Chapter 189
The paintings hanging in the art museum might evoke personal likes and dislikes, so I’ve posted a separate notice titled <Art Museum Artwork List>.
After enjoying this episode, I think it would be even better if you could check the notice.
They say there’s a principle of gaze tracking.
This typically happens when the characters in a painting are consistently looking in one direction.
The principle suggests that the gaze of people also follows the direction the figures in the painting are looking; in other words, if the painting is facing forward, then regardless of where I’m looking, it’s as if the painting is looking at me.
To put it simply,
“…”
I make eye contact with the characters in the painting who are staring right at us.
When I move my body to the side, their gaze follows me, and conversely, if I lean back, their gaze still tracks me.
“Don’t those people seem to be looking at us?”
Yu Da On pointed at the painting with her hand.
“Idiot. Paintings are meant to look at us.”
And Song Ah Rin sighed at Yu Da On’s comment.
“…”
Yu Da On pouted and returned her gaze to the painting.
“…Oh.”
Then, Yu Da On grabbed my sleeve.
“Kim Jae Heon.”
“Yes.”
“…The painting has changed, hasn’t it?”
“Huh?”
I raised my head to look at the painting in response to Yu Da On’s words.
“…It’s true.”
Those who were just looking at us were now grinning widely, their mouths stretched in laughter.
“…This is uncomfortable.”
Song Ah Rin muttered, while Jang Chae Yeon frowned deeply at the painting before tapping my arm.
“Hey, there’s something here.”
At Jang Chae Yeon’s words, I looked at the side where she was pointing, and there was a label, as if it was something that would typically be found in an art museum, adorned in gold foil.
“…Wasn’t there nothing before?”
“There wasn’t.”
As expected.
There’s something here I don’t know about.
For now, I decided to examine the label.
<'The Crowd' explores the uncomfortable emotions hidden behind the formal smiles of laughter.>
<Though many figures are smiling at the viewer, their smiles carry an unsettling, coercive tension rather than warmth.>
<The faces are slightly distorted, and each smile seems unnaturally stiff, making the act of smiling feel like a mask.>
<This artwork suggests the discord of emotions and the burden of collective gaze, evoking a subtle unease.>
<The viewer begins to question, 'Why do their smiles make me uncomfortable?' thus realizing that a smile does not necessarily indicate positive feelings.>
It looks far too different from my eyes.
I looked back at the painting.
[Name: The Crowd]
[Age: -]
[Specialty: X]
[Talent: X]
[Background: How many foolish ones look up to many people?]
[Weakness: Burn the painting. Of course, those within it will die as well.]
If someone is playing tricks in my head, this is probably how it feels.
“…”
I turned around.
An endless darkness stretched behind me.
What lay before me was just one painting.
Beyond it was nothing but vast darkness and hanging paintings.
“…”
I contemplated whether to burn the painting before me, but the words about its weakness weighed on my mind, preventing me from doing so.
If there’s a problem…
“Did we happen to take a side path on our way here?”
“There wasn’t.”
Jang Chae Yeon sharply shook her head in response to my question.
“We had no choice but to come here.”
“…Shall we go back?”
“No.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Yu Da On firmly shook her head.
“Da On?”
“…I smell something.”
Yu Da On turned her head back, sniffing with her eyes closed.
“It’s a really… um, dark smell.”
“We’re not going.”
It was an abstract statement, but I decided to trust Yu Da On.
After all, her sense of smell had saved us from danger many times before.
“…Anyway, let me explain.”
I started to explain the painting to the others.
Song Ah Rin frowned, Yu Da On listened calmly to my story, and Jang Chae Yeon focused on what I was saying, her expression stern.
“…Anyway, this is the scene I’m looking at right now.”
The uncomfortable heat among the people continued to linger.
In the air, damp with unease, Jang Chae Yeon opened her mouth.
“I’ve been thinking about something.”
“Yes.”
“…Over there.”
She pointed at the painting in front of us.
“Let’s go inside.”
“…Huh?”
“If what you say is true, then there’s a person in the painting.”
“That’s… right?”
“This place is hot.”
“…That’s true.”
“Then we should either take the person out of the painting or enter it.”
“…”
I understood what Jang Chae Yeon was trying to say.
To sum it up, since there’s a person in the painting, we can either tear it to pull them out or we can go inside it.
“The problem is how…”
Looking at Jang Chae Yeon with a puzzled expression, she pointed to her own eyes and then mine.
