CH 57

“…….”

Executive Director Min was silent. He must be feeling pathetic for confirming this during the meeting. Oh please, Jun-Kyung hoped he wasn’t calling from the conference room. If he knew this was gonna happen, he wouldn’t have used that in a text message.

ㅡIn other words, you were using aegyo.

“Yes?”

ㅡAll right. I’m in an important meeting, so I need to go back in. Even if my mother asks you to go with her in the evening, don’t follow her and come home right away.

Suddenly, Executive Director Min, who quickly organized his business, hung up the phone first. Wait, he’s making these outrageous phone calls during an important meeting? It’s obvious without looking. Rumors have already spread around the company. 100% for sure. Executive Director Min Hyun-Seung is crazy about getting married. The company’s group chat must be bursting with curiosity about his marriage partner.

‘Did they know it was me?’

Jun-Kyung glanced at the driver. It’s not the senior who came a few times before but another driver. He hesitated whether to ask or not.

“What’s the matter?” The driver, who promptly noticed Jun-Kyung’s condition, looked through the rear-view mirror. He was going to say it was nothing but curiosity took the lead.

“Did the company know about the executive director’s marriage?”

“Yes.” As expected.

Jun-Kyung stopped holding his breath and asked again.

“Specifically?”

“What do you mean by specific?”

“Like my name or something.”

“Not really.”

Jun-Kyung gently put his hand on his lap. Just when he felt relieved, the driver continued.

“The name is not known. However, it is known to some extent that he is a former omega male bodyguard who used to work at his home.”

“Oh my God.”

How many former omega males bodyguards who used to work at the family home are there? He squeezed his knees. If he can, he wants to jump out of the car window out of embarrassment. However, the vehicle specially prepared for Jun-Kyung under the direction of the chairman was strong enough to survive a head-on collision with a 15-ton truck.

“Who told you that?”

“The Executive Director.”

“What?”

The driver smiled as he looked at Jun-Kyung.

“He said so while directly announcing the marriage at a meeting with executives and superiors. How the Executive Director fell in love at first sight and chased after him.”

Jun-Kyung just closed his eyes. Should he just be glad Hyun-Seung Min didn’t report it to the public news?

He entered Yeouido, tattered from an unexpected mental attack. The complex mall, which was recently established by a famous department store group, has various luxury stores and trend-setting new designer brands.

As much as it claims to be the center of shopping and trends, there were exhibition halls and galleries, and Lee Si-Eun’s first exhibition was held there. Lee Si-Eun’s name was hung side by side in an exhibition hall on the same scale as a world-class artist. It must have been possible because of the connections with the owner of this mall. Still, it is hard to have a place like this if a person doesn’t have any skills at all.

Surprisingly, there was a line at the entrance. Although not to the extent of a concert, it has reached the level of a famous restaurant. It is a fandom itself to wait for their turn with tickets in groups of twos and threes.

‘Is Lee Si-Eun this famous?’

Admiring in his heart, Jun-Kyung handed out an invitation to the entrance staff. The staff, who confirmed that he was a VIP, guided him inside. Upon entering, there was a fairly large space with calm lighting. Quite a few spectators came and went along the complicated circular path. The scale of the exhibition seemed significant.

“The artist is over there.” Where the employee pointed, there was Lee Si-Eun in a white dress. She was laughing and talking to people who looked like fans.

Jun-Kyung didn’t mean for the staff to guide him right away. The original plan was to wait for his mother-in-law at the entrance and go in together. Anyway, since he’s here, he might as well say hello.

“Hello. Congratulations on the exhibition.”

Jun-Kyung smiled and nodded. Si-Eun Lee smiled widely. “Jun-Kyung, I didn’t know you were coming right now.”

“Yes, the car arrived a little early.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll finish saying hello and come back right away.”

“It’s okay to take your time.” Jun-Kyung declined, but Lee Si-Eun did not listen. After greeting the fans, she joined Jun-Kyung’s side in earnest.

“I received the flower basket well. The two names were next to each other.”

“Ah, yes.” He heard from the Executive Director Min that it was a flower basket sent by a secretary, and that their two names were written on the ribbon.

“It’s true that people do that before marriage. Who hasn’t been prepared for marriage?”

It was said in a light tone, but from the listening position, it can be considered heavy. Can she just bring up the topic of the dead fiance like this? (T/N: Remember the eldest is engaged to Si-Eun Lee.)

