In front of the statue, he and I took the second selfie of our lives together. We still looked awkward on the screen. Even he, who was usually comfortable and free in front of a lens pointed at him, seemed to have a hard time getting used to the self-camera mode. Looking at the picture we took, he ruffled my hair and let out a soft laugh.
After the tour ended with that awkward commemorative photo, we stopped by a souvenir shop to buy gifts. Just like Chicago, Boston doesn’t really have anything you could call a specialty, he said, suggesting we just buy a few Harvard T-shirts, his tone feigning annoyance. I watched his profile and smiled discreetly. If he was really that annoyed, we could have just not bought anything.
The store, with a sign that read COOP, was enormous. It seemed like they had slapped a Harvard logo on every daily necessity imaginable. He, who had seemed uninterested as if he would just dutifully buy the gifts and leave, urged me to try on a gray hoodie with HARVARD printed in brick-red letters in the clothing section.
“Um… how is it?”
I asked him after coming out of the fitting room, but it was an utterly ordinary T-shirt that would look good on anyone, nothing to comment on.
He tilted his head to his shoulder and stared at me for a moment, then rolled his eyes, made a playful face, and looked up at the ceiling with a sigh. Unable to understand his reaction, I stood there silently as he approached, wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, and pulled me close, pressing our foreheads together.
“People are going to think I’m dating a minor.”
“It’s not that….”
“It is that bad.”
If you don’t want to see me get dragged away, you’d better take it off. His expression was serious as he lowered his voice and glanced around, but this was his idea of a joke. I went back into the fitting room, changed, and came out. He took the T-shirt from me, but instead of putting it back where it was, he added it to the shopping basket.
As if he noticed the question in my eyes, he picked up one of the mugs that filled a three-tiered display shelf, turned it over and over, and explained.
“I said not to wear it here and now, not that I wasn’t buying it. And I said you look very young, not that it doesn’t suit you.”
When I shook my head and chuckled, he turned to me and grinned. Then, repeatedly sticking and unsticking a Harvard-logo magnet on a steel pillar, he said.
“How about you buy something for your Hyung and Noona too?”
“I already bought T-shirts, mugs, notebooks… and pencils.”
I replied, pointing to the basket he was holding, which was already piled high.
“No, Bali.”
“……”
Without meaning to, my gaze fell downward. I was on this trip thanks to his goodwill and consideration, but it wasn’t that I felt no guilt or burden besides gratitude. Even if it wasn’t me, he was very generous to the people around him, especially those younger than him, but the things he gave me went far beyond the level of generosity, goodwill, or kindness. Even if we were a couple.
He had even given me separate spending money in Seoul for my personal use on the trip. With that money, I had bought popcorn and coffee for my Noona and me, had muffins at a café, paid for museum admission, and purchased a tumbler for Inwoo-hyung. I could buy gifts for Morae and my Hyung with that money, but in the end, that was his money too. I had been trying to spend as little as possible, planning to save it and return it to him.
“Seo Yeehyeon, aren’t we dating?”
He had probably seen through the meaning of my silence. He stuck the magnet to the steel pillar as if throwing a dart and turned to look at me. Then he walked over to me, where I stood holding the edge of the mug display, and draped an arm over my shoulder.
“Not just dating… we’ve said we love each other, and we’ve even talked about marriage.”
He continued, bumping his temple against the side of my head.
“Ah, though I was the one who got rejected on the marriage talk.”
I let out a soft laugh at his words. He lowered his head, brought his lips right to my ear, and dropped his voice.
“That measly 100 million, you’ll offset it in no time.”
“……”
“And you’ll be free from me.”
Withdrawing the arm around my shoulder, he walked ahead of me and stopped in front of a wall where a slew of keychains with small animal characters were hanging.
“And even before you offset the 100 million, if you go to New York, you could get a part-time job.”
“……Can I do that?”
I asked, stepping right up to him and grabbing his right hand. He turned his head and looked down at me, his eyes tracing every corner of my face. Only then did I realize my eyes were shining and my lips were smiling. He glanced down at the hand I had unconsciously grabbed, then rubbed the bear figurine on a keychain against my nose.
“I’m a little troubled that your reaction is better than when I brought up marriage.”
“……”
He smiled, stepped back, and hung the keychain back in its place.
“You asked if you could, but this isn’t a matter of me giving permission or not. I doubt ‘Teacher Lim’ is the type of person to send people all the way to New York to tail or kidnap you. It should be safe for you to work there.”
I briefly tried to recall if I had told him that Morae’s father was called ‘Teacher Lim,’ but it occurred to me that he might have looked into a few things to ensure matters were handled properly.
