I was trying hard to catch my breath as we climbed up the steep slope. It didn’t help when my painting equipment were adding on to the weight on my bag. Tiffany must have had noticed my trouble as she slowed down.

“Do you need my help? I can carry them for you.”

“It’s okay, I don’t want you to drop them.”

“If you say so but himnae, we are reaching the top soon.”

I faked a smile at the encouragement as we continued our way up. It was during one of the rare days when Tiffany suddenly announced that she had found something nice and wanted me to create a drawing out of it. Our definitions of ‘nice’ certainly didn’t match as I recalled the previous occasions in which the same thing had happened.

A land of green with an abundant amount of flowers appeared in our sight. A lone and tall tree stood among them. It was my first time here and I thought that they were really beautiful. Maybe Tiffany did reflected on her previous mistakes after all.

“This indeed looks like a good place for another piece of artwork.”

“Of course, I am the one who found it!”

I grinned in satisfaction at her as I began to set up my easel and paint. I retreated a few steps and observed, trying to get a better spot. As I re-directed the position of my easel, Tiffany came forward and halted my actions. “What?”

“It would be nice if you can include that tree into your drawing.”

I frowned at the idea as I answered carefully, “It looks too plain. It will destroy the image. I want my portrait to be just a land full of beautiful flowers.”

“The tree is beautiful too. Look at it standing strong and proud among these little flowers, don’t you think that it’s unique?”

I was adamant in my view as I shook my head as a disapproval. A pout instantly appeared on Tiffany’s face as she clung onto my arms. Then, as abruptly as it started, she let go and dashed towards the tree before shouting back, “Why don’t you draw us together?”

“Huh?”

“I want to be in a picture together with this tree.” She said before hugging tightly to it.

Her smile was so bright as if she was with her crush. I let out a sigh and shook my head. Left with no choice, I could only nod at it before settling down onto the grass, “Okay.”

And that day, I added another masterpiece into my collection. It was titled ‘Tiffany and the tree’