By Zephyria 
‘I’m so glad that Park Yeo-sa is a good person.’
Yeon-rok thought as he ate the duck baeksuk. He was already sad that he was being mistreated by his Name partner, but if the people around him had also shown that they disliked him…
He would have run out of this dirty house a long time ago, saying, ‘I’m going to throw this dirty house away and just go live on my own!’ Fortunately, Yeom Cheon-ho’s people were all kind and friendly to him. They treated him really well, even though he was a Name partner with conditions that couldn’t be compared to the three of them. Thanks to them, Yeon-rok was barely able to settle down in this house even in the midst of his great heartbreak.
‘…Huh? Come to think of it, what happened to these people’s families?’
Yeon-rok tilted his head. Come to think of it, he had never seen the families of the three of them. He was originally an orphan without parents, but it was a little strange. That question was soon forgotten because of the person who appeared in the kitchen.
“Yeon-rok, good morning!”
Jo Jun-ho, Choi Hwan’s manager, was also a good person. Jo Jun-ho, who had come to pick up Choi Hwan today, swallowed hard when he saw the duck baeksuk. Park Yeo-sa, who was generous and generous, sat down Jo Jun-ho, who was not even a member of this family, and gave him a bowl of steaming duck baeksuk. A little later, Kim Jeong-seong also joined the breakfast.
“This is the first time I’ve had duck baeksuk, but it’s really delicious.”
“Me too, Yeon-rok. It’s incomparable to chicken baeksuk, right?”
“Yeom Cheon-ho also recognized Park Yeo-sa’s cooking skills.”
As they were having a friendly conversation like this, his low mood improved a bit. Without thinking much, he took a big spoonful of rice and ate it with the broth, and Kim Jeong-seong, who had emptied his bowl in an instant, said.
“Yeon-rok, Yeom Cheon-ho has suggested dinner tonight, how about it?”
“…Dinner?”
Yeon-rok, who had swallowed, quickly nodded. It had been almost half a month since he had requested to meet Yeom Cheon-ho, but he was happy to hear the news, even though it was late, given his current situation. However, the members of the dinner were a little different from Yeon-rok’s expectations.
“What is this?”
The long-awaited dinner time. Choi Hwan, seeing Moon Kyeon-woo and Yeon-rok who were already there, contorted his handsome face. That’s right. Yeom Cheon-ho’s dinner invitation was not only for Yeon-rok. Choi Hwan grumbled something as he reluctantly sat down, looking very displeased.
Yeon-rok, who was not surprised by the reaction he had already expected the moment Choi Hwan appeared, quietly observed the two.
Choi Hwan couldn’t leave his splendid face alone and kept changing his expression. He sat with his chin propped up, frowning, raising his eyebrows, and pouting his lips, but there was never an ugly moment. It wasn’t for nothing that he became an actor, he was endlessly handsome from any angle. When he met Yeon-rok’s eyes, he glared as if to ask what he was looking at.
Meanwhile, Moon Kyeon-woo paid no attention to his surroundings. A delicate, white face, as if painted with a fine brush, was occasionally graced with a smile that would then fade away. He was furiously texting someone, his long, white fingers never resting. Sensing a gaze, he looked up, gave Lee Yeon-rok a cold glance, and then buried his eyes back in his phone.
As heavy silence filled the air, Yeom Cheon-ho finally entered.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I made you all wait. I was a little late because I was busy with work.”
Yeom Cheon-ho apologized politely. He looked tired around his eyes, as if he really had been busy. His face, set atop the most masculine physique of the group, was handsome. He was wearing a suit, as if he had just come from work, and although he was large, he seemed a little gaunt.
But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just Yeom Cheon-ho who looked unwell. In Yeon-rok’s opinion, none of them seemed to have properly connected with their Name partner, so none of them were overflowing with energy.
“Shall we have dinner first, since we’re all probably hungry?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a series of luxurious Korean dishes were brought out as if on cue. Park Yeo-sa had put her heart and soul into preparing the meal, as it was the first time the four of them were dining together.
Yeon-rok saw an unfamiliar dish and was peering at it, wondering what it was, when Park Yeo-sa whispered that it was a sinseollo and left. Yeon-rok quickly scooped a couple of ladles of the sinseollo into his personal bowl. It was delicious. Meanwhile, Yeom Cheon-ho spoke to Choi Hwan.
“I heard that Choi Hwan-ssi has been busy filming his latest project. Are you managing your condition well?”