To hide his embarrassment, Jun-Kyung pretended not to notice and smiled shyly.

Fortunately, Lee Si-Eun seemed to have no intention of continuing this topic. Instead, she led Jun-Kyung in front of her work.

“What do you think?”

“It’s cool.”

“Don’t say that without looking.”

“I don’t know much about art.”

“Just tell me how you feel.”

Unable to win, Jun-Kyung cast his gaze at the painting in front of him. He doesn’t know what the theme was. It was just a picture of black and dark gray with white smudged on it.

“It is very dark.”

“Because the subject is darkness. The title of the exhibition is also ‘Darkness’.”

“I see.”

Darkness. Isn’t that too childish?

“Well, aren’t you too interested?” Lee Si-Eun, who was full of energy, was bruised.

“I tried to find out in advance, but somehow I couldn’t…”

Jun-Kyung tried to apologize but then shut his mouth. She wasn’t his boss. She was just a friend of Director Min and she and Jun-Kyung didn’t know much about each other, so he stopped apologizing.

“How about this?”

There was not much difference from the previous picture. Its shape was indistinct, and the colors were full of deep blue and red in color. Even an outsider can tell that an art is a bluff.

Why did a person born with a golden spoon draw such a dark picture? Maybe the death of her fiancé is the subject?

“It looks like the sea. A stormy sea?” The red next to the blue looks like blood, but he deliberately left that out of the story.

“Does it look like that?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t seem to like it very much.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it. I just don’t know anything about art.”

The other person crossed her arms and silently looked at the picture, as if the answer was not satisfactory. Jun-Kyung felt like he was sleeping standing up.

“This is blood.”

“I see.” Jun-Kyung thought it was obvious because it was dark red. As soon as kindergarteners see it, they would say ‘Oh! It’s blood!’

“It’s my blood.” The bluff is too much.

Appealing to a VIP suffering from art disease is one of the essential virtues of a bodyguard. Jun-Kyung was also good at it, but that doesn’t mean he understood it.

What is lacking in a golden spoon? All Jun-Kyung can think of was ‘What if your fiancé died?’ To be honest, isn’t it better than Jun-Kyung’s situation? At least she’s not pregnant with his dead fiancé’s child.

“People usually sympathize with me when I say this. Jun-Kyung is not like that.”

“Why should I carelessly sympathize with Lee Si-Eun?”

You have to be sympathetic to a life worthy of sympathy. Even if parents and children die, there are many people in the world who do not have time to grief because they are busy making a living.

Compared to them, Lee Si-Eun and Jun-kyung are worth living. Isn’t it why they are leisurely going to an art exhibition?

“I think I understand a little why Hyun-Seung like Jun-Kyung.”

Did these two childhood friends take a lesson on drama-style conversation together? What is wrong with everyone’s way of talking?

Lee Si-Eun seldom let go of Jun-kyung. As she continued to drag him around, she ripped off his appreciation of her art even more. It was the same picture every time. It was dark and black. The more he looked at it, the more uncomfortable he felt. The titles of the paintings were Nightmare, Sinking, Invitation to Death, etc.

He didn’t have any more eloquent expressions to draw out, so he silently looked at the picture and moved on. Lee Si-Eun opened her mouth.

“Jun-Kyung, what do you think about psychopaths?”

“Psychopath?” Jun-Kyung wasn’t surprised by the sudden question. With this style of painting, she might be interested in criminals or psychopaths.

On the contrary, the story was more interesting than viewing the boring picture. He tried to end the topic by nonchalantly answering that he wonders what kind of person they are but didn’t elaborate. However, Si-Eun Lee was faster.

“I have met a psychopath.” She didn’t ask because she was curious about Jun-Kyung’s thoughts. She just needed an opportunity to start talking about herself.

“Really?” Jun-Kyung answered dryly. What is the probability of meeting a psychopath in a person’s lifetime?

Psychopaths do not wear the word psychopath on their foreheads, and in most cases, psychopaths do not know that they are psychopaths until they undergo a detailed mental evaluation.

Most known psychopaths are in prison. Maybe she can go to jail and see them. But is there anyone who is not a crime researcher that does such a thing?

“He is a very cruel serial killer who actually killed several people. That’s also the motivation for my painting.”

At that point, Jun-Kyung couldn’t help but look straight at Lee Si-Eun. If it’s not a bluff, did she really go to prison? There are sometimes people who approach and interview psychopaths in order to write a novel or make a movie, but Jun-Kyung despises those types.