Van Gogh Reborn!

232

Sin and Punishment (8)

“You came.”

Damien Carter greeted Goseoyeol.

He had contacted him with the thought that it might be the last time, but he had not expected him to actually come.

The man he had admired had an angry face.

“Come in.”

Goseoyeol ignored Damien Carter, who tried to take his bag and coat, and entered inside.

“Have a seat. I have some good tea.”

“Fine.”

Damien Carter hesitated as he was about to fill the coffee pot with water.

It was what he had anticipated.

He pressed the button without caring.

“I heard you’re moving to Paris.”

Damien Carter asked as he sat on the sofa, but Goseoyeol did not answer.

Only the sound of boiling water flowed between the two.

“By the way, congratulations on your late congratulations. I sincerely congratulate you on winning the gold medal at the SNBA Salon. I didn’t hear from you.”

“Why.”

Goseoyeol cut off Damien Carter’s words.

“Why did you do that?”

Damien Carter closed his eyes as he saw the sadness seeping out of the angry wrinkles.

“I was hungry.”

It was like yesterday, 20 years ago.

“I emptied my pocket and bought two bagels. I ate one that day and half the next day. If I ate the rest, I would starve tomorrow.”

“…”

“I had no pride or anything after starving for three days. I asked the owner of the store where I worked part-time for a loan. The wretched man gave me a month’s salary for some reason. He said he was closing the business. He said I had worked hard.”

Thud-

The coffee pot button went down.

“I had to find a job as soon as possible. I tried everywhere, but there was no place that would take a 35-year-old man who majored in art.”

Damien Carter got up and went to the coffee pot.

“Being poor was not a sad or miserable thing. It was a scary thing. It was a thing that made me powerless in front of fear. I was just waiting to die.”

He waited for the boiling water to cool down and scooped out the tea leaves.

“Then I met Jay Jopling.”

Goseoyeol glared at Damien Carter with his mouth tightly shut.

“He asked me if I didn’t want to make big money. When I said yes, he gave me 1,000 pounds on the spot. He told me to pay the rent, eat, and plan a work.”

Damien Carter poured hot water into the teapot and set the timer as he continued his story.

“A week later, he came back and asked me what kind of work I was going to make. I showed him the design I had worked hard on. It was a work with red glass attached to a skull.”

It was the initial design of .

“He said that it wouldn’t make a splash like that. He told me to think more and gave me 500 pounds. He said he would come back in a week.”

Damien Carter poured the tea into the cup.

“I drew all the patterns I could think of. I wondered how I could satisfy him. I showed him about a hundred, but he shook his head. He gave me 100 pounds and said he would come back in a week. It seemed like he was giving me the last chance.”

Goseoyeol didn’t even look at the tea that Damien Carter offered.

“I couldn’t blow the opportunity that I had barely found. But I didn’t know what to do. I tossed and turned for a week and suddenly. Really suddenly, I thought, what if I made it with real human bones?”

Damien took a sip of the tea and continued his story.

“Jay Jopling loved it. He suggested that the decorations should be real jewels instead of glass. When I said I didn’t have the money, he brought me 600 carats of sapphires in a few days. A month later, he introduced me to the sponsors and opened a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.”

“Do you want to say that you didn’t know what they were trying to do. Is that what you want to say?”

“No.”

Damien didn’t avoid his gaze.

“I knew from the beginning that they were using me. I willingly joined them.”

“Carter!”

Goseoyeol shouted.

He doubted if Damien Carter, who confessed his crime without any shame, was really the person he knew.

“Aren’t you ashamed!”

Damien Carter exhaled deeply and continued his story.

“It was because of some confidence.”

“What?”

“I thought that the reason I wasn’t recognized was because the marketing was wrong. It was because I had no name that I was ignored. If I just got known, everyone would recognize my work. That was my thought.”

Damien Carter chuckled.

“It was a foolish delusion.”

He sneered at his past, when he was young and immature.

“Just once. I waited for someone to buy my work just once. I thought that someday, someone would appreciate my work, no matter what the Daemon members did.”

Gosuyul narrowed his eyes.

“But as you know, that never happened. As time passed, I began to wonder if I was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t the marketing that was flawed, maybe I just didn’t have what it takes to succeed. Or maybe art itself was an illusion. Maybe marketing was everything.”

“…I misjudged you.”

“But then!”

Gosuyul stood up abruptly, and Demian Carter raised his voice for the first time.

“…But then, Marso and Ko Hun appeared. They proved that they could be loved without relying on the author’s reputation.”

Demian Carter lifted his head.

“I was jealous.”

He swallowed his saliva, biting his lips as his emotions overflowed from his heart.

“And I was frustrated. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was just me who was lacking. Marso said to me, as if he could see through my heart. He said, if you feel wronged, try again.”

Demian was confused.

If he won the competition with Henri Marso, it would be the victory of Jay Jopling’s cartel.

It would mean that his dream of being an artist, which he had longed for all his life, was invalidated by mere marketing.

If he lost, it would prove his incompetence.

Demian Carter could not accept either outcome, and he just did his best.

Like before.

