The VIP opening began at 3 PM.
Yuni explained the surprisingly late opening time like this:
“Our gallery’s main clients are mostly big names in the fashion and entertainment industries. If we opened in the morning, no one would come. Most of them start their day around noon.”
It was an understandable explanation. I didn’t even know who the most popular celebrities were these days, I’d never flipped through a fashion magazine, and I was far removed from trends and style, but I had enough common sense to understand the irregular lifestyles of people in those fields.
However, I was a little puzzled that the gallery’s main clients were people in the fashion and entertainment industries.
The fashion and entertainment industries might be closely related, but the connection between an art gallery dealing with fine art and those two fields didn’t seem that deep. Had the somewhat conservative and authoritarian attitude of fine art crumbled so much that a gallery’s main clients could be filled with fashion and entertainment figures while I was living like a hermit in a fishing village?
From a traditional perspective, Yuni and Juhan also looked more like models or designers than gallery staff guiding visitors about the power and elasticity of lines or the imagination afforded by negative space in front of Oriental paintings.
Today, both of them were dressed in all-black punk looks.
I had been expecting them to dress neatly like other curators today, since it was a day for dealing with VIP clients, but that was not the case at all.
Rather, they both looked like they had put even more effort into their appearance than yesterday. They had more piercings and accessories, and their makeup matched their looks, making it clear that it was a ‘special day.’
After moving all the pamphlets that had just arrived from the printing shop to the office and separating the ones for the main exhibition from the ones to be distributed today, I asked about something I had been wondering about since yesterday.
“Phantom seems to have a lot of freedom in terms of dress code.”
Juhan, who was returning after placing the pile of pamphlets for the main exhibition on the windowsill, chuckled as if he had expected that question.
“You mean our gallery?”
When I nodded, he continued with his explanation.
“Our gallery has a rather unique business policy. Neat or simple is fine, but no uninspired outfits. People in the entertainment and fashion industries are our main clients, after all. To appeal to them, the staff also need to have their own style to some extent. That’s our CEO’s policy.”
It seemed that the somewhat conservative and authoritarian walls of the art world hadn’t become more flexible after all. It was just a characteristic of Phantom.
“If that weren’t the case, Kwon Juhan would have failed the interview.”
Yuni, who had just returned to the office after checking on the catering company’s progress, said as she passed the table we were working at.
“Who was it that dragged someone who didn’t want to interview to the interview?”
Juhan turned around and protested as if he felt wronged, but he didn’t elicit any reaction from Yuni. Yuni’s phone, which had been ringing almost non-stop since I arrived in the morning, started ringing again.
Juhan quickly turned back and continued putting the pamphlets into plastic bags. He gave up quickly.
“It’s great for us, though. We don’t have to separate our work self from our after-work self, and we even get clothing expenses covered regularly.”
I understood that there were no restrictions on clothing because the main clients were people in the fashion and entertainment industries, but the question of how the gallery’s main clients came to be filled with people in the fashion and entertainment industries remained.
However, it wasn’t the kind of curiosity that would keep me up at night if I didn’t get a clear answer, so I nodded silently.
“You know? There are a lot of Alphas and Omegas in the entertainment industry. You’ll probably have plenty to feast your eyes on today.”
When it came to popular celebrities these days, there were only one or two people whose names and faces I could match. But if I knew their names and told Morae and Hyung, they could be used as snacks for our beer time.
Juhan told me to look forward to the celebrities, Alphas, and Omegas I would see at the party today, but in my opinion, I wondered if there could really be someone more ‘Alpha-like’ or ‘Alpha-esque’ than yesterday’s man, Phantom’s CEO.
Even if he wasn’t an Alpha, or even a Beta, he was the very image of a golden Alpha to ordinary people like me.
It wasn’t just because of his almost foreign-like features with a slight touch of Eastern charm, typical of mixed-race people (he was one of those mixed-race people with much stronger Western features. I hadn’t confirmed for sure whether he was mixed-race or not, but his features and eyes made it biologically impossible for him to be purely East Asian).
The unique and distinctive atmosphere and presence he exuded was a matter of feeling, not logic, so I could draw it if I were asked to, but it would be difficult to explain in words.
More amazing. More magnificent. – It was different from those concepts. It wasn’t even the feeling that he was a different race. Even if I saw an unrealistically beautiful foreigner in front of me, it would still be the feeling that they were the same person but very different.
What on earth is this in front of me? – That was the kind of light shock he elicited.
If he parted his sensual lips with a slightly upturned upper lip, he would speak in a strange and beautiful alien language that sounded like music.
His personality didn’t seem very easygoing, but I couldn’t deny the curiosity I naturally felt about a new being, the gaze that inevitably turned to him once more.
Whether he was really a ‘more’ special golden Alpha, or whether that level of presence was common among Alphas. As Juhan said, I would be able to tell to some extent after seeing various Alphas at the party today.
