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You sighed as you pulled your hair out of its ponytail, shaking it loose with relief. I should just chop it all off, having it up all the time gives me a headache. As a culinary arts major, naturally you had to have your hair tied back, and you were running out of cute hairstyles. You spotted one of your classmates up ahead in the courtyard. “Hey! Sasha!”
She didn’t look up from her notebook, but waved you over anyway. “Do you have any idea what you’re going to do for this menu planning assignment?” She looked over her notes, cocking her head. “I feel like I’m a little all over the place.”
You looked over her shoulder at her barely legible handwriting. “Sasha...I’m not quite sure it’s wise to do Asian fusion and classic French in the same meal. Also, we have a time limit, you can’t braise short ribs in two hours.” You had to admire Sasha’s dedication. The girl had a way with food, that was for sure. Her problem was in being incredibly overzealous. She loved food, all kinds of food, and her menus usually ended up poorly planned and nearly impossible to execute. She was a great chef, though, and with your help was getting better at the executive side of things.
Sasha groaned. “I just want to cook! This menu planning thing sucks.” She dropped her head in her hands, moaning.
“Hey, how about we go have dinner tonight, and I can work with you on it? That new ramen place just opened up…” Sasha perked up at that. You had made fast friends with her on the first day of class, when you were all discussing your favorite restaurants. You mentioned that you loved to try new places, and Sasha quickly became your dining companion. Your teachers had come to expect that the pair of you would have written about the same restaurant for any review assignments.
“Sounds awesome! Ooh! Connie!” Sasha called. Connie was a photography major, and always had a camera around his neck. You had become used to having tons of candid photographs taken of you in this very courtyard, any time you and Sasha came out for a break. “Ooh, can we invite Connie tonight?” Sasha blushed as he made his way over.
“Oh, so I can be the third wheel again? Sounds great.” you teased her. It was very clear that Sasha had a huge crush on Connie, and you saw his affection for her, but they were both too chicken to do anything about it. “I swear, if you guys don’t make out sometime soon, I’m just going to shove your tongues in each others’ mouths.” Sasha’s eyes widened as she shook her head, brown hair flying across her face. “Chill out,” you laughed. “I’m gonna go grab some lunch, I’ll see you tonight? Bring Connie if you want.”
She looked desperately at you, not wanting to be left completely alone with her crush, but you gave a cute little wave as you walked away. At the door to the cafeteria on campus, you noticed a sketchbook on the ground. Curious, you picked it up. Certainly one of the design majors had dropped it. Where would you return it? Surely there was a lost and found at administration. Your stomach gave an angry sort of growl, and you carried the book under your arm as you grabbed a salad.
Your curiosity got the better of you after you ate. You tentatively opened the sketchbook. The first page had a flower on it - hibiscus, you thought. It was beautifully detailed, the petals giving off the appearance of dancing in a light breeze. The next page was a cityscape. It looked old European, stone buildings and clock towers, with small figures of people walking along the cobblestone streets. Whoever this was, you were impressed with their talent.
You continued to flip through the book, losing all track of time. You saw some familiar things, including a view from a particular spot by the pond that you liked to sit near on campus, when you needed a moment away from the stress. You saw some sketches of other students - Mikasa, a fashion design major that you met at orientation; Armin, a hospitality major that you worked closely with on one of his own projects; and you even recognized the freckled face of Marco, an advertising major that was probably the kindest person you had encountered so far. Even Levi, one of the professors, was hastily sketched.
You stopped, gasping, when you hit the next page. It was unmistakably you. You were sitting on the grass near the pond, looking contemplatively out across the water. The artist had given you a slight look of sadness, lips parted in a silent sigh. This picture was more detailed than any of the rest. Your hair was down, a single strand blown across your cheek in the wind. You even recognized your outfit - it had been a classroom day, so you weren’t in your chef whites, but a calf-length skirt with a cardigan over it. You stared at the sketch, wide-eyed and shocked. You didn’t feel violated - at an art academy, you had become used to being photographed and sketched. The utter detail in this particular piece was what shocked you. Someone had taken a lot of time to draw you. Had the artist been sitting nearby you on this particular day? There was no way, something like this would take hours, and you had only sat there for thirty minutes or so.
“Hey, have you seen a...Oh, shit.”
You looked up to see amber eyes, and tousled copper hair. You didn’t recognize him. There was a faint blush on his cheeks, and he looked down, embarrassed. “Is this yours? I’m sorry, I was just curious…” you hastily shut the sketchbook and pushed it across the table to him.
“Yeah, I dropped it earlier...Um, thanks.” He tucked the sketchbook in his bag, but made no move to leave. “Did you...Did you see…” He seemed too embarrassed to finish his question. You nodded silently. “Shit. I’m sorry, I’m sure it seems really creepy.” The blush on his face deepened.
“No! No, I’m...I’m flattered, really.” It was true. No one that you had met in your year at art school had put so much loving detail in a sketch or photo of you. Connie was fond of candid shoots, never really asking you to pose or anything, just taking you to a playground or something and taking photos as you did your own thing. Marco had shyly asked you to sit for him once, and had done an old portrait style drawing of you for an assignment. This, though, didn’t appear to be for any sort of assignment. This was a personal sketchbook. Suddenly, you felt overwhelmed with guilt at flipping through it. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have gone through it, it’s clearly personal.”
The man waved a hand. “It’s fine. Honestly, I’m just kind of embarrassed. You just...You looked so beautiful and peaceful and I wanted to draw it. I ended up getting a little carried away, I guess.”
“Are you saying I’m your muse?” you teased gently, trying to bring some humor to this horribly awkward situation.
The man’s eyes widened, but he calmed when he saw that you were just teasing. “I guess so.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, if you want a proper sketch, I’m free tonight.” He held out a hand for you to shake. “I’m Jean, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Jean.” You shook his hand as you introduced yourself. He really was very cute. You smiled as you took a pen from your chef jacket. You grabbed a napkin and wrote your name and number on it. “Tell you what. I’ll make dinner, you bring your sketchbook?”
Jean’s eyes lit up as he nodded. “Yeah! That...That sounds great.” He tried to hide his enthusiasm, but failed miserably. You bit your lip in an attempt to stifle a laugh. “I’ll call you later, then?” You nodded as he got up. He stumbled a bit as he walked away, and tried to cover it by turning around to wave at you. You covered your mouth as you giggled, and waved back. When he was out of sight, you pulled out your phone to text Sasha.
Hey, you wouldn’t think I’m a horrible asshole if I cancelled on you tonight? There’s this guy...