DS 54

“You’ve had a long journey, Seo Baek-han.”

“W-What Seo?”

Joo Yun-woo, who had been displeased ever since hearing about Seo Baek-han’s visit, turned to Director Yoo in astonishment at his casual use of “Seo.” Though he didn’t say anything, his brothers beside him seemed to feel the same.

Joo Tae-hyun didn’t show much reaction, but inwardly, he was struggling to hide his embarrassment. “Seo”? Wasn’t that a bit too much?

“The wedding is less than a month away; you all need to get used to it. I know it might not feel natural since you’ve known him since you were kids, but you can’t just call him Baek-han anymore.”

“Ugh, still, ‘Seo’ is a bit… too cheesy.”

“Cheesy? Tae-hyun will be ‘Joo’ when he goes to Pyongyang.”

“My baby, ‘Joo’!”

Seo, Joo.

…Somehow, he was embarrassed, but not displeased.

The marriage itself was close to a contract or negotiation, and even Joo Tae-hyun was pretending to have no feelings for Seo Baek-han, so he hadn’t fully realized it.

A show window couple, a merger, a temporary contract… Whatever you called it, the two were getting married.

Seo Baek-han’s spouse would be Joo Tae-hyun, and Joo Tae-hyun’s spouse would be Seo Baek-han. Their names would be side by side on the family registry.

Husband Seo Baek-han, husband Joo Tae-hyun…

But Joo Tae-hyun’s small flutter of excitement as a soon-to-be groom didn’t last long.

“Oh, you’ve arrived.”

“Greetings, Chairman. No, Father.”

Chairman Joo, who had deliberately appeared late despite knowing a guest was coming, frowned deeply when Seo Baek-han readily called him “Father.”

“How have you been? It feels like it’s been a while.”

“…”

“Ah, I heard you recently returned from a business trip overseas. You visited DH Motors’ European branch.”

Seo Baek-han spoke smoothly, but Chairman Joo turned away without a word. Seo Baek-han still wore a painted smile as he watched his father walk briskly into the dining room, and only Joo Tae-hyun felt awkward and didn’t know what to do.

“Hyung, I think Dad’s a bit tired today. Because of… the business trip.”

When a flustered Joo Tae-hyun whispered, Seo Baek-han simply smiled.

Everyone seemed to be testing him, except for Director Yoo, who showed a favorable reaction, but Seo Baek-han didn’t seem to mind. He spoke to Chairman Joo, his brothers, and his sister at the right moments, and he greeted his sisters-in-law and nephews and nieces warmly.

Joo Tae-hyun, who had been anxiously following him, slowly regained his composure as he watched Seo Baek-han’s usual, or rather, even more gentle demeanor. To be exact, he was head over heels for him again, and he had no time to be anxious or embarrassed.

“The honeymoon home.”

And as soon as Chairman Joo’s direct family, including even the young nephews and nieces, sat at the table and picked up their spoons, Chairman Joo threw out the reason for his displeasure. Joo Tae-hyun, who had been dazed as if walking on clouds at the thought of Seo Baek-han, was jolted awake by the icy voice.

“You’ve divided the space for the two of you as if with a knife. Like you’re playing a game of territorial conquest.”

Joo Tae-hyun had arbitrarily decided to transfer to Pyongyang University, and so he had prepared a honeymoon home in Pyongyang without hesitation. Even considering that the honeymoon home was near Yeonhwa Palace, it was a small house that didn’t meet Chairman Joo’s standards…

Anyway, Chairman Joo had been showing that he didn’t like the honeymoon home, and Joo Tae-hyun thought he would scold Seo Baek-han, saying, “You have so much money, why did you get such a small house? If that’s the case, you should have accepted it when we offered to provide it.” But what Chairman Joo said was completely different.

“No one here had a love marriage. We matched conditions first, signed a contract, and then set a date.”

Love marriage? What was this sudden, irrelevant talk?

“Given that, no one will force you to show us a lovey-dovey relationship. But, if you’ve decided to become a couple, shouldn’t you at least share a bedroom?”

“Dad, that’s—”

“If you’ve brought this person in as your spouse, if you’ve decided that this person is the most suitable partner for your life, then you should make at least a minimal effort to develop affection while you live together.”

He knew that the architectural plans for the honeymoon home, as well as the construction phase, actual photos, and videos, had been reported to both families. His parents’ expressions had been bad each time, but he never imagined that the reason was that he and Seo Baek-han were using separate bedrooms.

The sharply divided space… Yes. He had been a little disappointed when Seo Baek-han first suggested it, but that was because his own secret expectations had been dashed, not because of any disappointment in him. It was only natural. They were not in a relationship where he should expect such things in the first place.

“Dad, I was the one who wanted that. I’m uncomfortable sleeping with someone… If you were concerned, you should have asked me, not said it in front of Hyung.”

“No, Tae-hyun. You’re not wrong. Thank you for your concern, Father. I will secure more common space in the house and pay attention to it.”

He wasn’t trying to defend Seo Baek-han. He just wanted to stop his father because he was too embarrassed by the situation where everyone was scolding him for not sleeping with his husband in front of the whole family. However, Chairman Joo seemed even more upset that his precious youngest son was already siding with his husband.

