Artifact Reading Inspector

“I didn’t mean Monet’s painting… let me hear about that first.”

Sanghun took out a notebook and looked for the page where he had written about it.

“It was two weeks ago. They reported to the police that one of the paintings they had kept in their mansion in Pyeonchangdong had been stolen. The police went there, of course, but when they arrived, they were told to leave.”

Haejin, while thinking that it was unusual for an agent of the NIS to use a notebook like a detective from the 90s, asked back, “Why?”

“When the police arrived, they said the painting wasn’t missing. One of them had leased it to a friend and didn’t tell the rest of the family, so it was just a misunderstanding.”

“Hmm…”

“That painting was Monet’s Terrasse a Sainte-… Ad… resse. Do you know it?”

Sanghun couldn’t pronounce the painting’s title well.

“I do. But I didn’t know Hwajin had it… well, I guess Hwajin has quite a number of great paintings.”

Sanghun nodded.

“I guess it is to pay fewer taxes. Anyway, it ended like that, and a reporter who found out about this tried to write about it, but that idea was rejected by his superiors. That’s all I know. It’s your turn now.”

Sanghun opened an empty page of his notebook and stared at Haejin with a pen in his hand.

That was somewhat stressing, but that was how he worked, so Haejin decided not to care too much about it.

“You know I went to America and stayed there for a few days, right?”

“Of course, I know your whereabouts better than anyone.”

“After I was done in America, just after Sotheby’s auction was over, I got a call from Korea. Hwajin wanted me to appraise a painting. But they told me about the painting only when my plane was about to leave the airport.”

“They really cared about security.”

“We should say that, right? Anyway, they didn’t tell me which painting it was. They gave me only the name of the artist.”

“So, it was like…. ‘Gogh’s painting’ instead of ‘Gogh’s self-portrait’?”

“Yes. It was Roy Lichtenstein. But the moment I saw that name, I knew which painting it was.”

“Hmm… Roy Lichtenstein… I don’t know much about this stuff. Is he famous?”

Anyone who didn’t know about art would have had trouble recognizing him.

“He was an American pop artist. You don’t know him, do you? But do you remember Kim Sangcheol exposing Hwajin’s secret funds in 2007?”

Sanghun nodded.

“Of course.”

“At the time, Sangcheol also revealed the list of paintings Hwajin had secretly bought through Saeyeon Gallery…”

“Oh!”

Sanghun could guess which Lichtenstein’s painting it was.

“Do you remember now?”

“It… it was… was it Happy Woman?”

“Happy Tears.”

Sanghun clapped.

“Yes, yes. Happy Tears. That man is selling books now after revealing all that, right?”

“Yes.”

“Wow… this is serious. So, that painting Hwajin lost is that Lih… man’s Happy Tears?”

“Correct.”

“Are you sure?”

Sanghun looked at Haejin with a sharp gaze, what Haejin just said could bring massive effects.

“Yes. In fact, I asked to meet you not just to tell you about this.”

“Then?”

“Prosecutor Park Dongryul visited me before lunch today. He was thinking I was the man who had stolen that painting from Hwajin.”

Sanghun wrote that name in bold and tapped it with his pen.

“Hmm… that is suspicious enough, right?”

“Ms. Eunhae… oh, she runs my museum instead of me now.”

“Oh, yes, I know her.”

“She thinks Lim Hyoyeon, the daughter of Vice Chairman Lim Sungjun, is behind that prosecutor. And even if she isn’t, Hwajin must have made him come after me.”

Sanghun nodded and agreed.

“Of course. There is no reason for you steal that painting, and moreover, you didn’t have the time to do that while working with us.”

Sanghun knew better than anyone how much Haejin had suffered in Japan, so he thought Haejin couldn’t be that thief.

“Please look into him. And if I ever hear about that painting’s whereabouts, I will tell you immediately.”

Haejin just asked to look into Dongryul, but Sanghun realized what he really meant and smiled.

“I will threaten him just enough. Then, he will stop acting so rashly.”

Sanghun was just saying that. He couldn’t mean that he was really going to threaten a prosecutor. Unless he was mad…

“Thank you.”

The moment Haejin went out of the car, Sanghun shook his phone and smiled.

“I should thank you. Please call me anytime if you need me.”

“Okay.”

Haejin went back to his museum. Byeongguk and Sujeong, the newest addition to Haejin’s team, were waiting for him.

“Let’s go!”

Haejin didn’t even ask where they were going. There was no need to, it had to be the makgeolli place where they usually went.

However, when they arrived, it wasn’t where he had expected.

“It’s okay, right?”

“Of, of course.”

“Hey, you have earned so much… let us eat some meat.”

Byeongguk had taken him to a beef barbeque place that wasn’t even a hundred meters away from the museum.

“Okay. Please, eat a lot.”

