The girl with the painting

A stunning painting is resting on a wooden easel mere inches away from the lone figure in the art studio.

On a low wooden stool, Kwon Yi-seul sits silently. Her gleaming amber-eyes are focused on the painting she has finished minutes ago.

This painting would be the final painting to her collections for this season's exhibit, which pre-opening would happen today.

The light creeping in from the small window on the roof is now harsher as the day nears its peak.

Yet the passage of time doesn't affect the figure on the stool who remains unmoving, seemingly fixated to the painting.

It feels like forever has passed when the young woman finally heaves a sigh as she closes her eyes in resignation.

The next time her eyes are opened, Kwon Yi-seul has made her decision.

Kwon Yi-seul stands up easily, as if none of her limbs has undergone torture in the form of stillness due to the lack of motions for the past three days.

Without further ado, she lifts the painting from the easel. Although the painting itself is not heavy, the size of it is exactly the length of her arms.

It would be difficult to see the front with the painting in her arms, but Kwon Yi-seul managed as she steadily walks towards the exit of her tranquil art studio.

In a situation with her tiny head forced to face the side where she can't even see her two feet, opening the door would be a challenge even if the 'hands-free' technology incorporated to it could disregard her occupied hands.

It is the foresight of Kwon Yi-seul's older brother which made it possible for her to enter and exit her art studio even when she has an armful.

"The gardenias are blooming beautifully, the peonies pale in comparison," she recites off the top of her head.

Within seconds, the oak door responds to the spoken words as it slides open without a single sound. The gap was unusually large as it was made with the biggest size of a canvas Kwon Yi-seul has ever worked on in mind.

Kwon Yi-seul carries her painting with ease, a tell-tale that she has done this many times before. The door slides closed when the young woman steps out of the studio, a sensor system in place.

An artist would never display an incomplete artwork, be it painting, music or story. It goes against their sense of self. It is simply impossible to do.

The painting held in her arms is irrefutably impressive, yet she knows that something is missing from it.

This is not the first time for Kwon Yi-seul to encounter a problem in finishing her painting. Often, a certain detail in her painting eludes her until she captures it.

At the moment, the young artist is searching for her inspiration with the painting she is lugging around.

There is nothing but questions in her head as she traverses the quiet hallway devoid of people's presence on the second floor.

Her first destination is the end of the hallway to her studio where the designated area for painting supplies delivery are placed for her easy-access.

The window at the end of the wall there is the largest on the second floor, the scenery is beautiful and it may be where her answer lies.

Soon enough, she realises that while the landscape she can she through the window is inspiring, it doesn't help her current predicament.

Kwon Yi-seul hums lightly, her feet make a turn to tread lightly towards the other end of the hallways.

Every time she walks past a window, the young artist would glance through it, thinking, contemplating, if what she had seen there was what she is missing.

When she fails to find what she is looking for on the second floor, her tiny feet decides for her to extend their search into the first floor.

Despite her limited vision due to the huge painting, Kwon Yi-seul makes her way down the spiralling-stairs with little trouble. Each step is perfectly placed, with not a single toe out of the stair.

So it is with great surprise when her feet gave away due to an unexpected unknown beneath her feet.

It would have been easy for the young woman to regain her balance if not for the painting in her arms.

The added weight to her person made it difficult to steady herself, and as gravity takes hold of her, she made the hard decision to let go of the painting.

With the painting, Kwon Yi-seul is certain she can always make something out of it, even when it needs fixing, she is sure she can succeed.

With herself, there is far too many in line should she hurt herself due to her inability to take note of her surrounding when she is immersed in her thoughts.

Decision made in seconds, the young artist loosens her grip on the painting, her heart aching despite being fully aware that it is the best choice given the situation.

As the painting falls freely, her vision is no longer obscured and nothing else weighs her down.

The young woman uses this chance to right her postures mid-air to make a safe landing on the ground floor, bypassing more than a handful steps.

Kwon Yi-seul would have been fine.

Which is why she is not the least bit thankful when a pair of strong arms prevented her fall, her small waist seized without her consent.

The owner of said arms is a man with a solid stature, his hold on her person is steady despite the gravity weighing her down as she falls.

Their posturing is picturesque. Her arms on his shoulders and his arms around her waist, the light shining down on them in the background as their eyes locked in place.

