16 – Cypress Mosaic

Even ​after ​arriving ​near ​the building in ​Tribeca, ​Joshua ​remained ​sitting ​in the driver’s seat ​for ​a while. His ​fist, drumming against ​the ​steering ​wheel, ​created ​a ​sense of tension. ​The ​rock ​music blaring at ​high volume inside the ​car only ​added to ​the anxious ​atmosphere.

Arctic Monkeys’ ​Brianstorm.

Following ​the ​rhythm of the ​frantically fast ​drums, the speed at ​which Joshua’s fist struck ​the wheel grew faster ​and faster.

Right, ​one ​day is understandable.

He’s not just some ​random guy, and he’s ​that ​beautiful. ​He ​probably ​wouldn’t want to ​reach out ​the ​very next day ​just ​because he got a business ​card. Yeah, ​that’s ​right. He can ​afford ​to ​be ​like ​that.

But still… ​isn’t ​three days ​a bit much?

He must have been hit ​on countless times ​by countless guys. ​Perhaps some of them ​possessed names ​as powerful as ​Joshua’s ​own. Even so, ​his appearance was ​nothing short ​of ​stunning. It ​was ​almost nonsensical ​that ​he was ​serving ​at ​a bar like ​that. ​So, Joshua ​could ​understand ​if ​he had a high opinion of himself.

However, during those three days of waiting, Joshua’s pride had [stolen content]stolen contentbeen wounded beyond repair. He felt like ignoring the person even if they did finally contact him.

Muttering a curse, he finally slammed his hand hard against the steering wheel with a loud thud. Then, he turned the wheel toward the underground parking lot.

As he took the elevator up to the bar, he thought about what he should say when he faced that face.

Right, let’s not get too angry.

Getting angry would only prove how desperate I am, wouldn’t it?

I’ll act as if I expected this kind of reaction.

I’m not letting him off the hook today. Even if I have to load that precious bicycle of his into the car whole, I’m making him get in.

However, such plans and resolutions were unnecessary. He had simply wasted his time and energy.

As he was being guided to his seat after entering the bar, Joshua quickly scanned the interior, but the person he was looking for was nowhere to be seen. The employee who came to take his order was someone else.

“Mr. Joshua, would you like to order? Or shall I give you a recommendation?”

Even an employee he was seeing for the first time recognized Joshua and addressed him familiarly by a name he had never provided. Unlike ‘Rian.’

“I don’t see Rian.”

“…Pardon?”

The employee asked back, puzzled by Joshua’s response, which had nothing to do with the question.

“Rian. Platinum blonde.”

“Ah… Rian quit.”

Joshua’s face crumpled instantly. He pushed himself away from the backrest he had been leaning into and raised his voice.

“Quit? When?”

“A few days ago. I think he stopped coming in Read on Read BL Novelsthe day after you visited, [Read on Read BL Novels]Mr. Joshua…”

At the unexpected news waiting for him, Joshua’s lips twisted hideously.

The employee, who had gone to check on the situation, returned with a similar answer. Rian’s last day of work had been the day Joshua visited. Joshua spoke privately with the manager as well, but the manager said he had simply received a message stating that Rian ‘could not come to work because he had found other work.’ Joshua threatened him as if he were about to grab him by the collar, demanding to know what this ‘other work’ was, but the manager only shook his head.

Even for a membership bar, while the guests were strictly managed, it was rare for employees to work for long. Young men and women with decent looks often took jobs at the bar because of the high hourly wages, but they inevitably grew tired of the work of serving others.

“Rian was an employee we wanted to keep for a long time, so we are disappointed as well.”

The manager smacked his lips as if genuinely regretful, and added cautiously to avoid offending Joshua Lockhart.

“However, it is our rule not to ask about an employee’s personal information, let alone their whereabouts after they quit… So, there is nothing I can tell you about ‘Rian’.”

Though he spoke with a face of constant apology, he wouldn’t have told him even if he knew Rian’s whereabouts. Since it wasn’t a degenerate establishment, physical contact with guests was forbidden, and on the surface, providing real names or contact information was also prohibited.

