章 1: Chapter 1
Caroline Reyes found herself sighing at the sight of her son, watching him keeping a pleasant, unchanging smile as he conversed with the staggering beauty her husband had sent his way under the guise of a family friend. She knew too well this was just his social front, and while he was a perfectly sweet and charming young man in reality, this whole situation was starting to worry her. "Look at him, he hasn't glanced at her chest even once," she complained morosely to her equally bothered husband, Marcus. "She has a beautiful set of breasts, displayed perfectly, and yet he seems to have no interest whatsoever."
The couple both checked the girl out for perhaps the hundredth time in the past 5 minutes, starting to attract attention from the serving staff around them. Of course the other elitists were far too caught up in their own worlds and gossip fests to have noticed the distinguishable – and undeniably beautiful – middle-aged couple staring down the young woman talking to their second son. The staff, on the other hand, were a different story, they had no idea what the two were thinking but their behaviour came off as obsessively odd, especially to those who had no idea the dashing, blond man in their line of sight was their son.
One of the servants in particular, a young girl in her second year of college, couldn't help but take her train of thought to an excessively extreme assumption. 'These old, rich couple must be looking for a third person.' It wasn't as outrageous an assumption as one would think – the rich and famous had been found to do far more questionable acts – and the couple were checking this girl out. However, this was far from the truth and had only come to mind from watching too many dramas.
Shaking his head, Marcus looked to Caroline and found himself sighing too. "He has to be gay, I can't think of any other reason for him to show zero interest in females in the whole 23 years he has lived."
"Me neither. I'm out of ideas. He is handsome, smart and from a well distinguished family, even if not the heir to the company. He could have any lady he desired, he just doesn't seem to desire any of them." They both set their gaze on their son, sighing again, and thinking in unison, 'For sure, he is gay.'
Even if his mother had called him handsome, they were probably not the most suited words to describe Henry Reyes. His soft-to-the-touch sandy blond hair – inherited from his father – was on the long side; his bangs would reach to his chin had it not been swept to the side. Form his mother he got a pair of warm, amber eyes, bordered with thick, perfectly curled lashes, making him look much younger than his modest age of 22. His build was tall at 5 foot 11 but lean. Being a person who looked skinnier in clothes, even in his fitted tuxedo, his silhouette looked almost androgynous despite his perfectly sculpted muscles. But the real difference was made from his naturally dewy, flawless skin and full pink lips. By far, the majority would call his, rather than handsome, a pretty man. And they were not wrong.
Henry had long noticed his parent's strange behaviour, remembering back to when it had first started. He must have been around 16, at least he thinks he was. At first it was subtle but over the past 6 years he had noticed his parents acting more and more erratic, constantly assessing his conversational partner, particularly the woman. In fact it was not just his parents, his older brother and sister-in-law also seemed to join them on occasions. As they behaviour got worse, so did Henry's embarrassment. His family ran the third most successful company in Country A, they were respected members of the high society with political and martial connections. This meant the Reyes family were almost always under a spotlight. Yet his family acted like this, shamelessly assessing different women's looks. He was starting to think there was some genetically passed on insanity that had luckily skipped on him.
It was more than safe to say that the young Henry Reyes was none the wiser on his recent homosexual label.
Meanwhile, across the hall, there was another strange family, even more distinguished than the first, although not by much. Hanna and John Lore had found themselves in a similar situation to the Reyes couple. Not in how they were shamelessly sizing up a girl but how they were sighing in loss at their son's uninterested behaviour. As beautiful as the aura surround the couple were, a soft scowl was set into the husband's face, the wife showing light hopelessness. Of course they were a dignified family, far above breaking their socialite poker face, let alone showing any sort of emotion. However they had reached a new limit. Hanna couldn't bare to watch the unchanging, aloof and cold face on her younger son, how could someone show such little interest to everyone they had introduced, or he had come across in general. He doesn't even bat an eye if walking in on one of his older brother's whores.
A young woman approached the ever-cold Joshua, unfortunately unaware of his most famous characteristic, his unchanging gaze. The girl was quite the looker, John couldn't help but admit in his head, of course she stood stark in comparison to his far prettier son. However it seemed like Joshua had no care for this young lady whatsoever, he hadn't even taken a good look at who he was conversing so reservedly with, only maintaining eye contact since that is what he was taught to do when talking with others as he was growing up. Hanna shook her head again and sent her husband a look. He immediately understood what she meant.
'I think our son is gay.'
Just like Henry, the 23-year-old was completely unaware of the conclusion his parents had come to on his sexuality over the past 5 years.
Both second sons were in a similar situation, with pretty faces and attracting the hordes yet completely uninterested. It was not outrageous for either set of parents to have come to the conclusion that their son was gay, neither had ever batted an eye to a woman. Of course they had never done so for a man either, and why would they. They were both rather comfortable straight. It just so happened that another similarity between them was that they didn't show their desire on their faces, especially so in formal situation or in presence of family. Neither was so thick faced nor shameless to show that side of them to the public, let alone their families.
However, this is where their similarities end. Of course they are both considered very pretty men with similar builds, however they were not of the same kind. While Henry came off as a friendly, warm youth with his large eyes and young features, this was not the case for the older man. Joshua's appeal was a more mature, distinguished aura. Compared to Reyes, he was a little taller, his green eyes were much thinner with hints of redness at the edge, his mid-length hair was a dark chocolate brown, his skin translucent and clear but not so youthful looking – although his lips were just as full, so to say there were no more similarities earlier would be a lie. But he always had his lips form a straight, unmoving line. His face was as pretty as Henry but with a more elegant and dignified aura, almost as if he were a level above everyone else. Whether that came with his cold exterior the extra year on the earth was unclear.
Joshua was like a lone lily, dignified but delicate.
Henry was like cherry blossom, inviting but fragile looking.
Both undeniable beautiful and attractive, even amongst their stunning families with their blessed genes, these two were in a league of their own.
Of course the two knew of each other being from families owning rivalling companies. However they had never officially met, there had never been reason for it since neither were inheriting their respective companies, even if they did both work in their family businesses. They had not even seen photos of the other due to how private both families were, everything they knew were mutters passed through the higher social circles. And they had no reason to believe that they would meet. What would be the need?
Unfortunately for them, they were yet to realise that partway through the night at this charity gala, the two sets of parents had come to find their opposition were in a similar position to them, both with their businesses and with their sons.
Or that they could come up with a far too simplistic game plan to go against their common enemy.
And they would never have even dreamed that the basis of this plan would be an impromptu marriage arrangement between the two very straight men.
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