The First Painting: The Little Boy and the Sea

I felt my own hand slip from Donghae’s when we hit the ground. I groaned loudly. It hurt freaking much! We had landed on stones instead of grass this time. I groaned loudly because of the pain but someone placed his hand over my mouth to prevent the sound from coming out. My eyes flew open and I looked at who it was.

Kyuhyun was directly looking at me with an annoyed yet cautious face. “Be a bit quieter, will ya. We have no idea where we are yet and we don’t want any more trouble.” I pulled his hand from my mouth and nodded with a dark glare.

“Did you hurt yourself more?” Donghae asked. He sat next to me and he was rubbing his side with a pained face.

“No, I’m fine.” I gave him a small smile.

“Great!” Kyuhyun replied impatiently and turned to Leeteuk and Kangin. “Now you guys can tell us why you’re here.”

Leeteuk and Kangin shared a look before Kangin replied: “We had no choice otherwise the Templers would’ve caught us.”

Kyuhyun nodded and then sighed before he stood up. He looked around himself as if he was looking for the quickest way out. He seemed a bit disappointed … Maybe Kyuhyun had expected to be out of the painted worlds by now but instead, it seemed that we’ve had landed in yet another painting.

“Hyuk?” Ryeowook asked me suddenly and I turned my upper body halfway to meet his gaze.

“Yes?”

“What’s that in your hand?” Ryeowook pointed at my hand and I felt everyone’s eyes follow the direction in which Ryeowook was pointing.

I held it up and quickly realized what it was. “It’s the High-Priest’s diary…”

“Well, he can’t use it anymore so there is no harm in having it.” Kangin deducted before adding: “Besides, now we can find out more things about Macavity.” He grinned widely but I saw Leeteuk rolling his eyes in the corner of my eye.

“I doubt that that information will help us in this world.” Sungmin sighed deeply before standing up too.

“You never know.” Kyuhyun retorted as if he really had wanted to contradict Sungmin.

Nobody said anything to correct either one of them but I saw Sungmin’s shoulders slump a centimeter down for a bit. I doubted that anyone else had seen it but to me it seemed more obvious than ever that there was something going on there.

“It’s no use talking about that now.” Donghae decided as he kneeled down in front of me. “We should go.”

“Why don’t you just draw a door in front of us?” Yesung asked him calmly.

“Yeah. There are walls on either side.” Kyuhyun added.

“And risk Hyukjae getting hurt more? We were lucky that he hasn’t hurt his ankle more than he already has. If we make such a fall again, he could get hurt more seriously.” Donghae shook his head. “No, I won’t risk that. We’re going to find a place to stay to make sure that we can all travel relatively safe.”

I climbed onto Donghae’s back with the help of Kangin and we walked out of the small alley that we had landed in. Only to walk into a busy street.

Once again life seemed to buzz around us yet I felt like I couldn’t take part in it. Partly because I couldn’t walk but also because we seemed so out of the place. Not in clothes sense or anything else in our appearance but just in the mindset. These people seemed like they couldn’t sit still.

“Do you smell that?” Ryeowook sniffed the air with a smile on his face.

“No.” Kyuhyun answered briskly. He really seemed cross because of something. He couldn’t be that angered by the fact that we still weren’t in Donghae’s attic, right?

Ryeowook pouted but explained anyway: “You can smell the sea…”

Yesung didn’t show any kind of emotion on his face but I saw him squeeze Ryeowook’s hand. “You can hear the sea too.”

I tried my best to smell the sea but I could only smell the foreign spices. And I tried to hear the sea but I only heard the crowd and the seagulls who were trying to screech louder than the crowd. However, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t getting excited. “Can we go to the sea later? It has been so long since I’ve been there!”

“Sure.” Donghae answered before anyone else could.

I embraced Donghae’s neck a bit tighter and gave him a small kiss on the back of his jaw. “Thanks.”

“He’s blushing!” Kangin exclaimed after he got a good look at Donghae's face then he began to laugh loudly.

“Shh…, you’ll get us the attention we don’t want to have!” Leeteuk furiously whispered to Kangin but the man seemed in his own world and gave Leeteuk a kiss of his own. Leeteuk made a ‘tsk’ sound but I saw that he smiled a bit when he looked the other way.

We walked along the various stands and I could barely keep my stomach from growling out. Everything seemed so delicious. There were various strange looking fruits, countless snacks and mouthwatering strawberries.

