By Zephyria 
Kwon Rae-i took the empty glass from Tae-hwon and put it away. Tae-hwon just silently wiped the sweat from his forehead with the towel. He felt like he should say something in response, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. A future where Kwon Rae-i and Woo Tae-hwon were together, it would just be a fleeting illusion, so what could he do? Tae-hwon just hoped that Kwon Rae-i would be satisfied with him soon. Before his memories returned and the bomb in his head exploded.
“Young master, there’s something I’m curious about.”
In the end, Tae-hwon brought up whatever came to mind to change the subject. He hoped his reaction looked natural.
“Yes, what is it?”
Fortunately, it seemed natural, and Kwon Rae-i accepted Tae-hwon’s words without any suspicion. Tae-hwon swallowed a sigh of relief and glanced at the top of the landing as he asked.
“What’s on the fourth floor of this house? I’m not saying I’m going to do anything, I’m just curious.”
“Ah…”
Kwon Rae-i chuckled and gently curved his beautiful eyes. His gaze seemed to penetrate deeply into Tae-hwon’s heart. The clear gray eyes, shining eerily as if reading his mind, were frightening.
“Do you want to go up together sometime? I’ll show you.”
Kwon Rae-i raised his finger and pointed upwards. It was a completely unexpected reaction, and Tae-hwon could only ask in surprise, “Huh?” He didn’t expect him to suggest going there himself. He had only brought up the story to change the subject.
“Come here.”
Kwon Rae-i pressed the elevator button that went up and grabbed Tae-hwon’s wrist. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he pushed Tae-hwon inside.
“Are we going now? Right away?”
“Yes. Tae-hwon, just look around.”
Kwon Rae-i pressed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator doors slowly closed in front of them, and they both ascended. Kwon Rae-i got off first at the floor they quickly arrived at. Tae-hwon slowly followed him. As soon as the doors opened, he saw a rooftop terrace.
Of course, there were several locks hanging on the door leading to the terrace. Through the iron bars, he could see an outdoor lounge with soft lighting and a swimming pool filled with water next to it.
It was rippling.
The blue waves reflected the light, sparkling beautifully and mysteriously.
“As you can see, it’s a rooftop swimming pool.”
“I see…”
“It’s dangerous, so I can’t let Tae-hwon go all the way there, but I can show you from down here.”
From down here?
Kwon Rae-i took Tae-hwon’s hand and went down towards the landing. As they went down half a step, soft lighting shone on the passage. It was light falling from above. The ceiling was made of reinforced glass, and beyond it, water was filled to the brim, rippling.
The low ceiling of the landing and the bottom of the rooftop swimming pool were made of a single piece of glass. And that meant that the person swimming could be seen clearly from below. Like a giant aquarium.
‘Ah. That’s why he said he could show me.’
Seeing this, Tae-hwon understood why Kwon Rae-i had put iron bars on the landing leading to the fourth floor. It would be more certain to block the passage leading here than to install iron bars on the bottom of the swimming pool.
The ceiling here was low because of the depth of the swimming pool, and it seemed like Tae-hwon could touch the glass if he stood on tiptoe and stretched out his arm.
“Wait here.”
“Young master?”
Kwon Rae-i left Tae-hwon in that spot and turned around. He was going up the stairs, but his steps were heading towards the door leading outside to the rooftop. Standing in front of the door, he blocked the locks with his body so they couldn’t be seen and completed the fingerprint recognition, password, and iris recognition. After the complicated sequence, the locks were released, and the closed door opened, letting a cold wind into the room.
“I just wanted to show the current Tae-hwon sometime. I’m good at swimming now.”
“…Ah.”
At those words, a small realization dawned on Tae-hwon.
Ten-year-old Kwon Rae-i had been afraid of water. He would freeze up and turn pale even at the sight of deep water, which was pitiful.
“You know, right? That Tae-hwon saved me back then.”
Kwon Rae-i smiled brightly and turned to look at Tae-hwon. His hair fluttering in the wind, the soft lighting of the rooftop, and the moonlight of the dark night sky spread out in the background all harmonized. Like the melody of an orchestra.
“Tae-hwon was the only one who jumped into the pond.”
“…”
“When I think about it, I don’t think I ever said thank you back then.”
