Green & Black Don't Mix Well

Oh, Moon—and Stars!

 

"C'mon, Yeojin-ah!" She beckons for her baby sister whilst running against the cold winds. "Catch up already!" Haseul turns her head to glance at her, a fit of giggles bubble out.

 

Yeojin groans, huffing in and out with a frantic rhythm. "Unnie—!" She whines, annoyed at her little legs for her current predicament.

 

Haseul halts in front of a little building, she grins as she peeks through the many windows of the establishment. Hearing her sister finally come up behind her, she hands Yeojin a water bottle. "Drink."

 

Yeojin snatches the plastic bottle and downs every drop it could offer. She lets out a loud sigh of relief at the cold liquid entering her system. "Thanks." She smiles in appreciation at her sister.

 

"No problem." Haseul smiles so wide it nearly blinds Yeojin.

 

Swiftly opening the doors, the Cho sisters get a warm welcome from the very few employees they see. They return the gestures, of course. Haseul, being the older sister she is, talks to the front desk whilst Yeojin simply wanders around looking at the various decorations hung up.

 

Ending up at a section where portraits of previous customers were hung up, Yeojin thinks coming here might turn out to be fun. Initially, she didn't like Haseul's request, but seeing how much the children and adults are smiling in the photos, she figures it'll be fine.

 

Haseul and Yeojin wandered around the room where multiple shelves of ceramics are stored. The two sisters walked towards the mugs section, they both agreed to make each other a mug, so here they were.

 

A couple of mugs were made with designs to color in while the others are a plain white, much like a blank canvas ready to be painted on. Haseul took the latter whilst Yeojin took one with a bird design.

 

The two move in a room and are met with the familiar smell of paint. They both roughly exhale through their nose to get rid of the small stinging sensation from the moment they took a breath inside the room.

 

They get seated at a large table. The kind employee took out multiple color palettes for the sisters to choose from. Without delay, Yeojin chose a simple pastel palette. Haseul took a little longer as, in her words, they were too pretty. Eventually, she chose the vibrant color palette.

 

They stood out more, even if it were a little harsh on the eyes.

 

Haseul squeals in excitement once they received their palettes and array of brushes. Yeojin simply shakes her head at her sister with a low chuckle. They thank the employee before turning to tend to their little mugs.

 

Yeojin gets to work almost immediately as hers already had a design, it didn't need much work to color in whites. Haseul sketches on a small piece of paper she requested before hand, coming up with a bunch of wacky designs that reflect her sister's rather rash personality (at least, it is towards her).

 

Satisfied with her little design, Haseul picked up a brush and lightly dabbed her brush into a couple of colors to mix. She was having a peaceful moment, up until a dot of black ended up on her mixture due to her clumsiness.

 

Haseul lightly panics, but brushes it off considering it's just a small dot. She swirls the paint, and her eyes watch in horror seeing the black expand, engulfing the bright colors into darkness.

 

The once bright green, turning into a terrifying void of darkness.

 

 

 

Haseul dejectedly stares on at her canvas. Her painting ruined by a black splotch that couldn't be reversible even if she tried. She'd only overpaint it if she truly wanted to. With a heavy heart, all Haseul can do now is frown. All she wanted was to excel in this little art class of hers.

 

That accidental splotch is too distracting in Haseul's eyes, or in anyone's eyes, really.

 

Haseul hates it.

 

With a huff, Haseul lifts the canvas off the easel and places it to where abandoned canvases resided. Seeing it with the other unfinished paintings, Haseul stares at once more. She was really proud of it too.

 

"O-oh, you're here early."

 

Haseul turns around, spotting a girl donned in dark monochromatic baggy clothing, a baseball cap, a facemask and heavily tinted glasses. "Ah, I just wanted to warm up before people came in."

 

The girl nods with a hum. Haseul sort of hopes for another response but nothing comes. The girl takes a seat around the back and waits for her phone to turn on. Haseul stops paying much attention after that. She goes to her own seat and scribbles about on her sketchbook. Until a chorus of notification sounds suddenly erupt from the back.

