▧ the colors i’m referring to here can be interpreted either in a literal sense or metaphorically :)

 

 

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In Jongwoon’s gray world, there’s a speck of color in his life that begins small but grows bigger and bigger each day.

At first, it was the eyes. Whereas everyone else’s are the same dull shade, this person’s eyes are a memorable shade of dark-brown, and when their face is hit by the sunlight, Jongwoon can detect flecks of amber dancing in their irises, and they look even more beautiful.

After the eyes came the smile. What makes this person’s smile different from the others? Jongwoon wonders about it sometimes. But this person’s smile is so wide, so bright, so carefree, so pretty. When this person smiles, their smile is just a little bit bigger than everyone else’s, stretched wide enough to show their gums. That gummy smile is boyish and adorable, and it brings another piece of color in Jongwoon’s universe.

After the smile came the voice. Sometimes everyone’s voices sound the same. Sometimes there are two or three people you know who have similar tones, similar pronunciations, and similar accents. But this person’s voice… Jongwoon can’t describe it clearly, but it’s just… different. Even though they sound the same as the others. It’s like… you know when you hear someone speaking in the background along with a few other people and your heart skips a beat because although all of them seem similar and even get mixed up, you can still pick out that voice — that one distinct, colorful voice — that only you can recognize? That’s it.

And lastly, after the voice came the soul. How can a person have such a mesmerizing and carefree nature, one that seems to draw people to him like nails to a magnet? Jongwoon has seen that person do a lot of kind things whenever they’re in the same place at the same time, like how they always keep a bag of cat food with them to feed the stray that sleeps in the school backyard, how they would always say sorry whenever they bump into someone accidentally, how they’d lend their things to others so selflessly with a smile, how they would never fail to say thank you after asking for help. It’s the little things like that which make Jongwoon’s world seem a little bit brighter.

But they’re strangers, actually. Jongwoon has never made a single move to approach them, to approach the person who has been occupying his heart since the first day he saw them. That person is just so attractive, not only physically, but also in the way they interact with other people, in the way they live their life and in the way they spread the kindness from their heart even to those they don’t know.

Jongwoon can still remember the first time they met. It was just an ordinary occurrence: one of Jongwoon’s drawings had flown away with the wind and became stuck on a branch of one of the trees in the campus grounds.

He just stared at the paper he’d painstakingly worked on for days, unable to think of how he could possibly reach it without making a complete fool of himself.

Until that person came.

That person, with their wavy brown hair and bright gummy smile, suddenly jumped on the tree and began to climb upwards without an ounce of hesitation.

Jongwoon stared at him in bewilderment, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes. He could faintly hear the surprised cries of the person’s friends and a few shouting their support, because all he could focus on was that person, and that person alone.

Not more than a few minutes had passed when the guy swiftly jumped down from the tree, handing Jongwoon back the drawing he’d worked so hard on.

“Here,” they said, and their smile was so radiant, so kind, so beautiful.

“Thank you,” Jongwoon said quietly, lost for words. He didn’t get to say more after that because the bell rang, and his chance to ask the person’s name disappeared in an instant.

But fate is a funny thing, to be honest.

 

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It’s been more than forty minutes now since Jongwoon has started painting. The blank canvas is empty no more and now reveals the distinct outline of a person’s smiling face down to his casual sitting position that Jongwoon has managed to capture almost perfectly. His brush never stops moving, and the different shades of color give life to the drawing as though it were an actual snapshot of reality.

The teacher begins inspecting the other students’ drawings as all of them finish up their respective paintings. “Hyukjae, you’re done for today. Thank you,” she calls out.

Jongwoon hears her, but he doesn’t stop painting.

Though his gaze does falter at some point as he glances at the person standing up from his seat at the center of the classroom, stretching out his limbs with a relieved sigh.

This is the only class they have in common. It’s what Jongwoon realized belatedly a few weeks ago when he saw the person who’d been occupying his mind and heart sitting at the back of the classroom, chatting animatedly with his friends. The guy did not seem to recognize him and their seats were too far away for them to interact.

But that was fine with Jongwoon.

He could just spend his time living life as quietly as he wanted, and also just observing from afar, because he is not the type of person who approaches first, mostly because of his shyness and insecurity.

So he waited. He observed, fell in love a little bit more each day, and continued to wait until fate presented him another opportunity.

Which is what he is currently taking advantage of right now when he hears that person’s friends talking behind his back, marvelling quite loudly about his realistic drawing.

And when he hears footsteps approaching, he grabs the opportunity that fate has brought him and tries to hide a wide smile.

Finally, he’ll be able to see all the colors of the world.

“Your drawing is beautiful,” the object of his affection says — his name is Hyukjae, Jongwoon knows now — and his voice sounds smaller than usual, somewhat hesitant, somewhat shy, and it’s just unbearably cute.

“Yes,” Jongwoon responds softly as he puts down his brush. He gazes at his masterpiece for a moment before looking over at Hyukjae, smiling. “Because it’s you.”

In his ears, he can hear Hyukjae’s friends whistling and yelling, but they’re nothing more than background noise, for all he can focus on at the moment is the way Hyukjae’s cheeks turn into an adorable shade of red.

“But…” Jongwoon adds, and Hyukjae nervously stares back at him, his eyes sparkling as he hangs onto Jongwoon’s every word, “...it’s nothing compared to the beauty of the person himself right in front of me.”

And just like that, the last piece of color has been added, and there is no longer any gray.

 

 

fin