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# 2. A Time to Persuade
After fully realizing that he had returned to the past,
the very first emotion Kim Seungho felt was worry.
Only a few hours ago, at least from his perspective, he had been a weathered businessman nearing forty.
After roughly confirming the current point in time, he found himself in the winter vacation before entering the third year of middle school.
The problem was...
he couldn't even remember what kind of person he had been back then.
"Son, is something bothering you these days? You're unusually quiet today."
"He stayed up late last night."
Judging from his parents' reactions, it seemed he hadn't exactly been an innocent, carefree teenager even then.
"You've lost weight again. Is attending the academy that exhausting?"
"No, not really. I'm fine."
"That's good. The Science Gifted School entrance exams are over in June, so hang in there just a little longer. Even if Mom isn't around, I know you'll do just fine on your own."
Come to think of it, this was the period when he was completely immersed in preparing for the Science Gifted School entrance exams.
Normally, he probably wouldn't even have had time to visit his mother, who was living alone in Daejeon for work.
Memories of his younger self gradually resurfaced.
He had likely come down because the academy was only reviewing problems instead of covering new material.
Even then, only a few days later, he had returned alone, leaving his father behind.
Following the faint memories that remained, they had dinner together before heading to the apartment his mother rented.
His father unpacked in the master bedroom, while Kim Seungho settled into the study, which also served as a guest room.
"Your father and I are going to bed first, son. Don't push yourself too hard. You said you stayed up late yesterday too."
"Good night."
As soon as the bedroom door closed,
Kim Seungho cleared the homework worksheets from the desk and took out a blank notebook.
On the very first page, he wrote:
[December 2024 — Age 15]
Based on everything he had experienced today,
he assumed that, unless something unexpected happened, the past would unfold exactly as he remembered it.
If that was the case,
there was no reason not to make use of his knowledge of the future.
Kim Seungho began writing down every major event he could remember, year by year.
Then he started considering how he could use that information.
The first thing that came to mind was money.
Ever since he had started earning an income, he had consistently invested part of it in stocks.
Some of those investments had brought enormous profits...
while others had ended in complete failure.
"No. That's not the way."
Without hesitation, he crossed the idea out.
Even if he could somehow gather seed money with his parents' help, he was still a minor.
A teenager making one successful investment after another would look suspicious to anyone.
"When was Mom's confirmation hearing again?"
Within the next few years, his mother would be promoted and summoned to a confirmation hearing.
In his previous life, she had passed without any issues.
Since they weren't in immediate financial trouble, there was no point risking unnecessary scrutiny just to make money.
"Next... Father."
Kim Seungho's father had been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer during Kim Seungho's final year of college.
Less than a year later, he was gone.
Failing to prevent that had remained one of the greatest regrets of his previous life.
He planned to gradually change his father's salty, greasy eating habits and make sure he received regular medical checkups.
But those were long-term goals.
Right now,
Kim Seungho had something even more urgent.
On a blank page, he wrote:
[Live Doing What You Want]
Financial success.
Social respect.
If those were the standards of success, then he had already succeeded once.
Marriage...
Well, he had never gotten married.
Though, after listening to the endless complaints of his married friends, he wasn't entirely convinced that made him a failure.
He had no idea how this miraculous opportunity to live a second life had come into his hands.
But even if success was practically guaranteed,
he didn't want to walk the exact same path again.
More than anything...
"If I start now..."
The path of art.
The dream he had abandoned once because he had lacked the courage to persuade his mother.
Perhaps, for fifteen-year-old Kim Seungho,
who still had the freedom to fail,
it wasn't too late to step onto that road once more.
There was only one thing that troubled him.
The faces of the artists whose dreams had flourished thanks to businessman Kim Seungho's support kept appearing in his mind.
Still...
"I'll probably be able to do more from the inside than from the outside."
Kim Seungho had always kept a respectful distance from the artists themselves because he believed in protecting their independence.
Because of that, there had been times when he witnessed the darker side of the art world and simply looked away.
If he became part of that world himself,
perhaps he could change some of the things he had regretted in his previous life.
"Our connection won't disappear. It'll just continue in a different way."
Strengthening his resolve, Kim Seungho looked back down at the notebook.
Beneath the words "Live Doing What You Want"
stretched a blank white page.
The moment he imagined himself filling that empty space,
his heart began pounding harder than it had in years.
---
The following morning.
His mother naturally went to work despite it being a holiday, and his father left for an appointment.
The moment their car disappeared from sight,
Kim Seungho left his mother's apartment and headed somewhere.
"This should be enough."
A stack of drawing paper.
A sketchbook.
A drawing board.
Dozens of pencils.
Everything had come from a nearby art supply store.
He felt guilty toward his parents, who trusted him to study diligently on his own.
For about three seconds.
After that, he had no time to dwell on it.
He placed the drawing board on the spacious desk, sharpened a pencil, and got to work.
Sketching.
The simplest form of visual expression.
The foundation of all art.
When he had first become interested in drawing as a child, paper and pencils had been his starting point as well.
"So you want to study art? Then bring me everything you've drawn so far."
The moment his mother saw the sketchbook filled with awkward drawings he had copied from YouTube tutorials,
she sighed deeply.
After that day,
he quietly accepted that art wasn't for him and focused entirely on studying.
If he wanted permission to change his future now, at such an important stage before high school entrance exams,
he needed to show her something far beyond what he had back then.
