I Was Michelangelo in My Past Life

* * * *

"…Um, sir. You remember me, right?"

Kim Yunseo quickly approached Jo Dongbeom.

"Of course I remember you, Ms. Yunseo. It's been a while."

"Yes, it really has been."

Kim Yunseo quickly looked over Jo Dongbeom. He was dressed in work clothes—something one would only wear in a workshop. And Jo Dongbeom only ever wore work clothes at the workshop.

"You're in work clothes. I thought your studio was pretty far from our gallery…"

"Oh, I moved."

"You moved?"

"There was a leather workshop nearby that was going out of business. I was planning to take it over and, before I knew it, I ended up moving."

"Ah, I see. But… what's your relationship with Artist Kangseok?"

She was trying to subtly get to the point—What kind of relationship do you have to come here together? At that, Jo Dongbeom's eyes turned to Kangseok.

Kangseok was unwrapping a glass sculpture tightly bound in black packaging.

Since the piece was made of glass, the work required extreme care. Kangseok was handling it alone.

"The artist came by the studio recently saying he wanted to make glass peonies. You know, one thing led to another… I let him use the space for a fee. That's all. Nothing more to it."

Before she realized it, Jo Dongbeom had started referring to Kangseok as the artist. Just moments ago, he had called him something else. Yunseo's eyes narrowed.

"But he walked in like you two were quite close?"

"Well, when you're stuck together every day, you tend to get close fast."

"Is that so?"

No, that's not all. There's something more. Just as Yunseo was about to catch the tail of that thought and dig deeper—

Thud.Something fell to the ground with a slightly rough sound.

It was large and black but surprisingly light for its size. Both Yunseo and Dongbeom's gazes followed the sound.

They stopped where the black wrapping had been. Judging from the way it was splayed on the floor, Kangseok had successfully unwrapped the entire sculpture. He was now pushing the bulky packaging up against the glass wall of the JakYak Gallery.

Wait. Wait a second. If the wrapping is off…! That meant the glass sculpture was now fully visible. Yunseo's head whipped around, urgency in her motion.

Toward the sculpture.

"...…!"

Yunseo froze, breath held, her dark brown eyes locked on the glass sculpture.

Peonies.

Peonies.

Peonies.

Peonies!

Her entire field of vision was filled with blooming peonies.

Her eyes were overwhelmed with soft pink petals tinged with pale violet and white. It was such a stunning scene that it almost seemed to trick her senses—like she could smell a floral fragrance that wasn't actually there.

If it weren't for the lack of scent, she could have believed they were real flowers. The hyper-realistic glass peonies were more flower-like than actual flowers.

The buds were shyly curled into round shapes, looking ready to bloom at any moment. Each one faced a different direction, allowing the viewer to appreciate their full, lush beauty from any angle.

It felt… full. Filled to the brim with something fluffy and comforting. It made you want to dive into it and be embraced.

They were that large, that soft-looking, that tender.

The sculpture was so wide that even if she stretched both arms out, she wouldn't be able to hug it. And if someone were to stand on her shoulders, they still wouldn't reach the top. There were hundreds of blossoms.

Each petal looked so thin it could flutter in the wind—and it was all made of glass? It didn't catch the light like typical glass. How could this be glass?

She felt like she'd know if she touched it, but of course she couldn't. It was art. You don't touch the art. And the petal colors were opaque, making it harder to be certain with just sight.

Incredible. After a long silence filled with awe, Yunseo finally murmured:

"This… was made in five days… and by one person…"

Unbelievable. How could that be possible? And if it was possible… She finally understood why Director Seol Yeo-jin had made such a big fuss.

They say you see only what you know.

Yunseo hadn't majored in art, so while she'd always known that Kangseok's previous piece, Sunset, was magnificent and valuable, she'd mostly been drawn in by its beauty and scale.

But she hadn't really understood how incredible the artist behind it was.

Because she hadn't understood the effort.

And if you don't know the effort, it can't move your heart.

But now she knew.

Yunseo had once made a single glass flower herself—spending half a day sweating over it.

So she knew, better than anyone, how much time and effort each blossom must have taken. And there were hundreds.

And they weren't made from a mold either. Every single flower had a unique shape. Not one was the same.

This was truly…

Yunseo turned the word over in her mouth again.

She couldn't deny it.

"…A genius."

At her murmur, Jo Dongbeom rubbed his chin. A genius. What came to his mind was not the nine hundred ninety-nine glass peonies—but the countless broken shards that had been sacrificed to create them.

They had shattered—so beautiful even in their brokenness that he couldn't bear to melt them down. He had piled them in a corner of the workshop, and today, those remnants had formed a small mountain.

