The Polaroid

 

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It took all the strength in me to wake up.

 

I didn't get enought sleep as I slept just a mere 3 hours ago. I got ready in a hurry and gathered all my stuff for class, most importantly the portrait I drew last night.

 

My muse, Lucas was still sleeping. I guess he was also out with friends the previous night. As I was about to head out and walk to the bus stop, I saw the note I left yesterday to let Lucas know that I was gonna be late. There was a small smiley face at the bottom right corner of the note. I don't remember drawing that.

 

 

 

Me : Where you at? I'm near the art block entrance.

Haechan : I'll be there in few min. pickin up coffee.

 

 

While I was waiting for Haechan near our building I saw the pink haired guy walking through the ground floor hall. He was walking alone and everyone near him seemed to avoid his path. I just don't see anything suspicious in this guy. I wonder if he really is a baddie like the rumours Haechan told me about.

Before I could think more of it, I saw Haechan striding towards me with two cups of coffee, one in each hand, "Here you go."

"Thank you."

 

"Still mad about the assignment ?" he asked me.

"Not really." I said in a confused tone. I mean I couldn't blame him for my negligence. But damn I wish he texted me a little earlier last night, I can barely manage to keepy eyes open, and the movie marathon with Johnny and Mark last night isn't helping my eyes either.

 

 

"So," Haechan took a sip of his coffee, "what did you do for your assignment ?"

"You didn't have enough time I get that, but I feel like you're the type to work well under pressure." he continued while browsing through the notice board on the way to our class.

 

"Now why would you assume that." I rolled my eyes, simply because I was too embarrased to say what I actually drew for the assignment.

 

"You didn't answer my question tho" he pointed out, looking at me with curious eyes.

 

"Let's go, we're gonna be late" I said as I walked in a faster pace. I'm trying to dodge his question as much as I can but I don't think this little devil will let go of it.

 

"Wait up!!" he ran behind me.

 

---

 

"Okay everyone, that's it for todays class. I hope everyone did their assignments. This is your first assignment for this course, I'm excited to see how you guys did. As you all know your first assignment is to draw a potrait which conveys an emotion. I hope you guys followed the same." Mr. Kim said.

 

"Yes" we all said in unision although my yes was rather doubtful.

 

"Let's take a small break for now. After I come back, you can submit your artwork to me, till then you can make any minor changes if needed." Mr.Kim announced.

 

"Sarang, do you wanna see my amazingly awesome portrait?" Haechan asked me, slowly pulling out a canvas board from his backpack

I nodded.

"Before that, wanna guess who it is?" he asked excitedly.

 

"Umm. My guess is that you drew yourself cause you think you're perfect and there's no one better than you?"

 

"Okay first off, I am perfect and there's no one better than me, and no I didn't draw myself, I drew my girlfriend." He said in a cheeky tone.

 

"Girlfriend? You?" I said sarcastically. If I remember correctly he was single, painfully so.

"Are you ready?" he asked, holding his canvas, pretending like he didn't hear what I just said.

 

After my nod of affirmation he placed the potrait on the desk with a little 'Ta-Da'.

 

"Woowww, So you're telling me that you're dating her?"

Haechan nodded confidently.

"For quite a while now." he said cheekily yet again.

 

"And are you sure she's not Joy, the popular rookie actress?"

"OMG you know her?" he said,shocked.

"That's your emotion for the artwork as well 'JOY'." I said while pointing at the corner of his portrait where he mentioned the emotion of the assignment. He's a goof ball, but he's part genius too.

 

"I know, smart right? I mean, I know she's famous and all, but she doesn't have that starry attitude. Atleast not when she's with me." he said with a small grin, probably playing out his imaginative fantasies in his head.

 

"Are you gonna continue with your act or are you done" I said glaring at him.

 

He just turned away chuckling to himself.

 

With all seriousness, his portrait is beautiful. We were given the freedom of chosing the medium of our choice. Haechan used oil paints to create a lively yellow tone that graced the simple and striking portrait. With the time I had I could only make a pencil sketch and use my some of my prismacolor pencils here and there.

 

 

The noisy chatter of the class came to a silence and that signalled that our small break is over.

 

 

"Okay guys. It's time to turn in your assignments. Don't forget to mention the emotion that you wanted to portray at the end." Mr. Kim stated.

"Also another thing, your assignments in this semester have to be of the same person that you drew in the first assignment. You will have to portray different emotions with your own style and convey them through the same person. This will help you to understand the complexities in the human face and reading the minor details within it. Studying the same face will help with that. I hope you understand the importance of these assignments. The majority of your grade depends on how you do in these assignments." 

