Just a Substitute

3

About 10 minutes after the sleek vehicle smoothly turned into a private road, the large Ru estate finally came into view. As Shuren had predicted, it seemed that no expenses were spared, even the rows of lush green trees and plants leading up to the huge home, were beautifully layout and trimmed with detail. Furthermore, since it was early evening when Shuren arrived at the home, radiant, beautiful lights lit up around the drive way, and as Shuren stepped out of the luxury vehicle, he noticed that even the ground beneath his feet were carefully designed and detailed.

Slightly furrowing his brows, Shuren could not even imagine how much money must have gone into the ground that he's currently stepping on.

'Will it really be okay?' Shuren worriedly thought to himself.

Although it was true that all of Shui's acknowledged accomplishments were achieved by Shuren, Shuren, himself, had never interacted much with socialites and knew little about the life. That was Shui's field, he was the social butterfly that could light up the whole room with a smile and knew what to say in social situations. Their dad had especially taught Shui all that he knew about how to talk to socialites and people. While Shuren on the other hand had to focus on learning technical skills and other things.

Thinking about that, Shuren seriously pondered if he should quickly retreat while he still has time and just tell Shui that it is not possible to switch places now.

"Sir, may I take your luggage?" A clear male voice politely asked.

Lifting his head up to meet the face of the middle-aged man, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, Shuren froze for a second before stiffly nodding.

As the man dressed in a simple, clean suit reached out for Shuren's grey duffle bag, to Shuren's astonishment, the middle-aged man was able to make it appeared as though the plain, worn, grey duffle bag was an expensive and classy thing.

Once the middle-aged man had the bag in his hold, he slightly bowed and waited for Shuren to walk into the home. However, since Shuren was not familiar with socialite norms, he stood stiffly in placed.

Seeing that Shuren is not moving, the middle-aged man respectfully says, "Sir, I will bring your luggage to your room. Is there anything else that you need?"

Shuren gave the middle-aged man a forced smiled and shook his head no.

As the middle-aged man headed into the house, Shuren quickly followed behind him. Since this was not Shui and Shuren's first time changing places, they have a pretty good idea of what information to give to each other beforehand, during, and after the replacements. However, with how big the Ru home is and how much of a novice Shuren was when it came to high class etiquette and norms, Shuren did not want to risk getting lost and bring suspicion and ridicule onto Shui's reputation. This was why he decided to follow behind the middle-age man. By doing so, at the very least, he will not confuse Shui's room with someone else.

***

Just like outside, the inside of the house was equally beautiful and well decorated. As the middle-aged man led Shuren up long curved stairs and thru long hallways, Shuren sighed to himself internally, 'Shui really wasn't kidding when he said this place is ginormous!'

Then once Shuren was finally inside of Shui's bedroom, another small sigh escaped from his lips, 'Wow. This room is bigger than my apartment.'

The middle-aged man politely placed Shuren's luggage down then bow and made his way out of the room. Shuren quietly followed the man to the door then locked it after the man left. After a quick sweep of the large room, Shuren locked himself inside the master bathroom and dialed up Shui's number.

...

After a few rings Shui's softly answered, "Hello."

"I'm here. This place is very big! ...it's somewhat making me nervous. Are you sure you want to do this? Why don't we just stop this charade now. It's not too late. I'm sure Mr. Ru would be understanding of your stress if you just talk to him. He did decide to ask for your hand for a reason, and you said he cares a lot about you. I really think we should stop. Don't you agree?" Shuren scrunched his brows and bit the inside of his right cheek.

"No. You promise. It'll be fine. You have to help me with this. it'll be fine." Shui stated back.

Shuren knew his fate was already sealed the moment he came back to his parent's home, but after seeing the Ru estate in person, he really felt nervous for some reason and wanted to try and wiggle out of the charade one last time. But Shui was firm in his statement, so Shuren could only sigh again.

"You said that ever since Mr. Luu moved in, Mr. Ru and you have separate bedrooms, ...right?" Shuren hunched over the phone and ran his fingers thru his straight, dark, shoulder-length hair.

Shui paused for a few seconds before tensely nodding and answering, "y-yeah. Cedric really cares about me. He..he just changed when that omega came."

"un-huh. So, for the time being, he won't come into your bedroom, right?" Shuren tilted his head to one side.

Shui paused for a bit then nod his head and said, "Cedric is usually very busy. He's rarely home. Just being able to see him twice a day is rare."

Shuren widen his eyes and moved his phone from his ear to face him, "then why are we doing this. If he's rarely home, how is Mr. Luu going to butter up to him? I think-"

Before Shuren could finish, Shui quickly interjected and stopped him, "Shuren, you promise. This..This is very important to me. Please, just this one last time. Please keep your promise."

With that, after releasing another sigh, Shuren gave Shui and "mnh" then listen as Shui tried his best to describe the Ru home and norms to him again.