Chapter 77 – Wrap-Up
Finally, the long-awaited month of July had arrived.
The deadline for Tujiman chang was right around the corner.
At this point, people inevitably split into two distinct groups.
“Auuu, it’s finally overrrr!”
“Done, done, done! Ugh, what a nightmare!”
The first group:
Kids who expressed the pure joy of finishing their work with their entire bodies.
“What, seriously? So jealous.”
“Hiiiing… When will I finish…?”
“Save me, I feel like I’m gonna die…”
And the second group:
Kids twisting in agony from the deadline pain, practically crying as they kept working.
Even though they were all in the same space, it looked like heaven and hell had been mixed together at once.
Which one was Kang Min-hyuk?
Obviously…
‘Ugh… finished.’
The first one.
Around halfway through lunchtime.
With a document envelope tucked under one arm, Min-hyuk walked down the hallway.
Stagger stagger.
His steps lacked strength, dark circles hung heavily under his eyes, and his cheeks were noticeably sunken.
But his face was bright.
Because he had finally completely finished preparing for Tujiman chang.
‘…Next time, let’s not push ourselves this hard.’
These were the words of someone who had tried to catch two—no, three or four—rabbits at once and ended up performing circus acts for months.
A short while later, Min-hyuk arrived in front of the teachers’ office.
Knock knock knock!
“Teacher, I’m here to submit the grade project.”
Then, Teacher Choi Jung-an opened the door and came out to greet him.
“Ah, you finished everything?”
“Yes, just now.”
“Shall we go to the counseling room for a moment?”
“Yes…”
Once seated in the counseling room, Jung-an immediately began checking Min-hyuk’s manuscript.
Flip! Flip flip!
She turned the pages quickly.
Her face was filled with a serious expression; she didn’t take her eyes off even for a second.
‘Is it bad?’
Still, he thought it hadn’t turned out too poorly.
Min-hyuk tilted his head at Jung-an’s strangely grave look.
After about six or seven minutes.
Jung-an looked straight at him and said,
“Min-hyuk.”
“Yes?”
“This is fun. Extremely fun.”
Then, she broke into a sunflower-like smile.
“The directing style is groundbreaking, and it’s entertaining. Overall density is incredible too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. This… is going to get an amazing reaction at Tujiman chang. You really worked hard.”
“…That’s a relief.”
The same expression that was on Jung-an’s face now spread across Min-hyuk’s as well.
***
A few days later, during homeroom.
With her hand resting on the teacher’s desk, Choi Jung-an spoke seriously.
“With this, every first-year student in the comic creation department has successfully met the deadline. Everyone, give a round of applause for each other’s hard work!”
“Good job!”
“I’m aliiive!”
At her words, the kids got excited and the classroom filled with applause.
Watching this scene, an unexpected surge of emotion welled up.
How should he put it…
Like back when he worked with Artist Shin Pil-ho, there had been plenty of times when multiple people coordinated hands and feet to complete one single work.
But spending this long in the same space, each working on completely different pieces…
This was an entirely different feeling.
If previous experiences brought a subtle pride from finishing a shared project, this scene was…
A kind of tribute and comfort sent to each other, acknowledging just how much everyone had suffered—even though they had walked different paths.
After the round of celebration died down.
Clap!
“Okay, okay, quiet down. Let’s wrap up the congratulations here…”
Choi Jung-an clapped her hands, smiled gently, and declared,
“Now it’s time for us to prepare for the Tujiman chang event too.”
“…Huh?”
“Prepare… for the event?”
The kids’ eyes widened in shock at the completely unexpected statement.
Prepare for the event?
Hadn’t working on the manuscripts been the preparation?
“You kids can’t just pretend you didn’t hear. From July 10th to 12th. Everyone knows there’s an event, right?”
“We knew, but… didn’t we just have to submit the manuscripts?”
When Dong-gyo adjusted his glasses and asked back, Jung-an shook her head.
“No way that’s the case. For an event like this, we have to decorate booths, make merchandise—there’s a mountain of things to do. Who else is going to handle all that?”
“The teachers…?”
