the town with a view of the sea

Changmin lies down on the grass, his arms outstretched beside him like wings. A palette, clasped between his tired fingers, sliced through the velvet grass on his right. His left palm is open, the paintbrush he was holding lay stationary against his skin.

He squints his eyes as a ray of sunlight streams past the gaps between the leaves of the tree above him. The wind hums a lullaby and the rustling of leaves grow louder. Changmin sits up to avoid the sudden pool of lights filling up the grassy earth. He dips the brush into the blots of paint once again and faces the empty canvass in front of him. He lets out a frustrated sigh as the brush hovered motionless in the air, unable to conjure a single image of something he has no idea of.

"It takes tremendous amount of patience to create something beautiful. Especially if you are not in the mood to do so."

A clear voice breaks the stillness. He looks up and his eyes meet the warm, brown orbs of Choi Sooyoung. Changmin sits up straighter as the girl takes a seat beside him. She gives him a kind smile, folds a knee towards her chest, and leans her back against the woody bark of the tree.

"You don't mind if I stay here, right?"

She asks him with her eyes closed and he nods his head quietly in reply. Her appearance so sudden it took him a while to realize that he is still holding the paintbrush in the air, its tip almost touching the blank sheet.


Choi Sooyoung arrived at their large, crowded high school two days after the first snow has fallen. Changmin can still remember how she introduced herself unblinkingly in front of the class. Choi Sooyoung – the girl with the white-starched uniform, perfect hair, and big, beautiful eyes. He had always observed her from afar. She fitted herself perfectly into the school like a missing piece of a puzzle, as if the school has long waited for her. She made friends easily and was always surrounded by them. Sooyoung was the popular new girl and Changmin, the odd boy who lived in his own world, found himself wondering why he never made an effort to fit in just like she did.


"Do you paint?" he breaks the growing silence between them.

"Sometimes..." her reply a bit louder than a whisper. She opens her eyes and stares at the world before them --- beyond the glimmering distance where the earth meets the sky, the long stretch of space where the sea of blue collides with planes of brown and gray.

"Is that the old clock tower beside the school?"

Sooyoung stretches a finger and points at a lone, alpine structure breaking the monotonous stretch of gray that was dusty streets and sun-burnt rooftops. Changmin opens his mouth to answer but the girl speaks on.

"Do you always spend your time on this hill?"

"Yes. Sometimes. Not really."

Changmin wonders why he is suddenly tongue-tied; but her laughter reminds him so much of a gurgling brook during spring that he wonders instead how to make her laugh again.

"Which of the three is the truth?" she her head on one side, a smile playing on her lips.

"I always spend time here back when I was young. Our house used to be located at the foot of this hill. Then high school started and we moved farther south. There..." he uses the brush to point at an unknown distance ahead of them. "...four streets away from our school. It takes me ten minutes to get here by bicycle so I only go here when there is no class. Or when I feel like I need some time alone."

He is talking too fast he fails to catch himself before the last sentence ended.

"You don't mind if I intrude with your 'time spent alone', do you?” her voice is quiet.
"Oh no. I mean, of course I don't mind. Why would I? Right?"

He forces a laugh and turns his attention back to the empty canvass so as to distract himself from the awkward atmosphere. The girl, on the other hand, looks perfectly comfortable with the situation. Changmin was about to try his luck when Sooyoung speaks again.

"Paint me."

At this point, Changmin lowers the wooden stick he was holding and faces the girl.

"P-paint you?"

"When I was young, my grandmother often told me about the hill with the view of the sea. I always thought she was referring to a coastal town."

Sooyoung pauses as the leaves rustle with the passing of a summer breeze.

"Before she died, she left me a letter. The letter led me here.”

Changmin waits patiently for her to continue but she doesn't. Instead, she makes a pillow with her hands and lies on her back against the grassy earth. As if the inspiration has always been there, he finds herself moving the paintbrush in fast across the once empty sheet of paper.

He thinks that the girl must have fallen asleep because she remained motionless and silent. He looks at her and then back at the piece he was working on. What was before a seemingly endless stretch of white is now colored green. A field of green broken by the form of a girl with her eyes closed and her face calm.

"It's done."

She stirs at the sound of his voice, sits up straight, and looks at the canvass before her. A smile crosses her features as she gazes at the image of herself perfectly captured between the colorful of his skilled hands.

"Thanks, Changmin-ssi."

He blinks fast and stares at her.

"How did--- how did you know my name?"

She answers with a smile. His confused expression doesn't falter.

"My grandmother's letter told me about the pains of living in a place she never wanted to stay at. That the reason why she never left is because it is where she has lived the happiest with her husband. When my grandfather died, halmoni wanted to stay with us right away. But she was torn between doing so and leaving the memories of harabeoji and that nice young boy who always visits her and brings her bread everyday."

"Hal-halmoni?"

His expression softens as her words sink on his brain.

"You say your old house is at the foot of this hill, right?" she stretches her arms and looks at him. "That's where I'm living right now."

"Y-your the girl Jung-hyeon halmoni often told me about?"

She moves towards him, pulls something out of her pocket, and places it in his hands. He looks down to see an old photograph, yellowed and curled on the edges, of lines of green, gray, and blue broken by the lone figure of a young boy with his hands up in the air. His face was upturned, facing the blue, blue sky and the wind playing with his hair made it seem like the photograph itself was alive.

Changmin feels warm tears well at the back of his lids as his memories fly him back to the day back when he was eight. Cheerful and full of hope, in company of an elderly woman he has formed a wonderful friendship with.

"Halmoni had always wanted a son. I'm glad she got her wish. Though it wasn't exactly how she pictured it to be." Sooyoung looks back at him.

"I realized that the sea she was referring to in the town she was describing me was a sea of promise and hope." She extends her hand towards his direction and gives him the purest smile she has ever given someone.

"It's nice meeting you at last, Changmin-ssi.”