“…Is that marriage… still on the table?”
“Yeah. It hasn’t been a week yet.”
“If we get married… will my father’s company be able to go back to how it was? I want to know… whether everything really will be all right.”
The last time they met, the kid had merely seemed out of it. Today, just as Sejin had expected, he had gone far beyond that. His mind had completely crumbled into mush.
Sejin already knew from the video how thoroughly they had gaslit him using the company, but apparently something else had happened afterward as well.
Eunwon had not called him even on the night the video was taken. Yet now he had reached out first and asked to meet.
“Well, sure. Baum has absolutely nothing to lose by joining our families through marriage. The moment news of the marriage breaks, their standing will change completely.”
“…Then my father can keep running the company?”
“Yeah.”
“And that article… won’t come out either….”
“Article?”
“Ah…. They said an employee at my father’s company caused some kind of problem….”
Every time he dug deeper, another lie came out.
Sejin shook his head and released a short breath of disbelief.
Eunwon became anxious at his reaction and looked at him desperately.
“Right. No article will come out, and Chairman Seo will keep running the company exactly as he does now. Baum won’t lose a thing.”
Only after hearing Sejin answer so simply and unequivocally did Eunwon finally relax.
Everything could return to the way it had been.
He was truly relieved.
As he tried to steady himself, a drink was placed in front of him.
It seemed Cha Sejin had ordered one for him as well.
Eunwon stared at the snow-white drink piled high with whipped cream, then raised his head and met Sejin’s gaze.
“…I’ll do it…. The marriage….”
He had vaguely imagined that saying those words aloud would make it feel as though his entire world were collapsing.
But it was not as painful as he had expected.
Was that because reality had already become more agonizing than the decision itself?
He had just said aloud something that had seemed unthinkable only a few days ago, yet strangely…
he felt a little relieved.
But Cha Sejin did not respond immediately.
When they had last met, Sejin had spoken as though Eunwon should decide about the marriage as quickly as possible.
Today, however, he was different.
He did not launch into that kind of speech, nor did he show any particularly strong reaction to Eunwon’s answer.
Could he have changed his mind about marrying me in the meantime…? The arrangement itself may still be valid, but what if Cha Sejin no longer wants it…?
Afraid that he might have waited too long, Eunwon lowered his head weakly.
He had thought this marriage was the best thing he could do.
But if he had already waited too long…
he had no idea what he was supposed to do or how he could beg Cha Sejin to reconsider.
“Ah, sorry. I was trying to decide whether we should live at the family home or move out.”
“…….”
“Even if we live there, we’ll stay in the guesthouse, so it would be almost the same as living separately. Hmm. Still, would it be better to move out altogether? Which would you prefer, sweetheart?”
Whenever Eunwon was with Cha Sejin, he found it difficult to keep up with the speed of the man’s thoughts.
Eunwon had only just made the decision to marry and forced himself to say it aloud, yet Sejin was already deciding where they would live afterward.
But…
Eunwon did not entirely dislike it.
He was relieved that Sejin was not indecisive and frustrating like him.
As he listened to Sejin speak with what sounded like a trace of playfulness, the tension and anxiety locking his body in place gradually eased.
“Where do you want to go for our honeymoon?”
“…….”
“We’ll go wherever you want.”
“…….”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Sejin’s decisiveness might have seemed like an advantage, but even so, this was moving much too quickly.
Eunwon met the gaze of Cha Sejin, who rested his chin on one hand and grinned at him.
“…I’ve never thought about it, so… I don’t know right now…. I’ll start thinking about it today….”
“Okay. Then we can talk about that starting tomorrow. What should we do now?”
“…….”
“Since we’ve decided to get married, do you want to kiss?”
“…What?”
Startled, Eunwon instinctively recoiled.
The sudden force of his movement sent his chair scraping backward.
It was the largest movement Sejin had seen from him yet.
“Why? You’ve never thought about that either?”
“……No….”
“Then start thinking about that today too.”
“…All right….”
Back at the convenience store, Eunwon had been docile, but he had still voiced his own wishes from time to time.
Seeing him now, completely cowed and obedient, made Sejin feel strange.
It was unsettling, as though he were watching a person being broken apart.
In truth, it had very little to do with him.
At least, that was what he had thought until a moment ago.
He had only taken an interest in Eunwon because his face was beautiful.
