After choosing the piano, I wasn’t ready to go home just yet, so I lingered around the showroom for a while longer. The staff were very friendly and told me to feel free to try out any of the instruments. Besides, Cha Ju Heon was busy discussing the delivery arrangements with them, so I was free to look around on my own.
How long had it been since I last set foot in a music store like this?
Even when I had been studying music, I had rarely gotten the chance to see such luxurious instruments up close. Most of the time, I had only been allowed to touch them during competitions or at my school’s regular concerts.
When my father was still alive, our family had been fairly well-off, but spending billions of won on a musical instrument and putting it in the house was hardly something we could do on a whim.
And yet, the man standing there with a mask pulled all the way up beneath his eyes was casually discussing the purchase with the staff as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
I glanced at Cha Ju Heon, unable to suppress a mixture of admiration and astonishment.
Perhaps because this place was filled with instruments so absurdly expensive, I was experiencing some kind of psychological magic. Instruments costing several billion won somehow started to seem… cheap.
Among them, one grand piano commonly used in large concert halls caught my eye. I cautiously approached and pressed one of the keys.
An electric current seemed to shoot from my fingertip all the way to my brain.
The vibration spreading through the room, combined with the clear, shimmering tone, was so breathtaking that I got goosebumps.
__“You like this one, don’t you? We can cancel the other one and get this instead.”
Cha Ju Heon’s voice suddenly came from directly behind me.
I didn’t even have time to turn around. My eyes remained fixed on the keyboard.
Hearing his offer to switch pianos, I suddenly remembered the price the staff had mentioned earlier and laughed.
The difference was so enormous that I didn’t dare let myself become greedy.
“I’m happy with the one we chose earlier. If I really want one like this, I’ll buy it myself after I move. I’m pretty rich now anyway, aren’t I? You and the Chairman have already given me quite a lot of money.”
__“That is your rightful compensation. Don’t worry about the money for the piano. Just tell me whenever you want one. Otherwise, consider it a housewarming gift from me.”
I had only said it jokingly to avoid the subject, but Cha Ju Heon responded with complete seriousness.
Knowing that this conversation would keep repeating itself unless I gave in, I reluctantly nodded just to put an end to it.
“Director, thank you for the gift. Thanks to you, I can practice comfortably now. I’ll play plenty for the baby to hear, too.”
__“…Then do that. The baby is one thing, but as long as it makes you happy, that’s all that matters.”
I silently watched Cha Ju Heon’s back as he casually dropped those words and turned away.
I had always assumed that everything he did for me was because of the baby.
And, technically, that was true…
Yet everything he had done today left me bewildered.
Buying the piano could be understood as him being generous toward the person carrying his child, but what did those last words mean?
Would someone say something like that to a surrogate under a contract?
I didn’t know.
The ambiguity behind his intentions only left me more confused.
Our relationship, to put it bluntly, was nothing more than a bond created by a surrogacy contract.
That was why those gentle words kept lingering in my heart, making me feel strangely unsettled.
My doubts were only natural. I simply couldn’t tell whether his kindness was directed toward me as an individual or whether it was merely the consideration he showed toward a contractual partner.
Still, whatever his reason might be, I was certain that Cha Ju Heon wasn’t someone who said things he didn’t mean.
The sincerity he showed toward the person carrying his child had to be genuine.
It was a strange feeling.
But honestly, it wasn’t unpleasant at all.
[Have you eaten yet? Remember to take all your supplements after lunch.]
Ding.
A while later, the notification announcing Eun Woo’s reply rang out.
Normally, he replied almost immediately, but today it took fifteen whole minutes for a message to arrive.
Worried that something might have happened, Ju Heon hurriedly checked his phone.
[I ate lunch already, and I took my supplements and had some fruit juice, too. I’m practicing piano now. Would you like to hear some?]
A short video was attached to the message.
When he opened the file, the first thing that caught his eye was a pair of long, slender, beautiful fingers.
The delicate hands filled the entire screen, gliding effortlessly across the keys and producing a breathtaking melody.
Ju Heon brought the phone closer to his ear so he could listen more carefully.
It had started as nothing more than an ordinary check-in, like always, yet he had received an unexpected video in return.
Almost like he was reporting back to the person who had bought the piano for him, Eun Woo had sent a short clip of himself playing.
The video showed nothing but the keyboard and those fingers, but strangely enough, Ju Heon could almost vividly sense Eun Woo’s excitement.
Ju Heon watched the clip with obvious interest.
Then he realized that he had replayed the less-than-one-minute video countless times.
A faint smile tugged at his lips as he shifted his gaze toward the tablet beside him.
Displayed on the screen was the file on Eun Woo that his secretary had investigated, along with information about Kang Gyu Ho’s family.
