October Part II
There was something about the art classroom that fueled Jisoo's creativity.
Maybe it was just the fumes from the paint, but either way, it was, without a doubt, Jisoo's favorite time of day.
Callie Cartwright was an excellent teacher, and she doted on her students, and was a firm believer of painting from the soul, because art was a window to one's deepest, most personal thoughts. For that reason, she'd tasked them with painting an animal that they felt represented themselves.
Jisoo's canvas was a myriad of warm yellows and browns, each stroke precise and thoughtful. A lioness stared back at her, not yet finished, but amber eyes glinted from behind the curtain of tall grass, intended to make the viewer feel small, as though they were being hunted. Jisoo wanted it to look as real as possible, so she was taking her sweet time, carefully using increasingly smaller brushes to capture individual hairs of fur.
Bogum was painting from a position on the floor, peering up through the skylight to try and capture the different hues of blue, the exact underlying purple in the clouds, face scrunched up in concentration as he carefully outlined his eagle, hands steady.
Across the room, Jisoo could see Nayeon dancing absentmindedly as she mixed hues on her palette, and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The girl always seemed to be doing something other than painting when Jisoo looked, but the brunette had to admit that Nayeon's swan was coming along well, though Jisoo would have personally chosen to paint the pond under the cover of moonlight, with dark purples and blues in the water as opposed to the different shades of lighter blue, but Nayeon had decided to make the scene sunny, much like her personality , as Callie would say gleefully.
While the majority of the class seemed to be striving for realism, Chanyeol, of course, had to swim against the current.
"Fuck realism," he'd declared once Callie had announced the project, earning him a stern look which he ignored completely, and then made a beeline for the watercolors. It suited him, though, the bright splashes of oranges and reds complementing the overall aesthetic of the fox.
She was touching up the eyes, as they needed more of a shine, more definition to their amber depths, when she felt someone approach her from behind.
"Whoa, Kim, this is really good."
Jisoo blinked owlishly a few times before turning, a confused smile on her face.
Was Nayeon Im complimenting her?
That was certainly a first.
For as long as Jisoo could remember, she and Nayeon had always been the most competitive when it came to art, but Jisoo never stirred up trouble, fulfilled by the knowledge that she was the better of the two, in that way a child grins secretively, content in the knowledge that they are the favorite. They'd been in the same art classes since the dark ages of City of Light Nursery School, and Nayeon had never, not once, gone out of her way to compliment Jisoo's art.
So, naturally, Jisoo was suspicious as all hell.
"Thanks, Im," she said with a half-shrug, "it's nowhere near done yet, but it's coming along nicely." She nodded in the direction of Nayeon's swan. "Yours is looking good, too." Nayeon flashed her a toothy grin, eyes tracing the expanse of Jisoo's work in great detail, even crouching down so that she was eye-level with the lioness, and she let out a long whistle.
"I almost feel like I'm being hunted," she commented, and Jisoo couldn't help the internal victory dance knowing that it had the desired effect, even though it was Nayeon who was complimenting her.