 

 

Wait what

 

 

Did I hear that right?

 

We have to draw portraits of the same person, so that means—

 

 

As I was sitting there in shock Haechan was giggling, seemingly happy about the announcement.

 

"I can draw my gf all the time!! Now that's gotta be exciting." he beamed.

 

All the time huh, what am I gonna do.

 

"Show me your assignment already. I want to see who you drew. Is it an american actor? A Korean one? Oh my god, is it Justin Bieber? I promise wont say anything mean even if it's not that good, like you ony had few hours to make it right?" he said while eyeing my bag waiting for me to open it, his foot tapping on the floor getting impatient at me hiding my artwork.

 

I slowly took out my portrait, nervous about Haechan's reaction and awkwardly placed it on my desk. He'll see it eventually anyways so the sooner I get this over with the better.

 

I got no reaction from Haechan. I couldn't bring myself to look at his face cause I knew he was going to say something stupid.

 

He was too silent, for too long. That's unlike him.

 

I gather a little courage to look up, not hearing any reaction from him is just making me more nervous. He opened his mouth in shock. Not a single word.

 

"Okay let me explain, "

He raised his finger stopping me from speaking, still with his mouth wide open in shock.

"I didn't have enough time and had no other option...." I continued.

 

"Okay just say something will you?" I gave up explaining in the end. 

 

"YOU MADE THIS IN JUST A FEW HOURS ? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY YOU DREW LUCAS!!" he gasped.

 

"Shh. Calm down, everyones looking at us" I said while smiling awkwardly at my classmates.

"Okawwyyeehhh. So you're telling me you drew his face because you had no other option at all, not because you have feelings for him, right?" he questioned, the grin on his face growing wider with each word.

 

"Haechan I already told you he has a girfriend, so stop saying that." I said in a low whisper because people were still staring at us.

 

"You're not his girlfriend but he's your boyfriend.", he scanned my portrait from top to bottom, "That's what this means."

 

"Oh dreamy~ that's your emotion for this. Come on Sarang, you are so in looovvveee with him."

Damn I shouldn't have written it already.

"I was sleepy okay. I don't even remember writing that." I tried to not let my embarassment show through, but my face is most likely already the shade pantone pink #15-1821.

 

And I do remember writing that.

 

"Okay I believe you." he shrugged, the teasingness is his voice not backing down even a little bit.

 

Now that's a scene I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

 

---

 

After all the classes we had for the day ended we headed to a cafe near by. Heachan was texting one of his school friends while I ordered hotteok and a strawberry latte. He told me he's staying over at his friends place tonight and will come along in the bus with me. Apparently his friends place is close to my dorm room building.

We walked to the bus stop and sat down waiting for our bus to come. After missing the bus that one time, I now have the bus timings memorized and I'm more careful to catch the bus on time. The bus came after few minutes and we got on. Most of the seats were full as there were a lot of university students. Luckily we found two seats near the end. Haechan sat next to the window and I sat next to him. 

Looking around I noticed a familiar face get on the bus. A girl with brown hair walked through the aisle and stopped a  a few seats infront of me and sat down next to a guy, greeting him with a short peck on the lips.

 

"I think I saw her somewhere." I whispered to Haechan, pointing towards her discreetly.

He lifted his head a little and glanced over her, only her side profile was visible from where we sat.

"No, you haven't. She is from Ewha Women's University. The one that's just a few miles away from ours. Look at the pin on her backpack." he said while raising his eyebrows trying to show the badge.

 

She had her backpack in her lap now, and there was a shiny pin that had a green hanok surrounded by what looked to be like flower petals with EWHA W.U. printed on top of it. That's their University logo I'm guessing. I probably haven't seen her on campus, but she seems awfully familiar.

 

"But I do remember seeing her." I mumbled to myself, trying to recall if I've ever crossed paths with that familiar yet unfamiliar girl.

 

"I think maybe you're starting to hallucinate, is that a symptom of being love struck? "

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

"How about Friday? I don't have any classes after 1pm this week." I mumbled into my phone which was held to my face with the support of my left shoulder cause both of my hands were filled with clothes I took out from the half occupied closet.

 

"Friday's alright with me, I'll request manager hyung to give me some time." Johnny replied from a noisy practice room in the SM building.

 

"Also I need to go shopping for some college dorm room essentials. I need a mattress, clothing hangers and some other stuff.", I said while placing my clothes into my suitcase in a neat stack.

