The Bad Husband (Completed Main Story) - Side Story 1

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The art gallery office of the Mokhwa Foundation.

Tae Eun’s slender fingers paused on a page while flipping through artists’ portfolios. Sensing this, Team Leader Song, who stood beside her, glanced sideways at the page where her gaze had settled and slowly began to speak.

“The artist’s name is Park Sung Hoon. I’ve also been keeping a close eye on him. Though he uses very little color, his work never feels dull, and the hues he does use carry an elegant grace. Still, the meaning embedded in his pieces is so profound that they seem to lack broad popular appeal.”

“Art was originally a privilege reserved for the few. Our job is to share that privilege with the public and create more opportunities for artists. If we deny opportunities simply because a work lacks mass appeal—even when we ourselves see its excellence—how is that justified? We need to make it more widely known.”

At Tae Eun’s gentle words, Team Leader Song smiled and nodded.

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Let’s hold the next exhibition featuring this artist’s work. Please schedule a meeting—I’ll handle it personally.”

“Yes, understood, Director.”

With a light bow, Team Leader Song exited. Tae Eun then turned her quiet gaze toward the window outside.

It had already been over two years since she’d taken over and begun running the Mokhwa Foundation. The foundation, which previously oversaw a broad range of cultural promotion initiatives, had undergone significant transformation under her leadership over the past two years. As a strictly nonprofit organization, Mokhwa now played an indispensable role across the cultural sector—from visual arts to film and all forms of performing arts—making it impossible to discuss cultural projects without mentioning the Mokhwa Foundation.

The art gallery was a case in point. Since all exhibitions were rigorously curated to spotlight amateur artists who hadn’t yet formally debuted, even established professionals couldn’t gain entry to the Mokhwa Art Gallery. And those rare amateurs who did cross that high threshold swiftly rose to fame. In short, having one’s work displayed at Mokhwa Art Gallery had become the ultimate dream for amateurs.

Naturally, these results owed much to the discerning eye of Tae Eun and her team. Though she had graduated from an art university, unlike her late mother, Tae Eun possessed no extraordinary talent for painting herself. After all, art had always been that unique domain where innate ability could never be surpassed by effort alone.

Yet in exchange, she had developed an exceptional eye for artworks. From a young age, her mother would place her on her lap each time she began a new piece and share stories about it. Thanks to this, rather than seeing merely pigments densely layered onto a blank canvas, Tae Eun learned to perceive the narrative behind each work—what story the artist intended to convey, or what profound meaning lay embedded within. And each time she uncovered such a story, the resulting exhibition became a major success.

That wasn’t all. Last year, she collaborated with amateur artists who had gained fame after passing through the Mokhwa Art Gallery to build the country’s largest children’s library, which had since become a national landmark. Its magnificent scale, perfectly fused with a vivid sense of children’s innocence, transformed the space into a dreamlike sanctuary for people of all ages—akin to Disneyland in the United States.

Thus, the Mokhwa Foundation had achieved near-syndrome-level popularity in the cultural sphere, having significantly helped democratize art—once perceived as distant and inaccessible by the general public. And this ripple effect profoundly benefited Jangwon as well. Given that Mokhwa operated as a transparent nonprofit foundation, its prestige greatly enhanced Jangwon’s public image.

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