Summer Vacation Begins
June flew by pretty quickly.
Pi Ah-reum started living on her own.
Mid-June exam prep.
The adult comic collaboration with Bam Nuna.
Selecting and producing merchandise to exhibit at SeoCo.
The short-form animation production kicking into high gear.
Add in all the other personal stuff, and it was a truly hectic stretch where I barely had time to blink.
And then, finally—today.
"Hooray! The semester's over!"
"Waaaaah! Finally!"
Ah-reum and I cheered. Seongju Hyung and Ahn Seong-hyeon were just as giddy. Seong-hyeon especially—his complexion brightened right up despite how exhausted he looked.
Ahn Seong-hyeon, who'd been pulling all-nighters cramming for exams, grinned, dark circles prominent under his eyes.
"Now I can finally go on a proper date. I should ask her to go on a trip together this summer."
Ahn Seong-hyeon was dating Kim Su-jin, who he'd met at that department blind date. Like any newly minted couple, he seemed to want every extra second together—he talked about his girlfriend all day long.
Meanwhile, Seongju Hyung brought up something more constructive.
"I'm going to pick up a few certifications over the break. I'm planning to get the Photoshop and computer proficiency ones—anyone want to do it together?"
"I'm in."
"Me too!"
"Ah, count me in for that too."
All four of us decided to go for it. In my case, I was already proficient with Photoshop—I just lacked the piece of paper. I'd only need to study a bit for the computer proficiency exam.
Ah-reum gazed at the department building with wistful eyes and said,
"This godforsaken school. Now I don't have to come here anymore~."
"Uh, no, that's not quite right. We still have to keep coming because of the club."
"Ah, right......."
The moment reality set in, Ah-reum's bright, lively face crumpled in an instant. Unfortunately, our club had a ton to prepare over the break.
For starters, just the short-form animation we were planning to submit to the year-end competition was already pretty brutal. The runtime itself was planned to be short—around 8 minutes max—but it had a lot of characters and fairly involved character movement, so we'd have to pour our labor into it.
Of course, the competition wasn't until late December, so we still had a decent time cushion. The more pressing matter was Seoul Comics at the end of July.
We were planning to set up a booth at the convention. We'd already been assigned our spot. The list of goods we'd be selling at the booth included desk mats, hanging scrolls, keychains, and so on. We had to work diligently to get it all ready in time.
That said, I was relatively uninvolved with the merchandise production. That was because I had a separate assignment. Namely, the adult comic titled 'I Was Blessed by the Dream Horse God' that I was co-creating with Bam Nuna.
'Busy, busy.'
I shook my head and said goodbye to the guys.
"I'm heading out first."
"Huh? Kkang-cheol, you're skipping the after-party? The guys were saying let's grab drinks tonight to celebrate the end of the semester."
"I've got way too much to do. Tell them I'm sorry."
"Aww, it's no fun without Kkang-cheol. And Seong-hyeon says he's going to see his girlfriend too."
Ah-reum grumbled, disappointed. But it couldn't be helped. I was busy, sure, but I was also avoiding alcohol because of my ongoing diet.
'I've skipped way too many hangouts though. This won't turn me into a loner, right?'
Since I kept missing every department friend gathering, I was slowly starting to worry about my social relationships. For now, there were still friends inviting me, but if I kept ducking out like this, eventually they'd stop even asking.
'Hmm, does it matter as long as I keep the friends I already have?'
Personally, I preferred close, tight bonds—even if somewhat narrow—over broad, shallow relationships. It was a mindset born from my experience of being cut off by everyone around me back in middle school.
Anyway, I decided to skip the drinking party. It'd be a waste of all the dieting I'd done so far to start drinking now. If I really got worried about my social relationships, I could always start joining in from second semester. Whatever.
My current weight was 86kg. Because my workout volume was so high, I was losing weight faster than expected. Running my ass off every morning with Seora noona along Cheonggaecheon definitely played a big part.
'And on top of that, I've barely lost any muscle mass. Is it thanks to Seora noona's diet plan?'
In the early stages, my muscle mass had actually increased. Normally when you lose as much weight as I was, it's typical to lose some muscle along with it, but thanks to the meticulously structured diet Seora noona set up and the beginner gains from starting weight training, my body kept looking better.
Back home, I checked myself in the mirror while showering. By now, it was a pretty decent body even by my own judgment. The chest fat that used to look like gynecomastia was nowhere to be found, replaced by firm muscle. Faintly, the outline of abs was gradually becoming visible. At some point, even my face—which had been chubby relative to my weight—had started to slim down.
"The more weight I lose, the more I'm starting to look like my father."
I ran my hand over my face, which had grown quite slender. For a moment, I caught a fleeting resemblance to my father's younger face—the one from the old photos. I guess it's true that blood runs thick between father and son. I was simply grateful to my mother and father for giving me a sturdy body.
However, even as I lost weight and my muscles firmed up, the scars across my collarbone remained. The traces of cigarette burns, seared in over multiple instances, hadn't disappeared with the passage of time.
I didn't like that at all, so I frowned and touched the scars.
"Fucking bastards."
