After wrapping up his work with Hyung Jinwoo, Hyunseung received a call from Jayble just before he was set to return to the United States.
It was none other than an unexpected request asking to hitch a ride on his private jet.
Jayble wasn’t even promoting in the US, so his reason for wanting to go along was glaringly obvious.
“In exchange for the flight, you’ll have to do me a favor later.”
“We’re heading the same way anyway. Can’t you just let me tag along?”
“To dismiss it as just ‘heading the same way,’ isn’t Korea to the US a bit too far of a journey?”
He must be going to see Michelle.
Honestly.
He was such an unexpected romantic.
“Man, so what kind of favor are you going to ask for?”
“I’ll ask for it later.”
“You really have a knack for making people curious, don’t you?”
Leaving Jayble to his remarks, Hyunseung leaned back and laid down.
Fatigue had washed over him due to barely getting any proper sleep over the past few days. Since they weren’t the type to engage in casual chit-chat, there wasn’t much to say.
Thus, only the roar of the airplane engine filled the space between them.
Rustle.
Meanwhile, Jayble’s gaze remained fixed on Hyunseung. Even so, he didn’t speak up first.
What happened to your ears?
Can you really not hear?
How did it end up like that?
There were many things he wanted to ask, but he deliberately refrained.
After all, to that guy, it wouldn’t be a problem at all.
Why bring it up and turn it into an issue?
Instead, to break the silence, he threw out a different topic.
“I’m planning to properly propose when I get there this time.”
Hyunseung kept his eyes closed and answered nonchalantly, “Yeah, go ahead.”
But a moment later.
“What? You’re going to barge in just like this, with nothing prepared, and propose?”
He suddenly bolted upright and asked back. Jayble hadn’t expected such an active reaction.
“I can just buy something when I get there.”
Feeling an inexplicable thrill, Jayble took it a step further with a joke.
“While we’re at it, lend me some dollars.”
“Use your card.”
“Between us, aren’t you being a bit stingy?”
Of course, no further reaction came from Hyunseung.
Honestly.
The guy had neither sentiment nor a sense of humor.
“By the way, are you seeing anyone?”
Having lost interest, but not wanting the silence to drag on, Jayble asked casually.
“I am.”
“Ah, I see.”
Jayble had nodded automatically, assuming Hyunseung would naturally reply with something like, “Not really interested.”
But then…
“Wha—? With who?”
Shocked by the unexpected answer, he practically jumped up and asked back.
“……Sarah Stewart.”
The response that followed caught Jayble off guard once again.
Though dating rumors had circulated between the two, given Hyunseung’s personality, Jayble had firmly believed it wasn’t true.
He had seemed so entirely uninterested in women that Jayble had even worried he might end up growing old and dying alone.
“R-Really?”
Hyunseung nodded without an ounce of hesitation at Jayble’s question, but then paused, tilting his head slightly.
“Probably.”
He gave an ambiguous answer.
“Wait, if you’re seeing each other, you’re seeing each other. What’s with the ‘probably’?”
“I gave her a necklace, she accepted it, so doesn’t that mean we’re dating?”
The reply that returned was even more absurd.
“What, is there something more required?”
This guy… he was a total lost cause, wasn’t he?
…
An unusual tension flowed through the VINCIS CEO’s office.
At the center of that tension was, of course, Hyunseung.
And for good reason.
It was shocking enough that Hyunseung had come straight to the CEO’s office instead of his studio the moment he returned to Korea.
On top of that, he wore quite a serious expression, so no one in the office dared to easily ask him anything.
Furthermore.
Executive Director Park and Kim Woohyun were particularly cautious about opening their mouths since they knew about the condition of Hyunseung’s ears.
“I mean, why come all the way here out of the blue just to take a vow of silence?”
The one who finally spoke up first was Vincent, unable to bear the frustration. In truth, it was mostly because he couldn’t bear the anxiety.
