Casual Conversations and a Delinquent Art Direction
After that, we exchanged really light small talk. Did you eat breakfast this morning? You didn't stay up too late last night, did you? How many classes do you have today and all that stuff. Just the simplest things, really.
As the original purpose of my visit faded away, there wasn't much worth dividing the conversation into. Since a lecture was about to start in just a little while, I had only exchanged some trivial chitchat.
“Then I'll see you later.”
“Yeah.”
Lee Eun-byul finished her sentence and left the lecture hall.
When she first came in, her unease had been obvious to see, but once things were settled, she quickly found her calm. A relieved expression on her face as she walked out of the lecture hall. I waved my hand at her casually and thought.
“Was that really worth worrying about?”
I could have just run away in the middle of Yasgak.
At the time I had been a little pissed off for missing the mochi in front of me, but now I understood. Even if Lee Eun-byul didn't know I was ‘Good-for-nothing Me,’ I would have generously accepted an apology if she had made one.
But why had she been so anxious? The saying went that women are the most complicated creatures in the world, and it seemed to apply here too in this reversed world.
Was it because of my eyes that she got scared?
That thought crossed my mind, but I erased it right away, thinking there was no way that could have been the case.
No, no way.
Probably.
Well, anyway, the relationship with her was now settled. I decided to just bury that day's incident away.
Honestly, it wasn't even a big deal, but there was no need to dig it up just to make it awkward.
That was just the way men and women were. Even if we had figured it out on our own, awkward silence would eventually settle in at some point.
Especially since I had peeked at Yasgak too, how was I supposed to act normally afterward?
Instead, it would be better to quietly bury it.
Just treat it as if it had never happened at all.
Both of us knew the fact, but as long as we didn't bring it up out loud, it would eventually become a secret.
A real-world fact that had now become a mere illusion living only in memory.
I wanted that. This level of relationship was comfortable right now.
“About ‘Good-for-nothing Me’ too.”
At least for now, I decided to bury it.
Honestly, if I used it well I could probably milk it for some gain, but... I wasn't some horny bastard who would just tease his dick randomly.
It wasn't about not wanting to milk it.
Right now, the money was what mattered more.
The only money left in my account right now was a little over 100,000 won.
With just that, surviving in the middle of this dangerous Seoul was impossible.
Even in a beggar situation, I was still going to get my dick played with?
Losing both money and time would be obvious. Then I would end up on the streets soon.
That was an unacceptable outcome.
“I haven't been drawing lately.”
As an artist who had been slacking off too much, the only thing I had done was drink like crazy instead of drawing.
Now it was time to reclaim the artist's core duty.
I needed to spend more time drawing than I had been.
Just drawing commissions wasn't enough to cover the expenses.
With 50,000 to 70,000 won coming in every now and then, it was like pouring water into a leaky bucket.
Even after the money came in, when I checked my account, a few thousand won had already disappeared in thin air.
I needed more money.
Enough to cover the holes under the storage shed.
To do that, I eventually needed a new source of income, but...
“Hello everyone.”
While I was lost in those worries, the professor had entered the classroom.
The students who had been chatting all this time sat in their seats and pulled out their pens and notebooks from their bags.
I paused my thoughts for a moment and prepared my writing tools too. Right now, it was time to focus on the class.
After all, I would get bored halfway through and start daydreaming anyway.
“Then let's begin the class.”
Thinking could wait until later.
“...In the end, it's Pinbox.”
After class ended, on my way home.
While turning over my thoughts heavily in my head, I muttered that way. Yeah, in the end there was nothing but Pinbox.
The way to regularly bring in money. Honestly, I should have made it long ago.
As long as I opened a sponsorship account, people who wanted to support me would pay.
But even so, the reason I hadn't opened it until now was because no good idea had come to mind.
How could I make the women in this world fall for me while still drawing without being the bad guy?
Just thinking about it gave me a headache.
There was a proverb about trying to catch two rabbits and losing both.
But I was in a situation where if I missed catching both, I would die.
Whether mentally or having my blood soaked by the cruel reality of society.
If I didn't want to do that, I had no choice but to prepare properly.
“Huu.”
As soon as I got home, I roughly changed my clothes and sat in front of the chair.
The body that had been working outside until now was urging me to lie on the mattress, but I ignored it on purpose.
These tasks were best done with a clear head. Otherwise I would keep putting them off.
While spinning the tablet pen between my fingers, I continued my thoughts.
First, the direction of the work was already set.
“Taste is... going that way, right?”
Like the ones ‘Rape Legalization’ had requested once, or the pictures ‘Good-for-nothing Me’ had wanted.
Mostly a genre where the man takes the lead and the woman is taken, right?
In professional terms, it seemed like drawing femdom works. No, since this was a reversed world, meldom works.
Anyway, it was about capturing the sexy women in this world.
The reason was simple. Because this was easy for me to draw.
It was a genre I had drawn quite often compared to the previous world, and most importantly, it was the kind I could draw without being the bad guy.
And surprisingly, the views were good too.
Of course, the female drawings I posted at the very beginning.
Even if there were tastes that divided opinions, it still recorded twice as many views as the somewhat popular genre of gore.
It was a surprising fact.
“What’s wrong with being cruel...”
That I couldn't showcase blood fluid dynamics for a moment made me feel a little sad, but in the end, identifying the consumers' needs was good.
The commissions I had been accepting without thinking to make money had been pointing me in the right direction. The views on the listed paintings in Paxiv proved it.
Of course, meldom works were also a taste that divided opinions a bit, but
As I said last time, biologically women had a wide spectrum when it came to sex.
