I Was Michelangelo in My Past Life

━ …What was the question again?

━ I asked if there's any evidence to support the claim that Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the three great masters of the Renaissance, was obsessed with muscles, Professor.

━ Ah. Muscles. Michelangelo's love of muscles is well known. As for evidence—calling it "evidence" may be a bit much—but even just looking at the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel gives you the answer.

━ The answer?

━ Yes. It's just muscle city in there.

━ Muscle... city?

━ Michelangelo used only male models for the figures in his frescoes, regardless of who they were or what gender they were supposed to be. So if you look closely at his paintings, you'll often see female figures who are essentially muscular male bodies with breasts attached.

━ …Whoa. Why would Michelangelo do that?

━ I don't know. But if you compare him to Raphael, who had no hesitation using women as models… then painting those muscular bodies seems like it was a deliberate choice on Michelangelo's part.

━ I see. That's definitely a thought-provoking point. One more question, if I may?

━ Of course.

━ Michelangelo is also known for painting people in very dynamic poses. So I was wondering—where did he get those poses from? Models? Or did he just imagine them based on his anatomical knowledge from dissections?

━ There's no exact record, so we don't really know. But if we're to lean on speculation… it's been said he might have gone to the Roman stufe, public bathhouses, to observe and sketch nude male bodies.

━ Bathhouses?

━ Yes. During the Renaissance, it was said that artists often visited bathhouses for anatomical study. In fact, on one of Leonardo da Vinci's notes, among a long to-do list, there's something that says: "Go to the bathhouse on Saturday to see male nudes."

━ …Somehow that makes the whole story sound more credible.

━ Right? So if even Leonardo did it, then Michelangelo—who was even more obsessed with the human form—very likely went too. That's what the theory suggests. There's even an old man depicted in one of the frescoes, and the kind of detail in that drawing would make sense if he had seen such figures in the bathhouse.

━ So could that be the secret behind how Michelangelo's Sistine fresco came to be called "the language of the gods" by Joshua Reynolds—because it so masterfully compiled and expressed the human body?

━ As I said, it's all just speculation. But if he really had gone to those bathhouses to study anatomy, then it would be fair to say that his experience there heavily influenced the frescoes. Michelangelo had an unfairly good memory—he rarely forgot anything once he saw it.

— Excerpt from an interview with Professor Park Ji-yeop, Department of Fine Arts, Hanyang School of the Arts

"Sir, if you really want to improve your body, it's going to take more than a day or two… How about signing up for a 1-month or even a 3-month membership?"

"Sir, have you ever considered taking personal training?"

"There's a free one-time PT voucher too—why not try it out and then decide?"

All these voices fluttered into Gang-seok's ears the moment he sat down, like a spell—but he let them in one ear and out the other.

His gaze was fixed not on the man in front of him, but beyond—at the people working out.

Every time the man in front of him raised and lowered his shoulders while talking with his hands, Gang-seok's eyes seemed to tremble—not from shock, but motion.

More precisely, his eyes weren't trembling—they were moving. Processing.

His eyes were scanning rapidly, taking in all the information.

Dozens of people. Dozens of bodies. The way muscles shifted and moved with motion. Poses. Facial expressions. Center of gravity. Transfer of force.

Gang-seok's brain sprinted to keep up with the incoming flood of data.

What he already knew collided and meshed with what he was newly learning—everything reassembling in his mind. He felt a thrill and made a resolution:I need to come here often.

In that moment, a new task was added to the corner of his brain.

Gang-seok spoke.

"Let's go with the 3-month plan."

Late at night.

In the dark backyard of the furniture shop, moonlight blocked by trees, Gang-seok locked up his bicycle and looked up at the sky.

"…It was heaven."

To Gang-seok, who had deeply absorbed the Hellenistic ideal of sensuous beauty expressed through the human body and emotion, it truly had been a heavenly experience. As if the 88-year-old Michelangelo nesting in his gut was dancing with joy.

In any case, in just a short span of time, he had gathered an enormous number of reference samples.

And now, he could collect them every day without anyone noticing.What a dream.

'Should I start carrying a sketchpad from tomorrow? Memorizing is good, but drawing is better… Maybe I'll pre-sharpen a few pencils in advance.'

His thoughts spun endlessly as he opened the back door of the furniture store. Gang-seok's happy little mental engine, entirely derailed from the original purpose of going to the gym, was running wild.

Clink.As the door opened, hurried footsteps echoed from the inner room. Just from the sound, he knew—it was his mother.

