Chapter 3
The Draw
1:00 p.m.
All 138 students in the Art Department had gathered in the underground plaza without a single person missing.
The practical building of Sehyun Arts High School’s Art Department consisted of drawing rooms and major rooms that could hold about ten students each, a ceramics room that could hold more than forty students, and research rooms for the practical instructors. Because of this, the underground plaza was often used whenever such a large group had to gather.
“Everyone prepared well for the test, right?”
Among the students carrying art supply tubes and drawing boards, the first-year practical department head, Teacher Choi Hyung-wook, appeared.
He had a sturdy build and curly hair tied tightly behind his head. He was about a head taller than most of the students, making him stand out in many ways.
“Noooo!”
“Ughhh. Save us!”
Most of the students reacted fiercely to the unwelcome greeting.
Choi Hyung-wook gave them a fake smile as if he found their behavior cute, then climbed onto a chair he had brought from the practical room.
“All right. The test will begin at 1:30. When it ends at 5:30, we will begin grading immediately. You will be evaluated in nine grades, from A+ to C-. As I told you before, one of the eight plaster statues will appear on the test.”
“Ughhh! There are too many!”
“That’s right! They’re too difficult!”
At the students’ complaints, Choi Hyung-wook smiled with his eyebrows curved downward before encouraging them in a quiet voice.
“There’s no need to be nervous. The tests here are only practice and part of the process toward the final test you will take for college entrance when you become third-years. Just think of this as one of the many tests you will take to prepare for the real thing.”
The students who had been making noise gradually became quiet and listened to him because of his calm charisma.
Choi Hyung-wook continued while making eye contact with each student one by one.
“Even if you lack skill right now or make mistakes, there is no reason to feel discouraged or disappointed. Everything will become a valuable experience for you. Besides, you’re only first-years. You still have plenty of time. Just entering Sehyun Arts High School has already proven that you have enough potential. So I want all of you to believe in yourselves. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Some of the students seemed deeply moved by his warm words of support and answered loudly.
Choi Hyung-wook looked satisfied and then checked the watch on his wrist.
“All right, let’s hurry. Today’s test will be four hours on a three-quarter sheet of paper. If you need to use the bathroom during the test, you may go. However, you must ask the teacher supervising the test for permission. And remember, if you are caught cheating, such as using a cheat sheet, you will receive zero points!”
“Yes!”
“Then I hope everyone gets good results after all the hard work you’ve put in!”
“Yes!”
The atmosphere was becoming heated with determination and excitement.
In the middle of it all, Suhyeon gave a bitter smile.
In the past, he had fallen for Choi Hyung-wook’s polished words and actions and thought he was a true teacher who sincerely cared about teaching.
He had never known that Choi Hyung-wook accepted bribes and shamelessly cheated to favor the students he had already chosen.
‘Grading? What grading? This test is wrong from the very beginning.’
Suhyeon shook his head.
It was a ridiculous comedy.
According to what Kim Ha-young had bragged about in the past, every piece of paper inside that drawing container should have the name Caligula written on it.
“All right, then. Let’s announce the test subject. Does anyone want to come up and draw? Raise your hand if you volunteer!”
At Choi Hyung-wook’s signal, the class presidents came forward carrying the drawing container.
Choosing the test subject by drawing lots on the day of the test in order to make it fair, and having one of the students draw the subject, were nothing more than convincing tricks to make it look fair.
‘Now that I know the truth, it makes me even angrier.’
Suhyeon glared coldly at the drawing container and calmed himself.
‘It’s okay. This show is going to be ruined anyway. The flow of events has already changed greatly from the past.’
And somehow, everything was happening exactly as he expected.
“Teacher!”
Yoon-hee, who had a rather impatient personality, tilted her head and raised her hand.
“Oh, Cha Yoon-hee. Do you want to come up?”
“Ah, that’s not it.”
“What?”
“I heard that Caligula is going to be on today’s test…”
“Huh?”
Her words were missing all the context, but they were powerful enough.
Choi Hyung-wook’s face instantly looked as if he had bitten into something rotten.
“What the hell are you talking about!”
