Chapter Text
"The man of every girl's dreams, now the man of every boy's dreams?"
"Young, hot eligible bachelor— now gay?"
"Choi Soobin, heir to Choi Enterprises, comes out as—"
The TV turns off with a click. Beomgyu heaves a heavy sigh, turning to face Heewon. "Can you stop watching that shit? It's getting annoying."
Heewon is slumped into the couch, a hand buried deep into the bag of chips resting by her side. Her feet were propped up against the coffee table, littered with stains from the two being simply too lazy to use coasters.
The entire room looks run down. From a glance, one would assume that these two were runaways, with not many options and being financially stretched. The walls were hung with cheap tapestries, marked by countless graffiti and spray paint marks. The tapestries were hung haphazardly, not a single hint of organization to be found. The room was dimly lit, illuminated by a few light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Indeed, the place looked like a hideout for social rejects. Maybe that's what they were, Beomgyu and Heewon.
She settles her feet back onto the ground as she sits up, rolling her eyes and glaring at Beomgyu. "Are you not in the slightest bit interested?"
"And why would I be?" Beomgyu groans as he bends down to pick up an empty can that Heewon had tossed earlier. He scrunched his nose at the mess, Heewon never liked picking up after herself.
"Choi Beomgyu. Are you insane? Choi Soobin is going to be the next richest man in South Korea, and he's gay! You're gay!"
"I'm bisexual," Beomgyu defends.
"Whatever, you like men. In fact, you prefer men, right?"
"I do," Beomgyu chews on his lower lip, not liking where this conversation is going. "So what?"
"So what? Choi Beomgyu!" she cries out. "This is your chance! Haven't you always claimed to be better than me at scamming?"
"I am."
"I make more money," She retorts, a challenging finger points at Beomgyu.
"Because I'm always stuck with the boring low-level scams! All the rich CEOs only like women!"
"And this one likes men!"
Beomgyu's mouth forms an 'o' shape as the realization settles. "You want me... to scam Choi Soobin?" He asks tentatively.
"Yeah, as in, make him fall in love with you. Completely, irrevocably, crazy in love with you. Make him love you so much that when you leave with his money, the heartbreak hurts more than the bankruptcy."
"No way!" He shudders at the thought. Choi Soobin was way out of their league. They usually went for young CEOs with newly rising companies, devoid of love from spending their youth building their companies, not the sons of the richest men in Korea. Not only that, but since the day Heewon had taken him in, she was always the one in charge of such scams. Beomgyu had always been left to the lower-level ones, like imposter scams and lottery scams, not that he minded. Sure, Heewon always got to pocket more of the money (they split it 60-40)— it was all her hard work anyway, but she took Beomgyu in when he was a broke 17 year old with nowhere else to go and showed him the ropes, he was forever grateful to her. However, that meant that this was completely new territory to him. Despite always wanting to try it out, he felt a rush of uncertainty clawing at his insides. "Choi Soobin is way out of our league, and how would I do that anyway?"
"Simple, I would never have taken you in if I didn't think you were charming enough. I'll get you into one of his banquets, and all you have to do is charm his pants off!" She smiles sweetly at him before continuing, effectively ignore his sounds of protest. "Not literally, of course, but if you want to, I'm not stopping you."
Beomgyu shuffles his feet, staring at the floor. He's always wondered why they lived in such a run-down place, they weren't poor, it was quite the opposite. Heewon says it's to prevent people from asking too many questions, like where their money came from.
"I don't know…"
Heewon's nostrils flare, she's starting to get annoyed, Beomgyu can tell. That's how she is, once she decides on something, she does anything in her power to get it. (Most of the time, it's her losing her temper at Beomgyu until he decides to help her get it.) Beomgyu knows that there's no way out of this, that he will only feel worse until he finally agrees to it. Heewon will start guilt-tripping, she will find all the possible ways to push Beomgyu's buttons, on a really bad day she might even get physical. "Are you fucking kidding me? Choi Beomgyu? How about you just agree to what I'm saying? It's finally your chance to prove how good you are! Look, how about we split it 80 to 20 this time? You get 80% of our earnings, and a proud badge to wear: Choi Soobin's broken heart."
"80 to 20?" Beomgyu's eyes widen in shock. "Heewon, that's a lot."
