Two weeks after getting the flu shot.
As if it were a cruel twist of fate, the flu struck hard nationwide.
Even the ENT clinic, which was usually quiet, saw a surge of people coming in to pick up medication.
The epidemic from China, which had seemed to be calming down, began to rage again.
This mixed with the flu situation created chaos where it was impossible to determine if someone with a cough and fever had the flu or COVID.
Just when it seemed one had recovered from the flu, they would catch COVID, and just when they thought they were over COVID, they would fall ill with the flu again.
Amid this chaotic collaboration of two epidemics, I found myself digging out the mask I had only used occasionally for hospital visits.
Fortunately, the weather had turned a bit chilly, so wearing a mask wasn’t as suffocating as it could have been.
The real problem was school.
Having lived with the COVID epidemic for a few years, it was treated like “a slightly worse flu.”
Due to the prevailing societal perception, there was no special school closure, and normal attendance continued.
At school, the only precaution was the teacher’s advice to keep masks on and to report any cough or cold symptoms quickly.
Regardless, the school schedule went on as usual.
Still, given the circumstances, quite a few students, including those who didn’t show up to school, ended up being absent due to illness.
“Is Suyeong sick too?”
“Yeah… she said she couldn’t come today. I’m so jealous.”
“I heard the middle schools in Bupyeong are on break.”
During break time, I could hear complaints from my classmates, who wondered why they still had to come to school with flu and COVID overlapping.
My desk mate, Seohyun, was reacting similarly.
“Why isn’t our school on break?!”
“Even if you tell me that…”
“Ugh, it’s so frustrating.”
After venting her frustrations to me, she took off her mask and placed it on her desk.
The school’s and teachers’ insistence on not removing masks was already meaningless.
As soon as break time started, students everywhere carelessly discarded their white cloth masks.
Whether it was the flu or COVID, the mentality was to get at least something to take a break from school.
Usually, most parents would send their kids to school unless they were seriously ill, so it seemed like some students wished for an illness.
Still, I kept my mask on.
Honestly, it wasn’t very uncomfortable since I wasn’t wearing glasses, and it wasn’t hot out, so the mask kept my breath warm.
Since flu and COVID were so common, it was easy to hear firsthand experiences from those who had been sick.
Their thoughts might be “What the heck, let’s get sick once and then take a break from school!”
But…
“…Once you get really sick, you won’t think like that.”
I sat in a way that one of my ankles rested on my opposite knee, resting my chin on my fist, lost in thought.
If it were just a mild fever of 37 degrees Celsius and I took some medicine and woke up cured, I would have probably taken off the mask and joined in on the flu-themed party.
But I recalled when I was in elementary school, me and Shiyeon both fell ill at the same time.
Feeling dazed and my vision blurred, I sensed someone driving a nail into my head.
When such a high fever lasts for over a day, a person becomes utterly lethargic.
Having never experienced such pain, and considering how one person would get sick, then another, it seemed like many were taking it lightly.
If they truly felt that sick, they wouldn’t care about school; they would just want to recover as quickly as possible.
“Mary, aren’t you frustrated?”
“I’m a bit uncomfortable, but it’s not like I can’t wear it at all…”
I responded flatly to the question about feeling suffocated.
“Really? Ugh, I just can’t keep wearing it.”
Having heard my response, Seohyun fidgeted, twisting the straps of her disposable mask as she played with it.
Thinking back, I didn’t think I could handle the old cloth masks as much as I could with these disposable ones.
The wet cloth hugging my nose and mouth, inhaling and exhaling, was just far too suffocating.
Compared to that, disposable masks felt like a blessing.
Seohyun was now resting her head on a textbook on the desk, groaning.
“Ah, why can’t a monster show up at our school or something?”
I jumped a bit; the mention of a monster made my body react on its own.
It was like someone lamenting, “Why can’t a meteor fall on my workplace instead?”
A more realistic wish than an unrealistic meteor falling in downtown.
Still, if a monster did appear, I’d have to step in, right?
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Honestly, I’d prefer a meteor crashing when the school day is over and no one’s around instead.
