Chapter 13

Lee Jong-Suk started getting worried about owning something that was of great value. He was also feeling bad for the owner of the second-hand bookstore. He had paid a thousand won for it and had bought it fairly, but at that amount, it was just as if the store owner had given him the book for free.

Still feeling troubled, Lee Jong-Suk placed the book on the table and decided to tell the store owner about the book the next time he saw him. Part of him wanted to keep the book, and yet the other part wanted to return the book immediately. While debating within himself, Lee Jong-Suk looked at the experience book.

While debating with himself, Lee Jong-Suk looked at the experience book. He was getting more curious about the skills and knowledge of the bachelor. The kind of knowledge the bachelor had was very interesting. In the dream, he felt like he was watching a martial arts movie.

He found the said skills very helpful. The Moon-Il-Ji experience was also helpful and he was wondering if he’d get any more weird skills. He loved the Kun-Gong experience and his body looked awesome because of it. Lee Jong-Suk decided to get more study experience. He would let his parents know when he was able to study well!

[Study 1,000]

As usual, after Lee Jong-Suk wrote what he wanted, the page turned over and words started to appear.

[Life was nice with the teacher. The masters there were very kind, and the teacher had thousands, no a few thousand volumes which were accumulated. And to me…]

After about two hours of reading, bright, new words appeared :

[Study experience of 1,000 points have been received.]

[Moon-Il-Ji experience has been familiarized.]

[Kun-gong experience has been familiarized.]

Lee Jong-Suk looked at the written words in the experience book and rubbed his eyes. Right after seeing that he had received the experiences from the experience book, he felt oddly tired. He needed to sleep. Lee Jong-Suk sleepily got into bed while rubbing his eyes.

***

The weekend was almost over. On Sunday, he went down for a while and helped in the shop and after that, came back and studied English and math. He was quite focused and covered a lot of ground. He read Korean history and Korean language, which he usually got good grades in. But since he was weak in mathematics and English, he focused more on them.  With the help of the Moon-Il-Ji experience, studying was much easier. It was getting more comprehensible and memorable, studying became fun for him.

In school the next day, Lee Jong-Suk was holding the washed judo uniform neatly in his hands.

“Hey! Jong-Suk ah!”

Lee Jong-Suk turned to see who was calling out his name, and it was Kim Young-Woo. Kim Young-Woo was waving his hands and walking towards him.

“How was your weekend? Was it a good one?”

“You can say that.” At this, Kim Young-Woo nodded and rubbed his arms.

“The weather is a bit cold, isn’t it?”

Lee Jong-Suk nodded in reply.

“Oh, damn!” Kim Young-Woo swore.

Lee Jong-Suk looked at him, surprised.

“What is it?”

“We only have one year of our youth left in front of us.”

“Twenties is considered youth too.”

“We only have this year left as youths. Starting from next year, we will be third-year students, then we’ll join the military, and then we’ll be employed.”

“You’ll study next year?”

“That’s possible. But I also want to play and be comfortable.”

Lee Jong-Suk looked at his friend’s face and asked, “Won’t you go to college?”

“Are you going?”

“We’ll see.”

“When you are joining the military, won’t you immediately start as an officer?”

“I’ve had a change of heart regarding it.”

Kim Young-Woo laughed at this.

“A change of heart? You know it’s going to be very tough to get into college.”

Lee Jong-Suk nodded, “The thought has crossed my mind.’

He had confidence that he would get in.

Because of the practice he did yesterday, the math class was pretty easy. Even though he wasn’t listening to the teacher, he was able to solve the problems written for them.

‘It would be nice if the term comes very quickly.’

Lee Jong-Suk who had never thought that he would want to write an exam this eagerly smiled. Kim Young-Woo took a breath and put out the drawing tools on his desk.

“Don’t things like drawing and stuff usually stop by the end of elementary school?”

“Can’t I do what I like when I’m not studying?”

As these two boys were laughing and getting ready for the class, the bell rang and the teacher entered the class. The art teacher was a middle-aged man over fifty.

“So, I guess everyone brought their supplies.”

“Yes!”

The teacher spread out all the materials on the table and checked for everything that he needed. After everything was to his satisfaction, he said,

“Draw any plant that you feel like drawing.”

The students immediately began to paint different plants of their choice. The teacher sat down and read the newspaper as the kids drew. Kim Young-Woo looked at the teacher for a while and whispered to Lee Jong-Suk,

“If it’s going to be like this, why then do we need a teacher?”

“There is a need for a guide. Let’s draw quickly and go have lunch.”

The third-grade art class had been going on for two hours. The class was usually completed around ten minutes before the lunch break and Lee Jong-Suk and Kim Young-Woo would usually rush to the cafeteria immediately the class was over.

“Let’s do that.”

Lee Jong-Suk looked at Kim Young-Woo who was holding his brush and painting on the paper.

‘What should I draw?’ he asked himself.

After thinking it over for a moment, Lee Jong-Suk took green color and black color paint. The teacher concentrated on his newspaper until the class was over. He took a sheet of paper and walked among the students. Without saying any word, the teacher wrote each student’s name in the paper and evaluated their work.

The students waited for the teacher to be done evaluating all their works so they could go for lunch. The teacher suddenly stopped. His eyes fell on a paper that had a picture of a bamboo tree on it.

“Nicely drawn,” he commented.

The water added to the paint was a bit much but the additional strokes of the brush made the nodal section of the bamboo tree come out well.

If one were to observe this painting, they would say that the water was added a bit too much, but the additional strokes of the brush the nodal section of the bamboo tree came out very well. And the writing on the side of the bamboo tree was….

[A shrew (孤竹士忠)

Of self-respect (竹節士心)]

“The bamboo is the bachelor, the node is the mind of the bachelor.”

The teacher looked admiringly at the Chinese characters. The bamboo tree painting was very nice and the Chinese characters added a magnificent touch to the painting. The teacher looked at the student who was sitting on the bench.

“Lee Jong-Suk?”

“Yes.”

“Where… Where did you learn this?”

“From books.”

“Books?”

And you wrote this?”

“Yes.”

The teacher looked at the texts again, gazing admiringly at it. After a few moments of staring, he said,

“Go eat lunch and then come to the art room.”

“The art room?”

“Yes, make sure you come.”

Without saying more, he continued scoring and evaluating the other students. After scoring and evaluating the drawings of all the students, he left the classroom without saying anything. As soon as he left, the students started to organize their art supplies.

“Yah! Why did the art teacher ask you to come?” Kim Young-Woo asked.

“I won’t, but let’s go have lunch.”

“What about arranging our supplies?”

“Let’s do it after lunch.”

Lee Jong-Suk hurriedly put away half his stuff and left. Kim Young-Woo arranged all the things on his desk and followed him.

Lee Jong-Suk was about to enjoy his lunch when Kim Young-Woo came in.

“I’ve arranged and cleared out your desk in the art room.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Lee Jong-Suk looked at Kim Young-Woo who became silent and took a step back.

“Please.”

Lee Jong-Suk walked towards the art room wondering why Kim Young-Woo asked him to come. Was it going to be like what happened in judo? The bamboo tree was well painted because of the bachelor’s experience. Before he got the bachelor’s experience, Lee Jong-Suk didn’t have the slightest idea about art.

For Lee Jong-Suk, drawing and painting was a task that made him hungry. this task of doing arts was something that immediately made him feel passionate. Still wrapped in his thoughts, Lee Jong-Suk got to the art room and knocked. When he entered, he found that there was no one there. Muttering to himself, Lee Jong-Suk took a seat in the art classroom.