“Ahem! Animation High is a place that does everything to enhance students’ creativity. Preparing for the event is part of that too. It’ll be tough, but if everyone approaches it with affection, I think it’ll turn out great.”
So this was just the adults passing the buck.
Min-hyuk let out a snort through his nose.
“So… first things first, we need to pick the preparation committee members. Who would be good for it…?”
At that moment, Kim Rok-hee wriggled in her seat, her feet tapping excitedly.
Song Hyun-hee, the class president, glanced over at her and then—
Point!
“Teacher, I recommend Kim Rok-hee.”
“Rok-hee?”
“Yes. When it comes to decorating and stuff like that, Rok-hee is the best at it.”
‘And she’ll probably be the best at handling the kids too.’
As Hyun-hee adjusted her glasses,
“Yeah, that’s right!”
“Teacher, just have Rok-hee do it!”
The other kids chimed in one by one in agreement.
Jung-an stared straight at Rok-hee.
She was trembling with her legs like a puppy waiting for a treat, eyes sparkling.
“Rok-hee-ya, can you handle it?”
“Yes! Of course I can! I’ll make it absolutely spectacular!”
Whoosh!
Rok-hee shot up from her seat with explosive energy and shouted.
Jung-an smiled gently and said,
“Then come with me to the teachers’ office, Rok-hee. There’s a preparation committee meeting right now.”
“Yes, Teacher!”
Even more fired up than during the sports festival, Rok-hee marched out of the classroom.
For some reason, her face radiated blazing fighting spirit and ambition.
Looking at her…
“I have a feeling this is going to be exhausting.”
“What do you mean, Min-hyuk-kun?”
“…Nothing.”
Min-hyuk let out a shallow sigh and shook his head slowly.
***
A few hours later, in the classroom.
Scribble scribble! Scribble scribble!
At the front of the class, Rok-hee was boldly drawing a floor plan on the blackboard with chalk and continued speaking.
“For us first-years, we’re in charge of decorating this side corridor and that side corridor where our classrooms are. And inside the auditorium where the main exhibition will be held—here and here—we need to set up our booths.”
After returning from the meeting, she had clearly grasped the scope of tasks assigned to the first-year comic creation department.
Once she finished explaining the overall workload,
“…There’s… way more to do than I thought.”
“The area we’re covering is pretty big, huh?”
Everyone’s faces gradually filled with a creeping sense of burden.
They had to decorate not just the auditorium where the exhibition would take place, but the corridors leading up to it as well.
Even at a rough estimate, the amount of work didn’t seem small at all.
Rok-hee kept going.
“And… the overall concept for our first-year booth is ‘Animal Sports.’ Since the theme of our grade project this time is animals.”
Rok-hee shouted with shining eyes, and Dong-gyo raised his hand slightly to ask,
“Hmm, I get the sports part… but why animals…?”
“Are you seriously asking that? Because they’re cute, obviously.”
“…Uh, hmm.”
“Think about it: a dolphin character swimming. A cheetah beastman doing track and field! A gorilla lifting weights! Anyway, it instantly gives the booth a strong core image, right? Right?”
“Y-yeah, that’s true, but…”
“Then it’s decided!”
“Ughhh… I wanted to go with a beautiful-girl harem concept…”
Rok-hee pushed forward aggressively.
Dong-gyo’s shoulders slumped dejectedly.
Min-hyuk narrowed his eyes at Dong-gyo for a moment, then shook his head.
He rested his chin on his hand and looked back at Rok-hee.
‘As expected… when she’s really fixated on something, she never gives an inch.’
Honestly, he thought Kim Rok-hee’s approach was fine.
There were 25 kids in the first-year comic creation department alone.
With time so tight, unifying everyone’s opinions and persuading them all to move forward would be nearly impossible…
And aside from that, the concept she proposed wasn’t bad at all.
She had the ability to actually pull off the ideas she was so passionate about.
“Then, assuming everyone agrees, I’ll start assigning tasks right now. Time is short and we’re busy, so even if something isn’t your favorite, please try to go along with it as much as possible.”
Scribble scribble! Tap tap!
Rok-hee wrote on the blackboard.