Choi Hyung-wook shouted angrily, and his ears quickly turned red.
It was enough to make Suhyeon think that this was exactly what people meant when they said a guilty person reacted first.
“I know it doesn’t make sense, but there was a note in my locker.”
Murmur, murmur.
At Yoon-hee’s words, the students began to stir one by one.
And then—
“Teacher, me too!”
“I got that note too.”
“Wow, me too. I got one too.”
“Huh? You too? Does it look like this?”
“Wow, shit. It’s exactly the same. I got this one too!”
Complaints about strange notes being placed inside their lockers began pouring out.
Even the students who had originally ignored the notes started making a huge fuss after discovering that the same thing had happened to others.
‘Yeah, this is what high school students are like. We’re at an age when even a small incident can make us act as if the whole world is about to collapse.’
Suhyeon smiled slightly before suddenly raising his hand.
Before Choi Hyung-wook could shout at everyone and calm down the commotion, Suhyeon needed to deliver one heavy blow.
“Teacher. I got a note saying that even if you draw eight times, Caligula would definitely come out every time.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Damn it!”
Perhaps Suhyeon’s innocent answer had irritated him greatly, because Choi Hyung-wook quietly cursed.
His face was turning red and blue, completely beyond his control.
The image of the kind teacher who had been smiling warmly just moments ago had disappeared without a trace.
“Han Suhyeon! Do you have that note with you right now?”
“Here, teacher!”
Suhyeon took the note out of his pocket and obediently handed it to Choi Hyung-wook.
“Who else received a note!”
At his irritated shout, the students looked around nervously before slowly raising their hands.
There looked to be more than fifty of them.
Choi Hyung-wook’s pupils shook violently.
Suhyeon calmly watched his flustered face.
Now, what are you going to do?
Are you going to find out who among those students is the culprit?
More importantly, how are you going to solve this situation right now?
“Ahem. It seems someone was playing a prank. Who was it? If you did this without realizing how big the situation would become, it would be better to come forward honestly now. If we investigate later and find out who did it, I can’t say what kind of punishment you might receive!”
It was a subtle threat.
At the same time, he was making a considerable effort to portray this as nothing more than an individual’s mistake or someone’s malicious prank.
‘But I can’t let this just disappear without a trace.’
Suhyeon raised his hand again.
The firewood had already been prepared.
Now it was time to light the fire.
“Teacher. But if someone really played a bad prank, couldn’t they have tampered with the drawing container too?”
“…What?”
All the color drained from Choi Hyung-wook’s face.
He was so shocked that he could not even give a proper answer and simply opened and closed his mouth.
Meanwhile—
“That’s right! Teacher! Isn’t the drawing container dangerous too?”
“Wow. Who is it? Who actually did this?”
“Wow, this is creepy. It’s really scary. What the heck.”
“Open it, teacher!”
Driven by curiosity, the crowd rushed toward the drawing container.
“You little brats!”
Choi Hyung-wook shouted angrily, but his mind had already gone blank.
If he insisted that they were talking nonsense and went ahead with the drawing, what would happen if Caligula really came out?
And what if they demanded to check the other notes too?
There were plenty of powerful people among the parents of students who had not paid bribes.
This was Sehyun Arts High School, after all.
If such a suspicious incident reached the parents’ ears, there was no doubt that the situation would grow completely out of control.
Ah, shit.
Choi Hyung-wook’s complicated feelings were clearly visible on his face.
“All right, all right, quiet!”
Just then.
A low but authoritative voice rang out.
It was Kim Yoon-soo, one of the younger practical instructors.
He was highly skilled, but because of his upright personality, his relationship with Sehyun Arts High School had been short in the past.
Right.
Teacher Kim Yoon-soo had been here.
Suhyeon looked at Kim Yoon-soo for a moment with a nostalgic and happy gaze.
“You’re all too excited! The teachers will thoroughly investigate the notes and the drawing container, so you should focus on the test for now!”
Kim Yoon-soo put his index finger to his lips to signal them to be quiet, and the noisy students gradually lowered their voices.
“Class presidents, come forward.”