Like he always did.

“Thankfully, Marso brought a very nice work. I had to accept it.”

“Carter.”

“Isn’t he a really kind friend? Thanks to him, I could pay for my sins. And now, I don’t have to destroy my babies.”

All the works that he had destroyed at Jay Jopling’s request were his precious children.

“Carter.”

“I didn’t tell you this to get your sympathy. I don’t want to deny my guilt.”

“…”

“You asked me if I wasn’t ashamed. Yes, I am. If I could go back to that time, I would make the same choice.”

Demian’s voice became more and more agitated.

“I needed money. I needed attention. I mocked the people who praised my work, even though they didn’t know what I wanted to say. But I was satisfied with the fact that they saw my work. If I showed it to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, then one of them would recognize it!”

He didn’t have the conditions to continue his work.

He barely managed to complete one piece with the money he scraped together, but he had no chance to exhibit it.

“But. That wasn’t it.”

He wasn’t ashamed.

He couldn’t overcome it, even though he gave up his morality and struggled.

“Isn’t it ridiculous? I was miserable, but at the same time, I was convinced. Yeah. No matter how many times you say a stone is gold, it won’t become gold. It was just me who was lacking. Just as there are people who talk nonsense because of the name, there are people who know real art.”

“I didn’t know you were so stupid.”

Gosuyul opened his mouth.

“Are you saying that the people who chose you over Marso are all idiots? Do you think they chose you because of your name, not because they could see your work? Do you really think that?”

“…”

“Don’t you get it yet! What you have done!”

Gosuyul was angry.

He sympathized with Demian’s past.

He didn’t know that he was suffering so much, always smiling.

He regretted that he didn’t ask him once.

He wished he had paid more attention to him.

But that didn’t justify Demian’s actions. Not legally, not to himself.

“Don’t you feel sorry for the people who liked your work? Don’t you feel guilty? Don’t you know that your actions have negated your admiration and your own work?”

Gosuyul shouted with a mix of pity and anger.

“If you were going to do that, you should have come to me! You asked the boss to pay you back, but why didn’t you say anything to me? If you were that desperate, you should have asked me for help! You were ashamed to talk to me, but you were okay with doing that?”

“…”

“You said you would do the same thing if the situation came again. You said you weren’t ashamed. Then why did you donate to charity? Did you think that would wash away your sins?”

Demian Carter couldn’t answer.

“If you were proud, why did you throw away the fake sapphire? Did you want someone to recognize your sapphire?”

Gosuyul didn’t believe Demian Carter.

If he really didn’t feel ashamed, he wouldn’t have donated to charity.

He wouldn’t have thrown away the fake sapphire and the rabbit fur with his signature so carelessly.

I never made a distorted flame with glasswork skills that I learned when I was too poor to afford sapphires.

I never named my work made of fake jewels .

Damian Carter felt his throat tighten as he realized that Go Soo-yeol knew everything he had intended.

He had no idea what he had done, unaware that the person who understood him was right in front of him.

But it was too late.

‘If you were so desperate, you should understand why Marso is angry. You should apologize, not comfort him.’

A month ago.

His heart, cracked by Ko Hun’s words, finally collapsed.

Go Soo-yeol looked down at Damian Carter, who was shaking his shoulders, and took out a painting from the bag he brought.

“Hoon said this.”

Damian Carter lifted his head.

There was a single iris in a vase in front of his eyes.

“He said he sympathized with you if you did it because of your poverty. Because you wanted to be recognized.”

“…”

“But he also said he hoped you would never forgive yourself. Because you ruined all the works you had made. Even if some of your fans forgive you, he hoped you wouldn’t.”

Damian Carter clenched his fists.

“This is a gift from Hoon.”

Go Soo-yeol left the hotel room without looking back.

Damian Carter, who was looking at Ko Hun’s , shed tears.

Behind the iris in the vase, irises in the flower garden were shining brightly, each showing their own beauty.

They seemed to say that you were also a beautiful flower like them, but you could never return to the field.

[Damian Carter voluntarily returns to his country, admits all charges]

[Damian Carter arrested at the airport, “I committed an unforgivable sin. I will accept it humbly.”]

[Where is Jay Jopling?]

[The boss and his employees]

On the 30th, Emily Nelson (37), Tom Simmons (33), and Jacob Green (32), who were Jay Jopling’s secretary and assistants, were arrested at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport.

They were found to have persuaded Jay Jopling to withdraw $12 million to secure their escape funds before his overseas accounts were frozen, as his British account was suspended.

They will be investigated as suspects.

Meanwhile, Jay Jopling has been missing for two weeks.

[Jay Jopling found dead]

On the 4th, the Rotterdam police received a report that a corpse was seen under the Erasmus Bridge at 7:20 a.m. and investigated the scene with an ambulance, finding a body and sending it to the hospital.

The Rotterdam police explained that the corpse was identified as Jay Jopling, a British businessman, by his belongings and appearance.

They added that they would investigate the circumstances of the death of Jay Jopling, who was accused of illegal money laundering and tax evasion due to his collusion with Sotheby’s in the UK.

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