By Zephyria 
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Shortly after four o’clock, the staff member in charge of Yeo Hee-jin’s hair and makeup arrived to style Eun-won’s hair. Throughout the process, Yeo Hee-jin stood by his side, giving various demanding instructions.
“Make it look neat and sophisticated, but as if you didn’t spend too much effort on it.”
Following Yeo Hee-jin’s directions, the staff member worked meticulously to make the hair look natural—as if nothing had been done—yet tidy and beautiful. When it came to the makeup, the staff member looked at Eun-won’s skin, which was so pale and clear that applying foundation would only make it look cakey and unnatural, and instead simply applied a bit of melted lip balm to his lips.
Once he was dressed in the prepared clothes, a message arrived from Cha Se-jin saying he had arrived. Feeling hurried, Eun-won quickly headed downstairs and left the house with his father and stepmother, who had come out to see him off.
As they stepped outside, he saw Cha Se-jin standing by the driver’s seat with his arms crossed. Along with a feeling of gladness, Eun-won felt anxious as his father and stepmother approached Cha Se-jin with smiles.
Cha Se-jin, who seemed to ignore the presence of Seo Jun-hyeok and Yeo Hee-jin—who had intentionally followed Eun-won out in hopes of exchanging a few more words—looked only at Eun-won. He strode past them and approached Eun-won, unable to hide his admiring gaze as he looked him over.
“Why are you dressed so beautifully just to go say hello?”
“…Does it look strange?”
“The only thing strange here is something else.”
Still treating Eun-won’s father and stepmother like invisible background characters, Cha Se-jin grinned, locking eyes with Eun-won, whose lips were moist.
“Darling, should we just get married today? I’ll call home. I’ll tell them to roll out the red carpet on the way in. Let’s just walk right in and finish it.”
It was 98% sincerity and 2% joke, but Eun-won seemed to interpret it the other way around. Cha Se-jin rubbed the cheek of the faintly smiling Eun-won before finally turning toward the “background characters.”
“I apologize for the late greeting. Lately, I haven’t been able to see anything other than your son.”
Cha Se-jin spoke with a smile, delivering words that were hard to tell whether to find pleasant or offensive, and bowed his head just enough to show the bare minimum of courtesy. While a cold energy still lingered in his gaze toward Eun-won’s parents, a business smile was fixed on his lips.
Knowing what these two had done to Eun-won, he had no desire to associate with them, but since they had come out here as Eun-won’s parents to make their presence known, he couldn’t treat them as invisible forever. Since this was still the home Eun-won had to return to, he needed to play along with the atmosphere to some extent.
“Chairman Seo, I actually heard from my father yesterday. Our Strategic Planning Office is reviewing the new business project Baum is pushing for quite positively. As expected, the Chairman’s decisiveness is well-known in the industry.”
Seo Jun-hyeok’s face, which had been on the verge of twisting from being ignored, brightened instantly at those words. The fact that the Sewon Group’s Strategic Planning Office was reviewing it was practically a guarantee of success. Cha Se-jin didn’t miss that smug expression and added a final blow.
“With such a wonderful son and business acumen to boot… I have much to learn from you.”
“I appreciate you saying that, and seeing such a reliable Executive Director Cha puts my mind at ease. Our Eun-won still has much to learn and is quite lacking in many ways, so I ask for your kind guidance.”
“Of course. I’ll certainly take care of him. I’ll take my leave for today. I will come to greet you formally next time. Please invite me.”
Cha Se-jin smiled at Seo Jun-hyeok and then met Yeo Hee-jin’s eyes with a smile. He bowed with a pretense of being slightly more polite than during their first meeting. It was obvious that they were overjoyed by just that small gesture. It was pathetic to see them acting as if they had already conquered Sewon by selling off their son, and he wanted to act according to his true nature, but he decided to postpone that for now.
After helping Eun-won into the passenger seat, Cha Se-jin looked at the servant holding what appeared to be gifts and opened the back door. Two shopping bags were carefully placed in the rear seat.
Giving another slight nod to Eun-won’s parents, who were still standing there oblivious, pretending to be good parents, Cha Se-jin walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. He glanced at Eun-won, who looked somewhat dispirited, and immediately drove away from the house. Whether it was the land or the people living there, he always felt terrible whenever he came here. Ah, of course, excluding Eun-won.
“…I’m sorry. You must have been surprised.”
