As I trudged down the steps of my apartment building I adjusted the strap of my satchel. Stepping off the last stair, I stopped in my tracks upon seeing the figure standing only a few feet away. Leaning against his red vehicle, Inguk gave me a small smile and waved as he pushed up to approach me. I took a step back, my heart dropping as the sudden urge to turn tail and run crawled through my veins. Against my better judgment I stood my ground.

“Annyeong,” he greeted. “You’re going to get your dog, right?” I nodded in response. “Great! I’ll take you and we can talk about the exhibition,” Inguk stated, motioning for me to go to his car. I shook my head, fishing around in my bag for my cellphone.

I quickly punched in my message: I don’t need you to take me. My brother is going to pick me up from the animal hospital.

Inguk placed a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me toward his car. “Tell your brother you already have a ride, so he doesn’t need to worry. I have business with you and I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” with that he opened the door and pushed me to sit in the front passenger seat.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth before sending a text to Injoong, telling him that I didn’t need a ride anymore. With a deep, somewhat calming breath, I clutched my phone in my hands in an attempt not to fidget nervously. Injoong texted back a few moments later saying that he understood and to text him if I change my mind.

Inguk slid into the seat and started the car, giving me a gentle command to put on the seatbelt. I obliged,  staring out the window as he pulled away from the entrance of the apartment building and drove down the street. He tried to start some idle conversation, asking me if I had decided on a theme for the show; which I hadn’t yet. Honestly I hadn’t even thought about the exhibition, except when he mentioned it.

Despite my silence he continued to ask me questions, which I would give a yes or no answer to by nodding or shaking my head. If the question couldn’t be answered with a yes or no, then I pretended I didn’t hear him. The drive seemed to take hours, even though it was only nearing twenty minutes.

I practically ran out of the vehicle when he parked, not wanting to be alone with this weird man any more than absolutely possible. I strode the short distance up the stairs and was through the doors when Inguk caught up to me. I made sure to keep at least two feet between us as we approached the counter. I fumbled with the note I prepared this morning and handed it to the receptionist.

The paper read:

I’m here to pick up Hwang Bae. She’s a white Shiba Inu and was left here yesterday after suffering from smoke inhalation.

The girl nodded and told me to sit down while she brought Bae out. I followed her instructions, taking a seat at the opposite end of the bench from a man with a cat carrier on his lap. Inguk sat down right next to me, causing me to shift away from him and turn in the opposite direction.

“So do you have plans today?” Inguk asked.

I thought about his question for a moment before nodding.

“What are your plans?” he asked, leaning forward to see my face.

I huffed, pulling out my phone and typing in my reply: I’m going to paint.

“Without a studio?”

I bit the inside of my lip. Right… the studio almost burned down yesterday. I thought of an excuse, my fingers dancing over the screen of my galaxy note 3.

I have supplies at home.

It was a lie. Haeyun and Kibum didn’t let me keep my art supplies in the apartment. They were afraid that something might go wrong and they would end up with paint on their expensive Gucci pants, or something as equally trivial.

Inguk didn’t look convinced but didn’t get to say anything else as the receptionist came back with Bae trotting at her side. She handed me the leash as I approached, quickly digging in my pocket for my wallet as she made her way around the desk. I handed her my credit card and she input my information before handing the piece of plastic back to me. With that I left with my dog, Inguk following closely behind.

“Instead of going home to paint, why don’t we go check out a new location for a studio?” Inguk asked as we approached his car. I started typing in my response on my phone. I was going to tell him I had commissions to finish, which was a lie. Before I could finish typing, he placed his hand over the screen, drawing my attention to him.

When I looked up my heart was in my throat. His face was mere inches from mine. I snapped my head back down, but not before I noticed something. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Though Inguk’s lips were turned up into a smile, that smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Instead of mirth or a sort of playful glimmer there was something else there.

“No excuses. You need a new work space and the sooner you can find one the better,” Inguk stated, opening the back door for Bae and patting the back seat for her to jump up. She followed his instructions, sitting like a good little girl as he closed the door and then he opened the front passenger door for me. I stared at him for a moment, but sighed and slid onto the seat.

He jogged around the car and started the engine. This time I didn’t need him to tell me to put my seatbelt on. “I’ve already looked into a few places, so all we really need to do is go see them in person,” he said as he drove down the street.

I nodded, wondering when he did all this. Last night? I shook my head, banishing the thought. He probably had better things to do than search online for a new studio. So maybe he saw an ad in the paper this morning? ‘Empty space for rent’ or something along those lines. Yeah, that was probably what happened.

Inguk spent the afternoon taking me around Seoul to the different studio’s he’d found. The first was in Mapo, around thirty minutes from my apartment. Though the location was good, the condition of the space itself wasn’t great. The pipes leaked and half the time the electricity didn’t work; according to the landlord. The second location was in Songpa, around an hour away from my apartment, and it was also very expensive. The third, and final, location was on the outer edge of Gangnam. It was the farthest from my apartment, but the price and condition of the rental space were very good. There were a couple of other locations on the list, but I was adamant about this place. One, it was a good sized space for the price and conditions. Two, I didn’t want to be alone with Inguk anymore than I already had.

The landlord gave me a copy of the leasing contract, which I looked over before signing. The elderly man congratulated me on my new work space before giving me the main key and the spare. Inguk slapped his hands together in excitement, looking around the empty space, before settling his dark gaze on me.

“So, tomorrow I’ll call the moving company to have your stuff brought over here. What time should I pick you up?” he inquired.

I grabbed my phone and typed out a message: I can move the stuff by myself. You don’t need to trouble yourself.

He chuckled. “It’s no trouble. As a curator it’s my job to make sure my artist is working in the best conditions possible, right?” I scrunched my nose, not sure if he was right. I don’t think he was. “Besides, you need a big, strong man to help you move the heavy stuff.”

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at his bravado.

I don’t have a lot of heavy things. Haeyun and Kibum can move the heavy stuff when they get back in a few days. They’ll move it to their liking anyway. I held up my phone for him to read the message.

“Really? Are they interior designers or something?” he asked. I shook my head. Fashion. He raised an eyebrow. “Then why…?” he let the question hang in the air and I quickly answered on my phone: They have their own ideas about how things should look, and I just don’t like arguing with them.

His mouth formed a silent ‘oh’ as he nodded. “Well let’s get going then,” he said as he rubbed his stomach and glanced at his watch. “I’m starving, how about you?” I shook my head, telling him I wasn’t hungry. With the fluttering in my stomach and the nervous tattoo of my heart it was impossible for me to even imagine eating something. “Come on, we’ve been out all day and haven’t eaten a single thing. You have to be hungry.” He ushered me out of the empty studio and to his car, not even bothering to give me time to protest. Bae followed behind us with her tail wagging.

Fifteen minutes later found me sitting at an outside table, positioned across from the pushy curator known as Seo Inguk. Bae sat at the elder’s side, begging him with her innocent puppy eyes, knowing better than to try and beg from me because I wouldn’t give her anything; except maybe a carrot. I pushed the soup around in my bowl, my stomach twisted into knots and completely killing anything the resembled hunger.

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