Right next to me, Mr. Juhan crunched on another cookie.
“But I like that kind of thing. Becoming fucking ruthless to get what you want. Seeming relaxed on the surface, but paddling like crazy underwater, gritting your teeth to get what you’re after.”
Crunch, crunch. Chewing the cookie heartily, Mr. Juhan grinned. His grin had a much more playful mischievousness to it, but it was similar to the smile the Phantom CEO had shown when someone mentioned he described himself as a ‘sweet lover, at least in bed.’
It wasn’t quite the smile of a villain, but it wasn’t the smile of someone honest, with a sensitive conscience, or someone like a tortoise, steadily putting in the effort from start to finish to reach the finish line.
Was that really the case?
Was there such desperate flailing, gritting his teeth and paddling like crazy underwater, even for him?
It was hard to imagine, given his current image of overflowing golden alpha ease, as if he’d owned everything since birth.
Even now, standing with one leg casually propped, a champagne glass in one hand, he seemed, to put it a bit dramatically, like a born ruler.
I tried to imagine him putting in painstaking effort underwater, but oddly enough, what came to mind was him pedaling a paddle boat, the kind you often see at amusement parks. Even that didn’t suit him, but it was easier to imagine than the other.
My directionless imagination was briefly interrupted by the appearance of Ms. Yuni, who approached the desk almost staggering in her high platform sandals.
“Here. Two pieces sold out.”
She tossed a small notebook onto the desk, looking utterly exhausted. Mr. Juhan’s face lit up as he picked up the notebook.
“Already? You’re really something. Good job. Want to switch?”
“Yeah. My mouth’s about to cramp.”
“Okay.”
Mr. Juhan, full of eagerness like a substitute player waiting on the bench for his chance, went out to the exhibition hall in Ms. Yuni’s place.
It seemed Ms. Yuni had succeeded in selling two pieces after dealing with customers until her mouth was cramped. I had worked with her on the captioning yesterday, so I had a rough idea of the prices of the works on display here. To sell two such expensive pieces in less than an hour, she was indeed something, as Mr. Juhan said.
“Should I get you a drink or something?”
Too tired to even answer, Ms. Yuni nodded, tapping her leg while sitting in the chair behind the desk.
“There’s juice, lots of different kinds.”
“Alcohol. Get me some alcohol.”
“Is champagne okay?”
“Not in a glass, fill a water cup.”
As she instructed, I filled the largest cup with champagne and returned to the desk, but about sixteen steps away from the desk, Ms. Han, who was attending to a customer, raised her voice slightly in my direction. The entire exhibition hall was noisy, so it wasn’t a particularly jarring tone.
“Ms. Yuni, could you bring me the editor-in-chief’s book from the office? It’s in my bag.”
Almost reflexively, Ms. Yuni started to get up, but I stopped her and handed her the cup.
“I’ll get it. I know where it is.”
I hurried down the stairs and took out the book from where I had put it earlier. As I handed the book to Ms. Han and returned to the desk, I felt like a kid handing in homework copied from a friend to Ms. Han. It wasn’t like I was trying to pull off a big scam, but I was nervous for no reason and couldn’t even bring myself to turn my head in that direction.
“Director Han even underlined it while reading? You’re really something. You’ve got that extra touch. There are a lot of people who buy books and get them signed to try and impress me. But do you think I don’t know? Most of them just buy them and never even read them. But our Director Han doesn’t treat people like that. There’s sincerity. That’s why I can’t help but open my wallet when I come to Phantom.”
Fortunately, the ‘teacher’ didn’t seem to notice the ‘copied homework.’ She even praised it.
Ms. Yuni, who had downed half of the champagne like it was grape juice, looked up at me with wide eyes, just like Mr. Juhan had done a little while ago.
“You even underlined it in that short time?”
When I nodded to her whispered question, she gave me a thumbs up from under the table and grinned.
Whether she had been planning to buy it from the start, or whether it was an impulsive decision made in a heightened mood, the editor of the powerful magazine even showed a strong intention to buy, asking for a recommendation of a painting to hang in her recently promoted daughter’s office.
