He said, "I'm too old now, and sometimes it feels like death is trying to snatch my hood away. Like it wants to drag me like this candlestick and blow out the light of my life."
— Michelangelo to Vasari one evening in 1557.
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.
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"Suddenly?"
"Yes. We're going to the hospital."
"Are you sick?"
Baek Myeong-hee looked at Kang Seok with warm, worried eyes. Kang Chaeyoung and Kang Hyundo also looked at him, clearly concerned.
"No, I'm not sick. I mean, I want us to go for a health checkup."
"A health checkup?"
"Yes. A health checkup. I want our whole family to get a full health checkup this time."
What should we do? Baek Myeong-hee and Kang Hyundo exchanged bewildered glances. Five million won is not a small amount, and now he wanted to spend it on health checkups.
At that moment, while eating, Kang Chaeyoung opened a pamphlet and shook it left and right in front of Kang Seok.
"Oppa, you can't burn the whole five million won on health checkups. Even if all four of us get checked, it won't cost that much. And aren't there government-supported health checkups for Mom and Dad?"
After saying that, Chaeyoung turned to Baek Myeong-hee.
Her eyes seemed to say, "I'm right, aren't I?" and Baek Myeong-hee nodded unintentionally.
"That's right, Seok. The government provides certain checkups, so you can use those… And Chaeyoung and you have student checkups, don't you?"
"That's right. Suddenly spending five million won is a lot. If there's no urgent need, we can save it and spend it slowly when necessary."
"I mean, not the basic government health checkup, but a comprehensive one. I've thought about it a lot. You never know, right?"
Health is important.
But it's also something we easily overlook.
Kang Seok recalled his past life when he thought about death.
Like trying to put down a candlestick somewhere else and losing hold of it in an instant. Health slips out of your grasp like that, and at the end of that is death.
He never feared death in his past life. Back then, he thought death was also God's creation. But now he was afraid. Because he loved his home and family too much.
"It's my money, so I'll spend it how I want."
"So you decided to get a health checkup?"
"Yes. That's how it happened. But that day was exactly the day we planned to go to the new salad buffet."
Kang Seok's stubbornness eventually worked.
After all, it was Baek Myeong-hee and Kang Hyundo who told him to spend the five million won as he wished. Thanks to that, the whole family arranged to have comprehensive health checkups next Wednesday.
"Really sorry."
Kang Chaeyoung clasped her hands as if praying and held them out to her friend Yoon Yuran.
Yoon Yuran, who usually didn't apologize, sighed deeply upon seeing her friend bowing in apology.
"Since you told me in advance, I'll forgive you. You're really going, right?"
"Of course!"
"Then when?"
At Yuran's words, Kang Chaeyoung took a long sip of her lemonade through a straw while flipping through her diary.
True to her girly hobby of "diary decorating," her diary was packed with various stickers. She pointed to a date in her diary and offered it.
"Next Friday. I'm free that day. How about it?"
Yoon Yuran frowned at the overwhelming diary but nodded. Compared to the busy Chaeyoung, Yuran's schedule was always open.
"Good. But after the salad buffet, we're going to karaoke."
"Of course!"
Watching Chaeyoung brightly mark the appointment in her diary with a pen, Yuran propped her chin on her hand. Her gaze wandered to the wall next to the table, where a crowd was gathered enjoying a photo time.
It was the famous mural "Creation of Adam" that led Cheonghwa Arts High School to win the recent high school mural contest.
Of course, people didn't know that Kang Seok painted "Creation of Adam," that he was from Cheonghwa Arts High School, or that the painting was for a public art high school mural project.
It had just become a hotspot on Instagram thanks to someone's "like."
Looking at the huge mural, Yoon Yuran murmured dreamily,
"I still can't believe your brother painted this."
"Hehe, right?"
"What was that shiny stuff called? Para... something?"
"Paraloid B72. It's to prevent pollutants that damage frescoes. He did something else too, but I don't really know."
Chaeyoung replied patiently while twirling her pen. Yuran vaguely nodded, recalling a phone call she had with Chaeyoung a few days ago.
"Chaeyoung, do you know Renaissance? They repainted the mural there and opened a cafe on the 8th floor. You remember the rooftop garden near the shopping mall we visited for that project two years ago?"
"Ah, the Renaissance Shopping Mall, yeah. My brother painted a mural there recently."
"...What?"
"Yeah! The 8th floor. That's where he painted it! Want to go see it?"
Without seeing the process photos Chaeyoung received from Kang Seok, she wouldn't have believed it easily. A high school student painted that? Who would believe it? Yoon Yuran shook her head.
She thought Kang Seok was only good-looking, but he was on a whole different level from her troublesome family. Yuran puckered her lips.
"Your brother's kind of cool."
Chaeyoung nodded, sticking a sticker in her diary.
"My brother's cool. He's always been cool, but especially now. He's completely changed. Actually, he's paying for this health checkup with money he earned from that mural... Ah!"
"Ah? Start with what you said earlier. What do you mean by health checkup?"
"Wait a sec."
Chaeyoung held up her hand and scrolled down her phone with the other. Yuran peeked over. The logo was Instagram. What was that?
"Look at this!"
Yuran leaned back a little as Chaeyoung suddenly thrust her phone toward her. On the screen was a white... furniture? Furniture with birds attached to it.
"The birds look so real, right? My brother sculpted those. He's not just good at drawing."
