Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 14

Just because a bar was located in Hongdae didn’t mean it was guaranteed to do well. Even on a Saturday evening, there were only two or three tables occupied. The table closest to the entrance seemed to belong to the owner’s acquaintances.

The interior wasn’t exactly stylish, but the atmosphere was comfortable and unique. The music, played at a moderate volume, was well-chosen, and the drinks were affordable. Despite these advantages, Juhan Hyung and Yuni Noona explained that the reason it lacked customers was that it wasn’t a good spot for taking photos.

It had already been two weeks since I helped with the VIP opening of Phantom’s new exhibition.

For a few days, I felt like my feet were floating, as if I had briefly visited another world, but as I busied myself juggling my part-time moving job and helping at the teacher’s house, my sense of reality settled back into place.

Golden Alphas, paintings costing tens of millions of won per piece, champagne parties with beautiful finger foods too exquisite to eat… The feeling that such a world existed somewhere was slowly fading.

Yuni Noona contacted me through the teacher on Wednesday. Her call, suggesting we grab a beer with Juhan Hyung on Saturday, was unexpected but welcome.

The weather had warmed up enough to feel like early summer, so much so that my forehead was damp with sweat as I stopped by home to shower after my moving job and hurried toward the meeting place.

Noona and Hyung were much friendlier when we met outside of work, and the formal titles of Yuni-ssi and Juhan-ssi quickly turned into Yuni Noona and Juhan Hyung.

With French fries topped with melted cheddar cheese and draft beer in front of us, Juhan Hyung was delving back into his memory, tracing back three years into the past.

One of the bar’s two cats, a long-haired Persian, jumped onto the empty chair next to Juhan Hyung. It was very friendly toward people. Stroking the cat’s back, Hyung continued his story.

“From there, we went to a nearby café, and I laid out everything about that bastard, from the past to the present. That alone took about two hours, I think? Baek Yuni’s questions were so meticulous and calm, it felt like I had come to a lawyer to sue the bastard.”

They were so similar in style and looked so comfortable together, I had thought they might have known each other before working at Phantom, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Afterward, the two of them put their heads together to create several revenge scenarios, and after careful consideration, they chose one and acted on it. The materials the stalker had sent to Juhan Hyung’s parents were delivered, exactly as they were, to the director of the academy where he worked.

“One of that bastard’s fixed duties was reporting on the academy’s situation while delivering the mail when the director came to work late in the afternoon. The documents proving he was stalking me, which he had sent to my parents. He ended up handing them over to his boss with his own hands. Thinking about him standing in front of his boss, who was trembling uncontrollably while looking at the messenger screenshot where the bastard was begging a guy nearly twenty years his junior to please treat him like a dog in bed like before, saying he’d done everything wrong, while he was trying to look respectable talking about student enrollment rates…”

Hyung paused his story and softly rubbed his cheek against the cat he was holding, wearing a gentle smile.

I didn’t need to hear it to know what kind of reaction the director, a perfectly ordinary middle-aged man who wouldn’t even be comfortable with men holding hands, would have had to that disgusting mail.

“He shot himself in the foot. If those documents came to my house, it was my outing; if they went to his house, it was his outing. We chose to target his workplace. The tip of the knife used to carve someone else can become a tool for self-harm, stabbing oneself. I learned that very clearly, thanks to Baek Yuni.”

“It must have been a very painful Monday morning for that bastard.”

Yuni Noona said, leaning her elbow on the table and drinking her beer.

“A bastard who makes others cry must be made to cry tears of blood. No matter how long it takes, no matter how much back-breaking labor is required, even if my whole life is ground down in the process… it’s my personal code that I will never let a bastard who messed with me get away with it.”

Juhan Hyung gently rubbed his nose against the cat’s nose, saying something that could sound a little scary, in a voice laced with affection. “Right, Kushong-ahhh…”

I was curious about what happened to the stalker afterward, but I could also guess. If a man in his 40s was outed in that manner within his workplace, the consequences were obvious. Even if his family were to be shocked and cut ties, they would keep it quiet from others, but society wouldn’t.

