Nari discovered a new talent during her summer break: sculpting with wood. Mrs Noh had lost her patience with how easily her dear daughter turned to violence and thus searched for an outlet for her to unleash all that pent up anger instead of hitting people. As it turned out, Nari actually had talent in sculpting. Thus in her second year of high school, Nari joined the school’s art club and spent much — if not most — of her free time in the art room sculpting away.

The supervisor used to be into sculpting and thus lent Nari some sculpting tools that he no longer used. As for the materials, Nari had made a deal with the school janitor whereby any random debris and wood pieces left lying around or in the bin area would go to her. After all, she was still familiarising herself with the craft and did not need expensive wood to practice on.

That was how the girl who usually dashed home as soon as the school bell rang found herself holed up in the art club instead. Because she was the only one not painting and sketching though, she was still left to her own devices most of the time.

One day during the hottest day of June, Nari was mindlessly twirling a chisel in her hand with ease trying to mentally sketch what shape she wanted to sculpt from the bizarrely shaped wood debris in front of her when a new presence entering the art room caught her attention. It did not register at first why she reacted but after a few moments of staring, a flicker of recognition sparked in Nari’s eyes. Sitting a few tables away from her was a quiet male who’s profile Nari was all too familiar with by now.

“So he really did quit the basketball club huh?” Nari mumbled to herself before resuming what she was previously doing.

Taeyong swallowed back the nervousness as the club president — a third year — welcomed him. He was told that there was no strict limitation on what members could do as long as it was safe and the school was able to source the material though if extra expenditure was incurred then it would come out of the student’s own pockets. While nodding, from the corner of his eyes Taeyong caught the movements of a female student swinging her arms with controlled chaos while chiseling away at the wood in front of her.

Letting out a low whistle — impressed at how daring some of the students were — Taeyong ultimately decided to stick with sketching as it was the most direct and and easy medium. All he needed was a pencil and paper which was easy to procure and carry around. Somehow, the repetitive motions of copying whatever stationary object was placed at the front of the class was soothing and since there were not many members in the art club, Taeyong found himself wandering here whenever he felt bored or wanted to be left alone — which was often.

Taeyong had not intended to join any club this year. However Myungsoo kept badgering him to return to the basketball club, thus Taeyong went on a mission to join a club with low responsibilities and commitments just so he had a proper excuse to turn down the persistent former team member. Myungsoo’s expression when Taeyong told him that he had joined the art club was quite a sight but the former male did not insist and has let him be ever since. He did drop by a couple of times, hovering outside the room to spy on Taeyong as if to confirm that he had not been lied to. However, during every one of his visits Nari had been in there holding a hammer-like tool and that was enough to scare him off for the foreseeable future.

Nari had never noticed Myungsoo’s presence, mostly because he was not worth her attention. What did catch her interest though was how abysmally lacking in talent Taeyong was with drawing. There had been multiple occasions where Nari purposefully hit the chisel with slightly too much force to cover the cackle that escaped from when she laid eyes on Taeyong’s sketch pad showing what was supposed to be an apple but look like an unidentifiable blob instead. If anything, Nari wanted to praise Taeyong for his perseverance that  was borderline stubbornness.

At the same time, after a period of observation, Nari had also realised that Taeyong was not actually unpopular with other students. There had been infrequent visitors who would come by and ask him to join them but the quiet male always turned them down. It became clearer and clearer with each passing day that Taeyong had joined the art club as an escape and Nari could understand that sentiment.

・・・

“What’s more important? Me or sculpting?” Seulgi questioned Nari while waving her hands in front of her face to deflect the stray wood shaving that were flying her direction.

“My sanity,” Nari replied without missing a beat. “Sculpting is good for my stress.”

“You just have anger management issues,” Seulgi grumbled, leaning her head against the window and enjoying the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain outside.

It was Friday and school had ended already. Seulgi had wanted to visit a local bakery with Nari but found the girl planted inside the art room, holding the mallet and chisel looking like she was ready to perform an exorcism of some sort. Seulgi did not mind scratching her plans though since it had begun to rain unexpectedly and at least by staying in the art room she could keep her friend company and be sheltered from the rain.

Blowing a raspberry, Seulgi let her eyes wander around the room that she had assumed to be empty since most students had left school to enjoy their weekend but her eyes doubled in size when she noticed another presence.