𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑶𝑭 𝑴𝒀 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 (Taejin)

Chapter 7

The art file means a lot to me.

Its one of the many other files stashed somewhere under my bed that contain my work. My art.

It all started with a crayon and a bright sunny day outside.

It developed into something more. From a drawing of mom and I, to our house, to the neighbouring houses. The clouds and the different shades of the sky. The people passing by. There was hardly a time where my hands or face were not covered by purple or blue or yellow.

I was gifted in art. That's something I knew since I was little and my art teacher had gasped seeing the drawing I had made of my mother during art class.

The empty walls of our house slowly started to fill up with my drawings and paintings.

But then a vehicle swerved towards the wrong lane with a wrong angle. An innocent woman who had been walking by with a grocery bag in hand saw the stray car a bit too late and ended up losing her ability to walk. To work.

Its not like she couldn't work but the doctor had advised her not to.

My mother.

The house that was filled with sunshine and paintings switched to a 2 bedroom apartment with white walls and a boy whose dreams were burrowed somewhere, insecure whether they ever could be fulfilled.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

As soon as the bell rings for lunch, I run towards the art room.

A few students are coming out of the room. They start to part away when they see me and I peek in to see Miss Taeyon working on a canvas.

"Miss Taeyon, may I come in?"

She looks up from her art and smiles at me. "Taehyung, come in!"

I walk inside and stand awkwardly beside the canvas.

"I thought you wouldn't come". She says while putting down her paintbrush.

I chuckle. "You are the only teacher I actually admire so there is no way I wouldn't have come".

Miss Taeyon shakes her head. Her hands are rough with tall fingers. An artist's hand.

"Honest as always. Taehyung, do you know why I called you?"

"No".

Yes, I did.

She sighs and then looks at me. "There was a time that you would come running at me whenever you saw me in the hallways. There would always be an art file in your hand. You would become a child again and pester me to look at your work, to give you my opinion. Its been months now, Taehyung. Where is that boy? Where is that artist?"

I look down at my white shoes which had turned a lovely shade of black so I had decided to paint it. I couldn't afford a new pair of shoes.

I myself didn't know the answer to her question.

Where was that boy now?

Perhaps the boy had realised the truth. That he was helpless. That he couldn't even afford for his dreams to come true.

"Taehyung. I know about your mom, I do. But what's happened has happened. Don't bury your dreams because of it. Did you see what was inside the art file? Did that child- Jin, give it to you?"

I nod my head. "Yes, he had. And I did see it".

It had been my first drawing I had given her in the second day of her class. A drawing of a pink flower alone in the field. Away from the other flowers.