Hyunseung had suddenly shown up in the CEO’s office, sitting there with his lips tightly sealed and an utterly serious look on his face, hadn’t he?
Like someone about to bring up a difficult topic.
Hyunseung had naturally taken the head seat anyway.
Even Vincent had naturally yielded it to him.
Though Vincent concurrently held the title of CEO…
In reality, the one who held the greatest power in VINCIS, no matter what anyone said, was Hyunseung. It was only natural.
After all, the key executives were all Hyunseung’s people.
Ever since Hyunseung returned, Vincent had been trembling with anxiety, to the point of having daily nightmares about stepping down from the CEO position. As someone fond of holding official titles, laying down the crown was quite a bitter pill to swallow.
Of course.
If Hyunseung ordered him to step down, he would, even if it pained him.
“Come on, say something, anything….”
Just as Vincent pressed him once more.
“How did all of you start dating your partners?”
Hyunseung’s lips, which had been firmly shut like an iron fortress, finally parted.
However, the words that came out of those lips completely defied everyone’s expectations.
First, Kim Woohyun had expected Hyunseung to discuss business-related matters since he had just finished working with Hyung Jinwoo.
Executive Director Park had thought Hyunseung was going to open up about the condition of his ears.
And Vincent had predicted he was finally going to order him to surrender the crown.
Yet.
Dating advice, out of nowhere?
“Why bring that up all of a sudden…?”
Kim Woohyun asked, looking at Hyunseung with narrowed eyes.
“Ah, right. Director Kim, you got married most recently, didn’t you? By any chance, did you sing that song yourself when you confessed?”
Right after that.
“Are you crazy?! Why would I sing that myself to confess?!”
His face flushed red at the sudden mention of his dark past, and he barked out in outrage.
“Then, how did you confess and start dating?”
Ahem, “why are you suddenly prying into my personal life?”
“I was just curious.”
“It was around the time I decided to follow you to the US, probably?”
Then, as if he had never been angry in the first place, he began elaborating at length, as though recounting a heroic epic.
Honestly.
Whenever it came to Danbi, he just couldn’t help himself.
“Back then, the sunset was glowing behind Danbi, and honestly, man….”
Thus, Kim Woohyun’s romance story continued for quite a while.
“Well, nothing special there.”
Just as Executive Director Park leaned forward with a scoff, seemingly about to take the baton.
“Executive Director Park, it’s been so long that your memory must be hazy anyway, so you don’t really need to tell yours.”
Hyunseung cut him off first.
“Why, you little…!”
Executive Director Park huffed and puffed, visibly irritated.
“What about you, Vincent?”
Hyunseung didn’t mind him at all and passed the baton to Vincent instead.
Though his prime was past now that he was in his thirties, comparing their twenties, Vincent seemed like the one who would have been the most popular among them.
“Me? Well, lately I haven’t been able to date because I’ve been crazy busy with work, but back in the day, I dated endlessly.”
“So, how did you usually confess at first?”
“I mean, is a confession really necessary? Eyes meet, lips touch—.”
“That’s enough.”
Ah, I shouldn’t have asked.
Vulgar.
Just as Hyunseung gestured to clean out his ear, as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.
Kim Woohyun snapped his fingers as if remembering something and chimed in.
“Come to think of it, Hyunseung, didn’t you say you had a first love, too? How did you two end up dating back then?”
At that question, Hyunseung searched his memories. It was such a long time ago that his memory was faint now.
Of course.
In terms of his current age, it hadn’t even been ten years.
But it was a relationship from his previous life….
Counting it that way, it was nearly twenty years ago.
“My first love? That was probably after I got back from the military, so around when I was twenty-one?”
“Twenty-one? Isn’t that right when you first signed the exclusive contract with LS Entertainment?”
“Ah, right before that. Right before.”
The timing happened to overlap, which almost made things awkward, but Hyunseung handled it smoothly and continued.
Since this was the first time they were hearing about Hyunseung’s romantic history, they all listened intently with interested expressions.
Wait.
