raknovel Chapter 28 Walking Side by Side in the Alley After Many Years
Chapter 28 Walking Side by Side in the Alley After Many Years
Time passed slowly.
Jiang Yan didn't look up from the dense audio waveforms until the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen jumped to 19:03.
He took off the monitoring headphones that were pressing painfully against his ears, leaned back in his chair and stretched, his cervical spine making a series of soft cracking sounds.
It was already dark outside the window, and the neon lights of Apgujeong shone through the gaps in the blinds, casting patches of light and shadow on the mixing console.
Jiang Yan touched the phone on the table. The screen lit up, and the red unread badges on KakaoTalk displayed numbers.
First, some news from Tiffany: [The photoshoot is finally over! My face is stiff from smiling so much. Are you free tonight? Noona's treating you to barbecue!]
Jiang Yan replied quickly with his fingers: 【I have something to do tonight, I'll treat Nuna another day.】
Next came the internal message forwarded by Ahn Jung-hwan. Jiang Yan quickly scanned the key points and replied: [Received, thanks, hyung.]
Kim Minjung's message board, on the other hand, was completely empty, with not a single message.
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow; something was definitely not right.
Back when she was still in Liangshan, she could send dozens of messages a day even though she was more than 300 kilometers away, from what she ate in the morning to seeing a stray cat on the road. She wished she could broadcast her 24-hour itinerary live.
Today is her first day at the company. Logically, she should have a ton of new things to tell him. Why is she so quiet?
He tapped his finger on the screen and sent a message: [Kotaro, are you still practicing? Have you had dinner yet?]
After sending the message, he put his phone back in his jeans pocket, got up, and turned off the iMac screen.
I waited for the power indicator light on the monitor speaker to turn from green to red before taking out my phone again, only to find that the message was still unread.
Jiang Yan thought about it for a moment, but didn't take it too seriously.
The signal in the large practice room was already terrible, and with the head of the trainees patrolling from time to time, it's normal that the coward wouldn't dare to secretly look at his phone.
He locked the recording studio door and took the elevator to the lobby on the first floor.
The cold white lights in the lobby made the marble floor gleam with a cool light, and several trainees who were leaving late walked by with their heads down.
As Jiang Yan walked out, he flipped through his contacts.
My finger lingered on the number that I had saved but never dialed for a long time.
He took a deep breath and pressed the dial button.
The receiver emitted a monotonous beeping sound, one beep, two beeps, three beeps.
Just when he thought no one would answer, the phone was picked up.
"Oh, not stuffy?"
Choi Sulli's voice came through the receiver, slightly hoarse as if she had just woken up.
"It's me, Jiang Yan."
There was a full second of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a soft chuckle: "You finally called. I thought all that writing my name on the back of your employee ID was for nothing."
Jiang Yan leaned against the Roman columns at the entrance of the SM building, watching the streetlights gradually light up in the twilight. "Ani, I've been busy in the recording studio all day. Are you free tonight? I'd like to treat you to dinner."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and you could faintly hear the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves.
Then Choi Sulli slowly said, "Near Apgujeong Rodeo Station, there's an art studio called Moonlight. I'll send you the location; you can walk over."
"An art studio?" Jiang Yan was slightly taken aback.
"Okay, let's not go to a restaurant. I don't really want to go to crowded places right now. That's my friend's art studio, and it's already closed at this time. But I have a key. Come to Exit 3 of Rodeo Station, and I'll pick you up."
Jiang Yan was silent for a moment, then said without asking any further questions, "Okay, I'll set off now."
"No need to rush, be careful on the road."
"Inside."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yan stood there for a moment, holding his phone. He buttoned his denim jacket all the way up to the collar and walked towards Rodeo Station.
It only takes fifteen minutes to walk from the SM building to Rodeo Station; it's just two street corners away.
2016 was the peak of the Korean Wave, and the entire Apgujeong Rodeo Street was brightly lit.
The glass windows of luxury flagship stores are spotless and so bright that they reflect people's images. Well-dressed young people stroll arm in arm. There is a short queue at the Paris Baguette store on the street corner, and some people are eating freshly baked croissants as they walk.
Jiang Yangang arrived at Exit 3 and saw Cui Xueli standing under the streetlight from afar.
