“Rea, really?”
At the dinner table with Mr. Laurong’s family.
Jinho asked in surprise as he was putting a spring roll into his mouth, and Fei lightly smiled at him.
“Yes, really. The professor lauded me thanks to Mr. Jinho. Even though he only points out faults most of the times… he must have really liked it to…, Ah!. Mr. Jinho, the sauce is dripping. Here, a napkin…”
“Th, thank you.”
Wiping the dripping sauce using the napkin Fei pa.s.sed, Jinho quickly put the food into his mouth.
The fried coating and the meat crunched together inside Jinho’s mouth and stimulated his tastebuds, but Jinho’s entire attention was on Fei’s story.
Fei looked at Jinho’s twinkling eyes as if she found them funny, and continued her story.
“And so, the professor put my artwork on a screen and talked only about it the entire cla.s.s today, along with talks about how one should draw, and those sort of things, too.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. With this, the grades for that cla.s.s should be secured, right?”
“Yes. According to a site that a.s.sess professors, the number of times the professor gave grades higher than a ‘B’ could be counted on one hand, but I might be able to get an ‘A’ thanks to Mr. Jinho. Really, thank you.”
Seeing Fei brightly smiling, Jinho smiled along.
At the same time, he felt both envy and admiration. To think she is good enough to be praised from a famous art college’s professor. Jinho was once again impressed by Fei’s skill.
Of course, she did say she edited her works according to his suggestions, but Jinho knew too well that it’s impossible to do so without her having exceptional skills.
‘One day, I’ll go to art college too and…’
“So I wanted to repay you somehow.”
“Eh? Repay me? Cough.”
“Yes. Anyhow, I guess it’ll be better to avoid having too much conversation during meals. Here, take more napkins.”
“Thank you.”
Jinho coughed once again at Fei’s unexpected words, and swallowed a cup of water as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
A compensation? He haven’t thought about that at all. But did he really do something big enough to earn himself some sort of compensation?
The two’s conversation didn’t continue for a while after that.
Jinho kept thinking about what Fei had said, and Fei patiently waited for others after she quietly finished eating.
And so the dinner ended like that, and although Jinho had tried to help clean the table, he was forced to sit out at the living room sofa due to Mrs. Laurong’s firm refusal. Laurong took the chance and tried to escape from the kitchen at that time, but was caught by Mrs. Laurong and sentenced to forced labor.
Jinho watched the scene with interest, and took a glance at Fei while sipping from a tea cup.
Fei was also drinking tea next to Jinho and was watching TV.
“Ms. Fei, about that compensation, is it okay if it’s not something physical?”
At Jinho’s question, Fei looked at him and nodded.
“Yes. If there’s whatever you want, tell me. If it’s something I can do, I’ll do my best to repay you back.”
“If so,”
Jinho looked at Fei with a serious face and said,
“May I take a tour of the Parsons college?”
Parsons Design School.
One of the most prestigious design schools, the college produced acclaimed designers worthy of its fame, and Jinho wanted to personally see and feel the school.
Jinho stood in the subway platform heading to Manhattan early in the morning and looked around himself as he sipped from a cup of coffee in his hands.
While seemingly waiting for someone, he checked the time and sighed.
‘Did I come too early?’
Jinho, who came fifteen minutes earlier than the meeting time, kept sipping from his coffee as he waited with sunken eyes.
He couldn’t even sleep properly last night.
Of course, he had worked deep into the night pa.s.sionately working on his portfolio and lost precious time to sleep, but he couldn’t even close his eyes when he was lying on the bed.
Parsons Design School.
The name comes up in every ranking for world’s best design schools.
The school, which produced celebrities such as Mark Jacobs, Dona Karen, Tom Ford, and so on whose fame rose every day, boasted the highest excellence in fashion as well as various other fields of art. Jinho, who’d been given the chance to visit the school that day, shook in excitement like a kid the day before a field trip.
The hands holding the coffee slowly turned red from the unusually cold weather, but Jinho was too busy organizing his thoughts to care about his hands.
‘What should I see first at the tour?’
The practice room? Parsons art gallery? Or maybe the college cafeteria first…?
While he was embroiled in such thoughts, someone poked Jinho in the back.
“I’ve been calling you for a while, but you weren’t responding.”
“Ah, Ms. Fei. Sorry. I was thinking about something.”
“It’s okay. Anyhow, you came really early. Even though I especially came out five minutes early too. Huh? Why are your hands so red? Oh my, it’s really cold. Here, hold this.”
Seeing Jinho’s red hands, Fei took out a hot pack and pushed it into Jinho’s hands.
Although the two’s hands naturally touched, Fei didn’t seem to mind very much.
‘… smells good.’ (T/N: It sounds perverted and forced in the raws too. And before you ask, there is no romance for the next 10+ chapters so hurray for that) (E/N: I feel you. Why do MCs keep saying girls ‘smells good’?)
The two somehow moved closer together.
And at Fei’s unique scent he smelled every time they met, Jinho lightly smiled.
Is it a perfume, or lotion? Even though he smelt it every time, it was really good.
