GGAS 1

To tell this story, we must go back 27 years. On this day 27 years ago, Kim Hau, chairwoman of Hau Group and regarded as the greatest female CEO of this era, gave birth to two baby boys at Biel Obstetrics and Gynecology. They were fraternal twins. The first was named Kim Abang, the second Kim Gwanggong.

There is a saying that people live according to their names. At the naming office, they used the character for ‘beautiful’ with the character for ‘flowerlike’ to create Abang, and ‘light’ with ‘void’ to create Gwanggong. But any reader of this text must have immediately thought of ‘#Gwanggong #Abang-su.’¹ And when it comes to these twins, your common sense is correct, not that strange naming office.

First, to speak of the elder, Kim Abang, he was the very model of an Abang-su. With a soft and cute impression and a slender, delicate body, no matter how much milk he drank his height barely reached 174 cm. No matter what clothes he wore, there was always a sloppy air about him, and every item he chose was somehow just as cute as himself. For 27 years, he attracted so many men that the chairwoman of Hau Group had to secretly set up a team dedicated to handling flies buzzing around her son. Kim Abang, however, thought it a curious coincidence that every senior who had treated him kindly suddenly left to study abroad or entered the army.

If this was the situation for the elder, Kim Abang, then the life of the younger, Kim Gwanggong, is also easy to imagine. Standing at 192 cm, Kim Gwanggong had a sculpted, handsome face and a flawless physique, a man who shone especially when dressed in a suit. From childhood he revealed genius in every field, and with a peculiar preference for nothing but achromatic colors, even in his baby photos he wore a black tie and a white shirt.

He earned a perfect score on the college entrance exam, entered Korea University’s Business Administration department as valedictorian, graduated as valedictorian, and is now with Hau Group.

He held the position of director, and according to tabloids, he was expected to seize the chairman’s seat within a few years. Many had fallen for someone so flawless without a single gap, but Chairwoman Kim of Hau Group had no need to set up another team dedicated to handling flies. A single cold glance from Kim Gwanggong was enough to send most people who tried to flirt with him scattering, and even if they survived that, truly loving the bloodless, tearless Kim Gwanggong was a difficult task.

Chairwoman Kim of Hau Group was someone who believed that family ought to live under one roof, cherishing each other. Because of this, Kim Abang and Kim Gwanggong had no choice but to live together for all of twenty-seven years. When he turned twenty and entered university as a freshman, Kim Abang once said he wanted to live on his own with a friend, but Chairwoman Kim dismissed his request on the spot, saying, why waste money on living alone when the house is this big.

After sending Kim Abang back to his room, Chairwoman Kim expected that the independent-natured Kim Gwanggong would make a similar request. But unexpectedly, Kim Gwanggong did not bring up independence even by a single letter. This was because Kim Gwanggong had already decided he would become chairman. To him, the house where the royal family of Hau Group lived was less a sweet home of his parents than a strategic stronghold where company secrets were exchanged over the breakfast table.

If so, what kind of relationship did these two brothers, who had lived together in the same house for twenty-seven years with such opposite personalities, have?

First, to Kim Abang, Kim Gwanggong was a peculiar younger brother who he needed to look after. Two anecdotes from their childhood show how Kim Abang came to think this way.

When the two were five years old, Kim Abang once cried his heart out for three days and nights, thinking that his younger brother, who wore only black clothes, might be color-blind. Chairwoman Kim and her husband tried to explain, “Your brother must be able to distinguish colors, that’s why he insists on wearing only black.” But young Kim Abang would not stop crying. In the end, the couple had to beg their second son to wear rainbow-colored clothes just once, only then did they manage to console Kim Abang.

Later, when the two turned seven, they each had their own room. Kim Gwanggong decorated his entire room only in black and marble, and Kim Abang, worried his younger brother might have nightmares…

He committed the atrocity of plastering glow-in-the-dark star stickers all over the wallpaper. When Kim Gwanggong saw it, he frowned slightly and then tried to pour an entire can of black paint from the storage room all over Kim Abang’s room. Lee Jaein, husband of Chairwoman Kim and father of the twins, threw himself to stop the catastrophe and ended up covered head to toe in paint.

Even now, as a grown adult, Kim Abang’s gentle way of thinking was not much different from before. Every weekend, he held his younger brother back to watch romance movies together (part of his effort to nurture Kim Gwanggong’s emotions), insisted that people must eat well and placed side dishes on Kim Gwanggong’s spoon with the chopsticks he had just put in his own mouth (adding with a laugh, “We’re family, so what’s the problem~”), and followed him to his jogging spot so that he would not have to do morning exercise alone, playing trot music for him (because, according to Kim Abang, trot gave you strength).