I outwardly dismissed Seohyun’s complaints as nonsense, trying not to show it.
‘If that happens, Shiyeon and I have to catch it, you know.’
…While I silently simmered with grievances I couldn’t voice.
My futile wish scattered away with the ringing of the class bell as we moved on to art class.
The art room was on the same floor as the classrooms for second and third graders.
Quickly passing through the hallway where the older students were with my textbook held close, we headed there.
In fact, we barely used the textbook anyway.
Most of the activities involved drawing or cutting rather than theoretical lessons.
I climbed the stairs two steps at a time, reaching the art room where I first turned on the heater.
Unlike other classrooms, the art room always felt like an unfamiliar space, never in constant use.
With the peculiar smell of dried paint, it was a strange place that felt hot in the summer and cold in the winter every time I entered.
A large desk with eight round chairs attached.
One advantage of the art room was that we could sit wherever we wanted rather than being assigned specific seats.
The metallic sound of chair legs scraping against the stone floor echoed as I pulled a chair out.
Using my art textbook as a makeshift rest, I laid my face on it as opposed to the cold desk.
“This is my seat!”
Naturally, it was Shiyeon who boldly claimed the seat next to me.
No matter how close we were, seating arrangements were fixed.
Taehyun could sit across from me, but there was an unspoken rule among students that boys and girls shared desks in this kind of moving class.
Though they said they just drew what we were told, sitting right next to Shiyeon while she drew felt significant.
Today’s two hours in art class would be all about drawing 3D shapes.
Illustrating the position of light, shadows, and distinguishing between dark and bright areas.
A square and a circle I drew last time when I was told to do so.
Trying to take advantage of that experience, I sketched gently with my pencil, but ended up with a half-hearted shadow and a strange feeling that something was off about my drawing.
I shoved the back of the pencil into my hair to scratch my scalp, thinking to myself that this just wasn’t it.
‘Yeah, after all, drawing isn’t for me.’
There’s a saying that you can’t be full from the first meal; a guy who’s never learned anything can’t draw perfectly.
I concluded that it was simply normal and that I just didn’t get along with drawing, finishing my work with a careless stroke.
I started to think about erasing and adjusting the shadows to look natural, but it seemed pointless. The more I touched it, the worse it would get; this was my best.
As I began to give up on continuing in this first hour of class,
“Shiyeon draws really well—”
I caught a classmate’s admiration coming from the same desk who was drawing the same picture.
Suddenly, the center of their admiration was Shiyeon.
I subtly turned my head to the side, looking at the paper.
“Uh? Ha, if you’re going to an academy, you should at least be able to do this much…”
The shading and shadows that looked the most plausible.
While not as perfect as what I had seen online, it certainly looked more refined than a hastily drawn piece.
It was proof that her time spent at the art academy wasn’t in vain; her skills were noticeably improving.
While she acted like it was natural, it seemed she appreciated the compliments, slightly bowing her head in embarrassment as her pencil moved freely on the paper.
Even among the girls, Shiyeon received reactions of being cute.
Thus, I was able to fill my day sketching on paper for two hours.
After school ended, I walked out of the school gate with Shiyeon during that short walk.
With art class just passing, I suddenly became curious about what kind of picture Shiyeon would draw recently and decided to bring it up.
“When will you show me the drawings you’ve done?”
“Um, not yet!”
Seemingly firmly shaking her head in response to when she would show her drawings, Shiyeon insisted it wasn’t time.
In truth, though I had seen her drawings on rough paper or cleanup duties, she never seemed to show me the ones drawn on her tablet.
Since it was password protected, I couldn’t just take a look whenever I wanted.
Watching her proudly share her freely drawn illustrations left me wanting to compliment her too.
I wondered if I would ever get to see them since she still seemed unready.
What kind of beautiful drawings was she planning to show me?
‘I don’t know; she will show me when the time comes.’
Swallowing down my disappointment mixed with rising expectations, I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side, thinking whatever happens will happen.
Could it be she’s drawing inappropriate pictures that I don’t know about on the tablet?
I didn’t think she would be drawing something like that yet…
Nah, no way.
