Sujeong frowned, tilting her head to the side as she visualized her painting on the blank canvas. After a few minutes of intense staring, she sighed and slumped back to her chair while thinking of something to paint. 

"Sujeong, do you wanna go home together?" Mijoo asked, her head appearing on the door. 

Sujeong shook her head. "Go ahead, I'm just going to stay for a moment"

"Yah, you're not going to paint something painful right?" Mijoo assured, a sad smile plastered on her lips. She watched Sujeong fight herself for a while before smiling as her friend nodded. "I'll go ahead then. Oh, and I bought chocolate milk for you, I'll just put it here."

Something painful, huh. Sujeong thought, still staring at the canvas. How long has it been?  Two weeks? It seemed like it happened a long time ago. Was is because she distracted herself so much? She looked around the room and saw at least ten new paintings she created the past weeks and silently laughed to herself. 

It takes 21 days to break a habit.

Sujeong kept what Jiwon said to heart. She had all the distractions available, a good job filled with cheerful and creative kids, a room where she could get all the canvas and the paintings she had, a set of friends who filled her day with laughters and a coloring book in case she couldn't sleep. But still, she could feel a whole in her body, waiting to be healed. 

"Let's do this." she breathed before tying her hair up. She bit the paint brush while mixing a set of pastel colors in hopes to create a color that would please her. It didn't matter what it was, it just had to feel right.

A couple of hours later, she took a step back to admire her yet-to-be-finished art. She smiled, althought she squinted at the poor details. Sujeong was busy figuring it out when she jumped at the voice that laughed beside her.

 "So, what're you up to now, Bach?" Jiwon laughed, sitting on the table near Sujeong's chair. 

Sujeong gave a judging look at him before smiling. "I'm pretty sure Bach is not a painter."

"Shut up and answer me." Jiwon grinned, helping himself to the bottle of chocolate milk beside him.

"I'm not really sure. Its a silhouette of a girl standing in the rain in the middle of what it seemed like a city? I think. But there's something missing." Sujeong sighed.

"It needs light. Every dark painting needs to have at least one light element in it, it's like a song in some way, even if your lyrics are dark, you have to put something that would make your audience inspired to listen again. Its an artist's job to share their feelings but at the same time, involve a feeling of completion to create art, right?" Jiwon noted. Sujeong gave a questioning look that made Bobby shrug. "I mean, unless you were trying to paint some 90's recreation of golems in some alleyway then you should really put some light in that painty thing."

She stared at Jiwon for a long time before sighing. "Golems are not from the 90s."

"Okay, I'm out of here." Jiwon groaned, standing up from he table he was sitting on. He was about to head for the door when he felt Sujeong's hand reach for his. Sujeong was looking down when he turned around.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." she muttered, lightly holding Jiwon's hand.

The male let out a deep chuckle. "I know,  I was just teasing you. Say, since its already nine o'clock, you wanna eat dinner?"

"Nothing spicy, okay?" Sujeong smiled. She was about to reach her coat when she realized that she was still holding his hand. She was about to let his hand go when he shook his head and tightened his hold on her hand and in the same week, Sujeong felt warm. 

***

Hanbin sat quietly inside the little restaurant, poking his food when he heard a light sound of laughter and every fiber of his body froze.

"Yah! I thought you said nothing spicy!" a man screeched. Hanbin knew that voice and he was torn in to leaving, or into turning around to take a glimpse, just a mere glimpse to see how she was doing. Thousands of thoughts flooded into his mind, what if he sees her happy? He was selfish but he doesn't want to know that all it took was a week for her to be happy again. But what if she was miserable? He wouldn't be able to bear knowing that she has been living as a miserable being the past week. Is she alright? Does she hate me? Is she eating well? 

Is she crumbling like he is?

"Well..." Sujeong's voice rang into Hanbin's ear like the most beautiful of sound. "My body isn't used to spicy things but if I keep eating it, my body will be used to it, no?"

Hanbin shook his head. No, she shouldn't eat, she will be in pain for the next few days if she does.

He heard Jiwon clap his hands merrily. "Okay, I'll order a spicy one and you can take a bite."

"Why?" Sujeong laughed and Hanbin's chest grows heavier. His brain wanted to stand up and leave to spare him from any more pain but hearing her voice was his heart yearned for. "That's not fair."

Jiwon chuckled. "Step by step, okay?"

"I'm almost there, Jiwon. I can forget him." Sujeong said.

Hanbin stormed out of the restaurant and went into the first empty alley he found before his tears burst out. After punching the wall for what it seemed like a hundred times, he pulled out his phone, ignoring that drops of blood that tainted the screen.

Jiwon pulled out his phone and opened the new message from Hanbin.

"Hyung, she'll get sick if she eats something spicy."