Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 25

“Director!”

Yuni Noona waved her hand out the taxi window, calling him out in a cheerful voice.

The distinctive large sedan was parked in front of Phantom. As he finished parking and was getting out of the driver’s seat, he raised his hand to shoulder height in response to Noona’s greeting, accompanied by a soft smile beneath his dark sunglasses.

Noona got out of the car first, and Juhan Hyung and I followed after paying the fare. Noona was already standing in front of his car.

“What about the artworks?”

“They’ll follow right behind. But…”

He took off his sunglasses and squinted, looking at the one-ton truck slowly pulling into the empty spot where the taxi had just left. The truck was loaded with about a dozen pots of plants, large and small.

“I told you already. I was going to bring some plants into the gallery.”

At Noona’s answer, he crossed his arms and stroked his chin.

“Hmm… I don’t think that’s a good idea. We’ll probably kill all of them, won’t we?”

“We’ve got one person now who won’t let them die, don’t we?”

Noona said confidently, putting her arm around my shoulder, but he looked at me with an utterly skeptical expression this time.

“Have you ever raised plants like that?”

“A long time ago… my parents used to keep a lot of them.”

Both of them loved plants very much. From relatively easy-to-grow snake plants, cacti, man-nyang-geum (Chinese money plant), and anthuriums, to large pots like Ficus benghalensis, Areca palms, and Alocasia. The small veranda used to look like a jungle.

“Well, seeing how Director Han’s house is maintained, I guess you won’t let them die, at least.”

He folded the arms of his sunglasses, tucked them into his chest pocket, and nodded in agreement. Yuni Noona showed interest in his words.

“Director Han’s house is that clean now?”

A smile slowly spread across his face. It was a smile that included a hint of playful mischief.

“If you’re so curious, go visit sometime. Don’t just cling to Kwon Juhan all the time, being unproductive.”

“I’ll politely decline the unproductive advice from the unproductive Director. How about you help us unload the pots?”

He ruffled Noona’s bob and chuckled. It seemed they had exchanged some pointed words, but like most conversations between close people, it sounded like an indecipherable code to a third party not included in the relationship.

Unloading the pots from the truck, which the delivery driver was handing down, and moving them into the office was quick. There were four of us, after all.

I had assumed his suggestion to grab coffee until the artworks arrived meant going to a nearby cafe, but that wasn’t the case.

If you walked past the parking lot and turned right along the building wall from the main entrance, there was a secret space surrounded by well-maintained shrubs. It was a small yard completely filled by a four-person table set with a parasol.

“It’s bad enough we have to come in on a Saturday, but why is the weather so nice?”

Taking out the sunglasses he had tucked into his chest pocket and putting them on, he looked up at the sky at a slight angle over the parasol.

“We could have brought the artworks in tomorrow, but you wanted to rush it, Director.”

Yuni Noona said, scraping out some ice cream with a plastic spoon.

At the hanok cafe next door, the Director and I chose iced Americanos, and Yuni Noona and Juhan Hyung chose ice cream. The season was now closer to early summer, perfect for enjoying cold drinks and ice cream outdoors.

“I just can’t sit still when I think about making money.”

He took off the lid of the takeout container, set the straw aside, and smiled widely, drinking the coffee directly from the rim.

I, who was stirring the ice with a straw, paused for a moment. Given his unusually deep interest in Artist Shu-shu, his comment, which directly equated the value of the artist’s work with money, was very surprising. He was sitting back, his fingers interlocked behind his head, leaning loosely, with a relaxed expression. His face was filled with the satisfaction of someone who might even be humming a tune.

“Are the artist’s new works really that good?”

“……”

He didn’t answer. However, the satisfied smile that lingered faintly beneath his sunglasses only deepened. That reserved expression alone made me understand. His talk about money was just words.

He cherished Shu-shu’s artworks so much that he felt it would be a shame to speak of them lightly, and was cautious even about revealing his true feelings for them. Perhaps even for the artist who created those works.

“Then we should make some money, too. You remember we’re going to shoot next Sunday, right?”

Juhan Hyung, who had already finished his ice cream, dropped the spoon into the empty paper cup and rubbed his palms together. His expression was reminiscent of ‘Tom,’ delighted about how he would cook the ‘Jerry’ he had caught.

The Director, conversely, sat up straight, lifting his back from the loose lean, and frowned.

“Ah…”

“Did you forget?”

Hyung raised his voice.

“Does it have to be that day? The exhibition opens on Saturday, doesn’t it? You’re definitely going to be drinking all night.”

