Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 34

The garden, as rumored, was completely untended, but given the season, it wasn’t as desolate as I had imagined. The various tones of dark and light green, tangled and grown without artificial help, gave off a decent vitality.

As the sun sank lower, extending the shade across the garden, several mats, striped, ethnic, checkered, and loudly flowered, were layered askew. We spread out the delivered burgers, fries, and salad, and with the beer the CEO had sponsored, it felt like a picnic in a park.

Nuna and hyung didn’t speak a word until they had demolished their entire share of burgers. They had skipped lunch and rushed to finish the shoot while there was still natural light, so they must have been starving. Unlike the two, who busily repeated the cycle of biting into their burgers until their cheeks bulged and drinking beer, the CEO and I barely touched the burgers, instead sipping beer and picking at the fries.

As predicted, he must have overdone it at the afterparty last night. He had looked unusually cheerful throughout the event. Perhaps he had no appetite due to the lingering effects of the alcohol. Contrary to his previous instruction not to disturb him because he would be passed out drunk, he was out here socializing with us.

I looked at his tilted profile, which didn’t seem much different from usual despite the supposed overdrinking yesterday, and took a couple of sips of the beer, whose taste I was beginning to appreciate.

The early summer breeze, passing through the tall arborvitae that formed the backbone of the garden, felt soft, gently tickling the skin alongside the pale late-afternoon sunlight. The untrimmed Chinese junipers, which had grown carelessly to nearly two meters, also contributed to the garden’s shade.

Although they hadn’t hired a gardener for maintenance, it seemed they consistently cleaned up. It was not a dirty garden.

“What is this? Did the CEO scan Hyunie with his lens? This is… the lust is overflowing from the photo. If it went just a little further, it would be a sexy pictorial.”

At Yuni nuna’s exclamation, who immediately grabbed the camera and began reviewing the day’s results once she was somewhat full, I swallowed my beer wrong and began to cough crudely. The CEO glanced at me, dipped a fry in ketchup, bit into it, and said nonchalantly,

“You have to shoot with that level of obsession for the subject to get a photo. Should I delete it if you don’t like it?”

“Who said I don’t like it?”

As if he might snatch the camera and delete the picture, nuna turned completely around, practically hugging the camera to herself. Juhan hyung, curious about the photo due to nuna’s barrage of provocative words, shuffled his butt closer to her.

“This isn’t just a scan; he completely caressed the kid with the lens. Wow… we are too innocent to take pictures like this. Only a degenerate person can take something like this.”

Juhan hyung shook his head and muttered. To avoid being provoked by the embarrassing words, to maintain my composure, all I could do was read the label on the beer bottle in my hand.

“You have a pretty body. I didn’t realize it since you always wear long pants. I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without a striped T-shirt, too.”

He shifted his attention to me, ignoring the two people engrossed in a heated discussion about which photos to use for the update and which to delete. He seemed utterly unperturbed by the attack of words like lust, sexy pictorial, and caress.

That would be right. They were referring to his direction for the subject, not his personal feelings toward me. And as always, nuna and hyung were just expressing themselves mischievously; the actual photo was probably only enhanced with a slight, languid atmosphere.

As I struggled to answer quickly, scraping the beer bottle label with my fingernail, nuna reacted first.

“A pretty body? Isn’t that sexual harassment?”

“Hmm. I spoke as mechanically as possible so it wouldn’t seem to have a sexual meaning… but I suppose it was impossible for the words ‘pretty body’ to come from my mouth and not sound sexual.”

At his brazen self-defense, Juhan hyung laughed, extending the mouth of his beer bottle to him for a toast.

“Yes, I’m sure you’re right. Who could defeat you?”

Clink. The moment their beers touched, nuna pressed the shutter. But again, I seemed to be the only one who cared about the sound.

As the lens shifted direction, capturing his profile while drinking beer, his widely opened mouth to eat a burger, and his bare feet on the mat, neither of them showed any unnatural self-consciousness. In fact, he even deliberately smeared ketchup on his lips and played around for the camera.

I didn’t feel at all excluded by them, but the essential difference between them and me was too clear for me to feel like a natural part of the group.

It was an early summer picnic featuring a well-maintained, beautiful two-story house contrasted with a messy garden, two individuals with distinct personalities and presence, and a wealthy, sophisticated Golden Alpha with an overwhelming physique.

It was an experience as foreign to me as peeking at the March Hare’s and the Hatter’s tea party, becoming ‘Alice in Wonderland.’

Based on their appearance alone, Yuni nuna suited the March Hare, and Juhan hyung the Hatter. Hyung happened to be wearing the hunting cap from today’s shoot. Nuna, who was dressed entirely in black from head to toe today as well, would be a black-furred rabbit instead of a white one.

