In the Club Room (2)
The concept proposal for the short animation project. The thing I'd completely blanked on.
Its deadline was creeping closer by the day.
- Yu-bam) Everyone, no need to overthink it. What matters is the idea! It doesn't have to be perfect—just let your imagination run wild~!
That was the message Bam Nuna had posted in the club group chat a while back.
I'd been holding out for some kind of tip, but it was absolutely no help at all.
A late-night message.
I sat at my desk, endlessly twirling a pencil in my hand. For the record, the notebook lying open in front of me had been a blank page for a solid hour.
Thirty more minutes crept by.
I stretched and let out an irritable groan.
"Ugh, why can't I come up with anything. You blockhead. I don't even know where or how to start."
I didn't have to look far—I was stuck from the very first step of choosing a main theme. No matter how hard I glared at the notebook, it remained a blank white page.
"This is exactly why I gave up on being a cartoonist......."
There was a time when I dreamed of becoming a cartoonist.
After realizing I had a knack for drawing, I started thinking I should create an incredible work, something on par with the manga I geeked out over.
And I really did put in the practice.
I taught myself everything from basic linework to the skills needed for manga—panel layout, directing, and so on—using textbooks and online lectures.
But I had a desperate, absolute lack of storytelling talent. That was the moment I realized drawing well alone did not make you a cartoonist.
If you told me to draw an R-18 illustration, I could bang out the sketch in no time. I could even go further and flesh out a character's specific appearance down to the finest detail.
But the moment I tried to build a story around that character, my mind went blank.
How to construct a world, what to choose as the central theme, what kinds of episodes could spin off from that theme.
Those finer points simply refused to surface in my head.
I dropped my head onto the desk in despair.
"Aaagh! I can describe the elegant curves of a woman's body in excruciating detail! Or the subtle creases in an armpit! The fold where stockings dig into the thigh! The kind of texture rendering that drives foot fetishists wild—I can do all of that anytime!"
I prided myself on being second to no professional cartoonist when it came to drawing female characters!
But crafting a story was simply.......
"...Ah, forget it."
I should just sleep.
I tossed my pencil aside and threw myself onto the bed. Somehow, I felt even more drained than during the post-nut clarity after jerking off......
*
Dreamland was the ultimate refuge.
God gave humans sleep as a reward for all the world's countless worries.
But you always had to wake up.
"The proposal......."
Those were the first words out of my mouth the moment I opened my eyes. Truth was, even with my eyes shut, I'd kept wrestling with ideas and hadn't gotten any deep sleep at all.
"Should I just self-skip class today? I barely slept, I'm dead tired......."
Bulkkeun!
"...I'm fucking healthy, huh."
I clearly hadn't slept much, but my lower half had sprung up stiff and refreshed like it was feeling fantastic. I washed my face out of necessity, and even the fatigue I'd been dragging around washed away cleanly.
Maybe it was the effect of eating well and working out lately, but I was getting healthier by the day. Though the weight loss had definitely hit a plateau.
'I don't think it used to spring up this much before. Is it because I lost weight?'
My recent diet had been feeling a bit sluggish, but compared to when I was over 130kg, I was practically a different person. Back then I was unmistakably a pale pig, but now I was just on the slightly chubby side.
I changed into my training clothes.
It was time for morning exercise.
*
After exam period ended.
My morning workouts with Seora noona had resumed.
Our exercise routine began with a run along the Cheonggyecheon stream before heading to the gym.
"Alright, shall we go for a light 10km run today?"
Seora noona said with a fresh, bright expression. She was a nuna with a refreshing aura no matter when you saw her. Her healthy beauty was incredible too.
Meanwhile, I looked half dead as I spoke.
"How on earth is 10km considered a light run......."
I ran every single day, but I was always scared before starting. It was bound to be brutally hard.
"Ahaha. Acting all weak when you run so well. Let's go."
Nuna gave me a couple of pats on the back and took off first. Her movements were always so bouncy.
'I think this every time, but shouldn't Seora noona have been a professional athlete?'
My raw strength was naturally better, but that was just the advantage I got from being male. When it came to cardio endurance or athletic instincts, I couldn't hold a candle to Seora noona.
Honestly, from my perspective, even that 10km run was me pushing myself to my absolute limit. Running like that in a body over 90kg was never easy.
Even so, the reason I could finish the full distance.
Jjigeun-jjigeun.
Was all thanks to the magnificent ass bouncing along in front of me.
Truly, it was a hip-up I admired every single time I saw it. A tantalizing ass in a different way from Ju Hana's.
Phrasing it like that makes me sound like some sick pervert who leers at his close nuna's ass, but.
'Well, whatever, she touched my dick too.'
Touching was a bigger deal than looking, wasn't it?
Though, of course, nothing like that had happened since.
*
After wrapping up the workout, I headed to school.
I had afternoon classes today, so there was plenty of time, but staying home would just mean more of the same. Rather than racking my brain alone at home, I figured I'd go to the club room and ask for help.
But the club room I arrived at was.
"Huh, nobody's here......."
Maybe I should've sent a message ahead on Kakaotalk.
That was the moment I opened my notebook, feeling disappointed.
Kkatok! Kkatok!
= (Photo)
A familiar nude photo arrived.
A back-angle shot—in other words, a photo from Ju Hana.