The man is wearing an expression of open surprise in contrary to her barely wide-eyed look. Their faces are so close to each other that every detail is visible to her eyes.

From his peach-blossom, clear-dark eyes framed by long-curled eyelashes, the neatly-defined eyebrows that refines his facial features, his straight-pointy nose with masculine appeal matching the strong-jawline, then finished by a full-cherry lips.

He looks ordinary.

There is nothing memorable in his facial features that would make it easier for her to recognise the man in a crowd.

For a while, they remain in that position in silence. She is inwardly bewildered that someone had actually tried to save her when she doesn't need it.

On the other hand, the man seems to have lost his soul. It appears as if only his physique remains in the mortal realm while his mind wanders.

Kwon Yi-seul wonders if it's considered rude if she shakes-off his hold on her and tell him his help was unnecessary.

Her musings are cut short when a voice announces its presence in a question directed to her—a voice she has definitely heard amongst the millions.

"So...I believe I saved your painting?" the man whose voice belongs to says as he gestures his free arm towards the painting.

The familiarity in this voice is unmistakable, it prompts the young woman to swivel her head so quickly it could have sprained.

In the process of doing so, she has little of mind towards the man-who-unnecessarily-tried-to-save-her.

As a world-renowned musician, her ears are extremely sensitive to sound and she is absolutely certain this voice she has heard quite a lot despite never having met before this.

Above all else, the subject of conversation is the painting she was, and still is, very much concerned about.

In her mind, there is currently nothing more important than the painting, followed by identifying the owner of the voice she recognised.

It matters little that the man who had broke her fall is left stupefied by the sudden turn of event. Unless he calls for her attention, he is none of her concern.

The young woman thus left the man's side as she approaches the one who brought her painting to safety.

In the hands of the other man is her painting, which as far as she could see, has no damages to it due to the timely-save.

Kwon Yi-seul truly appreciates the help in securing the painting she had given-up the well-being of when she slipped and fell.

This man has an easy-smile plastered to his face, the structures to his countenance are quite common but the little beauty-mark under his right-eye.

It can be said that his facial features are similar to the man who caught her. For examples, his nose-bridge is just slightly lower and his lips is somewhat thinner.

One other notable differences between the two men is the shade of their skins, the man who saved her painting has a lighter-shade while the other man is leaning more to tan.

As Kwon Yi-seul finds it bothersome to recognise the men, thus she begins to refer to them as man-one and man-two in her mind.

In her focus, the young artist doesn't notice that she has intrude on man-two's personal space. He seems tensed, but it isn't due to bad-discomfort.

Eventually, man-two can no longer sustain his nerves. The young woman is far too close. She is someone he holds close to his heart, but never in this proximity.

"Uh, that...you are too close," he squirms in place, too afraid to make the slightest movement as his eyes darts everywhere but at her. She is simply too blinding!

Two short blinks later, Kwon Yi-seul registers the lack of distance between her and man-two and while it doesn't bother her, she pulls away from man-two.

"Oh," she muses curtly, not at all apologetic.

As an artist, Kwon Yi-seul observes people, nature and emotions. It's isn't rare for her to be too deep in scrutiny to notice if she may have came off as disturbing to others.

Now that she is finished connecting the voice to man-two, the young woman's attention naturally shifted to the painting in man-two's hand.

"Thank you," she says as her dainty fingers reaches out for the painting.

This time man-two is the one to blink repeatedly as his brain works overtime to process her gratitude. While it is normal to be thanked for help, his mind finds it difficult to compute the Goddess of his heart has just done so.

"O-Oh, you mean for catching your painting. O-Of course, it's an honour," he replies while stumbling over his words. To not further embarrass himself, he make the initiative to lightly push the painting towards her.

Kwon Yi-seul retrieves the painting, but she doesn't bring it to her arms like before. Instead, she rests the weight against the ceramic-floor.

In the background, man-one remains frozen. He is almost like a still-statue with his unwavering expression and motionless figure.

Man-one aside, the young artist is more interested in what caused her to slip. Her amber-eyes cleanly swept through the staircase and its surrounding to locate the perpetrator.

With her twenty-twenty vision, it doesn't take long for her to spot a green-leaf not far from the foot of the stairs.

