Skipping the Art Assignment

The mixed class for art class had, once again, been paired with Class 5, the one Yu Somi was in.

The reason was simple enough: the number of students who had chosen art was so lopsided between Classes 2 and 5 that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠neither class could reasonably be combined with anyone else.

In my Class 2, there were only about ten students who had picked art as an elective, while Class 5 had more than twenty. From the teachers’ point of view, if they wanted music and art to run normally at all, there was no choice but to lump Classes 2 and 5 together.

"As soon as they said Song Changwon and Lee Narin would be taking art together, all the kids who’d originally signed up for art started dropping out one by one... Guess they really are hated, huh."

"That’s amazing! Our class had so many students who wanted art that we had to narrow it down with rock-paper-scissors, and even then it only worked out this well! But in the end we’re taking the class together, so isn’t that a good thing?"

As she’d said, Song Changwon, Lee Narin, and Yu Somi were all seated at the same table as me in the art practice room.

Of course, the table only held six people, so the remaining seats were filled by students from Class 5... but we’d taken classes with them last semester too, so they were all familiar faces and not especially awkward to sit with.

...

Though, come to think of it, weren’t they delinquents up until last semester? The atmosphere seemed a lot different now...

"All right, everyone, listen up! Ah, sorry. Somi, you can talk comfortably with your friends! Ahem... before class starts, let’s check whether everyone brought their supplies. If anyone forgot something, say so now!"

"As I said before, today is the first art practice session of the semester. Students who joined this class recently should do their best to leave a good first impression on the teacher, all right? And while it’s fine to enjoy class, let’s all be careful not to go overboard and disturb the lesson!"

What was this. Why was only Class 5 such a weirdly pumped-up, cheer-each-other-on kind of group?

I wasn’t the only one thinking that. The dozen or so students from Class 2 were all wearing rather startled expressions at Class 5’s bright, positive atmosphere.

Even Song Changwon and Lee Narin.

"What the hell. So Baekseung High actually has a normal class after all. Or is Class 2 the one that’s especially a mess?"

"I think there’s some truth to the fact that you made it a mess, Song Changwon."

"No. Those guys were already a mess to begin with, so it’s not my fault. More importantly, doesn’t this make Yu Somi look like the most delinquent one in the class?"

...

And then, from a few remarks Song Changwon tossed out as if he hadn’t thought anything of them at all...

the entire art practice room suddenly went quiet, as though someone had doused it with water.

At his words, every student in Class 5 stopped talking at once and turned their eyes to Song Changwon.

Then one of the girls from Class 5 walked over to Changwon, the corners of her mouth lifting as she spoke.

"You know. I don’t really know who you are, but it seems like you’ve got something mixed up..."

"...What is it?"

"Somi isn’t delinquent. She’s hip and mature."

"...?"

The girl speaking to Changwon was clearly smiling, but her eyes weren’t smiling at all.

Not only that, but the wary looks of the Class 5 students were all fixed on Song Changwon alone.

No matter how much of a bastard Song Changwon was, he apparently couldn’t withstand the silent pressure of nearly twenty Class 5 students pouring it on him all at once...

In the end, he corrected himself in a slightly trembling voice.

"...I misspoke. Yu Somi is hip and mature."

"Good. So a smart new transfer student has arrived? We’ll be seeing each other all semester in art class, so let’s get along, okay?"

...

As the girl returned to her seat, the cold stares of Class 5 that had been pinned on Changwon also drifted back to normal.

And only then did a single bead of cold sweat run down Song Changwon’s forehead.

But the other Class 2 students, and Yu Somi herself, seemed to have taken the whole exchange as nothing more than a joke.

.

.

.

Today’s assignment was to make a palm-sized character figurine out of oil clay.

More specifically, we were supposed to spend the full two hours shaping it today and finish painting it next week, and that would count as this art performance assessment.

Of course, the quality of the finished piece would be reflected in the evaluation, so if I wanted a good score, I couldn’t exactly phone it in.

As for me... well, honestly, I didn’t actually need the score.

Still, if I could earn a decent grade with just a little extra effort, I preferred to take the decent grade.

Besides, making things in art class was fun.

That said, I understood my own limits very clearly.

If I tried to make a human character or an animal out of oil clay, I’d end up with some unidentifiable lump that even I wouldn’t know what it was supposed to be.

So this time I planned to make something as simple as possible, something anyone would recognize at a glance.

First, I set the figurine’s size at about half the size of my fist, then tore off a large chunk of clay and kneaded it into something shaped like a KitKat bar.

After that, I threaded the wire I’d brought with me together, stuck it into the top of the clay, bent it into a rough shape, and...

tore off a small lump from the remaining clay and stuck it onto the other end of the wire.

At that point, MapleStory’s Slime was about ninety percent finished.

All that was left was to make the eyeballs and mouth parts I’d glue on after painting.

Since it would be a pain if the eyes ended up different sizes, I flattened the clay thin, laid paper over it, and cut out the remaining pieces with scissors.

Total time so far: a little over twenty minutes.

Since art practice used the full two-hour block, all that was left for me to do now was kill time somehow.

At times like this, the best thing to do was naturally to watch what everyone else was making!

.

.

.

Song Changwon seemed to be making a plump rabbit character with narrow eyes.

...Ah. That was MashiMaro.

Since that character was round and simple to begin with, it would be easy enough to make as long as you had some basic skill.

And because the character was white overall, it would take far less effort to paint too.

Looking at Changwon’s choice, I got the feeling he’d probably been thinking along the same lines I had.

