Artifact Reading Inspector

Angelica didn’t move for two entire hours, with her legs crossed and her chin on her hand.

On the other hand, the others in the room looked at her worriedly.

Her expression was so stern and cold, like the severe wind in Alaska.

She had been delighted when the screens were set to see the storage room, but they didn’t expect her to sit like that and worry the others.

“Why don’t we go to have dinner?” Harold asked.

However, Angelica didn’t even look at him and said, “I don’t want to eat. Have you finished the report on the artifacts that Park Haejin has appraised in America?”

“I’ve tried to find, but there wasn’t much. He isn’t a member of America’s Appraisal Committee, and when I asked the Korea Appraisal Committee, they told me he wasn’t one of them, either. So, there isn’t any record…” Harold replied while shrugging his shoulders, but Angelica wasn’t satisfied.

“Then you should have found Korean news articles that can be useful and have them translated.”

“I’m sorry, but as you know, none of us can speak Korean,” Harold then said.

“I can’t understand you, Harold. I thought you were capable enough… do you know how many Korean students are attending this university? If you had brought one of them, there would be a report of dozens of pages in front of me right now. Am I wrong?” Angelica asked.

“Angelica, please don’t be so mad. It will change nothing. What matters is whether he would be able to find artifacts better than those from the Henderson Collection. Shouldn’t we focus on that?”

“You are naïve, Harold. What comes first in an appraisal is the appraiser’s subjective judgment. However, the problem is that the appraiser is that Asian now, and we don’t have anyone better than him! If we fail to find out his weak point, he might take those treasures we have collected. Please, come to your senses,” Angelica said.

Harold thought, ‘Those treasures don’t belong to you’, but he couldn’t say it out loud. He just smiled bitterly while saying, “But the return of the Henderson Collection has been decided already. It wouldn’t be canceled now even if we do find his weak point.”

Angelica glared at Harold and said, “I really don’t understand you. We can’t make progress if we think like that. We must do our best to make things right, even if our superiors have made the decision. Hu… okay, let’s check the artifacts he has shown interest in so far again.”

Harold shook his head, thinking he wouldn’t be getting dinner today.

“Okay.”

“And hasn’t that other appraiser we invited said she would be here by this evening?”

Harold replied, “I called her earlier, and she said she was almost here. She should be here by now. She said the traffic was bad.”

“Oh, nothing good is happening here!”

Angelica shook her head and was about to go out, but then the door suddenly opened, and a woman came in.

Her hair was in curls, but her clothes and her attitude were that of an elite’s.

“I’m late, right? I’m Fina Williams.”

She immediately realized who the boss was and stretched out her hand to Angelica.

“I’m Angelica Baker. Actually, you’re a little too late. That Asian has been here for more than three hours.’

Angelica pointed at one of the monitors, and Fina smiled.

“The traffic in Boston has delayed me. I’m sorry, but I will help you more than you think.”

She looked at Haejin on the screen and was left confused.

“Is that man the appraiser from Asia? He’s way too young!” Fina commented.

Harold Cheong then answered the question.

“Yes. His name is Park Haejin, and he is the founder and owner of Park Haejin Art Museum in Korea. As he is after the return of the Henderson Collection, we think he might have made some kind of deal with the mayor of New York.”

“You said something dangerous. I never heard about that,” Fina replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to mention anything sensitive…”

Fina then said, “Please tell me which artifacts he has paid attention so far, I need to check first. I must find out how good he is.”

Fina demanded the same thing Angelica had.

“Okay.”

Harold got a bad feeling that he was not even going to get any sleep that day.

The student’s dining hall at Harvard University was also called the Harry Potter dining hall as it inspired Hogwarts’ famous dining hall.

The high ceiling, antique but simple chandeliers, and the classical interior all together created a beautiful harmony. Haejin had to spend some time looking around.

He had traveled all around the world with his father and had been used to various food from many countries, so he also liked the dining halls’ food.

But then, someone put down her food tray in front of him and spoke to him in Korean.

“Hello, are you…”

Haejin looked up. She was a young girl, probably just 18. She was pretty so she must have been famous among the boys.

“Yes?”

“Are you Mr. Park Haejin?” She asked shyly, and it made Haejin smile.

He wondered how she recognized him and asked, “How do you know me?”

“Wow! It is indeed you. I’m very interested in art… but may I sit here?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Haejin replied.

She quickly drew a chair, sat on it, and started to talk.

