Chapter Text
It feels weird.
It feels weird, but at the same time, kind of flattering to see your figure on a canvas, rendered by means of watercolor and ink. Sousuke stares at the framed piece, and takes in the blue hoodie, the slouched posture, the way the figure is leaning to the left against the lamp post. The cool colors of the figure make for a wonderful contrast against the pinks and oranges of the sunrise behind him.
Sousuke doesn’t know much about art, but he can at least recognize a beautifully done piece, even if the artist referenced him without him knowing. He scrutinizes the face of the character on the painting, knowing that if he’d look in the mirror, he’d probably see the same thing.
Rin hadn’t been joking when he sent the text this morning about something that might catch his interest in the art gallery’s interuniversity showcase. Glancing down, Sousuke reads the name of the painter and commits it to memory.
Nanase Haruka, Tokyo University, the plaque says. Underneath it is the supposed title of the work of art, and it reads Good Morning. Sousuke snorts, expecting something more extravagant than that.
He spends another few minutes looking at the painting before deciding to take a picture of it. He fishes his phone from his back pocket and opens the camera application, but just as he raises it to eye-level, someone comes up to speak to him.
“You know that’s not allowed right?” a calm voice sounds from behind, “People aren’t allowed to take pictures until after the awarding ceremony later today.”
Sousuke bristles and looks over his shoulder, and is promptly met with extremely clear blue eyes that would put deep ocean water to shame. He’s considerably shorter and slimmer, but the air around him is defiant.
The newcomer moves to stand beside him and Sousuke presses his lips together in a thin line as he puts his mobile back in his jeans. “I didn’t know that,” he bites out.
“If you liked the painting that much, you should leave a comment and a vote at the exit,” the stranger replies, shooting Sousuke a knowing look. A neutral expression is set on his face, but Sousuke can almost feel a smirk coming on.
“Huh,” is all Sousuke says, before he turns around and leaves the guy, walking briskly towards the exit. He looks back over his shoulder once and is oddly pleased to see that the stranger hasn’t moved at all and is still looking at the painting. Maybe he likes the piece too?
Or maybe… he’s put two and two together and just only realized that the man he was talking to bore an extremely striking resemblance to the one in the painting. Sousuke sighs. Immediately, his mind’s brought back to his main concern. To be honest, he’s not sure if he should look for the artist and have a word with him about painting.
In the end, he decides not to look for him, because he’s pretty sure this is a one-time thing. What if the artist just happened to be near him at the time and drew inspiration from him because the light hit him pretty good? Sousuke stops in his tracks and has to stifle another snort. Because the light hit me pretty good? What am I even thinking?
When he reaches the exit, he stalls at the booth where both the guest book and ballot box are stationed. A quick glance over his shoulder shows him that the stranger from before has moved on to other parts of the exhibit, and a sense of relief washes over him.
He leaves a vote for Nanase Haruka and on the comments section, writes ‘It won’t hurt to ask permission next time you want to draw me. Good work anyway.’ After some thought, he adds his first name, and then leaves the art gallery feeling rather satisfied.
He fails to notice an azure gaze trained on him as he walks away.
Sousuke meets Rin for lunch just as the latter’s done with class. When asked about how his visit to the gallery went, he shrugs and tells his best friend that nothing much happened. “The painting was nice,” he says, “It didn’t bother me as much as I thought it should’ve.”
“The artist captured you really well, you know? It’s almost romantic!” Rin responds, grinning coyly at him.
“You’re despicable, Rin. Let’s just get some food. I’m starving.”
They eat at a ramen shack close to the redhead’s university, and then spend the rest of the afternoon in Sousuke’s apartment to study. Sousuke has an oral presentation to prepare for, while Rin has two essays that are due the next day. They don’t talk about the painting at all, each of them engrossed in their schoolwork.
They’re done by the time the sun starts to set. As Rin gathers his stuff and shoves them unceremoniously in his backpack, he says, “By the way, did you find out who the artist was? It might be nice to actually get to know him, wouldn’t it?”
Sousuke raises an eyebrow. “Don’t romanticize the situation, Rin.”
Huffing, the redhead makes a face at him before walking out the front door with a two-finger salute. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you on the weekend, you big lug. Break a leg tomorrow.”
Sousuke waves in return, his thoughts returning to the painting at the gallery, then to the blue-eyed stranger. He reckons the showcase’s awarding ceremony has already finished, and wonders who won the competition. Before he can stop himself, he tidies up his room and grabs a jacket, toes on his red sneakers and makes his way out of his apartment.
Rin is nowhere to be found when he gets out of the building, and he concludes that maybe his best friend took a cab back home. Sousuke then walks briskly towards the art gallery, a convenient four blocks away from his place.
He reaches the gallery and frowns when he sees the crowd inside through the glass walls. Almost everyone is garbed in formal wear, and those who aren’t are the ones taking pictures and interviewing other people. Probably the media, he thinks.
Sousuke realizes he is way too underdressed to enter the showcase venue, so he settles for walking towards the entrance in hopes that the results were at least posted on the front doors. To his chagrin, there’s nothing on the glass doors save for the list of names of the participants from the exhibit.
“Why did I even bother going?” he mutters to himself, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to kill the irritation bubbling in the pit of his stomach.
“You can go in and take pictures now, if you like.”
A familiar figure settles beside him, and Sousuke blinks once, twice, before it registers who exactly that person is. “You…” he says, but every other word doesn’t slip past his tongue when he realizes that Clear Blue Eyes from earlier today is clad in a form-fitting tuxedo.
“You’re one of the artists here?” Sousuke asks instead, internally thanking the gods for a speedy recovery. He wasn’t prepared for someone to look that good in a simple suit.
