Parting

Being in Hongdae didn't guarantee good business. Even on a Saturday evening, there were only two or three tables of customers inside the bar. The table closest to the entrance seemed to be occupied by the owner's acquaintances.

The interior wasn't particularly stylish, but it had a comfortable and distinctive atmosphere. The music was well curated at a moderate volume, and the drinks were inexpensive — and yet, Juhani hyung and Yuni nuna explained, the place didn't get many customers. It simply didn't photograph well.

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

For a few days afterward, it felt like my feet were barely touching the ground, as if I'd briefly stepped into another world. But as I stayed busy juggling work at the moving company and helping out at the Teacher's house, the sense of unreality slowly settled back into place. Golden Alphas, paintings worth ten million won apiece, champagne parties with delicate finger foods almost too beautiful to eat — even the feeling that such a world truly existed somewhere was growing faint.

I had received a message from Yuni nuna through the Teacher on Wednesday. I hadn't expected her invitation to have a beer with her and Juhani hyung on Saturday — but I was glad for it.

After finishing the moving job, I stopped by home to shower and hurried to the meeting spot. By the time I was on my way, the weather had already grown warm enough that a light sheen of sweat formed on my forehead — the season quietly turning toward early summer.

The woman and man I met outside were much more familiar than I expected — and before long, "Yuni-ssi" and "Juhan-ssi" had simply become "Yuni nuna" and "Juhani hyung."

With plates of fries topped with melted cheddar cheese and glasses of draft beer in front of us, Juhani hyung was retracing memories from three years ago.

One of the two cats kept at the bar jumped up onto the empty chair beside him. It was a long-haired Persian, very affectionate toward people. As hyung stroked its back, he continued his story.

"After that, we went to a nearby café and I laid everything out in detail — the whole history with that bastard, from start to present. That alone took about two hours. Baek Yuni's questions were so thorough and composed, I felt like I'd come to a lawyer's office to sue the guy."

Because the two of them had such similar styles and seemed so comfortable with each other, I had assumed they must have known each other long before working together at Phantom — but that wasn't the case at all.

Together they mapped out several revenge scenarios, weighed them carefully, and chose one. They took the same materials the stalker had sent to Juhani hyung's parents and delivered them, intact, to the director of the academy where he worked.

"In the late afternoon, when the director came in, one of that bastard's regular duties was to bring the director the day's mail and report on the academy's situation. The stalking materials he sent to my parents — the proof of everything he'd done — ended up being delivered straight into his boss's hands by his own doing. I can only imagine him sitting in front of his superior, trembling while his boss stared at those message screenshots where he'd begged his former student — nearly twenty years his junior — to treat him like a dog in bed again... all while still trying to act dignified and talk about student enrollment rates...."

Hyung paused for a moment, then smiled softly and rubbed his cheek against the cat he was holding.

It wasn't hard to imagine how the director — an ordinary middle-aged man who likely had no tolerance for so much as two men holding hands — would have reacted to the contents of that envelope.

"He dug his own grave. If those materials had come to my house, I would have been the one outed. If they went to his house, he would have been the one outed. We chose the company over the home. The blade you swing at someone else can turn back on you. Thanks to Baek Yuni, I learned that very clearly."

"It must have been quite an enlightening Monday morning for him too."

Yuni nuna leaned her elbows on the table and drank her beer as she said it.

"If you make someone cry, you should be made to bleed in return. No matter how long it takes, no matter what it costs me, even if my whole life gets buried in the process — my creed is that I never let anyone who messes with me off easily."

Then he pressed his nose against the cat's and his voice went completely soft. "That's right, Cushion-ah..."

I was curious about what had happened to the stalker afterward, but I could more or less guess. If a man in his forties had been outed that way at his workplace, the aftermath wasn't hard to imagine. His family might have been shocked enough to cut ties and keep things quiet — but society would not be so forgiving.

"Are you feeling sorry for that guy?"

Hyung's guess was wrong.

I had simply been thinking about how cleanly an incident with such a clear target of revenge and resentment could be resolved. I shook my head.

"I think it was a clean ending."

"You're colder than you look."

As he said that, hyung grinned. For a moment, that mischievous, villainous smile reminded me of Phantom's Director.

We each ordered another round of beer. They were on their third, and I was on my second.

"That's the beginning of Baek Yuni and me. If it weren't for her, I probably would have gone straight to that guy, lost my temper, and ended up with a real criminal record. My parents would never have paid any settlement money back then. Well — not that the situation's much different even now."

Juhani hyung wiped beer foam from his lips, his expression a little sour.

"But as it turned out, Baek Yuni had already left all that gallery suffering behind — that was ancient history. By then she was already pulling a solid salary at Phantom and doing well for herself. She was worked to the bone because they were so short-staffed, but the shoebox goshiwon was long behind her."

Yuni nuna followed Juhani hyung's aggrieved complaint with a teasing grumble: "When Phantom was growing so fast back then, they were desperate for staff — otherwise I probably wouldn't have let you interview there. Funny how things work out...."

In the meantime, other tables had cleared out, and only the owner's acquaintances near the entrance and the three of us remained in the bar. They seemed to be involved in some kind of bet, because a sudden cheer and a disappointed groan erupted at the same moment. The cat must have been startled by the noise — it perked up its ears and burrowed further into hyung's arms.

I looked down at hyung's lean hand as he gently stroked the cat, and took a couple of sips of beer. After coming to Seoul, I'd come to know the particular comfort and reward of a beer after a long day's work — but today's beer had a different taste from usual.

Returning to the starting point of the story, I asked the one thing I'd been wondering about through the whole revenge tale.

"What happened to the boots?"

"The boots? Ah... those boots."