"We'll do that too, over the weekend. I gotta go right now, talk to you later! "

 

Busy as always, Johnny. I'm grateful he takes out the time to help me out. He helped me out to find a place to stay temporarily when I arrived, and now he's helping me shift and settle into my uni dorm room.

It's been nearly a month since I first landed in Korea. It feels like the days have gone by in a flash. Just a month and I've already made good friends and great memories.

 

Currently I'm packing most of my belongings back into my suitcases. Friday isn't that far away and I don't want to leave packing for the last minute. So that leaves me here, folding my clothes while seated on the middle of the floor infront of my suitcase that's layed open on the floor as well.

 

I hear the door unlock. Lucas walks in, but pauses to take a look at what I'm doing on the ground. He raises an eyebrow and looks at me, expecting an explanation as to what I'm doing.

"I'm packing, to move to the university dorm."

"Ohh " Lucas hums and sits down onto his bed with an exhausted sigh. Another day of rigorous training.

 

"You're leaving already? ", Lucas asks, looking directly at me. His tired expression turns into a soft relaxed one.

"Yeah, it's almost a month since I've been here, and I'm pretty sure I over stayed my welcome." I half-joked, continuing to fold my clothes and arrange them in the suitcase. Lucas let out a short laugh and looked down at his hands.

 

"With you gone, who's going to make me ramen when I'm feeling down? "

 

What? Did he really just say that? I'm surprised to see this friendly and playful side of Lucas again. I don't think I'd ever get used to this sweet smile and those child-like lively eyes that are set on me, expecting a response. But before I could say anything he continued, 

"Ten hyung is a bad cook you know, but he's most likely not coming back until another 2 months. The rooms gonna start feeling empty."

 

"Oho! Do you remember the first time I entered this dorm room? You weren't so welcoming then!" I exclaimed.

It's funny to see him feel this way about me leaving, when that was probably the thing he wanted the most when I first started my temporary stay here.

 

The room got filled with Lucas's soft and hearty laughter bouncing off the walls him being carefree and laughing like this in front of me—it's a sight to behold. Unfortunately it's a sight that I probably won't see again soon.

 

"I was so mad back then. Not entirely cause of you, but just at the situation. But over time you became more bearable.", Lucas smiled at me.

I smiled back, not really knowing what else to say. Bearable huh?

 

"We should hang out some time before you leave, along with Mark and Johnny too." Lucas suggested.

 

"I'd love that."

 

Lucas gave me a double thumbs up and said he'll be heading out for a while, had some errands to run. I'll really miss seeing him everyday. I'll miss our short conversations. And I'll miss the short quarrels we had even more, the time when I'd leave my clothes in the bathroom or when he'd leave his dishes unclean in the sink. I'll miss all of this, though my stay here was brief.

 

I carried on with my packing, still giddy with happiness from the delightful conversation, taking my used sketchbooks and new unopened stationary and placing them in a wide patterned tote bag.

 

I can't find my set of sennelier paints though. I bought them just over a week ago along with Haechan at the store cause we needed those paints specifically for one of our courses.

 

After painting did I leave them laying around somewhere? I look everywhere in my belongings, it's not in my backpack or in any of the suitcases. I check at the small table at the foot of my bed and it's not in there either. 

 

I started looking near Lucas's bed because that's where I drew that night. Under his bed and near his blanket. Did I put them somewhere and forget about it?

 

I was browsing near his night stand hoping to find them somehow. Tissues, paper towels, deodarant, expensive skin care, charger, the piece of paper I left the other day near his lamp. Just the usual stuff, but something caught my eye. 

 

Under the charger there was a polaroid picture.

 

A picture of Lucas and his girlfriend.

 

He was wearing a white tee and she was in a red floral dress, they were looking at eachother happily smiling.

 

I couldn't stop thinking that he was in a relationship all this time but looking at that polaroid did feel hurtful.

 

But there was something wrong in this picture. Something felt off. I was so busy staring at Lucas, I forgot about his girlfriend.

 

I looked closely at the picture focusing on his girlfriend.

 

I could not forget the side profile on her.

 

It's the girl that walked in on the bus today evening. 

 

 

 

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Hi bestiess.... :D

sorry for not updating ya'll, my dog got ran over and my grandma was hit by a metra train :"((

 

Just kidding lol,,,,, (＊￣︶￣＊)

We woke up from our graves. pls don't give up on us $__$

We were kinda busy with our college works and also busy procrastinating :((

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter :))

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We will see you soon with new chapters :**

(๑ơ ₃ ơ)♥