4. The Next District Leader of District 5
The heat, as if it would melt my entire body, made me gasp for breath as I woke up. Opening my eyes and looking around, I saw that it was still dawn, with only the cold, pale light lingering.
Pulling back the blanket, I found myself drenched in sweat. Everything felt damp, as if I had taken a shower and hadn’t dried off.
“Hot…”
The lingering heat felt like it was burning my heart. Clutching my chest, I climbed out of bed. Staggering toward the drawer, I fumbled inside and took out some pills.
Among the countless unnamed medications, I searched for a fever reducer. The only light available was the faint bluish glow of dawn, making it difficult to distinguish anything, but I roughly identified the fever reducer by touch.
I popped several pills into my mouth and tried to swallow them down my dry throat, but it was difficult. Turning to the side, I grabbed a water bottle and took a sip. Only then did the pills finally go down.
“I’m gonna die…”
The medicine didn’t work instantly, so I had to endure the fever for a little while longer. I didn’t even have the strength to return to bed, so I leaned against the drawer, letting time pass.
By the time the icy dawn light had faded and the rising sun brightened the world, the medicine had finally begun to take effect. My blurred vision gradually cleared.
I staggered back to bed. Lying down on the damp sheets, I stared at the fully risen morning sun. I had lost count of how many dawns I had spent like this due to my fever. I had long since given up on keeping track.
Knock, knock. A gentle knock sounded, followed by the door slowly creaking open. Even without looking, I knew who it was. Only one person in this mansion carried such a strong floral scent wherever they went.
“Seo-yul hyung, are you awake?”
Vin’s gentle voice asked. I turned my stiff neck toward him and, pretending nothing was wrong, smiled nonchalantly.
“Yeah, I’m up.”
***
Time, which once seemed like it would never pass, had flown by in an instant. Now, or to be exact, Han Seo-yul was on the verge of turning eighteen. Soon, I would be recognized as an adult in this world.
I had thought that becoming an adult would change things drastically, but it didn’t. Han Jae-hoon’s overprotectiveness remained the same, and the alcohol and cigarettes I had long awaited were still out of reach.
Physically, I had grown taller, and my baby fat had melted away, but beyond that, nothing had changed. To anyone who looked at me, Han Seo-yul still seemed more like a boy than a man.
And now, my eighteenth birthday was approaching. Not just any birthday—this was the day I would officially become an adult.
On this birthday, Han Jae-hoon planned to announce me as the next leader of District 5. The moment I had desperately wanted to avoid had arrived.
Lately, people had been whispering about the responsibilities of a successor, saying it was time for me to start preparing. In this situation, how long could I really hold out if I stubbornly insisted that I didn’t want to do it?
Se-yul was the obvious choice, yet Han Jae-hoon remained fixated on me for one simple reason—because I was his only biological son.
“This needs to be overturned as soon as possible.”
“Overturned? What do you mean?”
I had been so lost in thought that I forgot Vin was beside me. Hastily brushing it off, I straightened my head from where it had been resting against the window frame.
“What are you doing?”
“Just making something, anything.”
Vin was weaving something out of flowers he had picked from the garden. The ones he braided into a circular shape became a wreath, while the smaller ones turned into floral bracelets.
“Here.”
Vin handed me the finished wreath. The mix of yellow and white flowers was beautifully balanced. Was his talent with his hands because he was a Shining? The thought crossed my mind.
I placed the wreath on my head for a moment before setting it down again. It would look nice dried and hung on the wall. Or maybe as a decoration on the table.
“Seo-yul hyung, you’re worried about something, aren’t you?”
“I’ve got plenty of worries.”
“Tell me. I’ll listen.”
Vin leaned in, his pretty face close to mine. Unlike me, who hadn’t changed much over the past five years, Vin had shed his childishness and grown into a striking young man, tall and breathtakingly beautiful.
I saw his face every day, yet sometimes, even I found myself mesmerized. How could someone look like that? His features forced me to confront the unfairness of the gods.
“Move your face away before you speak.”
“Why?”
“It’s too overwhelming.”
Se-yul’s frequent remark about “that cunning little Shining” popped into my head. More mischievous than cunning, really. Vin knew I was weak against his face, so whenever he wanted something, he acted like this.
Because he knew I would always give in. I had completely spoiled him. I tried to steel myself against it, but when I looked into those jewel-like ruby eyes, I melted every time.
I never realized it before, but I might really be a hopeless fool for a pretty face.
“It’s because of my birthday.”
“Oh, because of the successor announcement?”
“You knew?”
“Seo-yul hyung, you don’t want to be the next district leader.”
Was it that obvious? I supposed I might have talked about it unconsciously in all the time we spent together, but the way he saw right through me still caught me off guard.
