Readjusting his crimson tie with clammy hands, Yi Jeong stood in the center of the exhibition hall—the main attraction of what had been touted throughout the media as a revitalization of the museum's cultural relevance and national importance. Plans for a new wing of modern art had been revealed earlier in the week, and Yi Jeong's newest exhibition was, as one news source had put it, "a shining example of the museum's ability to reinvent itself with the times, reaching outward to artistic influences all over the world and inward to the talented youths of the nation."
A lifetime ago, he'd relished the glamour of the spotlight. He'd loved how he could shape people's affections and perceptions to his advantage. Tonight, their beckoning stares felt foreign, and while he couldn't deny he felt proud of what he'd accomplished and created in the past four years, draped in elegance for the occasion, he could no more enjoy the attention than he had enjoyed Monday's lamentable luncheon.
No, the So heir was distracted. Distracted and torn between punching his fist into the ornate marble column behind him and disappearing into one of the storage rooms to drink himself into oblivion. He honestly didn't know if he could go through with tonight. It was hard enough dodging the reporters' questions about his personal life without appearing to be hiding something.
Apparently, he hadn't been the only one hiding things.
They'd both lied to him. Had lied to his face. Woo Bin and Ga Eul. The two people he trusted most in the world had both withheld crucial information in a situation where withholding any information at all could result in a serious misstep.
Yi Jeong absently greeted a few passing guests.
Ga Eul perhaps he could understand. She was, despite her many amazing qualities, still a bit naive about the inner workings of the upper class. She'd been given quite a shock at the hands of the crazy bitch he was supposed to marry, and she'd said that she thought Madeleine might retaliate if she told anyone.
He supposed Woo Bin must have been given quite a shock too, but like hell would he let him off easy because of it. They were brothers. He'd thought they'd shared everything. He'd even told Woo Bin about his affection for Ga Eul long before anyone else knew—including her. Yet for almost four years Woo Bin had been seeing this woman, and he'd neglected to tell anyone. Anyone at all. Their conversation from the day before played over in his head as he accepted a glass of champagne from a waiter.
"Do you realize what you've done?!"
"I've been trying to figure out what I've done...I've been trying to figure out what she must have wanted with me. She must have known we were close. I've been trying to remember what I told her."
"And?!"
"She never mentioned you. Not once. I'm sure of it."
"Not that you would have noticed that while—"
"I swear if I thought she meant to hurt any of you, I would never have—"
"And yet when you knew what she had done, you said nothing!"
"I didn't know what to...or how to...but in any case you can be grateful for it now."
"Why should I be grateful for that?"
"Because I doubt your grandfather will like his choice of bride so much once he sees who she really is."
Yi Jeong supposed he ought to feel guilty knowing what Woo Bin was planning. For years, he had stood up for him against anyone who would dare to criticize his family background or utter a single word against him. And now he was condoning Woo Bin's destruction of himself, abetting it even.
Maybe he wasn't so much mad at Woo Bin as he was at himself for dragging everyone he cared about through this mess, but there was nothing to do for it now. He could only hope they'd all make it through. Just like Jan Di and Jun Pyo.
It seemed that everyone who was anyone had turned out for Yi Jeong's welcome home exhibition. Models, movie stars, businessmen, socialites, and art critics alike had trickled in during the earlier hours of the evening, but now the crowd was arriving en masse and flooding the front of the exhibit where Madeleine's paintings had been decorously hung in their most advantageous positions given the harsh lighting. Now a small orchestra had begun playing near the entrance to the grand room in the heart of the museum. Once her parents had wandered off to chat with some well-wishers and she was left alone with the museum's curator chatting tiresomely by her side, she occupied herself with studying the arriving guests to see who she knew. A few of her father's business partners filtered through the crowd, mingling with important people from other companies. A few people she recognized from Shinwa University, drifting from display to display along with their parents or significant others. Then another familiar face appeared, an achingly familiar face, dressed in a dark gray suit and a burgundy tie, his diamond cuff links and the diamond earring in his right ear glinting in the light from the chandeliers.
