Chapter Text
Ikigai is a well-known Japanese philosophy of life. The self of Ikigai leans toward contributing to society through personal identity; not assimilating oneself completely into the social whirlwind to the point of losing one’s own passion and enthusiasm. It is a philosophy that is both embracing and dreamy, subtly laced with a hint of ambition.
Skimming through the introductory flyer for the ‘Ikigai’ art exhibition by the genius painter Itoshi Sae, which is to be held tomorrow in Spain, Luna took a sip of his Gin Tonic cocktail. The lingering chill on his tongue blended with the aroma of red grapefruit and the delicate spiciness of pink pepper. This was the only affordable cocktail he liked, his one exception. To him, if a product lacked enough value, it was nothing more than worthless residue.
He had no interest in the lofty art of delusional minds who lived detached from reality, like Van Gogh, like Goya, like Edvard Munch. In his view, if painting couldn't make money, it was nothing more than residual scrap that led straight to death. The phrase "dying for art" was, in truth, a romanticized label for the harsh reality that those people were simply powerless; unable to survive in society. They poured all their pain and emotion onto the canvas, stubbornly leaving behind a legacy to prove that they had once existed in this cruel world. But beyond that, what else could a painter possibly do?
Moreover, the exhibition was being hosted by a Japanese artist. Luna sipped the lingering taste of alcohol on his tongue, licking the edge of his lips. Since the Leonard family had decided to invest in the exhibition, and he was the official heir, Luna Leonardo was obligated to be present. He had no passion for art, nor did he care for the dreamy painters lost in their illusions. What the Leonard family truly invested in was Itoshi Sae’s reputation, they never cared about which artworks would actually be on display.
The only reason he read the exhibition leaflet was because it happened to be left there, forgotten by someone. Not only that, the person had also left behind their admission ticket. A green slip tinged with a silver sheen peeked out beneath the serrated edge, a customs code printed at the bottom right corner, alongside the word VVIP. Had it been anyone else sitting here, anyone but Leonardo Luna, that ticket would already be up for sale on the black market.
“Most likely belonged to that Japanese boy earlier, sir.”
The bartender across the counter placed a glass of mojito before him, pushing it forward. With a subtle flick of the index finger, he brushed lightly against the back of Luna’s hand.
Luna caught the implication clearly. He looked up, giving the bartender a cursory once-over. Sun-bleached blond strands were meticulously tied back. Pale brown eyes, delicately curved, had a fragile elegance to them; they reminded him of Marguerite Gautier, glorious and sullied, the woman with the laughing eyes, to whom creation had granted the most exquisite beauty, only to cast her into a world of vanity and decadent foolishness.
Just his type, Leonardo Luna thought. What a shame the man was male.
He reached out to take the cocktail, a pale mojito that didn’t suit his taste. The bartender looked at him with barely disguised hope, and Luna let the rim of the glass brush his lips.
"Hey kid, underage! You're not allowed in the bar!"
The guard's loud voice from outside drew Luna’s attention. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared about such trifles.
But this was different. The boy’s face looked far too much like that of the famous painter.
Itoshi Sae rarely spoke of his family in public. Luna could tell at a glance this had to be his younger brother. Youthful features tinged with the awkwardness of someone barely grown. Emerald eyes that did not carry the cold, distant calm from his memory. On the contrary, they gleamed with a vivid brightness that belonged only to him.
He placed the mojito down and ignored the bartender’s lingering hand. With composed grace, Luna turned his head and declined.
"Regrettably, not tonight."
"Sir, if you change your mind..."
The rest of his sentence never reached Luna’s ears. Marguerite Gautier, no matter how ethereal her beauty, still had a body soiled and sullied, touched by anyone who desired her. To Luna, she was nothing more than a cheap commodity to toy with at his leisure. The twisted affection he held for her mirrored his attitude toward the bartender clinging to delusions of sharing a night with him.
Boring. Worthless. Just like the tasteless mojito the man had mixed to catch his attention.
