Shades of Purple

Young ambition

Chapter I

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Young ambition
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Dance to this Troye ft. Ariana

Taehyung liked feeling the texture of the keyboard beneath his hands, fingers hovering skillfully over the plastic keys, being able to transpose his feelings virtually, straight to a word document.
His inspiration would come from different sources. Sometimes, it was the frail lavender he saw in the morning on his way to high school, other times was the youthful stories his grandmother would tell him while preparing her special herbal tea. Some other times it was just... his favorite music.

Music was a powerful source of inspiration for him, especially when writing. It helped him describe sceneries, imagine and reimagine new ones, build up intriguing background stories, but most importantly, bring the characters he forged with so much passion, to life.

That day was a typical normal day for Taehyung who was in front of his laptop, a cup of tea steaming on the coffee table, hands above the keyboard, music blasting in his earphones. He inhaled deeply, exhaled, and opened his eyes.
He would definitely write a few pages this time.
He just had to start typing, right? Write a few words down...

But nothing... Taehyung found himself staring at a blank document, dejected and frustrated.
He sighed after a few minutes of staring at the empty page in front of him. He liked the plot of the story he started writing just a few weeks ago, it was intriguing and had everything it took to become a great story. Yet, he felt like something was missing. Most probably the characters were lacking somewhere.

Taehyung was struggling to find the inspiration he needed. Something that used to come so naturally, became a burden.

Certainly, the state he was in wasn't going to lead him anywhere.

He decided to call his favorite cousin, Kim Seokjin, who was studying literature at the university Taehyung also wished to attend after finishing high school.

Kim Taehyung was a senior high school student. He had developed a fervent passion for literature and writing for the past few years. His dream was to attend Seoul National University and study literature. To make sure he would indeed pursue his dream, he planned to go the extra mile and write a story that, eventually, would be added to his portfolio, giving him an extra opportunity to make an impression and be accepted.

He was lucky to be the cousin of Kim Seokjin, a third-year student at Seoul National University, pridefully holding the title of Student of the Year. He had taught Taehyung a lot of things about writing, creating, and developing brilliant characters for his fictional stories, where Taehyung was excelling the most. Seokjin helped him improve his skills, pointing out every time something he wrote was lacking, offering alternatives on how he could fill those holes proficiently.

Taehyung loved receiving feedback, especially when it came from someone as experienced as Seokjin.

Seokjin had warned Taehyung of times when he won't be able to write, of times when there will be this invisible force keeping him away from his passion. He did believe his cousin to a certain extent, just didn't experience it up until that day. He had no idea what it meant to be faced with a "writer's block" up until then.

Now that he knew, he tried following Seokjin's advice by going into that headspace, making himself comfortable and surrounded by all the things that inspired him, yet, something was still missing.

Maybe the incapability to write had a cause, and maybe it had something to do with his insecurities.

The more he looked back on the outline of the story, the more he realized that there was something he didn't like, something that was missing, and he couldn't picture what, no matter how many times others reassured him that he was continuously improving.