THE PORTRAIT

 

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Fridays. 

 

The start of the long awaited weekend, and end of a tiring, life-draining week. The contentment of a week successfully going by and the hope of having a fun-filled & relaxing weekend to wind down.  Thank God its Friday ! as the saying goes. Fridays are great. Right? 

 

Wrong.

 

What could possibly be great about having a 3 hour lecture starting at 7 AM in the morning ? And if that wasn't horrible, the professor sends us an email that he'll be arriving 45 minutes late. Car broke down is what he wrote, but I suspect he missed his alarm. So now I woke up so early for nothing huh.  This should be illegal. We as students should have the right to press charges or something— okay thats a little too far but this is not fair. And it's not like I could sleep that well last night either.

 

I'd probably be asleep on this desk, if it wasnt for the coffee Haechan brought for me. I sipped on my coffee slowly, like I wanted to stay sleepy for longer. But eventually the caffeine kicked in. And I had to ask Haechan something I had to get off my chest, 

"Why did you assume that guy was my boyfriend last night ?"

 

Haechan looked up from his phone, put his nearly finished cup of coffee down with a fairly straight face and said, 

"Ummm, its just what I thought, like who do you call in a time of need ? Probably a boyfriend, right? "

 

"This isn't a Disney special, and I'm not a damsel in distress" I rolled my eyes.

 

" To learn a language faster, the best method is to get a bf or gf, that's what people say, " he shrugged, "so I connected the dots and thought this was an attempt to improve your korean."

 

I know Haechan has a creative imagination but I didn't know to what extent it went to. And the funniest part is I don't know if this is genuinely what he thought or he just saw the opportunity to set me up and took it. Probably the former?

Anyways... it's not that serious lol. 

I just nodded and smiled.

 

"But wait, I'm curious to know , who is he exactly ? And how do you know him? I don't think I've seen him around campus or anything."

 

Oh boy, I shouldn't have asked Haechan in the first place. Now my question bit me back.

 

" He's my roommate."

 

"How? What? — Wait. I thought you were staying with your family friend Johnny?"

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too when I first landed in Korea, but Johnny had other plans for me.

"Yeah, I live in the same building as Johnny but different floors. And this is just a temporary living arrangement. Johnny will be helping me move out next week, and I'll come to the dorm on campus."

 

"Ohhhhh," Haechan sipped on the remaining of his coffee and put the empty cup down,
"Interesting" he said with curious eyes, and that guy have been living in the same room for a while now and there's no feelings between you guys ?"

 

I almost choked on my coffee, "Uhhh, Haechan. He has a girlfriend. "

He has a girlfriend.

Yeah. 

 

I had to say that to myself again. Now why does it feel like I forgot that for a second. I knew it, but it's like thay slipped to the back of my mind for a while.

 

"Ahhhh alrighty. From the way you were eyeing eachother yesterday I thought something was going on. My bad."

Eyeing eachother ? Was I that obvious ? I was just surprised that Lucas came on a motorcycle , and it was my first time riding one so I was excited. Thats it, right? 

"That was the first time I ever rode on a bike," I told him while not making eye contact.

 

"So do you want there to be a second time??" he said in a playful tone.

I gave him a 'wtf' look. I can't make deal with him right now. 

Ahhh I cant think about this anymore. I might need another coffee to get rid of this incoming headache.

 

10 more minutes until class starts, and the students start rolling back into the classroom. And there were alot of them. Sculpting and Architecture 105  a popular course among students. Probably because it's fun and we get the opportunity to create pieces ranging from clay sculptures to wooden clocks. For art students it was a mandatory course, so me and Haechan had to take it regardless. But there's many other students who I haven't seen, non-art majors.

Amongst the herd of unfamiliar faces, theres is one face— rather head that I do recognize. That pink haired guy I crashed into on the first day of the semester. 

 

"Hey, do you know that guy ?", I asked Haechan , pointing at the known yet unkown guy discreetly.

