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# 4. The "Him" in "At Least I'm Faster Than Him"
Korea Arts Gifted School.
A highly selective school with only around 120 students across all grades in its Fine Arts and Music departments.
With facilities and support on a level unmatched by ordinary arts high schools, combined with its unique admissions schedule held early in June,
countless aspiring artists applied every year.
"Kim Seungho. Didn't the first-round Hanyeong results come out already? Why haven't you said anything? Don't tell me you failed."
"You sure know a lot. I passed."
"Really? Well, I heard the first round is basically based on grades. As long as you don't completely mess up your school record, everyone gets through."
"You seem to know more than I do. Anyone would think you have a crush on me. Sorry, but I like girls."
"I am a girl, you idiot!"
"So... is that your confession?"
"That's not what I meant... Ugh!"
That was what happened after the first-round results were announced.
Perhaps she was annoyed that Kim Seungho hadn't given up even a single point in his grades.
Watching his classmate fume after failing to get the reaction she wanted, Kim Seungho couldn't help smiling.
"I guess getting a younger body made my mind younger too. I keep wanting to tease people."
Still, what his immature classmate had said wasn't entirely wrong.
Compared to other gifted schools, Hanyeong's competition was fierce, but the first round was relatively easy to pass.
Most applicants were eliminated during the second stage—
the basic sketch examination.
"I wonder if it's really possible to judge someone's potential through sketching alone."
Before the second-round exam, Kim Seungho voiced the thought to his tutor in a half-joking, half-serious tone.
It wasn't because he was worried about failing.
He simply felt sorry for the seventy to eighty percent of applicants who would never even reach the third stage.
After all, they had worked just as hard preparing for it.
"Hanyeong's second stage was never meant to evaluate potential. That's what the third stage is for."
"Huh? Then what does it evaluate?"
"It measures how much time and dedication a student has already invested in drawing."
Sketching was the foundation of all visual art.
There was little point in judging someone's potential before confirming that they had mastered the basics.
Perhaps Kim Seungho had become so focused on preparing for the third stage that he had started neglecting sketching.
His tutor found herself slightly worried about her talented student.
"You've still been practicing for the second stage too, right? Can I see some of your practice drawings? Oh... did you leave them at the academy?"
"The academy...? Anyway, they're at home. Just a second."
After flipping through the thick stack of drawings Kim Seungho brought back,
his tutor let out a helpless smile.
"It should be illegal for students like you to complain that they're anxious."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Never mind. Just keep preparing for the third stage."
She was convinced that if he were thrown into the second-stage exam right now,
he would easily make it through.
---
The day of Hanyeong's second-stage examination.
As Kim Seungho got ready to leave, his father paced nervously beside him.
"You didn't forget anything, right? Your admission slip, student ID, pencil case, and..."
"Can I go now?"
"Don't worry about the results. Just do your best. When it's over, let's go eat fried chicken together."
"I think you're the one who wants fried chicken."
"Come on, don't say that. I'm just trying to help my son regain his strength. You almost hurt my feelings."
Looking at his father's noticeably slimmer stomach after months of careful dieting,
Kim Seungho smiled.
His father's health was steadily improving.
Now it was time to focus on changing his own future.
"I'm off."
About three minutes after leaving home,
Kim Seungho arrived at the school gate.
"It's nice living so close."
It gave him an advantage over the other applicants when it came to conserving energy.
Feeling satisfied, he searched for his assigned examination room.
Fortunately,
he had been placed on the first floor.
Sliding the classroom door open,
he found that although it was still early, about half the seats were already occupied.
He placed his drawing board on the easel and unpacked his supplies.
Not long afterward,
every seat in the room was filled.
"My hands are sweating like crazy..."
"Relax. The academy said the second stage is easy as long as you stick to the usual patterns."
Quite a few students had apparently come as groups from the same academy.
Even though they were trying to whisper,
their seats happened to be close enough for Kim Seungho to hear everything.
"So they teach patterns."
He had never even considered attending an academy.
He believed private tutoring was enough to cover his weak points.
He was a little curious about how academies prepared students for the entrance exam,
but not enough to be concerned.
No matter how refined the techniques the instructors created,
it was ultimately the student who had to draw.
"Good morning, everyone."
While he was lost in thought,
the preliminary bell rang.
At the same time,
two proctors entered the room.
"You'll have two hours. If you're still holding your pencil after the bell rings, you'll be disqualified immediately."
The female proctor delivered the terrifying warning in an unusually gentle voice.
As the students swallowed nervously,
she removed the cover from the still-life arrangement.
"Potatoes, cucumbers, corn...
It looks more like a countryside snack than an art exam."
Thinking that,
Kim Seungho checked the instructions.
Evaluation criteria: expressive ability.
Applicants were free to rearrange the objects,
but the plate holding them had to be included in the drawing.
Beeeeep—
The signal announcing the start of the exam echoed through the room.
Every applicant immediately bent over their paper and began planning their composition.
"They seriously expect us to draw the plate too?"
"How am I supposed to manage my time?"
"I'll roughly finish the hardest part first, then..."
The students hurried to fill their papers before time ran out.
Meanwhile,
Kim Seungho calmly organized his thoughts.
Even with the same still life,
its impression changed completely depending on composition and rendering.
How should he arrange everything to make the food look appetizing?
That was the only thing on his mind.
"Let's begin."
He started several beats later than everyone else.
At first,
Kim Seungho became the "him" in everyone's thoughts of,
"At least I'm faster than him."
