# 1
[15+ Age Advisory]
*This work contains content that may be inappropriate for readers under 15 years of age.
Please enjoy this work under adult supervision.
“…Don’t be nervous, Lee Eunsol.”
Eunsol wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. As he did so, the clothes he was wearing caught his attention.
‘Change into these clothes.’
They were clothes brought by Manager Do Jiheon, who handled household affairs. When Eunsol pulled the clothes out of the shopping bag, his hands nearly trembled so much that he almost dropped them.
At first glance, they looked no different from ordinary pajamas. But the material was the problem.
The pajamas, which slipped through his fingers like flowing water, were made of a material that faintly revealed skin when worn.
‘And don’t wear any underwear.’
Moreover, with nothing worn underneath, the pajamas completely revealed Eunsol’s silhouette. It was the first time in his life he had worn such clothing.
The hastily learned sex education also flashed through his mind. The main part of the education had been watching videos filled with flesh-colored scenes.
‘You must never show any sign of pain. Rather, hold your breath so no sound escapes.’
Unlike Eunsol, whose face had turned bright red watching the videos, Manager Do had coldly said only what needed to be said.
“…I’m scared.”
What Manager Do had given Eunsol wasn’t just provocatively designed clothes. It also included tools necessary for what was about to happen.
He recalled what the man had whispered in his ear while gripping Eunsol’s startled shoulders.
‘If this marriage falls through, the Chairman will be greatly disappointed.’
Eunsol raised his trembling hand to massage his shoulder, which still ached. He closed his eyes and steadied his shaky breathing. Quickly accepting unavoidable situations had been a survival tactic he’d learned throughout his life.
“…I hope he’s a gentle person.”
Despite being the person he was marrying, all Eunsol knew about him was information that could be found on the internet.
‘How could someone like you marry the Chairman of TH Group? It’s only possible because the Chairman is over seventy years old.’
He remembered what his half-brother had said, sneering at him.
Han Chihun, Chairman of TH Group, ranked first in Korea’s business world.
He was the person Eunsol was now waiting for.
Eunsol was only twenty years old. Not even half of January had passed, so it would be fair to say he had just become an adult.
‘There won’t be a wedding ceremony. Drawing public attention would do no good.’
This was what his father had said when he summoned Eunsol to his study, though he usually treated Eunsol as if he didn’t exist.
The sudden marriage was already bewildering, but his partner’s background, age—none of it was normal.
‘…Yes, Father.’
But Eunsol couldn’t defy his father’s orders. Since childhood, his father’s words had been law. For Eunsol, disobeying his father’s commands was as difficult as an elephant chained since birth escaping of its own will.
That’s why he couldn’t even consider running away from this absurd situation. All Eunsol could do was obediently sit in the place where he would spend his first night, following his father’s orders and Manager Do’s guidance.
“It’s okay. It will be okay.”
Unlike the cutting wind outside, the room was filled with warm air. Even so, Eunsol’s body trembled with chills, and he repeatedly rubbed his arms with his palms.
Then the wine placed in front of him caught his eye. Feeling that it would be difficult to endure with a clear head, he hesitantly reached for the wine.
Click.
The sound of the door opening. Simultaneously, the small hand moving toward the wine stopped in surprise.
His throat went dry, but because of the person entering the room, Eunsol couldn’t even blink. Though he had never seen Han Chihun in person, he was familiar with his appearance from photographs, as the man was more famous than most celebrities.
Even with advanced medical technology, the wrinkles on his face and neck hadn’t disappeared. He might look younger compared to others his age, but to Eunsol, he was still a grandfather-like figure from a distant generation.
“…This old man must have gone completely mad.”
Eunsol gaped like a baby chick. The man before him was too young to be the person he had seen in photographs.
Though he appeared older than Eunsol, he looked to be in his late 20s at most.
“Perhaps… did you enter the wrong room…?”
The only explanation Eunsol’s frozen mind could come up with was that the man had entered by mistake. Was it the hotel’s error? Eunsol rose sluggishly from the sofa where he had been sitting. In this unexpected situation, neither his mind nor body would move as he wanted.
“Lee Eunsol, isn’t that your name?”
Despite his youthful appearance, the man’s voice was low and deep, resonating throughout the room. His voice, almost like a whisper directly in the ear, made Eunsol’s Adam’s apple bob.
“Y-yes, it is…”
“Then I’ve come to the right place. You must be surprised that I’m not the person you were expecting.”
The man took steps toward Eunsol. Unconsciously backing away, Eunsol’s knees hit the sofa, and he fell back onto it with a thud.
Thanks to his long legs, the man closed the considerable distance in an instant. When the man extended his hand, Eunsol tightly shut his eyes.
Having never experienced anything good when someone reached out to him, Eunsol, like a conditioned dog, closed his eyes and trembled slightly, preparing for whatever was to come.
At the same time, an out-of-place fresh pine scent tickled his nose. Eunsol’s brows furrowed. The scent was so intense it felt as if he had been thrown into the middle of a pine forest, and it wasn’t the artificial smell of perfume.
Eunsol had experienced something similar before. It was like the sensation he felt when his father, the only alpha around him, revealed his pheromones.
But the flutter in his heart now was clearly different from what he had felt then.
