The gallery looked like the kind of place you wouldn't recognize as a gallery if it didn't have a sign out front, but it still had a fair number of visitors. Every photograph on display showed a lonely landscape. An old tree, a riverside, an alleyway—the subjects were all different, but the photographs seemed to capture even the time people had spent standing in front of them, gazing for a long while. Joo-young looked once more at the brochure in his hand. “Time Hardens—Noh Jun-su Solo Exhibition.”
Noh Jun-su was an established photographer holding his fifth solo exhibition. Joo-young had known Senior Noh was interested in photography. Hadn't he worked at a third-rate magazine with no photography department of its own and willingly taken on the role of staff photographer?
Joo-young walked slowly along the photographs. “Senior Noh” and “established photographer” still made a bizarre combination, but there was definitely something in the photographs on display that suited Senior Noh. A small commotion broke out at the entrance of the cozy gallery, which had been converted from a traditional Korean house. The star of the solo exhibition had arrived. A neatly dressed old gentleman greeting the visitors, established and dignified photographer Noh Jun-su—Senior Noh, who hadn't died in his mid-fifties and had now become a gray-haired old man.
“I called him today and asked if he wanted to grab dinner after the exhibition, and you know what he said? ‘Huh? An exhibition? What exhibition?’”
“Hee-hee. Joo-young, what are we going to do with you? You're already so scatterbrained.”
They were at a small barbecue restaurant in an alley near the gallery. Just like that night, Senior Noh and Jung-sam sat across from him. Joo-young wore an awkward smile and silently grilled the meat.
After receiving Senior Noh's call, Joo-young had been able to find a fair amount of information about photographer Noh Jun-su through an online search. But since he knew nothing about any other changes in the situation, he figured it would be better to gather as much information as possible from the conversation between the two men in front of him rather than open his mouth carelessly.
“Hey, but you... Were you ever really planning to take me there?”
Huh? What was he talking about? Was this about the notarized agreement? Senior Noh's words made Joo-young tense.
“You said you'd go as soon as you had the money for it, Joo-young. You have to give him a little more time.”
“Is that really something you can say as a notary? It's not just a little more time—it's already been over ten years! ‘Just two more years,’ ‘Just one more year,’ you kept dragging it out, and it's been over ten years!”
So that's what happened. He'd kept himself alive all this time while putting off going to see the Beauty of Loulan. Good job. Joo-young felt proud of himself.
“That's why!”
Senior Noh slammed his fist down on the drum-barrel table with a bang.
“I've made a very serious decision. I'm not waiting anymore. I'm taking you to Loulan.”
It was an unexpected bombshell. Jung-sam and Joo-young both opened their eyes wide.
“I got an offer to publish a photography book, so I told them a few stories about the Beauty of Loulan and ‘unchanged for a thousand ages,’ and they suggested we go take pictures there. Come with me, both of you. I'll cover your expenses.”
“Hey, publishing a photography book is great news, but that doesn't mean you have to take us along too...”
After hesitating for a while, Senior Noh confessed shyly, like someone sitting in a confessional for the first time.
“When I thought about it, you know... I think that wager that night is the reason I'm still making a living as a photographer. If it hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have lasted ten years. I would've drunk myself to death.”
Joo-young finally said something.
“You really hit the nail on the head~”
They all raised their soju glasses with bitter smiles that weren't entirely bitter. It tasted sweet. Joo-young thought it might have been the first time soju had ever tasted this sweet.
“But still... how is she doing?”
Senior Noh asked with a serious expression. How was who doing? Joo-young looked at Jung-sam, hoping for a hint.
“I heard about it too... They said it was pretty bad?”
That wasn't helpful. Joo-young blinked helplessly, having no idea what they were talking about, until Senior Noh stepped in.
“What is with you today? You're acting like such an airhead. Your wife...”
“Oh my God~!”
The sudden ring of his cell phone made Joo-young jolt again. Embarrassed by how violently he'd reacted, he hurriedly pulled out his phone. It was his older daughter.
“Hey, what's wrong~?”
He answered while desperately suppressing the ominous emotional tremor rising inside him once again, and heard his daughter cry out through her sobs.
“Dad, get to the hospital, quick! Mom's really not doing well right now~!”