A Peaceful Day (5)
A Peaceful Day (5)
Before I knew it, the festival was over, and the students were slumped over their desks en masse.
The teachers didn't seem to have any intention of teaching us anything, either.
Even in this atmosphere, the kids who wanted to study moved to a different classroom.
"It's tomorrow~"
Da-yeon rubbed her cheek against her desk and looked at me.
"Yeah~"
Tomorrow, we were going on an overnight trip to the dorm where Jeong-yeon was staying.
"Did you tell him where we're going?"
"Umm... I haven't said anything, have you?"
Just then, out of boredom, Han Jong-su started singing a ballad that was popular in the past.
"What's with him?"
"He's always like that when he gets in the mood by himself. He asked me to teach him guitar."
"What a weird guy."
"I heard he's going on a working holiday."
"Oh... where to?"
"Some blueberry farm, he said."
"....."
"He says he's actively seeking hardship. Calls it experience."
"....."
Han Jong-su... it would be hard to find another guy with opinions that strong.
After getting permission from the teacher, Jong-su suddenly pulled out a guitar and got ready to sing in earnest.
I was bored anyway, and he was playing so damn badly right in front of me. I walked over and snatched the guitar.
"Give it here."
I tested the guitar, finished tuning it, and settled into position.
Even though the guitar was bigger than my small body and hard to play—well, whose daughter am I? I could easily outplay Han Jong-su.
"Sing. I'll play for you."
Han Jong-su suddenly draped an arm over his desk and swept his hair back.
Maybe because he's ugly, it looked even more moronic.
Han Jong-su began pouring his soul into his voice.
"Heuh~ euh~ euh~"
Seeing him in his own little world, well—that was very Jong-su-like.
The next morning, Da-yeon and I headed to New York together.
Of course, "together" was just a figure of speech. In the U.S., Deputy Director Kim Dong-hoon of HSW Team 3 and many other bodyguards were stationed around us.
Princeton University was about two hours from New York, so we got off the plane and walked the streets of New York.
People bundled up warmly because it was winter.
Da-yeon was holding a warm coffee with both hands and drinking it.
"Let's go eat."
"Nana! There's a place I want to go!"
We headed to a restaurant called Luke's Lobster that Da-yeon had found on the internet.
Right—when in New York, it's the sandwiches.
As we got our order and ate the sandwiches topped with cooked lobster, the number of people sneaking glances at us grew one by one.
Now that my looks were ranked number one in the world, my face had become much more recognizable.
A big guy sitting next to us asked carefully:
"Are you... Si-yoon...?"
"Yep."
"Oh my god... I'm a huge fan!"
I took off my bucket hat and took a photo with the man.
He nodded, looking satisfied only after shaking hands with me.
"I really enjoyed My Love Was a Gumiho this time."
"Thank you~"
After finishing the little fan meeting, we slipped out, and the next place Da-yeon and I stopped by was a place I'd found: an ice cream shop.
"Isn't that too sweet...?"
As if to prove that putting something delicious on top of something delicious makes it even more delicious:
Banana ice cream topped with savory nuts, then dipped in chocolate syrup.
Behold this radiant form.
In the past, I didn't like sweets, but my tastes had changed with this new body, and now I loved food so sugary it made my body tingle.
Da-yeon had vanilla ice cream and a coffee in her hands, while I had ice cream loaded with chocolate and sucked on a vanilla shake.
My expression naturally loosened up as the sugar hit, and Da-yeon smiled and filmed me like that.
"You want me to take one of you, Da-yeon?"
"Yeah!"
There were too many people who recognized me, so I put on the sunglasses I'd brought.
Sitting on a park bench, we could see people walking their dogs nearby.
Just then, a husky came up to me.
"Hello~"
"Arf!"
The husky, still young, was cute. Its owner looked at us, asked if we wanted to give it a treat, and handed us some.
"Oh! I want to try!"
Watching Da-yeon enjoying herself, I figured if the owner recognized my face, I'd repay them with a photo.
"What's the dog's name?"
The owner looked at Da-yeon fondly and said it was Lucy.
"Lucy~"
"Arf!"
Lucy, who had been playing with Da-yeon, seemed to get curious about me, too. She tested the waters, then latched onto me.
Still a little thing, and the way she barked was cute—she looked a little like Roy and Rosa when they were puppies.
Da-yeon filmed me this time too, and I took a photo with the owner who recognized me and gave them an autograph.
We'd eaten, and as we were walking slowly and looking around, Da-yeon looked at me and said:
"Are we walking there?"
"Where? To the university? Come on~ it's about 161 kilometers, so it'd take about a day?"
"Really?"
Even by car it was about two hours; we weren't in the Joseon Dynasty, and walking that distance was ridiculous.
Besides, there were six black cars that had been following us from behind for quite a while, and about twenty people were watching us.
I wanted to take a long stroll through the streets of New York as if enjoying a walk, but I gave up on that idea due to the nose-numbing cold.
"Let's hurry to the art museum!"
