David's Husband - Chapter 34

The Saturday for their date arrived. Min Je spoke as if making an excuse when he saw Jun Won and Ji Hoo who came to see them off.

“Ahem, it’s because of KIAF preparations.”

Jun Won, who came to look after Ji Hoo while they were out, answered gruffly with his arms firmly crossed.

“I didn’t say anything.”

His tone clearly differentiated between weekdays and weekends, work hours and off hours. Ha Yeon found it funny, but somehow felt apologetic and couldn’t laugh properly.

“I’ll be back soon.”

As Ha Yeon was greeting them while pondering what to say, Min Je immediately corrected her words from beside her.

“She won’t be back soon. We’ll be back after dinner, so keep that in mind.”

Hearing this, Mi Ran, who was in the kitchen, came out wiping her hands on her apron and said,

“Then we’ll have Ji Hoo’s favorite tonkatsu set for dinner today.”

“Sounds delicious!”

Ji Hoo’s face immediately lit up. Seeing the child’s face, Min Je smiled and patted Ji Hoo’s head, then spoke to the people gathered at the entrance.

“We’ll be going now.”

“We’ll be back.”

Ha Yeon also greeted them before leaving the house. She had said goodbye and left, but the feeling was, how to put it, truly strange.

‘Surely they don’t all know we’re going on a date, but their expressions are as if they know everything.’

Ha Yeon tilted her head. Their outing was officially ‘for the art fair’. But she didn’t know how to describe this feeling of those seeing them off seeming to cheer them on.

“Shall we get in?”

Her thoughts disappeared cleanly as Min Je opened the passenger door for her.

“Th-Thank you.”

He said it was a date, and his attitude had completely changed.

After getting Ha Yeon into the car, Min Je sat in the driver’s seat and glanced at her profile.

Nervous, with her cheeks flushed pink, she hurriedly fastened her seatbelt and sat up straight.

“Relax and enjoy.”

Min Je said casually as he started the car with a slight smile.

“Ah, I guess I got nervous without realizing since it’s my first date.”

“First… was it?”

Min Je barely managed to keep his smile from crumbling. The fact that it was her first date made him feel a strange sense of mission slowly burning inside.

The first place they visited was the movie theater.

“I’ve been wanting to see this movie, how did you know?”

Ha Yeon’s eyes widened as she saw the title of the movie Min Je had reserved in advance.

“That’s… proof that our tastes match well.”

Min Je answered a bit brazenly, inwardly chuckling. The movie he chose was simply the one with the highest advance ticket sales.

It was amusing to forcibly try to match their tastes over this. How had he ended up in this situation?

Min Je slowly stroked his chin in thought, then followed Ha Yeon as she walked into the dark theater.

The darkened theater was much darker than Min Je had expected. Perhaps because he wasn’t someone who regularly enjoyed such cultural activities, the theater felt quite unfamiliar.

“I don’t know how long it’s been since I came to a movie theater.”

Ha Yeon whispered with shining eyes. In any case, this woman had a talent for making people feel proud over nothing. Just look at now. What was there to be so happy about being brought to a movie theater?

He wouldn’t be able to argue if someone said why bring her to a mere movie theater instead of somewhere more special and fancy for a first date.

“Makes me want to buy the whole theater for you.”

Min Je muttered to himself.

“What? I couldn’t hear what you said.”

Ha Yeon leaned in close to him, speaking over the loud advertisement playing on the screen.

As she drew near, Min Je’s mind suddenly filled with impure thoughts, and he scratched his face as if troubled.

“It was just something I said to myself, don’t worry about it.”

Then he handed over the popcorn entirely.

“Director, you should eat some too.”

Ha Yeon held out the popcorn container towards Min Je.

“I feel full just watching you eat.”

Min Je chuckled and leaned back deep in his chair. Ha Yeon’s eyes wavered for a moment as she tried to grasp the meaning of his words.

‘What? That’s usually what dads say?’

Before Ha Yeon could figure out Min Je’s intention, the movie started, so she quickly fixed her gaze on the screen and became immersed in the film.

Min Je was inwardly understanding why couples come to the theater for dates as he looked at the dark theater seats, so close that you touch the person next to you.

Well, if you sit this close together, even uncomfortable chairs seem worth enduring. He watched the movie sitting slightly askew with one hand on his chin.

It was a delicate angle where he could see Ha Yeon’s face better while seeming to look at the screen.

Ha Yeon’s expression changed this way and that whenever the protagonist faced a crisis. A woman who thinks and acts as if others’ matters are her own seemed to empathize differently too.

Min Je, who wouldn’t care even if the protagonist died right now and the movie abruptly ended, found watching Ha Yeon more interesting than the movie.

When she looked at him, she might think he was smiling because the movie was funny, but no. It was just that her laughter was amusing, so her smile had spread to his lips as well.

[This is the timeline separator]

At that time, Jun Won and Ji Hoo who remained at home were doing origami.

If an art museum staff member had seen Jun Won with colorful origami papers spread out on the living room table doing paper folding, they would have fainted in shock and disbelief, but fortunately there was no one in this house to take issue with such things.

“This is strange no matter how I look at it.”

Jun Won said in a deflated voice after folding an unidentifiable animal.

“What is?”

Ji Hoo asked with round eyes, pausing his origami for a moment.

“Don’t you think the Director has become… a bit strange?”

When Jun Won spoke with a serious expression, Ji Hoo smiled broadly.