 

"You mean Na Jaemin ? The guy with his hair dyed all pink? He's kind of a badass around the campus. On the first day of college he already got into trouble. He's gonna be my rival cause no one is more badass than me" he said while narrowing his eyes towards him.

 

I rolled my eyes, what a joke. Haechan gave more of a classmate who says they studied nothing and then ace the test kind of vibe, far from badass, "Yeah, you wish".

"What did he do tho?" I asked out of curiosity.

 

"Nobody knows, but everyone thinks he's a hardcore rebel cause he was called into the dean's office twice already." he said.

"That's tough." 

"He also has his own dorm room. Nobody from the freshmen has a seperate dorm except him. So no one really knows anything much about him" he explained.

"Really? That's suspicious" I nodded, taking in this new college gossip.

 

"Why do you ask?"

"Remember I was late on the first day?" ,Haechan nodded, "I ran into him that morning, he was rushing from somewhere." I explained.

 

"Ran into him??!! As in bumped into him? You mean you guys literally crashed into eachother ??!" he almost screamed looking shocked. The students at the adjacent table gave us a look.

 

"Shhh, keep it down... We just ran into each other. He was actually polite to me and helped me to pick up my things, he even apologised." I said.

 

"You mean the baddest guy in our uni apologised to you ? You sure he didn't just throw an uppercut and front kicked you in the head and you're just imagining all this??" Haechan said laughing.

 

"No, I'm pretty sure everything I said happened" I said self doubtful now.

"I'm still very curious about what happened, scared but curious.." I said while looking at him. 

 

"Some say he's a juvie kid, others say he works part time at an illegal tattoo shop, and the latest I've heard is he's a part of some gang outside uni which does a lot of shady stuff" Haechan said.

 

My eyes widened when he said all the rumors. Did I just interact with a possible criminal? 

While we were talking and I was lost in my thoughts, our professor walked in. The class finally began.

 

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Saturday. 

 

The day Johnny kept telling me about all week. The day of their evaluation. He said they had monthly evaluations normally, but this particular one was extremely strict. Once in 4 months they are judged and monitored by the big shots of the company. Even the CEO and other higher ups look over the trainees progress. 

That'd explain why they were extremely nervous this week. Even Lucas was super stressed the other day, when we had ramen.

I hope they all do well.

 

My morning was spent in FaceTiming my parents. It felt like we spoke for after an eternity. I missed them more than I could express, but I didn't want them to be under the impression that I'm homesick and make them worried. So I just cherish the moments that I do have with them. The short calls before bed every once in a while, the long video calls on weekends, and good morning/good night texts. 

  They were cooking dinner together. God how I missed my mother's cooking.

I showed them around my room for the first time.

 

"Where's Johnny? We were looking forward to talking to him and thanking him." my mom asked.

"Uhh , He's having a evaluation at the company today. They are practising hard, everyone." I explained to them. 

"Ahh, Johnny is very hardworking. How are you guys living together? Are you guys still fighting like kids ?" my dad chuckled.

 

My parents still don't know I'm living with Lucas. Whenever they call, I was with Johnny. Also I didn't want to bother them about my living situation. They were already worried about me coming to Seoul.

 

My mom was talking about how she had her first driving class from my dad. I missed them so much, seeing them smiling and talking about their day made me realise that even more.

After talking to them for the whole morning, I did some chores in my room. There was lot of laundry that I was too lazy to get around to during the week days. I also cleaned up my table and had lunch a little later than usual. I studied a little and caught up with what was taught in class through out the week. I guess Haechan's done the same, as well. He might seem reckless but he's really a good student.

Time passed by and at around 7:30 in the evening I got a text from Johnny.

 

Johnny : Hey sarang! Just wanted to give a heads up, our evaluation is almost done now. All trainees are going out for dinner together. Don't wait up. Good night.

Oh good, they didn't have to stay up for long. 

Me : Okay Johnny, Good night :)

I scrolled through my phone for a little while and then went to sleep.

 

---

 

Sunday.

 

Sundays are meant for sleeping in and having a lazy morning, but unfortunately I woke up early cause I slept early. I saw that Lucas was still sleeping. I guess they had a long night. I got up and started freshening up, might as well get the day started. My phone buzzed. 