"20% of what you can get from Choi Soobin is more than enough for me to live the rest of my life in luxury," she snorts. "So?"
Beomgyu huffs, it is a pretty good deal, he'll admit. He also knows that it's always better to agree with Heewon than for her to lose her temper. If he refuses, it would just end in tears, broken appliances and free bruises on Beomgyu's fair, fair skin. And at the end of the day, he would still be stuck doing her bidding anyway. Its not surprising that he caves.
"I'll do it."
Heewon finally smiles.
(•̀ᴗ•́ )و
Turns out, Heewon had better connections than Beomgyu thought. It was more than simple for her to squeeze Beomgyu into one of the Choi's banquets, making it easy for the said male to approach the heir.
Beomgyu was clad in an expensive tuxedo, a gift from Heewon. His blonde hair was styled in a slight middle parting and he had allowed Heewon to put the slightest bit of make-up on him.
The anxiety was eating him up alive, he had so many worries. What if he fails? What would Heewon do to him? Or worse, what if he got caught in the process? What if he and Heewon got exposed, what would become of them then? Would they go to prison?
Beomgyu's thoughts get interrupted by the commotion in front of him. He sees a tall boy, jet black hair styled neatly and an expensive-looking suit adorning his figure. Must be Choi Soobin , he figures. The latter is tall, taller than Beomgyu had expected, and good looking. That much Beomgyu knew. After all, the young handsome heir was the recent talk of the town, coming out and all. The heir was surrounded by other men, each dressed in their expensive suits and hair styled to perfection. Must be here to win the heir's heart, Beomgyu muses, not far from his intentions.
The man, Soobin, clearly looks annoyed and frustrated. Beomgyu notices how he shot a desperate pleading look to a blue-haired boy who was snickering a distance away. Maybe if Beomgyu had kept up with the gossip, he would've known who this other boy was, not that it mattered, his main goal tonight was to approach Choi Soobin.
Charm him, woo him, make him fall in love. Completely, irrevocably, crazy in love . Heewon's words played in Beomgyu's mind like a mantra, Completely, irrevocably, crazy in love .
Beomgyu should not rush, that much he knows. Heewon never rushes. He decides to kick back instead, to scour the scene before making calculated moves. The heir is clearly fed up with being swamped, overwhelmed by the sheer number of boys trying to pique his interest. If Beomgyu were to approach him now and attempt to charm him, there's no doubt it would crash and burn.
He watches as Soobin finally manages to wriggle out of the grasp of the crowd, swiftly making his way over to the blue-haired boy. Beomgyu inches closer, attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Yeonjun," Soobin whines. That must be his name, Beomgyu makes a mental note of it. "Help me."
Yeonjun snorts in reply, "what do you want me to do? Kiss you?" Beomgyu's shoulders slumps, were these two in a relationship?
However, Soobin's nose scrunches in distaste. "Ew, gross. Just-" he flails his arms a little, "I don't know? Tell me how to get them to stop. How did you get them to stop after you came out?"
"Wasn't tough, I just bore with it for a few events, and people eventually got tired of my constant rejection. But," he stifles a chuckle, "my crowd was never that big. You have way more money than me."
"Oh, so that's what defines my worth now?" Soobin shoots him a glare.
The blue-haired male rolls his eyes at Soobin. "Shut up, you know what I mean. Those people are all the same, just trying to get into our wallets. Nothing more."
"It's disgusting," Soobin notes.
Sure, Beomgyu thinks, easy for you to say. When you were born into the upper echelons of society, you don't know what it's like to be without money. Beomgyu didn't know either of these two personally, but it was evident that they never had to starve a day in their life. Beomgyu, on the other hand, had to learn to grovel his way through life, to survive on barely a few dollars, unsure if he would even survive till next week. That was before Heewon found him, at least.
Beomgyu was only 17 when his mother had passed, his father having left them right after his birth. They were already scraping by before, his mother barely making enough to feed two mouths from her part-time jobs. But he was happy. He had a home to return to, friends in school who had his back, and he even had decent grades. He knew that if he managed to get a University degree, he could get a good job and break the cycle of poverty. He was working towards it. However, after she passed, Beomgyu had no choice but to drop out of school. He wouldn't have been able to afford food otherwise. He spent a good three months taking up multiple jobs to feed himself, and he soon lost the light in his days. There was no longer meaning to his life, he was barely surviving. That was when Heewon found him. She took him back to her place, fed him, and offered him the chance to start a new life. She was 20 at the time, taking Beomgyu under her wing as her apprentice. Without her, he would have probably been dead by now.