“There have been rumors among Korean students here about you coming here, but I never thought I would run into you like this…” she couldn’t hide her excitement and continued, “You’re here because of the Henderson Collection, right? We were so disappointed because there was nothing we could do to help you even though we know how meaningful it is.”

Haejin was very shocked and asked, “How did you find out about it?”

“Huh? But you wrote about it on your museum’s SNS account!”

“Oh…”

Eunhae must have written about it after Haejin left for New York.

She should have told him if she had such a thing.

“How did the negotiation go?” She asked.

Thankfully, Eunhae hadn’t mentioned the terms. Of course, she was too smart to make that kind of mistake…

“It’s going well,” Haejin replied.

“I hope the artifacts get returned to our country.”

“I hope so, too.”

“Please call me anytime if you need the help of a Korean student,” the student replied.

“Oh, okay,” Haejin was just saying that, but the girl then shyly offered her phone.

“Then…”

Haejin could see only then why she had been talking to him: she wanted his phone number.

Honestly, Haejin didn’t feel bad about it. No men hate pretty girls.

However, he knew too well that it wasn’t the time to exchange phone numbers with a girl, so he politely said no.

“I’m sorry, but I’m dating someone.”

Haejin said that to make the girl give up, but strictly speaking, he had almost married Silvia.

Additionally, he and Eunhae were more than just colleagues, so he wasn’t lying.

Although he felt sorry for Eunhae because of Silvia…

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is it Director Lim Eunhae?”

As Eunhae was so beautiful, it was natural for the girl to think so.

Plus, her beauty was getting more and more famous as she communicated with people on SNS.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Haejin replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just curious. It’s just… you don’t do SNS yourself, so you can’t ask for our help even if you wanted to…”

“I thank you for that. I am very proud of the Korean students studying hard in this faraway country. If I ever need your help, I will ask on the museum’s SNS page. Thank you.”

The girl must have been embarrassed, but she didn’t leave. She then ended up staying until she finished her dinner.

The girl kept eating as if nothing was wrong, but it made Haejin feel rather embarrassed.

However, she wasn’t the only Korean who came to him. After that, every time he had a coffee break or went on a stroll, many Korean students came to meet him.

At first, he couldn’t understand why they were doing it, but as he talked to them, he got to find out how much they had been discriminated as Asians and how proud they were to be Koreans.

Haejin had impressed them deeply by opposing the elite group of the American prestigious university to get the Henderson Collection back.

“So, you have found nothing yet?”

When Haejin and Angelica met again after a few days, she provoked him again like before.

As Haejin was on his way to the storage, he shrugged and asked, “I’ve found something. Would you like to see that now?”

That was unexpected, and Angelica frowned slightly.

Both her and Fina Williams had concluded Haejin had found nothing after watching him on CCTV.

Since the first day until now, Haejin had walked around with his hands on his back, sometimes lifted up an artifact or two, and moved on, so of course, they were thinking he had found nothing.

“Could you wait for a while? I will bring the appraiser we have invited,” Angelica then said.

“Oh, so you don’t know how to appraise it yourself?”

Angelica didn’t like that question and raised her eyebrows while saying, “I manage the museum of natural history. I just happen to manage the artifacts here as well.”

“Oh… I see. Okay. I’ll wait.”

Angelica clearly thought she had been insulted and stomped her feet on her way out.

Then, she soon appeared again with a woman in her 50s.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Fina Williams. You are much younger than I thought… where have you studied? Italy? France? United Kingdom? There’s no record about you here in America.”

Fina asked so many questions the moment she saw Haejin.

“I studied in Korea. Although I’ve never studied abroad, I traveled around the world and learned a lot.”

“Oh, really?”

Fina smiled, clearly looking down on Haejin, but he didn’t mind.

He had experienced it so many times that in deals about antiques, the opponent didn’t matter. The object itself did.

Whether one knew a lot about antiques, it didn’t matter. What mattered was what he or she had.

At how much one would sell it, that problem came after that.

So, when Haejin took the two women near the pot which had surprised him on the first day, he examined their expressions very carefully.

“Have you chosen this painting?”

Out of mere coincidence, another masterpiece was right next to the pot.

“Yes. It’s Georges de La Tour’s painting,” Haejin replied.

“This is La Tour’s?”

Fina frowned hard and stared at the painting as if she couldn’t believe it.

Just as Haejin had thought, the two women weren’t seeing it at all that he had shown this painting only to test Fina Williams.