Chapter 66
The mirror reflected a stranger, but the disguise was immaculate. Yeonho adjusted the collar, smoothing the fabric until not a single detail betrayed who he really was. Every breath felt lighter today, tinged with a sharp, addictive thrill that had been buzzing under his skin since yesterday.
Two days. Just two days left until the main plot event—Hana's grand birthday party.
He couldn't care less if a typhoon tore through Seoul right now. Having that video file of Hana spilling her stupid heart out in front of the camera made his entire world feel blindingly bright. She had blabbed a secret so dirty, so utterly delicious, that the sheer pleasure of knowing it made his skin hum.
"I'm going to do whatever I want, and no one can stop me," he whispered, a quiet chuckle slipping past his lips as he met his own eyes in the glass. He turned and headed downstairs.
The rhythmic click of his shoes on the staircase slowed when his eyes caught the living room below. Min-Hyuk was sprawled on the couch, one ankle resting on his knee, casually tapping away at his phone.
'Ah. Why the hell is he here?
Shouldn't Min-Hyuk be with Hana right now?'
Today was supposed to mark the final mini plot event before the actual birthday arc—the exclusive dinner where all the male leads gathered around Hana.
A pathetic little display of possessiveness, jealousy, and competing romantic declarations.
Hana was planning to hand out her birthday invitations over the meal, but it wasn't just a simple dinner.
Yesterday, under the influence of Jeungmin's mixture, Hana had confessed her true plan for tonight.
Of course, Yeonho had no intention of letting that go smoothly. If he had to crash their sweet little gathering, he'd smash it to pieces with a smile.
Still, it was early afternoon. Hours away from dinner time. Unbothered by the uninvited guest, Yeonho simply shrugged his shoulders and stepped off the last stair.
Freya emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel, her face softening as she caught sight of him.
"Are you leaving now, Mistress? Won't you eat your lunch? I've prepared a meal for you."
At Freya's greeting, Min-Hyuk's attention shifted. His gaze dragged upward, catching Yeonho in his full disguise. Pocketing his phone, Min-Hyuk stood up in one fluid motion and started cutting across the floor toward him.
"Where are you going? Work? Gig? Heading out to meet Hana?" Min-Hyuk asked, a slick smile stretching across his lips as he stepped comfortably into Yeonho's personal space. "I'm surprised your body's doing well."
The familiarity was nauseating. Yeonho found it bizarre—Min-Hyuk was using the exact same sweet, easy tone he used when hovering around Hana. But beneath the surface, there was a dark, subtle shift. This wasn't innocent flirting anymore.
"Why are you here?" Yeonho asked flatly, stepping right past him toward the dining area.
Min-Hyuk didn't take the hint, matching his stride side-by-side.
"Just checking if—"
The chime of the doorbell cut off his sentence. Freya bowed slightly and slipped past them to see who it was.
A few seconds later, the heavy front door opened, and she returned, trailing none other than Gyeongjae himself.
The moment Gyeongjae spotted Min-Hyuk lingering so close to Yeonho, his stride widened, his boots striking the floor with heavy, aggressive authority.
"What are you doing here?"
Gyeongjae asked, coming to a sharp halt on Yeonho's other side.
Min-Hyuk tapped a finger against his chin, his expression playfully arrogant.
"I could ask the same thing to you."
Gyeongjae's eyes flicked to Yeonho. "I'm here to check if he's okay. And you?"
"Pretty much the same."
Trapped in the narrow space between two towering bodies, Yeonho simply walked away from both of them.
Today, he was heading to Seungjo's corporate headquarters to review the final cuts from his official photoshoot. He was signed under management now, a real model, and he wasn't about to waste the opportunity to see what it felt like working inside a high-caliber company.
He couldn't afford to be late, nor did he want Seungjo thinking he was unprofessional. He pulled out a tall bar stool and sat down, quietly digging into his lunch while Freya hovered at the edge of the kitchen, ready to assist if needed.
'Better. Way better than what's going on in my head. Hana has no idea at all.'
Yeonho chewed silently, smiling brightly.
His peaceful meal didn't last long.
Min-Hyuk and Gyeongjae walked over, pulling out the bar stools on either side of him and sitting down like two heavy shadows.
"You seem in a good mood. What are you trying to do now with this disguise?"