Even now, with the all riches they had, it was dirty money. He didn't get to live in a nice apartment, couldn't indulge in luxuries, just to be sure others don't ask too many questions. These two? They could flaunt their wealth as much as they wanted, it was their job to.
Eventually, Yeonjun and Soobin separate, and Beomgyu decides to take the chance before someone else does. He slides up to the taller male, purposely wearing a shy smile on his face.
"Excuse me?" he asks, tentatively. The heir turns around to face him, a polite but forced smile gracing his features and holy shit, this boy is really pretty up close. If only Beomgyu wasn't so professional, he might've gotten distracted from his job. Heewon never mentioned the heir being this pretty, though she did mention that people did not only go after him for his money. His looks must've played a huge factor as well, Beomgyu muses. His breath hitches, voice almost caught in his throat but he manages to squeeze his words out. Barely.
"Sorry, but uh— do you know where the bathroom is?"
(·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )
"Bathroom! Yeonjun, he asked me for the bathroom!"
"Okay?" Yeonjun is unimpressed. "And that is so special because? Was he pretty, at least?"
Soobin rolls his eyes at his best friend, "He's the only person who approached me without trying to initiate a relationship. I don't think he even knows who I am! I mean, not to be conceited or anything, but who would approach an heir just to ask for directions to the bathroom? And yeah, he was pretty. Really pretty."
"Really? That old lady from earlier was trying to initiate a romantic relationship with you?"
"Shut up," Soobin groans, "she was trying to set me up with her son, and I'm pretty sure he was straight."
Yeonjun laughs, the two escaped away to a balcony away from the crowd, Soobin was starting to get overwhelmed by everyone's presence. 22 years of practice, 22 years of putting up his facade for the crowd, and he could still never get used to it. That's the thing about heirs like Soobin and Yeonjun, their lives were planned out from the second they were born. Stand here, do this, do that, no, don't touch that. Stay silent, you're going to ruin my image. They went to school, studied hard and got good grades. Not that it really mattered to them, they would take over the companies anyway, they didn't need their grades to get a job. It mattered way more to their parents, however, that their children topped the cohorts.
Sure, it seemed like a glamourous life. Soobin never had to worry about spending too much on his purchases, in fact, he often received excessively expensive gifts to keep up appearances. However, this life was also a prison. He was never truly himself. Stand straight, smile. Look happier, son, have I not given you enough? He was an heir, before anything else. Before he was human, before he was his own person, before he was their son, he was an heir. And the worst part of it all? He didn't have a choice. He could not just choose to forgo this life and live a normal one, he could only silently obey. Because, what would happen if the only heir to Choi Entreprises were to step down? The was no next in line, the company would collapse, the economy will fail. There was too much responsibility lies on his shoulders, too many people relying on him, too heavy of a weight to let go of. It was funny to think that so much could crumble and fall if he did too. What a heavy weight for such a young boy. But no, Soobin couldn't afford to even consider it.
The thing about having your life planned to the minute is that you never really had time to breathe. It was worse that it was planned by someone else, Soobin can't remember the last time he's made a big decision on his own. His dream university, his major, it was all chosen by his father. Even his best friend— he loves Yeonjun to death, but the two wouldn't be friends if his father didn't deem Yeonjun fit. His other friends, like Taehyun, had to be kept a secret from his father. Taehyun was a boy he and Yeonjun met in university, of course, they were wary of him at first, but after years of friendship, it was clear to the two heirs that he was not after their money. It didn't matter though, his father would have never approved of him befriending a commoner anyway, so it had to be kept a secret.
A life like this, it's tiring. Soobin desperately wants to make his own decisions, to be his own person. That's why, when an opportunity presents itself to him, he jumps to grab it.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Yeonjun's questions interrupts Soobin from where he was deep in thought.
"Huh?"
"The boy, you said he was pretty."