Madeleine's nerves had been getting the better of her from the moment she'd put on her dress, and now, though she had barely eaten anything since breakfast, she felt like emptying what little her stomach contained into the planter that had been positioned next to her landscapes for dramatic effect.
Shit.
Why was he walking towards her?
Looking straight at her.
Turning, she nearly crashed into a waiter holding a platter of champagne glasses.
How ironic. She twisted her lips as she righted herself.
Unfortunately, the movement only forced her to meet Song Woo Bin head on.
Giving her a surprisingly pleasant smile, he bowed formally to her and the curator.
"Ah, Yi Madeleine may I introduce Song Woo Bin, a very good friend of So Yi Jeong's. Since childhood, I believe."
Madeleine parted her lips ever-so-slightly but had no time to reply before the curator suddenly excused himself to speak to someone else. He rushed away, leaving nothing but the plaintive violin music and the general cacophony of sound to fill the awkwardness.
"I'm sorry," Woo Bin took up where the curator had left off. "I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting before at any...events."
"You know who I am," Madeleine said quietly.
"Hardly," Woo Bin replied, but his expression remained neutral. Hailing a waiter, he got a glass of champagne for himself and handed one to her as he commented on her beautiful painting style, making a big show of it for the people walking by them.
She wished more than anything for him to go away.
She wished to disappear herself.
She knew she should have gotten something to drink sooner.
"You know," he continued in a quieter tone once the crowd around them had dispersed, "He's right. I have known Yi Jeong since kindergarten. We've been best friends since...well, since, the day we got into a fight in the sandbox."
"Mmm, that's...nice." Madeleine swallowed tightly. She had a great suspicion he knew nothing about his uncle's plan to rob the So family blind.
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Woo Bin positioned himself beside her just as the curator had done so that they were both looking out over the sea of socialites. "We stuck together all these years. Him. Me. Gu Jun Pyo. Yoon Ji Hoo. In high school, we were known as the F4. I'm sure you've—"
"So I've heard." Her fingers shaking, Madeleine took a rather unladylike gulp of champagne.
"I can't say I'm proud of everything we did at that time," Woo Bin continued in the same neutral tone, as though he was explaining how to mix paint pigments. "We used to bully a lot of other students for cheap laughs. But it was all very organized. We developed a regular system with it."
Madeleine sipped more of her champagne, restlessly searching the crowd for a reasonable excuse to escape his company.
"You see," he continued, turning toward her so that he had her blocked in between himself, the planter, and the wall, "at the beginning of the school day, the victim would open their locker, and out would fall a red card, red as blood." His tone darkened. "That was our marking system. That was how all the other students knew whose life they should make a living hell."
"Well, how very mafia-esque of you," Madeleine intoned, not meeting his gaze directly. "Let the rest of the students do your dirty work."
Taking a few more steps toward her, Woo Bin sent her backing against the wall, and she had a flashback to him pinning her against the wall in the dressing room. This was the second time she had been this close to him without actually touching him. She might have mistaken the gleam in his eyes for lust if she didn't know him. It was predatory but not from desire. This time, he was simply angry.
"What are you doing?" she hissed. She felt people's stares on them as he leaned in closer to her, almost like he might kiss her.
She felt his breath on her ear as he whispered, "It's what you did that you should be worried about."
"What?"
Woo Bin straightened himself up and stepped away from her.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. These days I prefer to do my own dirty work." He winked at her. "Nice dress."
Then he vanished through another suffocating wave of people coming to cloister around her.
Far away from the chatter of the critics and the press alike, Ga Eul sat tensely on a leather chair in So Hyun Sub's study, dressed in a gauzy pale pink gown, her hair cascading down her shoulders in loose curls the way it had looked the night of her first fake date with Yi Jeong. The simple dress and hairstyle, along with the minimal makeup she wore tonight, brought out her "natural beauty and innocence," or so Woo Bin had explained. As she understood it, they intended to get the press behind her and against the Yi family. Woo Bin hadn't quite explained to her how they would manage the latter, but from the look on his face, she could tell he was about to do something that would shatter his own heart into pieces again. If only he hadn't loved her.