And sketching was the most straightforward way to prove artistic ability.
"Hoo..."
After clenching and relaxing his trembling hands, filled with excitement and anticipation,
Kim Seungho picked up the pencil.
His first subject was the simplest of all solid forms—
a sphere.
Since this body had yet to seriously practice drawing,
he decided not to overreach himself.
"Don't rush. Slowly... one step at a time."
Unlike before,
he no longer needed to race against a one- or two-hour timer.
He drew the first line across the blank sheet.
"Huh...?"
By the time he tilted his head in confusion,
the drawing was already finished.
It was nothing extraordinary.
Just a small sphere.
But what mattered wasn't the result.
It was the process.
"Was my hand always this fast?"
Comparing his speed to when he had first started drawing in his previous life wasn't exactly fair.
Years of experience naturally made him faster.
But this speed couldn't be explained by experience alone.
Nor had the quality suffered.
The sphere was flawless.
No uneven shading.
No scratchy construction lines.
Not even the simplest mistakes.
Still puzzled,
he massaged his tired fingers for a moment before continuing.
One by one,
he filled the empty spaces on the paper.
Different geometric solids.
Then various everyday objects.
It was as though he were racing through the entire beginner's sketch curriculum at incredible speed.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Before long,
the large sheet of paper was packed with carefully rendered objects.
Not stopping there,
he brought several items from the kitchen and began sketching them on a much larger scale.
Although the drawings grew bigger,
his speed never slowed.
It almost felt as if...
his hands were automatically reproducing the completed images already formed inside his mind.
His pencil moved confidently across the paper without hesitation.
"So this is what youth feels like."
Back in his previous life,
whenever he studied at home as a student,
he would occasionally notice fruit or drinks quietly placed on his desk.
Since he never paid attention to trivial things,
he had simply assumed his parents had entered silently.
But that had never been the truth.
Once Kim Seungho became completely focused,
nothing happening around him registered.
It wouldn't have mattered if a celebrity walked into the room...
or a fireworks festival erupted beside him.
Nothing was more important than the task before him.
He had been capable of this level of concentration even while studying subjects he disliked.
Now,
his back and wrists were healthy again.
And he was doing something he genuinely loved.
He truly felt like a fish returned to water.
Of course,
Kim Seungho himself had no time to think about any of that.
He simply kept drawing.
And drawing.
"Ha..."
Only after a very long time did his pencil finally stop.
His stamina gave out before his concentration did.
Massaging his stiff neck,
he rubbed his blistered fingers with his other hand.
Not only was his body a mess,
the desk was too.
Graphite stains covered everything.
Eraser shavings were scattered everywhere.
If his mother saw this,
forget the drawings—
his life might actually be in danger.
"Crap... Mom will be home soon. I need to clean this up first..."
"Yes. Let's clean up first...
then we'll talk."
The moment he heard the one voice he absolutely hadn't wanted to hear,
Kim Seungho slowly turned his head.
The instant his eyes met his mother's crossed arms and icy gaze,
he nearly hiccupped from fright.
Perhaps this was exactly the kind of moment people meant when they said someone's eyes could slice a person in half.
After his father's death, she had gradually become frail,
and he hadn't seen this side of her in years.
Strangely...
it almost felt nostalgic.
"So... are you going to explain exactly what all of this is?"
On second thought...
No.
He didn't miss it at all.
Wanting to clean the room before his mother completely lost her patience,
Kim Seungho hurriedly jumped to his feet.
---
Sometimes,
the instinct to survive brings out superhuman abilities.
To put it simply,
the disaster that had covered the room was cleaned up in just three minutes.
"Didn't you give up on drawing a long time ago?"
His mother had come home earlier than usual because she had worked on a holiday.
His father had returned even later after finishing his appointment.
Now,
the three of them sat facing one another.
"Come to think of it, you said you stayed up late drawing the night before we came to Daejeon."
At those words,
his mother immediately turned toward his father.
"You knew about this and didn't think to mention it to me?"
"I just thought it was a hobby. What's the big deal?"
"He was so absorbed that he didn't even hear me come in. You call that a hobby? He must've been doing the same thing at home."
"He never did that at home."
Well,
that was true.
The Kim Seungho of the past had completely stopped drawing until after he got into college.
His father had every right to feel wronged.
"Um..."
His parents had completely drifted off topic.
Instead of discussing the drawings,
they were arguing about the messy room and how his father hadn't noticed his own son's hobby.
Clearing his throat,
Kim Seungho finally interrupted.
"What did you think of my drawings?"
His mother,
who was quicker to grasp the situation,
seemed to immediately understand what he was trying to say.
"You want to pursue art?"
A long time ago,
when he had timidly brought up the idea simply because he found it interesting,
she had thoroughly crushed it.
To Kim Seungho,
it felt like decades had passed since then.
Yet the memory remained crystal clear.
It was the first time his mother had looked at him...
not as her son,
but as someone she was evaluating.
"Yes."
"I do."
But the Kim Seungho of today
was no longer the timid child who would shrink back under that gaze.
His original plan had been to spend several days recovering his old skills before showing her a finished entrance-exam drawing.
But now that he had already been caught,
he decided to press forward.
"I haven't neglected my studies.
So...
please trust me just this once."
His mother's eyes slowly moved from his drawings,
to his face,
then to the blisters covering his fingers.
Finally,
she let out a quiet sigh
and opened her mouth to speak.