His heart feared what his mind already knew.

No, it can’t be…

Swiveling back to his husband, Sungjong looked at him in askance.

“What’s going on? Who’s that baby?”

“The newest member of our family,” Myungsoo grinned happily. It cut him like a knife, the happiness on his husband’s face.

This is his son, of course he’s happy dummy.

“Now our family is complete.” Myungsoo’s eyes were shining brightly as he looked at him.

Sungjong felt a painful lump in his throat.

“So it wasn't complete with only the two of us?”

His husband looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“I'm sorry, that came out wrong I didn't-”

“Save it.”

A tight knot formed in his stomach, giving him the urge to throw up. Our family, but your son. Yours and hers. Suddenly, madness gripped him. He charged at Myungsoo, gripping him by the collar of his shirt. Behind him, he could hear Mrs. Han gasp.

“How could you betray me? How could you lie to me? Why-why? Did-did you know this before we got married?”

He saw Myungsoo shaking but realized later that he had been jerking him by his collar. The elder’s eyes held a baffled expression. Grabbing Sungjong by the waist, he pulled him out of the room and shut the door behind them.

Mrs. Han and that awful awful nightmare disappeared behind them.

“I don’t understand, honey, what’s wrong? What did I lie to you about?” Myungso was genuinely confused and yet his ignorance caused the fire inside him to burn stronger. A knife of pain was making its way steadily across his chest; it hurt so much that he wanted to cry out in pain. But he wanted to know why the love of his life had betrayed his trust.

“You-you said – you and Jiyeon – you knew you were a father!” he accused, his tongue filling with lead.

Myungsoo had the gall to laugh.

“You misunderstood, baby,” he said softly, taking his hands in his. “He’s not my son, well, at least not yet. We’ll adopt him.”

Lies, more lies.

“Don’t-don’t speak another lie-”

His limbs gave way and he fell in a bundle at Myungsoo’s feet, too tired to raise his head. All the energy had been sapped from his body and the fire in him burned no more. What had he done to deserve this?

He wasn’t sure what he was more upset about, Myungsoo’s lie or the fact that there was something linking Myungsoo and Jiyeon, something much more potent than anything he and Myungsoo would ever have. It was a different relationship altogether, something he was jealous of.

He faintly felt himself being carried by Myungsoo as the elder had gathered him up in his arms and was striding towards their bedroom. Daring to lift his eyes at his face, he saw a deep frown between his brows.

Myungsoo was his everything, the baby couldn’t just come and claim him like this.

I won’t let him.

---

Laying him down on the bed, Myungsoo took a seat beside him and calmly explained everything. He hadn’t expected Sungjong to react this way. In his imagination, the younger had been overjoyed and that had led him to give him a prize of his own...

Suffice to say, he had not expected anything close to this reaction. For some reason, Sungjong thought that the baby was his biological son, his and Jiyeon’s, even though he knew very well that that wasn’t possible. To his surprise, he even brought up Jiyeon’s terminated pregnancy before.

“How do you know about that?” he asked, surprised.

“What does it matter?” Sungjong screamed in reply.

It took him some time to calm the younger down. When he was placated, Myungsoo said softly, “Sungjong, I love you. I would never lie to you.”

He had seen something akin to guilt in the younger’s eyes after that, but it was apparent that he was not entirely convinced. He assured him again and again that he hadn’t slept with Jiyeon, not even by mistake.

He felt miserable – how could Sungjong question his honesty? He had never lied to him, never betrayed his trust and yet the younger accused him of it.

“He’s going to be our son, Sungjongie,” he assured quietly, threading his fingers through his hair.

“But you never asked if I want to adopt a baby – you just went ahead and – just because he’s Jiyeon’s…”

“You have to understand darling, what would have happened to the baby if I didn’t bring him with me? Jiyeon can’t keep him because of her career and his father wants nothing to do with him,” he explained patiently.

“He can go to the orphanage,” Sungjong snapped and for a moment, his husband vanished from in front of his eyes. Such words couldn’t have come out of the mouth of the person he loved – Sungjong was not that kind of a person; he would never say something so mean.

Lost for words, he stared at the boy in front of him, a sullen, selfish boy – he was strongly reminded of the teenager Sungjong. It was like a flicker of a ghost from the past. Shaking it off, he pressed his hand gently between his.

“You’re tired, you should sleep now.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me who his father is then?” the younger asked petulantly.

Sighing, Myungsoo replied, “I promised Jiyeon I wouldn’t tell anyone. If he gets to know, she’ll be in trouble. He told her not to keep the baby.”

“She should have done just that.” The words were like a whip on Myungsoo’s skin. He stared at Sungjong, desperately searching for the person he had married.

He’s probably not in his right mind.

“You’re mine!” Sungjong announced angrily, possessively. His hands rested on the curve of his jaws roughly. “You’re mine,” he repeated.

“I am yours,” Myungsoo agreed. “And so is the baby.”

“No!” he snarled, a vicious look in his eyes. “I don’t want him, I don’t want the baby. Myungsoo please,” he grabbed his hand, his long fingers wounding around his. “Make him go away, please.”

It tore his heart to wrench his hand out of Sungjong’s grip.

“Go to sleep, dear. We’ll talk tomorrow.” His voice was colder than he had meant it to be, but he couldn’t help feeling disappointed wih Sungjong’s attitude.

He sat there, watching the younger fall asleep. He swept his thumb across the creases on his forehead, smoothening them out. Sungjong’s face was pale and drawn – he had tasted wine when they had kissed, so maybe he was drunk. He knew he was trying to find an excuse that would explain his behavior. Why would he be so fiercely possessive of him all of a sudden?

