The Unseen Shadow
The delivery rider who had once overlapped so oddly with Jeong Yeon-jae in the parking lot of her preview exhibition now felt strangely out of place. She was certain she had never met him.
The moment Jeong Yeon-jae’s head turned away, Jang Han appeared behind her and signed.
- There is no information.
He bowed with a bright smile. His steps were light as he turned to leave. When Sa Hee-eon’s gaze returned to her, a crooked smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
“No information, huh…”
Her reaction to his private mutter.
“…What?”
“Then it’s even clearer.”
“What do you mean?”
Without another word, he rose and lumbered up the stairs connecting to the second floor. She followed his retreating figure, eyes shifting.
Only the forest shadows beyond the glass wall with its single curtain cast themselves over the man climbing the stairs.
“Now the door will open. Get out.”
Jeong Yeon-jae’s brows furrowed sharply. She had not even been insulted, yet her face burned as if she had suddenly become an unwelcome guest in someone else’s house.
“What nonsense. What did you just say?”
“If you’re not leaving, follow me upstairs.”
“Ha, fine. I’m out.”
She set the cushion aside, rose from the sofa, and pushed open the glass door. A chilly wind rushed in without resistance.
Before leaving the Glass House, she glanced at the spot where broken pottery had been displayed. He must have spoken some private words she could not hear before he woke. What had he said?
No information.
Light from the uncollected shards fell in droplets, reflecting on the surface. The sharp fragments pierced her eyes, already cut and unremoved.
Gripping the doorknob and hesitating, she turned away from the debris.
* * *
“Really… does Jeong Yeon-jae have no information?”
Late at night, after dropping a wet lump of clay onto the wheel and striking it several times with his fist, Sa Hee-eon asked.
A man nearby moved his hands.
- It’s true.
“How did you know?”
- You told me to find out.
“Not you—someone else.”
“If it’s your brother…”
Jang Han’s brother, Jang Geum-san, who works as Sa Jae-eon’s aide.
“So it was Geum-san who brought it.”
At those words, Jang Han smiled brightly. Confirmation.
Sa Jae-eon’s information network was truly fast. He had already suspected Jeong Yeon-jae before her. Perhaps even sooner.
Sa Hee-eon slowly turned the wheel. As usual, he wet the surface and pulled up the clay, yet the shape kept collapsing.
He was not concentrating.
He kneaded the clay several times, then tilted his head back, a curse in his mouth.
Jang Han, sensing his irritation, cautiously stepped aside. Watching him flee like a dog with its tail between its legs, Hee-eon let out an incredulous laugh. Of course, Jang Han was no puppy, but a large dog.
“Could it be… Big Brother told you?”
His eyes flicked upward, then stabbed the back of Jang Han’s head. The man turned with an forced smile under that piercing gaze.
Jang Han cleverly avoided the look, forming a circle with his index and thumb.
“Ha…”
Sa Jae-eon truly intended to drag him into the game.
Sa Hee-eon felt as uncomfortable as if he had stepped onto an unknown stage as a supporting actor.
Heaving a long sigh, he scraped the deformed clay into a basket. Ignoring Jang Han’s watchful eyes, he rinsed his hands in the large stainless-steel sink.
He turned the faucet shut with a squeak, then twisted his head. Someone appeared on the external CCTV feed.
Jeong Yeon-jae, in pajamas, wearing only a jumper, walked briskly along the path.
Her destination was precisely the Glass House. Why at this hour? And why was she boldly opening the door and entering the exhibition hall?
His brows gradually narrowed.
Sa Hee-eon flicked his fingers beside the standing Jang Han.
Snap. Jang Han turned his head.
“Do not move. I will go.”
- Understood.
Sa Hee-eon concluded the feeling that nagged at him as clumsy interest.
If a woman with no information had come all the way here pretending to be the old man’s lover, then Sa Jae-eon’s instinct was correct.
That woman was an important surveillance target disguised as the old man’s lover.
But why here?
Why here of all places?
He stripped off his apron and walked through the workshop into the long corridor connecting the exhibition hall. The high ceiling, the shadows of the extinguished chandeliers spaced at precise intervals, swayed.
The air felt oppressively heavy, pressing down on his shoulders as if challenging anyone who dared walk these halls to endure its full weight.
You have nothing you want?
Suddenly, his grandfather’s voice echoed in his ears.
You are not greedy. You desire.
Did he really need to desire anything? Was the prideful, burdensome desire not simply one sheet of paper away from the longing?
He had no desire to defeat anyone, nor did he wish to twist himself in abnormal affection.
Do not become curious about what she is hiding.
Just throw it away.
Sa Hee-eon.
Only after leaving the long corridor could he reach the dimly lit exhibition hall.
And in the shadowed corner, the woman’s presence was clear.
“This place… where was it…”
A woman’s murmur accompanied by her phone light came from the spot today when Oh Seung-mi and Jeong Yeon-jae had faced each other. The place where the pottery she had liked had shattered.
His brows drew tightly together, and his eyes trembled.
“Already… thrown it away…?”
Jeong Yeon-jae squatted, relying on the phone light to grope the floor. Every time she moved, her abundant, long hair swayed. The light reflected on the marble floor illuminated her face.
Unlike morning, her face—free of any color—had turned extremely pale, like wet self-glaze clay.
“…Eh? Found it…”
Right before her exclamation, Sa Hee-eon lifted the light switch with his dry fingertips.
The moment light flooded the entire exhibition hall, the woman startled and sat down on the floor with a short moan.
“Ah!”
The woman’s fingertips, pressed to the floor, were red. Blood quickly seeped out, soaking the marble.
White hands, red blood. The woman sitting in her pajamas.
Sa Hee-eon strode forward with frozen eyes, grabbing her hand that had been pressed to the floor.
She looked up, eyes wide, and cried out.
“Ah! Glass! Glass!”
“What?”
“Glass underfoot—be careful.”
On the opposite side, she pointed, where a pottery fragment the size of a fingernail lay. It was wet with her blood, and the sight caused an error in his mind.
Why?
What do shards here have to do with you?
Even as he did so, he caught the remaining hand Jeong Yeon-jae reached for the shards.
When he lifted both hands, her transparent eyes followed the motion.
Pale hands, blood welling up. Wet eyes and trembling lips as if about to speak. Unhealthy emotion surged over him in an instant.
Impulsiveness. Confusion. Discord.
Familiar, yet unpleasant red blood. Ah, how much more unpleasant do you intend to make me?
“You woke up?”
“No! I broke it during the day… I didn’t clean it up right after. It kept bothering me.”
“Why would you.”
“Anyone would get hurt if they stepped on it!”
“If I get hurt, what then?”
“What? Of course I wouldn’t! You psycho!”
“Are you not in pain?”
“Ha, what pain?”
Sa Hee-eon stared fixedly at her face as she replied sharply, then brought his blood-coated index finger to his mouth.
He stared straight into her wide eyes and wrapped his finger with his red tongue, licking the bitter blood.
“You, what dirty…!”
She cried out in fright, but the words did not finish.