A/N: DOUBLE UPDATE!!! PLEASE READ THE CHAPTER BEFORE IF YOU HAVEN'T!

                On September 18 2018, almost a year since Oh Sehun’s last graffiti was found, the city council decided to knock down the building the graffiti was painted on. The old Hwasung Building was deteriorating and the council voted to have the building knocked down in place of a new city park. Despite protests from neighbouring businesses and fans of Oh Sehun, the building was knocked down eventually, and Sehun’s most famous artwork was destroyed. Fans of the artist later redid and repainted the graffiti on another building, EXO Corporation, where it was sure to never be torn down.

                A year before that, Luhan, the bartender at NCT Café and bar, wrote a post on Sehun’s Tumblr on behalf of the artist to announce the artist’s untimely death. The post was written as below:

If you see this now, I regrettably inform that I have passed away. I have been suffering from leukaemia for the past few years and death was knocking on my door. A lover of mine will write and post this as a favour to me, and he shall then proceed to manage my account here in Tumblr as well as post pictures of all my work. He is the only person who has access to this account and my works here in Korea and overseas.

My last artwork is behind Club A, tucked away under a banner and hidden behind dumpsters and empty cardboards. It’s entitled ‘Fireworks’ and although it’s not the last piece I painted, it is the last of mine to be discovered. Only one person knows it’s true location before it was revealed.

Why the secrecy in this particular artwork? Why did I keep my struggle with leukaemia a secret? All for the same reason, because it does not need to be known. In this day and age, we as society are fed on information. With the use of the internet and social media, anything is known to anyone and people are more knowledgeable because of that. We have lost our imagination in the process and our will to innovate and discover. We have also lost a very valuable commodity: privacy.

I do not mean to hide things from my fans. It is more of selective revelation. Fans of my artwork will know that I am not an average artist, nor am I ever an average person. This illness is private to me; I do not want to bother others or be a burden to anyone else who knows my illness. My own lover threatened to leave me if I did not seek treatment, but what he didn’t know that I was ready to let him go. I was ready for death at any point because I truly believed I had lived life to the fullest, and I want my lover to seek happiness that does not rely on me.

This illness has been a blessing in disguise. After I was diagnosed, I travelled the world to paint, which was something I dreamt of my whole life. I met the love of my life who sacrificed everything to be with someone who couldn’t afford a month’s worth of rent and I realized that I have started living each day like it well and truly is my last. Some of the best things in my life happened after I was diagnosed, which was strange. I don’t know if it was because it was a coincidence, or I really started living after I knew I was dying.

I made my lover promise to never reveal this painting to the world until he had seen it himself. This painting is my vision of him, a boy of pure innocence with the world at his feet, his heart in his hands and sparkling radiance that painted the dark night. He was my everlasting firework, and forever will be. He inspired me, and I hope he inspired you too.

We live in a world where the simple things in life are taken for granted. I thank you for all your hard work and interest in my art, and I apologize sincerely if this has broken you in any way too. Do not bother to mourn for me, for there is nothing sad to mourn about. I have left this world in peace, knowing I have done all I can, and that fulfilment and satisfaction is priceless.

From the words of Christopher McCandless: Happiness is only real when shared.

Share yours.

Sincerely,

Oh Sehun

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