Chapter 73 – Let’s Go Hard
From that day on, Min-hyuk truly threw himself into the work with ferocious intensity.
To describe just how packed his schedule became…
“Min-hyuk-kun, wanna play some games together this weekend?”
“Sorry, my grade project is running a bit behind. If I want to finish everything, I probably won’t have any time.”
“…Huh? You falling behind on work? That’s unexpected.”
The phrase “not even a needle could fit through” fit perfectly.
On top of Brave King manuscripts that still had to be done, the delay on the grade project manuscript meant he genuinely had zero time to waste—not even a single moment.
At the worst times, he skipped meals entirely and survived on triangle kimbap.
But strangely, he didn’t feel exhausted, nor did he regret opening up this kind of schedule.
Rather—
‘Good… good…’
The anticipation that this grade project, ‘Dissonance,’ might break through into a realm he had never reached or even touched before.
That expectation kept growing bigger, and the corners of his mouth refused to drop.
As he crammed time tightly and pushed the manuscript forward—
“Here’s the sketch so far.”
“Hmm, not bad at all? The parts you marked—are those getting screentone?”
He would go to Choi Jung-an and show her the progress for feedback meetings.
“Yes. I’m trying to make the tone feel completely different between the two characters. For the male character, I’m planning to use Delta 3 tone here, and for the female character, number 9.”
“Hmmmm, number 9 tone… Yeah, that definitely gives off Yu-ra vibes.”
“Yu-ra?”
“Aren’t these characters modeled after the two of you?”
During one of the meetings, Choi Jung-an asked with a slight upward curl at the corners of her mouth.
There was something subtly playful in her tone.
‘This feels like it’s about to get annoying.’
Having already been teased mercilessly by Oh Dong-gyo in the past, Min-hyuk answered carefully, leaving no openings.
“Well… playing badminton definitely had some influence. But it’s not like I based it solely on that.”
“Ahhh, I see. Guess I misunderstood then.”
“Yes, yes, it’s a misunderstanding.”
Choi Jung-an rolled her eyes dramatically with a laugh.
Somehow, even though she didn’t say it outright—
‘She’s totally teasing me.’
He could see right through the mischievous intent hidden behind that smile.
When Min-hyuk made a slightly uncomfortable face, Jung-an continued.
“Well, just keep going like this. At this pace, as long as you finish it… it’s really going to stand out a lot among the first-year works at the Strongest Manhwa event.”
“Yes. Thank you, seonsaengnim.”
“Oh, and just out of curiosity…”
“What?”
Choi Jung-an’s lips curled again as she asked,
“You know what they say—strong denial is strong affirmation. When I brought up the motif earlier…”
“I’ll head back now, seonsaengnim. My schedule’s pretty tight.”
“Ah—wait, Min-hyuk! I wasn’t done talking yet…”
As expected, better safe than sorry.
Min-hyuk quickly bowed and backstepped out of the meeting room.
“Tch… Maybe I teased him too much.”
Choi Jung-an shrugged with a hint of regret and looked down at her consultation notes.
Then her eyes fell on Min-hyuk’s file.
The handwritten notes she had taken over the past few months during their meetings came into view.
[Severe ê³ ë¯¼ over the grade project. Storyboards are coming out steadily, but nothing feels exactly right to him.]
- Guide him as much as possible to find a work he truly wants to do himself.
- Maybe use the upcoming sports festival to give him an opportunity to think about it?
[Sports festival: Entered mixed badminton doubles with Han Yu-ra and won. Trained very seriously. Confirmed to have grown somewhat closer to Han Yu-ra during the process. Positive influence on both Han Yu-ra and Kang Min-hyuk.]
- This experience seems to have given him a breakthrough for the grade project.
- Give light feedback on the storyboard only; let him proceed on his own.
Staring at the notes, Choi Jung-an let out a small smirk and added one new line underneath.
[This year’s grade project—extremely, extremely, very very much looking forward to it.]
***
Late June, inside the drawing room.
Scratch scratch!
