Tough Love - Chapter 1 (1/1)

Ji Eun dipped her brush into the palette before her, and carefully drew a thin stroke of mossy green across the blank canvas. Then she dabbed some water onto the same brush and went over the same stroke. No, too dark, she decided. Using her fingers, she added a few dots of colour over different spots on the canvas and put the entire thing aside. She decided she would save this piece for another project in the future. Or perhaps as a rough sketch for her current project. Looking at the canvas again, she took a pencil from the bench and daftly scribbled the words ‘RS/FP’ on the top right hand corner. She would have to take a closer look at this again later, and decide which she’d use it for.Ji Eun stood up, walked over to her work desk and dragged another piece of blank canvas across the desk. Staggering ever so slightly, she carried the thing across to her art bench, and propped it up onto her red easel. She stared at the vast white expanse before her, closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She waited, for anything to come to her, for even the faintest tease of inspiration to wander into her mind and take reign over her hands.A few good ideas drifted in and out, but nothing she would have deemed good enough. She waited just another minute, opened her eyes and gazed up to the ceiling. This, often, would call for fresh inspiration, as she wondered what exactly she would paint that would be fitting to place on her ceiling. It often drove her to come up with, as her teacher had once praised, ‘intriguingly beautiful’ pieces of art. Much as she adored appreciation for her work, she felt that was exaggeration on her teacher’s part, but nonetheless it instilled confidence in her.Better ideas than the previous ones came to her, and she smiled. Then frowned as a new problem surfaced; she hadn’t met Laila’s other half yet. Her work wouldn’t be quite complete if she didn’t capture both the brides’ individual essence.Reluctantly, she began to pack her things up. She had wanted so badly to get started today; maybe get it done early so she’d have more time to perfect it afterwards. Sighing, she pushed the easel and her bench back against the wall. She picked her cup of tea up from her desk, and left the room.o.o“Junhyung ah.”Junhyung bit his lip and let out a small sigh. What now?“Yes pa?” he called out, careful not to show the slight impatience he was starting to feel.He heard a wheeze and then a cough and a slight twinge of guilt tugged at him.“Yes pa?” he repeated more gently, turning slightly back towards the living room.“You won’t be back too late, will you?” he rasped from the bedroom.There was a slight pause. Junhyung looked down at his shoes, hesitating.“I’ll… Try not to be home too late, appa.” He replied.He stepped out of the house and into the chilly air of winter ending, the slight wind blowing over his ears, masking the almost inaudible sigh coming from behind him.^__^Junhyung wandered idly down the streets of Busan. Winter in Korea was, he had to admit, beautiful. The atmosphere, the people, the scenery; it all combined into a beautiful fusion of art. He watched the girls on the street opposite stroll down the lane, laughing and chatting in their cute, puffy parkas. He looked at the schoolboys a distance behind them, looking and pushing each other around. He gathered that one of them liked one of the girls, and he smirked. Puppy love. It was cute, in its own silly, delusional way.He continued his walk, his eyes flitting from shop window to shop window. Nothing really caught his interest, he was just looking to elevate the boredom he felt. A meaningless, shallow way to do so, but it did give him something to do so he wasn’t really that bothered. Something worrying began to creep into his mind, and he felt himself unconsciously push it out. He didn’t want to have to think about it now, didn’t want it to ruin his mood, even if it meant running away from facing it…He closed his eyes and walked faster. He took in that moment through his other three senses; he felt the cool breeze against his face, smelled an amusing array of food, exhaust gas, and perfume. He heard a mixture of contradicting noises; cars honking, loud chatter, giggling and laughter, and at the same time a curious dead silence from his own mind. Even as he experienced things as they should have been naturally experienced, he wasn’t free from his own worries.His fist clenched into a tight ball, his nails digging into his palm. Misery and emptiness began to turn into quick rage, growing fast in his heart. It was too fast, too confusing; and it was taking control over him. He couldn’t understand it, he was losing his rational, he wanted so badly to rid himself of these feelings…“Oh!”A slight weight made an impact against his body, and he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. His eyes flew open and the suddenness of it all numbed the rage and misery for a moment. He looked at the girl before him, then jumped to his feet.