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Chapter 16: Light and Shadow
TL: Enuma ID
Afternoon.
While the rice cooked, So-young called her older sister down in Busan.
Steam was rising from the rice cooker.
For side dishes, the rolled omelet she'd made yesterday and some kimchi. The doenjang soup was simmering fresh on the stove.
W ěb n о̊_v̇ ѐl Е̃n̈u m̈ a
It rang three times before she picked up.
"Hello?"
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"It's me, sis."
"Yeah, what's up?"
The clink of dishes carried through the phone. The lunch rush had just ended, by the sound of it.
"Just calling with some news about Jun."
Ё ñ ů m а̊
"Jun? Something happen?"
"Good news."
So-young said it as she turned down the heat under the doenjang soup.
"A professor at Hongik University's art college saw Jun and says he'll teach him personally."
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A short silence.
"......A professor at the art college?"
Е n u m̆а
"Yeah. A full-time professor in the Painting Department. A man named Kim Yo-han. He used to work abroad. He's a famous painter, too."
"A famous professor like that? Why Jun?"
"I showed him the drawings and he told me to bring Jun over right away. Said he had to see him in person. So I took him, and what do you know, he says he'll train Jun himself."
"What? What about the money?"
"Free!"
Silence again.
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"Free?"
"Yeah. The second I brought up tuition, he told me not to talk nonsense. Said taking money to train a child this gifted would be an insult to his own teacher."
For a long while, her sister said nothing.
The sound of dishes had stopped, too.
"......He said that?"
Her voice trembled.
W̃ e b̊n_o vӗl̆ Еń ǔm̀а̇
"Yeah. Jun's doing great, sis. His talent's the real thing. It wasn't just in my head. Coming to Seoul was the right call."
"Yeah. Thank you, So-young."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
So-young's own chest swelled as she spoke. Any more and she'd start crying.
"Want me to put Jun on? He'd want to hear his mom's voice."
So-young glanced toward the bedroom.
Lee Jun was still sitting in front of the canvas.
W еb n̊ о̃vе̊ l Е́ nū.m̃ а̊
He was laying a third layer over the sky he'd painted yesterday.
"Jun, your mom's on the phone. Want to take it?"
Lee Jun didn't answer.
The brush didn't stop.
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"Jun?"
Still no answer.
W е b̆ n о̀ v ė.l̄ Е̌n̄uḿ а
Lee Jun was lost completely in the clouds on the canvas.
"Ha. Sis, he can't hear me right now, he's painting. When this kid gets focused, I don't think a thing gets through to him."
Over the line came the sound of her sister sniffling.
Then she laughed.
"It's fine. Leave him be."
"Still, even just a word......"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Busan men are all like that. You know how your brother-in-law is."
So-young could hear the laughter behind the tears in her sister's voice.
"Jun's a Busan man too, isn't he. No news is good news."
"......Yeah. Sis."
"Still, So-young."
"Yeah."
Ẁẽ bn оvĕ l Еṅú m̌ a
"If it weren't for you, Jun would've grown up with nobody ever noticing what he could do. Thank you. I really mean it."
The call ended.
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So-young stood there a long moment, phone still in hand.
The stew bubbled away on the stove.
*
Lee Jun heard nothing.
Ē ń ùmā .í d̂
Not his aunt's voice, not the ring of the phone.
In the room there was only the canvas, the paint, and the Shadow.
The second layer he'd laid down yesterday had set on the surface overnight.
It wasn't fully dry. Pressed with a finger, it gave a little.
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But it was dry enough to take a new layer of paint on top.
Lee Jun studied the canvas for a long time.
Еn.ũ m а̄ .і̆d
The sky as of yesterday. Two layers.
The first layer, a thinned Ultramarine Blue. The base.
The second layer, a deeper blue. A gradation, dark up top and pale toward the bottom.
He'd painted the clouds in the second layer.
One cloud near. One a little farther off. One farther still.
He'd worked the insides in a gray of white mixed with black, and the edges in a warm tone, white with the faintest touch of Cadmium Yellow.
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Not bad. But not enough.
[Where do you think it falls short?]
the Shadow asked.
Lee Jun pointed at the bright part of a cloud.
"Here. The light's weak."
[The light's weak?]
Wе b̌n̆ ӧ v̆ е̄ l_ Е̊_n uṁ а̀
"Yesterday, when I looked out the window, the edge of the cloud was shining. Bright enough to hurt my eyes.
But this is just bright. Shining and bright aren't the same thing."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
[.......]
For a moment, the Shadow said nothing.
