An Art Student Who Lives Twice - Chapter 1

Arrogant.

 

To sum up my life in one word, this word seemed the most accurate.

 

‘I thought it would work out as long as I tried.

 

I dreamed of becoming a designer.

 

I drew so much that I had Strain injuries. I showed my art to everyone.

 

I thought all that effort would be the answer to success.

 

It was not.

 

This industry was not easy enough to do anything by effort alone.

 

The first time I realized this was during a group assignment in college.

 

“Hey Jaeha, I’ll do the presentation.”

 

At the sudden remark, I tilted my head.

 

“Why?”

 

“You collected the data alone, and also made the PPT. You did most of the hard work. So I’ll do this”

 

“Well…okay.”

 

I was naive.

 

I got stabbed in the back.

 

Before I knew it, the illustration I drew with my own hands became someone else’s painting and my ideas became someone else’s idea.

 

The fruitfulness of my long hard work went to someone else.

 

“Geonu–g̥ʊn*, a professor who is an acquaintance of mine saw your presentation and wanted you to accompany him to the conference.”

 

“Me…You are talking about me?”

“Yes. He’s a renowned professor in the field, so it’s a great opportunity.”

 

“Thank you! I will work hard!”

 

I was not just angry but also sad.

 

But I didn’t know how to convey this anger. So, I just left it like that.

 

“The evaluation was already completed, It was too late to express my claim on my hard work. The result was obvious.

 

Instead, I started working even more hard on my art.

 

I thought it would be a little different when I started my social life(career) after college.

 

‘Life is a real battle. People who have no skills would fall behind sooner or later.’

 

That was quite the misunderstanding.

 

After all, life is all about regret.

 

Corporate life was more than I had imagined.

 

I thought I had succeeded in a project, but it became someone else’s.

 

The same situation was repeated again and again.

 

It was obviously the work I had completed, but in an instant, it was my boss’s work.

 

Company life was even more absurd than college life.

 

‘Sunbae*2,aren’t you angry? It was you who achieved the business deal. But the Deputy manager took the credit for everything.

 

‘It’s customary’

 

It was more serious than when I was in college, in this case, I could not say anything even if there was evidence.

 

However…

 

I was still arrogant at that time.

 

I thought if I worked hard, I would be recognized one day.

 

I was still dreaming.

 

So, it was around 10 years after I joined my first company.

 

‘Sir, that project I…You want me to say, I led it?’

 

A new company employee stole the design of another company’s product and put it on me.

 

‘But that’s not something I did. Kim Ji hoo was the one who did it, so why?

 

‘Who doesn’t know that?’

 

‘But then, why…… ?’

 

‘Kim  Ji hoo, is the boss’s son.’

 

‘……!’

 

‘Choose between the two. Either you get an astronomical lawsuit, or end up leaving the company.’

 

I didn’t have a choice in the first place.

 

Life thereafter was miserable.

 

No matter how much experience you have, no matter how strong your portfolio is, no companies want to use plagiarist designers.

 

I don’t know how many hundreds of resumes I’ve written.

 

Therefore,

 

My life as a designer was over.

 

Instead,  my life as an unemployed man began.

 

I fell asleep drinking soju*3. When I woke up, I had a terrible hangover, so I searched for haejang-sul*4.

 

Someone consoled me that I was naive, but my thoughts were a little different.

 

‘I was stupid’

(T/N- naive is lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated while stupid is lacking in intelligence)

 

I’ve come to realize.

 

Just trying was not enough.

 

It was important for me to take the initiative, with my own hands.

 

‘If I ever go back in time, I would take back everything that belongs to me.’

 

It was the lament of someone who missed his chance 3 times.

(He’s talking about the 3 incidents.)

 

But I was serious in my own way.

 

It was only that it had already been too late.

 

It was just such a life.

 

The life of a failure one that can be found anywhere.

 

At that time, Because I had no money in my pocket, I was immersed in a cheap hobby, which was reading web novels.

(I don’t think It’s a very cheap hobby but okay.)

 

In webnovels, there was a genre called Modern Fantasy, where for men and women myths like regression come true to change their lives.

 

At first, it seemed so stupid.

 

‘This is so stupid. There’s only one life.’

 

People who want to spend their lives with the belief of a comfortable picaresque called regression were stupid.

 

But as I kept reading, I realized.

 

‘This is everyone’s dream.’