“You, Director, can drink all night, get wasted, and sleep it off. We’ll handle the shoot well and return on our own.”

Yuni Noona didn’t seem concerned at all that he had forgotten.

“I don’t recall underpaying you… what are you planning to do with all that money?”

“We need to go study abroad.”

“Then I guess I should stop the shoot. If you two quit, I’ll be the one losing out.”

The three of them exchanged banter playfully. I seemed to be the only one surprised by the mention of ‘study abroad’ coming from Yuni Noona. Regardless of whether it was solely her plan or a project that included Juhan Hyung, it was clear that she was considering studying abroad. Judging by the Director’s reaction, it didn’t seem to be the first he was hearing of it, either.

The area of shadow dividing the table diagonally grew darker. Everyone was steadily connecting their present to their future.

“And half of my greed is something I learned from you, Director.”

Yuni Noona ate the ice cream, steering the spoon around her lip piercing, then pointed the spoon at the Director. He raised the corners of his mouth and smiled coolly, saying:

“I’m always honored by that fact. But isn’t there anything more fun than making money?”

“Exactly. Why waste time? Making money is what lasts.”

“You guys get to make money doing what you love and having fun. Kids these days are different. I envy you.”

“But the scale is different from yours, Director. We probably won’t earn enough in our lifetimes to buy one car like that, you know.”

Noona pointed toward his car, parked in front of the main entrance behind him, of which only the front bumper was partially visible from where we sat. He gave a self-deprecating, bitter smile that sounded like air escaping. Then, as if to wipe away the bitter aftertaste of the laugh, he intercepted Noona’s wrist just as she was about to put the spoon to her lips and swallowed the ice cream. Since this wasn’t an unusual prank, Noona didn’t seem surprised, simply refilling her spoon with ice cream.

Judging only by his facial features, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had a slight case of mysophobia, but in reality, he didn’t seem fussy about such things at all.

“What are you talking about? You don’t even have any desire for things like that. All I have in life is making money, buying things like that, and showing off.”

He spoke in a light tone, but I could tell from the subtle change in the atmosphere among the three of them that this was a topic that couldn’t be easily touched. It was a subject that could only be brought up in jest; going any deeper would shatter the peace of the moment. Studying abroad and his materialism, both seemed to be cautious topics of that kind for me.

“What are you talking about, Director? You’re the one who has no interest in a life lived only on dreams! Just provide the venue for us 20-somethings who only have our bodies and our dreams! All you have to do is open the door for us.”

He still wore a displeased expression but didn’t seem inclined to continue the conversation any further.

If one of Phantom’s staff members were to leave, he would probably object, but I couldn’t easily picture him trying to hold onto someone by deeply interfering in another person’s life, no matter who the person was.

“Do you want to come along if you don’t have plans? We’re going to shoot the clothes for the Old Future update in the Director’s garden. It’s very desolate there, so the photos turn out well. It hasn’t been maintained at all.”

Juhan Hyung invited me, but the space I was invited to was his house. I felt awkward about how to answer and looked at the Director, but he just playfully grumbled, saying he didn’t know why he was being criticized despite providing the venue. Yuni Noona, instead, noticed my gaze and grasped its meaning.

“Are you worried about the Director? It’s fine. We’ll only be shooting in the garden anyway. Director, is it okay if Yihyun comes along too?”

“You said you’d just handle it while I was sleeping and leave. Do as you please. Just don’t wake me up.”

He said this nonchalantly, rummaging through the jacket draped over the chair back to pull out a cigarette pack. Noona scooped up the last bite of ice cream with a spoon and offered it to him, gesturing with her eyes to see if he wanted it, and he leaned forward and accepted it instead of lighting the cigarette. He grimaced with his eyebrows and mouth after licking the remaining sweetness from his lips.

“Ugh, I really don’t like sweets.”

Noona and Hyung laughed merrily at his reaction.

His dislike for sweets was as expected, but then why did he take it when offered, and why had he snatched Noona’s ice cream earlier even though no one offered it to him? I, too, laughed belatedly at the large man’s inexplicable, childish behavior.

The delivery truck carrying the pamphlets arrived, and I was about to stand up with Noona and Hyung, but Noona pressed my shoulder down, telling me not to waste energy now, as the job didn’t require three people, and they were planning to exploit me enough today anyway.

If the job didn’t require three people, Noona could have just stayed behind and sent me off. I was still awkward being alone with him…

“Speaking of which, did you quit the moving company? Or did you have to quit since you couldn’t go out anymore?”

At least he was initiating questions now and had stopped treating me like I didn’t exist.

“Yes. It was a job I only went to when the situation allowed…”