I Became A Renowned Genius At My Arts High School - Chapter 163



Only Noblemtl

Episode 163. Shaking Friendship (3)

“Back then, I thought I was the best in the world.”

1955, right after the end of the Korean War, was a truly chaotic time.

It was said that Choi Young-im’s father, Choi Min-cheol, made a huge amount of money.

“There was even a piano in the Western-style house in Seoul. There were two working women and a secretary who was like a second hand. That was my house.”

Of course, it was because the starting points were different.

Mr. Choi Min-cheol said that he saved the life of an American soldier during the Korean War, and that the soldier did not forget the favor and gave him some money, which allowed him to start a business quite comfortably.

In any case, he was a man of good character and resourcefulness, so he did well in business and expanded his influence, and within a few years, there was no one in the Cheonggyecheon area who did not know him.

“So, all sorts of people came rushing in. They all complained, said they were going to die, and eventually asked for money. What family wouldn’t have a hard time at that time? They say that even the king can’t save the poor, but there was a limit to how much my father could help.”

However, Choi Min-cheol, who kept giving and giving, said that he was greatly scammed by an acquaintance he trusted.

Choi Min-cheol, who lost a large fortune, chased the conman all the way to his hometown, which turned out to be Hamun-dong, South Chungcheong Province.

“We didn’t catch the conman, but at that time, my father saw this neighborhood as so nice. He was sick of living in Seoul and the people who rushed at him were disgusting. He decided to just leave Seoul and come down here to live.”

Choi Min-cheol, who lost his parents and siblings in the war and was left alone, said he considered Hamun-dong to be his second home.

After clearing out Seoul, he started an orchard with the remaining money, and quickly established himself as a village leader.

“I didn’t like it. My older brothers were sent to college in Seoul, but I had to come down here because I was a stray. But when I came here, it was okay. The neighborhood people were friendly and I made friends.”

So, Grandmother Choi Young-im lived in Hamun-dong for several years, and then she urged her father to go to Seoul and attend college.

I also learned a lot about painting at that time, and I also had many other hobbies. As I was one of the so-called new women at the time, I had nothing in the world to be envious of or difficult for me.

The problem arose a few years later.

“I dated someone from my hometown.”

“Oh, really?”

“We met by chance in Seoul. When I was a senior in college, someone called out to me, “Young-im!” as I was walking down Myeongdong Street. I looked and saw that it was my older brother. We didn’t really talk to each other when we were younger, but I was so happy to see him in a foreign land.”

The man’s family was poor, but he was so smart that he studied hard and was able to send his son to Seoul to study, and he even got a job at a bank.

“We decided to get married after dating for about a year. So I had to go meet my parents, but this guy has been acting weird ever since.”

It turned out that the man’s family was planning to marry him off to another family.

And, amazingly, that person was Kang Young-ja, Choi Young-im’s best friend.

“I felt so betrayed. I resented the fact that I didn’t say anything when I knew that I was so close with Yeongja. But at that time, something was wrong with my eyes, and I couldn’t pretend not to know that she said she would die without me.”

In addition, he said that the man and Grandma Choi Young-im were already in a deep relationship. So he couldn’t do anything, and when he returned to his hometown, the neighborhood was turned upside down.

“I’m sorry. When I looked, I saw that Youngja really liked that guy. She was shedding tears and asking me to give in, but I couldn’t back down since I had come that far.”

It is said that there was strong opposition from both families.

The man’s family raised their voices, saying that they could not possibly treat a woman who had graduated from college in Seoul as their daughter-in-law, and that they should just marry a woman who was good at helping out and managing the household. Choi Young-im’s father was furious at the adults in the man’s family for not liking the daughter he had raised with such care.

Anyway, after going through many hardships, she finally got married, but she said she wasn’t happy. Her mother-in-law made her live a miserable life, and even made a farce by coming up to her new home in Seoul and sleeping with her in the bedroom.

“The problem was what happened next.”

Grandma Choi Young-im said with a complicated expression.

“Youngja got married, and she was an incredibly old woman.”

Grandmother Choi Young-im let out a long sigh.

“Youngja’s father was addicted to gambling and had a lot of debt, so that man asked for Youngja instead of paying it off.”

“Wow. My goodness.”

It was a time when things you only saw in period dramas happened so casually.

It is said that Grandma Youngja got married while crying and that she and Grandma Choi Youngim completely fell out because of that.

And then a few years later, another incident happened.

“My father collapsed. He was taken to a large hospital, but the hospital bill was enormous. It cost him a lot of money.”

He said that because he was in a hurry, he had to borrow money here and there, and because he had no way to repay it, he could not get back the property that was used as collateral, including the orchard that his father had cherished.

Ironically, the one who lent money using the orchard as collateral was Grandma Kang Young-ja’s husband. Without any reward, Grandma Choi Young-im’s father passed away from an illness. The orchard was sold to the wrong people again and was completely destroyed, leaving the two grandmothers to cross a river from which they could not return.

“By the way, how did you end up coming back to your hometown?”

Even so, there was something I was curious about. There was no trace of anyone else in Grandma Choi Young-im’s house.

Just looking at it, it smelled like a house where a woman lives alone, and I couldn’t understand why she came back to her hometown to live alone after starting a family in Seoul.

“My husband died of tuberculosis not long after my father passed away. I was so tired and exhausted after raising the children, but this was the place I wanted to return to. I thought of my father and the old days. The children bought me a small house here, so I came back. But I felt like this wasn’t a place for me either.”

