the first time he found out what his father did for a living, shownu felt his throat tightened and his stomach churned the way he never did. shownu never understood his father, was never quite interested at all in what the older did. but when he was of age, the older man just pulled him into his car and got the driver to drive to wherever the hell it was. shownu just did not expect the car to stop in front of the most infamous brothel in the red-light district of seoul.

he heard of the place of course, it’s infamous because everyone talks about it. about how insanely beautiful the girls are, how different it was from the other brothels around. shownu was never interested. he was always busying himself with school, with his paintbrushes and with dancing.

when he was younger, he thought of his father as some sort of god. his father always had an army of men around him, doing his work for him. his father just belted out orders and everything would be done, there was no second guessing what his father ordered, everything was done as asked. for shownu, this meant growing up with a silver spoon. anything he wanted, it was done. only he wasn’t sure the kind of man his father was. his father was always out doing his job but shownu always knew the blessings he had being able to live as grandly as he does.

“why… are we here?” shownu asked, head turning to his father who was now by his side, his men lining up around him, taking on a defensive stance against everyone except shownu and his father.

“this, son, is yours.”

shownu stood, unmoving, in front of the huge brothel. he did not know what he needs to do. he did not want to enter but he did not want to disrespect his father so he abided and followed the group into the area. it was both what he expected, and what he didn’t. there were so many people, beautiful women and men, roaming the area and shownu stood in awe, in reverence of the beauty within his sight. they were beautiful, and yet in the presence of his father, they shudder, a sort of respect… or fear… lingering in their eyes.

in the span of one night, shownu finds out that his father was a mobster, the owner of a chain of brothels. infamous brothels with wealth seeping through every nook and cranny. shownu watches his father intently the whole night, how comfortable his father was, how the old man was at his job, how he got men bending knees for him as if he were god and shownu felt helpless. this is his life now. if this is what that is given to him, even if he does not like it, it is his.

for the rest of the night, shownu excused himself, citing reasons like he has plans with his friends when truth is, he just did not want to be there. so now he sits, in silence, in a diner, a few blocks away. it was 2 in the morning, there isn’t many people around. it was only minutes later, enter the other major character of the story into said diner.

she sits at a table across from his, she has just a very loose hoodie and jeans. calls for whatever the diner still had as late dinner. very late dinner. she takes the cover off her head and her face falls over her face. she smiles and pushes it behind her ear before taking in the food in front of her. shownu doesn’t usually sit around in diners watching girls have late dinner but she was beautiful. almost insanely beautiful for him to look at her unabashedly like that.

“are you hungry too?” her voice pierced the silence and shownu almost fell back off the chair he was sitting on. he turned to see if she was talking to anyone else but stopped when he realised the only patrons were them both.

“i ate.” he answered quickly and she nods before bringing her food to his table, sitting just inches away from him.

“don’t mind me, i thought maybe having dinner with someone else would make the food taste less cold, and hopefully a lot better.” she confesses with another smile. shownu could not help but respond with a similar good-natured smile.

they stayed like that. she eats and he watches her for a while. they keep on at it for nights. shownu always finds himself back at the diner every morning at 2 and he always finds himself waiting for the woman to come through the door, have her dinner and sit just across him.

one of the nights he could not come because his father had told him to familiar himself with the brothel, know the floor better since it was to be his in a bit later. shownu does not like it very much to be involved in such businesses but he thought there is nothing much he could do anywhere so he did as he was told. he learnt the names of the women and men under him. there was a hwasa, a hyungwon, a hani, a kihyun - a few others whose names slipped his mind after a while. there were so many people, and he had so little time to try to know them all.

as a child shownu was always lonely, brought up with everything he could ask for in terms of wealth. but companionship-wise, there was not one person who was a constant for him, a person who would always stay around. maybe that’s why he does no really get used to being around people, maybe thats why when shownu goes around, he tries his best to remember but know better they’re people who won’t care enough for him to let him know them any better.

it was the first time for him to reach this far into the brothel to meet the people under him. he reaches a door that reads the name ‘rose’, he knocks on the door, a nagging feeling creeping over him. he hadn’t met all of them but he heard of a rose, one of the most famous girls in the brothel. he heard of her but he hadn’t seen her yet.

when she comes out of her room, she stand before him, a goddess far from his imagination. skin, alabaster and gold at the same time she shone brighter than the redness of her room. she had shiny brown eyes, eyes he knows well and a smile. a pretty, good-natured smile, the same smile he pinned for, for nights, for days. she stands before him a woman embodying the universe with a smile warmer than fire in winter. she knows shownu and shownu knows her. his heart breaks quietly and he holds his hand over his chest before greeting her politely with the name she gave herself.

“rose… is that right?” shownu’s voice was softer, gentler than ever and he reads her name as if it were glass, fragile to the faintest of sounds and she nods. she smiles in return except now her smile drips with apology, as if she was sorry for the nights they spent enjoying each other’s silence.

“i’m shownu… i’m-“
“i know, you’re big boss’s son.”