Luna stepped out, taking the exhibition ticket with him. He already knew who it belonged to. A dutiful little brother, eager to attend his sibling’s first grand showcase, wasn’t he?
"Hey, I already told you, I’m eighteen!"
Itoshi Rin snapped outside, blocked at the entrance by a guard.
He had only left the bar less than an hour ago. When he got back to the hotel, he realized he had forgotten his brother’s exhibition ticket and rushed back to retrieve it. Unlucky for him, he hadn’t brought his wallet. Which meant he had no way of proving he was over eighteen.
The guard, recently rotated onto his shift, didn’t recognize Rin and stood firmly in front of the door, refusing to let him in even a step.
"No ID, no entry. We don’t allow minors here."
"I’m nineteen, not a minor."
Rin’s voice flared with frustration. The ticket might already be gone, and now he was barred entry just because someone assumed he was underage.
"Sorry, rules are rules."
The tall security guard, nearly two meters high, stood firm and did not move an inch, blocking the suspicious underage person from entering the bar.
"I just need to go inside to find something I forgot. Please check the cameras for me. I am not here to waste time lying just to drink."
A reasonable and straightforward request. Unfortunately, this was Spain, and Rin spoke English, the language foreigners often use here. They did not want to waste their precious time on a kid. Instead of following Rin’s words, the guard pushed him back and repeated stiffly,
"Sorry, we cannot break the law. Please leave or bring your ID."
"You bastard."
The ticket Sae gave Rin was still inside. Rin could easily buy another one on the black market, but the problem was that Sae himself had sent it to him. It was ‘my older brother’s first exhibition.’ After almost two years apart, Itoshi Rin never expected he would forget something so important.
Suddenly, a voice cut through the argument. A well-dressed man walked toward them both. Rin caught a glimpse of a luxurious blue ticket with a silver shimmer resting in the man’s palm. Because his view was blocked, Rin was not sure if it was his ticket or not.
"Good evening, Mr. Luna."
The guard bowed low immediately, clearly showing that this man held a high status. Rin clicked his tongue and suddenly felt a headache coming on.
He did not know what the strange blond man said to the guard since they spoke in Spanish, but the guard glanced at Rin with a terrifying look and then instantly apologized. The strange series of actions left Rin puzzled as he looked toward the ‘kind’ Spanish man who had just helped him.
"Who are you?"
"The first thing you should say to me is thank you, little brother of Itoshi Sae." Luna smoothed his vest out of a small habit and sat back, waiting for Rin’s reaction. After all, he was Sae’s younger brother, so he probably wouldn’t be too...
"You know that bastard of a brother of mine?"
...No, maybe he was wrong. The brat was ten times more hot-tempered than Luna had imagined, almost making the gentlemanly smile on the nobleman’s lips collapse.
"Didn’t your brother teach you manners when meeting someone older?"
"Not in this place." Itoshi Rin made it very clear that if it were somewhere else, not in this rough, open world where no one cared about morals, he would be a polite kid who respected his elders. But they met here, in a place where moral boundaries were blurred and mixed with the sound of moans and desire.
Luna didn’t see it that way. He didn’t like Rin’s sarcasm, even though they were both people who came to this filthy, worldly place to free themselves.
"Aren’t you here for the same reason?"
"So I don’t need to respect you. Now answer me, do you know that damn brother of mine or not?"
"Stop pretending to be a child, Itoshi. I don’t care what you think." Somewhere inside, Luna felt offended. That damn Japanese brat always swearing annoyed him. Truly annoying. He needed a smooth reason to politely refuse the bartender. If Itoshi Rin were a little better behaved, he would have already handed the ticket back to him.
"Is this your ticket?" Luna held the blue ticket between his index and middle fingers and gave it a light flick.
The silver shimmer along the serrated edge caught the light, reflecting in Rin’s deep green eyes. Rin looked at the ticket with a fleeting innocence of a child not yet grown. But his thoughts were too mature; he didn’t rush to snatch it back. Instead, he calmly asked Luna:
"What do you want?"