Why were four grown men gathered together gossiping about this?
Suddenly having that thought, Vincent asked with a bewildered look.
“Wait, why did we start talking about dating histories all of a sudden?”
“What do you mean why? It started because Hyunseung asked.”
Kim Woohyun pointed at Hyunseung in response.
“Ah, right.”
Vincent followed his finger to look at Hyunseung and added.
“By the way, why did the guy least interested in dating out of the four of us suddenly ask about our love lives?”
“I am interested.”
“Huh?”
“I have an interest, too.”
Hyunseung firmly cut him off.
“Ah, I get it.”
Vincent’s surprise was brief.
“You have a girl you like, don’t you? Is that why you keep chartering private jets to fly back and forth to Korea lately?”
He shot him a knowing, sly glance and added.
“You set this whole serious mood today just to hand out wedding invitations, didn’t you?”
All the while thinking how fortunate it was that he wasn’t being ordered to surrender the crown.
“It’s nothing like that.”
However, Hyunseung once again shut Vincent down flatly. At that, Vincent smacked his lips in disappointment, murmuring, “Ah, it’s not?”
Soon.
It was Hyunseung who broke the silence again.
“It’s nothing much. I thought we were seeing each other on plenty good terms, but Jayble said that definitely wasn’t the case and told me not to be delusional….”
“Jayble did?”
“Yeah. I gave her a necklace and stuff, she accepted it, and she occasionally wears it when she meets me. Isn’t that enough to consider us dating?”
At Hyunseung’s shamelessly confident question, a brief silence fell over the room.
“Pffft—!”
Before long, the room burst into a sea of laughter.
“Look at this guy! Turns out he’s just an innocent young man, huh?”
“Oh, really? If that woman shows up wearing that necklace with a dress, are you going to think she accepted a marriage proposal?”
Vincent and Executive Director Park clutched their bellies in uncontrollable laughter, each chiming in to tease Hyunseung.
Indeed.
It was because Hyunseung suddenly seemed as innocent as any ordinary guy his age.
Moreover, it was the first time he had ever shown such a side or opened up about this kind of worry.
Kim Woohyun also smiled gently at Hyunseung’s innocence, but soon—
“Hyunseung, go to her right now and make things crystal clear.”
He added in a serious tone.
“Wh-What do you mean?”
Even if the others didn’t know, Kim Woohyun knew.
The subtle tension flowing between Hyunseung and Sarah.
And he also knew about the very slight shift in Hyunseung’s feelings.
“Tell her, ‘Let’s date with good intentions.’”
“How can I say something like that…?”
“Are you saying that because you’re too shy to say it in person?”
Just as Kim Woohyun asked back with a fatherly smile.
“More than that, you all know the condition of my ears right now. Honestly, I don’t even know when they’ll fully recover, so as a man, how can I be so irresponsible as to ask her to date me right now?”
Hyunseung spoke calmly, yet it sounded like a quiet lament.
“What does your ear have to do with dating?!”
At those words, Kim Woohyun snapped heatedly.
“He’s right, you punk! Besides, it’s not like you’re getting married tomorrow, so what’s this about being irresponsible?! Even if you did get married, what’s wrong with that?!”
At the same time, Executive Director Park rose from his seat to add his piece.
Between the two of them, Vincent just sat there blankly, blinking his eyes.
“Ears? What’s wrong with his ears? What happened? What do you mean, recover?”
He immediately grabbed the hems of Park’s and Kim Woohyun’s clothes, tactlessly prying for answers, but no one bothered to answer him.
“Still, thank you for the advice. Then, once the nerves fully recover and things get better, I’ll try to talk to her clearly then.”
Soon after, having accomplished what he came for, Hyunseung brushed himself off and stood up.
“Well, I’m tired, so I’ll be taking my leave.”
With that, he strode toward the CEO’s office door.
And the moment Hyunseung opened the door, what he came face-to-face with was….
“Since when… have you been standing there?”
It was Sarah Stewart.
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