Gyeongjae grunted, resting his forearm on the marble counter and staring at Yeonho's side profile.
"Yeah, what's going on?"
Min-Hyuk added, leaning in so close that the warmth of his shoulder brushed against Yeonho's back.
Without pausing his chopsticks for a single second, Yeonho kept eating. He didn't slow down. He didn't even bother glancing to his left or right.
"Work. I'm going to wor—"
RING—!
The doorbell chimed for the second time today, slicing right through Yeonho's words.
"I'll go see who it is," Freya murmured. She set a folded hand towel on the marble edge, bowed her head, and left the three of them alone.
The moment her footsteps vanished down the hall, Min-Hyuk reached out. His knuckles brushed against Yeonho's soft cheek, his fingers caressing the smooth skin with slow, deliberate strokes. Beside them, Gyeongjae watched every motion with sharp, unblinking intensity.
"You're eating quite well," Min-Hyuk hummed softly. His fingers began to trail downward, slipping past the curve of Yeonho's jaw toward his nape, his thumb brushing over the faint, reddish smudges that were slowly fading beneath the collar.
"Stop touching me or I'm kicking you out. Can't you see I'm eating?"
Min-hyuk let out a low laugh, completely ignoring the threat.
"They're fading."
"So?"
"I should make new ones."
That was when Yeonho's chopsticks finally stopped. He set them down on the porcelain rest, swallowed his mouthful of mashed potato, and turned his head to look at Min-Hyuk.
Min-Hyuk was smiling like an absolute idiot.
"And why the hell would you do that?" Yeonho grumbled, picking his chopsticks back up.
"Do you have any idea how much heavy concealer I had to slap on my neck this morning just to hide your mess?"
"Why cover it? It looks good on you,"
Min-Hyuk leaned down until his face was hovering right next to Yeonho's.
"Dwon't," Yeonho mumbled around another bite of food.
Slowly, Min-Hyuk closed the remaining distance. Yeonho could feel the warm puff of breath against his skin, his body holding completely still in anticipation of a kiss.
But Min-Hyuk didn't kiss him. Instead, his thumb reached out, softly wiping a speck of sauce from Yeonho's lower lip, before bringing his thumb to his own mouth and licking it clean.
Yeonho rolled his eyes at the theatrics. He liked the attention, sure, but he was trying to finish his damn food.
"If you do something like that again, I'm gonna kick you out." Yeonho huffed.
"No, you won't," Min-hyuk smirked, backing away a little bit.
"What's wrong with you today? Shouldn't you be enjoying this? Hahaha."
Having listened to them flirt long enough, Gyeongjae cut in, his voice raspy with irritation.
"I'm sitting right fucking here."
"We know," Min-Hyuk answered without missing a beat.
"Tsk. You're pissing me off with that smug look," Gyeongjae growled, his dark eyes locking onto Min-Hyuk's face.
"What are you tryna do here? Can't you leave yet?"
"Why should I?" Min-hyuk countered lazily. "I had some free time, so I decided to visit our little Yeonho." He reached out and lightly pinched Yeonho's cheek but Yeonho slapped his hand away with a crisp thwack.
Min-Hyuk just laughed. "Stingy brat."
Yeonho picked up the glass of water, washed down his food, and used the towel to wipe his mouth clean.
"I'm busy, so you two can leave," he said, pushing himself up from the bar stool.
Before he could take a single step, Gyeongjae's hand clamped around his wrist, halting him in his tracks.
Yeonho looked back, his eyes tracking up to meet Gyeongjae's as the taller man closed the distance between them.
"You're seriously going to work?" Gyeongjae asked, staring down at him.
"Yes. Why? Is there a problem?"
Gyeongjae stared at him for a long, silent second before letting out a frustrated breath. "Nothing. Damn it." He knew that no matter what he said, Yeonho wouldn't listen anyway.
"This is funny," Min-Hyuk taunted, crossing his arms and leaning his hip against the edge of the table as he watched Gyeongjae fume. "You're holding back your temper well, Gyeongjae. What's this change? Hahaha."
"I'm not the only one losing his mind here, and you know it," Gyeongjae spat back.
As the thick air between them began to sour into open hostility, Yeonho raised both hands directly between their faces, issuing a sharp, final warning.
"Listen to me, you two," Yeonho warned.
