Devil’s Music

In the Curator's Office at the New York Metropolitan Museum, Lucas, with his heavy body swaying, held a sugar-coated donut in one hand and a coffee in the other, watching the curators at work. When Kate, who was preoccupied with her makeup in front of a mirror as usual, walked in, his plump face contorted with irritation.

“Seriously, that woman never cares about anything but how she appears to others. Does she not realize that everyone else is too busy worrying about their own appearances to pay attention to her? Even Abigail, who is usually calm, seems to lack the composure expected of a curator. Is there something wrong with that corner?”

Lucas, frowning deeply, started to approach Kate but then noticed Abigail at the next desk, fervently taking notes from her laptop screen.

“What are you doing during work hours? If you’re watching some cartoon to study, I won’t let it go.”

Doubting whether someone of his large size could sneak up unnoticed, he quietly moved closer behind Kate and Abigail. To his surprise, he saw an art-related page on Abigail's screen.

“Huh? Georges Seurat? He’s a French Neo-Impressionist painter... Why is she studying him so seriously?”

As Lucas stared intently at Abigail’s laptop screen, Kate, sensing the large shadow behind her, quickly hid her foundation and stood up.

“Hello, Senior Lucas,” Kate greeted him a bit loudly, prompting a startled Abigail to also stand.

“Oh, hello, Senior Lucas.”

“Instead of spending time applying makeup, how about using this time to cultivate yourself as a curator, Kate?”

Kate, shielding the cosmetics spread on her desk with her body, pushed her hair back nervously.

“Ahaha... Yes, Senior.”

Lucas glanced at Abigail’s laptop screen again and nodded.

“Like Abigail, studying the information about the artists on display, and helping to provide a more educated experience to our visitors—that’s what a curator should do. Kate, you should learn from Abigail.”

Abigail’s eyes widened in surprise at Lucas’s unusual praise. Pleased with something, he even patted Abigail on the shoulder encouragingly before heading back to his desk. Kate, still displeased, stuck out her tongue at his retreating figure and then started packing her makeup into her pouch.

“Damn, that pig is so annoying. But Abigail, what have you been looking at all morning? It’s not like you to study.”

Normally, Abigail would have been dazed by Lucas's rare compliment, but as he walked away, she was again deeply engrossed in her laptop. Kate asked her something, but Abigail was too focused to respond.

“Ah! Yes, yes? What did you say, Kate?”

“What are you concentrating on so much?”

“Oh, this is information about Georges Seurat.”

“And why are you looking at that? His exhibition started two months ago. If you were going to study, you should have done it two months ago. Why start now?”

“That, that’s because...uh...”

Kate smiled slyly and flicked her finger.

“I heard Kay is coming after hours? The boss assigned you to guide him.”

“Gasp, you knew?”

“Haha, women’s gossip travels across oceans in a blink. So Kay has taken an interest in Seurat?”

“Eh, I can’t fool you, Kate.”

Kate pulled a chair on wheels to sit next to Abigail and looked at the laptop screen.

“Why is Kay coming? Does he want to enjoy the art alone when there’s no one else?”

“No, you know he’s not that entitled. He’s coming to study music.”

“Music study? Why in an art museum?”

“Who knows? He’s a genius, right? How can we understand the minds of geniuses? Even if they behave oddly on the surface, they produce results, so they’re called geniuses.”

“Well, even so, Kay isn’t that eccentric, right? He’s within a reasonable level of understanding.”

Abigail, lying on the desk, only turned her head to glare at Kate.

“Is it because he’s handsome that you understand?”

“Of course, being handsome forgives everything...haha, no, that’s not it, he’s really nice and kind. Remember at the Lollapalooza Festival, he provided us with tickets and a place to stay while we were sitting like beggars? That’s a lifetime highlight for me.”

Abigail, still lying down, looked blankly at her laptop screen.

“That’s true, but the person who’s researching is different from his usual self.”

Kate moved closer to Abigail and asked.

“How so?”

“He brought a chair and sat in front of two paintings by Seurat until ten o'clock at night.”

“Really? Just sitting there without saying anything?”

“Yes, and while I enjoyed watching his face

, it was frustrating because it didn’t help.”

“Which two paintings? ‘Bathers at Asnières’ and ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’?”

“Yes, those are the only two Seurat paintings on display.”

Kate pouted her lips.

