Chapter 6
Just One (2)
Friday evening was spent entirely pouring out all the ideas that had been stored in Suhyeon’s head.
“Ugh, I’m stiff.”
It had been an easy warm-up, but after taking a four-hour drawing exam in the afternoon and then drawing until late at night, his shoulders and neck felt completely stiff.
“But I feel good.”
Swish, swish.
After sharpening his blunt 4B pencil with a cutter knife and doing some simple stretches, Suhyeon stared blankly at the drawings he had worked on for several hours without taking a break.
“It’s better than I thought. That’s a relief.”
The results were definitely more stable than the drawings in the sketchbook he had checked earlier at the dormitory.
He had experience, of course, but he had also spent a long time thinking about the subjects and techniques, so it was only natural that the result was more complete than what he had produced as a first-year high school student in the past.
Of course, his skill level was still far from his prime.
Since he had returned to around his first year of high school, it seemed that his technical skills had also returned to the level he had possessed at that time.
But there was no problem.
He had already walked this path once before.
Suhyeon knew the shortcut to his destination, and he was confident that through training, he would soon recover his skills from his prime.
Just thinking about it makes me excited.
Suhyeon smiled happily.
Out of the ten sheets of paper he had bought from the art supply store, he had used eight in one evening.
There was a reason for that. Drawings dealing with different perspectives usually formed a set of two.
I divided one subject into two sheets because I wanted to express it from two different perspectives, but that doubled both the time and materials.
……Showing them in this symmetrical composition is intuitive, but from now on, I should also think about dividing them within a single canvas.
Suhyeon nodded as he thought about the order of his next work.
“Anyway, I’ve got the general idea now. I just need to choose one of these and finish it.”
There were eight sheets of paper with completed sketches.
Four subjects.
He wanted to draw all of them, but if he wanted to finish within the weekend, he had to choose one subject and focus on it.
Besides, there was one subject he was personally drawn to.
Suhyeon spread the eight sheets of paper across the floor and carefully looked through them.
The first subject was stairs.
Using differences in perspective, one drawing gave the feeling of going up, while the other gave the feeling of going down.
The unusual composition can make it interesting, but it’s difficult to understand what it is trying to express.
Suhyeon shook his head and moved on to the next drawing.
The second subject was first impressions.
This was the subject Suhyeon was most attracted to.
The background of the pop-art-style drawing was a classroom.
The children’s faces filling the room looked bright and playful when viewed positively, while they revealed dark emotions when viewed negatively.
It expressed the two-sided nature of a person while suggesting that the way someone appears can change depending on what kind of frame the viewer places around them.
It was an intuitive subject that could clearly convey its meaning.
The remaining two drawings were abstract paintings expressing light and happiness.
Now that I’ve put them all together, it’s actually clearer.
Suhyeon nodded.
“As expected, first impressions are the most intuitive, and I think they’ll also be fun for the viewer. It’s easy to understand, too.”
More than anything, there was an inexplicable attraction to it.
He was drawn to it, so he felt that it would probably come out the best.
“Let’s go with first impressions.”
That was all for the first day.
Then, on Saturday and Sunday, Suhyeon once again continued his own intense schedule from early in the morning.
It was tiring, but deciding to spend the weekend that way had been a wise choice.
The dormitory was comfortable, but whenever he stayed at the empty school during weekends or vacations, he inevitably felt lonely. However, once he became absorbed in drawing, time passed quickly.
“Again.”
After deciding to draw first impressions, Suhyeon repeated the sketching process several times.
“One more.”
It wasn’t simply because he disliked the drawings.
If it had been in the past, he would have been satisfied with the quality and moved on to coloring.
“Ha. Just one more time.”
The reason he kept repeating the same process was that the more he drew, the more slightly better methods came to his mind.
Even if it’s tiring, don’t compromise. Let’s go all the way to the end. If I can make a better drawing, I’ll redraw it as many times as necessary, even dozens of times.
And so, on Saturday, he kept repeating the sketches until he was satisfied.
Only on Sunday could he finally begin coloring.
Splash, splash.
After filling a blue water container with water and wetting his brush, he gently rubbed the moderately hardened watercolor paint and dissolved it onto the palette.
First, the bright colors.
Then, the lighter colors.
Unlike oil painting, watercolor painting begins with the brighter colors.
Depending on the amount of water, light and dark colors could be expressed, and Suhyeon liked using just enough water to let the texture of the paper show through.
The feeling of the paint overlapping every time the brush passed over the paper.
The traces of tiny drops of water that gathered slightly when the brush was lifted from the paper.
Savoring those sensations, he first used a large brush to freely paint the background, then picked up a smaller brush and delved into the main subject he wanted to emphasize.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
The sound of the second hand on the wall clock.
Swish, swish. Tap, tap.
The sounds of the brush moving and being shaken off were the only things filling the room.
As time passed, the painting that had existed only inside Suhyeon’s head gradually began to take shape on the pure white paper.
The clearer the painting became, the more vitality appeared on Suhyeon’s face.
“Haa.”
How long had he been absorbed in it?
When he raised his head while rubbing his stiff neck, the light had changed.
“It’s already six.”
The sunlight coming through the windows of the art room, which had initially fallen like a sheet of newspaper, gradually moved from the back door toward the front door before fading away completely.
Grrr.
His stomach gave him a signal.
Only then did he realize that he had skipped both breakfast and lunch while drawing.
It would soon be time for the school store to close.
“Should I stop here?”
Suhyeon stood up with a satisfied smile.
The picture that had been born from his fingertips wasn’t perfect, but he liked it quite a lot.
This is good enough for my first painting.
I wonder how Park Seonhwa will react when I show her this tomorrow.
With a little anticipation, Suhyeon picked up the completed painting.
