Chapter 52 - The Wrong Baek

Mrs. Song turned to both of them with a half-hearted smile, apparently trying to deal with an unexpected situation:

"Dr. Kim! Glad you're here!" she exclaimed, and turning to her guest, said,

"Allow me to introduce two people while our Ye Rim finishes dressing."

The man looked with interest and a friendly smile at them, and the Pearl's owner made the introductions:

"This is our resident singer, Duk Mi. And the young man here is a very esteemed person for us at Pearl, Dr. Kim Jun Hyeon. Please meet President Baek Won Geun, owner of Home Paradise chain store, a friend of Miss Nam."

Kim was embarrassed that he did not know anything about this chain store, but was saved by the octopus, or rather, Duk Mi:

"Ahh, Home Paradise ! That Namdaemun household items chainstore!"

"Your home pre-ttier/ your fam-ily happier/ the be-est store/ and the best pri-i-ces/, right next to yo-yo-you!"

President Baek hummed the jingle awkwardly, but with a gleam in his eye and a smile, handing his card to both of them. Jun Hyeon and Duk Mi tried their best poker faces, cringing inside about President Baek's lack of singing skills; but he was a charismatic character to meet, at least.

Kim greeted him appropriately for his own age, and returned the gesture. And now that he had heard the jingle, he remembered the sticky melody in the mellow female voice he had heard on the radio for a few years already. '...was it Ye Rim?' He had to ask,

"President Baek, your jingle, I mean your store's jingle… Is Miss Nam singing?"

"Precious Miss Nam saved my life!" The older man was emphatic. "No one could have done better than her. The idiots say I should change, revamp the jingle! What a nonsense! It's perfect as it is! It's my charm! Miss Nam is my lucky charm! By the way, does she already know I'm here?" He turned to the club owner, who said she was going to call the singer and left them. The president then briefly introduced his staff, and then Kim realized that one of them was carrying a large box with a world-renowned brand_ clearly a flamboyant gift for "the precious Miss Nam."

"I didn't recognize it before, but now that I did, it's the voice of our sweet Miss Nam."

Duk Mi spoke with a beatific smile, and Kim squinted at him, intrigued by the sudden change.

"Ye Rim is like a daughter to me. Maybe not a daughter, because I'm not married, but rather a niece. A cherished niece, that's it. Aigoo, a little problem happened today in our rising star's dressing room, and my sweet little friend is now wearing my dressing room. I say, I don't care; actually I think she, being a girl, needs more space than I do. … I am a man used to the night and the difficulties of artistic life. I can dress anywhere. But our young and fresh Miss Nam, is what, but a fairy?"

The visitor laughed with pleasure, but Kim thought he saw in his slanted eyes a cynicism about Duk Mi's exaggerated speech.

"Aigoo, aigoo. Glad my dear young friend is among such kind people! When she left my company, I even cried. I'm not ashamed to say! This man here even cried when she waved her little hand goodbye, saying, 'Thanks for everything, my friend President Baek!' " He patted his chest, and made a ridiculous falsetto to simulate Ye Rim's speech. The doctor almost rolled his eyes and wondered if he would see a battle royale of exaggerated people unfolding in front of him. He wasn't sure which one would rise as winner.

"But I was so glad to hear from her today, inviting me to come here this night to see her!" The Home Paradise President added, clapping his hands. "Aigoo, aigoo, I'm so anxious."

Kim was stunned by the latest casual revelation of the older man. Ye Rim had invited the president of the popular product chain to come to see her tonight. And, too, she had invited Jun Hyeon to come to the backstage... Things were beginning to fit in their places, in the surgeon's mind.

The dressing room door came out, and the three men turned to wait for Ye Rim to make her entrance_which did not disappoint her oldest admirer, her sunbae and rival, or the doctor who was perplexed by the whole situation.

Kim felt his heart ache, because it was torn between his new suspicions, and the sight of that beautiful woman and her red and sensual mouth; and how elegant she was in a dark blue velvet dress_ which she fit perfectly, he noted_ and with her hair carelessly done in an updo.

She seemed, for the first time, to blush at the unexpected attention upon her — or maybe not so unexpected, as he suspected— at the dressing room door. But soon she returned to normal and noisily exclaimed, showing all her joy in seeing his friend and former boss.

"President Baek! Oh, omo, you came! You came to see me, President Baek!"

"My dear Miss Nam! Of course I did!"

Kim watched this reunion unfolding with attention. In fact, his eyes, just like Duk Mi's, never left the reactions of either. He would love to know what this whole story in Ye Rim's past was like. The President of Home Paradise had been very clear that she had been his employee. Things did not fit well, such as this extravagant reunion with an expensive gift that Ye Rim was receiving right now.

"President Baek! Omo, you shouldn't!" The box was opened, by the helpful secretary, and Kim noticed the shock and greed in the singer's eyes… and Mrs. Song as well.

The President's ego was puffed up like a balloon, and he was acting like a full-tail peac.o.c.k, while Duk Mi barely discreetly disdained the woolen manteau with furred collar from the French brand.

"Please, girl, don't act so stiffly formal! You don't have to refuse… We're friends or not?" the president boomed.

Ye Rim nodded emphatically.

"Yes? And I'm happy to meet you again. When I thought, 'I'm going to see Nam Ye Rim ssi today, I have to bring something', I remembered that you were into these fashion magazines and… Well, the saleswoman said this coat was on the cover of that Vogue magazine last winter. Has it gone out of fashion already? You know, I don't understand high fashion, just what ajuhmas need for their homes, hehe… I can get you another; just let me know."

In a way, even the flamboyant, ostentatious behavior of the merchant who bought an expensive coat for a girl half his age, was less shocking than the fact that Ye Rim allowed him to actually put the said coat over her shoulders. Dr. Kim suddenly felt a strange pressure in his neck; black blurred dots popped in his peripherial view.

The surgeon remembered his grandfather saying about the amount of flowers the singer received, enough for her to distribute often to the club goers. Now, a coat that Jun Hyeon thought cost a facelift, why was this man being so generous? 'Aish, for every Miss Golightly there is an old idiot willing to impress her.'

That Mr Baek was pathetic, and pitiful, the doctor could fully understand. He just waited for the moment when his eyes met hers briefly. He wished to challenge Ye Rim with his gaze, to show now the honest and misunderstood girl she claimed to be all the time, since they stumbled over each other in the cemetery days ago.

But she stroked the fur of her coat collar with a loud sigh of appreciation.

"How can I deny such a gift, President Baek! You embarrass me!"

"Hehe, don't be like that. I'm glad to see you before my trip to Malaysia."

Mrs. Song, beside her, looked smiling and definitely impressed after speaking on a walkie talkie.

"President Baek, perhaps you would like to join your guests, we have already prepared more tables. We are very happy with your visit. Ye Rim should start the show!"

The singer nodded, and Kim thought he had seen what he needed to see there. There was nothing wrong. Only Nam Ye Rim was an ordinary and fully understandable person.

When their eyes met once more, as the President and his staff left the backstage, she seemed to apologize for something. He just raised his eyebrows, accepting the situations as they presented themselves.

By the time Ye Rim took the stage, Kim Jun Hyeon had already left Pearl.