Dirty Switch

"Yeah?"

"You don’t go to church on Sundays, right?"
Seo Baekhan rolled up the exhibition brochure he’d just been looking at and strode toward Joo Taehyun.
"I asked if you go to church."

"Uh, uh… I don’t really have a specific religion… Um, if you’re looking for someone who goes to church, I guess I could do some Bible study—"
"Don’t get ahead of yourself."
Unlike before, Seo Baekhan now closed the distance with a clear purpose, from an angle that let him look down at Taehyun, and in doing so, noticed new details.

That Joo Taehyun had a faint mole under his right eyebrow, similar in size to the one near his lower lip.
That his eyelashes were surprisingly long and straight.
That his skin was so pale it almost looked bluish-white, with not a single blemish on it—small things like that.

"You might already know this, but my mother’s side pushed through a special exhibition. At the National Central Museum."
He held out the rolled-up brochure, and Taehyun took it without asking any questions. The way he accepted it so readily didn’t make him seem obedient so much as gloomy and withdrawn. That, too, was a kind of talent.
"Even though they pushed it, our family didn’t actually do much. The pieces were all personal items owned by Prince Yi Hwang, and all we handled were minor tasks like the audio guides in foreign languages or translating the pamphlets. Still, behind the scenes, it made a lot of waves."

The Crown Prince’s faction, who had recently been trying to win over Baekhan’s other family members—insisting Seo Baekhan as an individual should be seen separately from his family’s alignment with Prince Yi Hwang—ended up embarrassingly shut down.
That said, the exhibition wasn’t exactly a grand affair. If it had been about the history of Yeonhwagung or the antique art collection Yi Hwang had gathered, it might’ve been different. But this one was just a propaganda setup to glorify Yi Hwang and his consort.
A few love letters exchanged between the couple, some photos together, Yi Hwang’s diary from the day he first held a calligraphy brush…

It was a collection of trivial artifacts, and the donation amount from Baekhan’s maternal side hadn’t been significant either, which only made it more humiliating for the Crown Prince’s people.
"Ah, yes."
Even after the long explanation, Joo Taehyun listened quietly to Baekhan. He still didn’t seem to understand why Baekhan had suddenly brought all this up or why he was being dragged into the conversation. He just blinked blankly with his big eyes.

"You don’t go to church, so next Sunday should work. Around 2 p.m. Your schedule okay?"
"…Huh?"
"The special exhibit ends that day."
"Ah… uh, um, that’s…"

"Then let’s meet again that day. In front of the gallery."
Joo Taehyun blinked slowly. Even as he did, his eyes flicked around, clearly trying to read Baekhan’s intent—an interesting thing to watch.
"Um, but, hyung. Can I ask why… why you want to meet on Sunday?"

"You said you wanted to marry me, didn’t you?"
"Yeah? I mean, that’s… true, but…"
"Then I figured we should reevaluate the terms more clearly that day."

Taehyun’s dry lips slowly parted. It was as slow as the blinking of his eyes. For someone who looked like a somber classical painting, he sure moved like molasses.
"Well, sure, but… an exhibition? That’s…"
The rest of his words were barely audible—more breath than voice.

"Isn’t that… usually a date… or something…?"
Baekhan wasn’t the type to lip-read, but from the look of it, he’d probably said “date” or something similar under his breath.
It wasn’t hard to guess what part of the suggestion had caught Joo Taehyun off guard, what embarrassed him, or what he was starting to hope for. Baekhan had a good enough read on that much.

"Why? Is it somewhere you can’t go?"
"What? No, it’s not that."
"Or do you not want to?"

"No, that’s not it!"
Taehyun’s response was so immediate that Baekhan almost burst out laughing.
"Or maybe the DH side supported the Crown Prince?"

"No, even before I presented, they weren’t on great terms. And after I presented, there’s been no contact at all."
"Good. That’s just as I thought. You never know with how things look on the outside versus how they really are… Anyway, I don’t see anything bad about you showing up to the exhibit. Right?"
Joo Taehyun was a full member of Haechi.

Not just a member—he’d been there since the founding, one of the elder members.
And like Seo Baekhan and Prince Yi Hwang, he was an Alpha.
Before going to the U.S., he’d been frequently seen with Baekhan, so even if they showed up at the special exhibition together, it probably wouldn’t cause much of a stir. Nothing was confirmed yet, and they were just lightly testing the waters. If rumors started flying, it’d only be annoying.

"Yeah, um. I get that there’s nothing bad about me attending… I just don’t get why you want to see me there, I mean, why you want to go to the exhibit with me…"
"Why? Do I need a clear reason?"
"Ah, no, it’s not that… I was just curious."

A faint light shimmered in Taehyun’s otherwise hollow eyes. He seemed confused but pleased that the same person who’d been harsh just moments ago was suddenly being so… this.
"If I have questions after reading this, you’ll need to answer them, won’t you?"
"Oh…"

"And I figured you probably have more things ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) you still want to say to me. Don’t you?"
Joo Taehyun blinked a bit faster. It looked like the slow shutter effect from a low-light video—frame by frame, his gaze visibly changed, each shift reflected clearly in Baekhan’s vision.
"I figured it’d be best to continue the conversation somewhere where just sitting together doesn’t put either of us at a disadvantage."

If he’d been expecting something else, then sorry—but really, it was just a casual proposal. He wasn’t so desperate that he needed to stage a pathetic show to exploit a kid’s crush. Marriage to Joo Taehyun still wasn’t an appealing idea. But compared to the beginning, the resistance and revulsion were easing up. At this point, Baekhan was open to hearing a few more rounds of Taehyun’s nonsense.
"Mm. I’m really sorry, but… is next week the only time you’re available?"
But Joo Taehyun, strangely, wasn’t reacting the same as before. He seemed hesitant.

Baekhan unconsciously raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected that kind of lukewarm response to another meeting proposal.
"If you’re busy, I get it."
If this brat was trying to play hard to get or pull some push-and-pull stunt, he could forget about it. Baekhan had zero tolerance for that, whether Taehyun ended up as a spouse or just a vaguely familiar acquaintance. Arrogance wasn’t cute, and kids needed to be disciplined early.

"No, hyung, it’s not that—"
“Just a sec!” Taehyun blurted out urgently.
It was the most dramatic expression Baekhan had seen on him today—or maybe ever. Halfway through turning away, Baekhan stopped and silently waited.

“It’ll only take a second, just a second.”
Taehyun fumbled for his phone, frantically typing something in. He hunched over, pulling the phone up to his nose like he was trying to hide what he was doing.
Unfortunately, Seo Baekhan was taller, the two of them were close enough for a perfect view, and Taehyun hadn’t bothered with a privacy screen.

“biiecretary i’ll delay my trip out of the countrieㅗ 😢”
For someone who didn’t seem like the type, he was surprisingly scatterbrained. His cracked screen was filling up with typo-riddled messages, popping up one after another.