 

The girl curses under her breath. She fumbles with her phone to put it back on mute to avoid disturbing Haseul. But she already flinched and turned back to look at her with wide eyes. Haseul gives a smile to ease the clearly shaken up girl's nerves. "You must be popular then?" She tries to lighten up the mood.

 

She fiddles with her phone before hiding back inside her phone. Haseul sees how she's fidgeting and opts to stare out the window instead of trying to maintain eye contact with the girl. The latter notices and lets out a small relieved sigh. She stammers out, "Uhm, I guess you could say that..?"

 

Haseul momentarily looks back again, tilting her head in curiosity. But before she can attempt to press any further, a flurry of people enter the room, making both girls shrivel up out of shyness. Bit by bit, the room's nearly full with just a handful of seats still free. Eventually, the professor comes and the session starts without any complaint.

 

 


You told me it was in the afternoon!

 

I know! I read it wrong, okay? Just go and hurry up already!

 

Jinsol scrunches up her face. She holds a glare at Heejin for a solid minute before stomping off to the bathroom with obvious annoyance.

 

Nothing gives a good first impression than being horrendously late to a class you've signed up for, and Heejin's all to blame for it. Heejin's the one that invited her to tag along too. Jinsol figured art could be a new hobby of hers and accepted the offer. She should've expected this to happen, knowing how forgetful the girl can be at the worst times.

 

When they're steps away from the door, Jinsol taps Heejin's shoulder.

 

You explain why we're late.

 

Heejin waves her off.

 

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna do that anyway. You didn't have to tell me.

 

Just wanted to make sure.

 

The two exchange childish teasing expressions before stepping inside the room, all shy and apologetic. Heejin excuses themselves and explains to the professor what had happened.

 

The kind woman tells them not to worry too much about it and that—"We're just about to start working, so you girls are actually right on time! Just go ahead and take a seat anywhere you'd like."

 

There weren't any spots where they could've sat together, so Heejin's a couple seats away from Jinsol. Jinsol nervously fidgets as she took the spot next to this strangely covered up girl. She doesn't dwell on it for long as the professor explains what they're assigned to do today; Something along the lines of making a self-portrait which is.. relatively easy enough?

 

Jinsol dives straight into starting hers, only for her to spot Heejin across the room, making all sorts of wild gestures in a frantic pace. Taken aback, Jinsol takes a moment before paying attention to what the girl was signing.

 

You're sitting right next to her!!!

 

...Who?

 

Yves! The artist on Instagram I keep telling you about! Oh, my God! I never thought I'd see her in person! She's so pretty!?

 

Ohh...

 

Jinsol figures it wouldn't hurt to steal a glance, right? Though, she is a bit shy about meeting new people so she thinks about it real carefully. But she's really curious... Ah, well, it won't kill me.

 

Trying to be discreet as possible, Jinsol acts like she's thinking about how she'll do her portrait, just to slightly turn her head over to Yves' direction and take a short look. When she turns, she gets surprised at the splash of color she gets met with in her peripherals. This fuels her curiosity even further. Jinsol decides to fully commit to her action and be bold for once.

 

What is she doing..? Is all Sooyoung can wonder when she sees one of the new girls across the room doing rapid hand movements. Her face contorts into confusion until she recognizes it to be sign language when she sees the other girl sign back. Before she could go back to her canvas, she makes eye contact with the girl from before. The monolid girl's eyes squint into crescents with her nose bridge slightly crinkled up.

 

"Good luck!" She mouths and tops it off with an encouraging closed-fist gesture towards her.

 

Not really expecting to interact with much people in this class (on the first day too, no less), Sooyoung's mind blanks out for a while. She blinks back into reality and does the same gestures back, albeit much more timid than the girl's. Despite that, the latter smiles again and nods before placing her attention back to her canvas. Sooyoung follows suit, shrugging it off and goes to continue decorating her canvas with hues she couldn't recognize at all.

 

That is, if the girl next to her hadn't turned in a sharp manner, then maybe her brush wouldn't have accidentally flung small freckles of paint onto her canvas. She hears the shocked gasp and mumbled words flooding out. Sooyoung couldn't make out a single coherent word, but she sounded apologetic.

