The Last Piece of Me {HyunLix}

A Beautiful Means to an End.

BEFORE WE BEGIN!!
The cover art for this story was done by @englshhw_due on instagram. (Yes it's me, busted haha). I also have an actual art account (@arthw_due) if y'all care.

Anyway wanted to shamelessly plug for a sec and now I'll leave you to read in peace ;))

Thank u for reading!

***

Felix.

I met him on a bright almost-afternoon. I'd woken up late as usual, and Leeknow was screaming at me down the phone as I sped through the streets of Seoul city. I'd gotten used to dodging people like bullets on days like this, when the sun blocked my line of vision and Leeknow's angry voice shoved me into fifth gear, it was always faster to get to practice on foot than to take the bus.

"If you don't get here in the next five minutes, you won't have ankles to dance on, Lee Felix," The use of my full name down the line flipped my heart inside out. Leeknow never called me Felix, only when I was late, only when he was ready to kick my ass. At least he wasn't threatening to cook me like fried chicken today; he must have been in a good mood.

"I'm almost there, I swear, hyung!" I huffed, out of breath as I crossed the street, ignoring the little red man on the lightpost telling me to wait. "I'm on campus now," I said.

"Sure you are." I could practically hear Leeknow's eye-roll through his tone, and then his smirk when he began to count down from ten.

"Ten, nine, eight..." he said, and my hyperventilating became breathless wheezing; I wasn't anywhere near the dance campus yet.

"Wait, hang on!" I panicked, switching in and out of English which made him count faster.

"Seven, six..."

"Leeknow, I'm not that close to the studio yet, hold on!"

"Five— I don't see you walking through the door— four..."

"Leeknow—" As I ascended the hundreds of campus stairs leading to the studio I smacked right into someone going downward. I fell sideward, snatching the railing for support but still hitting the stairs pretty hard. The person I'd charged into fell back onto his hands instead of crashing down with me— gravity was apparently on his side. I glanced around for my phone and found it a few stairs down, I scrambled to grab it.

"Hello?" I said, "are you still counting?"

Leeknow was pissing himself laughing on the other line, "did you just fall over?" He wheezed. I gave an exasperated sigh and brushed myself off.

"I'll be there soon, hyung," I said, "I'm hanging up now." I turned to the person I'd knocked over to see he was still sitting, examining his right wrist tenderly. I walked up to him, "I'm so sorry!" I said. He had a large sling-over bag that had strewn paint brushes and small canvases and tubes of paint all over the staircase, and I began to pick them up in a hurry. I was still late, but leaving him there would have been against everything I stood for, so I tried to make helping him up as fast as possible.

"Are you alright?" I asked, giving him a hand up. He winced as he flexed his right hand and declined my help to stand up on his own. He seemed annoyed, but somehow I didn't feel like his irritation was aimed at me.

He shook his head, "it's fine, you're in a rush." He mumbled. He seemed to want to be somewhere else too.

"Really, I'm sorry... oh my god, is that your painting?" I caught sight of a large, utterly destroyed canvas in pieces where the boy had fallen. My stomach dropped as my eyes flitted between his unbothered face and his dismantled work.

"It's okay, it was a means to an end anyway." He sighed, like he was more vexed at having to clean up the broken artwork than the fact that his efforts had been ruined. I was frozen in awe for a second. The painting was abstract and muted, of a vase with wilting flowers inside it. The water in the bottom of the vase was murky like ink and it ran up the stems of the plants, spilling over their white petals. It was dark and sad and beautiful; I wondered if maybe the boy was just in shock, why he wasn't more devastated about it being broken. How could something so wonderful be a means to an end?

I shook it off as it wasn't my business how an artist felt about their work; if I'd learned anything from my friend Jisung, it was that you never question an artist's motive. 'You just let us do our thing, and see how limitless we are.' he would always say. No wonder Leeknow liked him so much, they were both as insane as each other.

"Well," I said, still feeling guilty to no fault of the boy, "I'm so sorry, but I don't know if I'll live to see another day if I keep my friend waiting, is it alright if I head off?"

He nodded, "yeah."

"Thank you," I said, already heading up the stairs again, but I turned to bow before I continued, "if there's anything I can do to make up for the painting, you'll find me easily in one of the dance studios!"

"Actually," he said, and I froze a few steps away.

"Huh?"

"I need another canvas... they're expensive, you know?"

I drew a breath and nodded, "Right..." I said, thinking, "I still really have to go, but... okay, here—"

I ran back to him, "pass your phone?" He shot me a look but gave his phone to me with some hesitation. I typed my number in and handed it back, "when you want the new canvas, give me a call, okay?"

He looked at me as if unsure if I was serious, and then nodded, "sure... you should go."

"Oh, yeah," I said, sorely reminding myself of the time and leaping two stairs at a time while waving, "sorry again, bye!"