The faces of the Comic Creation kids filling the room were dead serious.
The event that carried the heaviest weight in determining first-year grades…
The most important event in the Comic Creation Department: ‘Strongest Manhwa.’
With less than ten days left until the deadline, no one had the luxury of slacking off.
‘Deadline, deadline… I have to make it in time no matter what.’
‘Is making comics always this hard?’
The pressure was palpable on every face.
‘This is driving me insane!’
For the students who had entered through fine arts entrance exams,
Most of them struggled quite a bit since they hadn’t handled much published comic work before.
As for those who had drawn a lot of comics already…
“Hmmmm, I see. So the confession happens here. If I nail just this one scene, I’ll become the Korean Adachi!”
“Krrrrr, so cuteeee! If this gets displayed at the event, everyone’s gonna praise how adorable it is, right?”
“……”
They were all desperately squeezing out every last drop of effort to raise the quality of their works even a little higher.
The works produced for the Strongest Manhwa event would be displayed to the entire school throughout the event period.
On top of that, they would be sold to outside visitors, and publishing company representatives would also attend…
The pressure was on a completely different level from working alone facing a wall.
Of course, the person working more frantically than anyone else right now was—
‘It still… doesn’t feel right.’
Han Yu-ra, who was juggling both the contest entry and her grade project with a deep crease between her brows,
And
‘Good… Today I can probably finish up to page 14? Then for the remaining time, I’ll do the storyboard for the next Brave King chapter.’
Kang Min-hyuk, who was slicing screentones and inking with such intensity it looked like he was being sucked into the manuscript, lips licked in focus.
Just as the drawing room was filled to the brim with the heat of work—
Ding-dong-daeng-dong!
The break bell rang…
And the kids poured out of the drawing room in a rush.
“Huuu… Aigo, my backkk.”
“How much did you get done?”
“Hehe, just three more pages and I’m done!”
“Whattt? Betrayal!”
“Hey hey, let’s hit the vending machine.”
As everyone headed toward the nearby lounge area—
‘I’ll go downstairs.’
Min-hyuk immediately turned toward the stairs.
He planned to do some serious stretching anyway, and he wanted to rest somewhere with as few people as possible…
Choosing a quiet lounge.
While walking, Min-hyuk rubbed his shoulder with one hand and let out a sigh.
“Huuu… It really is tough.”
Brave King manuscripts, sports festival training, and right after that, charging full speed into the grade project.
On top of that, this particular grade project was something of an ambitious piece for Min-hyuk.
He had deliberately shifted the directing style toward techniques he didn’t usually use, which meant a lot more effort, and while doing so he was trying to maximize density too—so it truly felt like working hell.
Of course, all of this—
“Is a disaster I brought upon myself.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a small smirk.
‘Well… and if I push hard today, I get two days off after this.’
There was another reason Min-hyuk had been splitting time like a madman to finish the manuscript.
‘Hong Mi-seon’s birthday is coming up… What should I get her as a gift?’
Tomorrow was his mother’s birthday.
—Min-hyuk-ah, don’t come for Mom’s birthday. You’re busy, right?
—Ah, I’ll see how things go.
Hong Mi-seon had tried to dissuade him, saying he must be busy with manuscripts and school…
But he didn’t want to do that.
In his previous life, maybe he wouldn’t have understood.
But the current Min-hyuk wasn’t so oblivious that he couldn’t read the real feeling behind those words.
And besides—
‘Well… I’m earning money now too. I should treat her properly.’
Thanks to serialization, money had been steadily piling up in his account.
Since the money was being earned for both himself and Hong Mi-seon’s sake, what was the point of it all if he skipped something as important as her birthday?
Of course… thanks to that decision, he had nearly worked his arm off.
A short while later, Min-hyuk arrived at the lounge.
“Lucky.”
Fortunately, the faculty lounge was completely empty.
Sometimes first-years came down here too, but today he was in luck—no one around.
He bought a canned coffee from the vending machine…
“Uja-jja-jja!”
…and started twisting his body this way and that, stretching thoroughly.
