Chapter 2 Part 16

It was a white hand. Delicate and beautiful, it seemed most suited to glide across piano keys. Though it was a large hand, making a sizeable mug cup seem tiny within its grasp, it was a dazzlingly white and beautiful hand, almost translucent. The neatly trimmed nails on each fingertip were like pale glass.

“Who is this?”

An irritating mechanical sound.

Perhaps it was the phone’s settings, but the voice was stiff and layered, like listening to an automated answering machine recorded on an electronic device.

The white hand on the screen set down the mug cup. Then, a long finger tapped the rim of the mug cup.

“Is Chief Instructor Jeong Chang-in there?”

“Ah… he’s in the bathroom right now. If you have a message, I can pass it on.”

Jeong Tae-ui replied, captivated by the beautiful hand, as if carved from transparent ice glass.

For a moment, no answer came from the other side.

As he marveled that this hand was actually moving, part of a living body, the voice suddenly whispered.

“So.”

“Huh?”

“Who are you, receiving the call in that room?”

Perhaps it was his imagination, but the voice seemed to relax a little. It had a strangely captivating feel. While the peculiar mechanical sound was indeed mechanical, watching the abnormally beautiful hand slowly stroke the mug cup only intensified that feeling.

Jeong Tae-ui considered what to say, but since he didn’t know who the other person was, he chose the safest answer.

“I’m the nephew of this room’s owner, who’s currently leisurely enjoying a bath, pretending not to notice a visitor. If you have a message, tell me, and I’ll pass it on. But I don’t see anything to write on, so I hope it’s short. My memory is bad, you see.”

As Jeong Tae-ui finished speaking, after a brief pause, a soft chuckle was heard.

“Ah, then you must be the second nephew. Your name…?”

“…Jeong Tae-ui. And you?”

Jeong Tae-ui soon realized. This man knew him. No, more accurately, he knew Jeong Chang-in’s family relations. That he had two nephews, and that one of them was very intelligent and famous.

Since it seemed to be a well-known fact within the Asia Branch that Jeong Jae-ui was Jeong Chang-in’s nephew, it wasn’t strange for someone else to know about the family relationship.

The man was silent for a moment, then spoke.

“Ilay.”

Jeong Tae-ui nodded. Ilay. Good, it’s an easy name to remember.

The man, who introduced himself as Ilay, was silent again for a moment. Another hand appeared on the screen. It was the left hand, symmetrical to the right hand that had been visible until now. Two white, beautiful hands intertwined.

As Jeong Tae-ui unconsciously sighed, only then did Ilay open his mouth.

“What’s wrong?”

“No… Have you never been told your hands are beautiful?”

“My hands?”

Ilay retorted, seemingly bewildered. As if examining his own hands, the hands on the monitor unclasped and moved. The fingers, bending at each joint, were a picture in themselves.

He clenched and unclenched his hands once, then intertwined them again, saying in an amused tone.

“Well, that’s the first time I’ve heard that. Do you like my hands?”

“Yes, they’re beautiful.”

“Haha, alright. Then you can have them detached. But only after I’m dead. Instead, attach your hands to my arms. Even a corpse is pitiful without hands.”

“…I’d rather decline. Those hands wouldn’t suit me anyway. If I attached those hands to my body, they’d just float delicately there, disconnected.”

Jeong Tae-ui furrowed his brow. This guy always delivered gruesome jokes as if they were serious.

Ilay chuckled softly for a while, as if something had pleased him.

“Indeed, it probably wouldn’t suit you. Your hands suit your face well.”

The voice, tinged with laughter, said.

Jeong Tae-ui, knowing that he was seen more broadly from the other side, tapped the phone’s lens.

“It seems this lens has a wider field of view. Well, seeing only beautiful hands filling the screen isn’t bad either.”

Ilay gave a slight chuckle.

“By the way, if you’re there now, does that mean you’ve joined the Asia Branch?”

Jeong Tae-ui shrugged at Ilay’s question.

“Yes, thanks to my uncle, I got in without any procedures.”

“Aha, a parachute.”

Jeong Tae-ui couldn’t help but laugh at Ilay’s jocular remark. Come to think of it, he was right.

Just then, the sound of water was heard again from the bathroom. Perhaps his uncle, having finally finished bathing, was rinsing off and about to come out.

“My uncle seems about to come out. Will you wait a moment? Or should I deliver the message? Or you could call back.”

Realizing that he still hadn’t heard the reason for the call, Jeong Tae-ui spoke, and Ilay muttered a languid ‘Mmm,’ then said.

“Tell him I found the book he was looking for. Laurent Castillet’s Mythology, 1925 edition. $3500.”

“Okay. Laurent Castillet’s Mythology, you said. 1925 edition, for 3500…”

Jeong Tae-ui, replaying that in his mind, fell silent for a moment.

Laurent Castillet’s Mythology was a book Jeong Tae-ui had heard of and had wanted to see. But still.

“$3500? For one book?”

As he muttered in disbelief, Ilay laughed aloud, as if knowing what he was thinking.

“If you tell Chief Instructor Jeong, he’ll be pleased, thinking I got it quite cheap. So relay that message, and I’ll see you again if the opportunity arises someday.”

The beautiful hand gave a slight nod in farewell. And with that final image on the screen, the call ended.

Jeong Tae-ui stared blankly at the now utterly dark screen again, then sighed ‘ha’ and leaned back deeply into his chair.

He knew, of course, that rare books were traded at high prices, but he hadn’t known it was to this extent. Now that he thought about it, this room, and his uncle’s house, were like treasure troves. He could understand why a book thief might target them.

Jeong Tae-ui gazed with fresh eyes at the book on the desk, trying to estimate its value, when his uncle, already out of the bathroom and wiping his hair, approached and patted his shoulder.