He also often said to Kim Gwanggong, “No matter how cute you are, do you think I’ll just let it slide?” Whether sincere or joking, the only person in the entire world who spoke such nonsense was Kim Abang. And Kim Gwanggong, who had such a person as his older brother, had his situation summarized simply in two words on Hau Group’s attending physician’s report: chronic headache.

The turning point in these two people’s peaceful lives came the day after their twenty-seventh birthday. As always, at five in the morning, Kim Gwanggong opened his eyes on the black bed in his black room and looked around. Traces of the birthday party lingered everywhere. His gaze passed over pieces of cake fallen on the floor, colorful wrapping paper, and piles of presents, then fixed on the banner hanging on the wall. On his spotless wall was a pink banner with the words “We’ll love our cutie Gonggong forever” written in Tinkerbell font. Kim Gwanggong furrowed his brow and stared at one part of the banner’s words.

Forever… forever.

After some time passed, he spoke in a slightly cracked but pleasant voice.

“I can’t live like this anymore.”

That was it. Strategic stronghold or whatever else, Kim Gwanggong had decided to leave the house.

***

Where did Kim Gwanggong go after leaving the house? A friend’s place? Impossible. First of all, he had no friends, and even if he did, Kim Gwanggong would never borrow his friend’s stretched-out T-shirt as pajamas, eat chicken as a midnight snack, and complain about the reasons why he ran away. That kind of sentiment had been loaded entirely onto Kim Abang among the twins, while what overflowed in Kim Gwanggong was costly and inhuman refined taste.

Therefore, the place Kim Gwanggong drove his sleek black car to was none other than H Hotel. It was a hotel he used quite often, and its clean, achromatic-toned suite room more than replaced the room he had at the family home.

The time Kim Gwanggong checked in was six in the morning. The time Kim Abang barged into the suite was half an hour later at six-thirty. Although the situation was already strange, since Kim Gwanggong had left abruptly after leaving nothing but a single memo as a so-called notice of independence, considering how excessively early the hour was, this could only be called a very inconsiderate visit. But because Kim Abang firmly believed he had come at nine (his wristwatch was broken) there was no hesitation at all in the way he walked into the living room.

“Gonggong-ah~”

Meanwhile, Kim Gwanggong, who was showering under a sunflower showerhead with cold water pouring down without pause, thought he was hearing hallucinations.

‘I had better see Dr. Choi this afternoon, the water sounds starting sounding like Kim Abang’s voice……’

He turned off the water, draped a black bathrobe around himself, and came out of the bathroom. As he dried the water from his hair with a towel, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine. Slowly, he turned around.

“Ta-da! You missed me, didn’t you!”

As if. How on earth did he even know to come here? Kim Gwanggong looked down at his brother, who was making a cutesy flower-pose greeting, with his characteristic cold expression. But Kim Abang was not the least bit embarrassed by Kim Gwanggong’s reaction. He smiled brightly at him and began rummaging through the suitcase he had brought. What he pulled out was none other than Korea’s traditional food, kimchi.

“Ta~da! You haven’t eaten yet, have you? I made this myself.”

“……”

Kim Gwanggong did not eat kimchi. Not only kimchi. In fact, when speaking of Kim Gwanggong’s eating habits, it was quicker to count the foods he did eat than those he did not. He drank only Evian among beverages, and for meals he mostly ate steak with blood slightly seeping out.

But Kim Abang had never once, in twenty-seven years, believed in Kim Gwanggong’s preferences, and at every mealtime he would say things like, “What? You only drink Evian and only eat steak? Oh my, our Gonggong is such a good jokester~.” There was a reason why Kim Gwanggong said, “This is driving me mad,” three times a day.

But then, wasn’t there a whole household staff in Chairwoman Kim’s mansion kitchen besides Kim Abang? Truly, was there not a single person who stopped him when he made kimchi, packed it, and carried it all the way out saying it was for Kim Gwanggong? That was right. No one, absolutely no one, stopped him. Because all the while he was making kimchi, Kim Abang insisted, “I’m the one who knows our Gonggong best in the whole world!” And in truth, among the maids, there was no one who had tried to communicate with Kim Gwanggong as much as Kim Abang.

Even so, could it not be said they were far too negligent toward their employer? Therefore, let us briefly summarize Kim Abang’s behavior in daily life.

First, before making kimchi, Kim Abang suddenly bragged to the maids about a photo of Kim Gwanggong at five years old wearing rainbow-colored clothes, showing off how close he was with him. He also reassured them by telling a story about how Kim Gwanggong once enjoyed food he had cooked himself. (What Kim Gwanggong had actually wanted was Evian and plain steak, not Samdasoo and Hamburg steak, and that day too he muttered without fail, “This is driving me mad.”) In addition, Kim Abang won the maids’ favor by telling them stories about the puppies he and Kim Gwanggong had met when they went out for morning exercise.