“Are you perhaps feeling sorry for the bastard?”

Hyung was mistaken.

I was only thinking about how clearly an incident with a clear object of revenge and resentment could be concluded. I shook my head.

“I think it was a clean ending.”

“You’re cold-blooded, unlike how you look.”

Saying that, Hyung smiled widely. The playful, mischievous, villain-like smile suddenly overlapped with the image of the Director of Phantom.

We each ordered another glass of fresh beer. It was the third for them and the second for me.

“That was the beginning of Baek Yuni and me. If it weren’t for her, I might have gone to that bastard, poured out all my anger as my nature dictated, and genuinely ended up with a criminal record. My parents would never have paid a settlement fee back then. Well, the situation hasn’t changed much even now.”

Juhan Hyung pursed his lips, making a sour face as he drank the foam from his new beer.

“But Baek Yuni, it turns out the story about her slaving away at a gallery was old news. She was already doing well, receiving a hefty annual salary at Phantom back then. She was working hard because they were short-staffed, but she had escaped the 1.5-pyeong goshiwon long before.”

“If Phantom hadn’t been growing so rapidly back then and desperately short on staff, I wouldn’t have even made you interview for Phantom. Sigh, timing…”

Yuni Noona’s playful complaints followed Juhan Hyung’s aggrieved disclosure.

Meanwhile, the other tables had left, and only the owner’s acquaintances near the entrance and us remained in the bar. They must have been playing some kind of game, as a moment of cheering and disappointed sighs erupted simultaneously. Startled by the noise, the cat quickly jumped off the chair, twitching its ears, and burrowed deeper into Hyung’s arms.

I looked down at Hyung’s thin hand gently stroking the cat and drank a few sips of beer. Since moving to Seoul, I had learned the comfort and reward of a can of beer at the end of a workday, but today’s beer had a different flavor entirely.

Returning to the beginning of the story, I asked the one thing I had been curious about throughout the revenge plot.

“What happened to the boots?”

“The boots? Oh… those boots.”

Hyung grinned, lifting his right leg higher than the table. Startled by the sudden movement, the cat scurried off the chair and disappeared into the back of the bar.

“I’m not a man who breaks his word.”

Yuni Noona suggested a toast.

Three glass mugs clinked together over the cold French fries. It felt like a toast to celebrate something, though I wasn’t sure exactly what.

“So, Yihyun-ah, how about working at Phantom officially?”

“What?”

More than half of the beer was downed by Hyung, who then set the glass down with a refreshing onomatopoeic sound, as if shaking off the sticky remnants of the past. He then abruptly brought up the topic. A sigh escaped Yuni Noona beside me.

“Does just adding ‘So, about that’ make it okay? I knew this would happen when you insisted you’d bring it up yourself.”

“Why? Wasn’t it natural? I just explained the background of how I met you and started working at Phantom. Is it unnatural to ask you to work here too?”

“Never mind.”

Hyung raised his eyebrows and pulled down the corners of his mouth in a wronged expression. Yuni Noona, instead, began to speak in her characteristically fast yet calm tone.

“Even though the work is intense, Phantom offers practically the best treatment in the industry. Honestly, most galleries have far worse working conditions than Phantom. It’s common for galleries similar in size to ours to only have one staff member. We’ve been increasing staff as the gallery grows, and it seems like it’s time for a new employee again. We’d really like you to join us.”

“First of all… thank you so much for the offer. And for thinking highly of me. But I’m not experienced, so I doubt how much help I’d be…”

Just as when the teacher told me the two wanted to meet me privately, I felt both surprised and welcomed. However, I also doubted my ability to perform effectively as an employee in a specialized space like a gallery.

“But actually, the Director… offered me a live-in helper position at his house.”

“Live-in?”

“Yes, I haven’t given him my decision yet, but I think I’ll probably accept it.”

I had received the live-in offer from the teacher on Wednesday as well.

