Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 15

I put the almond cereal, a one-liter pack of milk, a set of plain yogurt, and finally, a cranberry juice into the basket and headed toward the checkout counter, where I noticed that Korean melons (chamae) were already on display.

Even though you could eat watermelon in the dead of winter and tangerines in the middle of summer, the chamae on the green felt-covered stall were undeniably in-season fruit, even if they had been harvested a bit early.

I picked one and held it to my nose; the scent was quite sweet. If I peeled it, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and put it in the refrigerator, it would be easy for the teacher to grab.

Grocery shopping wasn’t included in my housekeeping duties for the teacher’s house, but knowing that their diet would become even worse without them, I stocked up on juice, milk, fruit, cereal, and bread about once a week. If I knew how to cook, I would have liked to prepare even simple meals, but the best I could manage were ramen and fried eggs.

The teacher had told me not to bother with groceries since delivery food was so good these days, but it was a relief that they seemed to eat what I bought out of consideration for the effort. They were already paying me generously for a job that wasn’t particularly difficult, and I wanted to be more helpful in any way I could.

After buying a few sandwiches and bread from the bakery opposite the checkout counter, I stepped outside, where the sunlight was intense. I shielded my eyes with my hand, let myself adjust to the light, and then started walking.

The teacher’s house was a luxury apartment with a view of the Han River, but the complex was small, consisting of only two buildings, so it didn’t have its own shopping area. While the large apartment complex next door had a shopping area, it only contained a small supermarket, so I would usually shop at the large mart about a 10-minute walk away and walk to work from there.

“Seo Yihyun!”

Just as I entered the alley that ran straight from the crosswalk to the apartment complex, someone called my name. I instinctively turned toward the voice and saw the teacher smiling at me from the passenger seat of a sleek white SUV. I smiled back in welcome and approached the car, noticing the Director of Phantom in the driver’s seat over the teacher’s shoulder.

My chest involuntarily flinched, even though I had done nothing wrong to him.

“I told you not to bother with the groceries, it’s heavy.”

“It’s not much.”

“Get in. Let’s go up together.”

As I hesitated, another car was trying to enter the alley. Since it wasn’t a time for polite refusal, I got into the back seat. As soon as I closed the door, the car glided down the alley toward the Han River bank where the apartment was located.

“I had a minor accident on my way to work this morning. I left the car at the service center, and they said it would take about a week. So, I’m getting a ride home in Director Ryu’s car.”

“An… accident?”

The teacher turned to look at me, and smiled gently, as if to reassure me despite my heightened voice.

“Oh, yes. Just a small fender-bender, and I’m fine.”

“What is a small accident and what is a big accident when it comes to a collision? I know this wasn’t your fault this time, but how many accidents have you had already? Try to think about the position of the person who has to take a call about an accident every few months.”

I had been curious about the reason for the teacher’s early dismissal, since I hadn’t scheduled a moving company job today, but the fact that they’d had an accident, even if they weren’t injured… I had no choice but to agree with the Phantom Director’s remark this time.

To hide and steady my trembling hands, I pulled the eco-bag I was using as a shopping basket onto my lap and hugged it tightly.

“Yes, yes, I apologize. I’m terribly sorry for worrying you.”

“I tell you every time that your driving style is too aggressive.”

“Director Ryu, stop talking about the stressed-out Director Han and let’s talk about Shu-shu, okay?”

The teacher tried to change the subject quickly, but the Director seemed quite seriously angry. His voice was emotional, which I hadn’t heard before.

“If you don’t like being nagged, change your driving style. If you can’t change your habit, I’ll hire a driver for you.”

“You drive yourself, and you’re telling me to take a chauffeured car? What will people say?”

“What does it matter what people say? If something happens to Director Han, are those bastards going to take responsibility for Phantom instead?”

“Yihyun-ah, you heard what Director Ryu just said, didn’t you? This is what they call tsundere, right?”

The teacher turned to me in the back seat and asked. It wasn’t really a question seeking agreement.

“If you’re worried about me getting hurt, just say so. Don’t use Phantom as an excuse.”

The teacher continued to speak in a light, teasing tone to try and change the mood. As the Director smoothly turned the steering wheel toward the entrance of the apartment’s underground parking lot, he lowered his voice, which had been a tone higher than usual.

“If you know that well, please just be careful.”

It was a voice laced with a sigh, sounding like it could be swept away at any moment. Anyone could tell that his worry wasn’t just nagging.

The teacher didn’t look back this time, but I could clearly tell from his profile that he was wearing a mixed smile of apology and gratitude.

The bored, casual attitude he showed the man in the passenger seat, the business-like friendliness he showed the customers at the party, and the hostility he showed me, an outsider.

That was all I had known of him. I had thought he was a playful and friendly boss to the Phantom staff, but I hadn’t known he was someone who could worry about someone else with such an anxious voice, to the point of seeming slightly overprotective.

But, yes. Unless blue blood, the same color as his eyes, flowed through his body, even a person who seemed incapable of pouring excessive affection on anyone would become unable to be aloof toward someone precious. Because that was only natural.

When I got out in the underground parking lot, the air felt suffocating. Although no one else seemed to attach any significance to it, I was bothered that I had missed the timing to greet the Director.

When his eyes first met mine as he got out of the driver’s seat and walked toward the front of the car, I softly said, “Hello,” and he slightly inclined his head.

For someone who ‘inquired’ about me, as Juhan Hyung had put it, his pale blue eyes still seemed to hold no interest in me whatsoever.

