Diamond Dust - 6

The person had jet-black hair that looked intentionally dyed darker, a blouse with puffed shoulders, and mismatched black sweatpants and slippers, as well as exaggerated black-rimmed glasses. Everything was black.

The top of the person’s head was visible from a natural posture. Despite their petite height and small build, the impression they gave was intense. Even the eyes peering at me through the lenses were a clean black. There was no hostile or friendly filter; their gaze questioned my identity as it was.

“This is a friend who is looking after my new house, the one I mentioned before. I asked her to help with the gallery just for today. She’ll be helpful, as she’s good at everything.”

This was the teacher’s answer to her unspoken question. She shrugged her shoulders and looked away from me.

“It’s better to have one more person. Manager, please handle Mr. Yoon quickly. My phone is about to blow up.”

“Got it, I’ll go deal with it right now. Where’s Juhan?”

“He went down to Zone C to get some artwork.”

That was the end of the conversation. The woman with the black bob returned to the area where she had been working, and the teacher hurriedly left the gallery to resolve the issue with Mr. Yoon. Perhaps the teacher had too much faith in my social skills.

The woman, who had been cutting with scissors at a makeshift workbench, glanced at me and spoke quickly.

“Sorry to ask right after meeting, but I’m a bit busy right now, so I need to ask you for a favor. Could you go to the basement and help move some artwork? There should be a stack of firewood struggling in the storage room if you open that door and go down the stairs. Ask them for help and lend a hand.”

It didn’t seem like a situation where I should be hesitating. I followed the instructions, opening the white door marked ‘STAFF ONLY’. Going down the narrow stairs, I immediately found the storage room in the basement.

The heavy steel door with security devices was wide open, so there was no need to search for the person she mentioned.

In the large, all-white space, just like the woman, I easily found a man dressed completely in black from head to toe.

He was a tall man, about my height or slightly taller, with a thin body and notably long limbs. He was busy moving arranged paintings, wearing impressive, chunky, lace-up boots that punk rock bands might wear.

“Uh….”

“Ugh! Shit, you scared me!”

I thought I had made enough noise coming down the stairs, but maybe he hadn’t heard me due to being engrossed in his work. Despite my cautious approach, the man was startled and nearly stumbled.

Turning around, the man had a unique face that matched his distinctive appearance. It was hard to say if he was handsome or not, but his face had a striking quality. The perfectly straight, long bangs only added to his uniqueness. It was a face that one would never forget after seeing it once.

While the woman upstairs had a few piercings on her face, this man had even more accessories. His visible ears were crowded with various-sized ring earrings, and his eyebrows, nose, and lips were adorned with piercings. A thin chain connecting the ring piercing in the center of his lower lip to his eyebrow piercing was particularly eye-catching.

Neither the woman upstairs nor this person seemed like typical gallery staff. However, they both exuded a similar, striking presence.

In the all-white space, the two of them gave off a vivid presence as if they had drawn outlines with a marker.

The man, who had stopped working and was holding files with his hands on his hips, had a slightly harsh expression. He seemed to be waiting for my introduction.

“I’m here because Manager Han sent me. The staff upstairs said to come down and help.”

“Oh… I see? I thought there were ghosts down here, as our director always says.”

Maybe he was embarrassed about how startled he was, but he fiddled with the piercing on his lip as he spoke.

“I’m sorting out the paintings that need to be moved upstairs. If I find the paintings on the list, please move them to this area.”

The man pointed to a group of paintings gathered near the entrance and led the way to the inner space.

The man checked the list and identified the areas where the paintings were. The areas were systematically divided, like A-1,2,3… B-1,2,3…, so finding the paintings wasn’t difficult. It was a matter of time and effort.

When the man found a painting, I would move it to the entrance. In the meantime, he would look for the next painting. That was how it went.

“But, what’s your relationship with Manager Han? I don’t think you were hired from some night job site.”

During the work, there was no small talk, but he asked me the first personal question while checking the paintings I had moved.

“I’m a housekeeper for his new house. He asked for help with the gallery today.”

“Oh, the new housekeeper you hired…”

I nodded towards him, who was looking at my face again.

“I didn’t know you were so young. What’s your name? Even if it’s just for one night, we should know each other’s names. I’m Kwon Juhan.”

“I’m Seo Ihyun.”