Seo Baek-han gently stopped Joo Tae-hyun from doing so, and then calmly said that he would correct whatever Chairman Joo found fault with. It was as if he had been waiting for someone to speak to him, and he immediately offered solutions, with a subtle smile that didn’t falter even by a degree, as if he were wearing a mask. His brothers and sister grumbled, “Ugh. It’s even more annoying to watch him do that right in front of us.”

In doing so, everyone missed the fact that Seo Baek-han had said he would secure “common space,” but he never answered that he would share a “bedroom” no matter what. Only Joo Tae-hyun, who treasured everything Seo Baek-han said, understood his intention and smiled bitterly without anyone knowing.

After the uncomfortable meal, where he couldn’t tell if the food was going down his nose or his throat, they moved to have tea.

“Ah, here. This is where we keep Tae-hyun’s childhood photos. Isn’t he cute?”

No matter how you looked at it, Seo Baek-han seemed to have just glanced at the display case without any particular meaning as he was walking, but the second brother couldn’t help but act like a fool for his brother.

“When Tae-hyun was little, we fought so much about who should hang more photos of themselves with him that our parents set up a panel on top of the display case.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. We still change the photos whenever we come to the main house.”

As Joo Sang-woo said, there were many more family photos around the house after his brothers got married and his nephews and nieces were born, but the frames lined up on top of this display case remained unchanged. Every moment with the youngest, whom his brothers and sister cherished and loved, was still here even after the landscape had changed twice.

“Right, shall we look at the album together while we have tea? Our baby’s childhood album.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. We have photos printed and a digital album. Baek, no, Seo. Which one do you want to see?”

“What? Ah, no!”

Joo Tae-hyun rarely raised his voice. He didn’t want to act like a child in front of Seo Baek-han, but he was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t help but raise his voice.

“Why?”

His brothers and sister were genuinely puzzled. Our baby was so angelic and cute when he was little, why wouldn’t you want to see it? It seemed like those subtitles were floating on the faces of the fools for their brother.

“Oh, this is my favorite photo.”

Even in the midst of all that, the eldest brother managed to find a photo of himself holding his youngest brother in a swaddling cloth from the back. Joo Guk-won, recalling the time, had his mouth wide open, wondering what was so pretty about the red sweet potato that hadn’t even taken on a human form yet.

He was grateful that his family loved him so much… But in front of other people, especially in front of Seo Baek-han, he wished they wouldn’t call a gloomy boy who was over 180 cm tall a baby, a youngest, or an angel.

Joo Tae-hyun lowered his face, which was red with embarrassment. He was too embarrassed to check Seo Baek-han’s reaction.

“He gets told he’s handsome and good-looking wherever he goes now, but he was really like a doll when he was little, our youngest.”

That wasn’t true. He often heard that he was prettier than he was now, but even when he was little, his expressions didn’t change much, so he wasn’t the angelic child that his family praised. He was a dark kid who was hard to approach, someone you didn’t want to play with.

“Ah, I remember this time too.”

Seo Baek-han wouldn’t be interested in his childhood at all anyway. He could barely remember where he first met him, so how could he remember the time when they only exchanged brief greetings in passing?

Moreover, Seo Baek-han was very busy traveling between the United States and Korea during this period. If he happened to send a message, he would read it a day or two later, and later, he would often just leave a check mark to indicate that he had seen it rather than replying.

Besides, he changed girlfriends frequently, so he wouldn’t have had time to pay attention to a little kid he knew.

“Tae-hyun was cute.”

Yet Seo Baek-han acted as if he vividly remembered Joo Tae-hyun from that time, just like he had smoothly brushed off Chairman Joo’s scolding earlier.

To Seo Baek-han, Chairman Joo’s undeserved scolding and the family’s question of whether their youngest was pretty were just an extension of his work. Something he had to do right away, something that would no longer bother him if he just got through it appropriately and well…

“I’m going to go up now.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“Someone came all the way here from Pyongyang by plane, and you won’t even let him eat in peace. He can’t even sit down and has to stand in the hallway and listen to this… I think it’s better for him to go to my room and rest before coming down.”

Once he thought that far, he couldn’t bear to watch Seo Baek-han, who had no feelings at all, exert his maximum sociability in front of the adults any longer. Of course, he knew that he was good at this. Joo Tae-hyun was anxious, but it might be easier for Seo Baek-han than eating a piece of cake.

But what could he do?

I still like Seo Baek-han.

Joo Tae-hyun would worry about Seo Baek-han the day before if he saw a forecast that the weather would be bad. He knew that he had a good car and lived in a good house, so he could move from the parking lot to the Royal Hospital’s research center without getting a drop of rain, but he still worried.

He wondered if that big, strong man would get rained on, or if he would catch a cold, and he would hesitate for a long time about whether to send him a message telling him to bring an umbrella tomorrow before falling asleep.

It was only natural that he would want to avoid uncomfortable situations for the person he liked so much.

It was said that the one with the bigger heart was bound to lose, and his feelings were even a one-way street. He knew that Seo Baek-han didn’t care at all. He also knew that he wasn’t uncomfortable dealing with people. Still, he didn’t want to leave him in this farce, which Seo Baek-han himself would obviously not enjoy.

“Okay. Seo is staying overnight today anyway. Go wash up and rest comfortably before coming down. Let’s have a drink instead of tea.”

Director Yoo, amused by the youngest’s appearance, covered his mouth and laughed before leaving leisurely. He nudged Chairman Joo in the side and told him to act accordingly.