Translated by: ShawnSuh Edited by: SootyOwl Having taken the figure to a corner, Juho plunked himself down on the floor . With his chin resting on his hand, he began to think . Confused, the club members watched Juho quietly and then each found themselves a spot . In the not-so-s.p.a.cious room, the members scattered throughout, each glaring at their figure intently . Baron was sketching quietly from his seat at the moment . Salt… Sugar… People murmured quietly . One would think that they were part of the Cooking Club . Seo Kw.a.n.g flicked his finger on the figures head . Thud . Mr . Agrippa, please say something, he muttered . Keep it down, will ya? Sun Hwa said . Youre the loudest one in the room . Stop looking for salt . Having been looking for sugar, Bom clenched her lips in embarra.s.sment . They wanted an eye-opening discovery, something that would shock the world, flip it upside down . According to Mr . Moons a.n.a.logies, they were attempting to cook steak . Juho turned his attention to his figure . There wasnt a need for anything impressive . All it took was to come in contact with one single emotion . That was more than enough to start . Soon, salt and sugar turned into impulsivity and curiosity . What kind of truth was this figure harboring? When he thought of the plaster busts, the first thing that came to mind was Pygmalion . He was an artist who fell in love with a sculpture he had sculpted himself . Should I try going in this direction? Or… Juho thought as he examined the outer appearance of the Agrippa bust . It was heavy and rigid, but it had no shape below the chest . Juho gave it an imaginary pair of hands and feet . The figure grew in size . Juho stood up, following the figure as it grew taller . No blood flowed underneath its ivory skin . Juho imagined it having blood . The heart started beating as it pumped out blood, transferring oxygen throughout the body . Agrippa started to breathe, and Juho put his hand underneath its nose . He felt air coming out of it, carrying body heat . A warmth spread throughout its cold, lifeless skin . As it breathed, it gained the ability to move . Juho watched Agrippa as it walked around the science room, touching and feeling various objects, occasionally breaking them . It doubted objects that it had never seen before while being wary of people it had never met . It became angry quickly, but on the other hand, it became happy just as easily . Juho quietly observed its behavior . He had been solely responsible for granting Agrippa such attributes . In real life, Agrippa was no more than a plaster figure . It couldnt move or be wary of people . As Juho took away its hands and feet as well as its blood and emotions, Agrippa quickly shrunk in size . Sitting on the floor, Juho was back to where he had started . He tried feeling Agrippas head . Rigid . Cold, he thought . What else can I take away from it? What else can I get rid of from this cold, rigid plaster figure? Is there a way to describe that as freedom? Time kept ticking as Juho immersed himself in thought . Soon, the club members started to reach their limits . Each of their concentration started to fail . Sun Hwa made a noise as she twisted her body . Bom sighed while Seo Kw.a.n.g moaned mysteriously . Baron was sketching Agrippa in his sketchbook . In the end, Sun Hwa was the first to explode, I dont get it! Shut up . She paid no attention to Seo Kw.a.n.g . Whats so new about this? New perspective? Creation? What is all that? I cant think of anything . Have I been this stupid all along? I have good grades though! Seo Kw.a.n.g pushed away the figure with his feet, joining in on Sun Hwas ranting, Mr . Moon must have a story that involves a plaster figure . This happened at the essay contest too! Does he have a thing for plaster figures!? Juho quietly agreed . There had to be a story . I dont know where to start, said Bom with a timid voice . Seo Kw.a.n.g and Sun Hwa were both in situations similar to hers . Creation . New perspective . It all sounded too difficult . Bom quietly called for Juho, Were you able to think of anything? A little bit . What?? Sun Hwa asked fiercely . After a brief time thinking, he decided to give her a hint, Try not to complicate it . With that, he picked up the figure from the floor . The coldness pierced through his hands . Feelings that come from the outside . Thats what I need to focus on . To start with, its hard to be creative . Start slow, one step at a time . How do you do that? Seo Kw.a.n.g asked . Just… however you feel like it? Everyone sighed out loud . You . Mr . Moon . Not helpful, said Sun Hwa . Thats a little harsh, Juho said with a chuckle . In order to escape the accusation of being ambiguous like Mr . Moon, he approached Baron with the figure still in his hands . All eyes were on him . Can I borrow your pencil? Without saying much, Baron handed the pencil he was using over . With grat.i.tude, Juho pointed the pencil in his hand at Agrippa . For example… After drawing on its face for a brief moment, he turned Agrippa around and showed it to the rest of the club members . On its once pale, lifeless face, there was hair sticking out of his nose . Nose hair . Seo Kw.a.n.g gave Juho a dumbfounded look . What?! Are you kidding me? You cant