Plin Ch 4.1

4. Full Moon

It was when the sun was setting. Hugo, who had been visiting an interior design company to choose materials for Plin’s house interior, was suddenly confronted by Thibeau. The design company, with their good sense, had offered him the CEO’s office.

Usually, Hugo insisted on wearing a suit at official events, but today he had come to look around comfortably on his way to the gym, so he was wearing a gray sweatshirt and white fitness shoes. The interior designer didn’t recognize him at first, as he was wearing wrist guards and carrying a large, long, black sports duffel bag, but he quickly realized who he was due to his uniquely high-handed and rude attitude, and attended to him with the utmost respect.

“About 70% of the comments suspect it’s a fake account.”

Thibeau said, barely able to suppress a snort.

“Really?”

“It’s not unreasonable, considering the sudden post of an energy drink by the second son of the Idrohann family, who has been shrouded in secrecy until now.”

Thibeau adjusted his glasses as he answered. He often wore sunglasses, but he had never worn glasses before. Was it a competent secretary concept? Hugo thought fleetingly.

“70% suspect it’s fake. What about the rest?”

“20% suspect it’s noise marketing, 9% assume it’s a ‘lovestagram,’ and 1% raised suspicions about your drug use. In addition, Mr. Plin’s Zoostagram follower count increased by about 1170 percent, from 37 to 4697.”

Thibeau gave a neat briefing. He had impulsively created the account after hearing that Plin used social media, but he felt like he was receiving excessive attention. Still, it was surprising that a whopping 91 percent of the comments were making incorrect assumptions, far exceeding the majority. This was how rumors could easily turn into truth.

“Hmm…”

Hugo answered, looking elsewhere. He had a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Since you’ve started using social media, how about uploading the main poster for this original series?”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“Ah. Do you know that you’ve given the fox drink a huge amount of publicity?”

“If you’re done talking, leave.”

Hugo waved his hand dismissively, as if to shoo him away.

“…I won’t say more, but I believe in you?”

“Leave.”

Thibeau turned around, but his eyes, filled with lingering reluctance, conveyed his final message to Hugo. After Thibeau left, Hugo picked up his cell phone.

“A fake account, they say.”

The screen, switched to selfie mode, showed a face with wildly disheveled hair and a defiant look.

Thanks to the kiss with the drunk fox yesterday, his skin had a radiant glow. He usually had a somewhat rough or tired look that he made up for with a decadent beauty, but now he looked like a beautiful and wholesome young man.

Hugo admired his own face.

The skeleton is the foundation of a man’s face, and the well-structured flesh covering the frame, such as the shape of the sunken and raised forehead, nose, eyelids, and philtrum, and the proper thickness of the lips, determines the level of beauty. The lines drawn on top of all that, such as the shape of the eyes, the corners of the mouth, and the outline of the broad areas like the cheeks, give style to the beautiful form.

It was a face that was beautiful from the skeleton. The eyes, set in deep sockets, held a languid air, and the lips, with just the right amount of cushion, formed a masculine curve that evoked lewd imaginations. With the unexpected combination of black hair and blue eyes, it was a face that could not be judged by preferences.

“Still, something’s missing.”

After finishing his lengthy self-assessment, examining his perfect face, Hugo sighed. Then he suddenly rummaged through the bag he had brought and took out a Fox Love Drink.

The Fox Love Drink had a design and aesthetic value, with its cylindrical glass bottle and the string tied around the lid in a ribbon. It could be quite a useful prop in a selfie.

The Fox Love Drink bottle, held in his large hand, was mostly hidden, with only the ribbon-tied lid visible.

He must have tied this ribbon tightly with the string. And he must have carefully put it in the basket every morning, like placing eggs in it. The thought made him smile naturally.

Click

He didn’t need to take several pictures. He wasn’t the type of person who needed to worry about the angle, composition, or lighting when taking photos.

Hugo immediately uploaded the selfie to Zoostagram.

H_Idrohann What I like, Plin’s drink.

