𝐸𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 ── 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗬

seventeen

─•❃✾❃•─

It wasn't like Do-yeong was unhappy with his life.

He was the CEO of his own company, built without help from his wealthy family and their conglomerate of businesses. His life was painted in the opulent shades of wealth, success, and a magnetic charm that drew admirers from all corners. His name was synonymous with power. He'd had more than his fair share of women, and men, in his time. All he had to do was look at them and they were falling in his bed─models, actors, socialites from his family's old money circle. He moved in the elite circles of society, rubbing shoulders with the influential, attending glamorous soirées, and indulging in the pleasures that came with his status. His nights were never lacking if he didn’t want them to be.

Empty. That's what he felt. Despite the wealth, the pleasure, the success, he still felt empty. The gnawing feeling in his stomach that never seemed to go away. It was the emptiness of a man who had long ceased to pursue his own desires, preferring instead the illusion of contentment. He tried to fill it with various vices, but it never worked.

Do-yeong carried a quiet burden─a weight that eluded definition. It was the weight of a life lived on someone else's terms, a life constructed meticulously by the expectations of family and society. While the world perceived him as a man who had it all, he understood the hollowness that pervaded his existence. He was a master at masking his disquiet, obscuring it with the dazzling aura of his achievements. The gnawing emptiness within him, however, persisted, an echo of the dreams he had abandoned along the way. He had become a prisoner of the identity he had crafted, a role he played to perfection but never truly owned. The ambitious climb up the corporate ladder, the arranged marriage to a woman he respected but did not truly love, the societal expectations that shackled his spirit─they had all played their part in crafting this facade of a contented life. Yet he continued trying. More work, more money, more increasingly dangerous entanglements. Nothing seemed to relieve it.

Dangerous entanglements. Yoona. Not often does something consume Do-yeong's thoughts as righteously as her pretty face that's been on his mind. She was like a breath of fresh air in the suffocating confines of his reality. Her presence, though forbidden and fraught with complexity, was a spark that set his carefully controlled world ablaze. It wasn't that Yoona miraculously filled the void within him, for that would be far too simplistic a notion. Instead, she resonated with the dormant desires and passions that had long lain dormant within him. She ignited a yearning for authenticity, a longing for a life untethered from societal expectations, a thirst for a love that was unscripted and unrestrained. When they were together, the emptiness within Do-yeong seemed to recede, if only for a moment.  It wasn't that Yoona magically erased the complexities of their lives or offered a simple solution to their predicament. No, it was something far more profound─she reminded him of the man he could have been, of the life he might have led had he chosen a different path.

Dangerous entanglements, and that's how he found himself in this situation, waiting in this elegant restaurant, bathed in warm, golden light, setting the perfect ambiance for a quiet dinner, a pleasant affair, while Yoona and Do-yeong would chat about business over food.

Tonight's dinner was more than a simple meeting; it was the culmination of weeks of preparation, research, and strategic planning. Yoona's company specializing in healthcare services and a proud owner of a nursing home, had astutely recognized the potential of collaboration with Jaepyeong Construction, Do-yeong's powerful construction company.

The vision was clear: combining construction and healthcare services could revolutionize the industry, creating integrated facilities that seamlessly blended architectural brilliance with a deeply compassionate approach to healthcare. Hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living centers—these were the projects that could redefine the standards of care and design.