(Continuation to Coward )

Recess at school was no longer a torture for you.

I brought you to the art room, my private paradise, and made you stay. The first few times you seemed amazed, looking over my paintings one by one, and praised me in a way that made me try to hide my face.

Sometimes we'd eat lunch or some snacks in silence. Sometimes random conversations flowed, and you never noticed how I watched you. Sometimes you'd watch me paint. Sometimes, you'd also pick up a brush and draw fat cats while I laughed at you. 

They didn't follow you anymore, they never did.

Because then you belonged to me.

The second time I did your portrait, it was the whole world.

I wasn't a coward anymore, and that made my heart thump heavily. I couldn't get the stupid smile off my face, and the seemed to paint themselves, while you watched intently behind me. 

You laughed and went out to get some snacks when I shooed you away, saying that I couldn't draw if you stared.

Little did you know, my hands trembled when I continued on the piece. The colours were flashing across my eyes as if your image had been burned in the back of my head, and they breathed life into the eyes of your portrait. I had never been so satisfied with a painting in my entire life; when I was done, I dropped the brush, and stared at the painting in disbelief because I felt as if it was you staring back at me from the canvas.

And when you returned, I stepped away from the canvas with a stupid grin, so that you could see it properly. You stopped right infront of it, seemingly frozen in time.

You stared at it for a long, long time. You took so long that panic started to rise up my spine, and I felt worried that you hated it. My nails dug into my palm nervously. My voice was trembling when I opened my mouth to ask, "How is it, Youngjae?"

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