Alienation 2

It was music that grabbed the ears — a catchy melody and a singing style to match. Not a fast-tempo track with a stimulating beat, but its funky rhythm was charming enough to make even someone as easily bored as me wiggle my toes inside my sneakers.

It was a famous song, famous enough that even I knew it. Prince's "Kiss."

Yuni nuna, sitting in the passenger seat, and Juhan hyung, sitting next to me in the back, were singing along at the top of their lungs, practically screaming.

"Smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch. Kiss!"

After belting out the rather explicit lyrics with everything they had, the two of them mimicked kissing sounds into the air in time with the sound effect at the end of the first verse. I couldn't help laughing at how perfectly synchronized they were, as if they'd rehearsed it. It was the kind of harmony that could only exist between people who had shared tastes for a long, long time.

He was visible in the rearview mirror from the driver's seat — smiling and shaking his head as if he couldn't help himself. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought our eyes met in the mirror. I couldn't be certain since he was wearing sunglasses, but the moment felt oddly awkward. I pretended to brush my windblown hair aside and looked away.

Having left the airport, passed through the glamorous luxury streets and underground tunnels of Tsim Sha Tsui, and entered Hong Kong Island, we were now driving along an elevated road. To our right, modern skyscrapers coexisted with older buildings; to our left, Victoria Harbour offered a view across to Tsim Sha Tsui.

The car was a deep blue — the color of a lake with great depth — a cabriolet, convertible, or in more common terms, an open-top car. I had no idea who had left it waiting at the arrivals gate, but it was definitely not a rental. He had taken the key directly from his own key wallet.

When they spotted the waiting car, Yuni nuna and Juhan hyung had screamed and run toward it, as boisterous as if reuniting with long-lost family. Whether the car had been specially prepared for the two of them or not, an unmistakable smile crossed the Director's face as he watched them.

He was a kind boss to his employees. I had known that much even during his initial hostility toward me. He wasn't a person fundamentally lacking in warmth — not someone who was simply cold toward everyone.

However, that kindness wasn't open to everyone equally. To be included, one had to spend time proving oneself to him. Proving they were worthy of receiving his warmth.

I wasn't sure how he was coming to define me. His attitude had softened since the beginning, and he'd made the unexpected decision to let me join Phantom. The kindness of giving me his jacket and the sweatshirt off his back. And the occasional gaze he directed my way — warm, with a certain weight to it — led me to guess that at least he no longer viewed me with the same wariness as before.

While pretending to watch the Hong Kong scenery approaching through the windshield and stealing glances at the back of his head as he drove, I was lost in these thoughts as "Kiss" drew to a close.

"Ah, this is why I work at Phantom!"

Yuni nuna turned down the volume and exclaimed with a look of relief, like someone who had finally vented at a karaoke room after far too long.

"Hey… doesn't that sting, coming from someone the boss is listening to?"

"Why would it sting? It's a compliment. Do you think bosses who can take you for rides in cars like this are common? Even if they exist, they wouldn't do it."

"Hmm, but what's the point if the boss bought the car with inherited money?"

"As long as the car I ride in and the house I live in are bought with money I earned myself, that's enough. This is the Director's car. So I just need to enjoy it, and any hand-wringing about inherited wealth is the Director's problem to deal with."

Saying this, Yuni nuna clapped her hands in a teasing little flourish and laughed. He shook his head.

"Wow… ruthless, Baek Yuni."

"The Director is just too uptight about things like that. Enjoy it. It's wonderful that you can give happiness to the babies this way. Inheriting a lot isn't all advantages — if you don't even enjoy the advantages you have, that's a loss."

Juhan hyung stuck his head between the driver's and passenger's seats and joined the conversation.

"I completely agree with Baek Yuni on this one. If it really bothers you, there's always the option of handing it all over to me. We're your babies, after all."

In the rearview mirror, he made a disgusted face this time.

"Did you catch something from Choi Inwu? Why are you two suddenly obsessed with calling me 'baby'? Why would you be my babies? It's creepy coming from grown adults."

"Anyway, you'd call your lover 'honey' or 'baby' regardless, Director. Aren't your lovers grown adults too? They're probably big, muscular types. Ugh…"

Juhan hyung still seemed to take what had been said in the garden last time as established fact. Since he hadn't explicitly denied or confirmed it, I couldn't know whether muscular men were truly his type — but he had slept with me, and I wasn't particularly muscular. Of course, we hadn't gone all the way, and if my hazy memory was correct… I had passed out before he could even finish.