“You’re right, he has changed.”

When Ji Hoo unexpectedly agreed right away, Jun Won’s face went blank for a moment. But only briefly.

“You agree he’s changed? Then could it be…!”

Jun Won, who had unknowingly raised his voice, hurriedly covered his own mouth.

“That’s right, I think Dad likes big sister.”

Ji Hoo giggled as he whispered lowly as if telling a secret.

Huh, since when, I thought the atmosphere was strange… Jun Won let out an empty sigh as he rattled off such words, as if dumbfounded.

“That’s good, right?”

Seeing Ji Hoo ask with a bright smile, Jun Won nodded without realizing.

“Y-Yeah. It’s good.”

But unable to shake off a lingering unsettled feeling, his answer came a beat late. Jun Won pondered deeply why he felt this inexplicable unease when he had hoped for Min Je to take an interest in Ha Yeon.

And not long after, he was able to find the answer.

Up until now, Kang Min Je had never seriously dated anyone. In other words, from now on they would see him seriously dating for the first time.

The Min Je that Jun Won had known was someone who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals once he set his mind to something. It was clear as day how that trait would apply to dating.

‘This guy, he hasn’t already done something, has he?’

For some reason empathizing with the feelings of a father with a daughter, Jun Won felt a surge of emotion. That Kang Min Je was more than capable of such things. Seeing how he couldn’t even make the assumption that it wasn’t so, he felt nothing but a bitter mood.

Seeing Jun Won’s expression harden even as he said it was good, Ji Hoo tilted his head and asked,

“Uncle, why? Did something go wrong?”

“No. There’s no way. It’s just verrry good.”

Jun Won just laughed, heh heh, looking at Ji Hoo’s clear eyes. This was something he couldn’t tell Ji Hoo no matter how much he cherished him.

There was an adult world that children didn’t need to know about.

[This is the timeline separator]

After leaving the movie theater, Min Je and Ha Yeon headed to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art near Seoul. Since they had come out under the pretext of KIAF, and they were similar in pursuing practicality even on dates, a trip to the art museum was inevitable.

“Korean Art: Today and Tomorrow, this is exactly what we need.”

Ha Yeon muttered as she flipped through the pamphlet at the entrance. An exhibition showing how Korean art has transformed through the flow of time seemed quite useful for Ha Yeon. Of course, it was also perfect as it would serve as a suitable excuse instead of saying ‘date’.

“You’re probably the only one who’d be happy to be asked to go to an art museum together.”

Min Je said with a chuckle, seeing Ha Yeon’s eyes shining as if she couldn’t miss a single work before the viewing.

“Huh? That means you’ve asked someone else to go to an art museum?”

At Ha Yeon’s uncharacteristically sharp words, Min Je’s shoulders flinched involuntarily.

“That’s, how, could, that be.”

Min Je spoke haltingly like a buffering video, then hurriedly took a step forward.

“Hmm, isn’t it? This is clearly a reaction.”

Ha Yeon followed behind him, secretly delighted to have caught a chance to tease Min Je.

At the time when Min Je and Ha Yeon were thoroughly enjoying their date, a text message was sent to Lee Tae’s mobile phone.

‘Target moving: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gyeonggi-do.’

He had also received a message a few hours ago that Ha Yeon had stopped by the movie theater. But he was in the middle of meeting an important collector at the gallery and absolutely could not move.

And with this message coming again, he thought luck was on his side today. Usually around this time she would have already gone home because the child from that house would be coming home from kindergarten.

What circumstances could there be? He pondered for a moment, but Ha Yeon’s personal circumstances were less important than his own work, so he threw away such concerns.

‘I’ll make sure to win her over today no matter what.’

Lee Tae, who had made up his mind, left his gallery.

The exhibition titled ‘Korean Art: Today and Tomorrow’ was divided into a total of 15 sections. Because it was exhibited by era, Min Je and Ha Yeon took the elevator to the 3rd floor to view the first section.

“Wow, there are way more works than I expected.”

Following the flow of time, works by various artists were exhibited by year. Among them were works by artists famous enough for even art outsiders to know.

“Should we have come earlier?”

Min Je asked, observing Ha Yeon’s expression. If he had known she would look at the works this meticulously, he should have scheduled more time.

There were about 3 hours left until closing, but at this rate they would have to leave without seeing works in other exhibition rooms.

“No, this is just right.”

Ha Yeon shook her head with a smile, realizing why Min Je was saying this. They agreed to boldly skip works they had seen at previous exhibitions to match the viewing time.

Ha Yeon’s footsteps, which had been constantly exclaiming in admiration while looking at the works, seemed like they would never leave in front of a painting on a long silk scroll.

“How did they complete such a long painting?”

The painting on a 21.7-meter-long silk scroll was so long that even though it was displayed on one entire side, it couldn’t be fully unrolled and both ends were rolled up.

“When you see things like this, don’t you want to unroll it all the way to see?”

Ha Yeon said with mischievous shining eyes.

“Should I ask the museum staff?”

When Min Je added fuel to the fire, Ha Yeon shook her head in exasperation.

“No! We can’t do that.”

For some reason, it felt like Min Je would somehow manage to open and unfurl that work displayed in the showcase.

As Ha Yeon was thinking she should stop him somehow, someone called out to her.

“Ha Yeon? We meet again here.”

Because that voice belonged to a man, Min Je’s brow furrowed involuntarily.