If Byeongguk hadn’t helped Haejin in Japan, he wouldn’t have been able to get the Double Dragon Sword so easily. Of course, Haejin could buy them lunch.

“Are you dating someone, Sujeong? You’ve become even prettier?”

Sujeong, who used to wear only jeans, was wearing a simple dress. She looked good in it.

“Hhmm…”

Her face turned red, and she didn’t say anything. There was something going on.

“What? You really have a boyfriend?”

Byeonguk spoke instead, but he sounded sulky and said, “She has gotten a boy from somewhere.”

“Dad! Be careful with what you say.”

Sujeong glared at her father, and Byeongguk flinched then looked away.

“Okay. Anyway, she is seeing someone these days.”

Of course, Haejin was curious about it.

“Who is he?”

Sujeong smiled and replied, “Oh, he is just an office worker. We’re of the same age.”

“Oho… how did you meet him?”

“One of my clients introduced him to me. She told me I should meet her son and even gave his phone number. At first, I didn’t want to, but she kept asking so I decided to meet him just once. And then I found him okay. So, I met him a few more times, and… anyway, it happened.”

Sujeong grinned widely, she looked happy.

“Congratulations, but when are you going to start working at the museum?”

“Me? I’ll start next week. There are a few tools in dad’s shop in Insadong that are better than the ones at the museum, so I’m planning to take them with me.”

Haejin wondered how the equipment of a personal restorer is better than those in a museum, but he guessed Byeongguk had supported her well.

“Okay, I’ll tell Ms. Eunhae to treat you well.”

“She already has promised to do that. I’ll be the most well-treated restorer in this country. Oh, and we have decided to have some classes about restoration in the museum.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Korean universities have restoration classes about eastern artifacts, but there are only a few classes about western artifacts. So, we agreed to make classes about the restorations of artifacts in the museum. They are just simple lectures for now, of course, but Ms. Eunhae has promised to help me get a degree at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.”

“Wow… that’s impressive!”

“Haha! I’m always impressive, but when can I see that Double Dragon Sword?”

Haejin hadn’t shown it to the public yet. Only the officials of the Cultural Heritage Administration and reporters had seen it.

“I am going to show it next month. I can’t just reveal it, so I’m going to throw an event.”

“An event?”

“Yes, next month in August. I am planning an event about the retrieval of our legacy that was wrongly taken from us to celebrate Independence Day, 15th of August.”

“Ohh… that’s a great idea. If you just show it, people will just think, ‘Oh, I see.’ But if you show it with that kind of meaningful event, people will be even more moved.”

“Yeah, right? Ms. Eunhae is planning that, so she will soon tell us about the details.”

Sujeong was excited about it, but Byeongguk, who had been quietly eating, asked, “Are you not going to Japan again?”

“To Japan? Why?”

“Well… it’s just…”

Byeongguk looked down, but Haejin could see what it was about.

“You had fun in Japan this time, right?”

“Oh, well… I just…”

“But we were retrieving the Double Dragon Sword. Don’t even think about just going back unless there’s something that much valuable.”

“Okay…”

Byeongguk had enjoyed excavating in Japan. He wanted to start working again, but he was embarrassed about it at the same time, so he couldn’t look into Haejin’s eyes…

But then, Haejin recalled the site in Gimhae.

“Hey, uncle, why don’t you… excavate a tomb in Korea?”

“Tomb in Korea?”

Byeongguk hadn’t imagined he would get to excavate in Korea, and he thought legal excavation wasn’t for him.

“Yes. I think there’s a tomb in Gimhae… but our researchers haven’t found it yet.”

Haejin had thought they would have found it by the time he got back from America, but they had found nothing yet.

Finally, someone protested to the provincial government, and Eunhae said it was bad since a cable car facility was about to be built at the site.

So, Haejin had planned to let another excavation institution handle it, but now when thinking about it, excavation and grave robbing were not that different. They were both about finding hidden things.

The only difference was how rough the process would be.

“Why is that tomb so special?”

“I think it is a tomb of Gaya. Ogura once went there, but he had to leave after Korea was liberated, and he felt so bad about it that he wrote about it in his tomb.”

Byeongguk’s eyes got bigger.

“Really? Where is it?”

“I don’t know for sure… but I think I can pinpoint the spot in a 500m radius.”

Haejin could give a 10m radius, but that would be way too suspicious, so he said 500m.

Although he did pity Byeongguk as he would have to roam around the mountains…

“500m, that should be easy!”

Byeongguk rolled his fists in excitement. That was a relief.

“Okay then, I will give you the location, so please go there with our researchers. Or you can go alone and call them if you find anything.”

“I shouldn’t let them suffer in this hot summer, I will look on my own. But what will you give me if I find it?”

Byeongguk was expecting something good. So, Haejin offered something he couldn’t resist.

“I will officially hire you as my museum’s excavation researcher.”