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It was sudden, but Inwoo-hyung’s visit was a welcome one.
When I received a call from him, saying that he only saw patients until noon on Thursdays and had called me on a whim after stopping by his regular liquor store nearby, I hesitated for a moment but readily accepted his visit.
I had no complaints about my current life, but a visitor’s arrival was a refreshing change of pace, like an exotic harmony joining a stable, monotonously repeating melody. With the Chicago business trip and the joint exhibition for the second half of the year drawing closer, I hadn’t heard from Yuni-Noona or Juhan-Hyung at all this week, so perhaps that was why I felt it even more.
“But, I’m actually a little hurt.”
He spoke, taking his lips off the bold wine glass and swirling it over his crossed legs.
The red wine, with its rich, deep, and sensual character, and the cream cheese crackers I had clumsily arranged on a plate were gifts from him. He had wrinkled his nose, apologizing that the snack didn’t go well with the wine he’d brought, but there was no way I, who still didn’t know much about wine, would fuss over a suitable pairing.
Sitting on the work stool I had pulled up opposite the sofa I’d given to my guest, I set my glass down on the table and looked across at him.
“Since you moved into this house, Yeehyeon , you haven’t seen me once.”
“Ah…”
“Is someone forbidding you from seeing me?”
Tilting the wine glass again to swallow the dark red liquid, he spoke in a slightly mischievous tone.
He had said he felt jealous even of his own friend, someone he had grown up with for a long time, and that friend was probably Inwoo-hyung, but strictly speaking, he had never told me not to see him.
“N-no. So many things were decided all at once, and my environment changed, so I was just out of it…. Also, I’ve been focusing on my painting…. The CEO said I could go out or invite people over as I pleased, but…”
My long, rambling excuse was cut short by his clearing his throat.
“Hm… I never said it was because of Liu Weikun, so why are you taking his side?”
“……”
My ears burned and I dropped my head. He laughed. It wasn’t a derisive laugh that made a joke of my clumsy excuse.
He picked up a particularly savory cracker loaded with rich cream cheese, took a crisp bite, and brushed the crumbs from his thigh.
“Well… what can you do? The one who wants it has to make a move. Thanks to that, I got the chance to reserve such a great piece, so I’ll have to be satisfied with that for now.”
Whenever we had spoken on the phone before, he had been curious about the painting I was doing with Juhan-hyung as the model. It seemed everyone around me found my choice of Juhan-hyung as a model unexpected and was intrigued by it.
I showed him the painting, which was about 80% complete, and unlike on the phone, he observed it slowly and for a long time with a serious demeanor, sparing his words. He then surprised me by saying he wanted to purchase the work once it was finished.
Although I had been practicing my coloring along with my sketching, this would be my first completed work since I started painting again, so it was bound to be at a level that was still very lacking. I had naturally thought of it as a study, so his offer was both thrilling and bewildering.
After taking a sip of wine, I rubbed the thin stem of the glass with my fingertips and managed to speak.
“About that, hyung…. I think it’s still too lacking to be sold…”
“As a collector, I’ve decided I want to own your work, even if I have to pay for it, so I think that’s value enough.”
“I’m truly grateful and happy for what you’ve said, but…”
This time, it wasn’t his action that cut me off. It was the sound of a passcode being entered on the keypad of the thick steel door on the corridor side, which connected to the parking garage. Inwoo-hyung, who had just been bringing the wine glass to his lips, gave me a what-is-that-sound look.
“Ah… I think the CEO is here.”
Inwoo-hyung’s eyes narrowed slightly, but before I could think anything of it, the door was pulled open from the outside.
“……”
He, who had been about to step inside the moment he opened the door, stopped in his tracks with a noticeable flinch. Inwoo-hyung, who was sitting facing the door, smiled and waved his wine glass at him. His eyes, slightly wide and frozen stiff, quickly swept over me, Inwoo-hyung, and the wine and crackers on the table. A strange tension made me rise halfway from my seat without realizing it.
“What is it? You didn’t even call.”
He glanced my way but acknowledged Inwoo-hyung first. His voice was gruff.
“I did call. Yeehyeon .”
Tossing a briefcase bulging with tightly packed documents heavily onto the seat next to Inwoo-hyung, he looked at me once more. The corners of his eyes and mouth were rigid, but I couldn’t demand he act as usual in front of Inwoo-hyung. Even knowing that, a strange anxiety made it impossible for me to sit back down. With Inwoo-hyung sitting back leisurely on the sofa and sipping his wine in the middle, he and I stood facing each other like two vertices of a triangle.
“What about you? This is Yeehyeon ’s studio. Is it okay for you to just punch in the code and walk in like that? Aren’t you invading his privacy a little too much just because you’re the landlord?”