be serious . Everyone seemed disappointed, but Juho paid no attention to their expressions . Just like that, my Agrippa now has luscious nose hairs, unlike yours . In those seemingly trivial words, there was something that the club members couldnt catch . Something different from the others . Juho had obtained it easily, but he didnt stop there . He raised his hands high, drawing everyones attention . On his hands, was the only Agrippa figure with nose hair in the room . It didnt look very stable . What else can I take away from it? What else can I get rid of from this cold, rigid plaster figure? With those thoughts, he threw the figure down at the floor . With a loud noise and faint sense of pleasure in Juhos mind, the Agrippa bust shattered into pieces . Someone screamed . Now, Agrippa had lost his shape . Juho had taken away its shape, freeing it from its confinement . What should we call it now? Juho asked himself as he picked up the Agrippa pieces . Debris? Shattered figure? Trash? Agrippa? n.o.body answered . You scared me! Sun Hwa said annoyingly . Bom was covering her mouth . Baron stared at Juho from afar quietly . n.o.body was hurt because Juho had made sure to throw it in a safe direction . What the heck is this about? What? Whats so wrong about it? Sun Hwa was at loss for words . He was right . Nothing was wrong . She simply couldnt think of it . She hadnt had the courage to throw Agrippa at the floor . A slight sense of bitterness rushed over her . Why cant I be as brave as him? Then, she remembered what Mr . Moon had said earlier . You wont get much from just sitting there and looking around . She had finally understood what he had meant . She had been much more timid than she had realized . Im so mad…! she thought, clenching her teeth . At that moment, shes had another thought, What about my Agrippa? Her figure was standing where she had left it, staring in the direction of the shattered figure . I wonder what its thinking . Maybe its jealous since thats the only figure that broke out of its mold . I see now . The shattering sound pierced Sun Hwas ears . The impact outside had kickstarted a chain of thoughts in her mind . Sensation moved feelings, and those feelings that shook loose belonged to Sun Hwa . Once she gave its empty face an emotion, she eventually came to believe it to be real . Seo Kw.a.n.g and Bom seemed to have caught on as well . They started examining their figures with serious expressions on their faces . They were working hard to find their own Agrippas . As Juho watched them with a satisfied smile, his eyes met the shattered pieces of his Agrippa . Then, he quietly made his way to his cla.s.s to get a broom and a dustpan . Upon seeing the figure in pieces in the dustpan, Mr . Moon smiled with satisfaction . He had had a good reason for buying them with his own money . --- Tick . Tock . Tick . Tock . Waking up, Juho checked the time . It was 8:00 a . m . Lately, he hadnt been writing much outside of the Literature Club, which was different from usual, when he wrote into the night regardless of where he was . The change was somewhat unfamiliar . He felt sluggish and thirsty . Although there was a cup of water on the desk, it was out of his reach . Instead of sitting up, he stayed on his bed, staring at the ceiling . After some time, it almost felt like it was spinning . As time went by, more and more people evaluated The Sound of Wailing . Juho had been reading the reviews as much as he could . Each person had read the book with their respective point of view, interpreting accordingly . Im noticing more depth in his writing . His book got darker . I wonder if something happened to the author? The critics took The Sound of Wailing apart and a.n.a.lyzed it from different angles . Some were rather plausible whereas others werent . Juho blinked, and the ceiling stopped spinning . Overall, the book was well-received, and there were more positive reviews than negative ones . Juho felt relieved as he thought about his past works . They were deep-seeded memories . The most commonly used word to describe his book then had been bubble . Bubble . It meant that it lacked substance . The readers had been disappointed and had started to a.s.sociate him with bubble . As a person who had been content with the simple pleasure of being called a genius, it had been more than enough to tear his world apart . As he reminisced, Juho felt a strange sense of betrayal boiling up from within . Just like that, Yun Woo had met his downfall in the past . Now, there was a sense of relief in place of that sense of betrayal . What am I feeling relieved about? The present thats different from the past? All the compliments? Juho felt confused . At times, emotions were a pain in the neck . They sprung up without warning, like a waterfall that flowed in reverse . They werent reasonable and they werent the most flattering either . There was no way to know where they would be stored . The biggest issue was that Juho himself was entertained by them, so he couldnt ignore them completely . If anything, he wanted to draw them closer . He wanted to dip his hand in the stream of water that flowed up to the sky . In the end, he wanted to translate that cool, refres.h.i.+ng sensation into writing .