Then, what role should I give him?

It was hard to find a perfect character for him within Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but if I had to choose one, it would be the White Rabbit.

I considered the capricious Queen, the cynical Caterpillar, or the grinning Cheshire Cat that suddenly appeared and vanished, but putting aside all other details or the actual role in the story, the White Rabbit was synonymous with ‘Wonderland’ for me. It was the guide that led Alice into ‘Wonderland’ and the first object that sparked Alice’s curiosity.

The visitor Alice, who felt curious and excited about the experiences in Wonderland, and confused by the incomprehensible events, was, of course, me.

Imagining myself in the blue dress with a white apron, like the commonly associated image of Alice, made my face involuntarily wrinkle, as if I had drunk a foul-tasting beverage.

Under the late afternoon sun of early summer, they all looked free and radiant. Unlike me, who had been lucky enough to be here through a series of coincidences and the kindness of many people, everything they possessed, from professional achievements to a single smile, was something they had created themselves.

They were the ‘people of Wonderland.’

Nuna and hyung’s laughter rose as he struck an exaggeratedly provocative pose toward the camera.

As was the case during yesterday’s event, he seemed genuinely happy today. Perhaps it was because writer Shushu’s entire collection sold out at the VIP opening, which doubled as a press conference. Although he, or more accurately, Phantom, had purchased a third of the works, it was an investment for sale at the Hong Kong Art Fair in July. They were not a burdensome leftover that the gallery was forced to swallow.

While I stammered in confusion at the camera suddenly pointed at me, nuna approached my side, changed the camera angle this way and that, and mimicked a reporter at a breaking news scene. The flash popped right in front of my eyes, accompanied by the question, “How does it feel to become the muse of Phantom’s Mr. Lau Wikun?”

“Rumors are rife that the two of you are more than just a photographer and model. Is this true? Looking at the photos Mr. Lau Wikun has produced, the rumors don’t seem entirely baseless, do they? Mr. Seo Yihyun, please say a word!”

Nuna took the beer bottle I was fiddling with, held it to my lips like a microphone, and looked at me with eyes full of laughter. His gaze, visible over nuna’s shoulder, was also directed our way.

“Um… No comment.”

“Are you aware that ‘No comment’ is usually taken as an admission?”

“In that case… still no comment.”

“……”

The playfulness vanished from nuna’s face, and conversely, he burst out laughing. Juhan hyung whistled and patted the mat.

I knew I wasn’t a humorous person, but in situations like this, I wanted to match the mood somewhat. Nuna dropped her surprised expression, grinned widely, and gently shook my cheek without hurting me.

“Sometimes you’re just adorable.”

Then she returned to her spot, opened a new beer, and took a cool gulp. Picking up a fry, she said,

“CEO, you can date anyone else, but not Hyunie. Don’t even dream about it.”

“Hmm… what dream?”

“Your naughty dreams set in your ‘Adult Land’.”

“……”

Before he could react, Juhan hyung, who had taken the camera nuna had set down and was clicking the shutter everywhere, stepped in this time.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Even though Hyunie has a slim body with subtle muscles when stripped, and a handsome face, and skin like it’s been dipped in honey! Thankfully, he’s not the CEO’s type.”

“Isn’t that sexual harassment? Aren’t you going to say something? That’s much more high-level than what I said.”

He appealed his grievance toward Yuni nuna, skillfully deflecting the situation with a joke, but an affirmation or denial to Juhan hyung’s statement that I was not his type was, in fact, unnecessary.

I still remembered what he had said to Inwoo hyung when he first saw him after I got out of his car in front of Phantom, when Inwoo hyung pointed at me and asked if I was his new lover.

I thought the beer suddenly tasted bitter, and it was the last mouthful of the one I was drinking. As I reached out for a new beer from the cooler, he, who was seated closer, took one out and handed it to me.

“Well, you know. Once, when I needed to quickly receive a piece of work, I stopped by here on a holiday and saw the CEO’s man. Surprisingly, he was a rugged, burly type, wasn’t he?”

“What? Really? CEO, is this true?”

Hyung’s voice rose almost to a shout, and he grimaced, covering his ears.

“What if it is, and what if it’s not? Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be attracted to the burly type?”

“Wow… You spend your time looking at someone like writer Shushu, but how can you be into the burly type? Does looking at only beautiful things make you want to live wildly?”

“I never said the burly type was my preference, did I? I’m saying that even if it were, it’s none of your business. And not everyone who is at my house is my partner. Besides, Kwon Juhan. Are you really in a position to talk about someone else’s preferences?”