Sketches, part 1

Sooyeon's POV

My face lit up with a huge, huge grin when the school bell rang. It means, last period of Math is over, and I can dash straight to the arts club. After cleaning up my things, I carried my large sketchbook in my hand and walked to the club room on the first floor. Other than the art itself, the one thing I love about my arts club is the location of the club room. It's in front of the school's garden, which was large and filled with beautiful and colorful flowers, planted on the soft bed of green grass. Inspirational, right?

As I put my stuff on an empty table in the club room, I looked out the window. There he was again.

Gikwang is one of the arts club member. He was sitting on the bed of the grass, surrounded by white daisies, his sketchbook on his lap, and his pencil rested on his ear. He would look around the panorama, before taking his pencil and drew something on the paper. Accompanying him was a can of coffee and a cigarette in his other free hand. I wonder if that's even allowed at school.

But Gikwang was never the normal guy. Instead of hanging out with his classmates or guy friends, he prefers drawing, painting or photo-hunting in places with good views. Most of them he brought to the club, and received good marks for them. Instead of driving luxurious cars or taking the subways like other students, he had this big, gangster motorcycle he uses anywhere. Like I saw, he drinks canned coffee and smokes. Gikwang rarely talks too, and he doesn't have too much friends. He was smart, obedient towards teachers, kind, and quite popular. As the weird kid that is.

From what I see, Gikwang seemed depressed. He always had this faint-but-gentle smile on his face 24/7, but it's worrying. It makes people wonder about what happened to him, for nobody really knows Gikwang, and nobody seemed to care about him anyway. And I just realized, I did. I think about this a lot, honestly.

It's not that I like him or anything. At first I was curious, then after noticing those little quirks in him, it was then I sort of pitied him. I wanted to be friends with him, but it was kind of hard to approach him. Should I took this moment as a chance?

I grabbed my sketchbook and brought it outside. My friends were telling me that I should let him be, but I ignored them and approached Gikwang.

"Hey," I greeted him as casual as possible.

Gikwang took a moment to put his pencil back on his ear, before looking up to see me. "Hey.. Sooyeon," he smiled. It was the first time I ever saw Gikwang smile.. so brightly.

So I returned the smile. "Can I sit down?"

He patted the patch of grass next to him, so I sat down. An apparent silence filled the air. Now that I got to sit next to him, what should I do? I mentally face-palmed myself. So I decided to look around the garden instead. The view was way more beautiful from the middle of the garden than from the surroundings. No wonder Gikwang likes it here. I stole a glance at him, admiring his figure. He was staring up the blue sky, smoke came out from his mouth in shapes of circles, exhaling the amount of nicotine he just inhaled. He was pretty good-looking, up-close.

I smiled to myself.

But I guess he noticed. "You like it here?" asked Gikwang, turning to me. "Beautiful, right?"

"Yeah, I do," I replied. "Now I know why you spend a lot of time here."

Gikwang let out a chuckle. "I seek for solitude. In this school, the only place I could find my peace is in the middle of this flower garden."

I nodded. "But you do realize that smoking pollutes the air and could kill the flowers?"

He laughed again. I swear, he is so cute when he laughs. "I know," he said, jerking his cigarette into an empty can of coffee. "That's why I take care of those daisies there. I water them sometimes."

Gikwang is really nice. He loves arts and loves the environment. Speaking of arts, I grew curious of the drawing on his sketchbook. I shifted my gaze to his lap, where his sketchbook was, and made out a rough drawing of a face. I couldn't make out whose face it was, since it was still a rough sketch. But that face was framed with soft curls as the hair. He was drawing a girl. Could it be that Gikwang is crushing on someone?

If that was the thing, could it be that's why he seemed depressed? I mean, I know it's not nice to probe into other people's business, but I just can't help but to be curious. I've been asking people about him too though, especially Dongwoon, my closest guy friend. He told me I shouldn't interfere in Gikwang's business, that he was a weird kid. "It's his problem," so Dongwoon said.

But it was my problem.

