Sketchbook Hearts

by Amanda

She’s all rainbow and smiles the moment she enters the university campus. Her bright, wandering eyes scan the campus, eyeing the different people she saw. She wasn’t at a normal university; this was a university of the arts—from music to dance to photography to graphic design—and she was an artist. She drew great pieces of art, a skill she honed by herself since birth.

She loved her art, although it seemed…cartoonish.

[it made sense since she’s been training her whole life to be a mangaka]

And it is here at this school where she will make those dreams a reality.

~~

“You call that art?”

The words tear through her like a katana straight to the heart.

[she’s so enamored with Japanese culture that she even uses a Japanese weapon to describe her pain]

She looks up and stares directly into the cold, emotionless eyes of the young man that sits next her at one of her lectures. He is handsome even with that scowl on his face causing her face to heat up in a light powdery blush.

She suddenly remembers the words he just said. The strange pain is back again.

“W-wae?” she stutters, clutching her sketchbook against her chest. This was the first time someone questioned the quality of her artwork. And it really hurts.

The man motions to the sketchbook without a look of remorse.

[he just insulted her artwork without batting an eyelash, how cruel]

“The body proportions are way off, and it looks like you’re trying too hard. There is no emotion in your work,” he says, as she carefully looks at her sketch. He continues to bat away his criticism causing her pride to slowly dwindle into a pile of ash.

“I-It’s supposed to be that way!” she exclaims, shocked at herself at the sudden outburst. He only looks at her unfazed. She gulps.

[because he REALLY is good looking without even trying]

“I-I want to be a mangaka,” she says shyly. Despite it being her dream, she has never once mentioned to anyone that she wanted to be a mangaka.

She is afraid to look up to see his reaction. She feels a hand linger on top of hers and she whips her head up in surprise. He is still looking at her with that icy expression.

“I suggest taking up a different profession.”

She feels her world spinning as he lets go. Everything she’s dreamed. Everything she’s worked hard on. It suddenly means nothing because of the harsh words of this person.

She vaguely hears his name being called and she feels herself cursing it with all her might.

She knew the moment this Kyuhyun person insulted her art was the moment she swears on her life they would never get along.

~~

Surprisingly, she is civil with him.

[normally she’d give someone a whipping if she hated them]

After all, they still sat next to each other at the same lecture. They only spoke to each other when they needed to, and that was really it.  Other than class work, she didn’t bother to show any form of communication with him, and he didn’t seem to care either. That pissed her off more. He seemed so high and mighty for some strange reason and that made her angry.

[couldn’t he be more humble?]

The lecture of the day was finish and students were slowly filing out of the lecture hall.

“Sooyoung! Sooyoung-noona!” she packs her things when she hears a familiar voice call her name. She smiles as a tall, bouncy boy comes rushing, scooping her into a big hug.

She laughs, as he twirls her around. “Yah, Kang Minhyuk, put me down!” she’s in a giggling frenzy as he gently puts her to the ground. He flashes her a goofy smile causing all her worries and problems to wash away. He was so cute, so innocent; she just wanted to keep him locked away, safe from cruel words people spat out.

“Are you drawing again, noona?” he questions innocently, although she feels a slight pang in her heart. “I miss seeing noona drawing all the time.”

[the innocence that makes her happy is the same innocence that chokes her in pain]

“Ani,” she says shakily. She doesn’t want to talk about this. Especially when she feels Kyuhyun’s stone cold eyes glaring into her back. “I-I just don’t have the heart to anymore.”

Minhyuk’s face drops and she feels her heart is going to break at seeing his expression. “I see. I just wanted you to draw for me again…”

She walks over to him and wraps him into a warm hug. She wants to cry because crying seems like the only way she could express her feelings now. “Let’s go get something to eat, yae?”

He nods and the two leave. But she has a suspicion that Kyuhyun is watching her as she walks away.

It’s an unsettling feeling, really.

~~

She hears from the people around campus that the son of the famous Korean painter, Cho Yun Cha, was holding an art exhibition at their school. He was apparently a student at the university which piqued her curiosity. Had she met him before? She assumes possibly since they are both art majors. Perhaps they are in the same lectures and she hadn’t known about it?

She follows the crowd of people into the large exhibit hall and gasps.

The artwork inside the hall is beautiful. The details of the drawings, the emotion of every single painting; it looks as if a professional who spent years perfecting their art had made them. She stands in front of a beautiful painting of a flower and she suddenly finds herself crying.

The tears keep pouring out of her eyes and she stops trying to wipe them. It was just a painting but just looking at it, she feels the emotion the artist put onto it. She realizes Kyuhyun is right. She could never be an artist of this caliber.

She squints to see the signature of the artist’s name.

Cho Kyuhyun

~~

There’s this weird feeling when he sees her crying in front of his painting. He doesn’t know what it is, but he doesn’t exactly like it.

~~

He notices that she stops attending lectures. At first it doesn’t bother him.

[it really shouldn’t since he doesn’t care for her]

But as days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, he suddenly feels worried. Had something happened to her? Was she ill? Was she…dead?

He has to swallow the bile in his throat at the last thought.

He began to nonchalantly ask his friends if they knew about her. Some of them are curious to why he wants to find out while others don’t even know she exists.