After we'd had sex recently, Hana had deactivated her 'Backside_Of_One' account. And now she was sending nude photos directly to me on Kakaotalk like this.
= How is it? I tried bending over and getting my pussy in the shot too.
= Is it hotter than before?
I read the messages that followed the photo and let out a hollow laugh. When we'd run into each other in the club room a couple of days ago, she'd been so embarrassed, but over Kakaotalk there was nothing she wouldn't say. Hana was truly the Lu Bu of the internet.
Well, I was the one who told her not to post photos in weird places and to only send them to me. She'd even deactivated her alt account, so the least I could do was reply diligently.
- Well, yeah, it's hot when your pussy's in the shot too.
- But why are you going that far? You didn't used to shoot directly like that.
Back when Hana ran her alt account, she never directly exposed her genitals. The most extreme exposure was maybe a full-body back shot. Though honestly, that alone was plenty lewd.
= Because it's Kkangcheol.
= We already did way more than that, so it's fine lol
= (Shy panda emoji)
She's acting uncharacteristically shy. Or no, maybe this was exactly like Hana after all.
I smirked as I typed my reply.
- More importantly, where are you right now?
= On my way to school.
- You have a morning class?
= No, but I have some assignments to work on early. Class is in the afternoon.
- Then wanna come to the club room? I'm here.
= Really? I'll be right there!
- Thanks. I needed help from my mentor anyway.
No reply came to that last message.
But about 15 minutes later, the club room door swung open and Hana walked in. Had she nearly reached the school already? Her breathing seemed a little rough for some reason.
"Did you seriously run here?"
"N-no... cough."
"Yeah, right. Here, drink some water."
When I handed her the water, Hana took it with an awkward expression.
Soon after catching her breath, Hana sat down in the seat next to me and spoke.
"You said you needed help......?"
"Yeah. We have to write a production proposal for the short animation, right? I just can't get a feel for it at all."
"Ahh. W-well, I don't know that much either......."
"Even just some simple advice would be great. I haven't even started yet."
"Huh? But there's only four days left......?"
"Exactly. I'm going crazy."
I'd been racking my brain for nearly a week, but no ideas came to mind. In the end, I'd even asked Seora noona when I saw her this morning, but I couldn't get a useful answer.
Seora noona said.
- Sorry. Honestly, I don't really know either. Back when I was club president, we didn't do things like animation production. And I can't participate in this project because of time constraints.
Seora noona was the only fourth-year in the club.
Meaning she was a graduating senior and thus incredibly busy. In other words, I wasn't in a position to blame her for not participating—I should be grateful that she was still helping with club activities despite everything on her plate.
"Hana, are you done with yours?"
"Me? I'm pretty much done but......."
"Really?! Can't you show me? I'll just use it for reference!"
Before I knew it, I'd leaned my face right up close to Hana's and blurted it out. I never expected she'd be finished already. Suddenly, a wave of respect surged through me. As expected of our mentor.
Hana shrank back a little as she reached for her mouse.
"Sh-showing you is fine... but I'm not very confident. I just organized my ideas simply......."
"That's more than enough. I'm telling you, I haven't even started yet. Ah, seriously, Hana, I'm so glad you're my mentor."
"Y-you think so?"
Hana tilted her head with a tone that lacked confidence.
I talked up Hana, half sincere and half joking.
"Of course. If it weren't you and instead it was Saebyeok Sunbae... I'd be too scared to even talk to her properly. Asking questions would be out of the question."
"Saebyeok Unni? Saebyeok Unni is nice......."
"Pfft, she's only nice to you guys. She's always on my case, you know?"
"I-I don't think it's because she dislikes you."
Ju Hana defending Han Saebyeok.
I hadn't meant it that way, but as we talked, it kind of felt like I was talking behind someone's back. Realizing how shitty that was of me, I laughed awkwardly.
"Then that's a relief. I don't dislike Saebyeok Sunbae either. She's just a bit hard to approach."
"Mm. That's because Unni has a thing about men....... Ah, it's open. This is my proposal."
Was it my imagination? It seemed like she'd deliberately changed the subject.
I felt a twinge of dissonance but let it slide. That wasn't what mattered right now. I carefully looked over Hana's proposal.
First, the theme, development approach, key features, and so on were laid out, and simple continuity storyboards for the early parts and key scenes were drawn.
If I had to sum up the concept Hana wrote in a single phrase, it was this.
'A Romantic Comedy Between a Loner Cosplay Girl and a Popular Photographer.'
It felt familiar. A cliché you could find in droves in Japanese light novels or anime. But clichés became clichés precisely because they worked so well.
First off, the focus seemed clear, but would it really suit a short animation?
'Hmm. That's not for me to judge, though.'
What I needed to do right now wasn't to evaluate Hana's proposal, but to reference it and get a feel for the task. Who was I to critique anyone when my own page was still blank?
I read through the proposal several times. Though I had no idea if just reading it like this would actually help me grasp the concept.
And then.
I heard a rustling sound beside me and turned to look.
"...Ah."
My eyes met squarely with Hana's—she had her skirt lifted and was taking a selfie in silent mode.
...Alright, I understood that much. A girl who takes nude photos might occasionally take an upskirt shot too. Though I wasn't sure why she was doing it right next to me.
But here's the thing.
"...When did you take your panties off?"
Isn't it a bit much to be doing that with your panties down while there's someone sitting right next to you?