Realizing there was nothing more to dig out of him, Joshua turned away. There was no longer any reason to stay there.

‘Rian’ hadn’t delayed contacting him simply to play hard to get. visit our siteHe had either [Read on Read BL Novels]had no intention of contacting him from the start, or he had lost the intention.

I treated him with patience because he was a high-grade specimen that’s hard to find… and he screws me over like this?

Hot anger boiled up within him, to the point where he might have mistaken it for a passionate feeling of love.

As he took the elevator down, Joshua attempted to make a phone call.

While the line was ringing, he kept biting his lower lip and drumming his fist against the elevator handrail. The movement revealed an emotion that went beyond anxiety and bordered on obsession.

[Mr. Joshua, it’s been a while.]

Even though it didn’t take long for the man’s voice to be heard over the phone, Joshua felt as if he were about to lose his reason at any moment.

[I was bored since I hadn’t heard from you.]

“You’ve got a way with words. It’s not like I’m your only client.”

Haha. Behind a fake laugh, the man spoke.

[It’s just that the other jobs aren’t as interesting as your requests, Mr. Joshua.]

“That’s good to hear.”

[Do you have a new job for me?]

Joshua could almost see the man’s unpleasant face, grinning with glistening yellow eyes.

The elevator doors opened. Joshua hurried toward his car.

“Find someone for me.”

[That’s my specialty. Is this someone who needs to be ‘handled’?]

At the question of whether he was someone to be handled, Joshua narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. However, it didn’t take long to answer.

“Someone who needs to be taught a very proper lesson.”

After ending the call and climbing into the driver’s seat of his low-slung car, a twisted, inscrutable smile hung on the corners of Joshua’s lips.

■

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

It was Lorenz’s personal opinion that the value of this piece was not being properly appreciated precisely because of its excessive fame. People do not contemplate deeply on things they have already become accustomed to. Because they know it well enough to be sick of it, they mistakenly believe there is no more room to savor it.

Since there is hardly anyone who doesn’t know the famous opening motif of this piece, Lorenz was convinced that there were almost no people who truly understood its value.

Beethoven did not give this piece the sentimental title of Fate. The reason it became widely known by a title the composer didn’t even assign was due to an anecdote described in Beethoven’s biography by his student and secretary, Anton Schindler. According to Schindler, Beethoven pointed to the first four-note motif of the first movement of this symphony and said:

“Thus Fate knocks at the door.”

However, there is no way to verify if Beethoven actually said such a thing.

To Lorenz, this piece was simply Symphony No. 5 in C Minor. Exactly as Beethoven titled it.

The structural sophistication where a single motif becomes a theme, transforming and reappearing in various forms to penetrate the entire work. What he liked most was that the piece was driven by logical composition rather than a flow of emotion.

Whenever he listened to this piece, he could focus on rules and design.

That sometimes quieted his headaches and provided rest amidst a peace where everything was logically organized and proceeded according to the rules.

Lorenz owned a meticulously crafted listening room in his penthouse. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all in a room-in-room structure, separated from the main body of the building, almost perfectly blocking out external noise.

With large speakers filling one wall, and heavy amplifiers and playback equipment neatly arranged, it was a space that evoked a laboratory rather than a listening room. Even the optimal position for listening to music was marked on the floor. This was to ensure that the chair could be placed in that exact spot without error even after cleaning.

That place was Lorenz’s sanctuary, his small heaven.

However, a proper listening room was absent here at the Lockhart estate. Until it became his own entirely, he couldn’t make changes to the mansion as he pleased. Therefore, he had to be satisfied with thick sound-absorbing panels, blackout curtains, and large floor-standing speakers from Denmark.

Was that the reason?

Lorenz found it difficult to concentrate on the music.

His gaze, tracing the full score spread out on the stand, had already missed and drifted from the notes several times. The specific face of one person kept coming to mind.

8:43. East 46th Street.

A restaurant with an emerald green awning.

A broken helmet.

The sunlight that poured out into the world the moment that helmet was taken off.