If only she hadn't pretended to love him.
Because she had pretended, hadn't she? Maybe she had felt remorse in that dressing room what seemed like an eternity ago, but Ga Eul was convinced that Yi Madeleine could never have really loved him. Not with the way she had set him up so cruelly.
Ga Eul's instructions for the evening had been as simple as her attire: Come in through the back entrance to So Hyun Sub's office. Wait there until Woo Bin led her to the main hall for what they had termed 'the big reveal.'
The tall, buff bodyguard to whose care she had been entrusted loomed over her, his presence silent yet imposing.
She wished he would leave.
She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Alone with Yi Jeong the way they had been in Sweden. But the outside world crowded around them, and if she didn't hold onto him tightly, she knew it would only crowd her out.
He had been horribly upset when she finally told him what had really transpired the night of the engagement party. She could only imagine how much worse his fury must have been toward Woo Bin.
This wasn't how she had imagined his return to Korea, and the tension between the three of them seemed worse than the uncertainty of what their actions tonight would unleash on all of their families.
Everything was going according to plan, So Yeong-cheol assured himself.
Tonight an engagement would be announced. Tomorrow there would be great rejoicing. In due course, there would be great shock to learn that the Yi family had stabbed their own future in-laws in the back, and So Yeong-cheol's own secret would be safe. The old man pretended to listen to his assistant prattle on about the arrangements for tonight's private auction while he surveyed the crowd, not looking for anyone in particular but gauging people's expressions.
An expression is worth a thousand words.
Much to his surprise, Hyun Sub was not only present and completely sober but had insisted on making the opening remarks himself as the 'public face of the museum.' A sort of passing the baton or some other nonsense. A year earlier, Yeong-cheol might have protested, but the opening remarks had to be made from a raised platform, and his knees…
To be honest, his only son hadn't made a terrible mess of it as he did with most things involving the media. Yeong-cheol had lost count of how many times he'd had to interfere to keep his son's widespread affairs from going public. Tonight, however, even the other members of the board of directors appeared mildly impressed with his efforts.
"Now, without further ado, the young master So Yi Jeong would like to say a few words himself," Hyun Sub concluded, bringing Yeong-cheol's attention back to his son as he stepped down from the podium.
Yeong-cheol frowned. This wasn't how they had planned it.
Yi Jeong made his way up to the podium, making eye contact with his father as he passed, and a flash of something passed between them. He noticed that Yi Jeong's childhood friends had crowded around the small stage at different points, and, oddly, they weren't standing together. Yoon Ji Hoo stood off to the left, and Gu Jun Pyo with his insufferable excuse for a wife stood in the very front middle. Jun Pyo's sister had positioned herself to the right. But no Song Woo Bin in sight, though he knew he had seen him earlier. Perhaps no one else would think anything of it, but Yeong-cheol could sense expectancy in the air, and he didn't like it.
"First of all, I would like to thank my family, my friends, my tutors here and abroad, the staff here at the museum, the board of directors, and all of you who came here to support this long-awaited event tonight. Without all of you, this event would not be possible." Yi Jeong paused, and the crowd applauded. Yeong-cheol answered a few congratulatory nods with a brief nod of his own.
Where had Hyun Sub gotten away to?
"I learned a lot in these past four years, but the most important lesson I learned was not about art itself. It was about appreciating the people who have supported me, especially during a time four years ago when I was unsure if I would ever practice my art again. It has been a long road, but here we are. So thank you. Thank you all. This exhibition is from my heart to you."
Another round of applause.
It was enough, Yeong-cheol thought, so why did he look like he still had more to say?
