“So, did you secure the reservations?”
Ms. Yuni looked like she was ready to grab the man by the collar if he came back saying he hadn’t.
“I got three. Here’s the reservation list, so please put up the ‘Sold Out’ cards.”
Taking the list from the man, Ms. Yuni beamed as if the sales profits from those works were coming directly to her. She stuck the memo he’d handed her into a notebook that seemed to have doubled in thickness with all sorts of receipts and documents.
“The two of us thought we were going to die. We haven’t even finished moving the paintings for Section C yet. And Artist Yoon is making a fuss, saying he doesn’t like the order in the pamphlet.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard. You’re working hard. Manager Han will take care of Artist Yoon, so let’s just knock this out. Hmm… let’s finish within three hours.”
The man’s gaze, which had lifted to check the time on his wrist, suddenly turned to me. It was a look that said all the important talk was over, and now it was time to figure out the identity of the outsider who had been here all this time.
My own gaze, which had been sneaking glances at him as if encountering a new and fascinating species, dropped to the nape of his neck.
“Manager Han brought him over a little while ago. To help out just for today. Yeehyeon, this is our CEO.”
Even though I wasn’t facing him directly, his stare was hard to bear. A stare that gave no consideration to how I might feel about it. A stare that explored me to its heart’s content, from any angle it pleased, constricted my entire body.
“Hello. I’m Seo Yeehyeon.”
I forced out a greeting, dragging out the voice that was trying to shrink away.
I wasn’t a sociable person, but I was the type to feel awkward in new relationships, which was different from feeling intimidated. But right now, I was cowering.
On the assumption that the man was an Alpha, I couldn’t tell if this unfamiliar contraction was due to an Alpha’s pheromones, which I had never experienced before, or due to his presence as a human being, built upon the experience and confidence he had accumulated.
But as far as I knew, it was normal for a Beta to be completely unable to detect an Alpha’s pheromones, especially the faint ones they emitted when not in rut.
If I were still in that fishing village, I wouldn’t have immediately guessed that someone with such outstanding looks and an intimidating aura was an Alpha. But here, it was entirely possible.
I desperately craved the sports drink Juhan had given me. Even though I was holding it in my hand, I couldn’t bring myself to open and drink it.
“How do you know Manager Han?”
The question was thrown at the end of a gaze that felt like it was slowly tightening its grip on me.
It was a completely different voice from the one he used with Juhan or Yuni—indifferent and rigid. I could even feel a hint of undisguised hostility.
“I work as a housekeeper at the manager’s home.”
The man’s lips, barely caught at the edge of my vision, twitched. He seemed displeased with the affiliation I had revealed. But thankfully, the questions stopped there.
Averting his gaze from me, the man took off his jacket and draped it over a chair in front of a makeshift worktable. While rolling up his shirt sleeves, he received a brief report from Ms. Yuni on the current progress. My duties were changed; the man and Juhan would handle transporting the artworks, and I would help Ms. Yuni on the second floor.
Once the man disappeared down the stairs with Juhan, the tense atmosphere relaxed, and it felt like oxygen was finally being supplied sufficiently. I became aware of my shoulders dropping and realized that even my muscles had been rigid.
After I chugged half of the sports drink, Ms. Yuni held out a roll of thick double-sided tape toward me.
“Shall we, two shy people, give it our best?”
The work went smoothly. We attached all the captions next to the artworks in Section B and hung the pieces in Section C as soon as they were brought up from the basement. After we finished displaying up to Section D in that manner, all sorts of trash were strewn across the exhibition hall floor. While they made other preparations to welcome the guests tomorrow, I was tasked with cleaning up.
By the time both the first and second floors had taken on a presentable appearance, Manager Han returned with a late-night meal. It was almost time for the sun to rise, so it was closer to an early breakfast than a late-night snack.
We all gathered around a large table in the office on the first floor, with sandwiches and coffee. Everyone was chattering about who would eat which sandwich.
Even with Manager Han, my only acquaintance in this gallery, present, I didn’t feel any more comfortable than before. It was probably because of the man who was speaking and moving with a presence several times that of others, while excluding me from this space.
Such a person really existed. Just by not looking at someone, by not speaking to them, that man could make me feel… as if I were trapped inside a glass wall, isolated all by myself.