 

Jinsol immediately freezes at her mistake. She scrambles to fish out her notepad and scribbles out an apology with rush. Shakily, she holds out the note with a lowered head, appearing like a kicked puppy before this supposed semi-popular Instagram artist.

 

The girl takes the notepad, prompting Jinsol to slowly look back up with hope that she'd take it nicely. Alas, much to her dismay, her heart drops to her stomach seeing this breath-takingly pretty girl's face looking at her with a straight-face and furrowed eyebrows.

 

Well, this is kinda pressuring... Sooyoung thinks upon read this girl's handwritten apology. She had to take a couple seconds to properly read the obviously rushed writing. When she looks back at.. Jinsol, as she signed at the end of the note, Sooyoung doesn't know how to react seeing how the girl's expression looked so pitiful. Jinsol looked like a kid that just got their candy taken away by an adult.

 

Unsure how to act, Sooyoung just gestures for Jinsol to sit up straight. She takes her pencil and writes a reply then hands it back. Even adding in an thumbs up as reassurance even if it felt and probably looked awkward coming from her.

 

"It's ok. I don't mind."

 

Still, even with the written reply, Jinsol remains guilty. She frowns at Sooyoung, as per written at the bottom right corner. She actually hold eye contact this time and only then does she notice the small dots of blue across Sooyoung's face, trying to blend in with her freckles.


Just when Sooyoung thinks it's safe to go back to painting, she sees Jinsol writing on her notepad again. Biting her the inside of her cheek, she decides to wait for it to be handed to her.

 

"You've got,, blue on your face."

 

Sooyoung whips her head up and wipes a random spot on her face. She raises her eyebrows to confirm.

 

There?

 

Jinsol shakes her head no.

 

She wipes a different spot.

 

How about now?

 

With a small amused smile, Jinsol shakes her head again. She raises her hand and gives a look to Sooyoung, wordlessly asking for permission to do it herself. Behind frantic orbs, Sooyoung internally debating with herself if she should accept, subconsciously nodding when shook in panic.

 

Jinsol's hand comes up to cup her cheek. She uses her thumb to wipe off the flecks of paint. Her eyes are squinted, scanning all over Sooyoung's face to double-check if there were any left. Once she's satisfied, Jinsol pulls back, flashing a polite smile with a short nod. She stutters out one last apology then finally starts working on her painting.

 

Whereas Sooyoung remains in the same position, brin still processing what had just happened in such a short amount of time. Stiffly, she turns back to her canvas, remembering she should've removed the splotches of "blue" on her portrait. But looking at it now, Sooyoung figures she could easily make it like it's her freckles.

 

Realistically, red would've been more fitting, as it were the color that was dusted across her cheeks.

 

 


·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙

 

 


"Since it's better if we get familiar with each other as early as now," Haseul has a bad feeling on where this is going... "How does everyone feel about making a painting as a duo?"

 

Oh, no.

 

Haseul fumbles with her thumbs out of nervousness. She wasn't entirely proud of her artistic abilities yet... If she even had that. Haseul had taken little peeks at the others' paintings and, woah, it really solidified how she was at rock bottom if they had ranks at this class. She'd feel terribly sorry to whoever's her partner.

 

"Cho Haseul and Ha Sooyoung."

 

Haseul jumps at the sudden name call. "Y-yes?"

 

"Your partner's Ha Sooyoung," The professor repeats and even points at who it was and—It was that girl! "As I said earlier, we aren't an even amount of people so whoever I'm gonna call next can choose whether or not to join as an extra member or do it individually."

 

"Jeong Jinsol."

 

Jinsol reacts immediately. Thankfully, the professor actually knew a bit of sign language so she actually understood that Jinsol wanted to be in a group. When asked who she wanted to join, Jinsol looks at Heejin first, who was with a girl named Kim Hyunjin. Instead of what the rest of the class had expected, she signs,

 

I want to be with Ha Sooyoung and Cho Haseul, please.

 

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