"There is one person here tonight that I would like to thank more than most. This person is an artist in their own right—someone whose canvas is the world, who makes everything they touch vibrant and beautiful. This person believed in me when I had lost all faith in myself, in my ability to create anything of substance. They envisioned everything that you see here today long before my hands touched the clay, and it is them I would like to direct your praise toward. Most importantly, this person is the love of my life who I would like to introduce to you all tonight as my future wife, my fianceé"—Yi Jeong paused, and looked in Yeong-Cheol's direction as though he were looking only at him—"Chu Ga Eul."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" So Ri snatched her arm away from Hyun Sub as soon as they reached the rooftop.
"I thought you might enjoy the view," he commented without humor. "It hasn't changed so much after all these years."
"Well, please don't tell me you dragged me away from my husband in plain sight to reminisce."
Adjusting her black, off-the-shoulder gown, So Ri nonetheless headed away from the door they had come through and toward the far end of the roof, her black heels clacking, where she paused to look out over the city lights, a canvas of stars against the blue-black sky. Her shoulder-length hair—dyed a deep auburn for the occasion and accented with diamond hairpins—rustled against her bare neck in the chilly evening breeze.
She looked like a queen.
He preferred her clothed in simple things.
He stepped over to the roof's edge but kept a respectable distance between them.
Clearing her throat, she asked, "Well, since you have me up here...what did you want to tell me?"
Hyun Sub procured a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up.
"He knows."
"Who knows what?" So Ri waved away the smoke drifting in her direction, coughing softly. "Must you?"
"Sorry." Hyun Sub snubbed the cigarette underfoot. "Habit."
"I have no interests in your habits. Why don't you spit out whatever it is you know before I, too, take up my familial duties downstairs?"
"Your husband's little deal with Song Min Ho. My father knows."
So Ri stiffened almost imperceptibly.
"Knows what?"
"Don't tell me you didn't know about the forgeries. Don't try to lie to me. You always were a horrible liar."
"Oh, and you were always a great one."
"Was this to get back at me? But I never took you for the vengeful type. Though you've changed."
"We've all changed. Whether we want to or not, we change."
"Look at me, and tell me you knew nothing about it."
"Of course I didn't know!" So Ri snapped. She turned to face him, the heavy jewels on her neck glittering in the artificial light. "Not until a few days ago. You think I want anything to do with your family? I don't care if you live or die. I told you, this whole thing was a huge mistake. Knowing my husband, the wheels of misfortune are already spinning," she finished bitterly.
"You know what will happen if this gets out. I don't know what my father is planning to do with that information, but I can guarantee it will come out sooner rather than later."
"What do you mean?"
"If you can, I'd suggest getting on the first plane back to Paris."
"Why?" She asked, her eyes narrowing. "What did you do?"
"I suspect if you go downstairs right about now"—Hyun Sub glanced at his watch—"you'll find out."
The overhead lights assaulted her eyes, and a sea of faces spun before her as Ga Eul emerged from the inner corridors of the museum to the very center of the exhibition hall, where Yi Jeong had just finished his speech. Dazed, she gripped Woo Bin's arm as he escorted her up to the podium, nearly tripping up the stairs as she went.
Smile, you pabo, she scolded herself. Don't be nervous. Don't be weak.
She knew the risk he had just taken for her. The looks of confusion and astonishment didn't escape her as she materialized out of nowhere to stand by his side. Woo Bin transferred her over to Yi Jeong, and immediately the press crowded around them and began assaulting Yi Jeong with questions. Ga Eul pasted what she hoped was a charitable but nonchalant expression on her face, though she knew Yi Jeong could probably feel her nails digging into his arm. By accident, her gaze landed on his grandfather, who looked like murder incarnate, and then on Madeleine, who looked surprisingly as nervous as she did. Then she felt a slender arm link through hers, and she looked up to see Jan Di on her other side. Looking over, she realized that Gu Jun Pyo had come to stand on the other side of Yi Jeong, and on the other side of him Ji Hoo Sunbae. Woo Bin had never left the stage, and he put his arm around Jan Di. Suddenly, they were all there .
They were there with the whole world watching them.
But they had their arms around each other.
Maybe they were holding each other up.