He clearly didn’t care about the character itself and had only been thinking about how to get the score with as little effort as possible.

By contrast, Yu Somi was already making something that looked like a ridiculously elaborate project.

Apparently she was planning a figurine in a dynamic pose, because she’d already made a wire skeleton to support the clay.

Even though I still couldn’t tell what character she was aiming for, the way she was using a steel ruler to fine-tune the length and thickness of the clay made me think she might once again end up producing something well beyond normal high-school level.

And Lee Narin...

She looked like she was trying to make some kind of quadruped animal I couldn’t identify, but her skill level was so tragic that it was impossible to tell what it was supposed to be.

Maybe she knew that herself, because she kept pressing down the clay she’d been kneading, smashing it flat, then kneading it again over and over.

As a result, even though thirty minutes had already passed since class began, she still hadn’t made any real progress.

In the end, unable to watch any longer, I decided to go over and help Lee Narin a little.

"What are you trying to make? If you keep going like this, you’re ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠going to run out of time, so I’ll help a little."

"Huh? Ah... I’m trying to make Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It looks like a cute cat-like character at first glance, right? Do you know it?"

Of course I did.

Anyone who watched anime from neighboring countries had heard of that character’s infamy.

He was the mascot of a magical-girl anime and the main reason the whole thing turned into dark fantasy.

...

Still, the character Lee Narin was making now looked simple, but because it was designed around a sleek cat body, it was actually harder to make than it seemed.

The legs and torso were thin, while the head and ears were large, so if you wanted it to stand, you absolutely needed to build a wire frame.

And if you wanted it to look properly catlike, you had to pose it with bent legs or a curved waist.

But expressing those subtle curves in a three-dimensional sculpture ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was already a task that went far beyond ordinary high-school skill.

If she really wanted to make a Kyubey figurine, she’d have to compromise somewhere.

"First off, the character you’re making is more complicated than it looks. So instead of trying to reproduce it exactly like it appears in the work, you need to pick out a few defining features and deform it a bit."

"Oh... but how do I do that?"

"Even if you keep the parts that define the character, like the face, ears, and tail, you replace the rest with simple shapes that are easier to make."

"Hmm... so basically, it’s like sticking the character’s head and tail onto a small lump, right?"

"Exactly. If you add short decorative limbs on top of that, you’ll end up with a figurine that’s at least decent enough to look at."

I kept giving Lee Narin a few useful tips on how to work with oil clay after that, and only then did her progress finally start moving forward.

Still, the character she’d chosen was a design that took a lot of work no matter how much you simplified it, and since she’d already lost time by repeatedly making and breaking her piece early in class, finishing on time looked difficult.

—Lee Narin’s POV

The art practice session didn’t have much time left, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there was still a lot I needed to finish on the character figurine I was making.

The large pieces like the head, torso, and tail were done, but the arms and legs, the eyes, nose, and mouth, and all the miscellaneous decorations were still unfinished.

At this rate, what I was making might end up looking more like a Pokémon than Kyubey...

Looking around, most of the students had finished their own works in one way or another.

The finished pieces varied wildly in quality, of course... but the Class 5 students were surprisingly enthusiastic about the lesson, so they had all made passable character figurines, and both Jung Ian and Song Changwon from our class had completed highly accurate ones too.

In particular, the character Somi made was Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro, and she’d captured him in a dynamic pose, flying with an umbrella and his mouth wide open.

The art teacher had even praised it lavishly, saying she was looking forward to seeing it finished.

There were plenty of other things I wanted to make too, but I’d chosen this character based on my skill and the difficulty involved... and even after receiving Jung Ian’s help, it still came out like this.

Maybe my skill really was worse than I’d thought.

.

.

.

When I was left out of the figure-skating competition roster because my expressions were apparently awful, I thought to myself: Maybe figure skating just doesn’t suit me. Let’s find something that does.

When I heard, in the middle of the confusion after my parents died, that my relatives had torn apart my parents’ company and divided it among themselves, I thought: I’m only being taken advantage of because I’m still young. Things can change depending on how hard I try.

When I was subtly looked down on at an elite high school in Seoul for being an orphan, and then tears came to my eyes because I was even losing on exam scores, I thought: Maybe the school’s standards are just too high. If I transferred to an ordinary high school instead...

And now, after transferring to an ordinary high school.

Unlike me, who was nothing more than the daughter of a ruined rich family, there was Song Changwon and Han Sia, children of a real wealthy household.

There was Yu Somi, who had a figure and a beautiful face so striking you could almost doubt she was even Korean, and on top of that possessed genuine talent and skill for drawing.

And there was Jung Ian, who looked unremarkable at first glance but was actually capable enough to draw the attention of a chaebol family, could do everything better than other people, and was kind on top of it all.

Among these people, I was... not especially exceptional in school either, and the figure skating I’d once been proud of had long since been abandoned.

Even my one remaining source of confidence, my appearance, was just that of a pretty child when placed between Han Sia and Yu Somi.

Even here, I was still just part of the crowd.

Maybe that was why I’d been thinking lately that I’d actually just been looking down on the world while relying on my parents’ wealth.

Maybe I really was nothing more than an orphan with no particular talent and no real strengths, and once my family fell apart, there was nothing left for me at all.

Maybe I wasn’t in a position to worry about morality or appearances anymore, and if I wanted to survive in the world from here on out, I’d have to do whatever it took.

...For some reason, today in particular, the message my relative sent kept bothering me.