"He sculpted this? Wow... Is this for sale? Can you find it at furniture stores now?"
"Yes, you can."
Taking back her phone, Chaeyoung tapped her chin with a finger and tentatively asked,
"Want to see it?"
"Yes! Yes!"
"Okay. Then after chatting at the cafe, let's go straight there. I need to call them."
Yoon Yuran's eyes lit up. It had been a long time since they'd visited the Chaeyoung family furniture store.
Memories tend to fade and swell in one's mind, and in Yoon Yuran's memory, Seok's furniture store was close to a cozy paradise playground — with board games, comic books, and snacks.
"It was the best," Yoon Yuran said with a subtle sparkle in her eyes as she recalled the past.
"...By any chance, is your brother there too? Or maybe he's at home?"
Kang Chaeyoung, who was about to call the contact saved as [Mom♥], shook her head firmly.
"No. Oppa (brother) probably isn't at the furniture store right now."
"Huh? Then where?"
"He's probably at school."
"At school? But it's vacation."
The sun rose high in the sky.
Light spread over the snowy white world. It was a midday in winter, briefly warm.
"Figure drawing…"
Figure drawing — the act of sketching the human body in various postures and forms. At the mention of that beloved term, Kang Seok's lips curled into a smile.
"This'll be fun."
The body, the human figure, anatomy.
It was akin to the lifelong path Michelangelo Buonarroti had followed.
So Kang Seok was quite excited about today's meeting — the project to publish the third-year figure drawing portfolio.
His fingers moved over the portfolio file containing his drawings, like playing a piano.
"When will they come?"
Sitting by the window with his chin resting on his hand, watching the shadows bent by light, he heard the door open.
"It's everyone."
It was Go Doohan.
Behind Go Doohan, who wore a low hat and entered the drawing room, followed three figures: Lim Woohyun, Son Dongwook, and Jang Yumin.
The sound of chairs being set back into place came from all directions as the four adults entered.
Rather than urgency, there was a calmness fitting the third-year students who had known Go Doohan for three years. Of course, the calmest student in the classroom was Kang Seok himself.
Go Doohan looked at Kang Seok, who showed no sign of nervousness despite Go Doohan's arrival, and covered his mouth, twitching one side of his lips.
"That guy is so good at figure drawing, but also that good at Western painting…"
Four days ago, the memory of Ju Sarang, who had returned to school after a long absence and was chatting during tea time in the teachers' office, flashed through his mind.
"This is a painting Seok drew? It's amazing, right? Incredible!"
Ju Sarang was among the younger full-time practical arts teachers at the private arts high school. Probably because of her approachable personality, she was quite close with Go Doohan, who was shy.
The paintings she showed were shocking.
Not even the restored Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican would be as detailed and precise.
Officials said this was the first time they took such large-scale measures to prevent damage since the high school mural project began. They created a temperature-controlled café in the shopping mall, added six air purifiers, replaced the lighting on the eighth floor with low-intensity bulbs.
Originally, the door leading to the rooftop garden was sealed with welded glass, and additional construction was made to allow access through a passage far from the mural.
None of these were easy measures. Although Kang Seok truly made an excellent work, recalling the usual mannerisms of the officials, it wasn't simple.
"A new talent seems to have arrived…"
Go Doohan adjusted his hat and organized his thoughts.
In any case, it was pleasant to discover a new side of Kang Seok. Hopefully, he'd show that in Go Doohan's project too. With that thought, Go Doohan lifted his head.
While he briefly lost himself in thought, the previously noisy classroom fell into a silence like one in a library.
"What are you all frozen for?"
Go Doohan gave a deflated smile and looked at Jang Yumin, who quickly placed a handleless basket she was holding onto the front desks of each section.
The students lifted their chins slightly, trying to see what was inside the basket.
"Snacks, you guys."
Go Doohan leaned against a desk near the drawing room wall and spoke.
"It's vacation and I'm stealing your time, so at least treat you well. Otherwise, you'll complain at home."
"No!"
"No way!"
"Yes!"
At the chorus of protests, Go Doohan glared and grumbled while tearing open a bag of snacks near the teacher's desk.
"Still, treat you well."
"Hahaha!"
"Hehe! Teacher's sulking!"
Kang Seok raised one eyebrow in surprise. Unlike the second-year figure drawing class, Go Doohan's atmosphere was relaxed.
Is this the famous favoritism? Now he understood why Go Doohan had a reputation as a meritocratic strictness advocate at the start of the semester. As Kang Seok indulged in needless thoughts—
"Well, you've been together for three years, so no need to greet each other, but I can see your eyes rolling."
Go Doohan locked eyes with Kang Seok.
"You must be curious as hell about the new faces, huh?"
At Go Doohan's words, Kang Seok turned his head slightly. Simultaneously, many movements happened around him, and Kang Seok made a strange face.
"The third years must be dying of curiosity about the new guy joining. Seok-ah."
Since when had Go Doohan called him "Seok-ah" like that? Kang Seok frowned at the overly familiar nickname.
Whether Kang Seok minded or not, Go Doohan beckoned with his finger. Kang Seok scratched his nose and leisurely stood up. As he headed to the teacher's desk, Go Doohan added:
"You need to bring that too."
Go Doohan nodded toward the portfolio file.
Ah. Kang Seok nodded in understanding. What better introduction than your artwork for an art student? He gripped the black portfolio file firmly.