“That’s odd. There are many other great artists and famous paintings; why focus on just those two?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, looking for some information I might not know about, hoping it might help Kay.”

“Is he coming today?”

“Yes, he’ll be coming daily for a while.”

As Kate sat by the window, focused on something, Abigail noticed her pulling out makeup from her pouch.

“Are you putting on makeup again?”

Kate looked at herself in the mirror of her foundation and laughed.

“Haha, since Kay is coming today, I need to put some effort into our ‘coincidental’ meeting.”

“Ugh, as always.”

“Haha, Abigail, you should put on some makeup too. What is that, your bare face?”

“That’s enough, sigh.”

“A woman needs to care for herself to be beautiful. I’ll go to the restroom.”

As Kate swayed her hips towards the restroom, Abigail sighed while watching her back. She then reached out to open the foundation and looked at herself in the mirror, starting to apply makeup surreptitiously.

**

At five in the afternoon.

As the museum was closing, Abigail greeted the departing visitors at the door and checked her wristwatch. Geon was expected to arrive about ten minutes after the visitors had left. Listening to Kate making plans for the evening at a club, Abigail heaved a sigh of relief and glanced at the documents she had tucked under her arm.

“I’ve done enough research, I’ll definitely be able to help him today.”

Ten minutes later, as the museum entrance was now quiet and locked, the cold air made Abigail rub her hands together. Her eyes widened as a large Cadillac Escalade pulled up.

“What, a bulletproof vehicle like those used by presidential security? Is it some high-class guest looking for the boss?”

Abigail was puzzled as she watched the car when the back door opened and out stepped Kay.

“Kay?”

Recognizing her, Geon raised his hand and smiled. After saying something inside the car, he closed the door and approached her.

“Hello, Abigail. You’ve been waiting because of me, sorry about that.”

“Oh, oh, no, not at all.”

“It’s still early, haven’t you had dinner yet?”

“What? Oh, yes.”

Geon shook a paper bag he was carrying and smiled.

“How about we have this packed meal together, hehe.”

“A packed meal?”

“Yes, Suzuka Miyawaki packed it for me. Let’s eat together, we’re friends.”

With her mind elsewhere, Abigail was led by Geon to the museum's staff dining room, where they found a window seat in the deserted area. Geon began unpacking the lunch that Suzuka had prepared, and Abigail just stared blankly.

“Come on, sit down. You like rice, right? Suzuka packed a Japanese-style lunch, but it’ll suit American tastes too.”

“Uh...yes, thank you.”

Whether it was Suzuka’s cooking skills or the mere fact that Suzuka Miyawaki had prepared the lunch, Abigail could only gaze dumbfoundedly at the beautifully decorated side dishes before her as Geon began eating without hesitation.

“What’s that?”

Looking like he was trying his hand at using chopsticks, Geon glanced at the documents Abigail had placed beside her as she put down her chopsticks and handed them over.

“I thought it might be helpful, so I did some research.”

“Oh? What kind of research?”

“It’s about Georges Seurat, covering everything.”

“Wow, really? Thank you.”

Geon took a bite of his food and started flipping through the documents as he chewed. Abigail, overwhelmed by his gratitude, bowed her head and began to enjoy the lunch herself. The first page of the documents contained a simple profile of Seurat’s life, which intrigued him, but apart from the fact that he was born into a wealthy family and was rejected by prominent Paris museums for his paintings of workers, there wasn’t much else of interest until Geon's eyebrows twitched at the next page.

“A paper by Michel Eugène Chevreul?”

Abigail, almost choking on her food, nodded.

“Yes, Chevreul was a French chemist who restored old tapestries, and his paper includes studies on light and color by Georges Seurat.”

Geon looked back at the documents after a quick glance at Abigail. He quickly swallowed the remaining food in his mouth and his eyes lit up.

“Chevreul discovered that after viewing a color, the observer sees an exact opposite, a complementary 'afterimage'? A complementary afterimage?”

Pausing his meal, he focused on reading the brief

explanation in the paper and then looked up.

“Could I find the original of this paper?”

“Of course!”

As Abigail nearly shouted, excited to jump up, Geon held her back with a laugh.

“Let’s finish eating first. Haha.”

Abigail’s face turned red as she noticed rice stuck on her face reflected in the window, and she bowed her head even lower.

>

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