Because he knew that to become the world’s greatest comic artist, nothing mattered more than health in the end…
This had already become routine.
“Krrrrrr!”
While stretching his muscles almost embarrassingly aggressively, he gazed out the window at the night streets of Hanam.
Then—
Ziiing! Ziiing!
“Huh? Who is it.”
Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket with an incoming call.
Min-hyuk pulled it out and saw a familiar name on the screen.
[Oh Seung-heon]
“What’s up with him.”
A small smile tugged at the corner of Min-hyuk’s mouth at the welcome name as he pressed the call button.
“Hello?”
<<Yo, Kang Min-hyuk, you free to talk right now?>>
“Yeah, it’s break time. What’s up?”
<<You coming home this weekend?>>
Min-hyuk frowned slightly and glanced around.
“…Huh? How do you know?”
<<How do I know? Tomorrow’s your mom’s birthday, isn’t it? I figured you’d come. Just checking.>>
“You’re not stalking me, are you?”
<<You damn bastard, no filter even with your best friend. Do you even remember when my dad’s birthday is?>>
“…Sorry.”
Sorry, Seung-heon.
I guess I’ve been pretty thoughtless.
Talking to him like this made Min-hyuk realize anew that Oh Seung-heon was surprisingly attentive about these kinds of things.
—Hey, it’s your mom’s birthday today, right? Here’s some red ginseng—take it when you go. Say hi for me too.
“But how do you even know my mom’s birthday?”
—That’s basic info, you idiot.
Come to think of it, in his previous life too, Seung-heon had often looked out for him like this.
While Min-hyuk scratched the bridge of his nose in embarrassment, Seung-heon asked again.
<<Anyway, you’re coming, right?>>
“Yeah, I’m going.”
<<Then let’s meet up for a bit on Sunday. My treat.>>
“Why? Got something to say?”
<<You little shit… You seriously keep forgetting what I said? You know—the thing!>>
The thing… what thing?
It felt like being hit with a yes-or-no girlfriend question.
Min-hyuk felt sweat beading on his forehead as he asked,
“What, is it your dad’s birthday?”
<<Birthday my ass. I told you I’m entering the Jump Comics contest. The manuscript’s almost done, so come take a look. Deadline’s this month.>>
“Ahhh, that.”
<<You totally forgot, didn’t you?>>
“Eh, no way. Of course not.”
Of course, shamefully, he had completely blacked it out.
With everything going on—tomorrow weighing so heavily on his mind—he really hadn’t had room for anything else.
Really sorry, Oh Seung-heon.
While Min-hyuk apologized inwardly,
<<Anyway, Sunday. You better show up. No excuses!>>
“Got it.”
Click!
Seung-heon hung up after saying what he needed to say.
Min-hyuk scratched his forehead.
‘Jump Comics contest, huh… Oh Seung-heon did say he was entering.’
—I’m planning to submit to a contest this time. I made a manuscript. Since I’m meeting you anyway, I wanted to get some feedback from you, ajusshi.
He remembered clearly.
Right before heading to Shin Pil-ho’s studio, Seung-heon had mentioned it.
Back then, he had looked at the storyboard and part of the manuscript… and they had talked for quite a while.
The interesting part here was—
‘Han Yu-ra and Oh Seung-heon are entering the same contest.’
New Chance and its rival magazine, Jump Comics.
And now…
Two people Min-hyuk knew—Han Yu-ra and Oh Seung-heon—were competing head-to-head.
For some reason, it gave him a strange feeling.
“Speaking of which… I wonder how well that guy’s prepared.”
Well, someone on Han Yu-ra’s level would probably handle it fine on their own.
Just as Min-hyuk scratched his chin and turned to leave—
“Who’s ‘that guy’?”
“Huack! Y-you scared me!”
Min-hyuk jumped back as if he’d seen a ghost.
‘What the hell is with this girl.’
Did she overhear him or something?
Standing right there…
Han Yu-ra was quietly watching him with an unreadable stare.
**************
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