Chapter 189

“Huh?!”

At the few words uttered by Shiyeon, the clattering jaw and spoon came to a halt.

Suddenly? What happened? Was there someone bothering her at the academy?

Otherwise, there was no reason for her to abruptly quit the academy she had been attending willingly…

As numerous thoughts crossed my mind, my body froze as if time had stopped.

In that moment where I couldn’t even bring myself to ask ‘why?’, Shiyeon looked at me with surprised eyes and continued speaking.

“Ah, it’s not that I can’t do it…! I just want to try drawing alone now.”

As if she understood my thoughts, Shiyeon explained her reason for quitting the academy in her own words.

“What? You surprised me.”

Only then did I feel relieved, and after a few words of relief at being startled, my chopsticks began to move again.

This time, I reflected slightly on my own thoughts of what kind of violence I would have to commit next to make someone’s cheek swollen, wondering who to target.

By the way, now she wants to draw on her own without help from the academy.

Should I think she has gained confidence in her skills?

As I thought that, I dipped a chicken nugget into chili sauce and brought it to my mouth while asking,

“So, can you show me your drawings now?”

“Um… a few?”

Although she didn’t confidently assure that she could draw perfectly on her own, Shiyeon said she could show me a few drawings.

After the meal, I quickly finished washing the dishes before it became bothersome.

I rubbed both hands on the towel clipped to the shelf handle to dry it and leisurely headed to my room.

Just in time, I found Shiyeon connecting her tablet to her PC and fiddling with the pen.

Even after going to the academy, I could see her passionate side as she drew on her own.

“What are you going to show me?”

“Ah, this, this isn’t it… but I can show you that!”

When I suddenly barged into the room and asked, Shiyeon, who seemed to have been engrossed just moments ago, hurriedly pressed the Alt + Tab keys to escape to the desktop.

Perhaps she had a separate version she was satisfied with, as she opened one of the files on her desktop with a double-click and showed it to me.

There was no background, but a well-drawn male character stood out.

From my perspective, the proportions were not bizarre, and there was nothing unpleasant about the drawing.

It didn’t have striking personality, but if it were randomly mixed among the numerous images uploaded on art sites, it wouldn’t feel out of place.

Waiting for my reaction, Shiyeon displayed the drawing and kept glancing at me.

Without the need to sugarcoat anything, I conveyed my honest impression just as it was.

“You drew well; there’s nothing weird about it.”

“R-Really? But there are still some parts that are a bit unnatural…”

Even though she claimed there were unnatural parts, she seemed happy to hear my compliment, lowering her head slightly and shyly scratching the back of her neck.

From my perspective, I have no clue about the unnatural aspects…

It was just a cool drawing of a male character.

After the first compliment, did she gain some confidence? She began to show me various other drawings as well…

“This is…”

Among them were a couple of relatively familiar female characters.

Two female characters in flowy clothes, reminiscent of the Magical Girl Sun and Mun characters I had seen at a comic convention.

There were also a teddy bear character and a long snake-like character.

While they had become quite cute through the character design, considering this combination…

Just as I was about to voice my guesses, Shiyeon beat me to it and began explaining first.

“That’s us transformed, along with Baemi and Teddy; it looks a bit… strange, right?”

“Um…”

Unable to readily answer no to Shiyeon’s question about whether it looked strange, I noticed that it seemed like a drawing created during a rather clumsy period, with many awkward and unnatural elements visible.

“I-I’ll redraw this later!”

Perhaps feeling awkward to keep showing it, Shiyeon hurriedly pressed the arrow key to switch to the next drawing.

It was a drawing that had a much lower level of completion compared to the others, but perhaps she had kept it without deleting it?

Well, anyway, that was Shiyeon’s plan.

Having learned that one must understand the rough world we live in, she intended to create a personal account on a platform where she could upload her drawings consistently.

I was surprised again to find out that she had secretly made such plans.

From my perspective, not being knowledgeable about the art world, I could only say to her to do her best.

“So, are you quitting the academy now?”

