“Hi.”
Even his voice was attractive. Yeonwoo blanked out for a moment before bowing his head without thinking. A beat too late.
“Oh — hello.”
The chances of someone that stunning knowing someone as unremarkable as him? Close to none, it was safe to say. If he’d gone to school like normal people, there might have been a 0.01% chance they’d crossed paths in passing — but he hadn’t gone to school, so even that didn’t apply.
The homeschool tutors weren’t anywhere near his age….
On top of that, everyone who had taught him was white-haired and elderly. Other than that, he’d spent his days practically locked inside the mansion with no contact with the outside world — meaning they couldn’t have run into each other in passing either. As for having seen him at places Assemblyman Cha had taken him to… there was no way he would have forgotten someone who looked like that. Yeonwoo darted his eyes around, trying to read the man’s expression. Someone would come looking for him soon. If they caught him sitting with this man, it would be a disaster.
Yeonwoo swallowed hard, his nerves getting the better of him. The swallow must have been audible, because the corner of the man’s mouth curved upward.
“Little one.”
“…Hm? M-Me?”
Little one? He’d never been called anything like that before — something so oddly… sweet. And more importantly, he wasn’t young enough to be called that. Should he say something? But there was no reason to go on and on to a man he’d be parting ways with soon — I’m not a ‘little one.’ I’m 21 — so he let it go.
“Waiting for someone?”
“…Yes.”
Even after he answered that he was waiting for someone, the man showed no sign of leaving. Maybe—? Yeonwoo looked at him with a small flicker of hope. Of course, he knew a man that impressive couldn’t possibly be the person he was waiting for. Would someone that good-looking really buy someone like him? A man like that could probably have beautiful, stunning people lining up for him just by standing still.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, the tiny spark of hope melted away like snow.
Yeonwoo decided it was time to send the man on his way.
“Do you know me?”
“You’re Cha Yeonwoo, aren’t you. Assemblyman Cha’s son?”
He knows me. Then — was the man in front of him actually him? Otherwise, there was no way he would know both his name and his face.
“We were supposed to meet today, weren’t we.”
Fortunately, the man gave him the answer he was hoping for. Hard to believe it, but the man standing before him was unmistakably the one who had bought him.
“Yes. That’s right.”
Yeonwoo smiled gently and nodded. Now that they’d confirmed each other’s faces, it was time for introductions.
Wait.
What was he supposed to call him? He should have asked for his name from the start. What now? He couldn’t ask him anything without knowing what to call him first.
Teacher?
No, that was far too stiff. And the man didn’t suit teacher as a title at all. If anything, rather than teacher—
Hyung?
That seemed a little rude. The man looked at least ten years older than him. He’d heard that men were very sensitive about titles. What if he called him hyung and the man said, Why am I your hyung? How disrespectful? Titles with that kind of risk had to be ruled out from the start.
CEO?
…Not a bad option, but he had no idea whether the man was a CEO or not, so he couldn’t just blurt that out. Then what? The longer the silence stretched, the more his palms prickled with nerves. He needed to open his mouth and say something — anything — to keep the conversation going. His heart hammered under the pressure.
The thought wouldn’t leave his head: he had to say something before the man grew bored of this.
Yeonwoo’s eyes went wide.
“Um — um… h-how should I address you, sir?”
He’d barely managed to land on a title. Among everything he’d considered, it seemed like the safest, most neutral choice — even if it felt a little unfamiliar coming out of his mouth.
Wasn’t there a saying — that men liked a clear sense of hierarchy? Yeonwoo stared blankly as the corner of the man’s mouth curved up into a soft arc. Seeing him smile, it seemed like he’d made the right call. What a relief.
“Sir?”
Oh, is that wrong? Then what was he supposed to call him? He couldn’t think of any other title now. He was just standing there with his mouth opening and closing uselessly when, as if by magic, the man spoke.
“Kang Jihyeok.”
Kang Jihyeok. Kang Jihyeok. A name that suited him perfectly. Yeonwoo quietly rolled the name around in his mouth. Just knowing his name made him feel so much closer to him somehow. Yeonwoo smiled softly.
“Little one.”
“Yes?”
The loose, easy curve of the man’s lips hardened in an instant. He propped his chin in his hand and looked at Yeonwoo steadily. He was only looking — just looking — and yet goosebumps rose all over Yeonwoo’s skin.
“Do you know who I am?”
“I do.”
Why is he asking that? Yeonwoo quietly tried to read his expression.
He had spent over twenty years of his life learning to read people’s moods just to survive. He’d always thought that, for the most part, he could sense what someone was thinking… but not now.
He had absolutely no idea what Kang Jihyeok was thinking. And that made him even more afraid. Yeonwoo squeezed his eyes shut. In the back of his mind, words Assemblyman Cha had said drifted to the surface.
He likes men, so try shoving that pretty face of yours in front of him. If you think that’s not enough, take your clothes off.
I’ve booked a room. You know what that means, don’t you?
It was hard to believe those were words a father had said to his own child. Yeonwoo could still see clearly the expression on his father’s face as he said them.
Bring back a USB.
That last, chilling instruction too. Yeonwoo knew there was no way Kang Jihyeok could have heard what Assemblyman Cha said, no way he could know — and yet his nerves refused to settle. Kang Jihyeok wasn’t exactly built like a wall, but the muscles visible beneath his jacket were thick even at a glance. So this is what muscles actually look like. Everything he’d seen before must have just been fat. Yeonwoo stole a glance at his broad chest.
Then his eyes met Kang Jihyeok’s.
Having been caught sneaking a look at his chest, Yeonwoo’s face flushed red before he could stop it.
“Who am I to you, little one?”
“I — you’re the person who’s…”
Who bought me?
Who’s going to pay off my family’s debt — someone I should be grateful to?
Who’s going to spend the night with me?
…A perverted fucking creep?
There were countless ways to describe their relationship, and yet none of them were easy to say out loud.
…Because it was shameful. This wasn’t a meeting he’d come to of his own free will — he’d been pushed into it. But that didn’t change what it was. Yeonwoo felt his mouth go bone dry with tension. He couldn’t figure out how he was supposed to answer that question.
“I’m going to what?”
“Mm, well, it’s just that…”
“We can talk about that later.”
What a relief. He’d thought the man would keep pressing. Yeonwoo exhaled quietly. As if his face had never gone hard at all, the corner of the man’s mouth was curved loose and easy again.
“Why does my little one call me sir?“
“Hm?”
Did he not like the title sir? Should he have just gone with the more casual hyung after all?
Or maybe—
Should he have called him Master*?*
Come to think of it, Master was probably the most fitting title. He had bought Yeonwoo, and Yeonwoo was his. There was no better word than Master. Realizing this only now, he felt a little wronged. He should have thought of it sooner…. Should he correct himself, even now? That seemed like the better move. It was important to fix a mistake right away, after all. And besides, it had been less than three minutes since he’d called the man sir, so correcting it now probably wouldn’t get him into too much trouble.