Choi Hwan, who was staring intensely at the food as if still on a diet, picking only at the vegetables, replied curtly.
“Well, a pro takes care of their condition as a matter of course.”
“That’s true. Oh, I was wondering if the coffee truck arrived safely.”
“I was a little surprised that you sent it without a word… but I enjoyed it.”
Yeon-rok was inwardly surprised. Choi Hwan, who always treated him with such rudeness, was surprisingly polite and sincere in his response to Yeom Cheon-ho. He looked back and forth between the neatly dressed Yeom Cheon-ho and Choi Hwan, then glanced down at his own sleeves. He had chosen the best clothes he had, but now they looked shabby.
‘I should have gone out to buy some clothes. It’s just too much of a burden to go out with the bodyguards, so I’ve just been staying home…’
It was incredibly burdensome to have two burly bodyguards in suits following him even when he just went to the convenience store or took a walk around the neighborhood. Naturally, he refrained from going out. No matter how hard Yeon-rok tried to be strong, he couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the sudden change in his environment and the new people. Then, Yeom Cheon-ho spoke to Moon Kyeon-woo.
“I heard that Moon Kyeon-woo-ssi has started a new project at the research institute recently?”
Moon Kyeon-woo, who had been constantly glancing at his phone even during the meal, replied in a reluctant tone.
“…Yes.”
“It’s a field that I’m personally interested in, so I was wondering if I could hear about it sometime when you have time? I’d like to make an investment.”
“Contact me through my work email.”
Yeon-rok had thought that Moon Kyeon-woo would ignore Yeom Cheon-ho as well, but unexpectedly, he answered readily, though in a surly manner. Now that he thought about it, both Choi Hwan and Moon Kyeon-woo seemed to have a favorable impression of Yeom Cheon-ho. It was different from how they treated him.
‘Is it only natural…?’
He gave them a nice house, a card to buy whatever they wanted, and treated them generously, so it would be strange if they didn’t have a favorable impression. Even Yeon-rok had a decent image of Yeom Cheon-ho. As he diligently wrapped a gujeolpan to eat, he suddenly wondered.
‘Come to think of it… are they all gay?’
Perhaps it was just his feeling, but as he watched them, the way Choi Hwan and Moon Kyeon-woo looked at Yeom Cheon-ho seemed subtle. Yeon-rok, who was still unfamiliar with these three and even felt a wall between them, seriously pondered the question as he neatly filleted a grilled okdom.
According to what he had read in the Name Awakened Community, as Name partners, they would all have similar sexual preferences. So, the people here were basically open to men. Yeon-rok’s face was quite serious as he scanned the three of them.
‘But I’m not gay, am I? …Am I?’
He had a girlfriend when he was in high school. Yeon-rok agonized as he dipped bossam in the particularly savory salted shrimp and ate it deliciously. Could it be that I’m open to both women and men? But no matter how much I look at those three, I don’t particularly feel anything… Is that too vulgar of a thought?
While the three of them were having a friendly conversation, and Yeon-rok was feeling left out and diligently eating,
“Lee Yeon-rok-ssi, how have you been doing lately?”
He had tried his best to look good and appeal to his girlfriend, but he didn’t feel that way at all with these people. Isn’t something wrong here? Should I ask the Name Matching Center to test me again? Or maybe there are Name Awakened who live with their partners like friends or family…
As he was thinking that and tearing apart a rib, Yeon-rok was surprised and looked up. He had been so disappointed lately that he didn’t have much expectation for Yeom Cheon-ho, so he was moved by this warm word from his Name partner, which he was hearing for the first time.
“Me?”
Thanks to that, he asked back in a daze, earning a sneer from Choi Hwan. Yeom Cheon-ho spoke in a polite voice, without any hint of mockery.
“Although it’s a belated apology, I wanted to say that I’m sorry for making you quit your job so suddenly due to a security issue. Please tell me if there’s anything you want.”
“Oh, um… thank you for your concern. I’m okay for now.”
He had actually been quite upset, but Yeom Cheon-ho’s words made him feel much better. He also saw some hope in the way he paid attention to him and spoke to his Name partners fairly. It meant that there was a better chance of forming a closer relationship with Yeom Cheon-ho than with Choi Hwan or Moon Kyeon-woo.
Unlike Choi Hwan or Moon Kyeon-woo, he was mature and serious. It was amazing that he was incredibly wealthy, considerate, tall, and handsome. He thought that people like that only existed in dramas. Yeon-rok looked at Yeom Cheon-ho with wonder.