Marseille, France: 1954

Around midnight, a woman in her mid-twenties named Kang Hyweon, was occupied in a wooden chair, her black hair had fallen from its braid that brush of warmth on her cheeks. She took her pencil as she sketch the eyes of certain someone. The eyes at last took the sketch. The look in them was elegant, rising up to her fine, elegant brow, inches from the dark flows of her hair. Yes, they were just right, those eyes.

She held the paper at arm’s length to assess her progress. It was hard, working without her in front of her as she draw, but then, she never could sketch in “her” presence. Since she had arrived from Korea. No, since she had first seen “her”. She’d had to be careful always to keep her at a distance.

Every day now she approached “her”, and every day was more difficult than the one before. It was why she was leaving in the morning for England, for Paris, she didn’t know or care. Wherever she ended up, it would be easier than being here. She leaned over the drawing again, sighing as she used her thumb to perfect the smudged pencil pout of her full bottom lip. This lifeless paper, was the only way to take Eunbi with her. Hyewon would never tell her otherwise --- the secret was her to bear.

Hyewon stood and turned, the sketches left behind on the table. And there she was, Eunbi was standing in front of her in her plain white dressing gown. The look on her face was the same as the one she’d sketched so many times.

“What are you doing here?” Hyewon asked and could hear the scowl in her voice, and regretted its sharpness, knowing that Eunbi would never understand.

“I….I couldn’t sleep” Eunbi stuttered, moving toward the fire and Hyewon’s chair. “I saw the light in your room and then” she paused, looking down at her hands “your car outside. Are you going somewhere? Eunbi carefully asked.

“I was going to tell you…” Hyewon pause. She shouldn’t lie. She had never intended to let Eunbi know her plans. Telling her would only make things worse. Already, she had let things go too far, hoping this time would be different.

Eunbi walks closer to Hyewon, and her eyes fell on the sketchbook. “You were drawing me?” Eunbi’s surprised tone reminded Hyewon how great the gap was in their understanding. Even after all the time they’d spent together these past few weeks, she had not yet begun to glimpse the truth that lay behind their attraction.

This was good or at least, it was for the better. For the past several days, since Hyewon made the choice to leave, she’d been struggling to pull away from Eunbi. The effort took so much out of he