Despite the rain that had been falling all day, varying in intensity, many people were visiting the hotel. Then again, for people who could get out of their cars under a wide awning and head straight indoors without ever having to open an umbrella, the monsoon rain probably wasn’t much of a reason to cancel their plans.
Leaning against a pillar slightly off to the side of the main entrance, watching people come and go from the hotel, I felt my sense of reality warping. This was a completely different world from my old village, where my eldest uncle was the standard of normalcy.
The people here, adorned in luxurious clothes and seemingly filled with a leisurely confidence, were the standard of normalcy, and there were so many people with a similar air that it felt as if the majority of the world lived this way. Just like how the men bidding on the morning’s catch of halfbeaks at the fisheries cooperative auction all looked like brothers.
Now that even my eldest uncle was gone, I, in my Converse sneakers and old jeans, was the only one who struck a dissonant chord here.
While such thoughts made me feel a somewhat uncomfortable distance, funnily enough, I too was one of the people who had arrived here in a nice car.
「I washed and dried the clothes you wore yesterday. I put them on the shelf across from the bathroom, so wear those. There’s some fruit in the fridge and bread on the table, so make sure to eat a little something before you leave.」
After that, as he went on to worry even about my wet shoes, I had to cut him off, telling him in a barely audible voice that it was more than enough, that I was so sorry and so grateful. I truly hadn’t expected him to take care of my wet clothes, and it made me feel shameless for having slept so soundly.
And then he said that, just in case, it would be best for me to use a car he had prepared for the day.
I declined, saying it didn’t seem necessary, but he was firm, stating that this wasn’t a kindness but a precaution against danger. He said using public transportation was risky, as we didn’t know what plans Morae’s father might be hiding.
After getting ready in the awkwardness of an empty house, I went out to the front gate to find, just as he’d said, a large black sedan waiting in the rain. It was an imported car with an emblem I recognized. A chauffeur holding an umbrella was standing in front of the car, as if he had already been contacted by him.
He had suggested it would be best to take Morae and Yeehan to the meeting spot in that car, but Morae had refused, saying it might be a ploy to take them straight to her father.
As I was laughing feebly to myself at how similarly he and Morae suspected the situation, like siblings raised in the same environment, the two of them appeared from around the far corner of the building. I pushed myself off the pillar.
Morae had calmed down. Instead of being shy or embarrassed about her tears from a little while ago, she held my brother’s hand, looked at me, and smiled as she usually did, and I simply smiled back.
“You’d better treat Morae really well. She’s a hundred times too good for you.” That’s what the people around them, including the owner of the surfing shop, would always say to my brother, half-joking and half-serious. And to be honest, I think I’d also harbored similar thoughts, consciously or not.
But seeing the two of them today, their hands clasped tightly, I realized that was just a superficial view of their relationship.
His words from last night about the relationship between an artist and a supporter came to mind. How most people assume that relationship is unbalanced, tilting toward the artist…
An outsider, one who doesn’t belong to that relationship, can never know the depth of the communion that occurs only between the two. All we can see is how they act when they’re with others, and to try and define the balance between two lovers based on that alone was as rash as judging a restaurant’s food by its sign.
On the surface, it was Yeehan who couldn’t be without Morae, but seeing them today, I realized the reverse was also true. All of a sudden.
I thought I knew, but foolishly, it seemed I was constantly being tricked by the self-centered notion that what I was seeing was the whole picture.
Disrespectful as it was to both Morae and my brother, for the first time, I felt relieved that Yeehan was by Morae’s side.
Morae slung the arm that wasn’t holding my brother’s hand over my shoulder and spoke with a swagger.
“Your CEO, is he a trustworthy guy?”
“Huh?”
I turned my head to look back at her. With her chin tilted defiantly, she spoke, looking slightly sheepish.
“My situation’s a little… you know. I’ve actually become more paranoid than Seo Yeehan. What I mean is, is there any possibility he’s the type to be making a deal with my dad behind our backs, or something like that.”
I shook my head.
“He and the Director have worked together since Hong Kong, and the Director trusts him a lot… Besides, the CEO has nothing to gain by doing something like that.”
He was wealthy enough not to need to concern himself with such matters for money, and he had no reason to intentionally put Morae, my brother, or me in a difficult situation.
Morae took a deep breath, nodded, and then exhaled slowly.