"If you want to beat each other senseless, take it outside. I don't have time for your little dick-measuring contest. I need to go to work."
He spun on his heel and began walking away.
Despite his annoyed facade, Yeonho was secretly thriving. Having two of the original story's powerful male leads wrapped around his finger, practically growling over him in his own kitchen, was an incredible ego boost. He had complete control over the board, and he loved every single second of it.
Except right now wasn't the time to play with them. He had a tight schedule: go to Seungjo, impress him with his professional attitude, and then, before crashing Hana's date with all the male leads tonight, there was somewhere else he needed to go alone.
Seungjo's night club.
Last night, after transferring Hana's confession onto a secure USB drive, Yeonho had spent hours digging online for information on the men involved in his past Gala scandal.
A handful of those men frequently visited Seungjo's exclusive venue. They had been involved in a minor scandal back then, but the story had miraculously vanished into thin air once their individual projects received massive commercial backing.
Because several of them were the spoiled sons of high-ranking government officials, famous actors, and popular idols.
How did Yeonho find out? Simple. He had used the confidential files he stole directly from Seungjo—documents tracking every private incident, issue, and transaction happening inside the club.
The only drawback was that the files were constantly being updated; every week, a fresh report was delivered to Seungjo.
Luckily, the folder he stole contained recent logs from just a few days ago. Once Yeonho cross-referenced the names in the file with online records—a process that took hours of tedious searching—he matched the faces of those exact same scum from the Gala incident.
Now, his trap for them was set.He had thought his day would run smoothly from here.
But as he reached the living area, he froze.
Freya was walking toward him, and trailing right behind her was someone he definitely didn't expect to see here...
"What the absolute hell is Baek Seungjo doing here?" Gyeongjae's voice growled from behind him, his tone instantly spiking with aggression.
Min-Hyuk stepped up right beside him, effectively trapping Yeonho in the middle once again.
"Looks like we have another guest, Babe" Min-Hyuk remarked dryly.
"Did you just call him babe?" Gyeongjae questioned.
"Be quiet, both of you," Yeonho ordered in a low hiss.
Stopping in front of them, Freya bowed deeply and took a step back, her voice tremulous.
"This person had said you work for him, Mistress. I tried to say no since I want to protect you, but he insisted on meeting you. Forgive me for failing you, Mistress." She bowed a second time, her face pale.
Seriously, why was Seungjo himself standing in his living room? Yeonho was already planning to go to his office, yet here the Chairman was, occupying the exact same space.
Why were all three of them in his house at the exact same time?
'Well... maybe because I succeeded in seducing them?'
Now these straight male leads were roaming inside his private penthouse like stray dogs.
"I was about to leave and go to your company. Why are you here?" Yeonho stepped forward, tilting his head with an innocent, playful smile. "Miss me already?"
Unfazed by the flirtatious banter, Seungjo's piercing gaze bypassed Yeonho for a second, scanning the two men standing intimately behind him.
"You're coming with me. Now."
His hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around Yeonho's arm like an iron clamp.
Instead of putting up a fight, Yeonho let himself be dragged out of the kitchen area and toward the main living room.
"Is this about the video i sent you last night? Don't get mad, now. I'm just trying to prove my worth, Chairman Baek. Hahaha," Yeonho giggled softly, feeling Seungjo's grip tighten around his flesh at the mock.
At one in the morning, riding high on his mood after recording Hana's confession, Yeonho had texted Min-Hyuk to demand the video clip of himself and Seungjo. Once he got it, he smoothed out the trail and sent it directly to Seungjo's private contact.
Seungjo, having no clue how Yeonho had obtained his private ID, had opened the message out of curiosity—only to be met with the high-definition video of Yeonho sucking his cock in his private office, accompanied by a ridiculously cute caption:
[ Let's do this again Chairman Baek! ◉~◉ ]
Seungjo had known instantly it was him. The second his morning board meeting wrapped up, he had stormed out of the building without even bothering to eat lunch.
The urge to teach this shameless brat a lesson was driving him mad—mad enough to step foot inside this filthy penthouse with its shameless owner.
And what made Seungjo's blood boil even hotter was the agonizing truth he refused to admit: ever since that night, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about the way Yeonho's mouth felt, or how the brat had boldly stolen a second kiss right under his nose so brazenly.
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