"You're back?"

With a bright smile, his mother, Baek Myeong-hee, stepped out. She was holding a glass vase filled with water in one hand and flowers in the other.

"Yes. I'm back. Did you buy flowers?"

"Mm-hmm. I thought the shop looked a bit dreary, so I bought some from the flower shop nearby. Aren't they pretty?"

"They look super fresh."

Flower shop. A name he hadn't heard in a long time at home.

She had always loved flowers and gardening. When he was young, she would often bring flowers home to decorate the shop. But come to think of it, she had stopped doing that around the time he entered middle and high school.

Thinking back, the last time she brought home flowers was when he started art academy in 8th grade.Ah. Why didn't I realize?Gang-seok froze in place, looking at his mother's bright smile.

She had never once complained or shown regret over not being able to go to the flower shop. That must be why he never noticed.So it was because of me.

Should he be thankful that their circumstances had improved enough for her to buy flowers again?Or should he be sad that he had unknowingly suppressed her small joy?

Gang-seok stood there, wavering.

"Seok-ah?"

Baek Myeong-hee looked back at him with clear eyes, puzzled at why he had stopped in place. Gang-seok's lips moved.

"…That's a vase I haven't seen before. Did you buy that too?"

What escaped his lips was an off-topic question.

"Oh, this?"

She chuckled. But seeing her happy was enough.Gang-seok made a quiet mental note to buy her flowers soon and resumed walking—following her to the table where she was placing the vase.

"I was going to show you, actually. I made this."

"You did?"

"Yup. Remember the studio past the corner store across the street? The one that used to do metal crafts in that garage-like space?"

Oh, right. Gang-seok nodded—he remembered.

"Well, they've reopened as a glass studio. And to celebrate, they were offering free one-day classes. So I went and made this. What do you think, son? Pretty, right?"

She lifted the vase proudly, flowers now arranged inside. Gang-seok's eyes fell not on the flowers, but the vase.

She once said she fell for his dad because he was an artist. But if she made this, she had more talent than him.

The vase had a round base, like an upside-down keyhole, and was adorned with delicate patterns all over the clear glass.

"You carved those patterns yourself?"

"I told you I did."

She giggled like a bellflower.That night, Gang-seok—who had only stopped by the shop to work on an owl carving—ended up having a long, blooming conversation with his mother.

It was that kind of night.

.

.

"Is there no more snacks? This doesn't seem like nearly enough."

"Sorry?"

On a relatively warm noon in the middle of winter, basking in the rare sunlight that had managed to pierce through the cold, Kim Yun-seo glanced at her boss—owner and curator of Peony Gallery, Seol Yeo-jin—with a perplexed look.

"You know, the guest who's coming today is…"

"Kang Seok. The artist of Sunset."

"Right… but it's just one person coming, correct?"

Seol Yeo-jin looked at Kim Yun-seo with an expression that clearly said, "Isn't that obvious?" Avoiding her boss's blank stare, Yun-seo turned to look at the pile of snacks laid out on the desk.

Could that even be called a pile? There were exactly 28 different kinds of snacks arranged in a glass bowl, intended for the guest to freely enjoy during the conversation.

What filled the glass bowl wasn't a snack pile—it was more like a tower. So precariously high that picking even one wrong snack might cause it to topple like the Eiffel Tower and ultimately collapse like a sandcastle.

And yet, she says it's not enough?

"…Is today's guest a sumo wrestler or something?"

"What? What are you talking about, Yun-seo?"

"Nothing."

If you're told to do something, you do it. With that firm reminder of her working mindset, Kim Yun-seo moved quickly. She headed to the break room. She would bring all the snacks. Dump them all right there. Excited by the idea of launching a snack bomb on her boss, Yun-seo bustled off cheerfully.

Watching the lively Yun-seo trot out of the office, Seol Yeo-jin let out a sigh.

Even after explaining so much, Yun-seo still didn't seem to grasp how important today's visitor—Kang Seok—was, likely because she had heard he was just a high schooler.

My fault for hiring a secretary with no background in art. Just endure it. She's a good kid after all. With another sigh, Seol Yeo-jin opened her third drawer.

At the top lay a box of luxury chocolates, handcrafted by a famous French chocolatier.

Without a hint of hesitation, Yeo-jin pulled out the box of chocolates she had been saving for herself.

If she fed him enough sweets, the sugar would go to his brain and put him in a good enough mood to finalize the contract.

