Chapter 80
Do you know Michelangelo's David? It's a magnificent work of art.
And right now, I was David. I was wearing only a thin robe, striking the same pose as David.
The wind blowing through the robe was a bit embarrassing. I couldn't move, either. If I moved even a little, Kim Yoo-jung, the soul-painting artist, would get angry.
"Don't move."
"......"
The only part of my body I could move was my eyeballs. I rolled my eyes hard to look around this officetel atelier.
Though I called it an atelier, it wasn't just filled with paintings, but also had plenty of everyday items like a refrigerator and bed.
Does the artist Kim Yoo-jung live here alone?
More importantly... how am I supposed to get close to her and infiltrate Kwon Suho's fam without any conversation?
It was really awkward. And what's even more awkward is that my waist was starting to ache.
Didn't she say she'd let me rest for 30 minutes and then 10 minutes before we started?
But looking at the clock, it had already been an hour and 20 minutes.
Drawing continuously for an hour and 20 minutes. What amazing concentration.
Kim Yoo-jung seemed completely immersed in her painting.
She was so absorbed that she didn't seem to notice her underwear was visible through her unbuttoned school uniform shirt, which she had loosened because it was hot. Actually, I just noticed this too.
Is she showing it on purpose? Whatever the case, it was too stimulating for me, and a problem arose.
"Hey."
"......"
I was terribly embarrassed. I really wish there was a mouse hole I could crawl into.
Soon, Kim Yoo-jung looked at the clock and sighed.
"Is it that time already? Take a 10-minute break."
Thank goodness. And I got curious.
How did she draw me?
"Um, can I see how the painting is coming along?"
"Look."
Her attitude was a bit prickly.
Swallowing my dissatisfaction, I approached the canvas and couldn't help but be surprised.
This is supposed to be me?
That's how I felt.
What Kim Yoo-jung had spent an hour and a half drawing was a circle. A large circle drawn in pencil.
"...Weren't you drawing me?"
"This is you. Ha Young-won. There are many circles in your name. 'Young' also means zero. 'Won' means a round circle. And the name 'Young-won' means infinite circulation, so it's like a circle."
...Honestly, I don't know what she's talking about. Is this some kind of artistic interpretation?
But Kim Yoo-jung seemed unsatisfied and tore up the canvas with a knife.
"No. This doesn't seem right after all."
My hour and a half of effort just flew away like that.
It was a truly despairing moment.
However, what made me feel more surprised than despair during this process was that her school uniform shirt, which was winter uniform not summer, was slightly lifted, revealing scars on her wrist.
They were clearly self-harm marks. Some looked like old scars, while others seemed relatively recent.
Come to think of it, Yang Juhee had said that Kim Yoo-jung was self-destructive.
Is this what she meant?
"Well, 10 minutes are up. And you're staying here tonight."
"What?"
"You can't go home until I finish the painting. But don't worry, I'll pay you well. It's the weekend tomorrow anyway, so you don't have school."
No. Stay overnight? I didn't hear about this.
I was scared of Kim Yoo-jung holding a knife, so I just took my pose again. At least I could clearly feel her 'passion' for art from what just happened.
And that this modeling job wasn't something to be embarrassed about. I should take it seriously, too.
As I was thinking this,
"No. This doesn't seem right either."
Swish-
Kim Yoo-jung noona tore up the canvas with her knife. Then she put in a new paper, thought for a while, and got angry at me.
"Hey. Show me more of your real self."
"Pardon?"
"I can see it. You're hiding yourself. I can tell, okay?"
What's she talking about? I was flustered. What am I hiding?
As I was floundering, Kim Yoo-jung noona sighed.
"No. Never mind. It's the artist's job to draw out the essence of the subject. I'll figure it out, so just don't move."
She was such a tyrant.
Just as I was thinking this noona might actually be a good match for Kwon Suho, something unexpected happened.
Swish-
Kim Yoo-jung noona took off the stockings she was wearing under her skirt, revealing her bare legs.
This exposed her white legs and underwear, which was too stimulating for me, a high school student, and I couldn't help but be flustered.
"......"
I was so surprised that I flinched.
Should we take another 10-minute break?
But Kim Yoo-jung noona's expression was very serious and almost cruel.
"Stay still."
Scribble scribble scribble scribble-
The artist's hand moved endlessly. As if possessed.
She looked like a shaman riding a knife.
***
"The sketch is done. Take a look. It's been weeks since I drew such an amazing picture. Even I think it turned out well."
At Kim Yoo-jung's words, I looked at the drawing.
The drawing was simple. It had a circle and an arrow.
More precisely, it was a drawing of an arrow shooting up from the top of a circle.
↑
○
It looks like this.
That's right. This was the '♂' male symbol.
"Tomorrow I'll color it. With a feeling of eruption and spurting in many ways. Clear your schedule for tomorrow too."
I have to model tomorrow too? Alright, let's see how far this goes.
I'll thoroughly use Kim Yoo-jung to approach Kwon Suho. And I need to resolve Gu Hyena's grudge.
"You like steak, right?"
Kim Yoo-jung grilled meat in the atelier's kitchen and gave it to me.
Meat. It was a medium-rare steak with juices flowing. It was delicious.
We sat facing each other and ate. It was a bit awkward.
I thought it might be good to start getting to the point, as being swept along by Kim Yoo-jung's pace was a waste of time.
"But I'm not sure if I should really stay overnight here. Aren't you Suho hyung's girlfriend? Suho hyung is really scary and influential, if he gets the wrong idea about me..."
Stop-
The hand cutting the meat stops. Then, as if she'd lost her appetite, she dumped her entire plate into the trash.