To make those beautiful 999 blossoms, he had crafted thousands.

To say it was all possible simply because of genius seemed to diminish Kangseok's effort, and Jo Dongbeom couldn't easily agree. Not after watching him work day in and day out.

But to say he's not a genius…

It was terrifying.

Because the time Kangseok spent on this piece was just too short. What others might call a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece, Kangseok had made in just six days.

More lifelike than the Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History—flowers crafted over fifty years from 1886 to 1936 by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, of the famed Czech glass-blowing family, who created 4,300 models in their Dresden studio.

In comparison, these six days were almost absurd.

It made no sense to compare an eighteen-year-old with only six days of glass experience to the legendary Blaschkas.

Truly…

Even AI, which could generate flawless images in under three minutes from random text, wasn't this threatening. At least AI couldn't create irreplaceable, incomparable works of art.

And Kangseok hadn't even used the full six days. He had left the studio near midnight each day, claiming he had other work to do.

He was only eighteen.

As a glass artist, Dongbeom felt both awe and despair. Was this a gift from the heavens? Or effort that surpassed even divine talent? Why did he possess neither?

But even if he had it… could he have devoted himself to glass the way Kangseok had?

As Jo Dongbeom wrestled with frustration and resignation—

Light streamed through the glass wall.

The sun had finally broken through the clouds.

In that instant, both Yunseo and Dongbeom squinted against the sudden brightness.

And then, the secret hidden within the glass peonies began to bloom wide open.

Meanwhile...

Go Du-han's students, Im Woohyun and Son Dongwook, were picking their teeth with starch toothpicks as they hurried along.

"That gamjatang place is good, but the meat always gets stuck between your teeth."

"Totally. I swear, only at that place, my teeth feel itchy after."

Grumbling, they turned the corner of an alley. In the distance, the JakYak Gallery's edge came into view. After coming and going constantly for the exhibition setup and solo show prep, the gallery felt as familiar and cozy as a dormitory to Dongwook and Woohyun.

A dormitory.

Dongwook muttered the word and remembered Jeong Byeonggwon, who had once been in the same dorm group with them.

"How's Jeong Byeonggwon doing?"

"Byeonggwon?"

At school, he might be called Instructor Jeong Byeonggwon, but to Dongwook and Woohyun, there was no wall between full-time and adjunct instructors—they spoke his name freely, like an old friend.

"What do you mean, 'What's going on'? I was holed up in my studio, and then out of nowhere I hear that one of my students is showing at Go Doohan's solo exhibition. Wouldn't you be shocked? I've basically moved into the teachers' office just to catch up on all the gossip I've missed."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you?"

The two stared straight ahead in silence. Why didn't they say anything? Was there a particular reason? Not really. They'd find out eventually—no point in stirring up their emotions with needless talk.

They walked in silence, absentmindedly picking their teeth with starch toothpicks as if their heads were aching.

As always, it was Son Dongwook who changed the subject.

"Let's get a drink."

"Yeah."

Before they knew it, they were in front of the Peony Gallery. As they approached, they noticed something odd—black wrapping material was covering the entrance's glass wall.

"What's that?"

"...Huh? Was there supposed to be an installation at the entrance?"

No. There wasn't. The gallery's entrance wall was always kept a pristine white. And even when they had spoken with the docent from the Peony Gallery, it was agreed the entrance would be left empty.

So why now?

Son Dongwook and Im Woohyun quickened their pace out of pure curiosity.

Then, through the glass, they saw a head of black hair. A nape—unfamiliar, yet somehow recognizable. Their eyes were fixed on it. The person turned slightly, annoyed by the black wrapping, and pushed it further to the corner.

It was Kangseok.

"Kangseok?"

"Seok?"

What's he doing here?

Still staring at the glass, they walked forward. Soon they were at the gallery's main entrance. The moment they stepped up, the automatic doors slid open.

They immediately turned to the right—toward where Kangseok had been.

The first thing that caught their eye was a massive bouquet. It looked like a giant peony flower wreath had been installed—hundreds of blossoms affixed to one wall. At a glance, it had to be hundreds.

'Beautiful.'

'Yeah, it is.'

They couldn't help but admire the stunning scene.

"...He's a genius."

It was Kim Yoonseo, standing in front of them, who murmured those words. She was so captivated by the peonies she didn't even notice Son Dongwook and Im Woohyun had arrived. At her whisper, Son Dongwook tilted his head.

A genius? Who? Out of nowhere?

Kangseok? He glanced at Kangseok, who was pressed against the glass, then shifted his gaze to a man standing deep in thought, hand on his chin. The man was gazing at nothing but the peonies.

Peonies.