"If it's a lover, it's a lover — what do you mean 'lovers'? And have you ever even seen my 'honey' or 'baby'? See them first, then talk."

As he smoothly descended from the elevated road and slowed for a straight-ahead signal, he reached between the seats and pinched Juhan hyung's cheek where it had poked through.

The members of Phantom seemed close — closer than a simple workplace relationship — yet they didn't seem to know much about his private life. Inwu hyung, his longtime friend, appeared to be the same way. Being open and affectionate with those close to him while keeping his private world entirely to himself seemed to be his habit. This likely applied not just to what happened in bed, but to his entire private life.

I found myself wondering whether anyone, past or present, had ever managed to enter the inner world he guarded so carefully. Driven by that curiosity, I unconsciously found myself studying his face in the rearview mirror.

I knew well enough that I wasn't skilled in these things. Conversely, detecting the clumsy, furtive gaze of someone ten years younger stealing glances would be nothing to him. Feeling as though our eyes had met again in the mirror, I quickly turned to look out at the exotic streets.

We were pressing deeper into the chaotic streets of Hong Kong — a jumble of red signs covered in brushstroke-style Chinese characters, dazzling electronic billboards, and neon lights.

The car moved with the signal, and at the next intersection slid through without needing to stop.

"Huh? What is it, Director? Why aren't we heading toward the apartment?"

Yuni nuna glanced back at the uphill road on the right and asked in a puzzled voice.

"Didn't I mention it? We're staying at a hotel this time."

"This is the first I'm hearing of it."

"Hmm… I thought I had told you."

He scratched under his chin with his index finger and said it with a perfectly straight face. For reasons unknown, judging by her reaction, it seemed highly probable he had deliberately stayed quiet about it.

"Even if we are staying at a hotel, since when have you handled logistics like that, Director? Huh?"

Nuna, looking slightly flustered by the change in plans, pointed her phone at him with a fierce expression.

"You looked so busy, Baek Yuni — I thought if I asked you to book a hotel on top of everything else, you might grab me by the collar, so I took care of it myself."

At his gently teasing tone, nuna sank back into her seat and pushed up her sunglasses.

"Even so, I wouldn't grab you by the collar. I might have glared hard enough to bore a hole through the back of your head, though."

He laughed and reached out to lightly ruffle nuna's hair.

"You need proper rest at night during the fair. My apartment doesn't have enough rooms for all five of us to sleep separately."

"The master bedroom is like a sports field. If we each sleep on opposite ends of that bed, it's practically like having separate rooms. Yeehyeon won't take up much space either. And unlike Kwon Juhan, he won't complain about this or that."

"Why are you dragging me into this when I'm just sitting here quietly?"

Juhan hyung grumbled, but nuna didn't react to it.

"Hmm… So you're saying Seo Yeehyeon and I should share a room?"

This time, I was certain he was looking at me in the rearview mirror. His expression was that of someone imagining, even if only in his head, what it would be like to share a room with me.

"Why? Can't you even share a room with a man you're not into?"

Yuni nuna bristled, but he just laughed. Then he changed the subject.

"You won't forgive me, even though it's Hotel F?"

Nuna's expression shifted at the name of the hotel. Juhan hyung's ears perked up too, and he turned to look at me with wide eyes — but I had no information about that hotel and couldn't share in their reaction.

"No, it's not about forgiving or not… It's just that if there are changes, you should let us know in advance."

Rubbing her finger across the dashboard, nuna couldn't hide her smile.

"Even for a harbor view, one room per person?"

"Whether you tell us in advance or not — does it really matter that much?"

Nuna changed her tune instantly, as if nothing had happened, and turned to share her joy with Juhan hyung. That hotel was clearly exciting them both quite a bit. Perhaps this, too, was part of the surprise gift he had prepared for them.

"Honestly, spending the Director's money in Hong Kong doesn't even feel like a waste."

"You don't feel bad spending my money in Seoul either."

"You're rich!"

Nuna and hyung shouted in unison. He shook his head, but he was smiling.

Keeping a large, old-looking beige building to his right, he turned the steering wheel left. Soon, the lavishly decorated hotel entrance appeared. The car slowed, but my heart seemed to race ahead of it.

My first impression of Hong Kong was passionate humidity and heat, a blend of past and present, a subtle balance born from disorder, and gazes probing each other through a rearview mirror.