# Chapter 64
How can it rain this much? The rain that had been falling since yesterday showed no signs of letting up, continuing to pour down until morning. I should have known from the moment I heard the thunder and lightning in the middle of the night.
I let out a long yawn while massaging my stiff shoulders. I was extremely tired after a restless night. I blinked my eyes, heavy with sleep, and glanced at the clock.
Since there was still time before the homeroom teacher arrived, I put my head down on the desk to catch a quick nap. As I slightly turned my head to rest comfortably, my eyes met directly with Moon Seoheon’s.
I felt momentarily alert, but my eyelids automatically closed under their heavy weight. And then I fell asleep immediately.
I must have fallen into a deep sleep because even after waking up, I remained still with my eyes closed, my mind still hazy. The murmuring sounds around me gradually became clearer. Once I recognized it as the noise of students chatting, I remembered that I had put my head down as soon as I arrived in the classroom.
Thinking the homeroom teacher might not have arrived yet, I planned to get up at an appropriate time. Suddenly, I frowned at the odd sensation of my hair moving. I dismissed it as just a breeze, but then I felt someone’s touch over my head as my hair continued to flutter.
When I lifted my eyelids gently, I saw someone’s arm and palm right in front of me. Rolling my eyes upward, my gaze became entangled with the owner of the hand touching my hair.
I had the illusion that Moon Seoheon’s hazelnut-colored eyes were rippling. Or maybe my own eyes were trembling.
For a very brief moment, silence hovered between us. The moment was so short it was almost imperceptible.
“Get up now. Class is about to start.”
“Ah… yeah.”
As Moon Seoheon removed his hand, I blinked several times to clear my foggy mind. I raised my upper body from where I had been leaning and fixed my disheveled hair, when something in his words puzzled me.
Class is about to start?
“The homeroom teacher didn’t come? What about morning assembly?”
I looked at the clock as I spoke. Not only had the morning assembly time long passed, but it was also well past time for the bell to ring for first period. When I looked to the front, the teacher was nowhere to be seen, suggesting they hadn’t arrived yet.
I unconsciously turned around. Ko Kyungsu, who caught my eye, flinched in surprise before waving at me.
“Did… did you sleep well?”
“…Yeah.”
I responded with an awkward smile to his greeting-like question, then immediately turned my attention back to Moon Seoheon.
“The homeroom teacher already came and left. The morning assembly is over too.”
Moon Seoheon finally answered, resting his chin on his hand and blinking. I took a light breath in and asked with a puzzled expression.
“They didn’t even wake me up and just left? I didn’t even realize the assembly happened.”
I felt embarrassed thinking that I had just slept through everything even after the homeroom teacher arrived. I awkwardly scratched around my neck and just lifted the corners of my mouth when Moon Seoheon said:
“When they heard you were in a deep sleep, they told us to leave you alone.”
“Oh… really?”
“Yeah. Couldn’t sleep yesterday?”
“Well, I did sleep, but I woke up several times during the night, so I guess I’m tired.”
Moon Seoheon nodded as if to say ‘I see.’ Soon after, the front door opened and the teacher came in.
* * *
After the third period ended, the students began to move busily. This was because the next class was art, and we needed to change rooms.
I found myself unintentionally heading upstairs with Moon Seoheon and Ko Kyungsu on either side of me. Being close in seating, we naturally joined up. Up ahead, Jo Youngmin, Ye Abin, and Hong Hachan were walking. There were several other students too, and they all seemed to be on friendly terms with each other.
The art class included not just our class but students from other classes as well, and it was divided according to which course you chose to take. It was similar to how music classes were divided based on which instrument each person played.
I stopped in front of the design room, not the art room. Unlike the main building, here there was one art room and one design room, and both rooms were extremely large.
Even at a glance, the space was at least twice as large as the art room where I had been with Jung Hyoin. Considering the number of students, it made sense.
After exchanging a nod with Ko Kyungsu, who was heading to the art room past the design room, I entered the design room along with Moon Seoheon.
When I heard that for art class, I had to go to the design room rather than simply learning to draw or sculpt, I was surprised.
The design room had a computer placed at each seat arranged in a row. The computers, bearing a familiar logo, were of an expensive brand preferred by designers.
Slightly distanced from the computer area, there were long desks placed facing each other. With four desks arranged in two rows, it looked like a separate workspace for creating something.
Come to think of it, it seemed like a place where you might draw pictures at those desks… Even in the animation, there were scenes where they sat at desks drawing on paper. But usually, they only showed emotionally and classically charged scenes of people sitting freely outdoors on mats drawing pictures, so suddenly having to sit at a computer for design class made me feel like the genre had changed.
I was about to sit down at any empty seat when I caught Ye Abin’s eye and froze awkwardly. Jo Youngmin and Hong Hachan next to him glanced at me briefly, but they quickly lost interest and sat down.
I could have ignored it since a similar situation had played out last week, but it felt unsettling. It was because those guys had become more uncomfortable to be around since our conversation about the presentation yesterday.
Throughout the morning, Jo Youngmin had left during every break, so he was nowhere to be seen in the classroom. When I pretended to go to the bathroom and looked around Class 3, sure enough, I could see him there with them.