“Oh! I remember now! Sooyoung is Hyoyeon’s friend,” Eunhyuk says one day he and a bunch of his friends are out eating lunch. His eyes widen at the sudden connection his friend had to her.

“Your girlfriend knows her?” he asks desperately, holding onto Eunhyuk. Eunhyuk is surprised and pries his hands away from his eager friend.

Eunhyuk brushes the [non-existent] dirt off his shoulder. “Ne, I’ve met her once or twice. She’s really pretty.”

“Do you know where she is?” he presses on again. Eunhyuk gives him a questioning look.

“Wae? Why do you want to know?” Eunhyuk suddenly finds himself being hauled up by the younger man. He ignores the shouts of protest from his friends around him and focuses on the dangerous aura the person in front of him is giving off.

“You better tell me everything you know, Lee Hyukjae.”

It is that moment Eunhyuk is terrified of his friend.

~~

She is afraid to sign the transfer paper. That means her life as an art student will end. She knows she isn’t good enough to become an artist, but she’s scared to do something else with her life. All she had known was to be an artist.

She is sitting quietly at a café contemplating her choices.

A lawyer?

[that wouldn’t work because she’s awful at persuading other people]

A chef?

[she’d eat everything in sight…]

 She could always take over her family’s animal shelter.

[then again she was never too fond of smelly animals]

She sighs, picking up the pen.

[she’ll figure it out eventually]

She swiftly signs the paper with her signature. She holds up the paper and stares at her signature. It’s taunting her, telling her there was no meaning in life.

[because to her, without art, her life is meaningless]

—when suddenly, the papers are torn in half.

“Wae—” She looks up surprised. Kyuhyun is holding her now useless transfer paper. Unable to comprehend his reasons for doing such a thing, she instead takes her anger out on the man who possibly ruined her life. “That was an important document!” She reaches up to grab it from his hands. He rips it again, infinitely destroying the paper. “Yah! Don’t you listen to anyone?” she questions annoyed.

“You’re not transferring, are you?” he asks, straightforwardly. He looks so serious, more so than usual, that it actually scares her.

She decides to play the tsuntsun character and crosses her arms across her chest.

[she’s still too much into Japanese culture…]

“Why should you care? It’s not like I have anything to do with you, or you to me,” she says smugly.

“Are you really giving up being a…mangaka because of my words?” she giggles mentally when he fumbles over the word “mangaka” but refrains from doing so out loud when she realizes he remembers that incident.

She suddenly feels weak. Those words still burn her heart.

She looks down and smiles a bittersweet smile. “I don’t deserve to be called an artist. You said so yourself, my art isn’t good enough.”

~~

He really wants to shoot himself on the foot for making her believe that her art wasn’t good. He feels guilty for saying such things,

[albeit he thought they were true]

[[he’s still a jerk]]

And for some strange reason, one he still can’t understand, he felt sick all those days she hadn’t attended lectures. He doesn’t like that feeling, nor the feeling of relief he felt when he finally saw her face after many months.

[well he doesn’t really hate that feeling of relief, he just doesn’t understand why he’s having it]

They are silent after she speaks. She is sad and he is annoyed. Not at her, at himself.

“Come back,” he says, snapping her out of her thoughts. He is surprised at his own words. He didn’t mean to say them, but somehow they felt right.

Suddenly a light bulb goes off in his head. Everything makes sense. The reason he’s feeling sick. The reason he feels annoyed. The reason why he seems to care so much.

“Come back,” he repeats louder. She is looking at him curiously as he struggles to let the next set of words leave his mouth. “You can’t leave me.”

~~

She is surprised at his confession.

She is more surprised at how genuine his confession is. He stares at her with his cold serious eyes

[although this time there is some sort of warmth in them]

And feels her heart beat faster. It’s strange how this is the same man who insulted her art and produced beautiful paintings. The same man who always seemed cold and distant. The same man who only makes her heart flutter uncontrollably.

 She is speechless.

“W-Wae?” she stutters like the first time they met. “W-What did you just say?” she asks quietly for confirmation. She knows he knows she heard, but she just wanted to hear him say it again.

He locks his dark brown eyes with hers and says without hesitation:

“You can’t leave me.”

And without a second thought, he uses both his hands, grabs her face, and locks her in a kiss that she swears lets her see fireworks.

She suddenly forgets all his harsh words and her insecurity

[because, damn he such is a good kisser]

~~

"Is this based off of us?"

"What makes you think that?"

"They look like us."

"Wae--no they don't!"

"And the plot summary: he's an egotistal artist who is loved by many. She's an amature mangaka--"

"YAH! It's not!"

"You're a terrible liar, Choi Sooyoung."

"You're just a terrible person, Cho Kyuhyun."

"Yeah, but you love me anyway."

"Aish, you're so cheesy."

~~

asdfjhadsjkfh I kept changing my tenses throughout the story, I’m sorry ;__;

 This was originally going to be a chapter story with a lot more to the plot, but I decided that I didn’t want to murder my brain with another chapter-fic.

And I just HAD to put Minhyuk in here c:

Nay or Yay on making an uber fluffy Kyuyoung one-shot collection based off of a (what I think is a) cute song?