After paying for everything, including the gifts for Morae and my Hyung, we left the store, got on a bus, and crossed the Charles River again. There was still time before 7 o’clock, when we were supposed to have dinner with Marcus and Ellen, and we decided to spend what little time we had entirely by ourselves.
“Is it too shabby?”
He asked, leaning his arms on the table.
“I like it. It feels like the America you see in movies.”
I replied, looking around the pub while holding a single-page menu, a piece of paper about the size of an octavo sheet, densely packed with text.
The pub, located on the second floor of a corner building in downtown Boston, didn’t have the sleek or luxurious atmosphere of the other restaurants or bars he had taken me to. He had brought me here, suggesting that since we were in America, we should stop by a truly American-style pub. It was shabby and common, but the atmosphere was just as comfortable, and I felt more like I was in America than when I had visited the art museums or galleries.
Despite it being the awkward time between lunch and dinner, the pub was noisy and boisterous, and dark despite the windows. There was a comfortable-looking semicircular booth by the window, but since it was just the two of us and we weren’t planning to stay long, we took a spot at a standing table set up along the right wall by the entrance.
So as not to spoil our appetites for dinner, we ordered a simple two bottles of beer and some onion rings. The food was served quickly.
“Speaking of New York.”
After taking his first sip of beer, he bent forward, leaning his body against the table that came up to his navel.
“I think things might be able to move faster than I thought.”
He explained that there had been more progress in his conversation at Chloe Kent’s luncheon than he had expected. The H&W New York branch strongly wanted an exhibition of the artist he had mentioned to Chloe at the party, and he had all but reached an agreement to loan out the artist’s works, which he and his father owned, at a good price.
“And of course, in return, the opening of Phantom’s New York branch will also proceed smoothly.”
He took a couple more sips of beer and leaned deeper toward me.
“If we hurry with the preparations, it might be possible to open it in time for next spring.”
He continued, saying that among the people Chloe had introduced him to were many suitable business contacts who could provide practical help in opening the branch, which would save a considerable amount of time.
It was already past the middle of September. No matter how naive and ignorant of the world I was, I knew that opening a gallery in a metropolis like New York was no simple task. I also knew there were limits to what could be done from a distant place like Seoul with only emails, video conferences, and phone calls. Moreover, he didn’t want to hire someone else to handle this for him. To borrow my Noona’s words from a while back, Phantom wasn’t a matter of survival for him, but a matter of self-proof.
“To do that, I think I’ll have to stay in New York… a little sooner than expected.”
He said with a hesitant face, then straightened up and drank his beer. He watched me for a moment as I stood silently, fiddling with the neck of my beer bottle, then shifted his posture and placed his hands on either side of the round table.
“I’m not saying I’m moving to New York for good right away, but to get things ready, it’s more efficient to stay there rather than going back and forth.”
“……”
“I’d like you to come with me… think of it as a slightly long trip. You can look around the overflowing museums and galleries, get a part-time job, and paint…. You can decide whether to move there for good after the gallery is ready.”
His unconfident gaze rested on my face.
“When….”
He pressed his middle finger to the bridge of his nose as if applying pressure and answered.
“As soon as we get back to Seoul, I’ll have to talk to Chief Han, but if things get sorted out as I expect, I’m thinking of going to New York within two weeks. I have my apartment there, and I just need to pack my personal belongings, so the act of moving itself isn’t that much of a hassle.”
I remembered my Noona saying that he owned two multi-million dollar homes in Hong Kong alone, two that I knew of in Seoul, and on top of that, apartments in South Kensington, London, and the Upper East Side, New York.
He took a pack of cigarettes out of his leather jacket pocket, muttered a small curse, and put it back. The pub was non-smoking. Instead, I watched him tilt his beer bottle and swallow it down in quick, successive gulps like a man dying of thirst, and I too began to empty my beer.
If Phantom was not a matter of livelihood for him but a means of self-proof, then why was he rushing to open the New York branch, making such a drastic change to his long-standing policy? It was time for me to confirm that. If I was to go to New York with him, it was a point I had to make absolutely clear.
I shifted my body closer to the wall, moving nearer to him, and bit and released my lip several times.
“I’m already receiving so much from you… from Kun… but I hope… that you don’t sacrifice anything important… or change yourself… because of me.”
Regardless of the increasingly boisterous atmosphere inside the pub, his calm gaze was fixed on me.
“I… have enough right now. I’m not lacking anything. So… please don’t overdo anything… or sacrifice anything… because of me….”
I lowered my head to look at the beer bottle in my hand, and when I looked up again, his eyes were the same. They were like the sea on a day when the waves are calm, peacefully reflecting the sunlight.
“I might be… overthinking this, but….”
“……”
“Are you rushing to open the New York branch… perhaps because of me….”
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