I also wanted to ask Ye Abin if he knew Son Gyucheon, but I didn’t even have the opportunity.
“What are you doing? Not sitting down?”
“Um… where should I sit?”
Moon Seoheon’s question, as he placed his hand on my shoulder and turned me around, pulled me out of my thoughts. When I came to my senses, I realized most seats were already taken. As I looked around and asked, Moon Seoheon led me to a corner.
It wasn’t the very end, but he sat me down to his right in a seat that had empty spots on both sides.
Finding myself sitting down unexpectedly, I observed the other students and saw they were already busy doing something—turning on computers, browsing the internet, or watching videos.
I turned on my computer and examined the desktop. There were several installed programs, but I only recognized Photoshop and Illustrator.
Having nothing to do, I opened the internet and skimmed through entertainment and sports articles. The content was nothing special, and I was just about to check if there were any games installed when the bell rang and the teacher entered.
“For today’s practical lesson, we’ll be drawing self-portraits with the theme of ‘My Identity’.”
The art teacher displayed various photos on the screen. I wasn’t sure if they were taken from somewhere else or if they were students’ drawings of their own faces, but while they were all portraits, each had its own distinctive character.
There were some that looked like digital drawings done in a very realistic style, and others that resembled cartoon characters. There were mostly decent works, but there were also some that looked like they’d been drawn by elementary school students, which reassured me.
Soon after, the teacher told us to open a sketchbook, but since I didn’t know what that meant, I observed what other students were doing and followed suit.
The teacher finished giving a brief explanation on how to start. She added that if we had prepared photos, we should connect them and trace along, but not understanding what she meant, I simply clicked on a brush-like tool and drew a line.
Since I didn’t know what I was doing, I planned to try out various tools first to get familiar with them.
The teacher said we would continue this next week, so I probably didn’t need to finish today, but with such a profound topic, it was actually difficult to start drawing.
‘My Identity’—it was certainly a theme anyone might contemplate at some point. However, without any direction on how to express it, it felt even more challenging.
Other students also seemed to be stuck on this, as they weren’t drawing right away but had thoughtful expressions.
A thought suddenly occurred to me: should I draw my face as Yoon Taeho, or should I reflect my true self and values? Moreover, thinking about drawing Yoon Taeho’s face felt like drawing someone else’s face, so it didn’t feel like a self-portrait at all.
I relaxed my furrowed brow and decided to try drawing a face first. I selected a pen tool I liked and drew the outline of a face.
Dissatisfied with the crooked lines, I erased them and held the pen with my left hand. Finding it difficult to apply pressure with my right hand, I switched hands hoping it might help, but the lines came out even more of a mess than before, so I switched back to my right hand.
Regardless of the theme, I finished drawing the face first. It was difficult since it was my first time using the tools, but it was also fun and satisfying in its own way, so I smiled slightly and leaned back against the chair.
Curious to see what others had done, I turned my head and found Moon Seoheon staring intently at my drawing. His slightly frowning face was curious.
“What?”
“Is that a potato you drew?”
“…It’s supposed to be my face.”
I stared at my drawing for a moment. Is it that strange? Feeling awkward, I wanted to see how well he had done, so I leaned over to look, and was instantly shocked.
“…It’s supposed to be a self-portrait, not a copy of someone else’s work.”
When I said this in confusion, Moon Seoheon raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘what do you mean?’ and replied:
“It is a self-portrait.”
I was speechless and just stared at him blankly. To call that a self-portrait—I thought I was looking at Munch’s “The Scream.” It wasn’t so much that the skeleton-like figure in the picture resembled him, but rather the intense colors and rhythmic lines that were similar. Had he really drawn that claiming it was himself, and then critiqued my drawing?
Moon Seoheon looked at me curiously, noticing my disapproving expression. I swallowed a sigh and pulled my chair closer to him.
“Hey, what is this? It doesn’t look like you at all.”
“…So?”
“First of all, you should draw yourself more handsome.”
“…”
I pointed at the circular eyes he had roughly drawn and said:
“Why are your eyes so hollow? At least add some sparkle.”
“Sparkle?”
“Yeah.”
At my words, Moon Seoheon ran his hand over his lips and asked how I would suggest changing it. Not sure what to say, I hesitated before asking if I could touch his drawing.
Seeing him nod readily, I moved the pen and drew stars in his eyes. I also straightened his nose bridge, made his jaw sharper, and colored his skin whiter.
Moon Seoheon stared at me with a strange expression that was neither angry nor amused. Just then, the teacher who saw us together approached.
“Taeho, are you finished? Oh, is this a potato character?”
“It’s my face.”
“…I was wondering why it looked so handsome.”
The teacher, who paused momentarily, soon responded with a broad smile. Then, shifting her gaze from me, who was just vaguely replying “Yes, yes,” she looked at Moon Seoheon’s drawing and pressed her lips tightly together.
I expected her to offer an evaluation like she had for my drawing, but she said nothing. As I looked at her quizzically, a student sitting behind us looked at the drawing and answered instead:
“I think I’ve seen something like that before… I think I saw it on a plastic surgery public service advertisement poster.”
