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The music caught my ear with its bouncy melody and vocal style. It wasn’t a fast-tempo track with a provocative beat, but its funky rhythm was charming enough to make even a dull person like me tap their toes inside their sneakers.
It was a song famous enough for even me to know. Prince’s ‘Kiss’.
Yuni-noona in the passenger seat and Juhan-Hyung behind her, in the seat next to mine, were singing along, practically screaming their lungs out.
‘Mwah mwah mwah mwah Kiss!’
After belting out the rather direct lyrics, the two of them mimicked the kissing sound effect at the end of the first verse, puckering their lips at the empty air. I laughed at the action, which was so perfectly timed it seemed rehearsed. It was the kind of chemistry that could only come from people who had spent a long time sharing the same tastes.
In the rearview mirror, he, in the driver’s seat, was also smiling, shaking his head as if to say they were hopeless. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought our eyes met in the mirror. I couldn’t be sure since he was wearing sunglasses, but it felt awkward all the same. I turned my gaze away, pretending to brush back my windblown hair.
Leaving the airport, we passed the glamorous luxury brand-lined streets of Tsim Sha Tsui and an underground tunnel, crossing over to Hong Kong Island. We were now driving on an overpass, with a city where modern skyscrapers and old buildings coexisted on our right, and Victoria Harbour, with Tsim Sha Tsui visible across the water, on our left.
The deep blue vehicle, reminiscent of the color of a deep lake, was a cabriolet, a convertible, or in more common terms, an open-top car. I didn’t know who had left the car waiting for us in front of the arrivals gate, but it was definitely not a rental. He had taken the key out of his own key wallet.
When Yuni-noona and Juhan-Hyung spotted the waiting car, they screamed and ran towards it. Their reaction was as boisterous as if they were reuniting with a long-lost relative. Perhaps he had prepared the car especially for them, as an irrepressible smile had shown on the CEO’s face as he watched them.
He was a kind boss to his employees. I could tell that much, even in the beginning when he had been hostile toward me. He wasn’t a cold person who simply lacked a kind heart or attitude.
However, it wasn’t a kindness that was open to everyone equally. To be included within it, one had to spend time proving it to him. That one was worthy of his kindness.
I didn’t know how I was being defined in his eyes. His softened attitude compared to the beginning, and his surprising decision to have me join Phantom. The kindness of giving me congee and taking off his sweatshirt for me. And the gazes that sometimes turned to me, carrying a certain viscosity and temperature. From these things, I could only guess that he was at least no longer as wary of me as before.
Pretending to look at the Hong Kong scenery approaching through the windshield, I stole glances at the back of his head as he drove, and as I was lost in such thoughts, ‘Kiss’ was coming to an end.
“Ah, this is why I work at Phantom!”
Yuni-noona, having turned down the volume, exclaimed with a look of relief, like someone who had just let off steam at a karaoke room they hadn’t visited in a long time.
“Hey… that’s a little hurtful for the boss to hear.”
“Why is it hurtful? It’s a compliment. Do you think a boss capable enough to give us a ride in a car like this is common? Even if they exist, other bosses wouldn’t give you a ride.”
“Hmm, does it mean anything if it’s a car the boss bought with inherited money?”
“As long as the car I drive and the house I live in were bought with my own money, that’s all that matters. This is your car, CEO-nim. So all I have to do is enjoy it, and worrying about inherited wealth is your job.”
Saying so, Yuni-noona even clapped her hands and laughed as if to tease him. He shook his head.
“Wow… ruthless, Baek Yuni.”
“You’re just too puritanical about things like that, CEO-nim. Just enjoy it. You get to give your babies some fun like this, isn’t that great? Having a lot of inherited things isn’t all advantages, so it’s a loss if you don’t at least enjoy the advantages.”
Juhan-Hyung leaned his body between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, jumping into their conversation.
“I totally agree with Baek Yuni on this one. If it’s really that much of a burden, there’s always the option of passing it all on to me. I’m your baby, after all.”
In the rearview mirror, his expression crumpled this time.
“Did you catch it from Choi Inwoo? Why do you guys keep going on about being babies? Why are you my babies? You’re all grown up, it’s gross.”
“You’re going to call your lover ‘honey’ and ‘baby’ anyway, CEO-nim. Are all your lovers not grown up? They’re probably all huge, bulging muscle men. Ugh…”
Juhan-Hyung was still treating the things we talked about in his garden last time as established facts. Since he had neither confirmed nor denied it, I couldn’t know if bulging muscle men were really his type, but he had slept with me, who was not bulging. Of course, we hadn’t gone all the way, and if my faint memory was correct… I had passed out before he even came…
“A lover is a lover, what do you mean ‘lovers’? And have you ever even seen my baby or honey? See one before you run your mouth, please.”