“Yes, it’s time for the real thing!”

When I asked her if she was going to quit the academy, Shiyeon clenched her fists tightly and, burning with enthusiasm, affirmed my question.

Just like that, she smoothly cut ties with the art academy she had attended for less than a year.

According to Shiyeon, these days, there are plenty of videos on how to draw well, so she seems determined to continue studying in various ways at home.

Watching Shiyeon draw from time to time, it was fascinating to see how she would effortlessly sketch out lines and create finished characters.

‘How does she draw like that?’

As I continued to observe Shiyeon, I naturally became intrigued myself.

Curious about how others drew, I started searching for videos here and there.

The heads, bodies, arms, joints, etc.

It felt like a complicated process where you would lump together certain criteria and then overlay that with clothes or hair as your reference.

It felt rather different from how Shiyeon seemed to just draw a line straight onto a blank page and immediately create a character.

When I shared this notion with Gomtaengi…

“Sounds like she’s a talent prodigy.”

Gomtaengi declared Shiyeon’s talent without hesitation.

Looking somewhat puzzled as if to say, ‘Is that so?’ he began recounting stories he had picked up online about artists.

He mentioned that after two years of drawing, one struggles with human proportions, that eyes seem to be misaligned, articulating others’ experiences as if they were his own.

Compared to such examples, it seemed that the quality of Shiyeon’s results was not bad considering the time she invested.

At the end of such discussions, his honest impressions mixed in.

“Well, if you’ve only drawn for less than a year, that’s quite impressive.”

“Oh, I see…”

While listening to Gomtaengi’s candid thoughts, I replied somewhat apathetically.

I do think it’s great that Shiyeon is serious about her hobby, but in this situation, I couldn’t really grasp the notion of talent.

While wandering around the internet, you can often come across amazing drawings, and I still feel a bit lost.

As I pondered this, Gomtaengi casually asked me a question.

“By the way, which site does she upload her drawings?”

“I didn’t ask that…”

It seems Gomtaengi is suddenly interested in Shiyeon’s drawing activity.

A site where Shiyeon’s drawings are uploaded?

Come to think of it, I heard she made an account, but I don’t know what site it is.

Since her drawings are to be seen by family as well, the content and the degree of freedom would likely be heavily restricted…

Since I often hear that people who draw comics don’t talk about their work, I didn’t bother to ask.

When I said I didn’t ask that, he grumbled under his breath, obviously displeased.

“Hmmm, I’m worried it might be a glimpse into the abyss…”

“The abyss? What abyss?”

I couldn’t overlook his strangely negative muttering and asked back what he meant by ‘abyss.’

The abyss of art, what on earth does that mean?

Gomtaengi began to speak as if he was surprised that I didn’t know what he was referring to.

“Wait, you don’t know that?”

“What? What is it?”

He didn’t speak clearly, merely referring to ‘that’ or ‘the abyss.’

When I asked back with a genuinely clueless expression, Gomtaengi’s face stiffened.

He then sighed deeply, indicating that he didn’t want to talk about it, pointed at his smartphone, and muttered.

“Ugh… Just search for ‘Commission Problems’ on X site right now.”

“What’s with the fuss…”

I searched the five characters as he instructed in the search engine.

Then, a post in a gallery captured my attention.

[Commission Problems Village (334)]

Commission.

A term meaning order, request, or placing an order; it signifies the transaction of creative requests.

Why then does the word ‘abyss’ attach itself to such a normal term?

The title alone was ominous.

Inside, as Gomtaengi mentioned, there was the ‘bottom of the abyss.’

Bringing forth animal photos from games, an inquiry asking, “Is it possible to do a lewd version of this character?” shocked a bewildered requester who responded, “Huh?”

Additionally, there were crazy individuals who unleash their strange sexual desires in words.

With words too vulgar to even be captured in writing, they were archived in a single post, desperately requesting illustrations.

“Did you see that?”

“Stuff like this, just keep it to yourself.”

On that day, one female middle school student felt nauseous and couldn’t eat her late-night snack.