 

I received comfort in the text on the 5-inch screen.

 

Unravelling a twisted life like a thread, step by step.

 

Even if it’s just a dream on my cell phone, it was still my wish.

 

I was envious.

 

I wanted to start over from scratch, too.

 

‘If I started all over again, I would live my life without losing anything to anybody.’

 

But it’s already too late.

 

Modern fantasy is still one’s imagination.

 

That was the moment I thought.

 

“Ugh… …!”

 

My head was dizzy.

 

‘I must have drank too much.’

 

No.

 

I’ve been drinking a lot for a while, but even then, I knew my drinking habits well.

 

I’m a heavy drinker.

 

Just this much doesn’t make my head dizzy.

 

By the time I felt something was strange, my eyes were black, and I lost my vision.

 

And.

 

When I opened my eyes again.

 

“What do I present to them? All designs begin with this question.”

 

The professor was lecturing in front of the blackboard in the classroom.

 

‘……What the hell is this?’

 

The title of the class was certainly ‘What is design’, and the professor’s face seemed familiar.

 

Just in a flash, I was listening to a class.

 

I soon realized.

 

‘… …’

 

I was back on my first day at university.

 

That day.

 

It was the day that the genre of my life became a modern fantasy.

 

***

 

After class, I immediately returned to my own room.

 

Click.

 

It was not until I unlocked the door lock that I registered that I had returned to the past.

 

‘It was fair to regress.’

 

My heart was pounding.

 

I was confused for a long time, but this miracle really happened to me.

 

The first thing I did after all this was to go to my computer and log in to my Social Media profile page.

 

‘First of all, I need to figure out my situation.’

 

I have gone back a decade or so.

 

There was a need to reflect on the past.

 

*Rattle*

(Sounds of the mouse while using the computer)

 

It took me a while to scroll through the postings on my homepage with my mouse.

 

I let out a long sigh.

 

I was certain.

 

Today is the day I first entered the university.

 

Title: I’m finally going to University tomorrow.

 

Content: After much hardship, I was prepared with my practical skills for the College of Fine Arts. Now, I can live like an actual human being.’

 

I should go and date, work part-time, and study hard. I’ll do my best.

 

What kind of people are my college mates? I am curious.

 

This time was the early 2000s.

 

It was a time when keeping a diary on the Internet was popular nationwide, and I used to keep one of those diaries when I was bored.

 

Fortunately, this habit helped me identify how I was at that time.

 

‘It feels like I’m reading a time capsule.’

 

Therefore.

 

At this time, I was excited because I had just entered university.

 

After passing the difficult practical skills exam and entered Korea’s leading and prestigious Korean university, the Korean Academy of Arts.

 

Korean Academy of Arts, also known as Han Yewon.

 

It was a school that was famous for gathering only the best talent among the many art colleges.

 

The Visual Design Department, which I am a part of, boasts of the highest competition rate.

 

The joy of passing through a 200:1 competition was beyond description.

(1 in 200 students were selected to attend the college.)

 

‘I felt like I was the main character of the world. In fact, it was just the preliminary round.’

 

After I carefully read the diary to understand the situation, I deleted the homepage effortlessly.

 

‘End of the dark history.’

 

Later, I forgot the existence of this homepage, which caused personal information to be stolen.

 

I’m glad I could clean it up before that.

 

Roughly done with the work of prime concern, I sat cross-legged on the floor.

 

And I slowly looked back on my past life.

 

‘What kind of person I was in my previous life?’

 

A few simple words came to mind without thinking.

 

‘……I was a failed designer.’

 

It was an undeniable fact.

 

All my life I had lived a life yielding to others.

 

At that time, I thought that was the key to living in this world.

 

I was wrong.

 

If I look at it now, it was just that I was a pushover.

 

Now that I’ve been given a second chance at life, I don’t plan on living like that anymore.

 

‘This is a God-given opportunity. I can’t live like I used to.’

 

This time I plan to unravel all the tangled threads from my previous life.

 

There is no need to go far.

 

I have to fix it starting today.

 

As the first step, I carefully reviewed the things I regretted in my previous life and the things I should have taken care of.

 

Just then, I happened to notice a notebook and pen on the other side of the desk.

 

I picked them up.

 

I began writing in my notebook.

 

‘First of all, earning money is urgent. In Korean society, money is necessary, it doesn’t matter what you try to do.’

