The next morning, Jongin’s ready to leave at 9 am and he asked Sehun to be at the station by 10 am the night before because he wants to enjoy the art museum when it’s least crowded. It’s hard to avoid the crowd since it’s the weekends, but at least in the morning, it’s not as crowded as noon.

He told about his meeting with Sehun to his friends, and they all screamed in pure joy since it seems that they thought Jongin would end up being a forever alone and being an and annoying as per usual. But he loves them anyway, and he’s used to their antics,

Chanyeol: BABY BEAR WON’T BE ALONE ANYMOREEE

Amber: shut up giant it's still early morning

Baekhyun: wake up yall lazy asses

Krystal: am wide awake u don't have to absent us one by one

Jongin: um so

Baekhyun: SHHH PEOPLE SHHH

Krystal: shut up byun

Jongin: I’m hanging out with sehun again

Jongin: to the art museum

Amber: AWWW :((

Amber: ART MUSEUM DATES :((((

Amber: jongin had u always been a lowkey sweetheart?

Baekhyun: I want to go on to art museum dates too :((((

Krystal: aww u’re taking him to ur favorite place :”)

Krystal: am I the only one crying

Baekhyun: I'm crying

Baekhyun: on the floor rn

Minseok comes into the kitchen right in time. Jongin bets he’s half awake, and he’s right when Minseok sits on the stool, props his chin on the counter, his eyes threatening to close and go back to sleep.

But then Jongdae comes energetically, smacking the table and sending Minseok wide awake as he’s surprised. Jongin very well knows that Jongdae’s going to interrogate him about where he’s going, so he catches up before Jongdae gets to speak, “I know what your demands are, so shut up.”

Jongdae grins, “Where are you going today?”

“Art museum,” Jongin grabs his bag, and leaves the counter, “With the same guy.”

The last thing he sees before closing the door is Jongdae squealing and gushing at how he’s all grown up and Minseok sighing and shaking his head as he stares to Jongin.

He leaves his apartment exactly at a half to 10, so he rushes into the subway and hops into the train he had told Sehun to take. Today, he makes an exception and brings his camera, if there might be new exhibitions he’d never seen before.

The train arrives at the station Sehun’s supposed to be at, and he spots Sehun by the window. He purposely stays inside the train without peeking his head out, and as expected, Sehun looks up to him and smiles before he rushes inside the train.

As soon as they get into the art museum, they see another long line to the admission counters and Sehun looks at Jongin expectedly, hoping Jongin had bought tickets or some sort.

“If you’re asking whether I bought the tickets online, why would I?”

“Why wouldn’t you? I’m not the only one who’s tired enough by looking at the line.”

Jongin shrugs and he walks away from the line, which confuses Sehun, but he trails along with him anyways. When Sehun’s about to ask where he’s going, Jongin stops at a counter, and it says ‘Members and Other Forms of Admissions.'

“So you bought tickets from another place.” 

“I didn't,” Jongin scoffs.

He mentions his name to the staff, and they seem to be busy typing it in. A few seconds later, they’re given out two wristbands, and Jongin fits it in by himself, but then he silently takes Sehun wrist to him, as he fits it into his wrist and Sehun smiles to him.

“So you’re a member?”

“This is my favorite place, so being a member is a must.”

“Does this mean you don’t have to pay every time you visit?”

“I pay a monthly fee membership, but it has its perks,” Jongin grins at him, as they walk through the bag check, “I’m an art enthusiast so why not?”

They go through the staffs checking in tickets, showing their wristbands. They scan Jongin’s wristband only, and greets him, “Welcome back, Mr. Kim.”

Jongin nods curtly, then they walk up the stairs to the first floor. They start by strolling around the first floor, Sehun snapping photos of it silently but he keeps it whenever they get into the artworks that prohibit any photography.

Jongin stares at each that interests him and even though he’s seen it for he doesn’t even know how many times, it’s still interesting to him how someone can come up to make something just like that.

How someone’s brush were intended to be like that, how it’s decided to be abstract, how they take their time, effort, and most importantly, their passion onto their work, and it shows in all of the artworks displayed in the museum.

Sadly, his artistic side is along the line of being okay but not great, but he’s happy he’s talented in other ways, which is words and he takes those words he writes as another form of art in the small part of his mind.

Jongin looks over to Sehun, the silver haired boy crouching down to get a closer look at the details of a particular artwork, and Jongin chuckles at the sight.

“Be careful, or you’ll end up crashing to the artwork,” Jongin speaks up, but tones his voice lower, almost like a whisper.

“I’m curious about the texture and how he manages to use oil along with it?”

“You can use oil for painting, oil is the binder for the color and the painter happens to mix it to a certain level, so there’s texture to it like it is right now.”

“What if he doesn’t mix it to a certain level? What is a binder?”

Jongin chuckles again, and he’s honestly used to people not understanding what he’s saying if he’s talking about artworks. He studied about the principles of art, and that explains why its as if he’s speaking in another language if he speaks about art.

“To create color, you need a binder so that color stays vibrant and visible. There are other types of binder, but in this case, the binder used is oil. If it’s not mixed to a certain level, the painting will come out smooth and rich.”

“Smooth and rich?” Sehun has this confused look but he nods anyway, and he seems to try to understand this new thing called binder and oil.

Jongin laughs, as he looks to surroundings, trying to find a painting that best suits what he said, and he spots one, in the distant corner. He grabs Sehun’s wrist and silently walks to the painting, Sehun is startled, but he tags along behind him.

