Yesteryear

The Vitruvian Man

"Alright, we're ready. You can undress already. Seonghwa, can you clean this brush for me?"

Seonghwa plucked the brush in question from his master's fingers and stalked over to the water basin. It had a murky grey colour from all the paint that had been washed off in there. With his sleeves rolled up, Seonghwa cleaned the brush by hand.

"Entirely?" Wooyoung's voice sounded more insecure than his mind was. He expected as much when Leonardo had asked him for his service. Yet, he exchanged a fleeting gaze with San to seek support. The man had leaned back against some crates until now but sat up, concerned when he caught Wooyoung's eyes.

"Yes. No need to be shy, we view your body as a piece of art." Leonardo took his brush back from Seonghwa and stood behind his canvas. Next to him, Seonghwa mirrored his pose. While Wooyoung hesitantly shrugged off his coat, Leonardo gave Seonghwa pointers.

San came over to help Wooyoung with his clothes. As he undid the laces of Wooyoung's shirt and they stood close together, his soothing murmur relaxed Wooyoung's tense shoulders.

"I'm right here. If they do anything weird, we'll leave."

Wooyoung allowed San to pull off his tunic and then his shirt. As he stepped out of his pants, San collected Wooyoung's clothes on his arm to hold on to them while he waited. Their gazes lingered on each other as San retreated. When Wooyoung turned to meet Leonardo's eyes again, the man nodded at him.

"Easy pose. Stretch out your arms at your sides and keep your legs straight. We can take a break when your arms grow weak."

Wooyoung did as he was told and stretched out. The attic was cold, but his blush kept him warm as all three men in the room eyed him from head to toe. San's dark gaze on Wooyoung was the one he was most comfortable with, but at the same time, it affected him the most. Concentrated on staring out of the window between Seonghwa and Leonardo, Wooyoung disconnected his mind from his body to fill his empty time with thoughts instead.

He thought about his studies again and about what he had learned from the different people he had visited through time.

Mingi had provided knowledge on his theory that immortality remained in place and cursed items or people depending on who touched it. His theories fit with the legends of bewitched objects.

Yunho had considered drugs as a door between the godly self and the human limitations. He had attempted to anger the gods until they punished him with eternal life and would grant him his wish.

Then he had met San, the actual immortal. Who had told him that his turn to immortality had been so subtle he hadn't even noticed it and couldn't remember. To Wooyoung, that ruled out a dramatic bolt of lightning from the skies that carried the will of the gods.

Yeosang had considered biblical stories and the intrigue of the Holy Grail as their path. That theory sounded the most believable to Wooyoung. It was old enough that San might have stumbled upon it as well, but it also still carried the distinct promise of having sustained the time and still making people immortal now.

Now da Vinci had told them the first crumbs about alchemy and how the change of the human body influenced life expectancy. That theory was also timeless, and it matched the medical procedures taken in Wooyoung's time to prolong lifetimes. Their life expectancy already went up compared to a hundred years ago. Technology was a powerful weapon.

He was curious about where this theory would bring them. From how close to the present time Victorian England was, it might be the last part of Wooyoung's long journey. And then he would have to connect all of his pieces and hopefully figure out together with San what was going on. As soon as the internet was at their service, Wooyoung was confident that their research progress would jump far higher.