“But what can we do? There’s no one else besides you, Seo-yul hyung.”
“What do you mean there’s no one else? There’s Se-yul.”
“Han Se-yul is—”
Vin started to say something but abruptly stopped. He hesitated, quickly changing his words with a dismissive “Never mind.” But it wasn’t hard to guess what he had meant to say.
Most likely, he was about to point out that Se-yul wasn’t Han Jae-hoon’s biological son. And honestly, who in this mansion didn’t know that?
“My birthday… it’s only a month away now.”
“It’s still a whole month away.”
“No, hyung, it’s only a month away.”
Vin countered with a bright smile. He never used to be like this, but at some point, he had developed this habit of never backing down in a conversation. They say you should never raise a black-haired beast, but in this case, was it a red-haired one?
“Oh, right. A letter came from Han Se-yul.”
“Really?”
Vin pulled out the letter he had tucked inside his coat and handed it to me. Tearing open the envelope, I immediately read through Se-yul’s words. From the opening, ‘To my dear hyung, whom I miss,’ to the closing, ‘I’m sorry,’ I read it all in one go. And I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a deep sigh.
“What did he say?”
“Exactly what I expected.”
A few weeks ago, I had sent Se-yul an honest letter. I told him I wasn’t qualified and lacked the ability to lead. That I planned to be upfront with Father about my true feelings and refuse the position of district leader.
Since that would naturally shift the opportunity to him, I had urged him to start preparing himself for the role.
But the reply I received was a firm rejection: ‘If not you, hyung, then who else could possibly lead?’
There wasn’t even a shred of hesitation in his response. The blunt finality of it only made my already suffocating frustration worse.
If even Se-yul refused, then there really was no way out of this. It wasn’t as if I could force the role onto someone who clearly didn’t want it.
“Seo-yul hyung.”
“What?”
“Let’s go for a walk.”
I shot Vin a sharp glare, silently questioning if I looked like I had the patience for a stroll when my head was spinning like this.
Unfazed, his pale hand reached out and clasped my limp wrist.
“Come on, let’s go.”
His gentle voice melted against my ears, and before I realized it, my legs moved on their own. At this point, I wasn’t even sure why I bothered resisting in the first place.
“When your head feels foggy like this, the best thing to do is take a walk.”
“Who said that?”
“Mr. Connor.”
If the butler said so, then it must be true. And honestly, stepping outside did seem better than staying trapped in my stifling room.
Nodding in agreement, I let Vin lead me out the door, his grip firm around my hand.
Cool, pale fingers intertwined between mine, gripping tightly without a single gap. I looked down at our clasped hands for a moment before shifting my gaze to Vin’s back, watching him bounce forward excitedly.
Every time the breeze swept past us, the floral scent surrounding Vin grew stronger. It hadn’t always been this intense, but now the fragrance was almost overwhelming, dizzying enough to blur my vision. By the time it became unbearable, we had arrived at the flower field.
“Sit here.”
Vin, who had somehow produced a picnic mat without me noticing, spread it out and gently guided me to sit. Then, he wandered off to pick flowers.
I remained seated in the shade, letting the breeze wash over me as I waited for him to return.
This felt less like a walk and more like simply getting some fresh air, but either way, it was better than being cooped up in my suffocating room. The chaos in my mind remained unresolved, but at least out here, it felt a little lighter.
“Seo-yul hyung!”
Vin came running back with an armful of flowers, his vibrant energy seemingly unaffected by the weight of them. He spread them out across the mat—white, red, and yellow blossoms scattered before me like a painter’s palette.
One flower, in particular, caught my eye. I reached out and picked it up.
“I know this one.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“Evening primrose.”
I had seen this flower before at my grandmother’s house in the countryside. Back then, I had been so captivated by its luminous yellow hue that I had stood before it for a long time, inhaling its faint, delicate scent.
As far as I knew, it was supposed to bloom only at night. But perhaps because the moon was always present here, the evening primrose lived up to its name, stretching its golden petals open toward the ever-hanging moon.
“Do you know what it symbolizes?”
“Symbolizes?”
“Yeah. People love assigning meanings and stories to flowers.”
It was something I had once heard from my grandmother as a child, a memory long buried yet oddly clear.
A tale of a girl who had waited endlessly beneath the moon, until she finally turned into an evening primrose. And so, the flower’s meaning was—
“Waiting.”
“Waiting…”
I carefully tucked the small, delicate flower behind Vin’s ear.
It suited him.
As I smiled softly, Vin mirrored my expression.
Our fingers intertwined again, still cool at first, but soon melting into the same warmth.
“I’ll remember,” he whispered.
And with his words, the scent of flowers deepened, wrapping around us.
