A few days passed after that.
Hyunseung opened the chat window to check the message he had gotten from his younger sister, Hyuna.
“Huh?”
But more eye-catching than Hyuna’s new message was the pile of Vincent’s messages that had built up as much as they possibly could.
Ah, right.
He had kept saying he would check them, but he kept putting it off, and now they had piled up.
‘Damn.’
Normally, he would only check them when he felt like it, but now that Vincent was a co-investor and partner, it could be something important, so he should read them.
Ah.
Even the most recent one had already been a full day ago, though.
—The exterior construction is done.
—The interior is going in.
—If you have time, you have to come see it once.
Hyunseung slowly skimmed it and scratched his chin.
Should I go, or not?
The time he spent hesitating was not long.
Let’s go.
Since it is the company he will be going to from now on, he thought it was necessary to capture the process of its birth with his own eyes.
More than anything, he needed to talk about things like recruiting Misut Sara, and the Unice distribution line contract too.
He really cannot treat this like a kids’ word game anymore.
But weren’t Misut Sara and Vincent the kind of pair that growled at each other the moment they ran into one another?
Scroll, scroll.
First, Hyunseung clicked Hyuna’s message at the very top.
Because the letters visible in the preview did not look normal.
—You have to come in today.
—If you don’t, I’m going to tear one page at a time out of the comic book you love the most.
It was hard to brush it off as just a cute threat from his little sister, because the moment the 1 disappeared, a photo arrived.
Yes. Between his younger sister’s pale-white fingers was the comic book he cherished most.
A photo of her holding one page, the page with his favorite legendary scene.
‘No.’
It looked like it could be torn at any second.
‘Absolutely not.’
Any other scene, fine, whatever, but not that scene. Not that scene that held a man’s romance, a man’s sentiment, a man’s loyalty.
This was unforgivable even coming from Hyuna.
—Okay.
—I’m coming.
—Put it down.
After sending an urgent reply, Hyunseung immediately grabbed his car keys.
Please. Let there be no incidents.
Hyunseung reached the front of his house in one breath, unlocked the door with a trembling hand, and ran inside.
“Min Hyuna.”
Then he headed straight for his sister’s room.
“What? She’s not here.”
But there was not a single sign of anyone in the room.
It was so empty that even the bedding was neatly made.
“What is this?”
Hyunseung went down the dark hallway toward the living room.
Hyuna was not there either. On top of that, his father was not there.
Where did they all go? Did they go grocery shopping?
But if that were the case, why was a smell drifting from the kitchen that stung his nose, as if someone had been cooking until just moments ago?
Step, step.
Hyunseung followed the smell into the kitchen, and a tablecloth was laid over the wide dining table. Did they just tell him to come eat?
Yeah.
Since he is here, he will eat, and then pack for the U.S.
That was what he was thinking, when he reached for the kitchen light.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, from behind him, came a series of popping sounds.
“W-What…?”
Hyunseung flinched hard and turned his head.
“Huh?”
At the same time, his pitch-black pupils widened, then shook rapidly, like they were swinging like a pendulum.
“Oppa!”
— Son.
Of course.
“Congratulations on becoming CEO.”
His younger sister was smiling brightly at him, holding a whole cake with a single candle stuck deep into it.
And his father was there too, smiling warmly, even warmer than the candlelight.
“What are you standing there for? Blow it out.”
Hyunseung, wearing a dazed expression, slowly moved his feet.
He looked down at the whole cake with wax dripping.
Their family had blown out candles together on Christmas before.
But a cake with candles lit just for him like this….
More than anything, it was not his birthday, and yet it was a cake celebrating him becoming CEO.
“B-Blow it out.”
It felt unfamiliar, and strange.
“Wait, wait!”
Hyuna lightly pushed at his chest and asked,
“Oppa, did you make a wish?”
“No?”
“Come on, hurry and make one.”
“What wish. It’s not even a birthday cake…”
“We’re in America so we probably won’t do a gosa1, so I especially prepared a pig face cake and even stuck money in the nostrils, so you have to wish for the business to go well!”