"Oh," Soobin flushes. "Not sure, what if I approached him?"
"What if you did?"
Soobin shrugs in response.
"Soobin," Yeonjun tries gently. "What are you trying to achieve out of this? What do you think you can get by approaching him first?"
"I don't know, maybe we could be friends? You know how many people I've let pass by, only to regret not starting a friendship with them."
"You have Taehyun and me, is that not enough?"
"This isn't about 'enough', Yeonjun."
"Then what is it about?"
"Seeing him again," Soobin admits. "I want to see him again."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the banquet hall, Beomgyu spots a familiar face.
"Heewon!" he calls out. "I didn't know you'd be here."
She laughs in response. "Silly Beommie. Did you really think I would get you into the Choi's banquet and not come too? I saw what you did, by the way, asking for the bathroom, very smart of you, I'll have to borrow that tactic."
Beomgyu shrugs in response, "I'm not sure if it even worked. I haven't spoken to him since."
"Are you joking? Look at him," she gestures to the balcony the two boys were situated at. "He's having such a heated discussion with Choi Yeonjun, there's no doubt you left an impact. It's just the first step, Beomgyu-ah. Dropping a pebble into the calm waters."
Beomgyu nods, taking in all of Heewon's words. Then, after a beat, he asks, "can you tell me more about them?"
"Sure," Heewon smiles, it's unsettling, but most things about her are unsettling. "But not here, someplace more private."
Beomgyu lets Heewon guide him somewhere, he didn't mind not knowing, after all, he would trust her with his life. She's already saved him once.
"Choi Yeonjun, 23, a year older than Choi Soobin and a year younger than me. They're best friends, their fathers are close business partners and they grew up together. He'll probably be wary of you, so you do have to get on his good side. He came out too, a few years back, so you have to be wary of him as well, you never know what could bloom between childhood friends. He's the heir to the Sangjun group, his dad's company. They're not as huge as Choi enterprises, but substantial enough."
Beomgyu nods, trying his best to retain all the information.
"You know more about Soobin, I assume." Heewon moves on, "Choi Soobin, 22, heir to Choi enterprises, our target. He can be quite shy, I heard, but I'm sure the life he leads has given him trained confidence, so don't let your guard down. As far as I know, Yeonjun is his only friend, unless he has other friends out of the spotlight. It seems that he's already quite fed up with the attention he's getting from coming out, so you can't spook him. Make him approach you, I'm sure you know how to do that."
"He's pretty," Beomgyu absent-mindedly notes, and Heewon quirks an eyebrow at that.
"Hm? I suppose he is. Pretty, huh? Sure, you can have your fun with him, lord knows I do that too, sometimes. Just, don't forget what we're here for. Everything is fine if you can get his money in the end. I'll leave it to you."
Beomgyu nods, before following Heewon back into the banquet hall. He wanders for a bit, settling on heading to the expensive buffet. Despite having millions, Heewon liked to eat cheap, this was a rare opportunity for Beomgyu to pamper his tastebuds.
Just as he was approaching the table, he felt a strong hand clasp his elbow. He turned around to face the figure, finding himself craning his neck to maintain eye contact. Beautiful brown eyes bore into him and though Beomgyu should have prepared himself for this (it was tonight's purpose, after all.), he still felt the jitteriness claw at his guts.
"Excuse me," Soobin says. Oh no, Beomgyu thinks. Soobin up close is pretty, so very pretty. Beomgyu doesn't think he's seen a prettier man in his life. The taller males features were soft, his skin was milky white. He had lips that formed a heart, and if Beomgyu was a bit more of a hopeless romantic, he might even say that Soobin had stars in his eyes.
"What's your name?"
"Beomgyu," he replies, voice too breathy. "Choi Beomgyu."
"Beomgyu," Soobin repeats, trying the taste of his name on his tongue. "It's pretty."
"Thank you. What's yours?" Beomgyu lies.
"Not important. Will I see you again, Beomgyu?"
"That depends," Beomgyu laughs. "My invitation here was a one-time thing. I don't know if I can get in again."
Soobin ponders his words for a moment, seeming to weigh various options in his head.
"And if I made sure of it? What if I made sure you could get in again?"
Beomgyu smiles, "then I'll be here."
Stage one? Success.