As Eunsol carefully rubbed near his pounding heart, feeling a sensation different from fear—
“I won’t touch you, so open your eyes.”
The deeply resonant voice tapped at his ear. There was no anger toward Eunsol in his voice. Pushing aside his restless thoughts, Eunsol slowly opened his eyes.
How many times had his long eyelashes curled up? Eunsol realized that the man had only taken the wine bottle and glass that had been placed in front.
A deeply red liquid poured into the glass, which drew an elegant line like a swan’s back gliding on a lake.
The sweet scent of berries mingled with a faint woody aroma circled around the two of them before fading away.
The man placed the slender stem between his fingers, where the joints were prominently visible, and turned it a couple of times. Like the swirling red liquid, ripples formed on Eunsol’s pupils.
“Why don’t you have a glass too? You seem very tense.”
The man gestured with his chin toward another glass on the table. Then, the motion of bringing the wine glass to his lips flowed smoothly.
Eunsol, as if hypnotized, watched as the man’s lips turned red before returning to their original color, and clasped both hands on his thighs.
How were things unfolding?
No matter how much Eunsol tried to recall, the man before him was a stranger. Manager Do had informed him about Chairman Han Chihun and his immediate family, but this man wasn’t among them.
Yet Eunsol couldn’t shake the feeling that he must be related to Han Chihun by blood.
Even as people age and their skin loses elasticity, their eyes don’t wrinkle.
The man looked like a younger version of Chairman Han Chihun. Though his appearance was much more refined and handsome enough to naturally draw compliments, his piercing eyes that overwhelmed people were exactly like those of Chairman Han.
“What are you thinking so hard about with that little head of yours?”
The man seemed to know that Eunsol’s mind was in turmoil. The complex thread of thoughts suddenly snapped like a radish being sliced. Eunsol sat dazed, captured by the man’s gaze.
“I’m going to wash up. Try to relax.”
The man rose after drinking half his wine. He removed his smoothly flowing suit jacket, followed by his vest, and then the tie constricting his neck.
Until he passed by Eunsol and headed toward the bathroom, Eunsol could barely breathe. He just gripped his hands tightly to hide the trembling.
“He said he’s going to wash up…”
Only after the man disappeared from view did Eunsol desperately try to make sense of the situation. He wondered if the man had come to the wrong room, but he had definitely known Eunsol’s name.
Eunsol looked down at his clothes. They were clearly designed to seduce whoever saw them.
Perhaps the man thought so too. On the bedside table, the items Manager Do had given him were still neatly arranged.
His large eyes wavered like those of a cow being led to slaughter. Eunsol turned his gaze toward the sound of a door closing.
“What should I do…”
Even as he clutched his heaving chest and tried to catch his breath, no solution came to mind. Eunsol didn’t even have a phone. Manager Do had said only that he would come to pick him up at dawn.
Manager Do had also taken the clothes Eunsol had arrived in. It was impossible to leave the hotel room in his current attire. If he encountered an alpha, he risked facing a terrible situation.
Eunsol reflected on the man who had entered instead of Chairman Han Chihun. Despite the situation unfolding in a frighteningly strange way, he wasn’t completely panicked thanks to the man’s behavior.
“He didn’t hit me, and above all…”
He was handsome. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was the most handsome person Eunsol had ever seen. Since entering the room, all the man had done was walk over, pour wine into a glass, and drink it.
Afterward, he just removed his clothes one by one before disappearing.
Each movement was subtly imbued with intimidation and dignity. Even though the man hadn’t specifically intimidated Eunsol, the weight of his presence pressed down on Eunsol’s entire body more heavily than when his father shouted.
His gaze was so heavy that Eunsol could feel its trajectory.
“…Could he be an alpha?”
His small head tilted toward the direction where the man had disappeared. The room was well soundproofed, so no particular sound could be heard.
As he recalled the firm body vaguely visible through the shirt, his pale cheeks turned pink.
He was like the ideal type that any omega would dream of.
Eunsol pulled his two legs stretched out under the sofa and rubbed his heated forehead against his round knees.
The soft touch of the fabric cooled his hot forehead. Eunsol waited for the man to finish washing up without moving. Although things seemed strange, he thought that if something were truly wrong, Manager Do would have entered the room.
His father valued Eunsol quite highly as a commodity to be sold someday. Perhaps… the person he was being sold to had changed.
He was relieved that Chairman Han Chihun hadn’t come. Despite trying to appear calm, Eunsol was actually very frightened.
Having never properly held an alpha’s hand, he would have had to experience his first time with someone old enough to be his grandfather. And all because of a contract formed regardless of Eunsol’s wishes.
Though he still didn’t know the man’s identity, he was better than Chairman Han Chihun. At least he didn’t seem much older than Eunsol, and he hadn’t laid a hand on him.
He didn’t speak condescendingly in that deep, resonant voice, as if addressing a subordinate.
It was unfamiliar to Eunsol. Even Manager Do, who handled household affairs, subtly treated Eunsol carelessly.
But this man, whom he had met today for the first time, treated Eunsol more respectfully than people he had known for a long time.
His small chest began to fill with fluttering heartbeats. Perhaps he could fulfill the dream he had wanted since childhood.
It was around the time when the man finally approached the bed, patting his wet hair with a towel. The once-white corners of his eyes had turned slightly red, as if flower petals had fallen on them.