We arrived at the largest art museum in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and moved along while checking the map.
Our destination was the 'Si-yoon Wing,' which had been newly opened a year ago.
The Si-yoon Wing. As you could guess from the name, it was a place where only my works were hung.
I'd heard that pieces had been bought up a few at a time through Farzier for a while now, and it turned out they'd all been gathered here.
And the most recent buyer of my newest painting was also this very Metropolitan Museum.
Who would be chosen if you had to name the most popular painter alive today?
Setting aside skill and taste and judging purely by name recognition and popularity, I was dominant.
Entering the art wing named after me, I saw it had been decorated grandly.
Crowds of people and guides explaining the hanging paintings.
Listening to what they were saying, it was complete gibberish.
Last time, this museum had suddenly offered 7 billion won to buy a recent oil painting of mine.
The people crowded around that painting.
"The hallmark of painter Kim Si-yoon's work is the bold use of color without any trace of hesitation."
When they started explaining this and that, I began explaining the paintings to Da-yeon on the opposite side.
"What were you thinking when you painted this one?"
The piece Da-yeon asked about... I don't usually like painting abstract works, but...
A few pieces were done in an abstract style under Farzier's influence.
One of them was that 'SIYUN - In Her Brain 792.'
A simmering golden light. A painting that expressed intense heat. No red was used, but the overall mood had a reddish aura.
Viewers reacted by saying just looking at it made them feel flushed and eased their hearts.
It might look like that, but it was a painting that sold for a lot of money.
"This? I ate some sweet potatoes at my grandfather's place and they were really good."
"Huh? Those are sweet potatoes...?"
"Yeah."
"... Does anyone else know that?"
"Sometimes, value comes from not knowing the truth."
"....."
The sweet potatoes at my grandfather's were... really good.
Da-yeon and I looked around and took pictures.
We got to the Farzier exhibit, took a photo together with a Farzier painting, and sent it to Farzier.
Farzier video-called right away.
He was a complete old man now, but his eyes were still full of life.
-"Oh... you went to New York!?"
"Why, are you thinking of coming?"
-"Heh-heh, appearances aside, I'm a busy man. Hahaha."
We talked in English often, so unlike in the past, Farzier could speak it well now.
I had taken a picture of the gift Farzier sent me hanging in my living room and sent it to him earlier.
He had been so happy over just that one gesture.
Even now, seeing Farzier look at me with his expression soft as if he were watching his own grandchild, a smile naturally came to my face too.
After seeing all the works in the museum, we left and stood waiting on the street.
An HSW vehicle stopped right in front of us, and a person got out of the passenger seat and tried to open the door for us.
But this car had automatic doors...
Looking embarrassed by his action, the young bodyguard scratched his head.
"Hello~"
"It's been a while!"
"I think you can depart now."
"You don't want to look around some more?"
""Nope.""
I'd have liked to at least see the famous Central Park in New York, but the weather was too cold that day.
We headed to the house where Jeong-yeon was staying.
"Young Master Jeong-yeon is still at school."
"Is that so? Well then, we'll just have to look around the house."
Da-yeon and I wandered here and there, checking out the house.
Maybe because there were three household staff, the house was definitely very clean.
We put on the guest slippers and wandered around, then went into the room they'd given Da-yeon and me.
A huge bed sat in the center of the room, and the moment we saw it, Da-yeon and I flopped right down.
"Whoa... he's been living in a nice place..."
"Right~ my brother's been doing well for himself~?"
After we unpacked, we came out to the living room and sat on the couch.
For a moment, I glanced at the laptop sitting on the table.
"Ahem..."
"What?"
"I mean, it's only polite to check things once in a while..."
"...?"
Da-yeon tilted her head, looking at me.
I went over to the laptop and tried to guess the password.
I searched everything from Jeong-yeon's birthday to Lee Jin-seok's and Kim Seon-hwa's birthdays, but it didn't unlock.
Finally, I typed in Da-yeon's birthday, and it unlocked.
"Oh... I guess you think about Da-yeon a lot, huh?"
"Huhuhu."
The proud smile Da-yeon flashed me was pretty cute.
While she did that, I searched for avi, kmv, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mp4 one by one in the Windows search function.
Da-yeon came over beside me, curious, but when she realized what I was doing, she covered the laptop as if telling me not to do it.
"Whyyy~ aren't you curious?"
"Stop it..."
It was cute how she was defending her older brother, but Da-yeon also had a curious look on her face.
In the end, she gave up her spot to me and watched from the side with a flushed face.
Jeong-yeon's laptop had oddly nothing on it...
But that wouldn't fool me—not after I'd managed to find Dad's porn in the past.
I entered the C drive, clicked on hidden items, then went into the search bar and clicked 'greater than 128 MB.'
And there were 24 video files...
"Huhuhu..."
I heard Da-yeon next to me gulp cutely.
When I clicked the video...
It was 'My Love Was a Gumiho.'
I don't know why a video of me was hidden, but...
Next to me, Da-yeon sighed in relief. We still had 'D:' and 'E:' drives left, and I also spotted a USB on one side.