After relaying that Yuni Noona and Juhan Hyung wanted to meet me, the teacher drove me home and proposed the live-in arrangement. She probably made the offer out of consideration for my situation. The teacher didn’t try to deny it either. Ultimately, it was a choice between being indebted to Morae and Hyung, or being indebted to the teacher.

“Then that’s even better! If you move into the Director’s house, it’ll be easier to do both the Phantom work and the helper job!”

“Hey, if Yihyun starts working at Phantom, he’ll be commuting every day and working late. How would he handle the live-in helper job on top of that? Do you think housework is that easy?”

“I’m a guy who lives alone and still uses a washing machine and puts out food waste on time. Baek Yuni… you’re so transparent.”

Despite Noona’s chiding, Juhan Hyung was, for some reason, all smiles. Although it was a sly smile, hinting at ulterior motives.

“What about it?”

“You’re jealous because Yihyun is going to live at the Director’s house.”

Noona stared silently at Hyung across the table for a moment, then shook her head.

“I should have just let you go to jail back then.”

The offer to work at Phantom officially honestly stirred something within me. While the moving company job and the helper job at the teacher’s house suited my aptitude and felt comfortable, there was no excitement in them. They were jobs that allowed me to burrow deeper into myself, and that’s why I found comfort there.

But Phantom… held unease.

It was an unpredictable, sudden stimulus, like pulling me out of the moist sand on the beach where I was hunkered down and setting me upright on a swirling wave.

I knew the time had come for me to make a choice of some kind. I couldn’t continue sleeping with a sliding door between myself and a couple deeply in love, who had gone so far as to elope, and subject myself to physical labor under the pretext that it cleared my mind.

“Adding one more person doesn’t immediately reduce the workload. It might even increase the work depending on who joins, and if personalities clash, it causes stress… That’s why we kept postponing hiring, but we’re offering you this because we feel we can enjoy working with you. Just think about it. If you think it’s a good fit, you can tell us, or you can tell the Director.”

I was genuinely happy about their offer. Although I had put the brush away long ago, if I could work surrounded by art, that could be an excellent alternative.

However, there was another reason why I couldn’t just grasp the extended hand with pure joy.

“Wouldn’t the Director… dislike me joining?”

“What does liking or disliking him have to do with anything? He’s someone who came to help briefly and will leave.”, His indifference still held weight inside me.

“Seriously, don’t worry about that. That old man has had his own ups and downs in life and finds it hard to trust people easily, but if you look closely, he’s actually favorable toward you. Since he’s a Golden Alpha, he trusts his intuition immensely. If he genuinely disliked you, he wouldn’t have let you into Phantom in the first place. And if he disliked you, why would he ask the Director about you?”

“……”

Thinking my stiff eyes and mouth were due to displeasure, Hyung made an Oops face and corrected himself.

“Ah, it wasn’t exactly ‘asking’ about you… He just seemed to be asking if you had studied art, that sort of thing. The way you talked about the artwork to Teacher Inwoo that day was a hot topic between us for a while. Don’t be offended. I was right there, and those questions definitely weren’t asked with malicious intent to pry into your background.”

I wasn’t offended. For a moment, a ripple went through my chest, like a wave pushing up from under my feet, but it wasn’t displeasure. I was awkward at expressing emotions verbally, but I earnestly explained that I wasn’t upset, hoping my sincerity would reach them.

“Even if you don’t work at Phantom, let’s keep seeing each other like this sometimes. Baek Yuni seems to genuinely like you, which is rare.”

“He only likes you because you’re a handsome man.”

“She’s the one who kept nagging us to hire you every time she saw the Director, and yet she acts like a tsundere. You’ll have to get used to it, Yihyun-ah.”

That day, I drank three glasses of beer for the first time. Hearing about their not-so-light past made me feel closer and more comfortable with the two of them, and the subtle, unsettled stirring within me was another reason why I emptied my glass faster than usual.

I had to stop twice on the stairs leading up to my house. The night view of Seoul that I looked down on from the stairs no longer reminded me of the squid fishing boats seen from the harbor.