“First, the people decorating the stairwell area. Hyun-hee and these five others, please handle that together.”
“The concept and visuals… we come up with them ourselves?”
“I’ll work out the concept during drawing class today and send it to you. Just start from tomorrow based on that.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
“And next is…”
Scribble scribble! Scribble!
Kim Rok-hee rapidly wrote names on the board and assigned tasks.
“We’ll also need someone to curate our first-year comics on the actual day.”
“Curate?”
“Well, it’s about guiding visitors through the event and explaining our comic concepts in an easy-to-understand way—even for outsiders. You’ll need to write a script too, and if the curator could also help design the brochures we’ll use during the event, that’d be great.”
“Ahhh…”
Tension crept onto the faces of the kids who hadn’t been called yet.
‘That one’s a bit…’
‘Thank god it’s not me.’
Dealing with outsiders plus a ton of work—no one would look at that and think it sounded appealing.
“You take that one, Yu-ra.”
“Why me?”
“You’re good at design and brochures, you’re pretty, and you’re good at talking to people.”
An onslaught of absurd compliments.
But Yu-ra listened quietly, then…
“…Fine. Yeah, I get it.”
She nodded shamelessly(?).
The kids watching could only think:
‘Well… if it’s Han Yu-ra, makes sense.’
‘…Yeah, facts.’
‘Confidence, huh.’
They felt relieved they hadn’t been handed the bomb themselves, and nodded in agreement that she was the perfect fit.
“And lastly… Oh Dong-gyo and Kang Min-hyuk.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah.”
“You two are in charge of making the standing signboard. It’ll be the main sign for our first-year comic creation department, so make it as big and cool as possible.”
“Ahem, I don’t really want to draw anything furry-like.”
Oh Dong-gyo answered with a troubled face.
Min-hyuk gave a small smile and replied,
“I’ll do my best. When does it need to be finished by?”
“The standing signboard… just have it done by this weekend. It’s an important part, so Kang Min-hyuk, please take good care of it.”
“‘It’?! Why are you calling a person ‘it’?!”
Dong-gyo protested, but—
“Okay, okay, that’s all for task assignments. Tomorrow during character design class… they said they’ll provide a shuttle bus for people who need to go out and buy supplies. Everyone, think ahead about what you’ll need. Dismissed!”
Rok-hee clapped her hands, completely ignoring him.
“Ughhh, damn it… more work.”
“So that’s why the seniors said the grade project was hell.”
“Let’s head to the studioooo.”
As the kids groaned and shuffled out of the classroom,
“Haaaa… furries… I just wanted to draw beautiful girls, beautiful girls…”
Dong-gyo trudged out with slumped shoulders.
Min-hyuk let out a huff through his nose as he packed up his things.
‘Well… this could be fun. And it’s a good chance to take it easy too.’
He’d always wanted to try something like this anyway.
The corner of Min-hyuk’s mouth lifted slightly.
The grade project was finally done.
He still had save files for Brave King.
If he treated this like preparing for a festival, it actually seemed like something he could really enjoy.
‘Alright, starting tomorrow—let’s have some fun with it.’
With that lighthearted thought, he was about to leave the classroom when…
“Kang Min-hyuk.”
“Hm?”
“Our first-year concept this time is ‘Sports and Animals.’ The standing signboard will be the first impression and the face of our booth, so stick to the concept as much as possible and keep the quality high.”
“…Is this because of Dong-gyo?”
Rok-hee nodded seriously without a word, then said,
“Beautiful girls are ab-so-lute-ly forbidden. For the sake of our department, for the future of Tujiman chang.”
“Got it. I’ll make sure of it.”
Blocking Oh Dong-gyo’s beautiful-girl obsession… yeah, that was definitely…
‘Not going to be easy.’
Maybe even harder than the actual work itself.
Min-hyuk nodded with a solemn expression.
Then…
“Uwaaaaah!”
Kim Rok-hee clenched her fist tightly and shouted.
When he turned in surprise,
“What, what?”
“This event—let’s prepare hard, Kang Min-hyuk! We’re definitely going to make this event a huge success!”
Her face was overflowing with anticipation and excitement.
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