It was a fact certified through scientific experiments. If that was the case, as long as I had the skill, the people who wanted it would come.
Anyway, I had decided that the characteristic of the work was that the man mostly takes the lead.
“The problem now is...”
Tap tap.
I muttered while tapping the tablet with the pen.
Every time the pen touched the monitor, a black dot appeared on the brand new white digital canvas.
Those black dots felt like they were representing my worries.
Anyway, this was a world where women were the main customer base.
To attract consumers, I had no choice but to focus on the man.
Drawing the man's dick delicately... drawing smooth flat chests... sometimes adding expression...
“This fucking thing.”
Just thinking about it made the curse words rise automatically.
Yeah, cursing was part of it. In the end, I had to compromise with the world to some extent.
The two-shot composition I had been doing didn't change, but I realized I needed to increase the man's share a bit.
“Originally I had drawn them as rough chunks. Just making the shape.”
Most of the yajjal from the previous world.
The female characters who became actresses were drawn very delicately, while the men surrounding them were drawn roughly.
Why? Because kids were coming to see the girls. They didn't care at all about what the guys looked like.
That's why the face side wasn't expressed or the male body shape was just sketched and filled in with solid color.
Just like the criminals in Detective Conan.
The only difference was that the men in yajjal had skin color instead of black briefs.
But in this reversed world, if I did that, I would definitely be scolded.
People paid money to see naked men, but if they just saw rough silhouettes, they would definitely get annoyed.
So in the end, I had no choice but to carefully draw the male characters.
Since it was a series, I needed to give them decent personalities and refine their appearances properly.
This was the problem.
How to make attractive characters. How to draw characters so that they felt appealing.
As a man, drawing men to be appealing was extremely backward and difficult.
I didn't even want to imagine it, and when I did, it just gave me a headache.
Fortunately, though, I had experts on this.
I took out my phone and sent a message to that expert.
[Rape Legalization: Why to me;]
Why not.
[Rape Legalization: ...Make characters?]
[Rape Legalization: Who even thinks up such characters; I'm not that perverted;;]
After confirming that far, I sighed.
“Haa...”
It wasn't from the other person having no ideas. It was from the fact that the words were bright red lies.
How long had it been since I saw that person? Did he really make up such obvious lies?
Just looking at the commissions I had accepted so far, I could feel his creativity wasn't ordinary.
She used to go on and on with [Oh lol this field is my specialty] when she replied, but the quiet her now was surprising and a little sad.
So I called her.
Before the ringtone could even finish, she picked up.
“Hey Arin.”
As soon as she answered, I said it. Now it was a complete real-world relationship, not just between artist and client.
The sudden call made her seem surprised.
“U, uh?”
It sounded a bit noisy around her, probably because she was working part-time. Still, since she picked up the phone, maybe it wasn't break time.
I thought that and continued.
“Let's just talk honestly. Just from the ones you applied for, your imagination is overflowing, right? You said you had nothing thought up? You wrote some interesting lines in the chat too. Like wanting to get bullied by a muscular guy. Wanting to face a barbarian teacher and all that──”
“Stop! I know! I'll tell you!”
Her loud voice exploded at my rapid-fire words.
I should have said that from the beginning.
I moved the phone away for a moment because her voice was so loud. It was as if I had turned on speaker mode myself.
-What the hell?! What's going on?!
-Arin, what's wrong?!
-No no! Just talking on the phone! Sorry, keep working...
A noisy voice came from behind the phone for a moment. Probably her colleagues who worked together.
Just what kind of part-time job was she doing? A brief curiosity crossed my mind, but I decided to let it go.
Now was the time to think up characters.
“So...”
After the short commotion passed, she opened her mouth again.
This time, it seemed like she had moved to a very quiet place, so no sounds came clearly through the phone, only the hesitant voice of Seong A-rin.
For a long time she hesitated, opening her mouth and putting it back several times.
Finally, with a voice like she was forcing herself, she spoke.
“So... I've thought about wanting to be taken by a delinquent-type guy before...”
“Oh.”
Delinquent-type character.
Right when I heard it, it felt like something was surfacing in my head.
“Delinquent... thanks, Arin. I'll hang up for now. Experts are different, after all.”
“I'm not an expert-”
Click.
I ended the call just like that.
I thought she said something after, but I couldn't hear it well because I had moved the phone away.
Instead of past words, it was more important to catch the inspiration that was now surfacing in my head.
“Delinquent character...”
I gripped the tablet pen again that I had been spinning between my fingers. There had been male characters with similar traits and characteristics in the previous world, right...? At that moment, a man passed through my mind.
Geumtaeyang.
The so-called blonde-tanned delinquent. He was one of the top three dangerous men in the manga, usually appearing in NTR genres.
Yeah, NTR...
“Ugh!”
Thinking that far, my head suddenly hurt.
Another harmful thought was entering my head.
“No!”
NTR? No NTR!
No matter how much I drew yajjal and gore as an artist, NTR was crossing a line!
But,
“No...”
Thinking about it again, it felt okay.
It fit my genre well and had a firm character.
Blonde-tanned delinquent... where exactly was there such a standout character with this individuality?
“No, maybe it's okay?”
It wasn't just okay. It felt pretty good.
Excluding only the single flaw of NTR, it felt like a pretty good series could be made if I rolled it out properly.
I readjusted my sitting position. Lowered the legs that had been placed slanted on the desk and straightened the bent waist.
My creative desire was slowly burning.
I began drawing the picture.
“A bit muscular... no NTR...
My concentration kicked in instantly. The hardened thoughts slowly started moving, and the tablet pen moved here and there.
In that quiet room, the sound of the pen moving echoed for a while.