It was different from being completely ignored. He was continuously transmitting a dry, uncomfortable distance to me.
“Manager, Yeehyeon is a good worker. Compared to when Kwon Juhan first started, I’d believe you if you said he was experienced.”
The compliment from Ms. Yuni, who seemed completely incapable of empty flattery, was a small comfort.
“Baek Yuni, weren’t you ever a tadpole?”
“Nope, I was a frog from the start. Right, CEO?”
“Hmm, Yuni never had a tadpole stage. That’s why I scouted her.”
The man nodded while munching on an avocado sandwich. He was a kind boss to his employees.
After nearly five hours of labor, the man’s appearance was considerably more disheveled than when he first appeared in the second-floor hall. His hair, which looked exceptionally soft, no longer stayed in place and kept falling. His shirt and pants were wrinkled, and the signs of fatigue were evident on his eyelids and cheeks.
Still, he didn’t look shabby. Just a little tired. And because of that, a little sensitive, and a little fierce.
“Thank you, Yeehyeon. If it weren’t for you, we might have had to pull an all-nighter here, wash up at a nearby hotel, and go straight to the opening. If I hadn’t met you, what would I have done in so many ways.”
Manager Han, in the seat next to me, leaned her temple on my shoulder and pretended to cry. I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but the man’s gaze from across the table felt sharp.
No, it probably wasn’t my imagination. He made no attempt to hide the exclusive feelings he had for me.
“You’re tired, right? Do you want to take your sandwich and eat it at home?”
Perhaps due to the mental tension, I wasn’t sleepy even though it was well past my bedtime. That didn’t mean I wasn’t physically exhausted, though. I was too tired to refuse Manager Han’s offer.
I had just put the sandwich in my bag and was about to say my goodbyes when Ms. Yuni, who was sitting at the head of the table with a corner between us, shot up from her seat.
“Yeehyeon! Could you please come help one more time during the event tomorrow?”
It seemed the thought had just popped into her head, as Ms. Yuni looked surprised by her own words. She took off her glasses and placed them on the table, her dark eyes still clear even after the all-night labor.
“Why? We’ve managed just fine with this crew until now.”
She turned her head sharply to look back at the man, her bobbed hair flying. From my angle, I could only see her cheek, but I imagined she was glaring at him intensely.
“Until now, we’ve been barely surviving, you know? And CEO, I find the current schedule to be quite inhumane, if I may say so.”
“……”
The man pressed his lips together and shrugged as if he had no choice. Everyone’s expectant gazes, except for the man’s, turned to me. I had stopped in the middle of slinging my bag over my shoulder and looked at each of their faces in turn, unable to answer.
Juhan, sitting next to the man, was holding up one index finger, his face contorted in a pleading expression. Manager Han was looking at me with a faint smile.
“If you’re tired or have other plans, feel free to say no. But if, just maybe, you’re okay with it…”
“As long as I don’t have to deal with guests… I’ll help. I’m not good at that kind of thing…”
I wasn’t sure why I said okay.
Maybe I felt a sense of nostalgia for the past in Manager Han’s face, or maybe the excitement of being surrounded by art and helping with art-related work for the first time in a long while had an unconscious effect. It might have been a simple sense of pride, typical of a twenty-two-year-old, at being helpful and needed by someone, even for a simple task.
But there was one reason so clear I couldn’t deceive myself.
The moment I saw the man eating his sandwich with an expression that said he didn’t care what decision I made, something akin to defiance welled up inside me. It wasn’t a very powerful force, but it wasn’t so faint that I could deny its existence.
With that indifferent expression and atmosphere, as if he couldn’t help it if his employees wanted and decided on something, the man ate his sandwich and drank his coffee while I was given the schedule for the next day.
When I left the office, he simply gave a slight nod from over the others’ shoulders, still seated. Before I could even return the farewell, his gaze had already been withdrawn.
As I got into the taxi home and closed the door, reality rushed in as if on cue. The song playing on the radio, the driver in the front seat humming along to it, the scenery outside the window—all of it demanded energy to be accepted as real.
It felt like if I turned the taxi around and went back, a place like ‘Gallery Phantom’ would have vanished without a trace.
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