“Hey! Han Suhyeon!”
Just as Suhyeon was leaving through the school gate, wondering if he should go to a nearby snack shop since the school store was already closed, he happened to run into his roommate, Park Seonhwa, who was returning to the dormitory.
“Ah, hi.”
Park Seonhwa waved her hand energetically in greeting, and Suhyeon smiled slightly and returned the greeting.
“Did you just come out after drawing?”
“Yeah.”
Although he had wiped himself off roughly, faint traces of paint remained on his face and hands, making it obvious that he had been shut away in the art room.
“How’s it going?”
Park Seonhwa quickly approached Suhyeon, her eyes shining with curiosity, but then she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand.
“Wait. I just put pressure on you again, didn’t I? You’re going to see me tomorrow morning anyway, so I put unnecessary pressure on you, right?”
“It’s fine. It’s not that bad.”
“Haa. That’s a relief, then.”
Park Seonhwa shrugged her shoulders and smiled.
“But why are you back already?”
Every Friday evening, Park Seonhwa usually went home and returned to school in time for classes on Monday.
But today was Sunday afternoon, and she had returned to the dormitory much earlier than usual.
“Hehe. I was just excited.”
“About what?”
Suhyeon asked without thinking, then looked at her again with a suspicious expression.
“Because of my painting?”
“Yeah. I was so curious. Oh, but Suhyeon, didn’t you notice? I paged you several times.”
“Paged me?”
It was another word that made him realize he had truly returned to the past.
A pager.
Right. At this time, smartphones didn’t even exist, and even mobile phones were rare.
It was an era when those ridiculously large mobile phones, nicknamed brick phones, cost more than one million won.
For a student, even having a pager was something to be grateful for.
Suhyeon himself had carried around a clunky black pager that he had received as an entrance gift.
“Yeah. I didn’t notice. I guess I didn’t check it because I was drawing.”
“I knew you’d say that. You haven’t eaten dinner yet, right?”
Park Seonhwa smiled brightly and lifted the shopping bag in her right hand.
“My mom packed me a lunchbox. Want to eat together?”
“Your mother did?”
“Yeah. I begged her because I wanted to come back early, so she packed one for me. She packed plenty so I could eat with my roommate. Let’s eat together.”
“Sure. I’d love to.”
Suhyeon nodded and grinned.
“Then, after we eat, do you want to go to the art room?”
“Huh?”
It seemed like an unexpected suggestion, because Park Seonhwa blinked her large eyes.
“I finished the painting a little while ago. I’ll show it to you.”
“Really?”
Park Seonhwa’s eyes sparkled as she shouted.
“Ahhh! I’m so glad I came back early!”
As a result, the lunchbox was pushed aside.
Perhaps because his heart had softened, Suhyeon ended up taking Park Seonhwa to the art room first.
And then—
After seeing Suhyeon’s painting, Park Seonhwa didn’t say anything.
She simply stared blankly at the painting.
“……So you’ve been drawing things like this.”
After looking over Suhyeon’s painting, Park Seonhwa slowly opened her mouth.
“Do you have anything else? If you do, can I see it?”
“That’s not difficult.”
Suhyeon nodded and opened his sketchbook, showing her the drawings that were still in the sketching stage.
“You drew one subject from different perspectives.”
“That’s right. I wanted to show the difference in perspective.”
Sure enough, Park Seonhwa immediately understood the subject of the paintings without any additional explanation.
But that was all.
There was no particular reaction.
Park Seonhwa simply kept her mouth tightly shut and stared intently at the paintings, as if lost in thought.
She wasn’t this calm before.
Suhyeon tilted his head.
In Suhyeon’s memories, Park Seonhwa had been a child who openly expressed her emotions and got excited easily.
Whenever she asked other students to give her their paintings, she had always been very persistent.
But why does she look so serious now?
She isn’t even asking me for one painting.
……Could it be that she doesn’t like my paintings?
“Haa.”
Whether she knew about Suhyeon’s nervous feelings or not, Park Seonhwa let out a quiet sigh.
Then she turned toward Suhyeon and said,
“Suhyeon, I’ll go to the bathroom for a moment.”
A little later.
Left alone in the empty art room, Suhyeon could only blink quietly.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go.
This is completely different from what I expected.
Did I overestimate Park Seonhwa? Or is this painting just not her style?
Suhyeon carefully bit his lip.
He had secretly hoped that if his painting became part of Park Seonhwa’s collection, then later, when she opened her own gallery and organized exhibitions, his paintings might also get a chance to shine.
But her reaction now was so awkward that he felt embarrassed for having such expectations.
Did she get her hopes up and then become disappointed?
If she went to the bathroom because she didn’t know what kind of reaction to show…… what am I supposed to say?
Suhyeon shook his head.
Even if that was the case, there was nothing he could do.
There was no absolute standard in art to begin with.
The value of a painting could change depending on the era, and everyone had different tastes.
Just because Kim Minjun achieved great success in 2020 based on my paintings doesn’t mean the same thing will work in 1995.
There’s no need to rush.
I’ll take my time and work on things step by step.
My paintings still have potential.
Suhyeon nodded as he comforted himself.
However, those thoughts were merely the worries of someone who had not yet fully adapted to his new reality and had not completely regained his confidence.
“Huff! Huff!”
Park Seonhwa, who had used going to the bathroom as an excuse, rushed down the stairs as if she were about to fall.
She ran straight toward the central hallway on the first floor.
“Crazy. This is seriously crazy!”
Her voice was filled with excitement.
She was completely different from how she had looked moments ago.
Creak—
After turning the corner, Park Seonhwa gasped for breath and hurried into a public telephone booth.
Then she urgently dialed a ten-digit number.
