Night was nigh. A white boxy Kia mini van drove on the streets of Gyeongi-do, South Korea. One of it's passenger's a woman with a pixie cut, glanced at the back where a young boy was still playing on his laptop.
"Arthur, aren't you tired?"
"No." he responded immediately.
"You'll hurt your eyes."
"..." He tapped on his blue-light glasses. A birthday gift from his grandparents.
"Still..."
His Father noted while driving, "Leave him be, it's been a long ride. It's good he has something to keep him busy, better than being bored."
His wife glanced at him.
"So it's fine for me to be the only bored one then?"
Her husband leaned his head in her direction but kept his eyes on the road. "If you want to sleep then sleep, or play on your phone. Why are you complaining? We're almost there."
His wife frowned at him. "You said that earlier. I know it's been decades since I've lived in Seoul but isn't this a private neighborhood? More importantly is this even Seoul?"
"...Mmm." Her husband nodded.
"Darling."
"What?"
A silence fell, and he spared a glance at her quickly before seeing her stink eyeing him. He looked back to the road, his expression nervous, he licked his lips.
"Are we visiting your Dad? On our first day here?"
"U-uh…." He swallowed and waited. He thought she would complain about them not coming to greet them at the airport, but instead she said.
"If I knew we were meeting your Father I would have dressed up a bit more!"
"A-ah."
"Dar. LING!" She screeched at him.
He nervously chuckled.
As his wife turned on the lights to check her makeup and outfit she slightly turned her head at the back to say.
"Arthur baby, are you still wearing your sweater?"
"Yeah."
"How does your face look?"
"Dunno."
"Look at your reflection real quick, fix your face?"
Her son, a round faced boy with curly reddish brown hair and doe light brown eyes looked up, exasperated. Instead of talking back, he pulled out his phone and looked at his reflection.
The camera made everything look worse, there were bags under his eyes not that he cared. He shrugged.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
Her husband chimed in. "He said he's fine."
"Darling we have to look presentable! I don't want your Father to think I didn't make any effort."
Her husband paused. That was actually what he wanted him to think. He wanted his Father to know that they didn't care about his opinion.
"You look fine, honey." he warmly smiled at her.
His smile distracted her but only for ten seconds. She went back to rummaging through her purse to put on some earrings.
It was quite late when they arrived at the gate.
After the guards eyeballed him, the gate opened and the boxy little car pulled up to a grand looking modern mansion.
The wife blinked.
"Darling," she pawed at his shoulder as she looked up at the building. "Are you sure you're not lost?"
Her husband only smiled and got out of the car.
"Art, we're here, it's time to go."
"..." Arthur's fingers moved quickly all of a sudden before he flicked off the screen and closed the laptop, he grabbed his suitcase.
"You can leave that." His Father told him.
"Huh? Aren't we ho- That was when Arthur noticed where they were. He looked up at the tall mansion and nearly fell backwards in the process.
"D-d-dad… are you sure this is the place?"
His Father glanced at the house, a suppressed sigh escaped him. "Don't lose your nerve. It's nothing special."
Arthur pointed at the house. "T-then where are we sleeping tonight?"
Arthur's Mother looked to her husband. "Oh! That's right!"
Mother and son looked up to him who sighed.
He, slowly opened his mouth. "We'll-
"Don't tell me you plan on dragging your weary wife and son out on the road again?" A voice spoke.
The three didn't notice the man that stood at the door entrance. Watching them from below.
The light from the house illuminated his back, so they could only make out his silhouette.
"Don't be like that~, you can spend the night."
Arthur glanced at his Father, it was the first time he had ever seen his Father make an bitter expression, well second. He only made that face when their team lost.
Butlers spilled out from within the house behind the old man and down the steps, bowing to the three before proceeding to open the car doors and take out their bags.
"Um… I'll carry that, thank you." Arthur had to run after the swift staff to snatch back his backpack and silver suitcase, the first he hugged tightly and the second he hefted up the stairs on his own like a crutch.
His Mother chuckled nervously while holding onto her purse, she glanced at the silhouette of the old man.
"Apologies, he doesn't like people touching his stuff."
Her husband rubbed her back. She didn't know whether it be to reassure her or himself.
Arthur's Father led the way, and his Mother glanced at her son to shoot him a reassuring smile. But Arthur knew more than anyone that she was nervous. He looked away. Feeling her own emotions contagious.
He hadn't been paying attention so he tried hard to he recall bits and pieces from his Mother and Father's conversation. They were visiting someone. His… Grandpa?
The only grandparents he had ever known was his Mother's side. The Grandparents that were always on his side, his two best friends. His parents were busy when he was young so he lived with them.
They had decided to move to South Korea because… because… he looked up at his Father and Mother's back. Why was it again?
Arthur's expression darkened just at the thought. He missed them already.
"You must be Chung-Ho's son."
Words that should have come from a stranger.
Arthur looked up from his feet to the person, the silhouette he couldn't quite see before belonged to a tall old man with silky grey hair that was long and combed back. Gold decorated his ears and fingers, he was even wearing a cravat.
Old but stylish. O-ooh!
The description flitted across Arthur's mind as he regarded the old man who smiled.
Like his Father, this old man's eyes crinkled when he smiled too.
It was one of the endearing things he loved about his Dad, surely then, he could come to love this person too.
"You must be Chung-Ho's Father." Arthur responded lips curving.
The old man softly chuckled and wagged a finger. "Cheh, this one..."
Hearing his son call him by name, his Father turned around to stare at the two. Worry sprouting.
"It'd be rude of us to go in without the host." He said.
"But of course." The old man walked ahead, Arthur sniffed his cologne that coated the air, he smelled… very rich.
It was unexpected.
He heard little of his father's side. Only that his father's father was against his marriage. There was only one relative he knew personally from his father's side.
He never would have thought that side of the family lived in such luxury.
The estate was even more grand than it's exterior. Marble walls and crystal chandeliers decorated the ceiling.
As he followed the adults, looking around, he felt a gaze and it gravitated to the stairs.
A slew of people stood there staring. They were all nicely dressed like models from an instagram post.
He only recognized one, a smile stretched across his face.
"Uncle Jason!"
"Arthuuuuuro!" A bespectacled man hurried down the stairs with wide arms and hugged him.
"You've grown so much!"
Arthur pointed at his soul patch. "So have you!"
Jason fake laughed for a second before messing up his curly hair.
"Ahem." Chung-Ho coughed.
A pin might as well have dropped. The room became deathly silent.