Then it spoke.
[Knowing the difference matters.
Ẇ е b̃ ñ о̀v́е̄ l̈ Ë ňu ṁа
Bright is just a lot of white. Anybody can do that.
Shining is something else. A thing only looks like it's shining when what's around it is dark.
It's not about making the bright places brighter, but about making the dark places darker.]
Lee Jun looked at the palette.
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[The inside of the cloud. The gray you put down yesterday. Take it one shade darker.
Mix Burnt Sienna into the Ultramarine and you get a deep gray. More natural than reaching for black.]
Ẇѐb n̂ŏ vе̂ l Е́n̊_ũḿа
He loaded Ultramarine Blue onto the brush.
Mixed in a little Burnt Sienna.
A dark color came out. Not black.
A bluish brown. The color of deep shadow.
He laid that color into the inside of the near cloud.
One more layer over the gray from yesterday.
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The inside of the cloud deepened.
Lee Jun stepped back and looked.
The edges were still the bright color from yesterday, but with the inside darker now, the edges looked brighter.
He hadn't touched the bright areas, and yet they'd grown brighter.
[This is chiaroscuro.]
the Shadow said.
Еǹum̈а̄.ĭ d
[Making something bright is easy. Just use white.
The truly hard part is getting the dark places exactly dark enough.
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Once the darkness finds its place, the light comes on its own.]
To control the light was to control the darkness.
Lee Jun nodded.
He moved on to the next cloud. The second one, a little farther off.
Е n̆ ú m̆а́
This cloud was smaller than the first. Its color paler, too.
Because it was farther away.
Darkening the inside called for care.
It couldn't go as dark as the near cloud.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Distant clouds, because of the layers of air between, show less difference between light and shadow.
The gap between the light and dark areas needed to shrink.
W е.b nò v e̊l̆ Ē nū m а̌
[Right. With far clouds, you ease off the contrast.
Near clouds, a big difference between light and dark; far ones, a small one.
That's what makes space.]
Lee Jun laid the same color into the inside of the second cloud.
But thinner. Mixed with oil, made semi-transparent.
The gray from yesterday showed through. Just a shade darker.
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The difference was subtle.
But set beside the first cloud, it gave a sense of distance.
The near cloud had sharp chiaroscuro; the far one was hazy.
[Good.]
The third cloud. The farthest one.
This one he barely touched.
Е n ū m̂ а̇
He'd only brushed a little sky blue over yesterday's color to blur it further.
A cloud melting into the sky.
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So the three clouds receded in order.
From sharp to hazy. From near to far.
Lee Jun looked for a long while.
Next was the sky.
Ė n̆ um̈ a
The sky between the clouds.
The blue he'd painted yesterday was uniform. Only a gradation from top to bottom.
But looking out the window today, the sky wasn't uniform at all.
The sky near the clouds was slightly brighter, picking up their color.
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The sky farther from the clouds was a deeper blue.
[So you're looking.]
Е ň ù m̂а . і d̃
the Shadow said. There was satisfaction in its voice.
Lee Jun laid a blue, white mixed in just barely, into the sky around the clouds.
The boundary between cloud and sky softened.
Not clouds floating on the sky, but clouds sitting within it.
[That's it. Cloud and sky aren't separate things.
A cloud is part of the sky. Erase the boundary and you feel the air.]
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Time passed.
Lee Jun took up the palette knife.
The brightest part of the cloud. The very top of the edge.
There he laid white on thick.
Pushed flat and wide with the knife.
The paint rose up.
Е̇nûm̂ а
White paint stood proud of the canvas surface.
Only this part was thick. The rest, comparatively thin.
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The thick white caught the light in the room and gleamed.
It was really shining.
What had been said the day before. The difference between bright and shining.
The thickness of the paint was making light.
Ѐñ uḿă ._і̊ ḋ
[......There it is.]
the Shadow let out a breath.
"Phew."
Lee Jun let out a breath too.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
He'd been holding it without realizing.
He looked down at the canvas.
W еb̄ ǹö v e ĺ Е ñ ů m̊а
Definitely better than yesterday.
The clouds were shining. The sky had grown deeper.
Down at the bottom, a small black silhouette watched that sky in silence.
Two white eyes.
Still not enough.
The undersides of the clouds needed to be flatter.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The very top of the sky needed to be darker.
Maybe something more was needed around the silhouette. Grass, say. Or ground.
Not sure yet.
But that was as far as today went.
The paint's still wet. Lay more on and it'll mix with the color underneath.
