Chapter 4: The Adonis Complex Dilemma
Lukas wasn't just a man. He was a visual insult to every other male inhabitant of the planet. As he strode through the arrivals hall of Incheon Airport, people seemed to literally stop in their tracks. With his light eyes, chiseled features, and a gaze so heavy with melodic melancholy, he looked like a fallen angel who had stepped straight off a Vogue cover. The fact that this "world-weariness" stemmed entirely from his ex-boyfriend, Hans-Werner, blocking him on Instagram was something you couldn't tell from two hundred yards away.
Min-ho watched the scene from inside his black sedan, his sunglasses perched low on his face. He felt like a spy in a third-rate thriller. Beside him sat his assistant, Mr. Kim, who was nervously tapping on his tablet, trying to ignore the urgent calls from investors.
"Sir," Mr. Kim whispered, not daring to look away from his screen. "May I ask why we are stalking a writer's assistant at the airport? We have a meeting with the Spark Group. There are millions at stake."
"Silence, Kim!" Min-ho hissed, pressing his nose almost against the tinted glass. "Do you see that guy out there? That's the 'Schätzchen.' That's Lukas. He is... he is..."
"GORGEOUS?" Mr. Kim added dreamily, staring at Lukas as if he were witnessing a religious apparition.
"He is a TARGET!" Min-ho corrected sharply, digging his elbow into Kim's side. He watched as Clara ran toward Lukas and embraced him fiercely. Lukas buried his face in her shoulder, sobbing under his breath: "Clara, he blocked me! He won't even let me see his stories anymore!" To Min-ho, who didn't understand a single word, it looked like the most passionate farewell scene in cinematic history. He clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.
Two Days Later – The "Chance" Encounter
Clara and Lukas were sitting in a posh bistro in Gangnam. Lukas was dabbing his eyes with a neatly folded silk handkerchief. "I can't live without him, Clara. He took Tiffany! Who's going to water her now? He doesn't even know she hates direct sunlight!"
"You'll find someone better, Lukas," Clara comforted him for the hundredth time, patting his hand. "Someone who respects plant rights."
At that exact moment, Min-ho practically "stumbled" into their table. He was wearing an outfit that tried so hard to scream "I am also an international model" that it almost hurt to look at: a low-cut silk shirt, tailored trousers, and a hairstyle that had sacrificed three cans of hairspray to the gods of vanity.
"Oh! Ji-soo! What a coincidence!" Min-ho exclaimed, his voice two octaves too high with fake surprise. He stood tall in front of Lukas, sucking in his stomach so hard he could barely breathe, and thrusting his jawline forward aggressively. "And this is... your 'visitor'?"
Clara suppressed a massive laugh. Min-ho was practically vibrating with suppressed jealousy. "This is Lukas," she said with an innocent smile.
Min-ho cleared his throat and switched to his painstakingly learned German. The words tumbled out of his mouth like rocks in a dryer: "Guten Tag, Herr Schätzchen. I am the boss of Ji-soo. Big boss. Very rich. Many cars. Big company."
Lukas blinked, bewildered. He looked at Min-ho with his large, watery eyes as if he were a particularly strange insect. "Clara? Why is this man talking to me like a broken Sat-Nav? Is he having a stroke?"
Clara giggled behind her hand. "He's just trying to be polite, Lukas. He's... putting in a lot of effort."
Min-ho, firmly convinced he had just crushed Lukas with his status and linguistic prowess, turned to Clara with a condescending nod. "We must discuss Ariadne immediately. The contracts. The vision. But it's too... public here. Tomorrow. At my private residence. It's purely a security measure."
"Your private residence?" Clara asked, amused. "Does your office no longer have walls?"
"Spies!" Min-ho cried out desperately, waving his hands vaguely in the air. "The competition never sleeps! There are bugs everywhere!"
Mr. Kim, standing a few feet away at the counter, buried his face in his hands. "I really need to update my resume tonight," he muttered into his espresso. "My salary simply isn't high enough for this level of embarrassment."
Clara looked between the puffed-up Min-ho and the suffering Lukas. She knew Lukas needed a distraction, and a luxurious private home might be just the thing to take his mind off Tiffany. "Fine," she finally agreed. "We'll come. But only on one condition: Mr. Kim has to be there. I don't quite trust your 'security measures' alone."
Min-ho's face lit up instantly. "Kim? Of course! Kim is like a piece of furniture in my house. He's practically always there!" He shot a commanding look at Kim.
Kim stepped closer, a pained smile on his lips. "Actually, Miss Ji-soo... this would be the very first time I've been allowed to enter the sacred halls of Mr. Min-ho's private residence. He usually doesn't even let the cleaning crew in when he's home."
Min-ho shot a daggers-look at Kim that clearly said: Shut up, or yesterday's toothache will become today's reality.
"Tomorrow at seven," Min-ho said quickly before Kim could reveal anything else. "I'll have you picked up. Including Mr. Schätzchen."
Lukas sniffled quietly into his silk handkerchief. "If there are no plants there that look like Tiffany, I'm not coming."
Min-ho nodded eagerly, though he had no idea who Tiffany was. He would buy out every flower shop in Seoul tomorrow if he had to, just to outdo this Lukas.