But we didn’t stop at the stands, we just continued to walk further and further. I wasn’t sure what exactly Donghae was looking for. It wasn’t like he knew someone in this painting so why continue to search for something?

I finally found out what Donghae had been looking for when we turned around a corner. The sea. The sun made the sea look like it was made of a thousand sparkles. The sand seemed made of gold and the best thing of it all was that there was almost nobody on the beach.

We, well they, walked down to boulevard until we found a staircase that allowed us to go on the beach. With difficulty, Donghae seemed to be able to carry me on the beach until he found the perfect place to lower me onto the sand.

I smiled brightly as I made myself comfortable. The sand was warmer than I had expected and the morning sun warmed my face. Donghae sat down next to me while the others sat down a bit further away.

“This is great!” I sighed in absolute delight.

“I’m glad that you like it.” Donghae smiled charmingly at me and we stayed silent for a couple of minutes.

“It’s been a long time ever since I’ve been at the beach.” Donghae suddenly narrated. I looked up in surprise but I let him continue without interrupting him.

“Last time I was on the beach was together with my father. He had brought me to the sea because he wanted to show me how I could paint such a constantly moving thing like the sea.” Donghae smiled but stared into the distance. I had the feeling that he was somewhere far down into memory lane right now.

“Was your father a master painter too?” I asked him.

Donghae looked up and smiled softly. “He was…He taught me everything I know.”

“Hmm, he didn’t really seem like the type.” I mumbled.

“He didn’t seem like the type?” Donghae repeated incredulously.

“Yeah, the one time I met him, it seemed more like he was the man to sit in front of the TV to drink beer.”

Donghae seemed confused because of my statement. “But Hyukjae, you’ve never met him. My father was already missing before I even got to your town.”

We were both confused for a tiny second, we didn’t speak and just watched the others that were close to the sea. Suddenly Ryeowook turned around and ran with all his might towards us. He was panting heavily but he had a bright smile on his face as he asked: “Donghae, could you draw a ball for us?”

It seemed completely childish but I was jealous of them. I wanted to run around too.

Donghae smiled and nodded. He grabbed the bag and took three jars out of his bag. Red, black and white. A few in midair and a ball was made. It wasn’t anything like the horses that Donghae had made in the last painting but that didn’t make this ball any less special.

Ryeowook thanked Donghae with a bow and a smile and he ran back to the others. I sighed as I watched the others play with the ball.

“I’m sorry that I can’t fix your leg.” Donghae said apologetically.

“It’s alright. It’s not your fault.” I replied.

“Actually, it was. I could’ve found you earlier and then you would not have hurt your leg.” Donghae stared with a solemn expression into the distance.

“You don’t know that.” I countered his argument. “It could’ve happened then too. I’m just happy that you guys came for me afterwards.”

“Of course we would.” Donghae replied with a small smile. “We wouldn’t leave you there.” He pulled me a bit closer and his lips touched mine just barely. I wouldn’t have that, the others were far away enough for us to do a little bit more. So I leaned forward but didn’t mind my leg when I did that. I lost my balance and fell almost on Donghae. But Donghae was quicker. His hands shot out and he caught both of my sides. With a smirk, he pulled me closer until I was almost on top of him.

His lips found mine within a second. His heat and the heat of the sun made me feel like I stood on fire. Donghae pressed his lips a bit harder on mine. I was sure that he meant to set me ablaze. But instead he allowed his sleek tongue to ask for entrance and I granted him that entrance. Donghae explored every bit of my mouth, he knew how to push all the right buttons. I felt so completely overwhelmed by Donghae that I was barely able to respond.

Meanwhile his hands were on a different mission. They seemed to be everywhere on my body. He caressed my neck, rubbed my shoulders and touched my collarbone. I couldn’t help but sigh at so many sensations at the same time. It was as if Donghae was teasing me while he was at the same time giving me all that he had.

I moaned in frustration and bliss but the sound that I made seemed to bring Donghae back to the present. Donghae slowed down, he made his kisses sweeter every time. He pulled me closer to him and let his hand go through my hair ever so softly but he stopped kissing.

His voice was slightly hoarse when he said: “Let’s go get the others, we should find a place where we could give your leg some rest.”

I nodded disappointedly. I had wanted to continue for a bit longer but Donghae was right, we should find a place to stay.

Donghae called for the others and when we all were together again, I was hoisted upon Donghae’s back again and we made our way back up on the boulevard.

 We walked along the boulevard. Ryeowook was playing was throwing up the ball and catching it again while walking. I followed the ball with my eyes. But when we almost reached the end