Thinking about showering Kang Seok with rich chocolates and snacks had her almost giddy. Just as she was calming herself, the phone line directly connected to her office rang.

Ah.

Seol Yeo-jin instinctively knew what the call was about. With a trembling hand, she picked up the receiver—and as expected, the words came through.

— Director, Kang Seok has arrived.

"…Please let him in. Politely."

Still unsure if she had spoken properly, Yeo-jin saw Kim Yun-seo rushing back in, arms full of snacks, completely blocking her field of vision.

With a gesture urging Yun-seo to arrange the snacks neatly on the desk, Yeo-jin stood up from her seat.

...

"Excuse me."

Click. The door opened, and in walked Kang Seok. The first thing he saw upon entering was Seol Yeo-jin standing at attention and a short-haired woman in a black suit.

"Kang Seok. It's been a while."

It had only been two days. They had signed the exhibition contract on February 6, and today was February 8. Unsure how to respond to that greeting, Kang Seok simply offered a quiet smile.

"Yes."

"Shall we sit down and talk first?"

If you stay smiling and quiet, things usually go smoothly. Following the short-haired woman's guidance, Kang Seok walked over to the seating area.

Sitting down on the sofa, he tilted his head at the mountain of snacks stacked to his sides and above him. What was all this? At first glance they looked like snacks, but presented this way, they resembled contemporary art.

Is this what contemporary art looks like? With a cool gaze, Kang Seok stared at the snacks. Then Seol Yeo-jin casually picked one up from the pile.

"Feel free to eat. I prepared all this for you."

For me?

Kang Seok's expression turned more ambiguous. To others, it may have appeared expressionless, as always.

— "We can't let the witch take your painting. Let's go."

So that's why she's called a witch. It reminded him of the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel. Kang Seok, imagining why Godu-han might have called Seol Yeo-jin a witch, slowly picked up a snack.

"Anyway, Kang Seok. I don't usually do things this way but… your visit today means you're accepting the mural proposal, right?"

Straight to the point. Kang Seok instantly thought of someone. This was exactly how Godu-han spoke. And Kang Seok found this style of conversation quite fitting.

"Yes. If it's as stated in the contract."

The contract mentioned that for painting one wall within a week, he'd receive 20 million won plus additional compensation.

If that was accurate, there was no reason to refuse. Artists had to keep producing anyway. And with this kind of money? Why not?

Compared to his glory days, it wasn't much, but not many people were willing to pay this kind of sum to today's Kang Seok.

"Of course, as stated. You saw the large white interior wall inside the Peony Gallery entrance, right? That's the wall I want you to work on."

The large white wall inside the entrance. Kang Seok recalled it. The wall just past the automatic glass doors—it had looked impressively big, typical of exhibition galleries with high ceilings and wide entrances. He nodded as he remembered.

"We rushed renovations after acquiring an old building, so the paint job was poorly done. Especially the entrance area, which we didn't even fix up."

The way Seol Yeo-jin rattled off the script-like lines had secretary Kim Yun-seo quietly impressed.

"It's a headache. The gallery entrance is crucial for image management… But it wouldn't look good to show ongoing repairs while we're open, you know? The door's glass, after all. And it's not like we can just shut down for maintenance. I was really torn about it… then I saw your painting, Creation of Adam."

Kim Yun-seo kept her poker face.

If her memory was right, it had been Director Seol Yeo-jin herself who had shot down all staff suggestions about fixing the entrance, saying, "What's the point of the entrance when the inside is what matters?"

"When I saw that painting, I knew—it had to be this. The Renaissance Mall is also gaining popularity thanks to your Creation of Adam, isn't it? I read it was being cited as a successful case of public art."

"..."

"If I could have a mural like that on my wall… I felt like my long-standing dilemma would finally be solved."

The reasoning didn't quite make sense.

She hadn't done any repairs because she didn't want the entrance looking messy, but a mural being painted there would be fine? Still, neither Kang Seok nor Seol Yeo-jin seemed to care about the contradiction.

A good excuse was all that mattered.

Looking at Kang Seok, Seol Yeo-jin spoke sweetly.

"You'll help me, right?"

He had no intention of refusing from the start. Kang Seok silently nodded. Seol Yeo-jin's face lit up. Kim Yun-seo maintained her poker face.

"But I have one condition."

"A condition… what kind?"

"I want to work on byeok-hwa (壁花), not byeok-hwa (壁畵)."

"Sorry?"

Kang Seok's eyes were fixed on the glass bowl of snacks.