"What do you know? That bastard, he brings other girls and does even worse things. You saw it too, right? What he does in front of me, his girlfriend. It's really disgusting. What do you think?"
So she's bringing up that incident. But the fact that she started opening up first was a good sign for me.
"Noona, you're so talented at drawing and passionate about your work, which is really attractive. I think you could easily find a better boyfriend. But the reason you're still seeing Kwon Suho..."
"Kwon Suho is a special person."
A third-generation chaebol. He is special, I guess.
As I was nodding in understanding, Kim Yoo-jung noona added,
"It's not just because he's rich or anything. His soul is quite special among the people I've seen, it inspires me. That's why I agreed when he asked me out."
"Hmm..."
"I don't want to ask others to understand. Ordinary people wouldn't understand what I mean anyway. Well, you sleep on that bed over there. I'll sleep on the sofa."
After eating, noona went to bed early.
It's only 9 PM, and she's already sleeping?
I had nothing to do either, so I lay on the bed playing with my phone.
It smelled nice. Is this the bed noona usually sleeps in?
At some point, I dozed off.
I smelled soil. No, it was the smell of paint that filled the atelier.
Suddenly my body felt heavy, and when I opened my eyes, something was looking down at me.
"Dammit, you scared me!"
A ghost! Another ghost popped up!
That's what I thought, but the ghost's hair was shorter than I expected.
"Is that... Yoo-jung noona?"
"Yeah. I thought this might be the best way to get revenge on Kwon Suho. Doing exactly what he does. I didn't mean to wake you up. Maybe this is better though."
Swish-
Kim Yoo-jung noona licked my forehead with her tongue.
The sticky and warm sensation was very unfamiliar, and I felt my whole body heat up as if blood was boiling through my veins like the power spreading through a car engine.
What on earth is happening?!
I even got scared when Kim Yoo-jung's hand boldly delved into my top.
"Wait a minute! Noona! Isn't this wrong? If Suho hyung finds out, it'll be a disaster! I'll die! A commoner like me will disappear without a trace!"
"That's true. It's well-known that he nearly kills guys who touch his girlfriend."
"You know that!"
"But do you think he has that kind of composure these days? He's been a complete wreck for the past few days. I don't know what happened, but he keeps vomiting and having seizures."
Unexplained vomiting and seizures. It must be because of the quirk.
It was satisfying to hear that the third-generation chaebol was completely wrecked, but that was that and this was this.
I was scared of Kim Yoo-jung.
This woman was only seeing me as a 'tool'. A tool for revenge against Kwon Suho. And she seemed to see me as a kind of self-destructive weapon.
Crazy bitch!
As I struggled violently, Yoo-jung asked me,
"...Is this your first time?"
"What? Well, that's... I'm only a first-year high school student... isn't that obvious?"
"I did it with my art tutor when I was in second year of middle school. That teacher was a woman and I'm a woman too, but it wasn't a problem at all. You and I are even a man and a woman. There's even less of a problem."
"......"
"From what I see, you seem to have something special inside too. What's under your skin. If I want to vividly know what this is, just looking isn't enough. I have to feel it directly."
Chomp-
Kim Yoo-jung noona bit my ear. Very hard.
I was quite flustered by this sensation I'd never felt before.
I'm really going to be eaten!
Ring ring ring-
Just then, a phone call came. An old-fashioned ringtone!
It was my phone!
"Wait a minute! I think I'm getting a call!"
I pushed Kim Yoo-jung away and reached for my phone. I saw a number labeled "Yang Juhee".
"Oh, Juhee."
━What's up? Did the modeling job go well? Why aren't you saying anything in the group chat? Shouldn't we decide whether to send an exploration party today or go in ourselves?
That's right.
That's what we should have done, but I fell asleep while using my phone. By the way, I hadn't told them yet that I was staying overnight at Kim Yoo-jung noona's place.
For some reason, I felt conscious of Yang Juhee's reaction if I told her. Jung-seok's words about Yang Juhee possibly liking me were also subtly on my mind.
It felt like I was cheating, I guess. We're not even in any kind of relationship yet!
"I'll talk about it in the chat for now. Yeah. Okay. Let's hang up."
Click-
I hung up Yang Juhee's call for now.
Should I say I was saved thanks to that? When I turned on the light, I saw Kim Yoo-jung noona putting her clothes back on.
"Do you have a girl you like?"
A girl I like.
Suddenly, the faces of several women flashed through my mind. It was the history of my brilliant and glamorous one-sided loves. Some had burned to ashes, while some still had embers of hope remaining.
"Yes."
"You're a bit different from the guys I thought you were."
"......"
"I won't make you uncomfortable by being clingy anymore. But keep modeling for me. I'll pay you. I feel like I'm getting back the spark I'd lost recently. Let me draw you more. I'll finish the painting tomorrow."
She'll pay me? How much can I get?
As I was torn between financial thoughts and the idea of 'this woman is crazy, let's just run away',
Beep, beep beep beep-
Just then, I heard someone opening the door to the atelier.
I remembered that Kim Yoo-jung was a woman living alone in this atelier. Is there someone who would come to this atelier?
Knock knock knock-
━Hey, Yoo-jung, are you in there? It's me. Open the door. Why did you change the door lock password without my permission? Do you want to die? Why aren't you answering my calls again? Didn't I tell you I hate it most when you ignore my calls?
Soon, a familiar voice was heard from beyond the door.
It was Kwon Suho's voice. Kim Yoo-jung was startled too.
"Hey. Hide. If Kwon Suho sees you, he might really kill you."