“Yes,” the stranger says simply, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get going.”
Sousuke watches as he opens the glass door and steps inside. Before closing the door, he gives Sousuke a small smile and says, “The painting you liked won third place, by the way.” Then he straightens his bow tie and stalks off to the crowds, easily getting engulfed by the amount of people in the hall. In a matter of seconds, his raven-haired head is indiscernible from the others.
Sousuke releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding and finds that the corners of his mouth have lifted slightly. He can’t help but feel as if he hit two birds with one stone today.
Two weeks after the exhibit at the art gallery, Sousuke comes across the name Nanase Haruka once more. This time he’s in his university’s quad, and some student from the journalism club is handing out the monthly tribune. He takes one just so the student would leave him alone, and since it looks like it’s going to be a while before Kisumi’s going to meet him, he starts reading.
Halfway through, he recognizes the familiar name on the top right corner of a page. The artist has apparently drawn for this month’s editorial, something about the increase of enrollees in the Business Administration and Economics department.
And of course, of course, the drawing has Sousuke in it.
It’s a sketch of what looks to be the Economics building lecture hallway, where most of the students loiter when waiting for class to start. Even though there are quite a number of students in the drawing, the focal point is still himself, made noticeable by the bolder lines and more intricate shading.
Sousuke purses his lips as he stares at the picture. Among all of the students, he’s the only one with his notes in his hand, standing close to a classroom door and with a pensive look on his face. All the rest are either talking or doing nothing.
The caption underneath reads Model student.
As expected, it still feels weird and flattering at the same time.
Sousuke doesn’t realize the tips of his ears are red until after Kisumi comes and asks him about it. He shoves the newspaper in his bag so his friend won’t see, and thankfully, Kisumi is more concerned about getting to play street ball with his friends than Sousuke’s source of embarrassment.
At this, Sousuke is just grateful for something to distract him from his thoughts. They get to the street courts in less than ten minutes, and instantly immerse themselves in the game. Sousuke plays harder than he’s ever done before, going as far as to outscoring Kisumi in the first five games. Unfortunately, the name Nanase Haruka is still occupying his mind even after they’re finished playing.
Taking a seat beside his pink-haired friend on the park bench, Sousuke starts, “Hey, got a minute?”
Kisumi gives him a wide smile. “Something on your mind, Sousuke? You played really well today, but you were kinda out of it.” He takes a sip from his water bottle before beckoning the latter closer.
“Does the name Nanase Haruka ring a bell to you?”
Sousuke waits, a tiny bit of regret seeping into his mind as he watches the gears turn in his friend’s head. Kisumi hums as he scrunches his nose, fingers coming up to scratch at his chin. “Ahhh, where have I heard that name before?”
“You know what? Don’t worry about it. You might break your head or someth-”
“No, wait, I have a friend who’s best buddies with the guy, I think. Fine Arts major Nanase Haruka, right?” the pink-haired teen cuts in.
“I don’t really know who the guy is. That’s why I’m asking,” Sousuke admits. He exhales deeply and gets up before Kisumi starts asking questions. “Thanks for today. I had fun.”
“Mhm, I’ll see you tomorrow in Accounting, yeah?” is the chipper reply.
Sousuke nods blithely as he leaves the courts.
He doesn’t know why, but when Sousuke gets home, the first thing he does is take the tribune out from his bag and grab a pair of scissors from his desk drawer. He turns to the page where Nanase’s drawing is and begins to cut it out neatly.
He pauses for a while and questions himself about this decision, but gets on with it anyway. When he’s done, he grabs a clear file from his shelf and shoves the clipping there. Only heaven knows why he’s doing this, really.
Afterwards, he jumps onto his bed and muffles a groan in his pillow. Who is Nanase Haruka and why does he keep drawing him? Does this guy have a crush on him? Does he think of Sousuke as his personal muse? All these questions and more are probably going to keep Sousuke awake for the rest of the night.
He reaches out for the newspaper on his desk and props his pillows up on his headboard. He might as well finish reading the tribune if he wants something else on his mind.
The editorial article actually makes a lot of sense when he thinks about it. There has been an influx of students in the department ever since the start of this year. Sousuke skims through the rest of the articles on the page, most of them stories about campus-related things.
One of them pertains to the art exhibit that occurred fourteen days before, and sure enough, Nanase Haruka’s name makes another appearance. Sousuke is a bit miffed that the journalism members didn’t take pictures, but then again, the exhibit wasn’t that much of a major event.
The article proves to be helpful though, as it’s then he learns that Nanase is a second year just like him, a Fine Arts major as Kisumi mentioned, and is considered to be one of the top students in his department. He’s also consistent in placing in the art competitions, both local and international.
Sousuke wonders why someone as talented as Nanase would want to draw him.
He scans the next page and then the next, and is pleasantly surprised to find his best friend in the sports section as one of the contenders that Japan has to look out for in the swimming world, even rivaling that of Toudai’s swimmers. He cuts out the article just in case Rin’s ego needed feeding, and stashes it in the same clear file that has Nanase’s drawing in it.
The last two pages of the tribune are dedicated to the journalism club and the list of people who have contributed in the issue. It’s kind of like a phonebook, since the names are written with the person’s contact information as well.
Sousuke’s eyes zero in on the name he can’t seem to get tired of today.
Nanase Haruka / [email protected] / 03-5556-0831 / College of Arts & Sciences, TouDai
He doesn’t even think twice when he inputs the contact information in his mobile, also when he opens his texting application and sends ‘Is this Nanase Haruka?’ to the number.
His phone vibrates five minutes later, and the reply has Sousuke pinching the bridge of his nose as he moves to bury himself under the covers, contemplating why he has to over complicate things in his life.
‘Yes. Who is this??’