To him, I was a temporary part-timer who was helping out briefly at Phantom, and now, the teacher’s housekeeper. Unless he was a particularly friendly and outgoing person, there was no need for him to make an effort to be warm or smile at someone of such minor significance.

Since polite friendliness and a barrage of questions disguised as socializing were what made me uncomfortable, there was no reason for me to be offended by his indifference.

As soon as we arrived at the house, the two of them started talking business at the kitchen table, and I got on with my job.

To allow them to speak comfortably, I started with cleaning the four rooms and two bathrooms.

Judging by the fragments of conversation I couldn’t help but overhear whenever I passed the rooms, one of Phantom’s exclusive artists had a solo exhibition planned, and the Director, who had visited the artist’s studio today to check the progress, seemed keen to move the exhibition schedule up as much as possible.

A different kind of excitement, different from when he worried about the teacher’s wild driving habits, was evident in his voice.

If I hadn’t misheard, the artist’s name seemed to be ‘Shu-shu,’ and a strange texture was present in his low voice, which was slightly husky as if scratched by thorns, whenever he pronounced the sweet-sounding word ‘Shu-shu.’ It was like a record skipping at a specific part, or like watching him bend his large body to embrace a poodle and smother it with kisses.

It might sound contradictory, but it wasn’t an unpleasant or jarring dissonance that made one cringe; if anything, it was the kind of unfamiliarity and novelty that sparked interest.

Shu-shu. What kind of paintings would an artist with that name paint? Of course, it wasn’t his real name, but I was curious.

“Are you really thinking of letting him live here?”

When I was cleaning the living room bathroom and briefly stopped scrubbing the tub, I heard his voice from beyond the tile wall. The volume wasn’t loud enough for me to distinctly hear every syllable, but I could roughly infer the content of the conversation.

“It’s not definite yet, but it looks like it will happen. I had a hard time persuading him.”

“You know, ‘live-in helper’ is just a fancy term; you’ll be living in the same house with a complete stranger.”

“A complete stranger? He’s a kid I used to teach.”

“Ah, ten years ago?”

“Do you really have to talk like that right now? I wish you’d stop.”

“How can you let a man into your house and live with him when you don’t know when even a seemingly normal guy might suddenly change?”

“Then you should be kicked out first. You’re a man, too, Director Ryu.”

“Am I the same as that guy? To Director Han?”

If he wasn’t the same as me, then what was he to the teacher?

I understood his concern about a loved one potentially living with a person of the opposite sex who wasn’t family. It was perhaps a natural and reasonable worry. But from my perspective as the unintended cause of that worry, it was still an unpleasant conversation.

“I know you’re worried, but I have my own reasons. I don’t want Yihyun to overhear this, so if you don’t want to see me genuinely angry, let’s stop.”

He stopped at that point. The topic returned to the artist named Shu-shu. The Director wanted to open the exhibition as soon as possible, and the teacher was reluctant to agree, saying the schedule was too tight… those conversations continued.

Since I had turned the shower lever to rinse the detergent foam, I couldn’t make out the subsequent content of the conversation.

The teacher rarely used the living room bathroom, so there wasn’t much to clean, but I felt uncomfortable leaving the room, so I lingered longer than usual. Thanks to that, the bathroom sparkled.

After finishing the cleaning of the living room, kitchen, and dining area, I was about to pick up my bag from the sofa when the teacher, having finished the meeting at the dining table, pushed his chair back and walked toward me.

“Yihyun-ah, if you don’t have a schedule with the moving company next Saturday, could you help out at Phantom?”

“Next Saturday is still open.”

“The exhibition you helped with the opening for last time is scheduled to close that day. But the next exhibition’s schedule has been dramatically moved up… our Director over there is impatient to open it quickly.”

It seemed his insistence on rushing the ‘Shu-shu’ exhibition had won.

“I’m fine with it…”

I looked at him, where he was leaning loosely against the dining chair, sipping his coffee. It was an involuntary action.

Noticing the direction of my gaze, the teacher glanced at him and then placed both hands on my shoulders.

“Why are you looking at Director Ryu? I was the one who asked you.”

Over the teacher’s shoulder, he set his cup down and stood up from his seat.

“Of course, Director Han is the real power at Phantom. I’ll be going now.”

He picked up the lightweight summer jacket draped over the adjacent chair, checked his wristwatch beneath his rolled-up shirt sleeve, and hastily took one last sip of coffee while standing.

“Kuhn, give Yihyun a ride on your way.”

“Ah, no. It’s alright.”

He looked at me for a moment, then shifted his gaze back to the teacher and said, “He says it’s alright?”

“It’s on your way. Just give him a ride.”

He looked down at me silently for a moment, then turned toward the entrance.

“Let’s go.”

“It really is fine. There’s a bus too.”

“Director Han wants you to. Let’s just do it.”

His tone was that of someone who wanted to stop arguing and quickly get it over with, rather than offering a ride willingly.

“He just talks like that. Don’t mind him and just take the ride.”

I gave an awkward smile to the teacher, who whispered that while kneading my shoulders a couple of times. The teacher seemed to be underestimating the actual level of my discomfort around him. He put on his shoes first and waited by holding the front door open while I tied the laces of my Converse.

In the elevator, he asked where my house was, and when I gave him the name of the neighborhood along with the name of the large church, which was a landmark opposite the steep stairs leading up to my house, he responded with an acknowledging “Hmm,” as if he knew the area.

“I heard you learned painting from Director Han a long time ago.”