If Sejin had to enter an arranged marriage with someone, he merely wanted to marry the most beautiful person available.
Whatever method Baum used to persuade Eunwon was not really Sejin’s concern.
In the end, Eunwon had stepped forward and said he would marry him of his own accord, so it was hardly a bad outcome for Sejin.
But watching him sit there with a face on the verge of tears without actually managing to cry, his hands fidgeting helplessly, made Sejin feel dirty—as though he had become one of those psychopaths’ accomplices.
“Sweetheart.”
“…….”
“When you act like that, it makes it look like I’m buying you. Like you’re being sold to me.”
“…I’m sorry…. I know I shouldn’t act like this, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do…. If you tell me, I’ll do it that way….”
His face was filled with so much exhaustion and confusion that Sejin suddenly thought he should simply make it all burst out.
Someone kinder and gentler would probably have tried to think of a softer way.
Sejin was not that kind of person.
He lowered the arm that had been supporting his chin, leaned back against his chair, and tilted his head to one side.
His gaze remained fixed on Eunwon.
“You’ll do everything I tell you?”
“…Yes….”
“Then cry.”
The order came without warning.
Most things Cha Sejin said were abrupt and impossible to anticipate, but the command to cry passed straight through Eunwon’s mind and plunged into the most fragile part of his heart.
“I like it when someone looks pretty crying. Cry for me so I can see whether you do too.”
A mischievous smile appeared on the face that had been expressionless until then.
Of course he’s joking….
Right. There’s no way he meant it seriously….
Eunwon should have told him that the sudden remark had startled him.
He should have asked why Sejin would make that kind of joke with such a serious expression, said that no one looked beautiful crying, and asked who would ever try to judge such a thing in a place like this.
But not a single word came out.
Instead, to his humiliation, his vision blurred.
Even when his father would not answer his calls, and even when Madam Seo told him they were not family and turned her back on him to deliver those cold words, the tears had only burned behind his eyes without falling.
Now they streamed down his cheeks the instant Sejin told him to cry.
Eunwon was mortified that the tears had burst out at a single command.
Afraid he would look foolish, he hurriedly tried to stop, but now that they had finally broken free, he had no way to hold them back.
He rubbed his eyes and wiped at his cheeks, but all he accomplished was soaking his hands.
“So that’s how you cry.”
He should have felt ashamed of the voice observing him as though his tears were something to examine.
But a stronger emotion was pouring out of him, leaving him unable to think of anything else.
The harder he tried to restrain himself, the more broken sobs escaped.
His entire body trembled.
“You look so fucking sexy when you cry, sweetheart.”
Watching Eunwon break into tears, Sejin rose and moved into the seat beside him.
To be honest, telling him to cry had been impulsive.
Eunwon had looked as though a single touch would make him fall apart, so Sejin had thrown out the command because he wanted to know whether he truly would.
The fact that Eunwon had actually dissolved into helpless, whimpering sobs was cute.
“Crying is fine, but you still need to breathe. Breathe. Come on.”
“…Hhk, ngh…. Haa….”
It would have been easier if he simply let himself sob aloud, but perhaps that was not the way he cried.
He kept trying to hide it and force himself to stop, and Sejin could see his breathing growing more labored.
Resting his chin on one hand, Sejin idly caught a section of Eunwon’s neatly arranged hair with the other and toyed with it.
“Breathe properly. If you suffocate and die like this, I’m really going to be the top story on the news. Come on. Breathe in slowly.”
Hearing the faint gasping mixed into Eunwon’s breathing, Sejin lowered the hand that had been playing with his hair and lightly stroked it down his back.
Following the motion of that hand, Eunwon barely managed to draw in a breath that refused to come easily.
“Now let it out slowly.”
A breath saturated with tears finally escaped.
Sejin repeated the instructions several more times, studying Eunwon’s gasping face with relentless attention.
He found himself wondering just how meticulously this kid had been made.
Plenty of people had attractive faces but looked unappealing when they smiled, or lost all their beauty when they cried.
Eunwon was different.
There were the tears clinging to his lashes, the way they welled over and rolled down his cheeks each time he blinked, the tip of his nose flushed red from crying, his parted lips as he struggled for breath, and even the miserable expression he made because he was upset that he could not regain control of himself.
Every last part of him was perfectly beautiful.