Nine

I woke up to a bunch of pictures Paul had sent me of the different foods he’d tried at the night market in Seoul. He’d tried everything from tornado potatoes to the more traditional snacks like steamed red bean buns. My mouth watered. I wished I was in Seoul too.

I sent back a bunch of heart-eyed emojis and headed to my first class at Starscape.

When I walked into the classroom and saw Christiana Moon perched elegantly on a stool at the front, my jaw almost dropped to the floor. After months—no, years—of following her on Instagram and seeing news articles about her all the time online, I had to pinch myself to even come to terms with the fact that she was really physically right there. She was in the same room as me, breathing the same air I was!

Christiana was dressed in an elegant red suit with a white blouse underneath. She looked so cool, like she’d just walked out of a New York fashion show. From where I was standing, I could see that she was on her phone, flipping through photos to post on Instagram. I didn’t want to bother her, so I walked quietly around her stool to find a seat at one of the other tables in the room. Each table had two seats, and all the chairs were already occupied except one.

In the very back, Sohee was sitting by herself. Everyone else must have been sitting with their roommates.

I sat down next to her.

“Hi,” I said.

Sohee gave me a small grin and scooted her stuff over a little to make room. But she didn’t say hi back.

“Okay, everyone,” said Christiana. I’d heard her voice many times before on my phone since she frequently did voice-overs for her reels. In real life, she sounded a bit different; her voice was higher than what I was used to. But maybe we all sounded a bit different online and offline? She still looked as cool as she did in the photos, though.

“Hi, my name is Christiana Moon, and I have the great pleasure of teaching your first session at Starscape. This class is going to be about graphic novels, but you all probably already know that. Or, at least, I hope you do.”

She stopped to give us all a dazzling grin and some people—including me—laughed at her joke.

“Raise your hands if you’ve ever drawn your own comics before,” she continued.

Almost everyone in the room, including me and Sohee, raised their hands.

“Excellent. And how many of you have made your own graphic novels? Complete works with a beginning, middle, and end?”

I didn’t expect anyone to raise their hands, but several of the other kids, including Sohee, did. Already? I looked around the room, trying to wrap my head around how they could have possibly done so much when they were still around the same age as me.

“Amazing. I expected nothing less from such a talented group. In that case, I’m going to skip a lot of the introductory material and go into the more challenging concepts. The last thing I want to do is bore you all.”

I gulped. I wanted to stand up and yell, Wait! I need the boring beginner stuff! But I was too embarrassed to say anything. Everyone else, including Sohee, just nodded, so I nodded, too.

The only comic-book-making experience I had was drawing short panels of Meteor Girl and her friends. I’d never made an actual comic book before and had no idea how to even start. I thought this class was where I’d learn that exact thing!

“All right, then, excellent,” Christiana continued. “This class is designed to help you create your own graphic novels, so I will be mostly hands-off except when giving feedback on assignments. And in order to give you all the freedom needed to stretch your creative muscles as artists, I won’t be making rounds unless absolutely necessary. I trust all of you to be on task, since this isn’t just your normal art class in school where the teacher has to hold your hand and make sure you are working every day. We’re all motivated to become better artists here, correct?”

Everyone said, “Yes!” or eagerly nodded.

I couldn’t bring myself to answer with everyone else. I was too worried about what Christiana had just said. In the description on the Starscape website, it’d sounded like her class would be an actual class, not just a workshop where we’d be working by ourselves all day. My art teacher back at school, Ms. Williams, always guided us through everything and made sure no one was lost or confused. I suddenly felt really homesick.

“Of course, I don’t expect you to finish an entire book in a month,” Christiana said with a laugh. “You will all have the opportunity to present whatever you finish and feel comfortable sharing at the Starscape Student Showcase at the end of this program. Presentations are not mandatory, but the showcase is largely recognized and attended by faculty members of prominent art schools, so I highly recommend you present. You can either choose to present by yourselves or with a group of other students at Starscape.”

We all looked at one another. Some people nodded and pointed at each other, like they already knew who they wanted to group up with for the showcase. I looked at Sohee, but she avoided my gaze. Well, I guess I wasn’t presenting with her.

I made a mental note to ask my friends about the showcase later.