Lowering his gaze, just like Hyuna said, the cake was shaped like a cute pig’s face.
The rolled-up fifty-thousand-won bills stuck in the nostrils looked a bit brutal.
But still, he could see so clearly the process of his sister putting her heart into this, searching around and ordering it, and he felt proud and grateful.
Yeah, so I should put my heart into it too and give my thanks.
“Hyuna, didn’t you custom-order this cake with your face?”
“What? Do you want to die?”
“I seriously thought it was…”
Hyuna’s face turned beet red in an instant, and she came charging at him, huffing and puffing.
“Min Hyunseung, get over here!”
A chase began in their spacious house.
“Wait.”
That chase ended when Hyunseung stopped dead in his tracks.
“Min Hyuna, you.”
Hyuna stopped mid-chase, hesitated, and backed off at her brother’s suddenly low voice.
Because she could instinctively tell what he was about to ask.
“Where’s my comic book?”
“T-That….”
“Hey, it can’t be, right?”
And because she had done something wrong.
“O-Oppa, that…”
Looking at Hyuna dragging out her words, Hyunseung could tell instinctively.
“Just meant to pretend, but the very end got j-just a tiny b-bit…”
That something had, in fact, happened.
.
.
After the commotion died down, the whole family sat around the table.
Which, really, was just his father, his sister, and him, but somehow it still felt like the table was full.
“I prepared all of this today!”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I seriously made everything one by one.”
“So I can eat it, right?”
“Ah, seriously, don’t eat!”
While his father watched the siblings bicker with food in front of them and smiled warmly for a moment…
— Son, congratulations, truly. It’s so cool, so admirable, and it’s not even like I achieved it myself, but I’m moved enough to be overwhelmed.
He placed a thick, glossy piece of braised short ribs on top of Hyunseung’s rice.
With a smile that cut into him warmer than the steam rising off it.
— Thank you.
Hyunseung put the short ribs into his mouth in one bite. Every time he chewed, he could feel his sister’s heart and his father’s heart.
Yeah. What is happiness if not this? This is happiness.
Hyunseung had been tired and worn out lately, but it felt like every knot inside him was melting away and sinking down.
— Tomorrow, I’m going to the U.S. and I’m thinking I’ll check on my building a bit.
— The construction’s already finished?
— Not yet, but it seems like the exterior is mostly done. I’ll show you on video call.
— I’ll wait. Be careful and come back safe.
His father nodded and lightly tapped the back of his hand.
It was a touch mixed with encouragement, worry, and comfort all at once.
“Oppa, oppa!”
At that moment Hyuna, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, wriggled in her seat and asked,
“Can’t I come with you?”
“Yeah, you can’t.”
“Ah, why not!”
“If it’s no, it’s no.”
Hyuna, rejected instantly, puffed out her cheeks and made it obvious she was sulking.
He would like to take her…
But he was not going just to work casually, he was going to talk business, so he could not drag his sister along.
More than anything, his face had become known overseas lately too, so he could not just walk around comfortably with her.
“Oppa, I hate you!”
Hyunseung forced down the urge to poke her puffed cheeks like a pufferfish and said,
“Later, when everything is finished, I’ll invite you then.”
If he teased her more, her cheeks might actually burst.
Hyunseung packed lightly and set foot on U.S. soil.
Thinking that it would be ground he would step on often from now on made the feeling hit differently.
Well, it was not like he was extremely excited.
He took a taxi to head to the address Vincent had given him.
Luckily, the taxi driver did not speak to him, an Asian, so he could ride in silence.
As the taxi ran, tall buildings flashed past his eyes.
And then, after running for a long while, he arrived at a building with construction lines set up in front of it.
It was not a tall building, but the roughly five-story structure looked like a fairly luxurious mansion.
And the outer wall, made of stacked bricks mixed with an orange tint that was not tacky, gave off a somewhat high-teen atmosphere.
He liked it even more because it was not a stiff gray building.