But even after checking the USB, Jeong-yeon's laptop was clean—spotless.
"Hmm... That can't be right..."
"It's not! There's no way my brother would watch that kind of stuff!"
"... I'm gonna have to check his phone..."
Only now deciding to protect her brother, Da-yeon started frantically hindering me as I was about to scan through the internet search history.
"Pornhub... it's gotta be there... this is America, s..."
"Stop it!"
Not long after I checked the laptop, Jeong-yeon arrived home.
"If you'd told me you were coming, I would have skipped my classes."
"Ah, come on, it's no big deal."
"Have you eaten?"
"Earlier, with Da-yeon, just a little?"
"Was anything uncomfortable?"
"Nope."
Jeong-yeon, who adored Da-yeon immensely, took us to the living room.
"I'd originally planned to take you on a cruise to see the Statue of Liberty, but it was way too cold outside. So I decided we'd just hang out at home."
"Oh~ doing what?"
"Now that we're of age, should we have a drink?"
"But I can't even touch the stuff?"
"...Really? Why?"
"If I have even one glass, I pass out."
Jeong-yeon had apparently practiced cooking hard to make me a meal as a gift, and he kept trying to make something.
I didn't mind, but I wasn't hungry right then, so I asked him to make it for dinner. We went outside.
"Is there somewhere you want to go?"
"Let's just go for a drive~"
Jeong-yeon confidently started driving, but—not to lie—he was worse at it than Da-yeon.
"Wow, you suck at driving."
"".....""
"Yeesh, the supercar's crying."
Jeong-yeon had seen a video of me driving and couldn't even argue back; he just shut his mouth.
I tried to look at Jeong-yeon's phone every chance I got, but Da-yeon kept interfering.
Da-yeon, her eyes on nothing but her brother's phone...
In the end, I gave up, drank coffee in the car, and chatted with Da-yeon.
While driving, Lee Jeong-yeon couldn't keep his head straight because of the chatter Da-yeon and I were making.
The world only sees the cold, unyielding side of Jeong-yeon that tolerates not a single mistake.
But to us, he also shows this human side of himself.
Just then, Da-yeon spotted something outside and said to Jeong-yeon:
"Big bro, I want tacos."
"Huh? We're eating later~ hang in there a little."
"But I'm hungry..."
"Then, shall we split one between the three of us?"
"Yeah!"
Jeong-yeon smiled, parked the car, and went into the restaurant.
He came back carrying three drinks.
I hadn't even said what I wanted to drink, but he naturally handed me a milkshake.
This is better than I thought.
"How is it? Good?"
Da-yeon and I split two tacos half-and-half, and Jeong-yeon ate one by himself.
We looked around for a long while, just burning gas, until dinnertime arrived and we returned to the house.
As soon as we got home, Da-yeon and I showered, put on our couple pajamas, fooled around, and then started watching a movie.
We were sitting on the living room couch watching the movie while Jeong-yeon was busy preparing this and that.
"Need a hand?"
"No, you guys just relax. It's your birthday present, so I've got to do it right."
He'd really prepared a lot—Jeong-yeon started delivering dishes one at a time in front of us as we watched the movie.
"Whoaaa..."
The first dish was salmon tartare, and the plating was even perfect.
Da-yeon drank wine; I was drinking cola but snatched a sip of Da-yeon's wine.
Whoa... a flush of heat rushed straight up. One more sip of this and I'd be out like a light.
"Hic!"
When I hiccuped, Da-yeon smiled.
"Si-yoon, you stick to cola~ huhuhu..."
"Heh... I'm already feeling... hic, tipsy, so there..."
I sat there like a macho man and ripped cheese into my mouth, which made Da-yeon laugh.
"You're totally like an old man, ahaha."
"Course I am~ look how many years I've lived~"
The warm air started feeling hot, so I cracked open a window slightly.
A cool breeze felt like it would bring me back to life.
Sensing my mood lift, I sat at the piano and started playing freestyle.
"Hey, that's right. Jeong-yeon! Do you still play the violin?"
I'd slipped into casual speech before I knew it, but Jeong-yeon must've grasped the situation from my flushed-red face because he smiled.
"Of course~ Shall we play a duet for the first time in a while?"
When I smiled, Jeong-yeon came over and started playing the violin, but the sound seemed oddly out of tune, so I snatched his violin, tuned it for him, and handed it back.
"I've been having this maintained, though...?"
"Yeah, it was a little loose, I guess? The open A on the second string was only at 442 hertz, while the others were tuned high."
"Whoa..."
I started playing the piano again, and Jeong-yeon laughed and played the violin.
When the oven timer for the main dish went off, Jeong-yeon went to finish preparing the food he'd been making.
Da-yeon and I sat and ate the appetizers, and Jeong-yeon placed the main dish in the center.
It was better than I expected, so we enjoyed the food while talking. Getting carried away by the pleasant atmosphere, I put my lips to Da-yeon's wine and promptly fell asleep.