As he glided off the overpass and slowed down for a green light, he reached out and pinched the cheek of Juhan-hyeong, who was still leaning between the seats.
The people of Phantom seemed closer than a simple workplace relationship, but they didn’t seem to know much about his private life. It seemed to be the same for Inwoo-hyeong, his old friend. It appeared to be his habit to be open and kind to those close to him, but to keep the intimate parts of his life in a domain of his own. It was likely true not just for his affairs in bed, but for his private life as a whole.
I wondered if there had been anyone in the past, or if there was anyone in the present, who had entered his closely guarded inner world. With that curiosity, I found myself studying his face in the rearview mirror.
I know very well that I’m not skilled in this area. Conversely, for him, detecting the clumsy gaze of someone ten years younger stealing glances at him would be nothing. Feeling like our eyes had met in the rearview mirror again, I hastily turned my head to look out at the foreign streets.
We were driving deeper and deeper into the chaotic streets of Hong Kong, a jumble of red signs covered in Chinese characters reminiscent of calligraphy, dazzling electronic billboards, and neon signs.
The car started moving with the light, and at the next signal, it slid through the intersection without needing to wait.
“Huh? What is it, CEO-nim? Why aren’t we going toward the apartment?”
Yuni-noona asked in a puzzled voice, glancing back at the hill on the right.
“Did I not tell you? We’re staying at a hotel this time.”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Hmm… I thought I told you.”
He said nonchalantly, scratching under his chin with his index finger. I couldn’t know the reason, but judging by their reactions, it seemed highly likely he hadn’t told them on purpose.
“Even if we’re staying at a hotel, since when did you handle such practical matters, CEO-nim? Huh?”
Looking a little flustered by the change in plans, noona held her phone up to him with a menacing expression.
“Baek Yuni looked so busy, I figured you’d grab me by the collar if I asked you to book a hotel too, so I took care of it myself.”
At his charmingly playful voice, noona sank back into her seat and pushed up her sunglasses.
“Even so, I wouldn’t go as far as grabbing your collar. I might have glared daggers into the back of your head, though.”
He laughed and reached out an arm, lightly ruffling noona’s hair.
“You need to rest well, at least at night, during the fair. My apartment doesn’t have enough separate rooms for all five of us.”
“The master bedroom is the size of a stadium. If we each sleep at opposite ends of that bed, it’s practically like having separate rooms. Yeehyeon won’t take up much space either. And he won’t complain about this or that like Kwon Juhan.”
“Why are you dragging me into this when I’m just sitting here?”
Juhan-Hyung grumbled, but noona didn’t respond to him.
“Hmm… so, you’re saying Seo Yeehyeon-ssi and I should share a room?”
This time, I was certain he was looking at me in the rearview mirror. His expression was as if he were imagining in his head what it would be like to share a room with me.
“Why? You can’t even share a room with a man who isn’t your type?”
Yuni-noona snapped, but he just laughed. Then he changed the subject.
“You won’t forgive me even if it’s the F Hotel?”
Noona’s expression changed at the mention of the hotel’s name. Juhan-hyeong’s ears also perked up, and he turned to look at me with wide eyes, but having no information about that hotel, I couldn’t join in their reaction.
“No, well… it’s not a matter of forgiving or not… I’m just saying you should tell us in advance if there are any changes.”
Tapping her fingers on the dashboard, Noona couldn’t hide her smile.
“Even with a harbor view and a single room for each of us?”
“Whether you told us in advance or not, is that really so important?”
Changing her tune in an instant, noona turned around to face Juhan-hyeong, and they shared their joy with each other. That hotel was making them quite excited. Perhaps this, too, was part of a surprise gift he had prepared for them.
“To be honest, I don’t really feel bad about you spending money in Hong Kong.”
“You guys don’t feel bad about me spending money in Seoul, either.”
“You’re rich!”
Noona and Hyung shouted in unison. Shaking his head, he was still smiling.
With a large, old-looking beige building on our right, he turned the steering wheel to the left. Soon, the lavishly decorated entrance to a hotel appeared. The car’s speed was decreasing, but my heart felt like it was racing ahead.
My first impression of Hong Kong was the passionate humidity and heat, the mixture of past and present, the subtle balance created by disorder, and the gazes exploring each other through the rearview mirror.
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