“It’s not that, I just… told him to come and go as he pleases. I felt bad that the CEO had to keep going back and forth through the garden because of me…”
This time, hyung didn’t point it out openly, but his eyes, raised over the rim of his glass as he drank his wine, looked at me with puzzlement as I repeatedly made excuses for him. I suddenly felt tired.
“But why are you both standing? Yeehyeon , have a seat. Hey, landlord, the tenant will only sit comfortably if you sit down first.”
He took off his jacket, draped it over the back of the sofa, and sat down next to Inwoo-hyung as if he had no choice, rubbing the area around his eyebrows like someone suffering from a headache.
“What are you here for?”
“I came to see Yeehyeon . There’s an interesting rumor going around that he’s painting a nude of Kwon Juhan, but no matter how long I waited, it didn’t seem like he was going to call and show me.”
Thinking I should get him a glass too, I was about to pass in front of the table and head for the stairs when he grabbed my wrist. The gaze that looked up at me was brittle and dry. It was completely different from the eyes that always looked at me as if to caress me.
“Where are you going?”
“Wine… I was going to get a glass for you, CEO.”
Inwoo-hyung’s eyes, as he sipped his wine, were glancing at my wrist held by him, but I had a feeling Inwoo-hyung had already noticed the change in the atmosphere between us.
That night we drank wine at the Spanish tavern. From my reaction when I apologized, naturally assuming the leg that brushed against mine under the table was his, Inwoo-hyung had already sensed who it was I was conscious of.
“Don’t. I’m not drinking.”
He said, his head bowed as he continuously rubbed his forehead, as if annoyed and tired. Then he pulled my wrist back, signaling for me to return to my seat. I was certain that he wasn’t just acting stiff because Inwoo-hyung was here, but that he was clearly in a bad mood.
Trying to ignore Inwoo-hyung’s gaze, which, in contrast, was sticking to me with curiosity and inquiry, I returned to my seat.
“By the way, I’ve put a reservation on that painting, so it’s mine, okay?”
Inwoo-hyung said as he crushed a cracker into bite-sized pieces on the plate. He narrowed his brow and turned to look at Inwoo-hyung.
“What reservation.”
“The piece Yeehyeon is working on now. I said I’ll buy it when it’s finished.”
“And you know how much it’ll be?”
He shrugged once and laughed as if clicking his tongue.
“I’m both an artist signed with Phantom and an important client. Surely you wouldn’t shatter our long-standing trust with an absurd price, would you?”
He glanced at me for a moment, sitting diagonally across the table. His face was like a piece of pottery that had cracked under pressure. Withdrawing his gaze from me, he swept back the hair covering his forehead.
“Nothing has been decided yet. It’s not at a stage where we can even take verbal reservations.”
“In any case, I’ve clearly expressed my intent to purchase to both the artist and the gallery, so just make sure I’m first in line when the sale is decided.”
Tossing the remaining pieces of the crushed cracker from the plate into his mouth, Inwoo-hyung got up from the sofa, saying he seemed to have taken up too much of my work time. He didn’t say a word about the palpably awkward atmosphere. I had never wished so much for Inwoo-hyung to point out the mood with his characteristic nonchalance and levity. My mouth went dry at the thought of how to navigate this situation when I was left alone with him, and I drained all the remaining wine in my glass.
The rough attitude he was showing now, the oppressive air that leaked from an attitude he seemed to be suppressing from being even rougher—even if it was because of jealousy… this… was a completely different kind from when he had held me in this very studio not long ago and told me about his jealousy. This wasn’t the fresh emotion of an immature boy stumped by a love life that wasn’t going his way.
“Yeehyeon , do you remember that painting?”
Having put his jacket back on, Inwoo-hyung smiled brightly as if he couldn’t see the current flowing between him and me.
“My painting, the one you picked out when I asked you to recommend a piece to hang in my new bedroom.”
Of course, I remembered. I nodded.
“I don’t know if you know this, but I never sold that painting in the end. It’s hanging above my bed right now…. I used to find it awkward to look at my own paintings again. It felt like looking at the dregs of a self that even I had refused to accept. But after you told me back then that it was ‘honesty about one’s own dishonesty,’ my paintings started to feel familiar.”
Coming around the table, he placed a hand on my right shoulder and squeezed it lightly. He, who had been leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, tilted his head up askew and glared at Inwoo-hyung’s hand.
“Come see it sometime if you get the chance. You, Yeehyeon … are always welcome.”
Moving behind me, he placed his hands on both my shoulders, pressed down lightly, and then let go. I stood up, taking the full weight of his gaze as he clasped his hands in front of his lips.
Walking toward the entrance, Inwoo-hyung turned and smiled as he backpedaled.
“Oh, and I’ve scheduled a consultation for you, so I’ll see you at the clinic. I’ll send the date and time through CEO Liu.”
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