Tomorrow, once it dries, he'll add another layer.
Е̂ nũ m̌_à . і̂ ď
And the day after that, too.
[You did well today.]
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
the Shadow said.
[Making light out of darkness. You found that on your own.
I showed you how, but you're the one who spotted what was missing first.]
Lee Jun didn't answer.
Еnu ḿ a. id
He was looking at the canvas.
He liked the clouds.
He liked that the clouds he'd painted were shining.
*
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Jun, time to eat."
So-young's voice reached him. This time, it reached him.
Ẁе́ bnо v̀е̄ l Е ń ů m̊ а
Because he'd already set down the brush.
This was, in fact, the third time she'd called him.
Lee Jun wrapped the paint on the palette in plastic wrap and stood the brush in turpentine to soak. It was a habit now.
He sat down at the table.
He picked up his spoon and took a sip of the doenjang soup. Warm.
He watched the canvas while he ate.
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His left hand, the one not holding the spoon, was moving in tiny motions on his thigh.
"Jun."
"Yeah."
"The weather's really nice today. Want to head out with your aunt for a bit? To the park, maybe."
Lee Jun shook his head.
"Why not? You're cooped up at home every single day."
E̊n̈uṁ а̊
"The clouds aren't dry."
"We can just stay out until they dry."
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"I have to watch it. When it dries I have to put more on top."
So-young set down her spoon.
"Didn't your teacher tell you to go outside and play?"
Lee Jun shook his head.
Е n û m̌ а̃
"This is playing."
So-young was at a loss for words.
The boy meant it.
Once he'd finished eating, Lee Jun put his bowl in the sink and went back to the canvas.
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So-young cleared the table and sat down in the living room.
She opened her laptop. There was a mountain of work waiting, again.
Wе b nоv̀_е l̃ Еn ú mа̇
From the bedroom came the soft scratch-scratch of the brush.
So-young glanced from her laptop screen toward the bedroom.
She could see her nephew from behind. A small back.
"Haah. What do I do."
One deadline ended and the next came right behind it.
There was no time to take the boy outside.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
After all the big talk she'd made in Busan before bringing him here, this really wouldn't do.
She'd find a way somehow.
Right now... it just wasn't easy, though.
So-young swallowed a sigh and picked up her tablet pen again.
*
The same day.
Ẁеb n̆ ӧv еl̀ Е̃ n̊ǔ.m å
A graduate studio in the Hongik University Painting Department.
Yoon Ji-su, a master's student, was staring blankly at a blank canvas.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Her graduation piece was overdue, the canvas was white, and her mind was just as white.
Back when she'd caught the eye of Professor Kim Yo-han, famous for being impossible to please, and made it into grad school, she'd been sure the road ahead was wide open.
But her work had run into a wall. And it wasn't as though the professor gave her any advice.
"Haah......."
Wѐḃ n оṽ е l̃ Ē ṅumа̄
Yoon Ji-su sighed and went back to staring at her phone again.
There was a photo reposted in her Instagram feed.
A photo of a sheet of wax paper held up to a fluorescent light.
Something had been drawn on it in ketchup and mayonnaise.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
It looked like a woman's face.
The caption read only: 'Apparently some kid drew this at a burger place near Hongdae.'
Wе ḃ ṅӧ v.е l̈ Е̃ňůmå
Apparently it's a hot topic right now. The comment and like counts were off the charts.
Ji-su zoomed in on the photo.
The form was worked out in dots. There was a direction to the light.
"Is this for real?"
She's a master's student in the Painting Department herself. She could tell at a glance this was no mere doodle.
It was a work made with the way light passed through the wax paper carefully calculated in.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Grade-schoolers are better than grad students these days, I swear. Stuff like this, how am I supposed to do anything."
Even as she sighed over and over, Ji-su saved a screenshot.
Without really thinking.
In a few days it'd be forgotten. The internet has no shortage of odd, eye-catching photos.
But the photo stayed in her phone's gallery.
......With no idea such a thing was even there.
Wе̃b̊ ń о vе̊ l̈ E n̊ um̊а̃
Lee Jun sat in front of the canvas again that day.
He was waiting for the paint to dry.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
[Tomorrow let's work the undersides of the clouds again. A little flatter.]
Lee Jun nodded.
Outside the window, the November sun was sinking.
The afternoon light fell across the canvas.
W̆ е́ b̆ n̆ ȯv̂ е ĺ .Е̂nú_m ӓ
The thick white of the clouds caught the light and gleamed.
Little by little, light was settling into Lee Jun's painting.
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