…They are peonies, right?

Just as the doubt began to creep up from beneath the surface of their minds—

Light pierced through the cloudy sky.

And as that light passed through the glass and touched the petals, something changed.

Sanha leaf (山荷葉).

Like the mysterious flower that becomes transparent in the rain, the glass peonies began to bloom translucently wherever the light touched them. The transmitted light, filtered through those transformed petals, painted the white wall in dazzling colors.

Light.

— "The petals are too thick."

So that's why. That's why Kangseok had obsessed over making the petals abnormally thin. Jo Dongbeom suddenly understood.

And the mystery of why he'd mixed dozens of materials—gold dust, silver foil, ferric oxide, manganese, and more—into the glass despite the outcome always being a pale pink, was resolved.

Behind the now-transparent petals, silver dust glowed yellow, manganese shimmered olive, ferric oxide turned green, silver foil gleamed gold, and gold dust burned violet. It was like alchemy—new flowers bloomed across the white wall in bursts of light and color.

For just a moment, during that short interval when the light hit the peonies, they unfurled in full bloom.

Kim Yoonseo. Son Dongwook. Im Woohyun. Jo Dongbeom.

All four adults, each more than twice the age of the one who had conjured this magic, stood entranced. They simply watched, rooted like trees, as the glass flowers shimmered—until the sun slowly slipped back behind the clouds.

And when it finally did—

Im Woohyun and Son Dongwook didn't even notice their toothpicks falling from their mouths as they turned to Kim Yoonseo for answers.

"What… is this?"

Kim Yoonseo turned around. But the answer came from somewhere else.

"Glass flowers. Pretty cool, right?"

Im Woohyun tilted his head. Huh? No way. It couldn't be. He looked at Kangseok with half disbelief, half conviction. It's ridiculous—but what if…?

"Kangseok. Tell me. Did you… did you make this?"

Kangseok answered clearly.

"Yes."

Oh my— Im Woohyun's mind raced. Images of Go Doohan, who had considered switching Kangseok to Western painting because he had no talent for sculpture, and Jeong Byeonggwon, who was tormented over his student's lack of skill, flashed before his eyes.

The answer had been right there all along.

Black crayon filled the sky—

Night.

Kangseok lay on his bed and turned his head slightly.

"Don't."

"Come on, just this once. Let's at least put this on."

"I told you, it's fine."

"Just this one time."

Tap. A cold slice of cucumber landed over his eyes. Kangseok's face was now completely covered with cucumber slices. It was all because Kang Chaeyoung insisted his face needed to glow for tomorrow's exhibition, so she brought the cucumbers herself.

"Do you even know how expensive cucumbers are these days?"

"These came from Mom's elementary school friend, who farms. So don't worry."

"You'll be cursed if you play with food."

"There's a whole box in the veggie drawer. If we don't use them all up, Mom said we'll be eating cucumber cold soup, cucumber pickles, cucumber stir-fry, and cucumber kimchi for the next week."

"...Really?"

Kangseok placed his hands on his belly in resignation. He didn't hate cucumbers, but a full week of cucumber-based meals didn't sound appealing.

As he lay silently, feeling the chill of the cucumbers on his skin, Chaeyoung sneakily placed another slice on his forehead. She had one in her mouth, dipped in ssamjang (spicy soybean paste).

"Once this is done, let's do a face mask. I'll help."

"People go to see the artwork, not my face. It's fine."

"Well, last time your face wasn't in the article, but you never know."

"Is that so."

"You're lucky, you know. Not everyone has such a sweet little sister."

Chaeyoung mumbled as she took another bite of cucumber smeared with ssamjang.

"...Tsk. You know how Mom always said she married Dad because he was an artist? I don't think that's the full story. I bet his looks had something to do with it too."

Kangseok recalled his father's gentle, smiling face. Yeah. That made sense. He nodded quietly, but something about his nose started to itch. He scratched the bridge of his nose.

"Hey, don't. Lately you've been scratching your nose a lot."

"Feels awkward."

"What are you talking about? Just don't!"

"Okay, okay."

Kangseok returned his hands to his stomach. His breathing slowly evened out. It felt like the exhaustion of the past week was finally lifting. With that peaceful thought, Kangseok drifted off to sleep.

It was the night before the exhibition opening.

Blue skies.

A bright, sunny day in sharp contrast to yesterday's gloomy weather. It felt like early spring.

Jeong Byeonggwon looked up at the sky, then slowly lowered his gaze.

In his hand was the map tucked into the exhibition program. He compared the location on his phone with the map and looked ahead.

A crowd had gathered in front of the Peony Gallery.

Today was the opening day of Go Doohan's solo exhibition.