#hlcn: jiyoung

[holocene-sims]

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june 3, 2022 5:15 p.m. casbah gallery

[soobin] and fifteen minutes later, your mom is back.

[henry] oh, she brought ethan and his mom. that explains the delay, they were probably auntie gossiping in the parking garage that whole time.

[grant] isn’t that–

[henry] the guy who told you he thought you were dead last time we ate at their family restaurant?

[grant] i was going to say your friend that started a fire in your dorm by burning his microwave mac and cheese, but yeah, that also describes him.

[cerise] he thought you were dead?

[grant] long story on all fronts.

. . .

[insook] grant! my adopted son! i'm so glad you’re here tonight!

[grant] of course i am! if i missed the exhibition opening, i would never forgive myself. it’s an honor to be here for you guys.

[insook] and you must be cerise, the art curator sister.

[cerise] that would be me! hello, mrs., um–

[insook] no, no, no formalities. you're practically family already. insook is fine. or mama ong. that’s what grant calls me.

[cerise] still, hello! it’s very nice to meet you finally.

[grant] so, what do you think, mama ong?

[insook] i think sanghoon would be pleased with this.

[grant] obviously, i'm not an artsy person, so i don’t know how to comment on the exhibition in an intelligent way, but it’s beautiful in here. he was very skilled, and he should have those skills celebrated and immortalized.

[cerise] your husband was talented, and i see he was fond of impressionism.

[insook] he was! he dabbled in lots of styles, but impressionism was always his favorite. he was the practical sort, and the mundane subject matter spoke to him to begin with. then he lived in france for a while when we were still dating, and he saw the best of the best of the movement there. i would have fallen in love with it, too, if i saw a monet in its original environment.

[cerise] also, from what i understand from grant, most of his career took place here, so this must feel like a fitting place for these paintings to stay.

[insook] it does. he made a lot of works across many different places, but he said he had the best experiences and inspiration here. he felt like the people and landscapes here are especially genuine. we lived for the last few decades on the upper peninsula, and…

[henry] you get to know people and places very well because it’s so quiet. quiet and also kind of empty in some spots. it’s a paradise for those who like the kind of art he liked.

[insook] you’ve probably heard from my son by now, but he hated private collecting.

[cerise] i did hear that.

[insook] artistically and personally, he learned a lot from living here, and we as a family had good lives here. now that can be returned to the community. he’d be happy if even one person appreciates this region through his eyes. i think when you’re born in any given place, you pay more attention to its flaws. you think of the negatives–the bad experiences you’ve had, the changes a town has gone through, whatever it is you dislike–but then you see that place through the eyes of someone who traveled thousands of miles to come here and loved it enough to portray its positives in a painting. it changes your perspective for the better.

[grant] from my perspective, i agree. i was looking at that set of paintings of my hometown on the corner wall a few minutes ago, and my first reaction was that you couldn’t have a more perfect painting of the scenery. and that’s me, the person who hates where i grew up so much that i avoid going anywhere up north other than my family’s houses, saying that. it was actually kind of easy to put the hatred aside for those paintings.

[henry] talk about mission accomplished.

[grant] will you miss living around here?

[insook] me? i will, just like i've missed my family and friends in seoul. i know good people here–your family, for one–and like i said, we lived a great life here. sanghoon and i were happy. henry was happy growing up here. it's just time to do something else in my life now that i'm retired and unburdened, you could say. but you ask that like i'm not coming back, though. i'll be back to visit!

[soobin] if she can’t take her adopted son with her, she’ll have to come visit you.

[insook] we could take you! no, you should work on going back to being a pilot, although…

[grant] if that doesn’t work out, you can come back and get me? sure, i'm open to anything.

[insook] we marry you off to a friend’s kid, you get an easy visa. jiyoung’s niece is single. she's quite shy, so i've never met her, but i hear she's a sweet girl. no, i'm kidding. you should pick your partner yourself.

[grant] i don’t know, i seem to have terrible taste. can i really be trusted to pick?

[henry] the karaoke girl seemed nice.

[grant] she did, but i talked to her once, so that doesn’t count.

[cerise] do you mind if i ask when you're moving?

[insook] when? oh, two weeks from now.

[cerise] wow! shit, are you guys leaving soon, too? i did hear that right that you're going with her?

[henry] you did hear that right, but no, we’re here until, i don’t know, late summer or early fall. we don’t have an exact date yet. well, okay, not anymore. we did.

