Chapter Text
The first time Lee Soo Hyuk saw Alberu Crossman was on a billboard.
He had just wrapped up a grueling 10-hour shoot for a noir-themed action drama, his eyes still lined with the faintest trace of kohl, and his coat collar turned up against the early winter breeze.
The streets of Seoul buzzed beneath a sky turning from violet to gray, and as he turned the corner toward Gangnam’s luxury district, his steps slowed.
There, above the main avenue, was a towering LED screen flashing a slow-motion video of Alberu Crossman.
The model wore a velvet-black coat with structured shoulders and a high collar, beneath which shimmered a deep red silk shirt that moved like water with each subtle movement.
His long hair, dark with faint golden tones, was swept back. His eyes that were as sharp as cut obsidian stared directly into the lens.
And somehow, it felt like directly at him.
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen Alberu’s face.
That was impossible in this city.
Alberu’s likeness was everywhere.
In boutique windows, airport lounges, fashion week teasers, and viral campaigns.
But something about this display was different.
The slow and deliberate pacing, the rich orchestral score that played just under the sound of traffic, and the look in Alberu’s eyes.
Unapologetic, commanding, and impossibly alive.
Soo Hyuk stood there frozen for far longer than he meant to, as the world passed behind him in a blur of horns and voices.
“No one should be allowed to look like that,” he muttered under his breath, his voice half-annoyed and half-awed.
A teenage girl walking by with a bubble tea in hand overheard him and giggled.
“He’s so pretty, right? My mom says he looks like he was painted by angels.”
Lee Soo Hyuk said nothing.
But his name stuck in his mind all the way home.
Alberu Crossman.
The next week, he saw the name again. This time in the form of a handwritten RSVP on the guest list for the Baeksang Art Awards.
“Guess who confirmed this morning,” said Hyun Woo, his manager, over a pile of suit options. “Alberu Crossman. Rumor is, he’s wearing custom Alexander McQueen.”
Soo Hyuk lifted a brow, a skeptical look on his face.
“He’s attending an acting award show?”
“They’re giving him the Fashion-Cinema Fusion Award, it’s new. You know the cross-industry branding and all that.”
“Huh.”
He didn't say more. But he chose a suit with a deeper cut that night.
The ballroom was a cathedral of luxury.
Light spilled from cascading crystal chandeliers, and red carpet flashes still danced behind Soo Hyuk’s eyes as he made his way to his table near the front.
Cameras hovered like vultures, and around him were some of the biggest names in film, music, and fashion.
He greeted Park Bo Gum with a nod, exchanged a few words with Han So Hee, and then took his seat beside Shin Mina.
However.
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, a commotion could be felt through the room.
Lee Soo Hyuk turned to check what it was.
And lo and behold.
Alberu Crossman had arrived.
There was no announcement because there didn’t need to be.
He entered like royalty, wearing a deep blue velvet suit clung to his frame like a second skin, the color so rich it almost shimmered black in the changing light. And thin chain glinted at his collarbone.
His expression was unreadable and poised.
Soo Hyuk watched as he sat across the hall at a table with Cale Henituse, another household name in the fashion world.
If Alberu was fire, Cale was ice.
Pale, red-haired, fox-eyed, and with a reputation for ending interviews with a single line.
The two of them leaned close and exchanged a few words.
And then Alberu laughed.
It was barely a shift of his expression. Just a soft smile, a hand moving to touch his temple, and his eyes crinkling slightly, but it felt different.
Lee Soo Hyuk felt his breath hitched.
“Didn’t think you were the type to get starstruck,” Shin Mina teased from beside him.
“I’m not,” Soo Hyuk replied smoothly, though his eyes never left Alberu's form.
Shin Mina looked amused at him.
“Well, he is art.”
Lee Soo Hyuk didn’t respond.
But his eyes still didn’t leave Alberu.
Not for the rest of the night.
Later that evening, as the awards ceremony neared its midpoint and Soo Hyuk briefly escaped to the smoking balcony for a breath of cold air, he caught a glimpse of someone already leaning against the far railing.
Alberu.
The model had shed his blazer, leaving only the silk shirt beneath. The moonlight turned the red fabric almost black, and his hair was loose now, flowing down his back like ink.
For a moment, Soo Hyuk hesitated. He didn't know if he should approach or not.
But then Alberu looked up.
“Oh, the actor,” Alberu said, his voice mild and tone curious. “Lee Soo Hyuk, right?”
“And you’re Alberu Crossman.”
Alberu’s eyes crinkled at his response.
“So they tell me.”
Soo Hyuk then decided to take a step forward.
And somehow, the quiet between them wasn’t awkward. It was charged, like flint just before the spark.
“You clean up well,” Alberu added as he tilted his head.
Soo Hyuk smirked, that smirk he knew that sent thousands into cardiac arrest.
“You make velvet look like a weapon.”
That earned him a soft laugh.
“It’s meant to.”
Below them, camera flashes still glimmered through the windows.
Alberu exhaled, his breath fogged in the cold.
“Don’t you ever get tired of all this?”
Soo Hyuk looked at him. And somehow, he knew what the other meant.
“Sometimes.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because once in a while,” Soo Hyuk said, “you see something, someone, that makes it worth it.”
He didn’t look away when he said it.
Neither did Alberu.
The cold wind whipped past them, shuffling Alberu’s hair and the silk of his shirt.
But neither of them moved.
And that's how it all began.
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CHAPTER END