“It’s nothing much, but it’s funny how happy they get over something like that, right? But that’s how it is here. You’re selling paintings, but sometimes it feels like you’re just dealing with people’s hearts.”
Watching the editor’s back as she moved to another section with Ms. Han to check the recommended work, Ms. Yuni smiled bitterly.
Before I could ask for a more detailed reason for that smile, she had to be called back to the exhibition hall. The time for socializing was over, and it was time to promote the main characters of today, the paintings.
Feeling awkward with my hands idle at the deserted desk, I cleared away the empty glasses we had used and rearranged the remaining pamphlets for no reason, when suddenly a shadow fell over the desk.
“Can I get a pamphlet?”
Looking up, I saw the man from the passenger seat smiling.
The smile itself was refreshing, but strangely, there was something about it that made people feel repelled. It must have been because of his unique light tone and swaggering attitude.
I picked up a pamphlet and handed it over, but he didn’t seem particularly interested in the pamphlet itself.
“I recently moved to the 32nd floor. I used to live in a detached house with a garden, but moving to a high-rise building makes me feel trapped and desolate, so would you recommend a painting? Your name is….”
As if looking for a name tag, the man looked around my chest.
“Seo Yeehyeon.”
The man, who had been looking at me intently with laughter-filled eyes, shook his head lightly.
“Even your name is to my taste.”
It was a soliloquy with a nuance of being troubled.
He had been acting in a flirtatious manner since I saw him in front of the main entrance, but it seemed more than half like a joke, and I hadn’t received any direct proposals to do anything, so I couldn’t find a reason to react in particular. It didn’t seem like he was expecting my reaction either. From the beginning until now, the man had been talking to himself and amusing himself.
“I’d like Yeehyeon to recommend one. What would be good? Something to help me relax.”
“I’m just a temporary part-timer helping out today….”
“It’s okay, just recommend one. I’ll just use it as a reference.”
The CEO and Ms. Yuni were already attending to customers. Ms. Han and Mr. Juhan were nowhere to be seen, probably attending to customers in another section. I wasn’t keen on it, but since he had asked for a recommendation knowing that I was a temporary part-timer, it didn’t seem like there would be any problems if I did as he wanted.
“Where are you thinking of putting it?”
“Hmm… if Yeehyeon recommends it, I’d like to hang it in the bedroom….”
Emphasizing the word ‘bedroom’ with a meaningful emphasis, the man smiled. Looking at his light face, smiling like a typical playboy in a TV drama, I came out from behind the desk.
There were about 50 works on display in the exhibition hall.
This exhibition was a joint exhibition of six or seven artists belonging to the gallery, with some artists exhibiting as few as two pieces and as many as ten or more. I had helped with the preparation all night yesterday, so I had the images and rough locations of those paintings sorted out in my head.
Without hesitation, I walked ahead and stopped in front of a work painted on a square canvas, 53cm in both width and height.
A Cubist-style bizarre interpretation with a cheerful and lively cartoon style. Conversely, it was a painting with dark and heavy colors.
“This one? This painting?”
The man repeatedly asked, as if he didn’t understand why I was recommending this painting. I nodded my head twice, emphatically.
After looking back and forth between the painting and me for a moment, the man turned around and looked around as if looking for someone, then called out to the CEO, who was talking to three or four people in front of a large pop art-style work.
“Kun, come over here. There’s something interesting going on here?”
After asking for understanding from the people he was talking to, the CEO approached.
I wasn’t particularly tall, but I wasn’t short either. The passenger seat man’s lips were about at the tip of my nose, and the CEO’s lips were about at the tip of the passenger seat man’s nose. He was easily over 190cm.
Approaching, he had the same expression of being annoyed by everything. Well, a sweet smile like a lover to all was probably an unnecessary option in front of the man from the passenger seat and me.
Standing crookedly with one hand in his pants pocket, he urged the man from the passenger seat to get to the point with an impatient expression.
“I asked him to recommend a painting to hang in the bedroom, and he’s recommending my work. What do you think about that?”
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