As soon as he posted it, likes and comments started pouring in like crazy.

3,234 likes View all 430 comments 3 minutes ago oh_*** Oh……. so handsome cor***✹ He’s really the real deal. Good style ♥♥  2 minutes   64 likes  Reply ――― View 25 replies tns*** Ohhh my gooooood, my eyes cant and heart cant handle it ps1*** What is this really? Lovestagram? qz_*** @ton*** Look at this, should we make a pilgrimage to the old Zooble Blind poi*** Does ‘what I like’ refer to Plin, or Plin’s drink?  1 minute   12 likes  Reply ――― View 2 replies vo6*** وسيم جدا☺☻

Even he could see that the picture of him holding the fox drink and smiling faintly was beautiful. He raised the corner of his mouth in satisfaction and muted the notifications. The sound of incessant alerts was as annoying as summer insects buzzing around his ears.

Hugo ruffled his already messy hair again and went out to choose the materials that would make the fox’s house cozy.

***

Thibeau put his glasses in their case. The area around his eyes, which had been hidden by the thick end pieces of the glasses, was now visible. There was a reddish mark near his cheekbone. It was a bruise from being hit. He checked in the rearview mirror to see how much the swelling had gone down and then sighed.

He hadn’t rushed over to point out his social media activity. In fact, he had gone to Hugo yesterday evening to report that he had found a bugging device of the same type that Plin had been carrying while inspecting his office.

He had been hit in the cheek for being late in reporting it after consulting with Hugo’s mother, Madam Baek, so this time he definitely had to report it.

He had braced himself and gone to him, but when he arrived at the interior design company, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything when he saw Hugo picking out materials for the fox den to be built in Plin’s house.

‘Since he might be scared when he’s showering and hide in the fox den, consider diatomaceous earth for its absorbency. No. Diatomaceous earth might be a bit cold to the touch when it touches bare skin, right?’

Hugo was touching the stone materials and asking them to find the optimal material for the fox den user to relax.

There is no other emotion that can toy with a person’s feelings as much as love. Affection easily turns into love-hate. The amount of betrayal one feels is exactly proportional to how much one liked and loved the other person. That was why he felt it wasn’t the right time now.

Hugo himself didn’t seem to be aware of it yet, but these days he often smiled without realizing it, often thought of Plin, and sometimes stared blankly at his phone. And this was his first love.

Plin’s existence was beneficial to his master in that he was the only one who could soothe Hugo’s chronic pain. Even if Hugo came to hate Plin, he would not be able to leave him and would have to live under the benefits the fox offered. Having watched his master grow up suffering from the curse-like karmic pain, Thibeau couldn’t help but be cautious.

There were two possibilities regarding the bugging device.

One was that Plin Fallfox had really planted the bugging device, and the other was that the cunning Ethan had planted the bugging device to frame Plin.

They were analyzing the CCTVs, focusing on the people who had entered and exited the executive director’s office, but so far there were no leads.

Since the report was already late, he had momentarily thought about gathering circumstantial evidence that it wasn’t Plin’s doing before reporting.

He was lost in thought as he started the car. He had just checked the new Zoostagram post that Hugo had uploaded after the notification.

It didn’t matter much whether his master was running his social media in an extremely private manner or showing off that he was completely smitten with a peddler fox. The fresh image of a young CEO being superimposed on The Scope Media wasn’t bad from a marketing perspective either. After all, since it was a business field that didn’t exist before, it was paramount to publicize it to the public.

He also thought that Hugo knew how much influence he had, what he would look like, and that he was calculating and acting. Except for the incident in the middle of the night when he went on a rampage, there were few instances where his master acted without thinking.

But he was worried about how recklessly he had fallen for him.

Thibeau picked up his phone and made a call.

“Mr. Plin, have you been well?”

Thibeau clenched his teeth, feigning a gentle voice. The shadow under the scar on his cheek deepened. The face-to-face report had already failed. Hugo wouldn’t just let this mistake go. He decided to take the punishment then, and now it was time to meet Plin.