But once his pencil finally moved,
the gap disappeared almost instantly.
"The sketch is done."
Each time he completed a stage of the drawing,
he checked the clock.
His extraordinary concentration while drawing was undoubtedly one of his greatest strengths.
But if he became too absorbed,
he might not hear the signal ending the exam and end up disqualified.
"What the hell? Why is that guy progressing so fast?"
Of course,
the other applicants had no idea.
All they saw was someone drawing at an unbelievable speed without even seeming to breathe,
glancing at the clock,
then immediately returning to his work.
It was almost unsettling.
"Damn it... I shouldn't keep looking at someone else's drawing..."
Only halfway through the exam,
yet Kim Seungho's work already looked nearly finished at first glance.
The applicants seated around him couldn't help becoming increasingly anxious.
Some became so flustered that they couldn't even properly reproduce the techniques they had drilled at their academies late into the night.
"Five minutes remaining! Start finishing up!"
As the proctor called out,
everyone's hands moved even faster.
Kim Seungho took a deep breath
and quietly set down his pencil.
The textures.
The details.
Everything had turned out exactly as he had envisioned.
Adding anything more would only overwork the piece.
Beep. Beep.
A few minutes later,
the second-stage examination ended.
After moving their arms nonstop for two hours,
the exhausted applicants all collapsed onto their desks.
"My brain's fried..."
"I need to switch academies. There's no way I'm making it to the third stage."
"How are we supposed to survive another three weeks waiting for the results?"
One by one,
the applicants packed up and left the classroom.
While stretching his sore neck and back,
Kim Seungho suddenly felt several sharp gazes fixed on him.
Turning around,
he found the students seated nearby glaring at him.
The instant their eyes met,
they hurriedly looked away and left.
"What's wrong with them?"
Completely unaware that everyone had been stunned by his performance,
Kim Seungho left the examination hall with a light heart.
He was already thinking about celebrating his first entrance-exam art test by eating fried chicken with his father.
---
Shortly before Hanyeong's second-stage practical examination began...
"Good morning, Teacher Han Somang."
The youngest male teacher currently teaching at Hanyeong entered the proctors' waiting room.
"Good morning, Teacher Dusik."
Han Somang,
a fellow first-year major instructor and a senior teacher close to his age,
greeted him with a bright smile.
"This is your first time supervising an entrance exam, right? It must be such a jo... rather inconvenient way to spend your weekend morning, but do your best."
It didn't exactly sound like a sincere smile.
Still,
he already knew there was nothing to gain by pointing that out.
Instead,
he smoothly changed the subject.
"At least supervising the practical exam has its own charm. Don't you enjoy visiting art museums too, Teacher Han?"
"I like looking at finished works.
I don't particularly enjoy walking around for hours watching people create them."
Teachers who weren't involved in the actual judging were assigned to supervise the practical exams.
General subject teachers.
Or younger art teachers with less experience.
Still,
some veteran teachers voluntarily supervised the exams year after year.
"They're fascinating to watch. Sometimes you immediately get this feeling—'That's going to be the best student in next year's class.'"
For a moment,
her confidence almost convinced him.
Even so,
he couldn't imagine identifying the best applicant from a basic sketch alone.
Perhaps after the third stage,
where composition, watercolor, interviews, and overall ability were evaluated.
But certainly not now.
At least,
that was what he had believed.
Until the exam began.
"Who... is that kid?"
Han Somang found herself asking the question.
For two different reasons.
"He was definitely the slowest one at the beginning..."
He hadn't stood out immediately.
Quite the opposite.
While everyone else started drawing the moment the bell rang,
he had simply stared at the still-life arrangement.
Yet after briefly walking away and coming back,
his sketch had already advanced considerably.
A little later,
the major forms had already taken shape.
His pace was so overwhelming that the students around him completely lost their rhythm.
One applicant even panicked so badly that he started erasing perfectly good parts of his own drawing.
"There are always a few students who draw unusually fast..."
But those speed-focused students often produced mediocre results.
Sometimes even worse ones.
This student's rendering,
however,
was astonishingly refined.
The smooth kernels of corn.
The rough texture of potatoes.
The crisp freshness of cucumbers.
Capturing those qualities alone would have been remarkable for someone his age.
Yet he had also infused the drawing with extraordinary realism.
It was vivid enough to make her imagine the sweet aroma of freshly steamed corn.
Han Somang discreetly glanced at the name written on his admission slip.
Kim Seungho.
If he could demonstrate the same level of ability in watercolor,
she was certain she would be seeing him again next year—
as one of Hanyeong's freshmen.
"Time's up! Put your pencils down!"
The classroom filled with sighs.
Han Somang quietly observed the applicant who had impressed her the most.
She barely managed to suppress her laughter.
The students around him,
whose concentration he had completely destroyed,
were glaring daggers at him.
Meanwhile,
the cause of it all simply tilted his head in confusion,
wondering why everyone was staring.
"I can't wait for the third-stage exam."
People always talked about discovering exceptional talents during admissions.
She felt she had just found one herself.
For the first time,
she finally understood why some teachers genuinely enjoyed supervising entrance exams.
---
Some time later.
The rainy season had passed,
and the unbearable summer heat had settled in.
Even the student who had constantly picked fights with Kim Seungho seemed to have lost his spirit,
making everyday life unusually peaceful.
Then one day—
"Son! You passed! You actually passed! I have to call your mother right away!"
Kim Seungho received the notice that he had passed the second stage of the Korea Arts Gifted School entrance examination.