Sighing, he remembered the articles he had seen, speculating Jiyeon’s pregnancy and wondering if he was the father. It would be common for everyone to think that if Jiyeon was pregnant, he should be the father since they had dated for so long. Somehow, they had found out about the abortion as well, and once again, fingers were pointed at him. He wouldn’t have normally paid any heed to these gossip articles but if Sungjong had seen any of them and misunderstood…

It’s Sunggyu’s fault, he thought wryly. If only he had stepped up and taken responsibility, none of these would have happened.

What am I going to do with the baby? Sungjong didn’t seem to want him around. If he didn’t change his mind when he woke up, what could he do?

I can’t just abandon a newborn, he thought. Besides, I promised his mother that I would raise him as my own.

With a leaden heart, he realized that he had a big decision to make in the morning. He could only pray that Sungjong would change his mind.

Thankfully, the morning was a lot calmer. Sungjong apologized for the night but a trace of uneasiness was apparent in his eyes.

The nurse he had hired to take care of the baby arrived. She was a woman of around 30, her features sharp. She had a confident gait and a slender figure. Handing Myungsoo her CV and recommendations, she demanded to see the baby. When she saw him, her features melted and a fond smile crept up to her lips.

“He’s perfect,” she sighed happily, causing Sungjong to stalk away from the room.

Sungjong had not been anywhere near the baby all morning – it was as if he was contagious. However, he hadn’t brought up sending the baby away, for which Myungsoo was immensely grateful. Even though it had only been a few days, he had grown attached to the baby.

Maybe Sungjong will warm up to him as well.

Several days passed before Sungjong had returned to his normal self. Although, he showed no signs of warming up to the baby. In fact, he completely ignored the presence of the baby. Not only did he not visit the baby or spoek to Mrs. Han about him, he stopped Myungsoo every time he tried to tell him the new sound the baby had made.

It was a busy time for the younger anyway. Sometimes, he would wake even before him and by the time he went down for breakfast, Sungjong would already be gone. He was going to debut as a ramp model at a gala event and he had been practicing hard for that. Myungsoo was rarely home before 12, and even then, he would see no sign of the younger. There was no doubt he was stressed and nervous, and Myungsoo tried to encourage him, reassure him as much as he could.

Unlike a photoshoot, it was going to be a live event – there will be eyes trained on him, ready to criticize if he made the smallest mistake. Besides, the paparazzi were going overboard with the news of Sungjong debuting as a model. There had been many rogue articles written about how Sungjong debuting as a model proved that he had seduced Myungsoo only so he could lift him up to fame. Some had even suggested that the reason Sungjong was being allowed to debut was because of who he was married to rather than his talent. For his sake, Myungsoo hoped that Sungjong hadn’t seen the articles.

One morning however, only a day before his debut, Sungjong let slip that he had in fact seen the articles that accused him of using Myungsoo.

“My manager showed them to me,” he said quietly. Myungsoo had expected him to burst into tears or at least launch into a tirade about paparazzi. Instead, he saw a steely determination in the way his jaws were set and a grey look of boldness in his eyes. “They’ll eat their words when they see me tomorrow.”

Myungsoo would have kissed him there and then if he hadn’t looked so formidable. For days, he had tried to boost his confidence and give him courage, but he had been worried that the younger wouldn’t come around in time. However, this Sungjong looked ready to burn the stage. When he recalled how long a way he had come from the day he had been frightened and uncertain about pursuing modeling, his chest rose with pride.

He’ll be alright, he thought.

Already, with the magazine issue featuring his photos had sold out. Sungjong had not been on the cover but he had two pages to himself, which was a lot for a debuting model. Although many attributed the success due to two other well-known models who had been on the cover, Myungsoo heard whispers of Sungjong’s brilliant performance within the fashion world. He had a copy to himself, and even though he was disappointed with the traditional, safe setting they had put him in, Sungjong shone dazzlingly. Everything, from his look to the way he held himself had been perfect. How he wished the younger had joined his company – under proper direction and setting, he had no doubt Sungjong could become the next top model.

That being said, Sunggyu had visited his room with a dark look and a copy of the same Royals magazine that featured Sungjong. Grimly, he reported that this was the most of an issue that Royals had sold in the past 15 years.

“They broke their own record with this issue,” Sunggyu said, grinding his teeth. “They sold only 130 copies less than our last issue.”

It was a reason for worry. While Royals was increasing their sales in leaps, Star, even though still ahead of them, didn’t see such a sharp rise in sales. Recently, critiques had been praising Royals and hailed the rediscovery of the magazine, causing their stock prizes to rise.

“Have you gotten someone to analyse why this issue sold so much?” he asked, scrutinizing the executive editor. He couldn’t forget what Yonghwa had said about seeing Sunggyu and Kim Kibum together.

The look in Sunggyu’s eyes was full of loathe.

“You made Sungjong famous, and then you handed him over to the enemy. Are you really surprised?”

He knew it would have come up sooner and later. When his staff had realized that Sungjong had joined Royals, they had been, understandably, upset. Royals was considered the enemy at this office, and Sungjong becoming a model for them was considered an act of betrayal. No one had directly confronted him about it, but he knew they were all confused about why he had let it happen.

I better have a good explanation, he thought. He hoped to address the issue at the board meeting today. No doubt his staff were blaming Sungjong, even though it was hardly his fault. The younger hadn’t even known that Royals and Star were rivals when he had signed the contract. But it was true he had insisted on keeping his job even after Myungsoo had explained everything.

It was his only chance to get closer to his dreams, he reasoned. And there was one thing he knew for sure, he would do anything to fulfill Sungjong’s dreams. It was the least he could do.