Seeing the brat who just went crazy suddenly calm down, Luna wasn’t quite used to it yet. A mischievous idea rose in his mind, and he asked back:
"What do you think I want from you?"
Deep inside, his core screamed at him to stop playing this boring game. Itoshi Sae’s younger brother — a potential partner for the Leonardo house — if things got too ugly, it wouldn’t be good. Luna didn’t expect it either, but in a moment of distraction, he felt Itoshi Rin kiss him, then teasingly snatch the shimmering ticket from his hand.
Noticing Luna’s strange reaction, Rin seemed to realize something and asked with curiosity:
"Aren’t you gay?"
A soft, gentle feeling brushed lightly across Luna’s lips. He had kissed his partners in much more intense ways before, but the first element of sex was arousal, and deep kissing was usually the prelude to everything. The breath on his skin, the curve of those long lashes, Rin’s bright blue eyes unintentionally captured Luna’s full attention. His features were still innocent and pure, but his gestures were reckless.
"Hey, you." Luna instinctively wiped away the mark Rin left on his lips, then realized he had been rude. But Rin didn’t care, he was focused on checking the ticket in his hand. Now that he had his thing back, Rin didn’t hold back at all.
"What?"
"If you kiss everyone like that, people will think you’re easy."
Pretending nothing had happened, Luna took a step closer to the cheeky kid, invading Rin’s personal space and asked directly.
"Does your brother know you’re gay? I heard Asians aren’t very accepting of LGBT people. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone."
"Damn it, you seem really curious about other people’s family, huh?"
"Oh no, I’m genuinely curious about the culture of your country. I don’t understand how a poor, backward country like Japan could produce a genius painter, or maybe all painters have to go through hardship."
"I’m not interested in talking to a narcissist." Rin didn’t answer the sarcasm and decided to walk back to the hotel. That kiss was just a moment of impulse, it didn’t leave any trace in his mind. He didn’t even want to ask what the relationship between Sae and this guy was. His older brother was so indifferent that he didn’t care about him at all, Rin felt a bit upset inside.
Because he didn’t follow the art path both brothers had taken, Sae had even cut ties with him. The truth was, Itoshi Sae was truly a genius in the art world, holding a big exhibition at 21 years old, while Itoshi Rin would always be just “Sae’s younger brother.” And now, some superior Spanish guy imposed his old-fashioned ideas on art. How did Sae even know someone like that?
The gentleman politely stopped Rin. Polite, respectful, elegant, refined—these beautiful words were only a thin mask for the torn man inside. He didn’t like being ignored, especially by a kid who just crossed the line of what could be ignored. Luna was not gay and never planned to sleep with men. Compared to rough, muscular men, it was the soft, graceful bodies of women that really fascinated him.
Luna glanced down at the kid who was almost as tall as him and forced a grin because he was annoyed. The kid boldly crossed the boundary of a grown man. Did he even know what he was doing? Where did Itoshi Sae find such a rude little brother? Picked him up from the street? Besides having the same face, their personalities were completely different. Luna silently cursed thousands of times in his head but still tried to keep a calm expression. However, his repeated actions making things difficult for Rin clearly reflected his mood.
Rin kept walking without paying attention. Luna’s shoulder bumped into him, causing the ticket in his hand to slip out. A strong wind blew and made the ticket flutter in the air. His bright blue eyes widened in surprise. Itoshi Rin didn’t even have time to look back to see who was blocking him. He pushed the other person forcefully and ran after the wind.
The wind carried the ticket, swaying in midair. Before it disappeared from sight, Rin pushed off the ground and jumped straight up. One step, two steps, he quickly stepped onto the edge of a flowerbed, shifted his body toward a nearby lamppost, stretched out his arm, and leaned to catch the ticket that the wind had carried away. His knees bent as he landed on the pavement. Luckily, it was nighttime and no one noticed him. Rin breathed a sigh of relief though he didn’t realize it himself. The ticket was still intact — Sae’s ticket.