A single stray leaf was blown by the breeze into the gallery and landed on the step by chance.

Her next course of action is to lift up her painting and rest it against the railing of the stairs. Only then she approaches the leaf that caused her fall.

A closer look shows her nothing is special about the leaf. It is the kind of leaf that can be found everywhere in this season, nothing distinctive.

Attached on the green-leaf is a short stem which broke away from the branch of a tree, the leaf is upright without any hole nor discolouration.

Twirling the leaf between her thumb and index-finger, she begins to hum softly. The sensation of the leafy-texture on her fingers is comforting.

Satisfied, the young woman retraces her steps to where the painting is, taking the leaf with her.

Having had enough excitement for the day, she decides to return to her art studio with the painting. The presences of two strangers near her studio means the pre-opening must be soon.

It isn't responsible of her to display the final painting at the last minute. Uncaring of man-two's concentrated gaze following her every movements and of man-one's frozen-solid form, the young artist makes to reach for the painting.

From the corner of her eyes, she notes man-one is standing too close to the stairs, he would be an obstruction when she would return to her studio with the painting in her arms.

The fall. The leaf. Man-one.

It is at this time that a flash of inspiration strikes Kwon Yi-seul.

Ah, she muses, this is the detail I was missing.

At the realisation, the young artist finally feel something within her settled, there is no longer the uncharacteristic hurry that urge her to move.

All of these, man-one has a tremendous hand in achieving.

"Thank you," she earnestly tells man-one, not for trying to save her but for providing her the answer.

Never before has she faced man-one head-on like she is doing now. Even when he had her in his arms, she barely looks at him, too busy with her own mind to do more.

Her unwavering gaze and her two words managed to jolt man-one back to awareness. His head jerked towards her as his eyes regains focus, their eyes locking once more. His mouth begins to open and close as he tries and fails to form words.

It is almost pitiful, man-one is. If the young artist was any other person, she would have said something to soothe his frayed-nerves.

As it is, Kwon Yi-seul pays no mind to the on-goings of man-one and man-two as she is solely focused on returning to the confines of her studio to add the detail she was missing.

Believing she is done here, the painting is once again hefted-up into her arms as she climbs up the stairs, the leaf safely deposited in her apron-pocket.

In a sedate pace, the young artist walks up the stair step-by-step with more care than when she went down.

"Kwon Yi-seul."

The young woman halts in her track, her every movements cut short. Even if she wants to return to her studio to finalise her painting, she can't.

"Yi-seul ah, I need you to remember to repay gratitude in full. Every time someone provide you with assistance, no matter how big or small, you must return their sincerity."

Of course Kwon Yi-seul has returned their sincerities! She has thanked both man-one and man-two for the helps. That should be enough, right?

"It may seem trivial to you, but that is how the world is run. I am your big brother, and I know that you always meant your 'thank you', but for others, it isn't like so."

Now she can't help grumbling, she doesn't understand why people insist to be so difficult. Why else would she say 'thank you' when she doesn't even mean it?

"If you don't know what to do, then you can tell me and we can look for the proper way together, okay?"

If her big brother is here, Kwon Yi-seul is sure she will have another lecture. Even now, to avoid the impending nagging, she has to do as he reminds her to.

Of all the times to show her gratitude with different mean other than the two precious words, it just has to be when she is in a haste to place the missing piece to a painting.

Had it been truly strangers that offered her help, she would be at amiss to recognise them. It is fortunate that she is partly-acquainted to one of the two men.

In front of the two gaping-yet-attentive men, Kwon Yi-seul places down her painting and holds them in place with her right hand as she turns to face them from half-way the stairs.

The young artist first gave man-one a one-second stare—which steals said man's breath—before moving in on to man-two whose identity is more familiar to her.

"Long07. My big brother will contact you to thank for your help. Same for your friend."

After speaking her pieces, she is now ready to return. Surely this must be enough? It certainly is. She thus turns her back and continues her way up.

Her trip downstairs is undoubtedly rewarding. She is able to find what she was missing and identify the owner of one of the many voices she believed to be unique.

If the two men left on the foot of the stairs are bewildered by the whirlwind that goes by the name of Kwon Yi-seul, it is none of her relevance.