A Strange Connection
By the time James reached the airport, he had hurriedly changed clothes and barely managed to board the plane on time. Only after sinking into his seat did he finally let out a breath of relief. The ticket he’d chosen was first class, with its generously wide seats.
“Phew.”
The plane took off soon after, cutting through the dark sky on its way to Korea.
“Could I get some water?”
“Yes, sir.”
James gulped down the water the flight attendant brought him.
“Ahh.”
“Were you at the Milan Fashion Walk?”
It made sense that she would ask; after changing, James was wearing a neat semi-formal suit. It was the result of taking Colt’s advice to heart and paying far more attention than he used to to the clothes he wore.
“Not the Fashion Walk. I was at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.”
“There’s plenty to see there, of course. The museums are worth a visit too.”
James wasn’t there as a tourist.
“There was an event directly overseen by the Pope today, though… I guess you didn’t know?”
“Oh. Was there something going on in the Vatican?”
“……”
It had been a grand event meant to showcase the Holy Grail of Jesus Christ, but for ordinary people without religion, it wasn’t exactly a topic that demanded attention. Even the flight attendant seemed to think of it as just another event hosted by a religious organization.
And besides, that Grail was fake anyway… while the real one is sitting with me.
James found ordinary people’s indifference perfectly understandable.
“Please call me again if you need anything, sir.”
“Thank you.”
After she left, James reached into his coat and pulled a heavy book out of his inventory.
Let’s see...
He wanted to at least study the traditional swordsmanship book he hadn’t been able to properly read while he was in Vatican City. Then, from the seat beside him, someone spoke up.
“Excuse me…”
He had just been speaking English with the attendant, but this time it was Korean.
“Yes? How can I help you?”
When James answered in Korean, a middle-aged woman asked again,
“Are you Korean?”
“I’m American. From Texas.”
“Ah… I saw you reading a Korean book, so I thought you were Korean.”
“This book was a gift from someone I know. I learned Korean through that same person, too.”
At first, he had learned Korean through Su-ji, and this was one of the books she’d given him.
“You speak it incredibly well.”
“I lived in Korea when I was young, so it was easy to pick up. I only recently came back.”
“Oh. So you lived in Korea and then went to America… you’re Korean-American?”
James thought that would be the end of the conversation with the middle-aged woman, but it turned out she had only overheard part of his exchange with the flight attendant and was now asking about the same topic.
“Did you come to see the Fashion Walk? I assume you work in that field?”
“Ah. I didn’t know the Fashion Walk was being held in Milan. I had business at the Vatican, so I just stopped by briefly.”
Before the conversation could drag on any further, the man sitting beside her stepped in.
“That’s enough. The young man must be tired.”
“I’m only asking because I wondered if he might be someone useful in the fashion business.”
“……”
The middle-aged man leaned slightly forward to examine James. Since they were already face to face, James couldn’t very well fail to return the greeting.
“…Hello.”
“You don’t know who I am?”
“Should I?”
“Was I famous enough that you were supposed to recognize me? My apologies.”
“Ahem.”
“I’ve learned a little Korean, but I’m still not very familiar with Korea.”
“…If you don’t know me, then it’s certain you’re not Korean. I’m Kim Seong-oh.”
Sorry, but even if you told me your name, I still wouldn’t know who you are.
James introduced himself as well.
“I’m James Kane.”
“Hmm.”
“You don’t know me either, do you?”
“Hah. Should I?”
“Haha. You might not. I’m only known by name in the United States.”
Even after James said that, Kim Seong-oh still looked blank, and the middle-aged woman beside him tilted her head in confusion too.
“…I have no memory of you at all.”
“You might remember me from this.”
James set the book aside and drew a deck of cards from his coat.
“I……”
Just as he was about to reveal that he was a magician, one of the flight attendants approached.
“Oh, Mr. James. May I watch too? James’s card magic is so famous.”
At her words, James looked at the two of them and said,
“Seems the flight attendant knows who I am.”