“Alright, careless big brother. I will see what he has been doing these past years that he refuses to come back to Japan.”
Clenching the edge of the ticket, Itoshi Rin walked straight back to the hotel where he was staying. He completely forgot about the strange foreigner connected to his brother, who had been standing there shocked for five minutes already.
"Itoshi Sae, what kind of things are you teaching your little brother?"
Those actions, just one light slip could cause a sprain, worse could break bones. That height is not something to joke about, yet Sae’s little brother climbed poles like Spider-Man, just to catch that ticket. That is the behavior of a professional, not something you can copy in a day.
"Do all Japanese people have something wrong with their heads?" Luna rubbed his head in frustration. Today went beyond his imagination.
"Reckless, gay, reckless, only 19 years old. What kind of strange combination is this, Itoshi..."
Suddenly he remembered that from the beginning until now, he did not know the little brother’s name. The biggest mistake in communication, Luna did not know any information except that he was Itoshi Sae’s brother.
That kid is crazy.
Luna Leonardo thought.
He did not want to meet another Japanese person like that in his life again.
A madman who is fully awake.
Before Luna spoke, besides the social classes within the art world, he also knew there was a type of person who could not be defined by any rules—those who were deeply rooted in their minds, relentlessly chasing eternal passion regardless of all the laws created by society. They were geniuses, and also madmen. Itoshi Sae was a genius, an artist within the safe zone where the Leonardo family placed their bets and investments. Luna suddenly felt lucky because Sae was nothing like his little brother, who was crazy.
Thinking back on that provocative kiss, the feeling of lips touching lips fading quickly on the mouth, Luna regretted wiping away that mark too soon. He had never kissed a man before; the corners of women’s lips he had nibbled and crushed never left him with such lingering feelings. Luna turned his head to look back at the bar behind him; the bartender with slender eyes was secretly watching him while working. The boy still held hope. Luna was a gentleman, originally not very interested in playing the gay role, but after that light kiss, his mood shifted slightly.
He walked gently closer to the other person, grasped the other’s hand tightly, lifting it softly. He bent down, his eyelashes lowered, covering the emotions resting deep in his eyes. It seemed the aftertaste of that kiss still lingered in his mouth. Luna smiled softly, his lips touching the smooth, pale back of the hand. He raised his head and extended an invitation:
"I wonder if you would like to spend the night with me?"
“It’s a great honor, sir.” The bartender stammered, unable to believe his ears. It was the first time he knew the ‘prince’ would sleep with a man. Before this, he had never seen him accept any invitation, whether as the top or the bottom. What he didn’t know was that Luna had no initial interest in him. The Marguerite Gautier face was just a cheap commodity to be casually taken. He preferred luxury goods, something unique, definitely not that wild and reckless kid.
Definitely not that kid.
Itoshi Sae’s little brother.
Luna didn’t realize that all he could think of were those clear, stubborn blue eyes, even though the gaze was not meant for him, or more precisely, had never bothered to look straight at him.
The eyes of a wanderer.
What was condensed in those pupils was only one thing: freedom. A meaningless phrase that perhaps he would never understand, not in his entire life.
Holding the bartender close within his arms, Luna pulled his own tie down. They had rented a hotel room near the bar. The bartender leaned up, intending to kiss him. Luna skillfully dodged. He didn’t find men attractive. He blamed the bartender’s sorry shirt for killing his mood. If the guy had worn a black ombre hoodie and freestyle cargo pants like that reckless kid, maybe he would have been more pleased. Aside from looking as delicate as Marguerite, the bartender had nothing else going for him.
"Sir, is it that I did not please you?"
"No, it’s just that I’m not in the mood today."
Putting his jacket back on, Luna handed the bartender his phone. Even though he was the one who had invited him for the night, now he didn’t even care. As a last act of kindness, he asked for the bartender’s number for another time (though of course, there would never be a second time). He wasn’t gay and wasn’t interested in men. What seemed to unsettle him a bit was the arrogant attitude of that kid. Luna thought Itoshi Sae should teach his little brother a lesson.