As Jinho noted to himself to ask her later, the train entered the platform.
In the train packed full from the morning rush hour, Jinho and Fei stood in a corner.
Although many people got off the train, because the number of people riding inside the subway didn’t go down, Jinho stood with Fei on the inside. As soon as the subway arrived at the two’s destination, Jinho quickly led her out of the subway.
And so the two exited into the Union Square station and began to walk toward the Parsons, where a red banner with “New School” written fluttered.
As expected of a design school, the buildings had smooth curves unlike the traditional rectangular walls, and the sight shocked Jinho.
‘It really is possible to produce balance even with such a shape.’
Even at architecture, Jinho’s eyes shone as if reacting to anything with artistic value.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah, yes. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I was like that too when I first came here.”
Fei roused Jinho, who was mesmerized by the building’s shape, and led him into the school. After all, Jinho’s goal that day was to tour the school, and he could look at the buildings’ exteriors at a later date.
As he slowly walked behind Fei, Jinho observed the building’s interior.
The school’s interior were full of unusual decorations that lived up to the college’s name as a design school. There were unique details even in places that aren’t very noticeable, and each and every ornaments radiated presence. And at the sight of how all these details come together to form a large balance, Jinho was awestruck.
“He’s my guest.”
When Fei talked to the school security in front of an elevator, the guard checked Jinho’s ID and handed him a sticker. Shocked at how quickly the process went, Jinho turned to Fei.
“Is that all?”
“This isn’t the White House, so we don’t need to check anything else.”
Jinho lightly exclaimed ‘ah’ in realization and nodded.
The place Fei introduced to Jinho first was the college cafeteria. At the sight of salads to sushi rolls and various other cuisines lined up, Jinho gulped back his drool, and Fei held up her student ID card.
“Do you want to eat something?”
“Ah, I’ll buy it myself.”
“It’s okay. It’s included in the tuition, and there’s extra cash left because I don’t eat here often. Since all that money will disappear if I don’t use it, tell me if there’s something you want.”
“Then, firstly this….”
As soon as Fei finished her words, Jinho grabbed the food. Seeing Jinho choosing everything from luxurious cuisines to deserts, Fei laughed at him.
“Wh, why?”
“Nothing. Usually people abstain and pick little when treated, but Mr. Jinho doesn’t seem to mind.”
“You get like this if you live by yourself. You have to eat when you can.”
Fei watched Jinho sit down with an outrageous amount of food as if she found him funny, then stood up.
“Please wait here for a bit. I need to talk to the professor. I’ll be back quickly.”
Looking at the direction Fei went, Jinho turned and focused on eating as soon as Fei disappeared.
eating a breakfast until full for once, Jinho cleaned up with a satisfied face and looked around himself.
Myriad of students sat at their own seats and seemed to be preparing their projects as they ate. Realizing yet again that he was in Parsons, Jinho looked around the cafeteria as he walked. All of a sudden, his eyes saw a wall plastered with posters stacked on top of each other.
Seeing the wall of posters made up of posters overlapping over and over, Jinho’s eyes shone. The returning students put various advertis.e.m.e.nts announcing their clubs, and each of them were made up of eye catching design.
‘Wow, this idea’s really good. A design that predict that it’ll be overlapped and using other people’s poster to make itself even more eye catching. It’s really creative.’
Thinking that he’s learning something new even from such small bits, Jinho began to scrutinize each and every poster. Since he could learn something new by taking turns looking with one eye and then the other, it was quite fun.
And as he look through the posters, an ad placed at the end came into his sight.
Strangely, it wasn’t by Parsons students, but someone from the outside.
‘Looking for a picture for a magazine cover?’
Jinho got interested and tried to take a closer look at the ad, but Fei called his name and walked over.
“Mr. Jinho, I finished my work. Let’s go.”
“Ah, yes. I’m coming.”
He first thought about ripping it out, but Jinho considered the others and simply took a photo of it and followed Fei.
“So, where are we going now?”
“You wanted to see Parsons college, right? Then you must see how the cla.s.ses go.”
“The cla.s.ses?”
As Jinho asked back, Fei nodded.
“Coincidentally, the professor for the drawing cla.s.s is lenient, so it’s okay to listen in. Since it’s a cla.s.s I’m supposed to take today, let’s go there first.”
“Good morning.”
“Good morning, professor.”
“Oh ho. It looks like everyone’s faces are shining today. Did you perhaps have a good dream last night?”
“It’s actually grease from not enough sleep.”
“It’s gesso that splashed while doing an all nighter.”
There’s no way any student could properly sleep while working on projects when the end of the term is so close.
The white middle aged professor laughed at the students’ response, then ripped a page from a notebook and pa.s.sed it to a student sitting in the front.
“The board of office seems to be slacking off, considering how the attendance list wasn’t on my seat. Put each of your names on the note. We’ll use that for attendance instead. Now then, for today…”
As the students wrote their names on the note pa.s.sing between desks, the professor grabbed a black marker, went up to the whiteboard and wrote two words.
Life Drawing.
After writing the words, the professor turned to the students.
< miracle="" drawing!="" 10.=""> End