“Right. If the Director is involved in the relationship, it should be safe. Did he say we could leave as early as tomorrow?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah…”
And this time, she squeezed my shoulder firmly, conveying her decision.
“Let’s be indebted to Seo Yeehyeon this time.”
○
The moment I stepped out of the bathroom, the view that unfolded directly in front of me made me freeze once again. It was the night view of the Han River, the same one I faced every day from the Director’s living room, but even there, it was a sight that made me marvel anew each time it entered my unguarded field of vision. My reaction was the same seeing it from a different place.
The city lights shimmering on the gentle waves reminded me of the nightscape in Hong Kong. The memory of Hong Kong triggered a chain reaction, making me realize just how many changes I had gone through and what grateful opportunities had brought me here.
That time, waiting in my hotel room for his call to go see Ms. Suki Kim, and now, standing by the window of the top-tier residence apartment penthouse he had prepared for Morae and my brother—looking back, they were all moments created by his goodwill.
「Are you okay with getting so complicatedly entangled with me?」
I had answered his question by saying I would pay off the debt even if I had to do other work, but in truth, I was scared. Not of having a weakness exploited, of being used… not of a cliché, third-rate movie plot like that.
While I thought I shouldn’t close the distance any further, the more I stayed by his side, the more I was exposed to the reassurance provided by the gentle, firm presence of his large hands and his embrace, and the more I learned of what was beneath his surface as I listened to the stories he unspooled. I was only afraid of the conclusion my heart and emotions would reach, of me getting complicatedly entangled with him on my own, without his consent.
Vvvmm, vvvmm. The vibration from the phone I’d left on the bed made me turn around and walk toward it. The name displayed on the screen was ‘CEO.’
The contradictory clash of emotions, a stinging pain and a thrilling flutter twisting my cheeks from both sides at once, was already overwhelming. I let out a sigh like a deep breath, sat on the mattress, and picked up the phone.
I cleared my throat and answered the call.
“Hello.”
[…]
As if he hadn’t expected me to answer. There was a moment of silence from the other end. Then came a deflating sigh, one that sounded like he was either reining in his anger or deeply relieved.
[Why was it so hard to get ahold of you?]
“Ah… I was just getting out of the shower… Did you call before?”
[Don’t be alarmed when you see the missed calls later. It’s not that I have stalker tendencies, it’s just that I was worried because you weren’t answering on a day like today.]
“I’m sorry. I told you we arrived safely, so I thought it would be okay now…”
That the two had accepted his offer and wanted to leave tomorrow. I had contacted him right from the hotel. He had said it was no problem, that they could pack their things and move to the lodging he had prepared right away.
After arriving in the car he sent to the penthouse he’d arranged, saying it would be safe due to its tight security, Morae and Yeehan were now worried about me, asking if my CEO’s goal wasn’t to hand them over to their father, but to gain their trust by treating them so well and then sell me off somewhere.
What could he possibly gain by selling me off somewhere? Me, whose only plausible credential was that I had once drawn pictures that were slightly noticeable.
I had called him to say we’d arrived safely before I even had a chance to sit down, so I hadn’t realized he would worry just because I didn’t answer my phone while I was in the shower.
[Telling you to report that you’re going to take a shower… saying it out loud, I guess I do sound like a weirdo.]
At the sound of his soft chuckle, as if he thought his worry was excessive, I vigorously shook my head, though he couldn’t even see me.
Considering the time, effort, and money he had poured into this matter today—no, since yesterday—he had every right to know the situation in as much detail as he wanted.
“No, that’s not it. It’s just that I’m not really used to keeping in touch so meticulously. I don’t… think… it’s strange… that you were worried…”
My voice trailed off and grew smaller toward the end, wondering if I was getting too worked up over something he might have said without much thought.
After a moment of silence on the other end of the line, he spoke with a very gentle laugh in his voice.
[Thank you, for defending me so earnestly on my behalf.]
His laugh and voice were pleasant to the ear, deep and low, with a resonance that seemed to be made by vibrating a heavy metal deep in his throat.
I bit my lower lip and closed my eyes with a sense of impending doom. It felt like all the blood in my veins was boiling at the sound of his voice over the phone, and that feeling immediately made me, and my future, feel bleak.
It wasn’t that he was intentionally making his voice sound sweet. It was just that I was perceiving everything about him that way.
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