There was silence for a moment. After hearing such a heavy story, I had no idea where to begin to console her.

Grandmother Choi Young-im said that she was just saying it for the sake of it since she was going to leave anyway and they might not meet again, but Soo-hyeon’s personality was such that there was no way she could do that.

“Please come tomorrow.”

In the end, there was only one thing Soo-hyun could give.

“tomorrow?”

“I’m going to extend the class. Today was a mess.”

“Oh, it’s okay. It’s okay. How could I go out there without any shame?”

“Don’t worry, just come out. Well, it’s your fault, everyone did the same thing. I’ll do my best so that you won’t feel uncomfortable. I have to finish the drawing properly.”

When Su-hyeon nodded, Grandmother Choi Young-im also reluctantly nodded.

“Okay, then.”

***

“It wasn’t a mess.”

“Oh. I thought each of you elders had a megaphone in your mouth.”

“Wow, so. How come your voices are so loud?”

That evening, Su-hyeon and her friends chatted about the class they had during the day, losing track of time.

He said that after Su-hyeon left, the atmosphere in the art classroom became a mess.

A denunciation rally was held with grandmas and grandpas raising their voices and talking about various things, while having embarrassed expressions and unable to calm down their excitement.

But as I listened, I realized that it was also mixed with quite a bit of the story that Soo-hyeon had heard from Grandma Choi Young-im.

“At first, it seemed like everyone was on the same side and ignoring Grandma Choi Young-im, but as we talked, our opinions began to diverge again.”

“That’s right. Is there also an atmosphere of sympathy for Grandma Choi Young-im?”

“really?”

“Honestly, there is no one in this neighborhood who has not benefited from that house. Grandmother Choi Young-im’s father did so many good deeds. He lent her money that she couldn’t get back, gave her rice, and even helped her with her school fees.”

“Oh, so that’s what happened here too.”

The elders’ parents have now passed away, but it seems they haven’t forgotten the help they received when they were having a hard time.

So, when something big happened to Grandma Choi Young-im’s family, he was at a loss and stamped his feet in frustration because he had no way to help.

“Actually, I’m talking about the house that Grandma Choi Young-im lives in now. There’s a story there, too.”

“What’s the story?”

“When Grandma’s children came to this neighborhood to look at houses, they must have been thinking of buying a ridiculous house. A dilapidated, run-down house.”

“why?”

“Grandma Choi Young-im wanted to come here, but I guess her children’s circumstances weren’t very good. She must have thought it was easy because it was a country house, but she came with a ridiculous amount of money.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“It seems that the village elders saved up money little by little to help buy a decent house. Of course, Grandma Choi Young-im doesn’t know about it yet.”

“why?”

“He had such great pride that he would have gotten angry if we had offered to help him. That’s why everyone kept quiet and helped him. Anyway, he wanted to repay the debt by doing this, since he owed us something in the past.”

“Oh, I see.”

As I listened, I tilted my head.

It was a very friendly relationship for someone who had eyes that looked like they were going to devour each other at any moment.

Is it because as time goes by, both good and bad feelings have piled up? Even though we bicker, we miss each other and help each other secretly. I thought that maybe there was room for improvement in our current relationship.

It was Oh Yu-na who lit the fire of that hope.

“But Grandma Kang Young-ja, when I look at it, it seems like you like Grandma Choi Young-im.”

“Grandma Kang Young-ja?”

“Grandma Choi Young-im left earlier and you followed her, and I went straight into the classroom, right? After a while, you started to cry loudly. I can’t tell you how sadly you cried. But they weren’t tears of resentment. You said you were resentful toward Grandma Choi Young-im. She said you were a bad girl who didn’t understand her feelings… No, she said I was a bad friend. She said that if she thought of me as a friend, she wouldn’t have acted like this.”

Su-hyeon frowned for a moment at those words and then said.

“Something doesn’t seem to add up… … I think there may have been a misunderstanding?”

“I thought so too.”

“Besides, it seems deep.”

“Uh. When I looked into it in the middle, the incident and the feelings didn’t match up. This seems like a problem the two of you should discuss directly.”

Of course, one incident could be seen differently because each side spoke in their own favor.

But I had a feeling, a very strange and strong feeling, that there were unresolved misunderstandings scattered throughout this long history, and that if we were honest about them and talked about them, perhaps reconciliation would be possible.

“I just got permission from the village chief to open the art class for one more day.”

Soo-hyun nodded and said.

“So guys, since we’re at this point, how about we change our curriculum a bit?”

“Curriculum?”

“how?”

The kids opened their eyes wide and asked at Soo-hyun’s words.

“Let’s apply what we did in our collection class. Let’s have them create a story. Like a book.”

“A book? Oh my, you find it difficult to even read a single picture, so how could that be possible?”

“Of course it’s difficult. But even though it’s difficult to draw fifteen pictures by yourself, it’s easy to draw them one by one fifteen times.”

“Huh?”

“What does that mean?”

“So, what if we had them draw on each page like a rolling paper? Then, when we put them together, it would become a book. Since there are fifteen students, we would do that fifteen times.”

“Rolling paper? Oh, that sounds fun.”

“There will definitely be no burden. There are no restrictions.”

“That’s right. And since anonymity is guaranteed, it’s easy to bring up the story. And if you add a simple device, you can create a dramatic feeling.”

Su-hyeon smiled brightly.

An idea that could be a solution suddenly occurred to me.