“I want to marry you, hyung.”
Seo Baek-han crossed his arms and slowly mulled over the words he had just heard.
Joo Tae-hyun’s proposal was as light and flimsy as an empty promise to grab a meal sometime. So much so that he almost replied with a thoughtless, “Okay, let’s do that.”
“…Marriage.”
“Yes.”
“Me and you… the two of us?”
“…Yes.”
Seo Baek-han repeated the same words several times, just as Joo Tae-hyun had done a moment ago. He was so dumbfounded that his brain seemed to have short-circuited for a moment. It took a while for the meaning of the words he had blurted out to properly sink in. It had been a very long time since he had felt this way.
“Marriage, marriage, huh…”
“……”
“So, Tae-hyun, are you proposing to me right now?”
“Pro, pro… Ah, that’s right. In conclusion, I guess that’s what it amounts to…”
He had wanted him to get to the point quickly, but he hadn’t been waiting for a conclusion that was chopped to pieces, with the context completely lopped off.
Besides, what was that?
In conclusion, that’s what it amounts to?
He still saw him as a kid, but now that he was just an adult, Seo Baek-han figured Joo Tae-hyun might have some ambitions of his own. Maybe there was an image he wanted to build, and he wanted to get help from 〈Haechi〉… Anyway, he had been guessing that he would bring up something like that, and then casually add a cliché confession that he still liked him.
But the suggestion from the kid who had barely turned twenty was something Seo Baek-han hadn’t even imagined.
“You said you wanted to discuss family matters, and then you ask me to marry you.”
Seo Baek-han knew that Joo Tae-hyun was watching him, but he continued to verbalize the process of sorting out his thoughts. At first, it was to properly recognize the situation, and later, it was to cool down the anger that seemed ready to boil over.
Perhaps it wasn’t just talking to himself, but a process of repeatedly asking Joo Tae-hyun.
Joo Tae-hyun, you’re really asking Seo Baek-han to marry you?
No one would welcome an unexpected event to the point of contorting their face, but Seo Baek-han couldn’t stand not being able to control that moment itself, more than the sudden situation. He had to have complete control over the degree of emotional change and the way he expressed it to be satisfied.
Because he was that kind of person, the bomb that Joo Tae-hyun had thrown a moment ago was one of the most powerful he had ever experienced. Especially since it was just that kid who had thrown this bomb, even more so.
“You know that’s not something you say to someone you haven’t seen in years.”
“……”
“You also know that we’re not that close.”
Seo Baek-han quietly, but desperately, suppressed his burning anger.
“Still, you’ve spent some time talking to me, so I think you could have predicted what kind of reaction I would have when you asked me to marry you.”
If Joo Tae-hyun had just come to Korea for a bit and asked him to buy him a meal, and then brought up the marriage thing, he would have been dumbfounded, but he would have just brushed it off. Still a kid, he would have thought.
“But I want you to properly explain the circumstances of why you brought up that story, the reason you used family matters as an excuse to make this appointment today. I can’t understand what you’re thinking.”
“……”
“There’s still a little time left, so make me understand before I get up.”
But Joo Tae-hyun had said he wanted to seek advice from Seo Baek-han about family matters. He had brought in his social position to express his extremely personal feelings. That part made Seo Baek-han feel the most like shit.
“…I heard that you’re scheduled to have a matchmaking meeting with an Alpha.”
It was only when the ice in the coffee cup had melted slightly and settled with a clinking sound that Joo Tae-hyun cautiously drew Seo Baek-han’s attention.
“So?”
“After hearing that, I wondered why you were so insistent on another Alpha. So I thought about it carefully… and I figured it might be because it would help you become the next director of Jejungwon.”
Jejungwon was a special trait research institute that had separated from Gwanghyewon and was located in Pyongyang. Since Prince Yi, the first and only Alpha in the imperial family, was in Pyongyang, research related to traits was actively conducted there.
The fact that the Special Trait Act of the Korean Empire had influenced all of Asia was thanks to Prince Yi’s aggressive investment in basic research.
Even though the Crown Prince, driven mad by jealousy of the capable Prince Yi, would obstruct anything related to traits, Prince Yi’s will was firm.
From the young age of his early twenties to the present, when he was over forty, he and his people had worked tirelessly to improve the perception of trait holders and introduce various protection policies.
