a red light, he searched for something on his phone. Then he handed it to Jeong Minha.
“Here.”
“Huh?”
On Seo Sihan’s phone was a news screen. With a tall building in the background, a middle-aged woman stood in a suit with her arms crossed.
Except for her hairstyle—a bob cut close to short hair with bangs naturally swept to the side—she had a face quite similar to Seo Sihan’s. However, unlike Seo Sihan, she wasn’t smiling at all, so she looked scary yet charismatic.
“Wow…. You really do look alike….”
While looking at the face on the screen in amazement, the news headline finally caught his eye.
―[CEO News] I Food Company CEO, domestic sales rise this year…
“……Huh?”
It was a very familiar name. No, it wasn’t just familiar—it was simply Korea’s representative food brand.
Now that he thought about it, he had wondered why there was so much ramen and snacks at Seo Sihan’s house out of nowhere, but they were all foods from this company. Since Seo Sihan didn’t usually eat them, Jeong Minha ate them diligently by himself.
He had even pitied hyung, wondering why he didn’t eat such delicious things, but looking at it now, what pity—he was none other than the son of that company’s CEO.
When he heard that Seo Sihan was the heir to a major British electronics conglomerate on his father’s side, he had just thought it was amazing. However, when Jeong Minha learned that his mother’s side was a major Korean food conglomerate, for the first time, sincerity welled up from his heart.
‘Please…… I want to marry him.’
Then wouldn’t I be able to eat new snacks faster? Jeong Minha momentarily had a thought full of selfish motives, then snapped back to his senses, wondering what nonsense this was.
……The story of how Jeong Minha would later become this company’s model and dramatically increase sales, and how the pleased CEO would give him not only new products but also unreleased foods in abundance…… is a future story that even Jeong Minha couldn’t imagine yet.