At Kim Yoon-soo’s call, the class presidents quickly moved forward.
“Take out one sheet of four-quarter paper and cut it into pieces of the same size to make new drawing slips. Then write the names of the eight plaster statues on each slip in order. Fold them to the same size and…”
He looked around before continuing.
“Hmm, that would work. Bring me that black plastic bag. We’ll put them in there and draw from it. That should do, right?”
“…Yes.”
“Yes.”
After neatly taking control of the situation and giving instructions, Kim Yoon-soo looked toward Choi Hyung-wook and asked for his belated permission.
“Is it okay if we proceed this way, teacher?”
“Uh, uh. Let’s do that. The test is what matters right now.”
His face was dazed but filled with anger.
However, there was no choice but to follow those words for now.
Murmur, murmur.
The students’ suspicions had already grown too much, and if they did not do something like this, the school would remain noisy for a long time.
He was irritated at the thought that the plan he had secretly prepared had gone to waste, and that complaints from the parents who had given bribes would soon come pouring in.
But for now, taking one step back was the right choice.
As Choi Hyung-wook clenched his back teeth, a new drawing container was prepared.
“All right. It may look a little rough, but it was made in front of everyone. You all agree, right?”
“Yes!”
“We saw it clearly!”
“It’s already 1:20. We’ve wasted a lot of time. We need to start the test soon. So, who wants to come out and draw?”
By then, Kim Yoon-soo had taken over the proceedings.
Choi Hyung-wook quietly stepped down from the chair and glared sharply at the students while holding the drawing container in his hands.
He looks like he’s so angry he could die.
Now that things had actually turned out this way, Suhyeon’s heart, which had remained calm until now, began pounding.
‘The flow really changed. This time, the test is fair.’
Thirty minutes earlier, during lunch.
Suhyeon had left the school cafeteria early and secretly moved around to check the drawing container.
If all eight pieces of paper inside really had the name Caligula written on them, he planned to replace them with proper slips.
The problem was that security was tighter than he had expected.
The drawing container was kept in Choi Hyung-wook’s research room, making it difficult to access.
So Suhyeon thought of another method.
A way to create confusion and shake up the situation.
‘Let’s send anonymous notes. Notes saying that Caligula will appear on the test.’
Ideally, he wanted to write 138 notes and send one to every student in the Art Department, but he did not have enough time.
To hide his handwriting, Suhyeon wrote the short messages with his left hand and slipped them into the lockers of outgoing students while avoiding everyone’s eyes.
In other words, he sent them first to students who were most likely to speak up publicly.
And his prediction came true perfectly.
Starting with Cha Yoon-hee, the students who had received the notes stepped forward and raised suspicions that someone had interfered with the test.
If the drawing container had been proper, Choi Hyung-wook would have immediately proven his innocence right there.
But judging from how the situation had unfolded, it was clear that what Kim Ha-young had bragged about while drunk in the past was true.
Anyway—
“I’ll do it.”
Suppressing the strange emotion rising inside him, Suhyeon slowly raised his hand.
“Good. Han Suhyeon, come out.”
Kim Yoon-soo called Suhyeon forward.
“Ooh, Han Suhyeon. What a brave guy.”
“Lucky hand! Please draw an easy one!”
The students, more concerned about the upcoming test than the unpleasant incident that had just happened, sent him a mixture of admiration and encouragement.
Swoosh.
Suhyeon put his hand into the black plastic bag that had been hastily turned into a drawing container.
Rustle.
He picked out one piece of paper.
And then—
“Julien.”
He unfolded the paper and read what was written on it.
“It’s Julien.”
At the same time—
“Waaaa!”
“Yes! It’s Julien!”
“Han Suhyeon, you’re the best!”
“Han Suhyeon, I love you!”
When a relatively easy and familiar plaster statue was announced, the students jumped up and cheered as if they had won the lottery.
At the same time, the faces of Choi Hyung-wook, Kim Ha-young, and several others involved in this dishonest scheme twisted unpleasantly.
But that had nothing to do with Suhyeon.
His attention was focused entirely on the life ahead of him, a life that would be completely different from the past.