When they get closer, Jongin realized it's the painting of a dancer staring straight ahead as if she’s staring to viewers. She looks beautiful and sensual at the same time.

“Here is a painting using oil too but look, it has a smooth and rich result to the painting instead of a rigid texture like the one we just saw.”

Sehun stares in awe, “It looks like it’s a photograph, just looking at her skin and clothing. And look at her gaze!”

“But it’s not,” Jongin smiles, “There’s this quote from Pablo Picasso that I like, he said, ‘Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.'”

Jongin trails off, because Sehun is just busy gaping at both the artwork and him explaining, “It’s a lie because you know that she’s not real, she’s painted and not photographed, but then the truth is the reason behind the painting, that she could indeed be a real person in life or if it’s a portrayal of the painter’s figment.”

And Jongin regrets telling him that because now he has Sehun gaping at him, like a kid getting to know something new and exciting. A few seconds later and Sehun is back staring at the painting, voice trailing softly, “Paintings always make me want to paint instead of doing photography.”

“Who doesn’t?” Jongin shakes his head, smiling.

“Are you good at drawing or any other types of things that are considered art?”

“People says I’m good, so maybe I am,” Jongin stops for a second, and gazes right at Sehun, “And art comes in all types of form as long as you pour your passion and ideas into it. Don’t think so little about it. Photography is considered as art too.”

“Thanks for saying that,” Sehun grins at him, he never actually sees his photos as art even though his passion is for it.

“No need to thank me, and it is art,” Jongin winks before he nudges Sehun, “Let’s go to my favorite floor.”

They go up two levels and there written on the wall, “Modern Contemporary.” Jongin rushes ahead of Sehun to his favorite artwork in mind. When he sees it, he breathes a sigh of relief at the empty crowd around it.

It’s just neon lights, but it’s his personal favorite artwork to take photos to his aesthetic. Sehun quirks an eyebrow when he sees the neon lights. He thought they’re walking to a grandeur artwork that suits Jongin, but the neon lights somehow fit Jongin as well.

Jongin pulls him to stand near the neon lights, telling him, “Stay here, I’ll be back.”

He walks away, leaving Sehun standing there confused but he complies anyway. Jongin comes back moments later with a staff trailing behind him. He motions for Sehun’s camera, in which he hands it to her along with his camera.

Jongin stands beside Sehun giddily, and he understands right away that the staff will be taking photos of them. Jongin keeps on grinning, and it’s an adorable sight to see Jongin giddy over a simple neon light artwork. 

She takes photos of them with Sehun’s camera first, and both Sehun and Jongin tries to act nonchalant for their candid poses. One goes with them having their backs towards each other. Another goes with Sehun standing and Jongin crouching down.

Without them noticing, she switches to Jongin’s camera and continues to take photos. Their last pose is of them facing each other, staring at each other and Jongin smirks, eyes glinting playfully.

They thank the staff after being offered to check if it’s to their liking or not, so she can perhaps take more photos if it doesn’t. It turns out great, the backlight caused by the bright neon lights behind them made them into silhouettes, as Jongin expected. 

Jongin hears a snicker from Sehun, “That was so sudden.”

“I just had to take photos there real quick before it gets even more crowded.”

“So was that one of the rare moments of Kim Jongin? Where you’re in the photo as well?”

“Shut up, that wasn’t rare,” Jongin thinks about it, he does avoid being in the photo a lot of times, “Okay, it was partially right that it’s rare, but it’s not like I’ve never gotten a photo taken of me.”

“Is that for further photo supplies to post on Instagram?”

“How did you know?”

“Typical,” Sehun scoffs, then he mutters, “Me too actually.”

“You have tons of supplies, Sehun. You take photos all the time.”

“But like any other person, I still have to choose the best out of the best,” Sehun sighs, shaking his head as if he’s pondering on the difficulty, “I take great photos, and it’s hard to pick the best.”

“If I knew it’s going to end up with your over self-confidence, I should’ve stopped right there,” Jongin rolls his eyes, walking away to see another artwork not before Sehun chuckles, “But you didn’t.”

They look through the artworks, asking each other to take candid photos of them. It goes on for a few more hours,  until they decide to grab lunch. As they walk downstairs towards the exit, inspiration hits Jongin, and he hurriedly opens his notepad and scribbles the words flowing in his thoughts.

Sehun silently takes a peak, but Jongin shields his notebook from him, like a kid not wanting to be cheated on a test. Sehun purses his lips, still attempting to get a glance of what’s in the notepad, “What are you writing? Or are you drawing?”

“I’m writing something, don’t mind me.”

“You got me minding you when you went missing for a moment, and here you are, sitting down on the floor, with your little notepad.”

Jongin rolls his eyes, going back to his words. It’s a sudden inspiration, so the sentences are messy, but he’ll try forming better sentences even though big chances are, he won’t change it at all.

He finishes writing the words, and stands up abruptly, nudging Sehun as he takes long strides ahead of him.

Sehun scoffs as he speeds up his pace to match with Jongin’s. They exit the museum and turn into a corner of the streets, walking along an avenue. They both agree on having that day as Jongin’s day while the next day will be Sehun’s day.

Accepting the defeat, Sehun sighs exaggeratedly and earns a smack from Jongin. He leads the way to his lunch destination in mind, “It’ll be like a four or five more blocks away to the stall.”

“Are you serious, Jongin? We could’ve taken the subway. It’ll make our lives much easier.”

“The subway will take you way past ahead the street where the stall is, Sehun,” Jongin shrugs, slowing his pace to walk beside Sehun, “Besides, we can s