After moving all the pamphlets in the bags to the temporary desk in the second-floor exhibition hall and returning to the office, I found that Ms. Han had arrived and was talking to Yuni. I smiled and approached her with a happy expression, and Ms. Han also smiled back and lightly stroked my bangs.
“Where’s the CEO?”
Ms. Han asked Yuni.
“He had lunch with Inwoo and said he’d come here with him right away.”
“Then everything’s pretty much ready. Ha… I thought this death schedule was impossible, but it’s working out somehow. It’s even more relaxed than usual! It’s a big difference with just one more person, huh?”
Ms. Han put her arm around my shoulder and asked Yuni and Juhan to agree that I had been helpful in the progress of this schedule. As if they had been waiting for that question, the two strongly expressed that the gallery desperately needed more staff.
Now, if the catering preparation upstairs was finished, there would be no problem with the 3 PM opening. We gathered around the table with cups of coffee that Ms. Han had bought, to have one last relaxing time before the opening began.
“Yuni and Juhan have to take turns dealing with customers. There are times when customers are curious about the paintings, but the CEO and I are both unavailable. When we’re busy, Yuni and Juhan might both have to leave the desk. Yeehyeon just needs to distribute the pamphlets well at the desk.”
I wasn’t good at it, but I wasn’t shy, so I thought I could manage that much somehow.
“Smiling and being friendly… Is it okay if I can’t do that?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Yeehyeon’s expressionless face is charming, so customers will like it even more. Don’t worry about that…”
Ms. Han’s words, which were encouraging me with the hard-to-agree-with statement that my dry face was charming, gradually faded and stopped completely. And the smile slowly disappeared from her face, and in the end, she made a completely distorted face as if she had drunk a bitter drink.
“I’m crazy… I knew it. I thought it was going smoothly this time.”
The three of us fixed our eyes on Ms. Han, who was muttering while rubbing her face with both hands.
“The editor-in-chief of ‘Monsieur A’ seems to have left the book he published this time in the bathroom! I had to hold on to it until this morning because I had to pretend I read it. Why am I like this, really.”
No sooner had Ms. Han finished blaming herself than Yuni got up from her seat.
“I’ll take a taxi and go buy it. It’ll take 30 minutes round trip.”
“We can’t do without the book, Yuni. No matter how well I say I read it, it won’t work without the real thing… He’s the kind of person who’ll sulk about it and drag it on for at least a few months.”
Just as Ms. Han was saying that with an almost screaming voice and a terrified expression, Yuni was already taking her wallet out of her desk inside the office.
After hesitating for a moment, I got up from my seat and lightly grabbed Yuni’s arm.
“I’ll go.”
I glanced at Yuni once and then checked the wall clock hanging on the window pillar. There wasn’t much time left until 3 PM.
“Yuni’s absence would paralyze the work, but it’s not like something terrible will happen if I’m away. I’ll go.”
“…Then, please.”
It was a different side of her from when she had given me work instructions as soon as I arrived at the gallery yesterday, before even introducing herself. She seemed reluctant to ask me, who had come to help temporarily, to do something that wasn’t planned, and she gave me an apologetic look, so I tried to smile as much as I could. I could understand to some extent what Juhan had meant when he described the two of us as people who were shy around strangers.
After receiving the book information on my phone, I hurriedly left the office, and behind me, I could hear Yuni’s light nagging and Ms. Han’s crying voice asking Yuni for forgiveness(?).
As Yuni had explained, there was a large bookstore a 10-minute taxi ride away. Until middle school, I had also come to this bookstore a few times with my friends, pretending to buy textbooks as an excuse to hang out. There had been a major remodeling in the meantime, and the interior was quite different from my memory, but I didn’t have time to admire the transformation.
I found and bought the book without difficulty, but it took some time to catch a taxi back because it was the middle of the city on a holiday afternoon. Only after receiving a message from Yuni saying that there was still plenty of time until the author of the book arrived, so this much time would be enough, could I take a breath and lean back in my seat.
The way back to the gallery was a bit more congested than the way down. There were several stylish cafes and restaurants nearby, so the narrow roads and alleys were crowded with people who had come out for a holiday outing.
As I hurriedly looked at the book in the paper bag, I couldn’t help but feel a little impatient as I checked the scenery outside the window to see where I was.
When I was about 10 meters away from my destination.
A large car with a solid silhouette entering the parking lot in front of Phantom caught my eye. It was a very large car that was not easy to see. But despite its overwhelming size and somewhat authoritarian straight-line design, it was elegant without looking clumsy. Even without knowledge of cars, anyone could tell that it was a very high-end vehicle.
Imported sedans running on the road were common, but perhaps because of its larger frame than most SUVs, or because of its appearance that distinguished it from ordinary sedans reminiscent of official vehicles, it had a way of overwhelming the viewer.
It might be a hasty judgment, but I felt like I knew who the owner of the car was.
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