“You are, of course, always welcome to come up to the front to ask me questions at any time,” Christiana went on. “That’s what I’m here for. There will also be check-ins every Friday to make sure you’re on the right track. For this week’s, I will check your story outlines and your first few pages. Feel free to share more than that if you end up working ahead. Does anyone have any questions?”

Again no one else said anything, so I stayed quiet too, even though I had a million confused thoughts bouncing around in my head.

And that was that. Christiana said, “Excellent. Please get started,” and went back to staring at her phone.

Everyone else seemed to know exactly what to do. They all started working right away, grabbing paper and other supplies from the back of the room before going back to their seats.

Sohee immediately pulled up a picture on her phone and started sketching it in her sketchbook. I snuck a glance at it and gasped. For her first panel, she was drawing a beautiful Korean royal palace. Even though she’d only drawn a few lines, it already looked so good, like something straight out of a K-drama!

After a few minutes of just sitting there, I finally mustered up the courage to talk to Christiana. I stood up from my seat and walked the entire length of the classroom to her, my feet heavy and my heart thumping loudly in my chest. This was going to be my first time talking to a celebrity, so I had no idea how I was supposed to even start our conversation.

Finally, after going through a bunch of possibilities while I approached her stool, I decided that a simple greeting was probably best.

“H-hi,” I said when I was close enough for her to hear me. My voice trembled, and I let out a quick breath to steady myself before going on. “My name is Gigi Shin. I think you know my aunt? Her name is Yeji Park.”

Christiana’s eyes widened a little with recognition. “Oh yes, I know Yeji. I had no idea her niece was going to be in my class. It’s nice to meet you, Gigi. I expect great things from you.”

Oh no. My palms grew sweaty.

“Um, about that,” I said. “So I’ve actually never drawn a full-length graphic novel by myself before, so I don’t even know how to begin.”

Christiana’s eyes narrowed a little, making my heart skip a beat. “Is that so?” she said. “I thought all the students who got admitted to this program were required to have experience.”

I gulped. “I do have experience. I’ve made short comic book panels before but never a whole book with one cohesive story.”

“I see. Well, in that case, Gigi, I suggest writing the story first, in script format. If you haven’t done so already.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “And how do I do that?”

Christiana frowned again. “There are plenty of guides on how to do that online. I can’t hold your hand through everything, you know. I’m afraid I can’t give you special treatment just because I know your aunt.”

“Oh, no, that’s not what I…” I trailed off as my eyes welled up with tears. I felt like a kicked puppy. I barely even knew Yeji-imo and had only mentioned my aunt to say hi. But somehow I’d already given Christiana a completely wrong first impression of myself! I wished I could go back in time and redo this entire conversation.

“Sorry,” I said. “Thanks for the help.”

Turning quickly away before I started bawling in front of the entire class, I rushed back to our table, where Sohee had set aside her drawing to type some things on her tablet. Everything she wrote was in Korean, and although I knew some basic words, I couldn’t understand anything on her screen. She was using words I’d never learned in Korean school.

Even though I couldn’t understand what she was writing, it was clear from the formatting of her document that she was working on a script, just like Christiana had told me to do. I thought of asking Sohee for help, but I was too afraid to talk to her. After our rocky first meeting, who knew how she’d react when I asked for help?

I looked around the room and noticed that a lot of the other kids had tablets with them. Everyone around me was either busily writing or drawing. No one else was just sitting there, looking lost and confused, like I was. Was I the only one who hadn’t come prepared with a whole story already?

This was a worst-nightmare scenario. Trying not to panic, I got out my sketchbook.

It’s okay, I told myself. It’s not like I have to start completely from scratch. I have Meteor Girl and her friends. I just need to figure out a story for them.

I didn’t have a tablet, so I used my phone to look up a bunch of tutorials on script writing, just like Christiana had suggested. It was hard to understand anything at first, but by the end of class, I felt like I got the hang of it.

I got out a notebook I sometimes used to jot down ideas and flipped to a blank page. Just when I was about to write some random ideas down, Christiana said, “Okay, class, that’s it for today. I’ll see you at the same time tomorrow!”

I’d only managed to just stare down at my paper! Meanwhile, some people like Sohee had written multiple pages of their scripts or even started drawing already.

I only had until Friday to come up with an idea, write out a story, and draw the first few pages. I was doomed!