He knelt in front of a painting while I held the canvas’s edge to keep it from falling, and we exchanged a late handshake.

“Since we’re working together for just a day, let’s stick with Juhan and Ihyun.”

I nodded again to agree with his suggestion.

Juhan stood up, dusted himself off, and we had to move the paintings upstairs. There were a total of twenty-four pieces, including some large ones that looked to be over 120 cm. These were artworks that needed to be exhibited and sold starting the next day. To handle them carefully, we decided to transport them all together except for very small pieces.

“Not to mention me, but you also look pretty frail… These things are quite heavy. Make sure you don’t drop them. If you do, our director won’t let you, Ihyun, off the hook.”

To move the first piece, we positioned ourselves on either side of the canvas. Juhan lightly warned me as if imagining any scolding we might receive from the director, while he trembled his shoulders.

Juhan climbed the stairs ahead, and I carefully followed behind. Since the exhibition space was on the second floor, there were quite a few stairs from the basement. At the landing between the first and second floors, Juhan signaled to take a short break.

“So… do you work out? You have more strength than you look… Okay, you’re doing fine.”

“I worked part-time at a moving company.”

He looked me over again, as if searching for signs of physical labor.

Although we didn’t have a significant physical difference, carrying heavy loads up and down stairs was something I did almost every day now. It wasn’t strange to be good at it.

“If it’s too heavy, should I carry it from the top next time? It seems harder for you to walk backward.”

“No, it’s not heavy. I’ve already moved about thirty pieces today, so that’s why… I’m not usually like this. Let’s go again.”

Juhan, still catching his irregular breath, lifted the painting again with his long, thin arms, which looked particularly sharp due to his pronounced joints.

As soon as we reached the second floor and carefully set down the painting, he lay down on the floor.

“Ugh, I can’t do it anymore! I moved thirty pieces by myself today! My legs are shaking!”

He yelled and pounded the floor while lying down, but the woman with the bob haircut didn’t even glance his way. She began unwrapping the painting we had just moved.

The painting depicted old books stacked in a hyper-realistic style. Judging by the texture of the surface, it didn’t seem like it was done with just paint.

“Over there. The paper labeled ‘1’ should be hung on that wall. Let’s lift it together.”

Although she wasn’t very tall, it seemed she knew all the ins and outs of the gallery’s operations. So, she was unlikely to make mistakes when estimating whether she could handle the size of the canvas.

As expected, there was no problem lifting the vertically tall painting, which was about my height, with her. As the manager said, handling such things was partly about technique rather than strength.

“Baek Yuni… Really strong…. When did you hang all of Zone B alone? Just leave it.”

Juhan, still lying on the floor facing the ceiling, turned his head to watch us hang the painting. Looking around, I saw that the clutter in the adjacent area where she had been working was neatly organized.

“I did what I could. The rest, you two can finish. I need to match the captions for the Zone B paintings.”

“Okay.”

Juhan, who had declared he couldn’t do any more, got up as if recharged and grabbed a sports drink from the temporary workbench. Although I wasn’t very thirsty, he offered me a bottle, and I took a few sips.

“By the way, did you greet Ihyun? No, right? You just acted all high and mighty, saying ‘do this, do that’ as soon as you saw him, didn’t you?”

“Is it a problem that I asked to work when we’re meeting for work?”

She, who had been laying out captions with information like the title, materials used, and year of production in her own order on the workbench, paused for a moment and looked back at me. It might have been my mistake, but she seemed to have a slightly apologetic expression.

“It’s Baek Yuni.”

“I’m Seo Ihyun.”

Just like sentences that are often used as examples when learning English for the first time, our greetings were plain and uneventful. Juhan, who was observing us, chuckled with his shoulders shaking from the opposite side.

“It’s amusing to see two shy people like this. Just call each other Yuni and Ihyun. That’s what I’ve agreed to do as well.”

It was not surprising that Juhan thought I was shy. I definitely don’t come across as very approachable. I was aware of that much. But his evaluation of her was unexpected.

Could someone like her, who gave the impression of being as distinctly written as Gothic letters, ever feel out of place among people like I do? I couldn’t quite imagine it.

“Shut up. I can turn into a social butterfly whenever I want.”

“That’s true. But that’s because you’re not just a butterfly; you’re a machine. You have no soul when you’re doing sales.”