 

In my previous life, I was driven by money all my life.

(a person who is always in search of money for his own satisfaction)

 

I was an underpaid designer.

 

Star designers earn almost a billion dollars in salary and even go up to become the president of companies, but that was not my story.

 

An ephemera who is not sure whether he will remain in the industry next year or not.

 

That was me.

 

‘Whether you’re designing or doing something else, first of all, you need money.’

 

How to make money.

 

What can I do?

 

‘For the general public to earn money…there could be a lottery, stock and coins.

(I think coins here refer to bitcoins or something like that.)

 

Unfortunately, that would be difficult to use right away.

 

As I was not really interested in the lottery, I did not have a number that I could remember.

 

I know there are a few promising companies in terms of stocks, but unfortunately, there is no capital.

 

There’s nothing like that for the status of a college student who has just come to Seoul.

 

‘Coin may be the most obvious thing, but it’s too far into the future.’

 

In conclusion, all of these were impossible for me right now.

 

Instead, I had another weapon.

 

‘My head contains more than 10 years of design trends.’

 

I wouldn’t know if it was anything else, but I am confident about this one.

 

This is what I did in my previous life.

 

It was my job to analyze the designs that were popular on the market and apply them to the products.

 

And……

 

In modern society, design means money.

 

‘Some companies are willing to invest hundreds of billions of won if they can be pioneers of a new trend.’

 

More than that, the designs exist in my head.

 

Wouldn’t such high stakes be enough to make a lot of money?

 

Stocks can be thought of after making some money.

 

‘Okay. So first of all, I need to lay the foundation to start my design business. It would be better If I can find an investor.’

 

There was no need to go far.

 

Korea Academy of Art is one of the best art universities in Korea.

 

This was the place where all the future genius designers were wandering.

 

Opportunities were all over the place.

 

‘There was a senior who was scouted abroad for a billion dollars a year after he did a good job of exhibiting at an exhibition in the campus.’

 

The environment is exceptionally good.

 

It is the best environment to start a design business because the school provides start-up support to students.

 

‘In my previous life, I was too busy drawing and lived like a good student. It was stupid.’

 

Now, goals and circumstances have been set.

 

Well, what do I have to do to stand out here?

 

It starts from here.

 

‘Making my way to success.’

 

From college life to job preparation and company life, I wrote down everything I remember.

 

What was written on the first page was a task.

 

‘Yeah, this is where everything began.’

 

The first week after entering college.

 

So a few days later, all visual design freshmen will take a class.

 

It was nothing special.

 

This class, visual design and tradition, was a class that puts the life I’ve lived so far on a single sheet of drawing paper.

 

It was a class called, Self Introduction.

 

‘This was a place where I needed to stand out.’

 

The outstanding student at the time received a good offer from the professor thanks to this class.

 

The presentation was quite impressive.

 

The professor was a star professor who could be called the signboard of our department, and every year he used to select a few freshmen from this self-introduction class and put them in his studio.

 

‘It was said that just by entering the professor’s studio, everything from part-time jobs to competitions and employment is like an open highway.’

 

The students who entered the professor’s studio were often referred to as ” Sacred” by the department.

 

Thanks to that, the first-graders who knew beforehand, paid special attention to this task.

 

On the other hand, I was absent from OT(Orientation), so no one told me, and I ended up wasting a precious opportunity earlier.

 

‘There is no chance of that happening in this life.’

 

Now, I take my share.

 

I thought so, rubbing my eyes.

 

‘I’m getting tired.’

 

It has already been several hours since I came to my room and started writing in my notebook with the pen.

 

The sun was setting outside.

 

However, I had no intend of falling asleep just yet.

 

‘My day now is more precious than a year in the future.’

 

I must show skills superior than other students.

 

That will be the pillar of my new life.

 

‘Draw at least one picture and then sleep.’

 

But when I was trying to paint a new picture, I got curious about something else.

 

‘But wait… what was the level of my skills at this time?’

 

g̥ʊn*– to a friend or a junior to you, but it is nowadays used only when referring to underage boys.

 

Sunbae*2– Sunbae(선배) is a word that refers to people with more experience (at work, school, etc)

 

soju*3– Soju is a clear, colourless distilled alcoholic beverage of Korean origin.

 

haejang-sul*4– It means “soup to chase a hangover”. It’s basically hangover soup.