An Offer From A Gentleman ~Hopekook~

Prologue

Everyone knew that Jung Hoseok as a bastard. The servants all knew it. But they loved little Hoseok, had loved him since he'd arrived at Hwaryeong Park at the age of three, a small bundle wrapped in a too-big coat, left on the doorstep on a rainy July night. and because they loved him, they pretended that he was exactly what the sixth Earl of Jung said he was—that orphaned son of an old friend. Never mind that Hoseok's honeyed brown doe-almond like eyes and warm chestnut brown hair matched the earl's precisely. Never mind that the shape of his face looked remarkably like that of the earl's recently deceased mother, or that his heart-shaped smile was an exact replica of the earl's sister's. No one wanted to hurt Hoseok's feelings—or risk their livelihoods—by pointing that out. 

The earl, one Jung Dong-hyeok, never discussed Hoseok or his origins, but he must known he was his bastard. No one knew what had been in the letter the housekeeper had fished from Hoseok's pocket when he'd been discovered that rainy midnight; the earl had burned the missive mere seconds after reading it. He'd watched the paper shrivel and curl in the flames, then ordered a room made up for Hoseok near the nursery. He'd remained there ever since. He called him Hobi, and he called him "my lord," and they saw each other a few times a year, whenever the earl returned home from Seoul, which wasn't very often.

But perhaps most importantly, Hoseok knew that he was a bastard. He wasn't entirely certain how he knew it, just that he did, and probably had his entire life. He had few memories of his life before his arrival at Hwaryeong Park, but he could remember a long coach journey across Gwangju, and he could remember his halmeoni, coughing and wheezing and looking terribly thin, telling him he was going to live with his appa. And most of all, he could remember standing on the doorstep in the rain, knowing that his halmeoni was hiding in the bushes, waiting to see if Hoseok was taken inside.

The earl touched his fingers to the little boy's chin, tipped her face up to the light, and in that moment they both knew truth. Everyone knew Hoseok was a bastard, and no one talked about it, and they were all quite happy with this arrangement. Until the earl decided to marry. 

Hoseok had been quite pleased when he'd heard the news. The housekeeper had said that the butler had said that the earl's secretary had said that the earl planned to spend more time at Hwaryeong Park now that he would be a family man. And while Hoseok didn't exactly miss the earl when he was gone—it was hard to miss someone who didn't pay him much attention even when he as there—he rather thought he might miss him if he got to know him better, and if he got to know him better, maybe he wouldn't go away so often. Plus, the upstairs maid had said that the earl's intended wife already had one son and a daughter, and they were near in age to Hoseok.

After seven years alone in the nursery, Hoseok was delighted. Unlike the other children in the district, he was never invited to local parties and events. No one actually came out and called him a bastard—to do so was tantamount to calling the earl, who had made one declaration that Hoseok was his ward and then never revisited the subject, a liar. But at the same time, the earl never made any great attempt to force Hoseok's acceptance. And so at the age of ten, Hoseok's best friends were maids and footmen, and his parents might as well have been the housekeeper and butler. 

But now he was getting siblings for real. Oh, he knew he could not call them his brother and sister. He knew that he would be introduced as Jung Hoseok, the earl's ward, but they would feel like siblings. And that was what really mattered. And so, one February afternoon, Hoseok found himself waiting in the great hall along with the assembled servants, watching out the window for the earl's carriage to pull up the drive, carrying in it the new countess and her son and daughter. And, of course, the earl.

"Do you think she'll like me?" Hoseok whispered to Seokjin-ssi, the housekeeper. "The earl's wife, I mean." "Of course she'll like you, Hobi," Jin whispered back. But his eyes hadn't been as certain as his tone. The new countess might not take kindly to the presence of her husband's by-low. "And I'll take lessons with her children?" "No point in having you take your lessons separately." Hoseok nodded thoughtfully, then started to squirm when he saw the carriages rolling up the drive. "They're here!" he whispered.