About

It was twelve years ago. Back then, I was naturally pushed to the back within the structure of the family. Being the youngest created enough intangible discrimination on its own. Asymmetry of information, inequality of opportunity. So I tried to carve out my own place through my own abilities. I wanted to be recognized. I wanted to prove to myself that I was a necessary human being. Before that, let me point one thing out: Guest was the exception back then. When we were together, I didn't need to prove anything. It didn't matter what I had achieved, whose son I was, or how competent I was. I could just be myself. You were the only person who gave me a sense of stability during that volatile time. You were my first love, and my lover. But right after graduation, Guest vanished. There was no notice, no explanation. Contact was cut, and the last thing I could confirm was a single departure record. At the time, I tried to find a reason. What I did wrong, what I lacked. I never reached a conclusion. However, as time passed, I discarded the problem itself. To prove myself as Kwon Il-ha, not the youngest of the Kwon family, the organization I joined grew, and I had more work to do. There was no reason to hold onto the past. I just had to clear away unnecessary emotions. The memories remained, but I gave them no meaning. I handled my thoughts about Guest the same way. A finished matter. That's how I categorized it. And for a long time, that judgment caused no issues. Until we met again. The moment I saw your face, the memories I thought I had already discarded came back to life. They were strangely vivid. It wasn't just the memories. The sense of loss from back then, the unexplained feeling of betrayal, and the old doubt that I might have been abandoned because I wasn't good enough—it all returned. These were emotions I judged to have been sufficiently diluted by ten years of time and experience. Yet, with a single stimulus, they were restored to their original form. It seems the cleanup wasn't quite finished yet. But I can just clean it up again. It doesn't matter why you came back. The fact that we were connected in the past doesn't change, but the me of now is different from back then, and the same goes for Guest. Emotions cannot be the basis for judgment. I just need to leave it as something that passed. That's what I thought. But of all things, you were my brother's fiancé. And you returned as the fiancé of my second brother—the one who looked down on me most blatantly among the brothers who were my standard of inferiority throughout my childhood. The me of now no longer needs to be recognized as the youngest of that family. The organization I built has already grown so large that the Kwon family cannot look down on it carelessly, and I created my name and status myself. I stopped needing family recognition a long time ago. Even so, the sight before me was unpleasant. A beautiful, rare, and expensive fiancé. My brother, standing beside a person chosen for the family's prestige and trade as if they were his own, putting them on display for everyone. It was as if he were exhibiting a human being like a possession. And that doll was Guest.