 

Johnny : Ayo Sarang, let's have a movie marathon tonight. It's been so long since I watched a good movie and I know a good place. What say? Mark's gonna be there. We can order pizza too.

Oooohh, I haven't watch a movie in theaters since I came to Seoul. And pizza sure sounds fun.

Me : Sounds great!! Let's do it, call me when you're ready to go.

Johnny : Yeppp.

 

 

I took a shower and got out of the bathroom. Lucas was up. I guess he just woke up. 

"Good morning" I greeted him.

"Morning" he replied with his eyes still closed. Wow, his morning voice is something else.

 

"How was the evaluation yesterday? I bet you did excellent." 

"Haha, not exaclty excellent but it was good. Better than I expected, and I'm happy it went well." he said in his sleepy voice. 

Butterflies in my stomach. No. No. No. Just hungry, that's it right? 

 

"That's great to hear! I'm thinking of cooking breakfast, do you want some?" I asked him casually. I was going to be cooking anyway, so nothing wrong in making breakfast for a roommate right ?

 

"Well if you're offering so sweetly, how can I say no?" Lucas smiled.

 

Sweetly.

 

Not knowing what to say I headed into the kitchen. Shortly after, we had breakfast in silence nearly and Lucas left to meet some of his other trainee friends.

After a while Johnny called me telling me to come near his room after half an hour so we could go to the mini theatre that's near by.

 I texted Lucas to let him know I was out. He's still out with his trainee friends. He's probably not gonna care but I texted him anyway. 

Me : Going to watch a movie with Johnny in the theatre.. I might be late.

​​​​

I met Johnny near his room and we went towards the theatre. It wasn't too big or too small, it was perfect for a group of friends to have a good time. It was a mini theatre that people could rent for a a couple of hours. In the vicinity there was an arcade, an internet cafe and some karoeke rooms too. The place is quite popular among school and college students. Me and Johnny headed into the theater room and Mark came in few minutes later with popcorn and a variety of pizza.

 

"So what we watching guys ?" Mark asked excitedly, as he set down the food in some empty chairs beside us.

 

"Let's watch something scary, it'll be fun." Johnny suggested.

 

"I'm really bad at handling horror movies Johnny, you know that right?" . I'm not that good when it comes to horror vibes. I saw Annabelle once and for a week straight I'd see her face at night like it was tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.

 

"Same here" Mark mumbled.

" Oh come on !  You aren't  kids anymore! Let's watch the Insidious series, it's not even that scary....Okay?" Johnny said while holding up the CDs he brought, and smiling wide trying to convince us.

"Okay, but if I start screaming in the middle of the night, that's on you!" Mark pointed a finger at Johnny.

Johnny looked at me for approval. "Okay let's do it" 

 

When with friends, Horror movies turn into Comedy movies. Sure there were a couple of truly scary part. But for most of the duration of the movie we were cracking jokes, imitating the ghost, and just goofing around. We didn't even notice the time go by and we finished all three parts of the Insidious movie series.

 

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I came to my room at around 2:00 am. I could have reached an hour or two earlier but we were absorbed in a heated argument about pineapple on pizza for so long we lost track of time. Mark was an advocate for it, saying that it's the best topping on pizza, and I absolutely despised it. Fruit and pizza just don't go together. And Johnny was stuck between us, figuratively and literally. He said it's an acquired taste, takes some time to get used to. Eventually we agreed to disagree, but that was just because we were too tired to argue further.

 As I entered the room I noticed Lucas was already asleep. I had to be silent not to wake him up. I got a text from Haechan right then. 'What is he doing up at this time' I thought.

 

Haechan : Hey, are you up?? How's your assignment coming?? I worked on mine for three hours and I'm still a little unsure about the result. 

 

Wait what?!! What assignment?

 

Me : Umm... What assignment are you talking about.