“…Ahem.”
In terms of global recognition, James had won.
“Hoho. That’s because you never show your face in public.”
“Why would I? Even if people recognized me, it would just be annoying.”
“Then I’ll be sure to remember you from now on.”
“Good. You said card magic?”
“Yes. I used to make my living doing card tricks in Las Vegas.”
“A magician, then…”
“I’ve stopped now. I’m taking a rest and recharging in Korea, where not many people recognize me.”
For the middle-aged woman and the attendant, whose eyes had begun to shine with curiosity, James started with a simple card trick.
“Then let me show you something for a moment.”
He wasn’t planning to do a standard trick of picking and finding a card. He intended to show off his specialty.
James took a single card from the deck in his left hand and held it up in his right. It was the King of Spades.
“My cards keep running off lately.”
Snap.
With that snap, the card in his right hand vanished in an instant.
“Look at that. It’s run off again.”
“Heh.”
James drew out another card, the Queen of Diamonds, as if determined not to let it escape, but this time there was no snap at all. The card, writhing lightly in his right hand, suddenly flew into the air. As everyone’s eyes followed it, the card disappeared into empty space.
“…It, it vanished in midair.”
Kim Seong-oh was already astonished by a card trick he had never seen before.
“This time, I definitely won’t lose it. Shall we pull it out again?”
The last card James drew was the Jack of Hearts, but the moment it moved toward his right hand, it vanished again.
“What! It disappeared again…”
“Sigh. At this rate, all the cards will run away from home.”
No matter how hard Kim Seong-oh stared, he couldn’t figure out where the cards had gone.
“Where did all the cards go?”
“Probably to find a new owner of their own choosing. The Jack of Hearts likes people in uniforms…”
James’s gaze drifted to the flight attendant.
“Me? Did a card come to me?”
“He says he likes your right pocket.”
The attendant looked doubtful, slipped a hand into the bulging right side of her uniform blouse, and when she pulled it back out, the Jack of Hearts was there exactly as James had said.
“Wow.”
“Since his friends are waiting, why don’t you send him home?”
“That was amazing, James.”
There’s definitely a trick here.
Kim Seong-oh had concluded that the two of them had arranged this magic in advance.
If the rest of the cards are in other people’s pockets, then it’s definitely a trick.
So when James took back the Jack of Hearts, he asked,
“Then where did the other cards go?”
“Well…”
The finger James pointed with was aimed at the middle-aged woman he had been speaking to earlier.
“The Queen of Diamonds said she preferred a beautiful lady who resembled herself.”
“Hoho. Surely not.”
Without saying a word, James pointed at the woman’s upper coat pocket.
“Please take it out.”
“There’s no way a card would be in here…”
She found the Queen of Diamonds tucked perfectly into her small pocket.
“How did this get in there…?”
“You… knew him?”
Kim Seong-oh wondered if his wife had been in on the trick beforehand.
“I just met him for the first time on the plane.”
“……”
James, still faced with Kim Seong-oh’s suspicion, held out the deck again.
“Here. It’s time for the last friend to go home.”
“Me? I’ve got one too?”
“The King of Spades is fiercely competitive. Whenever he sees someone similar to himself, he always goes for the heart.”
“The heart?”
“It should be in your inner left pocket.”
The man quickly reached inside his coat, and the card came out stuck to his wallet.
“!”
“Now all of our friends are back together.”
“…It’s enough to make a ghost cry.”
After all, he was certain he hadn’t discussed anything with the magician in advance.
“Again, do it again. I want to see more.”
This time he was truly determined to figure out the magician’s trick.
“A greedy man…”
James slipped all of his cards into his pocket.
“…is a little dangerous, though.”
“What’s dangerous about that?”
“All my cards happen to like greedy people.”
“What?”
James turned his pocket inside out to show them. Of course, it was empty.
“See? All the cards have run off home.”
“!”
“I wonder where they went.”