In the end, the maids of Chairwoman Kim’s household came to think, “Where in Korea would you find someone who dislikes kimchi?” and, in the extreme, even believed, “There cannot possibly exist anyone in the world who would dislike kimchi made by Kim Abang.”

Anyway, because of all this, right now Kim Abang was busy serving kimchi onto a black dish at the hotel. As Kim Gwanggong heard the familiar sound of a few plates breaking, he took a sip of Evian. By the time his Evian was almost finished, Kim Abang finally appeared with the kimchi.

“How do you think this is made? If you take one bite, I’ll tell you everything~.”

Kim Abang made the offer as if it were a negotiation, but even at a glance it was clear there was not a single favorable condition in it for Kim Gwanggong.

“I’m not eating it.”

With just three words, Kim Gwanggong blocked three hundred pages worth of the Kim family’s secret kimchi-making knowledge. Then he pushed the dish of kimchi aside.

“Ha….”

Kim Gwanggong sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Watching him, Kim Abang arched his brows into the shape of the character 八.

According to one of Chairwoman Kim’s new maids, it was such an incredibly cute expression, one that somehow made people want to protect him, the kind of face that made you want to hand over the entire Hau Group.

“When you sigh, your luck runs out, Gonggong-ah.”

Kim Abang preached folk belief in a voice filled with concern. Kim Gwanggong glanced once at the dish of kimchi he had pushed aside, then looked at his brother.

“Doesn’t it occur to you that this is why I came to the hotel?”

At those words, the cute and beautiful Kim Abang was struck with great shock.

“What…? Are you saying now that you’re all grown up, you don’t need this hyung-ah anymore…?”

Wait. To prevent misunderstanding, a few clarifications must be made. First, from before he even entered elementary school, Kim Gwanggong handled everything on his own without relying on others. This meant that no matter how young he was, he never once received help from Kim Abang. Rather, the opposite happened often enough. Though never by Gwanggong’s own will. And above all, ever since his umbilical cord was cut, Kim Gwanggong had never once called Kim Abang “hyung-ah.” Only Kim Abang, over-immersed in his own view of the relationship, had continued to speak in ways like, “This hyung-ah,” “Hyung does,” “Hyung thinks.” Finally, the two were twenty-seven years old. At this point, it was a bit late to be using expressions like “now that you’re all grown up.” But really, what more could be expected of Kim Abang, who had worn a wristwatch running two and a half hours fast for half a year straight?

Kim Gwanggong had the ability to lay out all of this in a much clearer and more orderly explanation, but he did not bother. From twenty-seven years of experience, he knew. If he confronted Kim Abang with logic instead of emotion, he would end up listed as the top entry on <The Psychopaths Who Must Be Embraced with Kim Abang’s Love>. For this reason, Kim Gwanggong said nothing at all. Instead, he crossed his arms, leaned at an angle against the wall, and simply looked at Kim Abang. Kim Abang’s cheeks had turned red, perhaps from being a little angry.

“You… Gwanggong… you…”

‘Gwanggong.’ This was a very bad sign. On the days when Kim Abang called Kim Gwanggong properly by his name, something was sure to happen. Only then did Kim Gwanggong open his mouth.

“Why.”

“You…”

In an instant, transparent tears filled Kim Abang’s large eyes.

“I really hate you!”

And in an even quicker instant, Kim Abang grabbed his suitcase and ran out of the suite.

It would have been nice to say that what remained in the place he left behind was only a single dish of kimchi… but that would be an outright lie. The moment Kim Abang ran out, Kim Gwanggong saw the suitcase, its zipper not properly closed, spilling belongings one after another. His temples were already throbbing. Left alone like that, Kim Abang would surely lose his wallet and everything else, and arrive home empty-handed. If that happened…

‘Abang went to see you and came back like this. How can I entrust the company to you in the future when there is no brotherly affection between you?’

Chairwoman Kim’s voice seemed to echo in his ears. And so, thirty seconds later, Kim Gwanggong finally stood up from his seat.

“Damn it.”

Kim Gwanggong muttered a curse.

***

Kim Abang had a talent for running away. He usually seems clumsy when he’s walking, but when he burst out crying and ran, he was quicker than anyone. However, he did not know how to erase his traces, so Kim Gwanggong followed the trail of a character handkerchief, a bottle of portable lotion (burst open, leaking contents everywhere, apparently stepped on by Kim Abang in passing), a keychain, keys, a face-washing hairband, and so on, scattered along the corridor. He was confident that even if at the end of this path he found Kim Abang tripped over his own suitcase, he would not be especially surprised.

But Kim Abang was always one to exceed Kim Gwanggong’s expectations. Five minutes after his escape, Kim Abang was now stuck inside a broken elevator.

