Life is a little unfair.
Minjun came to realize this around the time he started middle school. More precisely, from the day his father dragged him along by the hand to meet ‘that kid.’
Baek Gangha. The youngest son of the Baekhwa Group. The person Minjun was to devote body and soul to looking after.
The positions the two of them had been assigned the moment they were born into the world did not change even after Minjun took off his school uniform and became an adult. Back then, whenever Minjun looked at Baek Gangha, so much younger than him, he would often find himself thinking the same thing. Gangha’s got everything. Lucky him.
Still, unlike his childhood, when he had been jealous of Baek Gangha now and then, these days he only envied him and harbored no other thoughts about it. He knew the perks of serving the son of the Baekhwa Group were nothing to sneeze at.
The only reason Minjun got to live in this penthouse was that Gangha needed someone his own age to wait on him. What kind of attendant a high schooler who was not even legally an adult required, Minjun had no idea, but if he could, he wanted to keep this connection with Gangha going for a long time yet.
At the sound of the front door opening, Minjun came trotting out and took Gangha’s bag.
“Gangha, you’re back?”
Minjun kept an artificial smile plastered on his face, working to stay in Gangha’s good graces. The flunky instinct was carved deep into Minjun’s DNA.
Cold air pushed in through the gap in the open door. Baek Gangha handed over his coat after the bag, gave Minjun a passing glance with those pale eyes, and said nothing at all. Same as always, he did not seem to be in a particularly good mood today either.
“How did the CSAT go?”
“Yes.”
“That must have been rough. Want me to help you check your answers?”
No answer came back. Gangha’s profile, stolen in a quick glance, was as fluid as something painted in watercolor. His long lowered lashes cast a faint shadow, and beneath them his indifferent eyes carried the color of hazelnut. His personality was the problem. He was pretty, at least.
Used to being ignored, Minjun trailed after Gangha in his school uniform, looking him up and down.
Did he get taller again?
Minjun had been taller than the other kids since he was young, and back when he looked down at little Gangha he had secretly thought him cute, but Gangha had shot up not long ago and flipped their eye levels. Minjun had never measured him outright, but by eye Gangha looked a good 190cm. Height, the one thing Minjun had ever had on him, was no longer worth bringing up.
The truth was, Gangha and Minjun had started from different lines entirely, so Minjun could not even presume to be jealous. Unlike Minjun, a recessive alpha barely a step above a beta, Gangha was a rare and precious dominant alpha. Hanguk University, which Minjun had scraped into on his fifth try (and even then he had nearly failed again, squeezing in as the very last admit), Gangha was going to pass on his first attempt. Gangha even had a family so perfect it looked painted.
For balance’s sake his dick should at least be small, then, but on the day Gangha wore gray sweats, what Minjun had caught a glimpse of down there was….
Click. Gangha stepped into his bedroom and shut the door. He knew perfectly well someone was following him, and closing it in his face came quite naturally. Minjun looked back and forth between the shut door and his own crotch and abruptly deflated.
“Gangha, aren’t you hungry? What should I make you for dinner?”
Minjun asked in the sort of cheesy voice you would use on a girlfriend. Gangha hated loud noises, so he stood right in front of the door and enunciated. Something seemed to come back from inside, but the room was soundproofed and he could not make it out. Minjun carefully opened the door and went in.
“Sorry, it’s nothing, I just wondered if you had eaten….”
“I’m eating with Sowon.”
Gangha shrugged off his uniform jacket and handed it over. Minjun took it in a flash and hung it in its designated spot. Fussy as he was, Gangha loathed his belongings straying from where they belonged.
“Sowon’s coming over?”
Jin Sowon was a high school friend of Gangha’s, a fair, fresh faced dominant omega. Most of Gangha’s friends had no manners to speak of, but Sowon alone greeted even Minjun without fail, every single time. A pretty face and a kind heart both, in other words.
“He’ll be here at 7. Plan the meal accordingly.”
“Sure, got it.”
Seeing him loosen his tie, Minjun quickly put out a hand and took it. He was watching blankly as Gangha popped his shirt open, button by button, when their eyes met.
Gangha came slowly toward him, bent his head, and drew in a deep breath. Then those pale brown eyes dragged over Minjun, up and down, unhurried. As if he were checking whether Minjun had gotten up to anything while he was out.
“Hyung, go wash up before you start.”
“…Me?”
When Minjun pointed at himself, flustered, Gangha answered in an indifferent tone.
“Is there someone else here besides you, hyung?”
“Do I smell? I showered earlier…. My hair’s just flat from the nap.”
Reasonable as the explanation was, Gangha held out his uniform shirt instead of replying. The white short sleeved tee underneath was spotless, as though it spoke for Gangha’s whole nature.
“…Fine. I’ll shower and then get started.”
Meeting Gangha’s eyes, Minjun managed an awkward smile. Damn it, another shower. If he got lazy and only washed his hair, Gangha would catch it immediately and say so, which meant scrubbing himself down from head to toe.
He hurried out of the room before Gangha could order anything else. The uniform shirt in his hands smelled of fabric softener, a scent that did not suit Gangha at all.
‘Minjun, you have to be good to the youngest young master. Even if he acts a little sensitive, you put up with all of it. Understand?’
What had it been like, the first time he saw Gangha?
On the day he first came face to face with Baek Gangha, his father drilled it into him over and over that he had to make a good impression. It was a fairly cold thing to say to a young son, but Minjun, who spent every day kicking a ball around the schoolyard, answered with a bright, thoughtless ‘Yes!’
‘Minjun, why don’t you say hello to the young master?’
‘Yes!’
That day Gangha was hiding behind the housekeeper’s back with only his head poking out. Back then Gangha was smaller and frailer than Minjun, and more than anything, he was the prettiest person Minjun had ever seen in his life. Even his shyness looked so much like an angel’s that Minjun could not take his eyes off him.
Which was why Minjun did not catch what Gangha said the first time.
‘…irty.’
His father and the housekeeper exchanged uncomfortable looks. Minjun, who understood none of it, shyly held out his hand to Gangha.
‘Hi, Gangha. I’m Jo Minjun.’
‘Dirty.’
‘Huh…?’
‘You stink, so get away from me!’
‘Ow…!’
A hand shoved him in the chest and Minjun landed hard on his backside. Being called dirty and smelly was such a shock that he did not even register the pain.
Strong despite his delicate looks, Gangha stood over him and looked down like he had found the filthiest bug in the world. Minjun sat there on the verge of tears, at a total loss.
‘…I-I’m not dirty….’
Muttering it in an injured voice did no good. Gangha had long since plugged his nose and vanished.
His father pulled Minjun up from where he sat slumped like the world had ended, patting him down as he went. The young master is a little sensitive, so you have to be considerate of him. Something along those lines.
It would have been nice if he had refused outright back then, but….
Sadly, Minjun at the time was bought off completely by the brand new phone his father promised him, and he nodded.
With no idea that his entire life would end up in hock to Gangha from then on.