What if Gikwang shows up in a headline titled "Depressed High School Student Commits Suicide Due To Heartbreak"? If that happens, I would feel bad too that I was unable to stop him or prevent him.

So I decided to ask him.

"Crushing on someone?" I blurted out. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for this..

But instead, hearing my question, he smiled. Without looking at me, he replied, "Admiring someone. Yeah."

Whoa. I didn't expect him to be so open towards me. This is good. Gikwang turned to me. "Why?" he asked.

The way he looks at me is just too cute, with his big, sparkling eyes and the soft curiosity in his tone of voice. I can feel my cheeks getting warm. "Uh, you see, so.." I tried to find whatever reasons that came into my mind. "..uh, just curious. You know? One of my friends thinks you're cute, so I though she might have a chance," I lied. But I do hope it came out okay. "I guess not, huh?"

Gikwang let out a small smile, and shrugged. "Sorry, but.. I like this girl.." he said. "But she doesn't know."

"Well, shouldn't you tell her?"

"Not that simple," he smiled again. "She's really beautiful. Stands out from her many girl friends. She's pretty popular," said Gikwang. "I like to draw her in art class."

"Oh, so she must be one of the members of our art club?" I asked, earning a nod from Gikwang. We have about 43-45 members in the club, half of them are girls. Which means one out of twenty. "Does she draw good?"

"Her paintings are the most beautiful in our class," he replied.

"Hmmm," I nodded my head.

From what I see, there are three girls who are pretty and talented in our club. The first one is Jessica. She's good at every subject of arts actually, popular because she's half American, but she already has a boyfriend. Second is Hyuna. She paints very good, and she's also a cheerleader. She's popular for her bodacious figure. And last is Min Ah. She paints well, and very talented in drawing cartoons. She's quiet, but she's popular because of the comic-strip she makes on the school newspaper. Who could it be?

"Why do you like her?" I asked, trying to find more clues about this girl.

"She's just not like the other girls," said Gikwang. "She's a really pretty girl. She's bright and also very nice. She always seem to be in a positive mood, like nothing can bring her down. She paints well, and when she is painting, I can see that she puts her heart into it, that's why it's the most beautiful for me. When I hear her voice, my heart skips a beat. Sitting next to her gets my heart worked up, but I have to keep my cool, because I don't want her to know what I feel for her. Her smile is really beautiful and bright, I wouldn't want to change that and make her cry. She's really cute, when she's happy she always do this little happy dance that she probably doesn't realize, but I do. She's the most precious thing in the world. I just really like her, you know?"

I was dumbfounded by his words for a moment. The way he describes this girl, he was sincere and honest.. he sounded as if he was really in love. For a boy to talk about a girl like that... whoever she was, she must be very lucky.

But anyway. Which girl matched his description the most?

I remember that Hyuna likes to do a little cheer dance when she's just accomplished something, or when she's happy.. could it be her? Must be her.

Before I got to say anything again, Gikwang said, "Sorry for suddenly telling you all this," he smiled sheepishly.

"No! That's okay, I understand," I smiled big. Now that I know who he likes... "I think I know who you're talking about."

His eyes widened in an instant. "You know who she is?!"

"Yeah! Hyuna right?" I said, sure. "Listen to me. You're nice, smart, bright and talented, not to mention cute. Who wouldn't want to go out with you? So go up to her right now and tell her how you feel!"

Gikwang stared at me for a second, before looking down to his sketchbook. He left me dumbfounded by his actions again. After erasing some rough lines on the paper, he smiled at me. "No need anymore. I think she already knows, but doesn't understand yet," he said, then gave me his sketchbook before getting up. "Thanks, Sooyeon."

My eyes followed his steps to the club room. I saw him took a seat next to the window. I turned away, and examined the sketchbook he gave me, the drawing on the most recent page.

A face of a girl, like I said, with light curly hair. Her eyes are small and squinty, and she had a dimple on her right cheek. Her smile was sweet and bright, just like Gikwang described. He bordered the drawing with a frame of daisies. That face though.. it was kind of familiar. No. I know her better than everyone else.

"Me?"

© hellopsr stories, 2011