“Hhic… hic…”

Kim Abang sobbed. He felt terribly miserable about his situation. His one and only younger brother did not even eat properly, yet threw away (he did not throw it away) the kimchi he had gone to the trouble of bringing, then had the nerve to say the horrible words that the reason he left home was because of him, and now, in the end, for the first time in his life, he found himself trapped in an elevator. (Was it really the first time?)

On top of that, when he looked to wipe his tears, he found he did not even have his handkerchief. That only amplified his misery further.

“Huuuuung~.”

As for that handkerchief, it was the last one left out of a set in which Kim Abang had printed a caricature of Kim Gwanggong that he had drawn himself. He had lost all the rest during his journeys. Sniffling, Kim Abang hugged his own legs and leaned his body against the cold wall of the elevator. He sank into thought.

‘I even lost that… if Gonggong finds out, he’ll be upset…’

No. Kim Gwanggong would not be upset at all. From the start, he did not even know that a caricature of him existed. If he had known, the disgrace of it being made into ten handkerchiefs and released into the world would never have happened.

‘But I lost the key again… Mom will be angry….’

No. His mother would not be angry even if Kim Abang lost the key. Because the key to the Hau Group chairwoman’s family residence that Kim Abang carried was fake. Three months ago, when Kim Abang kept losing the key, the maids of Hau Group came up with an alternative. They gave him a fake key that did not matter if he lost it, and decided that they would open the door from inside five seconds before Kim Abang arrived at the front gate.

This way, Kim Abang did not have to suffer from the feeling of isolation of being the only one without a house key, and Chairwoman Kim could prevent her house key from being scattered on the streets five hundred at a time. This brilliant idea greatly helped both the peace of the household and the security of Hau Group. And the maids all received incentives and had a beef dinner together.

Anyway, to return to the main point, Kim Abang was now stuck in the elevator, chewing over his sorrow. And how long had he been chewing over his sorrow like that? The elevator door, which had seemed like it would remain shut forever, began to open little by little. Kim Abang squinted his eyes for a moment at the sudden flood of bright light. Someone was standing in front of him. Tall…

“Gonggong…?”

Kim Abang’s already round, large eyes grew even rounder and larger. No way, was it possible that his Gonggong, who had even boycotted Kim Abang’s own kimchi brand and acted so cold toward him, had come to save him?

…Of course not.

“Are you all right?”

A man neatly dressed in a suit, handsome but with a gentle impression that made it clear to anyone he was not Kim Gwanggong, extended his hand politely toward Kim Abang, who was sitting on the floor of the elevator.

This was the historic first meeting between Kim Abang and Seo Taerim, president of H Hotel.

We already know roughly about the person called Kim Abang. But as for Seo Taerim, there is no information at all. To figure out how the situation was unfolding, let us first cram-study the structure of Seo Taerim’s brain.

If we suppose the total amount of thoughts a person usually has is 100, Seo Taerim spent as much as 80 thinking about H Hotel. Normally, when a person obsesses to this degree, things do not go wrong. Moreover, Seo Taerim not only genuinely liked this work but was also born with talent and ability. Thanks to that, despite his young age, he was able to rise to his current position as president of H Hotel.

Subtract 80, his passion for H Hotel, from 100, and 20 remains. Where was this used? We will see through excerpts from Seo Taerim’s diary. These were written when he was eight, nine, and ten years old, in order.

xxxx.03.02.

There seem to be too many people at school.

xxxx.09.03.

There seem to be too many people on Earth.

xxxx.03.02.

I want to immigrate to Mars.

But Mom said since she bought the house, she has to get her money’s worth, so if I want to go I should go alone.

That’s completely unfair. Does she think I can’t go if she tells me to go alone?

That was right. From childhood, Seo Taerim showed mild symptoms of misanthropy. But could a businessman in the lodging industry go around saying things like, “All humans on Earth should be replaced by octopuses. I will become an octopus. Goodbye, everyone,” and openly reveal his dislike of humans? Business would not work that way. Therefore, 20 percent of Seo Taerim’s brain was used to help him conceal his misanthropy and treat others with constant kindness.

Now, let us turn our attention back to the situation in front of the elevator. Because Kim Abang was so light, when Seo Taerim pulled his hand, he was drawn forward at once.

“Ah!?”

Kim Abang lost his balance and fell directly into Seo Taerim’s arms.

“S-sorry.”

In the slightly embarrassing situation, Kim Abang’s face turned red.

“…It is nothing. I pulled too hard. It was my mistake.”

Although Seo Taerim disliked making contact with a complete stranger, he skillfully concealed his true feelings and spoke kindly.

1. Their names sound the same as popular BL tags Abang-su (beautiful bottom) and Gwang-gong (crazy top). So the title basically is “How could the crazy top’s older brother be a beautiful bottom?”. ↩︎