“This time too, me?”
“Correct.”
“No way. The cards must be somewhere in your jacket.”
“The cards didn’t run to my jacket. They ran to yours.”
“Ha! My jacket pockets are still stitched shut. There’s no way they could get in.”
Kim Seong-oh usually wore his suit jackets without ever having the pockets opened, leaving the stitching intact. He had no need to carry anything in his pockets, and he also disliked ruining the fit of a tailored suit, which was one reason he kept the stitches untouched.
“Why don’t you check for yourself?”
First, he ran a hand over the outside of his jacket pocket. If all the cards were inside, he should have felt something heavy there.
“!”
And yet there really was a heavy, rectangular shape. Kim Seong-oh hurriedly opened the right pocket of his jacket and found a deck of cards sitting beyond the stitched seam.
“H-how in the world did they get in there…?”
“I’ve been wondering myself how these guys manage to run away from home so fast. They’ve been acting up a lot lately, and it’s becoming a problem.”
“Ha! Ha!”
As Kim Seong-oh could only let out airless sounds, James held out a hand.
“Would you give my friends back?”
Kim Seong-oh searched his jacket again and again for a hole, but he couldn’t find one.
“Ha! How in the world did this happen…?”
“Ah, I might only end up damaging your clothes for nothing. I’ll give those card friends to you as a gift. It seems they like their new owner better than me, so I suppose I should let them go.”
James lifted both empty hands to signal that the card trick was over.
“Since all my card friends ran off home, that’s it for the trick.”
The flight attendant was the first to thank James and leave.
“Wow. That was really an incredible card trick, James.”
“You’re too kind.”
The middle-aged woman was just as stunned.
“Hoho. It’s the first time I’ve seen my husband this surprised. That was truly amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“Hohoho. I run ST Fashion. I’m Hwang Ji-hye.”
“Then let me introduce myself properly as well. I’m James Kane, the telekinetic card magician who performed in Las Vegas.”
“A telekinetic card magician… I feel like I’ve heard of that before, long ago.”
“And I apologize again. I’m not very familiar with ST Fashion.”
“That’s all right. ST Fashion hasn’t expanded overseas yet.”
Kim Seong-oh cut into their exchange.
“You don’t know ST Group either?”
“Well… the only Korean companies I know are TY Group and its affiliates.”
He knew the companies under TY Group because he had investigated them after dealing with Choi Jeong-san, but beyond that, Korean corporations were completely unfamiliar to him.
“So you’re just a foreigner who knows about telecom companies, then.”
“Yes. That’s exactly right. Haha.”
“Our ST Group…”
Kim Seong-oh began introducing his company, then noticed an aide sitting nearby and stopped himself. He felt it would be beneath his dignity to get into it here.
“…You can look it up later.”
“Are you by any chance the one leading ST Group?”
“…That’s right.”
“Then you’re the president of ST Group?”
“Hmph.”
That clearing of the throat was as good as admitting he was the one running the company.
“Wow. I’ve met someone incredible today, but I seem to know so little about Korea that I was terribly late in realizing it. I’ll be sure to greet you properly next time.”
Kim Seong-oh doubted he’d ever meet James again, but James wanted to build a connection with a Korean business figure regardless.
It might help when I deal with Choi Jeong-san at TY Telecom.
“If you ever come sightseeing in Las Vegas, please be sure to look me up. I may not know Seoul very well, but I know Las Vegas inside and out.”
“Las Vegas… I’m not fond of gambling, but I do visit for consumer electronics exhibitions from time to time.”
“You mean the Las Vegas Convention Center?”
“Exactly. The CES is always held there.”
“That’s fortunate. Someone I know owns that convention center.”
The owner of the convention center was someone James knew very well.
“The Las Vegas Convention Center wouldn’t be privately owned…”
“The Anderson Group owns it, and Tony Anderson is the current CEO.”
Among the members of the Las Vegas VIP club, the one who liked James most was Tony.