Hyung grinned and suddenly lifted his right leg higher than the table, showing it off. Startled by the sudden movement, the cat quickly jumped down from the chair and disappeared toward the back of the bar.

"I'm not someone who goes back on their word."

Yuni nuna raised her glass in a toast.

Three glasses clinked together over the now-cold fries. I didn't know exactly what we were celebrating, but it felt like a toast marking something real.

"So, Yeehyeon-ah — would you like to work at Phantom officially?"

"Pardon?"

As if shaking off the weight of everything he'd just told us, hyung downed more than half his beer and set the glass down with a solid thunk before suddenly bringing up the topic. A sigh from Yuni nuna drifted over from beside me.

"Is tacking 'so' onto the front of something supposed to make it okay? I told you I'd bring it up and to leave it to me — and I knew this would happen."

"Why? Wasn't it natural? I was explaining how I met you and ended up working at Phantom. How is it unnatural to then ask if he'd like to work here too?"

"Let's just drop it."

Hyung raised his eyebrows and pulled down the corners of his mouth with a wounded expression. Instead, nuna began speaking in her usual quick, composed tone.

"The work at Phantom is tough, but the compensation and benefits are about as good as it gets in the industry. Most galleries actually have worse working conditions than Phantom. Galleries our size typically run with a single staff member. As the gallery has grown, we've always added staff when needed — and it looks like it's time to hire someone new again. We want you to work with us."

"First of all... I'm really grateful for the offer. It means a lot that you see me that way. But I don't have much experience, so I'm not sure how useful I'd actually be...."

The offer was unexpected — and yet genuinely welcome. But I also doubted whether I could contribute much as an employee in a professional space like a gallery.

"Actually... Manager Han suggested I try working as a live-in helper."

"Live-in?"

"Yes. I haven't made a final decision yet, but I think that's probably how it'll turn out."

The Teacher had brought up the live-in arrangement that same Wednesday.

After relaying that Yuni nuna and Juhani hyung wanted to meet me, the Teacher drove me home and offered the live-in position. It was likely made with my situation in mind — the Teacher didn't particularly deny that either. Ultimately, it came down to a choice between relying on Morae and hyung, or relying on the Teacher.

"Then that works out even better! If you move into Manager Han's place, you could do the helper work and still work at Phantom!"

"Hey — if Yeehyeonie works at Phantom, he'll be commuting every day and working overtime. How is he supposed to manage live-in helper duties on top of that? Do you think housework is that easy?"

"I'm a single guy who does his own laundry and takes out the food waste on time, thank you. Baek Yuni... your true colors are showing."

Despite nuna's scolding, Juhani hyung was smiling broadly for some reason. A sly smile he wasn't bothering to hide.

"What."

"You're just jealous because Yeehyeonie is going to move into Manager Han's place."

Nuna stared at hyung in silence for a moment, then shook her head.

"I should have just let him go to jail back then."

The suggestion that I might formally work at Phantom stirred something genuine in me. The moving company job and the helper work at the Teacher's house suited my temperament well enough, and they made me feel at ease — but there was no excitement in either. Those were jobs that made me crawl deeper into myself, and that was precisely why I could find comfort in them.

But Phantom... that was less certain.

It was like being pulled out of the damp sand on a beach where I had been curled up, and suddenly placed upright on the surface of wavering waves — unpredictable bursts of stimulation with nowhere to brace.

I knew, in some form, that it was time for me to make a choice. I couldn't keep sleeping behind a sliding door while a loving couple lay on the other side, or throwing myself into manual labor simply because it helped empty my head.

"Bringing in another person doesn't automatically reduce the workload. Depending on who it is, it can even increase it — and if personalities clash, it just becomes stressful. That's why we've been putting off hiring someone. But I think I could work comfortably with you, so I'm bringing it up. Just think about it. If it sounds okay, tell us — or you can say something to Manager Han."

I was genuinely happy about their offer. I had long since put down my brush, but working surrounded by paintings felt like it could be a wonderful substitute.

But there was another reason I couldn't simply reach out and take the hand they were honestly extending.

"The Director... he won't be very happy about me joining, will he?"

"Like or dislike doesn't come into it. He's just someone helping temporarily." — The indifference still sat somewhere in my chest.

"Don't worry about that at all. That man has had his share of ups and downs in life, so he doesn't trust people easily — but honestly, he's on your side. He's a Golden Alpha, so he trusts his instincts completely. If he disliked you, he wouldn't have let you into Phantom in the first place. And if he really disliked you, why would he have asked Manager Han so many questions about you?"

"......"

Seeing my stiff expression — perhaps mistaking it for displeasure — hyung made an 'oops' face and quickly corrected himself.

"Ah, not interrogating exactly... He seemed to be asking whether you had studied fine arts, something like that. What you said to Inwu ssaem about the artwork that day became a topic of conversation between us for a while. Don't take it the wrong way. I was there when he asked, and it definitely wasn't coming from a place of suspicion — he was just curious."

I wasn't upset. For a moment something stirred — like a wave lifting beneath my feet — but it wasn't displeasure. I tried hard to explain that, even knowing it probably didn't show easily on my face. I wanted my sincerity to reach them.

"Even if you don't end up working at Phantom, let's still see each other like this sometimes. Baek Yuni seems to like you — which is rare enough."

"Probably just because he's handsome."

"You were practically singing about recruiting him every time you saw the Director, and now you're acting all tsundere. You'll just have to get used to him, Yeehyeon-ah."

That day, I drank three glasses of beer for the first time. After hearing about everything they'd each been through, both of them felt closer and more comfortable than before — and something restless in me kept pushing the glass back to my lips faster than usual.

On the stairs leading home, I had to stop twice to rest. Sitting there and looking out at the Seoul night view, I no longer saw the squid fishing boats I used to picture from the harbor.