“You’re here.”
At that moment, Vincent, who had been asking the workers for something, spotted him and walked over with a bright expression.
“How is it? Pretty cool, right?”
Hyunseung answered by nodding instead. Somehow, if he added praise here, it felt like Vincent’s shoulders would soar without fear of heaven.
“I’ll show you inside.”
Vincent looked a little disappointed at the flat reaction.
But he quickly shifted into an even more self-satisfied tone and led him inside.
Step, step.
But despite his confident tone, the interior was still unfinished, so it was far worse than the exterior.
Concrete walls showed their bare skin without any filtering.
And the partition walls, only half raised, looked like they could topple at any moment.
What exactly was he supposed to “look at.”
Even in this environment, Vincent was diligently playing tour guide.
“This is our lobby. I’m thinking of decorating it like an antique hotel lobby to match the vibe of the building.”
“This is the cafeteria, and I’m thinking we’ll do it as a custom order system.”
“This is the reception room for important guests, and, uh, thaaat room at the end of the hallway is the main conference room.”
But in a state where he could not picture how it would end up at all, the explanations did not land much.
More than anything, wince Hyunseung’s sense for interior design was not very good, he had nothing he could really add.
After walking and taking it in with his eyes for a while—
“Now, this is the main one.”
Vincent stood blocking the front of a room whose doorframe had the shape of being fairly complete, and he rubbed his hands together like a fly.
He looked like a merchant with pretty good sales, that was all.
“What is it?”
Hyunseung gestured at the door like, hurry up and show me.
“Seriously, you’re no fun.”
Vincent glared, then slowly grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
“Here. This is the CEO office you’ll be using.”
The door, with old wood grain that stood out, revealed a heavy weight at a glance as it opened slowly.
“Hm?”
The inside was clearly different from the places he had seen so far. No, not just different. It was already finished, he should say.
There was, of course, no human warmth, but it looked finished enough that if someone just walked in and sat down, it would look like an office that had always been in use.
“How is it? It’s insane, right?”
Just as Vincent said, it was a stylish space at a glance.
Maybe because there was a dense forest stretching beyond the wide full-glass window visible the moment the door opened, it made his view feel wide open.
And because a muted red carpet covered the entire floor, it also gave the feeling of being in an old mountain lodge.
And the dark-brown leather sofa set looked expensive at a glance.
“I pre-ordered it and had it all set up for this day!”
Turning his head with Vincent’s voice, he saw a nameplate carved from high-quality wood.
“Nice.”
But Hyunseung’s reaction ended there.
“No, that’s it? I specifically told them to hurry and finish the CEO office at least!”
“Good work.”
“No, seriously, that’s all you’ve got?”
Hyunseung scratched the back of his head like he truly did not understand what the problem was.
“No, no.”
Looking at Hyunseung, Vincent instinctively knew that as business partners, the two of them were going to clash quite a lot.
But.
He had already resolved himself. If you want to wear the crown, you have to endure its weight, don’t you?
“Want to look around a bit more?”
Vincent asked, stepping back.
And then, Hyunseung shook his head and asked back.
“Not here. There should be a more important place, right?”
At that, Vincent met Hyunseung’s eyes and repeated, “A more important place?”
Flinch.
At those eyes, sharp as if a blade had been drawn, Vincent’s body trembled without him meaning to.
What is with him?
Vincent could not understand the meaning in that gaze, or the meaning of those words.
“Uh, m-more, important place?”
It felt like he should not ask, but it also felt like he could not not ask, so he carefully opened his lips.
“Haa….”
Then the expected sigh spilled out from between Hyunseung’s lips.
Before long, with eyebrows twitching in a very handsome frown, Hyunseung asked,
“Where’s my studio?”
- Gosa (고사) is a traditional Korean shamanistic ritual performed to pray for good luck, prosperity, and safety when starting a new venture, such as opening a business, moving into a new home, beginning construction, or starting a film production. It involves offering food, including a pig’s head, to household gods. ↩︎
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