A surge of irritation welled up. At the same time, I felt that I'd become a lot healthier, both physically and mentally. Where before I would have just gotten depressed looking at the scars, now I expressed anger—that was proof of it.
"Semester's over. Time to get started soon."
I'd decided to get a tattoo a while ago, but I'd deliberately put it off. There were scheduling reasons, but the psychological reasons were bigger. Rather than showing my tattoo to my department friends right away, the point was to let myself adjust to it over the break while I encountered fewer people.
Now that the semester was over, it was time to get inked. I'd have to consult with Saebyeok Nuna soon.
*
A college student's break is long.
Over two whole months of vacation!
Break—what a wonderfully resonant word.
But in a way that made the word "break" ring hollow, the members of [Toons], myself included, were gathered at school. Specifically, in the club room.
"So busy! I'm busier than when I was doing assignments!"
Ah-reum whined while working on the merchandise design.
I fiddled with my pen and scolded her.
"The others are even busier. Look over there."
"Tch. I know that, but......."
On one side of the club room, Saebyeok Nuna and Hana were busy making cosplay costumes. Those two worked on costumes, worked on the animation, and also participated in the merchandise production.
For reference, I was also one of the people just as busy as those two. That was because I was the main artist for the animation.
Why was I, a first-year, the main artist? It's a little embarrassing to say myself, but it was because my drawing skills were the best. I was unrivaled not just in quality but also in speed.
The immediate reason I was so busy, however, wasn't the animation production. I sighed and drew a line on my tablet.
"Should've gone with black and white. Just had to go and say we'd do color......."
"We believe only in Kkang-cheol!"
Before I knew it, Bam Nuna had come over, cheering me on while massaging my shoulders. She was acting far more familiar than before.
For reference, Bam Nuna had already finished all the storyboard work. I looked at the storyboard Bam Nuna had drawn with a quizzical expression.
"The drawings are crude, but the descriptions are surprisingly detailed......."
"Cru-crude?"
Uh-oh, my inner thoughts had slipped right out.
I hurriedly made excuses.
"It's a compliment, a compliment. The drawings aside, you explained all the composition and background and atmosphere and everything, right? It couldn't have been easy to do this for every cut—you must've worked hard."
"Is... wally a compwiment?"
"Of course."
It wasn't completely empty words. The art was a mess, but the descriptions were truly detailed. So the work speed was coming along faster than I'd expected.
"Kkang-cheol, how much longer do you think it'll take? Ah, I'm not rushing you."
"Umm. About two more weeks?"
I figured I could wrap it up and get it bound within two weeks. SeoCo was at the end of July, so there was plenty of time.
At my words, Bam Nuna's face lit up as she said,
"How many copies should we print? Ten thousand?"
"...Are you insane, by any chance?"
Ten thousand copies would get it selected as the monthly bestseller in the domestic comics market. No, before that, we'd go bankrupt just printing the comic! Why are you thinking on such a massive scale?!
When I stared at her in disbelief, Bam Nuna's face grew timid and she corrected herself.
"Then, a thousand...?"
"That's way too many too! How are you gonna sell a thousand copies of an original adult comic by unknown creators?!"
Even doujinshi—derivative works riding the popularity of hit series—had a hard time selling that much. Let alone an original adult comic, by unknown creators at that—who was going to know about it and buy a thousand copies?
When I scolded her to stop talking nonsense, Bam Nuna's face filled with resentment.
"Why! With Kkang-cheol's name value, it would sell!"
"I'm telling you, it won't! No, more importantly, were you seriously planning to reveal my handle?!"
"Huh? You're not revealing it?"
"Of course not!"
I resolutely had zero intention of showing my face and going "I'm a master of erotic illustrations." Sure, there were adult comic artists who confidently walked around with their faces public, but at the very least, I wasn't one of them. It's embarrassing!
"I'm disappointed! To not carry yourself with pride in what you do!"
Bam Nuna pointed her finger at me and denounced me with a disappointed expression.
Unbelievable—considering she herself was hiding the fact that she was Yusi.
"Then you first, Nuna."
"I-I have my circumstances, so I can't."
"What kind of circumstances?"
"That's... a secret."
"Everything's a secret with you."
I had no idea how someone could have so many secrets.
Anyway, Bam Nuna didn't give up easily.
"Aaaang. Just credit the art as Kkang-cheol. Hmm? It's good for your career."
"I said I don't want my face getting known......."
"Then all you have to do is not let anyone know you're Kkang-cheol."
That was true. As long as it didn't get revealed that I was Kkang-cheol, there'd be no problem with putting [Art: Kkang-cheol].
Except that logic applied to Bam Nuna as well.
"If we go by that, the same goes for you, Nuna. Write Yusi as the author and just don't let anyone know who Yusi is."
You shouldn't push others to do something you dislike yourself. Well, Nuna's situation was a bit different from mine since the club members had already found out, but whatever.
"Grrrrr......."
Bam Nuna trembled with indignation.
But no dice.
I turned away, ignored her, and focused on drawing again.
It was just as I was trying to concentrate.
"Fine! I'll put Yusi as the writer too!"
"...Huh?"
"In exchange, Kkang-cheol puts his too, and promotes it on Trickster."
Huh, this wasn't what I intended.
Suddenly I was stuck with no way out.