She wore a black slip dress with white polka dots, the neckline trimmed with a thin white border, revealing a glimpse of the edge of a white lace inner layer.
He casually threw on a light khaki pinstripe long-sleeved blazer, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the hem hanging loosely.
Her light chestnut-colored long hair was casually draped over her shoulders, with a natural slight curl at the ends, and a few stray strands of hair were blown by the wind and clung to her cheeks.
He wasn't wearing a hat or a mask, just a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses that concealed the faint dark circles and bloodshot veins under his eyes.
With his hands in his pockets and a pair of slightly worn white Converse high-top sneakers on his feet, paired with white slouch socks, the toes of his shoes tapping idly on the small grass sprouting from the cracks in the paving stones.
He had no agent, no assistant, and no bodyguards.
She stood quietly in the shadows of the street corner, completely out of place among the glamorous crowd around her.
Jiang Yan stepped forward in a few strides: "Have you been waiting long?"
Choi Sulli looked up, her glasses slipping down to the tip of her nose. She blinked and then gently pushed them back up with her fingertips.
The warm light from the streetlamp fell on her face, half of it bright and half hidden in shadow.
Her eyes were still as big and round as when she was a child, but a layer of mist veiled her eyes, hiding a weariness and brokenness that Jiang Yan couldn't understand.
"No, I live nearby, it's only a five-minute walk."
She pulled one hand out of her pocket and waved a bunch of polished brass keys at him. "Let's go, the studio is in the alley."
Jiang Yan walked beside her, the two of them side by side, neither of them speaking.
A night breeze swept in from the direction of the Han River, carrying the damp earthy scent of the riverbank and the faint sweet fragrance of forsythia blossoms along the roadside, causing the bare ginkgo branches to sway gently.
Turning into a narrow alley, the noise behind me seemed to be cut off with a single stroke.
The alley was quiet, with only the sound of two people's footsteps echoing on the bluestone pavement, and the occasional sound of a car horn in the distance.
The art studio called Moonlight is hidden at the deepest part of the alley; it's a converted floor of an old residential building.
There was no sign at the entrance, only a small, warm yellow wrought iron wall lamp hanging there, casting a gentle glow in the night.
Choi Sulli unlocked the door with her key and stepped aside to let him go in first: "Watch out for the steps, there's a bump here."
The studio was filled with the faint scent of watercolor paints and turpentine, and the walls were covered with frames of all sizes, crooked and uneven.
Some were already finished, while others were only half-painted with the base color. Several used paintbrushes and empty paint tubes were scattered on the ground.
In the corner stood several plaster statues covered in a thin layer of dust: Agrippa, Voltaire, and a Venus statue missing half an arm.
In the innermost part of the room, near the window, there was an old wooden easel with an unfinished acrylic painting on it.
Against a deep blue, almost black background, a blurred coastline is painted freely with white and silver-gray.
Choi Sulli walked to the easel, reached out and turned the painting so that it faced the wall.
"Please sit wherever you like."
She pointed to an old brown leather sofa against the wall, covered with a pilling tartan blanket and a few faded cushions.
"My friend teaches children to draw here every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoon. It closes at 7 pm. I come here to hang out for a while when I have free time, and paint a little. Oh, and there's water, orange juice, and cola in the fridge. What would you like to drink?"
"Water is fine." Jiang Yan sat down on the sofa, his gaze sweeping over the paintings on the wall.
Most of them are abstract paintings and figure sketches, with messy and flamboyant lines and bold use of color, such as bright yellow, bright red and cobalt blue, like clusters of burning flames. Only a few are landscapes with a somber tone.
Choi Sulli took a bottle of iced mineral water and a can of Cass beer from the refrigerator, opened the bottle and handed it to him, then sat down on the wooden stool opposite him.
She pulled the tab and took a small sip. Tiny droplets of cold beer condensed on the glass and trickled down her wrist. She wiped them with her hoodie sleeve, then looked up and stared intently at Jiang Yan.
The studio was eerily quiet, with only the second hand of the old-fashioned wall clock in the corner ticking away.
The two people were less than a meter apart, separated by so many years, countless unspoken words, and missed days and nights.
After a long, long time, Choi Sulli looked into Kang Yeon's eyes and asked, word by word, "Grandma said you came to Seoul a long time ago, why didn't you come to see me or contact me?"