 

Haechan : Are you kidding? The assignment given to us ...oh wait, you were late on the first day right. Mr. Kim gave us an assignment to submit by tomorrow about drawing/painting portrait that conveys an emotion of your choice. You need to sketch a face that gives you a feeling, any feeling. Not a plain face like 👁️👄👁️.

 

Me : Haechan I'm going to kill you!! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!! What am I supposed to do now? I didn't even start. TT TT

 

Haechan : Hey chill, you still have time, try to roughly present something. This isn't final assignment. You are just supposed to present an idea.

 

Me : Ughhh!! Okay I'll try to do something. 

 

Haechan : Sorry :D

 

We'll definitely be graded on this assignment, and I can't just give up.  

I slowly walked to my desk and the lamp that was on the bedside table, trying not to make much noise in the process. I grabbed my canvas, paints, pencils, eraser, and everything. All set to start, but I still haven't figured out the main subject of the assignment.

 

Who do I draw? And want emotion do I want to represent in my portrait ?

 

I can't think of anything. The only face that came to mind was from Insidious. And the emotion that it made me feel was horrified. I figured out I couldn't work under pressure. I have my pencil in hand, the tip ready to swirl on the canvas to create an artpiece, but my hand wouldn't move the slightest bit.

 

'A portrait that conveys emotion?' That's way too deep for first assignment.

 

While I was contemplating about what to draw, Lucas turned around on his bed facing me. He looked so handsome with my desk light falling on his forehead. His hair was falling between his eyes perfectly and he looked so peaceful. I guess he's having a cute dream.

 

Wait a minute... Focus Sarang ! You can't be thinking about all this right now. You have an assignment to complete, with a deadline to meet.

 

Lucas moved his hand over to his chest in his sleep. I was way too distracted by his beauty. How can a guy be so pretty and handsome at the same time?

I couldn't think straight. It was already 2:45 AM and I didn't even start. I looked over at Lucas again.

 

Should I go wake him up and ask him to help me?

 

No, he would be really mad.

 

But he could help me in another way.

 

I could just draw him. 

 

Wait, can I do that? The assignment just said to draw a portrait with an emotion, and although I didn't figure out my emotions with Lucas, I can still draw him. He would never find out, right? And what's wrong with it, I'm drawing a portrait of a person with for an assignment. Nothing more, nothing less.  Also I don't have much time and my brain isn't working properly so I have no other option.

 

Without wasting more time in thinking about it,  I slowly pulled my chair near his bed without making any noise and brought my canvas near my lap. I tried to move the desk lamp a little near his face but I didn't cause then he'd wake up.

 

I observed his face structure for a while and it was way too flawless to even comprehend. His hair was falling on his face perfectly. His eyebrows,  soft and thick brows with a shallow arch, and long eyelashes to complement them. His nose was slightly turned up. His lips were in a slight heart shape. Thick, plush and they looked to soft, accompanied by a pretty Cupid's bow.

 

No way this guy is real.

 He looked so srene while sleeping.

As I was drawing his face, I was thinking about all the moments we shared together. From the day we had a fight about my clothes to when we had ramen together. When I walked into him and his girlfriend. How we decide most of our things through rock paper scissors and how we acted like total enemies sometimes. 

 

All this thinking also made me come to the conclusion that I like him, more than I'd like to admit. More than I should. 

 

The nervousness that was building inside me was new. I never felt this feeling before. But weirdly, I wanted this feeling to never leave my presence. 

It felt like I was falling and floating at the same time. 

Just looking and admiring his face made feel all of this and took me into a whirlwind of emotions.

And while I was feeling all of these things at once.

Lucas just layed there, his face was simply so,

so, 

so, 

dreamy.

 

 

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Hi guys...  How are you all doing??  I'm extremely sorry about the late update. I started this chapter a long time ago, but could finish it only now We had our final exams and it was hectic. Did you guys enjouy NCT 2020 Resonance Era ? It's almost come to an end now. Make a wish is my fave in the album. They were really good in mama awards, their performance was so LIT.  Drop your fav song from resonance, I'm curious :) Also I hope everone enjouys their winter break. Happy Holidays :)