“Look and tear.”
“…Ah.”
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.
[Coordinate Tear – 3 times remaining]
I perfectly understood what Jang Chae Yeon was trying to say.
The scene in front of me began to distort like graph paper,
“…”
The painting before me was squirming hideously.
“…”
Did Jang Chae Yeon see the same thing?
She reached out her hand,
-CRACK!
As she clenched her fist, I heard something tearing from the painting, and a dark hole emerged.
But that was only for a moment,
“Oh, kyahhh!”
“Hey, wait, what’s… Ahhh!”
Our bodies began to be sucked into the hole.
Yu Da On and Song Ah Rin screamed,
and then Jang Chae Yeon calmly grabbed my arm.
“Let’s go.”
“I don’t want to go, but we have to.”
“Yeah.”
Jang Chae Yeon smiled softly,
and we were sucked straight into the painting.
*
“Ouch!”
“Ah!”
“…”
“Oh dear.”
With a dull sound, Yu Da On fell first, then Song Ah Rin, who had been sitting on top of Yu Da On, got up while rubbing her behind.
“…I think I might have broken my tailbone.”
“I feel like my spine just twisted?”
Yu Da On said casually as she stood up, and I heard a crack from her back.
“…”
“Song Ah Rin, shouldn’t you lose some weight?”
“I’m skinnier than you!”
“Did you weigh yourself?”
“I can tell just by looking!”
Ignoring the two who had started fighting again, Jang Chae Yeon looked at me.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Honestly, I had no problem at all since Jang Chae Yeon had slowly lowered me with her psychokinesis before I fell.
“Thank you.”
“…”
She smiled softly, and the two who seemed to have finished fighting looked at me.
“…”
I looked around.
This place was different from before.
Once again, there were beautiful marble floors and paintings on the walls, but the most notable difference was…
“People.”
Jang Chae Yeon muttered beside me.
She was right.
There were sparse people standing around, admiring the paintings.
The common denominator was that they all had enraptured expressions as they took in the artwork, but they were so immersed that even as we fell from the ceiling, no one even glanced our way.
“Excuse me.”
In the end, I had no choice but to approach and speak to the people.
I looked for the closest person.
A woman who was blankly staring at a painting.
“Excuse me.”
“…”
“Excuse me.”
There was no response.
Times like this call for someone who’s needed.
“Song Ah Rin.”
“I got it.”
Seemingly in pain, Song Ah Rin tapped her waist and walked towards the people.
“…”
After squinting her eyes slightly, she tapped the person’s shoulder, and with a confused sound, the person snapped back to reality.
“W-where is this…”
“This is inside the art museum.”
“I…I planned to come with a friend to see the art…”
“…”
“And…”
The woman looked around, her gaze flitting about before her eyes glazed over once more.
“Oh, beautiful…”
“Teacher!”
Clap! Song Ah Rin clapped her hands, but the woman again seemed to disregard her and returned her gaze to the painting, a look of rapture all over her face.
“…No.”
Time and again, Song Ah Rin tapped the woman’s shoulder, shaking her head.
“She’s not listening.”
“Does that mean the hypnosis isn’t broken?”
“This isn’t hypnosis to begin with.”
Song Ah Rin sighed and surveyed the surroundings.
“It’s pure admiration for beauty.”
“…”
“If it was mind control, I could break it.”
Song Ah Rin gritted her teeth.
“She just completely thinks that’s beautiful.”
“Is it possible to twist perception?”
“I’ve tried. But when distorted perception feels beauty, there’s no foothold to begin.”
“…”
I glanced at the painting the woman was looking at.
It showed a gigantic frame with a person’s head hanging above a bed that melted like candle wax.
And the person inside the frame stared blankly ahead.
<'The Resonance of Forgotten Spaces' provides a kind of psychological stability through familiar yet slightly off scenes.>
<Commonly seen objects and figures are arranged in slightly distorted forms, evoking the feeling of recalling a scene
<The color palette is
<This work prompts viewers to question, 'Is this really a scene I've seen before,' guiding them to search the fragments of memory buried deeply in the subconscious.>
<Those who find the memories will head to that place. To find true beauty.>
And then, a translucent window appeared in my mind.
[Name: Room of Hell]
[Oil painting, mixed with candle wax on infinite canvas.]
[100 X 80 cm]
“…”
Countless people were gazing at their own paintings, brimming with admiration.
In that place, we were the only ones who seemed sane.
