“Your grandfather, he was a great man.”

“He was.”

Under the great oak tree, a moment of silence took its shift. None of them spoke for a while after that, and only the soft lull of an oncoming rainstorm could be heard by both. But that didn't seem to be enough to stop a query from weaving itself into Hoya’s mind. He felt he had to ask it, otherwise he was going to suffer the repercussions of curiosity for another half day or so because he wouldn’t be seeing Bomi until the end of the day. He was going to be attending funeral services until the sun set, while Bomi was being sent back to the quarters to prepare for tonight’s sending off ceremony. Hoya didn't know why, but suddenly, the thought of her being away from him for so long when he knew she could be his only listening ear sort of bothered him.

“I’m not usually this curious or anything, but what did my harabeoji give you, for you to respect him so much? He never really ever talked to me, about you.”

Mid-speech, Bomi stopped what she was doing, giving him her full attention. She bit her lip a little, fixed her eyes in the space in front of her, like she was thinking hard about an answer, and something in Hoya's heart stirred. He realised it was the first time he'd ever really taken the time to look at her from up close. She really did look a lot like his mother when she was younger.

He could even imagine the traces of his mother's voice in her's, when she parted her lips to speak.

“Other people may not believe it when I tell them, but your grandfather…” She rose her head to the dull sky, then, and dazed off in a sort of trance that resembled the movement of calm moving clouds, before turning to look into his eyes and continued. “He has the ability to make people feel at home, happiness, to grant people things they’ve never been able to have in their lives before.”

A smile graced her lips quietly as her mind took her back to the days at the orphanage, and her next words seemed to send tremors and static into Hoya’s mind. He liked it when she did that. It made him feel strangely comforted, like her words could ward off all the demons roaming about in his conscience.

“Your grandfather, he gave us all futures.”

All these things his grandfather had done for him, he never knew, or maybe he did, but just wasn’t smart enough to decipher and see them through, but it was amazing how with just Bomi’s honest words, his barriers of pride and ego came falling. Finally, he felt like he could understand.

Hoya used to think the only reason for harabeoji to be placing emphasis on his etiquette and education was so that he could present himself sensibly and elitely in front of his business partners when the time came for him to inherit his properties, but that was not it at all. Harabeoji wasn’t doing things for himself, he was doing them for people like Hoya, Sunggyu, his family, and possibly even for the rest of the world and the poorer, like Bomi, too. Besides, what difference would it have made for a person to own three times as much wealth and estates than harabeoji, but showed no devotion to handling them in the right way? He held no grudges, no hatred, and all he ever did was give. He gave faith and love to those who weren’t able to receive it in its fullest form. He gave his time, and essentially his own health, so that others could live comfortably.

Harabeoji was right.

“If you don't live for something, you die for nothing.”

Harabeoji definitely didn't die for nothing.

Hoya wasn’t sure where the determination suddenly came from, but it was somewhat of a divine effort he wanted to make sure the world would see. To sit back and watch as his harabeoji’s efforts went to waste would be the biggest regret of his life. For the first time, Hoya was reconsidering fighting for the seat of inheritance. Not out of greed, or for the pure pleasure of winning over Sunggyu. For once, Hoya wanted to do something his harabeoji would be proud of him for. He wanted to protect his dream.

Bomi noticed his wandering mind.

“You know, your harabeoji loved you very much.”

Hoya relaxed his gaze, naturally, at her voice, and remembered. His mother once told him, that a person looked prettiest when they loved. Hoya laughed to himself at the thought. Harabeoji, pretty. How could he not have realised?

“Yeah, I should’ve treated him better, when he was still here.”

“No, he was never disappointed in you. He was proud of you, Lee Howon, and always will be. He wanted me to tell you that.”

Hoya turned to look at her, but she immediately looked the other way. Bomi, pretty. Bomi was pretty too, when she was speaking seriously, and not just bickering with him night and day.

Suddenly, the rain stopped, and the clouds cleared, leaving a distinctive refreshening after-smell of rain in the air, and the most beautiful scene anyone could ever capture in the depths of their memory, of diamond droplets sparkling on the horizon amongst surrounding nature in the sunshine, and a perfect spray of rainbow colours floating in the distant panorama.

His voice came out close to a whisper, and he wasn't too sure if he was just overwhelmed by the beauty of it all or not, but in the silence of the halting rain, it rang clear and sincere.

“Thanks, Bomi.”

Hoya smiled, wider this time, and Bomi noticed this was the first time Hoya had ever been so outwardly comfortable around her. Around anyone. She thought his smile was contagious, though in the midst of it she saw the dark circles under his eyes, and wondered if he hadn't slept at all the previous night.

Still though, she thought he was quite attractive, especially when he could easily speak to her like this. No status barriers, no honorifics, just him, her, his thoughts, her thoughts. Everything went together nicely.

He held her gaze one more time. Last time, maybe.

“Thank you. Harabeoji probably wanted me to tell you that, too.”

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a/n: I KNEW I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO RESIST THE ITCH TO WRITING SOMETHING FOR THIS STORY. damn got no studying done at all today ;-;;;;;;; lol not totally satisfied with my writing style yet, bleh, but I'll delete this and replace it with the prologue when I finish my exams and update properly hehe, peace yo''''