Kwon Rae-i left Tae-hwon and went out the door. The locks on the closed door were engaged one by one, and he slowly walked away. He could see his back as he walked towards the swimming pool, undoing the buttons of his shirt one by one. Soon, he took off the black shirt he was wearing.
The dragon tattoo that filled his muscular back was revealed in all its splendor, and the colors stood out even more vividly in the light.
‘Don’t tell me.’
Was he going to swim in this cold weather?
What if he caught a cold?
Tae-hwon tried to stop him, but it was already too late. He stretched his arms overhead, turning them from side to side, and after a simple warm-up, he dived gracefully into the swimming pool water. Splash, his upper body powerfully pierced the surface of the water, and droplets splashed everywhere.
He swam to the glass ceiling where Tae-hwon was standing in an instant. He cut through the water in an instant with a perfect freestyle. The taut muscles, the large waves, the combination of strength and grace was so beautiful that it was unreal.
Like…
Like a living, breathing merman…
…Right. That’s what happened.
Tae-hwon was lost in thought as he watched Kwon Rae-i swimming freely. Chairman Kwon Jung-il’s mistress’s child. A thorn in his side, living alone in a remote Separate House, born with albinism and not resembling the chairman, his sickly ten-year-old young master…
It was the first opportunity for the young master to open his heart to him.
Ten years ago, the three brothers living in the main house were also that much younger. Kwon Tae-oh, Kwon Hyeon-oh, Kwon Sang-oh… They naturally ostracized Kwon Rae-i openly, and the third, Kwon Sang-oh, who was the closest in age, went beyond ignoring him and even tormented him cruelly. It was so severe that it was dismissed as a children’s fight.
The third, Kwon Sang-oh, was three years older than Kwon Rae-i, and at that age, a three-year difference meant that he couldn’t be matched in terms of physique. Moreover, Kwon Rae-i was originally weak…
It was before Woo Tae-hwon joined the Gyeongjeong, so he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, but he had heard from others that Sang-oh would come to Rae-i every day and pick a fight. It was practically a one-sided assault.
Kwon Rae-i hid from Kwon Sang-oh, and when he was caught, he would be severely beaten…
Then came the day in question.
A season when a cold wind was blowing, just like now. Kwon Sang-oh, that bastard, came to Kwon Rae-i, who was suffering from a fever due to a cold.
The sick Rae-i couldn’t hide and was dragged to the courtyard of the house.
In the courtyard of the Gyeongjeong, which retained a classic beauty, there was a large pond, and Kwon Sang-oh had been pushing Kwon Rae-i into it whenever he was upset. When Kwon Rae-i came up to the surface for air, he would kick him and push him back in, and when he came up again, he would kick him and push him back in. He enjoyed such thuggish behavior.
That day, Rae-i couldn’t scream and trembled, his face turning blue.
Woo Tae-hwon, who found him gasping for breath and struggling for his life after swallowing a lot of water, jumped into the pond without thinking and saved Kwon Rae-i.
“What the fuck? What is this crazy bastard doing! Hey, you thug, let go of that!” Kwon Sang-oh, whose personality had been vulgar since childhood, raged and poured his anger out on Woo Tae-hwon. Woo Tae-hwon, a mere rookie who had just set foot in Gyeongjeong, knew nothing about the hierarchy or order between the young masters. He didn’t know that interfering with Kwon Sang-oh’s fun ‘game’ would result in being dragged to the Main House the next day and beaten to a pulp.
The mistress of the Main House, or strictly speaking, Kwon Sang-oh’s mother, was the one instigating the torment.
Whether it was to boost her dim-witted son’s ego, or because she couldn’t stand the sight of the concubine’s child brought in from outside, or simply because she chose the easy way to establish the main wife’s dominance through violence… I don’t know the details. Kwon Sang-oh’s legal wife unfortunately passed away before that winter was over.
Anyway.
That day, Woo Tae-hwon, who had saved Kwon Rae-i, was naturally dragged to the Main House and beaten mercilessly. And the next day, Kwon Sang-oh came back, sneering. He tried to throw the still-unhealed Kwon Rae-i into the pond again that day. So Woo Tae-hwon just thought, it would be better for him, a grown man, to get beaten…
Without any other thought, so naturally…