“Since there haven’t been many cases of Alphas marrying Alphas or Omegas marrying Omegas-“
“Tae-hyun. Did I ask you about that?”
“……”
“I asked for the derivation process of the conclusion you came to, not your speculation about me.”
Joo Tae-hyun’s guess was correct.
Seo Baek-han got along best with Prince Yi and was publicly called his political successor.
Seo Baek-han himself had been aiming for that and running towards it. Instead of inheriting a district from his father, as had been done for generations, he wanted to build the place where he would sit with his own hands.
To do that, among the many cards he could use, there was no strategy as effective as marriage, so he had come forward to have a matchmaking meeting this time.
“Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”
“……I, so, I thought that if that’s the reason… I thought I would be the best condition for you, hyung.”
“Because you’re the same Alpha, the same member of 〈Haechi〉, and even a chaebol, so you have a lot of money?”
As if to say he wouldn’t deny it, Joo Tae-hyun slightly lowered his eyes. Each time his long eyelashes fluttered, a gloomy shadow fell over his well-sculpted facial bones.
The reason why Joo Tae-hyun, who was still young and whose bones hadn’t fully matured, looked more mature than his peers was probably because of those eyes. Eyes that seemed to be surrounded by all sorts of tragic stories, even though he had grown up without knowing what deprivation was, and a slightly drooping, tightly closed mouth.
“How old are you?”
At Seo Baek-han’s voice, which sounded like he was coaxing a child, Joo Tae-hyun stubbornly closed his mouth. The only reason he was bringing up his age at this timing was obvious, and it wasn’t the direction he wanted.
“Why do you keep not answering when hyung asks you? Can’t you hear me?”
“Th… No, I’m sorry.”
“Do I have to keep putting up with you and coaxing you every time you pout and shut your mouth?”
“…I’m sorry.”
As Joo Tae-hyun showed a much more polite attitude than before, Seo Baek-han’s eyes, which had been narrowed, also softened slightly. It was so subtle that Joo Tae-hyun, sitting in front of him, wouldn’t have noticed the difference.
“How old are you right now?”
“Twent… Twenty years old.”
“Right. You’re not stupid, so what more explanation do I need to give you?”
There were tons of bastards spouting things that were ten times more infuriating than that, so why was he so annoyed by Joo Tae-hyun’s bullshit?
After pondering it carefully, Seo Baek-han belatedly realized that he had been quite looking forward to this meeting.
The awkward guy who had barely confessed his feelings and ran away on the day before he left Korea had called him after years and said he had something to consult about. He could picture how much Joo Tae-hyun had hesitated before pressing the call button. It was obvious without even seeing it.
But Joo Tae-hyun knew how to put his personal feelings aside when it came to important matters where the company’s name was mentioned. Or, he had thought he did, and so he had judged that Joo Tae-hyun’s attitude was quite mature and commendable considering he was only twenty years old. It was also refreshing because he seemed different from the people who had thrown their hearts at him and left.
Seo Baek-han preferred people who were clear about public and private matters. Whether it was family, friends, or acquaintances he just greeted in passing. That was also the reason why he had been trying to be somewhat lenient with Joo Tae-hyun. Not because he was a kid who said he liked him, not because he was the youngest son of the DH Group, but because of the attitude Joo Tae-hyun had taken to make this meeting happen. The judgment to put aside personal feelings itself was Seo Baek-han’s taste.
But after even bringing up his family, all he had to say was marriage?
“Hyung, are you uncomfortable with this kind of talk because of what I said in the past? Th-The words I said to you at the year-end party before I went to America…”
Even though he was filtering out some of the nasty things that were welling up because the other person was a child, Joo Tae-hyun’s shoulders kept drooping.
Of course, Seo Baek-han was displeased with even that. What kind of reaction had he expected from him that he was so intimidated by just this much? If he couldn’t handle it, he shouldn’t have started it in the first place.
“You saying you liked me?”
“……Yes.”
Joo Tae-hyun’s finger slipped slightly over the water glass, leaving a faint trail. Should he praise him for maintaining a calm expression even though he was so agitated that he was drenched in sweat?
“I’m just saying this in case, but I don’t have any feelings for you right now, hyung.”
Joo Tae-hyun’s voice, adding at a moderate pace, was small but firm. Even though he looked like a frightened animal with its tail between its legs, the words he had just uttered flowed naturally.
“Really.”
It was as if he had practiced that line countless times in preparation for this moment.