Work Text:
portrait of a lady
seulgi was out of breath. she ran as fast as she could through the halls of their university building. racing up the stairs, she was terrified because, well to say that she’s late was truly an understatement. her art class was at the fourth floor of the building, and because the elevators were slow she decided to just run up the stairs instead. seems like her professor will have a good time nagging at her for being tardy yet again. once she reached their floor she slowed down her pace. as she looked around the hall she noticed a girl.
the girl was tall and pretty, she had long black hair with bangs and wore her outfit with outmost confidence. and she walked as if she owned the place. the girl was practically glowing. as the sunlight shines through the windows in the hallway, the girl’s comely features were more noticeable. she wasn’t just pretty, she was drop dead gorgeous. seulgi was enchanted. they briefly made eye contact as they passed each other by. seulgi swore that she saw the girl smirk at her as she passed by. she felt a light heat rush to her cheeks, and shook off the weird feeling she had. she walked up to their classroom and entered. seulgi would soon understand that she had a crush on the mysterious lady.
it was seulgi’s lucky day, her professor didn’t notice her enter the room. or maybe he did but didn’t mind seulgi as he perhaps wanted to just continue the lesson than let her disturb his teaching. and so she sat down at the far back, as the professor kept talking about different art techniques and principles. seulgi found her mind wandering, she thought of the mysterious lady. her face was imprinted in seulgi’s mind. she was way too beautiful to be forgotten.
before the class would end, her professor announced their project. as art students they would paint or draw a portrait of a person. the person could be anyone they wanted, the due date would be at the end of the month. seulgi had an epiphany. why not ask the mysterious girl to model for her portrait? once classes has ended, she picked up her stuff and left.
for the next few days, seulgi goes to classes earlier than usual. yes it was because she didn’t want to have a reputation that she was always late, but the real reason she was always early was because she wanted to see the mysterious lady again. and this time she’ll ask her to model for her project.
as seulgi stood in the hallway, she glanced around, hoping to see the lady again. and so she did. the mysterious lady walked along the hallway, carrying a large amount of books, it seemed as if she needed help. so seulgi gathered up all the courage she had and approached her.
“um hey, do you need help?” seulgi said. she offered a warm smile to the girl and gestured to the copious amount of books the girl carried.
“sure! if that’s alright with you” the girl replied, her eyes lit up and she sighed in relief. finally, someone asked her if she needed help. seulgi grabbed a couple of the books, and then as they walked to wherever the girl’s destination was, they finally introduced themselves.
seulgi learned that the girl’s name was sooyoung, but everyone else calls her joy. she was a psychology student but modeled from time to time. the reason was because joy enjoyed the job and she needed the money anyways. so it’s kind of like the best of both worlds for her. as they walked they exchanged conversations about university life and such. once they reach an empty classroom, joy entered first and asked seulgi to come in. there they stacked the books in the professor’s table. joy thanked seulgi as they walked out of the room.
“hey listen, i have an art project i’m working on” seulgi started, joy nodded at her to continue.
“i need a model for my portrait, would you like to model for me?” seulgi asked sheepishly. joy chuckled lightly.
“sure i’d love to! i’ll do it for free because i like you already!” joy replied beaming at her, she took out her phone and opened up her contacts. she asked for seulgi’s contact information and shared hers as well.
“thanks! i’ll text you okay?” seulgi said, looking at her phone. joy put her name in the contacts as ‘your joy’. seulgi liked the idea of joy being well, her joy.
“i’m looking forward to it” joy replied and said good bye. as she walked away, she glanced back at seulgi and waved. she waved back.
a few days passed and it seems like seulgi and joy had become closer. as they worked on the art project together, they find themselves genuinely enjoying each other’s company. they shared stories with each other and found out they had similarities. joy liked the way seulgi laughed at her jokes. she was soft for the girl. and seulgi liked the way joy listened attentively to her ramblings. during those few days, they had lunch often and strolled around the campus together. joy learned about seulgi’s passion for the arts and joy found that admirable. seulgi learned that joy was a workaholic, sometimes she wishes joy would settle down and stop stressing herself out. seulgi wanted to become someone joy can lean on.
right now they were in the university’s art studio. joy sat in the middle of the room, it was only her and seulgi inside. she enjoyed the ambience. as seulgi painted joy, she felt embarrassed. this was because joy was looking at her so intently. the air was getting heavier and the tension was getting thicker.
she glanced at joy, and stared back at her canvas. she started to paint in light strokes, using pastel colors to adorn the canvas, defining joy’s alluring face. the different colored paint combines and in return, the painting turns out to have magnificent hues. this was actually the fifth day of them working together. today was the last day of painting joy’s portrait. seulgi was almost done. joy asked for a break and seulgi agreed.
joy stood up from the stool she had been sitting on for over two hours and walked over to seulgi. she looked at the canvas. joy loved the way seulgi painted, she truly had a gift. seulgi painted her so elegantly.
“how do you know it’s done?” joy asked. placing her hand on seulgi’s shoulder. joy didn’t know why she felt emotional but she did for some reason.
“you just know” seulgi replied. as she sat still doing light strokes, fixing some details and highlighting joy’s features. she placed her brush down, content and looked up at joy. they looked at each other, and smiled.
the portrait is finished, that chapter is done. but it is only the beginning of seulgi and joy’s story.