Perhaps because he had ordered them to “find out everything they possibly could,” the file was quite extensive.
Ju Heon began reading, not skipping a single detail.
Baek Eun Woo had been born into a family with a dominant alpha father and an omega mother.
Thanks to his father, who ran a successful business, Eun Woo had spent his childhood in luxury, frequently traveling between the United States and New Zealand.
That was why he was fluent in English and had chosen to major in English Language and Literature after abandoning music.
Influenced by his father’s love of the arts, Eun Woo had been exposed to classical music from an early age. He had received extensive formal training and embarked upon a professional career.
His wealthy family had provided him with everything he needed, allowing him to fully develop his talent.
Yet that brilliant life had been completely overturned by an incident when he was in tenth grade.
A fire that started destroyed Eun Woo’s home in an instant.
His mother was severely injured in the fire, while his father died.
Amid that devastating tragedy, Eun Woo was the only one who survived unharmed because he had been at school.
With the family’s breadwinner gone, the business collapsed, and bankruptcy left them drowning in debt.
Although most of the debt was eventually settled, the remaining debts and his mother’s medical expenses turned Eun Woo into the family’s breadwinner at an incredibly young age.
A sheltered young master who had known nothing but music, pampered and protected all his life, was suddenly forced to face one hardship after another.
It was at that point that Eun Woo gave up music without hesitation and transferred to a public school.
He understood that he could no longer pursue an expensive field of study with such limited employment prospects.
Perhaps thanks to the genetic advantages of being a dominant omega, Eun Woo was naturally intelligent and quickly adapted to the new curriculum. He worked part-time while studying relentlessly.
“So the person who helped him back then was that Kang Gyu Ho’s mother.”
It had been the most sensitive time of Eun Woo’s life, and yet he had been forced to step into that family’s home.
Kang Gyu Ho’s mother had clearly acted out of goodwill.
For a teenager who had just lost his father, the truly difficult days had only just begun.
Under those harsh circumstances, Eun Woo endured everything until he eventually decided to become the surrogate carrying Ju Heon’s child.
The file also recorded seemingly insignificant details, such as his good relationships with his friends and the trust his teachers had placed in him.
After finishing the file, Ju Heon leaned back against his chair and closed his eyes.
When they first met, Eun Woo’s youthful and innocent appearance had left Ju Heon deeply shaken.
He had struggled with his conscience, feeling guilty about asking someone so young to enter into this contract.
But Eun Woo’s necessity to Ju Heon had eventually outweighed that guilt.
His attractive appearance, clean habits, almost foolishly honest personality, and above all, the dominant genes Ju Heon had desperately wanted…
Eun Woo had appeared before him almost too perfectly.
Even the fact that Ju Heon’s own body felt no aversion toward him seemed like a miracle.
That was why he had to have the child born from Eun Woo’s body.
Though theirs was merely a relationship on paper, strangely enough, he couldn’t stop worrying about him.
Ever since the moment he had sensed his own pheromone lingering on Eun Woo’s body, there hadn’t been a single day when he hadn’t thought about that young man.
Yes…..
Everything had begun at that moment.
From the very first time he saw him, Baek Eun Woo had never made Ju Heon feel disgust.
Ju Heon, a man who suffered from such severe nausea that he couldn’t even stand looking at other people’s faces, still found everyone except Eun Woo unbearable.
Everyone else seemed dirty to him.
Eun Woo alone was the exception.
He wasn’t dirty.
He didn’t make Ju Heon uncomfortable.
In fact, Ju Heon could even lean against his clothes.
Eun Woo was a complicated and mysterious presence that Ju Heon still couldn’t understand.
Behind his closed eyes, images of Eun Woo kept repeating themselves.
The sight of him absorbed in playing the piano beneath the warm lights was completely different from the cautious, timid person he saw whenever Eun Woo was around him.
Instead of those guarded eyes and shrinking gestures, he had looked so full of life.
Seeing Eun Woo laughing and chatting enthusiastically, teasing his fellow musicians without the slightest sense of distance, was completely unfamiliar to Ju Heon.
That was when Ju Heon realized that Eun Woo could smile that brightly.
If circumstances had never changed, Eun Woo probably would have lived a beautiful life, always smiling as he pursued his dreams.
It had nothing to do with Ju Heon, yet his heart still felt heavy with complicated thoughts.
He opened his eyes, stared blankly at the tablet, then reached for his phone.
And then, he did something he had never done before.
[The music was beautiful. I hope the next video will be a complete piece from beginning to end. I’d like to hear it again. I’ll be waiting.]
After composing the message, Ju Heon remained silent for a long while, his finger hovering over the screen.
After a brief hesitation, he gently pressed the ‘Send’ button.