[soobin] we were planning to move around the same time because, like, if we’re really doing this and your mom is leaving at the end of the spring, let’s just go. we’ll sell the house when she leaves, and we’ll follow her.

[soobin] and then i found out i was pregnant last month, and i panicked. i feel like death lately, so i'd prefer not to be stuck on a plane over the pacific or with the burden of selling a house and moving our furniture. i think i'll wait until i feel less like death and am less scared of something going wrong.

[henry] we’ll figure it out. we are at least giving ourselves an extra month or two to make decisions, which will be fine.

[cerise] okay, in that case, delaying things is rational, i think, but congratulations! that’s exciting.

[soobin] it is! we are surprised but very excited.

[grant] are you feeling okay, by the way?

[soobin] i mean, better than the last few times you've seen me, but if tonight were not extremely important, i would be in bed right now with 64oz of ginger ale.

[soobin] but i'm sticking it out. i'm good.

[holocene-sims]

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june 3, 2022 5:05 p.m. casbah gallery

[henry] hey, i wanted to thank you. this wouldn’t have been possible without you.

[cerise] oh, i didn’t do much, just poked around my contacts until i found someone with an open gallery space. you did all the talking and organizing, and grant was the one to approach me for help.

[henry] either way, my mom and i aren’t involved in the highbrow art scene anymore. it wouldn’t have been easy for us to find someone and then get them on board. there are lots of artists and not a lot of gallery space. but you know people, you have some sway, you felt like you owed grant a favor, and he called it in for me, so that’s all unusually convenient.

[cerise] well, you're very welcome. i'm happy i could be useful!

[soobin] by the way, where is your brother–never mind, there he is!

[grant] hi! i'm sorry i'm just arriving now! not that you need an explanation, but i will give you one anyway. i had to go home and change clothes after my visit with therapist, and i hit rush hour traffic coming back this way. did i miss anything?

[henry] oh no, you’re three minutes past opening! horrible news, they’ve removed all the art already. absolutely all the art. you missed everything.

[grant] darn, i guess i fucked up big time. i guess i'll just have to look at all this “definitely not art” stuff on the walls instead.

[henry] no, but you really haven’t missed anything. my mom hasn’t even come out to start schmoozing yet. she’s, uh, somewhere.

[soobin] she said she was going to meet someone and walk them over here because they weren’t sure where to go. she’ll be back soon.

[grant] oh, okay, okay, got it! i was wondering where she was so i could go say hi. she is, for all intents and purposes, the star tonight, in lieu of resident artist.

[grant] have you guys done the big tour of the room yet?

[henry] cerise has, soobin and i haven’t. to be honest, i was waiting for you. i'm beyond happy to see my dad’s art out of storage and displayed somewhere nice, but…

[grant] but it’s emotionally intense to go and look at each piece up close?

[henry] exactly. i could use another emotional support figure before doing it. i haven’t seen any of these paintings in almost a decade. i mean, yes, i saw them when i helped my mom pack up her house and when we transported the paintings here a few weeks ago, but that’s different. that’s just glancing in their direction.

[henry] you know me, i don’t cry, but if i could, i would. it feels like i'm saying goodbye to my dad a second time.

[grant] well, it's perfectly fine if you do cry.

[henry] also, i thanked cerise, but i should thank you for the billionth time, too. thank you for helping us save my dad’s art. we’ve had room to keep it all because we’ve had my dad’s studio room to store it, even after he passed, but my mom can’t take everything with her to the new house.

[soobin] we would have tried, but we don't have the space now, and we won't down the line either because we agreed to move in with her in korea.

[henry] and no one else we know has room to take anything other than a favorite piece or two, so it was sell it or try to display it somewhere. you know all this, though.

[grant] ah now, we couldn’t sell it, could we? your dad was fond of ranting about the "evils" of private collecting.

[henry] right. my mom briefly considered it, but it felt wrong. he really was a big believer in “art is for the public.” she also considered just renting some kind of space to store it again, but that felt wrong, too. all these years, it was at least in the room where he loved to paint. shoving it all in a storage unit seems cruel. his work deserves more respect than that. it should be seen.

[henry] trying to get it displayed was the dream, but it felt entirely like a pipe dream for a while. so, yeah, thanks for being on the same page about it and doing what you could to make the dream come true.

[grant] you don’t have to thank me. i know how terribly it hurts to lose the last reminders you have of someone you love. i want you to have his art preserved.

[holocene-sims]

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june 25, 2021 5:00 p.m. boseong restaurant

🎵 🎵 🎵