“What are you sorry for? Did you tell them to come out and make their presence known?”
“…Not exactly, but…”
“Ah, is it a bit much for me to speak to your parents this way?”
Normally, one would feel offended. He was essentially saying that Eun-won’s father and stepmother had intentionally come out to curry favor with him. It was a way of speaking that clearly looked down on them, and it should have been enough to cause offense.
However, he didn’t feel that way. He felt a sense of guilt, thinking he must be ungrateful and wicked, because strangely, it didn’t feel bad to see Cha Se-jin treat his father and stepmother so lightly.
“I’ll try to be careful. Though I don’t know if I can.”
As Eun-won paused, unsure of how to respond, the silence seemed to be taken as a sign of agreement. Thinking it would be strange to say he didn’t need to be careful in this situation, Eun-won simply gave a small “Yes” and fidgeted with his seatbelt with an uneasy heart.
“Are you nervous?”
“…A little.”
“How can you be so pretty even when you’re nervous?”
“……”
“Why, do you think I’m just saying this? My standards are damn high.”
“…Thank you for thinking well of me…”
Cha Se-jin laughed at Eun-won’s response and reached over to the passenger seat to rub his clear, soft cheek. To think someone with a face like that would thank him for thinking well of him.
It was absurd that while others, who didn’t even reach Eun-won’s ankles, acted out and demanded special treatment based on their looks, the one who looked like he could ruin several lives with his face didn’t even know the first thing about “acting his looks.”
“Are those gifts in the back?”
“Ah, yes… my stepmother prepared them.”
Cha Se-jin tapped the steering wheel a few times with his index finger and pulled the car over to the roadside near the house. He looked at Eun-won. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he reached into the back seat and easily brought the shopping bags forward.
“Can I see?”
“Yes… Uh, the long bag is wine, and the other one is tea, she said.”
Opening the heavy wine case, Cha Se-jin checked the label and let out a hollow laugh.
“Spending a hundred million on the first greeting.”
Inside was a 1982 vintage wine that had been auctioned for 100 million won last year. It was rare and impressive, and a vintage wine enthusiast like his father would certainly love it, but it was excessive as a gift for today. Very excessive. Given his father’s personality, receiving this would likely lead him to draw a firm line rather than be pleased.
Closing the wine case and putting it back in the bag, Cha Se-jin opened the other bag and checked an elegant bottle containing tea leaves personally blended by a famous tea master blender. This seemed perfect as a gift for his mother.
“It’s true that my father loves vintage wine, but if you take this today, he’ll probably see you as a business partner rather than a prospective family member.”
“Ah…”
“The tea blend is perfect. Mom will love it.”
Looking at Eun-won’s worried face, Cha Se-jin got out of the car and headed toward the trunk. Startled by the sudden movement, Eun-won turned his head to follow Cha Se-jin as he retrieved something from the trunk.
In Cha Se-jin’s hands were a small paper bag and a white cake box. Returning to the car, Cha Se-jin grinned at Eun-won, who looked confused.
“Would you be upset if I swapped the wine for this? I bought these earlier just in case, things your parents would actually like.”
The moment he heard those words, a feeling closer to touched than upset colored his heart. Honestly, he hadn’t expected Cha Se-jin to be this thoughtful, and he was incredibly grateful. There was no room for any feeling of being upset.
Moreover, this wasn’t something to be upset about, but something to be thankful for. Giving a gift that the other party might find burdensome at such an important first meeting was not polite, nor was it beneficial for him. He didn’t want Cha Se-jin’s family to view him as a business partner instead of a prospective family member.
“Thank you… for thinking of me… I never imagined you would prepare gifts on my behalf.”
“I’m going to marry you no matter what, so I can’t let things go south just because of some gift.”
“……”
“Since we’ve decided to live together, it’s better for the relationship with the family to be good.”
“Thank you… I’ll do my best not to make any mistakes.”
“Yeah. Oh, I should tell you what these are. The one for my father is a fountain pen; he always reads and transcribes in the morning. He’ll love this. It’s been mentioned in a few interviews and is well-known, so it’s not strange. And this is a dessert for my mom. I made a special request to her favorite pâtissier. If you give this with the tea, my mom will faint.”
Though he spoke playfully, Cha Se-jin’s words were filled with love. These were things that couldn’t be known or done without love. Cha Se-jin seemed to be a person with a great deal of love to give.