“I’m so sorry,” he said, extending a hand towards her.“It’s okay,” she spoke, and Junhyung was surprised to hear a voice as low as hers coming from a girl with a face like hers. “It’s just… You should watch where you’re going.”“Ah… I was a little pre-occupied, but I’m really very sorry.”She gazed indifferently up at him, then took his hand and let him pull her up. He took a quick glance at her hands, and then returned his gaze to her face.“I hope you’re okay?” he enquired.“I’m fine, thanks.” She replied, patting the snow off of her body, then she looked straight at his face again.There was a short moment of silence in which they did nothing but stare intensely into each others’ eyes. Junhyung could sense slight hesitation in her, but for what he did not know. He looked at her face, taking in appreciatively how perfectly her features came together.He could feel her staring at him in the same way… Then a slight blush crept across her cheeks, and she looked down at their hands. He admired how cute her hair looked, then glanced downwards; her hand was still in his. He liked how delicate it looked in his hands; how gentle and sweet it seemed.“Oh… Sorry.” She muttered, moving her hand away. “I hope you’re okay too… I’ve got to go now… Have a nice day… Bye.”He watched as she turned and walked briskly away towards the large confusing mass of people at the centre of the shopping street. That was as abrupt a farewell as it was a meeting, but took it as part of how she interacted with people. She was interesting; and he felt a growing desire to talk to her… But he supposed that was the first and last time they would ever cross paths. Sighing, he made his way home, thinking one last time about that girl and how much he wished he’d even have someone like that to even think about.;U;He was cute. Everybody agreed on that.His eyes might be small, even, as some would say, for an Asian’s; but that was his charm, and charm well he did. Even without the shady underground status he held, girls looked at him and admired him from a distance, the bolder ones coming up to him and asking for his number. Even then, he once mused, this was mild compared to the throngs of women throwing themselves at him, either for work or just for pleasure when the hours were late and most of the innocent population were gone.And despite the relentlessly rough playboy image contradictory to his cute, boyish looks that most had imagined to be true of him, he rarely entertained the women. A little shameless, harmless flirting here and there, but nothing really committed. He smirked, a cute yet curiously attractive look on him. He felt the girls at the tables beside him whip their heads ever-so-casually, but not too subtly for him to miss, towards him. Committed? That word held little meaning to him, and he chased the thought away before unhappier things could settle in his mind.He downed what was left in his cup, and stood up. He noticed, in the corner of his eye, one of the girls watching him. The sides of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, and he walked over towards them.Maybe, just maybe, he would try for ‘commitment’. The underground’s, twisted, lousy understanding of the word, at least.“Hi ladies,” he greeted, ever so politely, a cocky glint in his eye. “Care to dance?”A few of them smiled, some of them exchanging nervous yet awestruck glances. They hesitated for a moment or two, you could see some of them becoming more confident, and then…A girl with vividly bright red hair tied into a neat ponytail stood up, smirking at him. She took his hand without invitation, and looked him straight in the eye.“Hi Gikwang,” she said, cocking her head mischievously. “I’m Hyeri… Let’s dance.”She had a firm grasp on his hand as she dragged him towards the dance floor. They wandered through  the mad mass of sweating, dancing bodies pressed firmly together to the centre of the dancefloor, where Hyeri held Gikwang close and began to dance on him. Gikwang smirked at her, then pressed her waist firmly against his. He chuckled as her eyes widened, then leaned closer.“Not used to this, Hyeri?” he asked.“I am,” she replied, licking his neck. He could imagine the smirk on her face now, the same cheeky smirk on his own face. “Are you?”Then the lights dimmed, and the DJ put on another hit song. The one all the clubs were playing now; the one with the meaner bass, the sicker beats… The one that made people go wild.Gikwang caught Hyeri’s gaze, then grabbed her waist and pressed her close.“Show me what you can do…” he whispered into her ear.(ｧ○д○)ｧ