30 Chapter 30 - With All His Heart 2 (2/2)

'Then, I should just go to bed. It doesn't seem like I'll get much out of thinking all night. It'll only cloud my mind,' he thought to himself.

The next morning, he woke up after dreaming about being crushed to death by an alien monkey who had invaded the Earth. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the best of moods.

*

”You all look excited.”

”We get out early today! Hooray for the essay contest!”

Everyone at school was much more lively during the morning assembly. It wasn't just Juho's class, but the entire school was boisterous. The essay contest was to take place during the morning periods. After that, everyone was going to be released. The entire school was excited by the idea of leaving early. Some students had already started making plans to go to karaoke with friends. It was as if the contest had been set aside.

”Not a lot of people seem to be interested in the contest.”

”That's better for us. The Literature Club will take over,” Seo Kwang said with a smile.

”You never know who you're going to be competing against,” said Juho.

Seo Kwang scoffed and answered confidently, ”No way! Even if there was somebody with awe-inspiring writing skills, it's not a big deal.”

He seemed to be about twice as excited as his usual self. Then, Juho realized that he became talkative when he was nervous.

”Who dares challenge the Literature Club? We'll accept it any day!” he said boisterously, though it was buried by the entire school getting excited.

Some students had already started thinking about what to write. Just as a true master lived in hiding, there was no telling what kind of monstrous writers would be competing. After all, life always steered toward unexpected events.

At that moment, the door opened, and a teacher walked in. It was someone familiar.

”It's Mr. M.”

Seo Kwang welcomed him. The essay contest was a test in its own right, so each teacher had to be overseeing a class. In Mr. Moon's hand, there was a stack of large, gray, recycled paper. Although he gave no instructions, the classroom became completely silent. It was the students' reflex to prepare for an exam whenever there was gray, recycled paper.

”You didn't forget about my favor, did you?” Seo Kwang asked.

He sounded calm, and Juho gave him a light nod. At that, Seo Kwang turned around without hesitation, and Juho looked at his back.

'Here come the gray pages,' he thought.

”Take one and pass it to the person behind you. You may begin as soon as you receive your paper.”

Juho dook a deep breath as he listened to Mr. Moon's voice. Seo Kwang handed the paper to him.

There were squares on the large paper that almost covered the entire desk. In those squares, there were list of topics to choose from. Teacher, parents, love, friendship, school, friends, arbor day, independence movement day, etc. The list made it easy to realize that that was for a school essay contest. Juho found a word that was at the end of the list. It was radom, out of the blue.

'Plaster figure. Where did this come from? Maybe it was Mr. Moon's idea,' Juho wondered about the look on the other teachers' faces.

”Pff!”

A faint snicker came from the front. Seo Kwang had to have thought the same. Juho drew a circle around the word 'plaster figure.' His hand had moved awkwardly, and the crooked circle was bothering him.

He realized that he was completely incapable of concentrating in that moment. Other students whispered. They were asking each other what they were going to write about. Mr. Moon didn't really say much. It wasn't a strictly supervised environment. If anything, it was more like a festival. 'A festival.' Juho pictured the fireworks of a grand festival. People marching with flashy lights walked between rows of crowds. There was uplifting music, and people were filled with excitement, just like the students in that classroom.

'Speaking of which, when was the school festival again?'

The school festival was usually prepared around the time after the second years' final exam. Juho didn't have any special memories of the school festival. It hadn't exactly been fun. 'What would the Literature Club do at the festival? Set up a writing experience booth? There probably won't be anybody interested. The club was already in a classroom that was out of sight. With a boring content like that, nobody would be interested.

'Actually, are we even doing something?' he asked himself. The festival wasn't until much later, but he suddenly became curious.

After thinking about various things about the festival, Juho shook his head.

'Now's not the time. Snap out of it. Gotta write,' he reminded himself.

He concentrated on thinking about images of plaster figures. Agrippa, Venus, Julien, Michelangelo, Hermes, Apollo, Kant. They were in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

There was also a plaster figure in the art class in school. There were splashes of paint on its white, smooth surface. There were scribbles here and there, both written and erased. Her beautiful curves were stained with dark spots. If she were alive, she would have had much to complain about how she was being managed.

When Juho thought about the ivory skin of a plaster figure, his mind naturally took itself to the story of Pygmalion. 'Pygmalion.' It was the name of a sculptor who fell in love with one of his own sculptures. He stroke and kissed the sculpture. After desperate prayers, the sculpture finally became a real woman, and the two fell in love.

'Great, I'm going to read about mythology when I get home,' he thought.

Juho pinched his own forehead.

'I'm doing it again.'

<With All His Heart (2)> The End