The aftermath of the Vogue shoot was a digital wildfire. Within twenty minutes, "Han Jeo Red Eyes" and "Han Jeo's Mystery Boy" were trending globally. Manager Kim sat in the front seat of the SUV, his phone vibrating so violently it sounded like a trapped hornet.
"The agency is threatening to jump off the Han River bridge, Sire," Kim said, his voice as dry as a desert. "They want to know if the 'red eyes' was a new contact lens line or if they should start preparing your retirement-via-exile."
Han Jeo didn't even look up. He was sitting in the back, his long legs stretched out, his eyes fixed on Taeyul. Taeyul was pressed against the far door, staring out the window at the passing city lights, his hands still trembling slightly in the pockets of his navy suit.
"Tell them it's a concept," Jeo muttered, his gaze never leaving the boy. "Tell them it's for a movie. Tell them whatever makes them stop making that annoying noise."
Jeo reached out, his fingers hovering near Taeyul's shoulder, but for the first time in two hundred years, he hesitated. He had felt the way Taeyul flinched when Sera spoke. He had felt the "noise" return to the boy's head.
And for some reason, the thought of Taeyul being "loud" with pain bothered him more than the scandal.
[Taeyul's POV]
The penthouse was quiet, but it wasn't the "good" silence. It felt heavy.
I walked straight to the guest room—my "cage"—and sat on the edge of the bed. I felt like a cheap prop that had been used and tossed aside. Sera was right about one thing: I didn't belong there. I belonged in a grimy cafe with a rag in my hand, not in a world where people growled at each other in designer clothes.
Knock. Knock.
I blinked. Han Jeo didn't knock. He usually just appeared like a ghost or kicked the door open with a sassy comment.
"Go away," I said.
The door opened anyway. Jeo walked in, but he wasn't wearing his "Superstar" armor. He had changed into a simple grey sweatshirt and sweatpants—which probably cost more than my life, but still. He was carrying a cardboard box that smelled suspiciously like... grease?
"Manager Kim said humans eat their feelings," Jeo said, his voice uncharacteristically stiff. He walked over and dumped the box on the bed.
I looked inside. It was fried chicken from the cheap place near my old apartment. The box was stained with oil, looking completely out of place against the silk duvet.
"You went to Mapo-gu?" I asked, looking up at him in shock.
"I sent a drone," he snapped, his cheeks turning a very faint, impossible shade of pink. "And then I realized the drone couldn't pay, so I sent Kim. Just eat it, Dumbo. You looked like you were going to faint at the studio, and a skinny 'pill' is a useless 'pill'."
I took a piece of chicken, the familiar salty taste hitting my tongue. It felt... human. I looked at him, really looked at him. He was standing there, awkward and tall, watching me eat like he was waiting for a grade on a test.
"Is this your way of apologizing?" I asked, my voice muffled by food.
"I don't apologize," Jeo huffed, crossing his arms. He sat on the floor—on the actual floor—at the foot of my bed. "I'm a Pureblood. I'm a god of the Hallyu wave. I'm simply... performing maintenance on my property."
"You're a terrible liar," I whispered, a small, involuntary smile tugging at my lips.
Jeo saw the smile and froze. His hazel eyes softened, glowing with a gentle, warm light I hadn't seen before. He leaned his head back against the mattress, looking up at me.
"Sera is a snake," he said, his voice dropping to a low, honest rasp. "She thinks she can win because she knows the rules of the world. But she doesn't know my rules.
You aren't a 'stain,' Taeyul. You're the only part of my day that doesn't feel like a performance."
He reached up, his cold fingers brushing against my knee. "I know you don't feel 'romantically' toward me. I know I'm just a shield you use to sleep. And that's fine. But don't let them tell you that you're small.
Because to me... you're the loudest thing in the world, and for once, I actually want to hear it."
I looked down at him. He was being flirty, his usual "slutty" smirk returning to his face, but his eyes were sincere.
"Don't get weird on me, Han Jeo," I said, though I didn't pull my leg away. "You're still a psycho who kidnapped me."
"And you're still a brat who needs me to tuck him in," he teased, his eyes twinkling. He stood up, suddenly towering over me again. "Now, finish your commoner food. We have a 'date' tonight."
"A date?" I choked.
"In the living room. I bought a 100-inch television and every video game ever made. Kim said you like 'gaming.' I don't know what a 'Mario' is, but I'm going to beat you at it until you cry."
I laughed. A real, genuine laugh that echoed in the lonely penthouse. "You're going to lose so bad, you're going to turn red again."
"We'll see about that, Sanctuary," he whispered, winking at me before sauntering out.The "gaming night" was a disaster in the best way possible.
Han Jeo, a man who could command a stadium of ten thousand people, was currently screaming at a 100-inch screen because a fictional turtle had knocked him off a rainbow-colored bridge.
"This is rigged!" Jeo shouted, his thumb pressing the controller so hard I thought the plastic would snap. "Kim! Call the developers. Tell them I want this turtle deleted from existence!"
I was doubled over, clutching my stomach from laughing so hard. "It's called a 'blue shell,' Jeo. It hits the person in first place. It's the universe's way of telling you that you're too arrogant."
Jeo turned to look at me, his hair messy, the usual "Vogue" perfection replaced by a wild, frustrated energy. He saw me laughing—really laughing—and he stopped. The "slutty" retort died on his lips. He just watched me, a strange, quiet look in his eyes that made my heart do a traitorous little skip.
"You have a loud laugh, Taeyul," he whispered, the crimson in his eyes flickering just for a second, but this time it felt warm, like a hearth. "It suits you better than the silence."
"Don't get sentimental," I muttered, my face heating up as I looked back at the screen.
"You're still in fourth place."
He chuckled, leaning back against the plush velvet sofa. For a few hours, the penthouse didn't feel like a gilded cage. It felt like... home. The "noise" was gone, the fried chicken was gone, and for the first time, I felt like I could actually breathe.
Eventually, the exhaustion caught up to me.
The "silence" Jeo provided acted like a heavy blanket. My head began to bob, and before I knew it, I was leaning against his shoulder. His skin was cold, but against the heat of my own, it felt perfect.
"Sleep, Sanctuary," I heard him whisper.
"I've got the shadows tonight."
While Taeyul drifted into a dreamless peace in the living room, thirty floors below, the world was moving against them.
Inside a sleek, silver Mercedes parked across the street from the penthouse, Sera sat in the dark. She wasn't crying anymore.
Her face was a mask of cold, calculated fury.
She held a burner phone to her ear, the light of the screen reflecting in her artificial blue eyes.
"I found him," she said into the phone, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and malice. "The boy Jeo-nim is hiding. He isn't just a pet. He's the 'cure'."
A voice responded on the other end—a voice that sounded like grinding stones, ancient and hollow. "Is he the one from the prophecy? The one with the soul of the Forest?"
"I don't care about prophecies," Sera hissed, looking up at the glowing windows of the penthouse. "I just want him gone. Han Jeo humiliated me for a nobody. Do whatever you want with the boy. Kill him, take him... I don't care."
"We have been searching for that soul for a thousand years," the voice rasped. "If he is the one who can bring 'Silence,' then Han Jeo is the least of his worries. We are coming for the Sanctuary."
Sera hung up, a slow, twisted smile spreading across her lips.
Upstairs, Taeyul stirred in his sleep, a sudden chill running through his veins. In the back of his mind, the man in the shadows—the one from his nightmares—didn't try to kill him this time.
In the dream, the man simply smiled and whispered: "I'm almost home, Taeyul."