Work Text:
Son Chaeyoung knows that Myoui Mina is seafoam green.
From the second she laid eyes on the girl in the crowded Lotte Concert Hall, she knew. It was Mina’s first solo violin performance and it was Chaeyoung’s first time seeing her live.
Mina was well known all throughout South Korea, Japan, and China as one of the most successful violinists in the past 10 years. Born in San Antonio Texas and coming from Kobe, Japan, at a young age, Mina had a chaotic first few years of life. It wasn’t until Mina was 12 that she finally made friends and really started to find what she was passionate about.
Ballet and violin were her two loves.
For 11 years Mina danced and played but the violin was the one to outlast the ballet. Now at the young age of 27, Mina was more successful than she could have ever imagined.
Chaeyoung, as she would soon come to constantly compare herself to Mina, was your average girl. She was born and raised in South Korea and led a fairly normal childhood. With an intense love of art at a young age, Chaeyoung went to university in pursuit of a degree in painting. She never wanted to work in the corporate world and as luck would have it, she never did.
Chaeyoung was a successful artist. Her paintings and other pieces were in museums across the country and one museum in Japan. Whenever people saw Chaeyoung’s art, they assumed she was a dark and solitary person. Her paintings were weird and abstract. Just how she liked them. In reality, Chaeyoung was just as bright and happy as could be. Being able to create art tamed the dark parts of her mind.
//
Classical music is something that Chaeyoung liked to occasionally listen to. She knew the few composers everyone knew like Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky, but that was as far as she went.
When Chaeyoung’s friend invited her to see a violin performance, she was surprised. Chaeyoung was part of this huge art world so she assumed it would be easy for her friend to find someone else with an actual interest in classical music.
But, Chaeyoung had never been to a classical music concert. Might as well try everything once.
//
The Lotte Concert Hall was big. It was rounded to accompany a large organ in front of the stage. Chaeyoung admired the red velvet seats as she sat down, oohing and aahing at the caramel colored wood that was beautifully lit up by the warm glow of the ceiling lights.
As the lights dimmed to signal the start of the concert, Chaeyoung looked down at the pamphlet she was handed. The woman on the cover, Myoui Mina, was a face she had seen before. She had never listened to her music but she wasn’t too hard on the eyes. Maybe the concert wouldn’t be so bad.
Quickly, Chaeyoung’s head snapped up as she heard heels click across the empty stage. Applause opened up as Mina practically floated to the center. She wasted no time as she gracefully bowed to the audience, the violin confidently and firmly in her hands.
The moment Mina’s bow touched the strings of her violin, Chaeyoung was entranced by the sights and sounds of Mina.
Mina. Mina. Mina.
Every movement Mina made. Every flutter of her chest as she took a breath. Every small upturn of her lips as she smiled. Every micro expression and sway of her body to the purely angelic sounds coming from her violin. Every single little thing about Mina pointed to seafoam green. Chaeyoung was sure of it.
Never had Chaeyoung been so immersed in classical music in her life. Never had she been so grateful that her friend bought tickets so close to the stage. Never had she been so happy that she decided to step out of her comfort zone.
Chaeyoung closed her eyes as Mina played, the next painting she wanted to work on immediately forming in her mind. She saw Mina. She saw her violin. She saw that seafoam green in everything.
Perhaps by chance or maybe fate — which Chaeyoung didn’t really believe in fate — Chaeyoung opened her eyes at the perfect time as Mina finished her first piece. The audience roared with applause, giving the violinist a standing ovation.
Chaeyoung opened her eyes and looked up, locking eyes with Mina. The violinist stared at Chaeyoung for a moment as she bowed, a shy smile on her lips. From that moment on, everything was Mina .
//
Seafoam green had quickly become a constant in Chaeyoung’s life. It had been months since the concert and months since she had been to many more of Mina’s concerts.
Each new piece she played invoked a different color in Chaeyoung’s creative mind but nothing stumped the seafoam green that Mina exuded.
As Chaeyoung set her bags of groceries down in the kitchen, she walked down the short hallway to her studio. It was messy but Chaeyoung knew where every single brush was amongst the chaos.
In the middle of the small studio stood a large easel with an almost finished painting. Seafoam green covered most of the canvas but there were so many other colors.
What had started out as a simple piece, inspired by the first concert Chaeyoung had attended, quickly became something more intricate. Every concert after that first one Chaeyoung went to, she’d add to the painting.
Bright orange, burnt red, dark blue. Each one of Mina’s concerts invoked a new color.
Chaeyoung sat down on the small stool in front of the easel and picked up one of the brushes that rested in the easel tray. She took the palette that was hanging on one of the hooks on the back of the door and squeezed out a few more colors.
This most recent concert she had been to, Mina had played Dvořák’s Violin Sonata, Op. 57. It was bright and the melody was light. It held a sense of urgency but it felt like the listener was off to somewhere important and exciting.
The piece was golden yellow and dark blue. Chaeyoung was sure of it. She carefully brushed the colors onto the canvas, dancing around the seafoam green that was intricately placed throughout the other colors.
//
Enough time had passed that it was now dark. Chaeyoung had been so tuned into painting that she didn’t notice the gentle beep of the keypad or the turn of the lock. She didn’t notice the call of her name or the light and graceful footsteps down the hallway. She didn’t notice her studio door being opened and the head that popped in.
Chaeyoung turned to grab a different brush and jumped, knocking an empty tube of paint to the ground as she sat a few inches away from Mina. “Ya you scared me!”
Mina looked at Chaeyoung and chuckled, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I called your name when I came in.”
Chaeyoung just pouted and picked up the empty tube off the ground, grabbing the brush she needed. She turned back to her painting and started to add a few more tiny details. “You know how I get when I’m in the zone.”
Mina just hummed in response and rested her head on Chaeyoung’s shoulder. She watched as the painter carefully stroked color after color onto the canvas, making her piece even more beautiful.
In more ways than one, Mina was reminded of herself playing violin whenever Chaeyoung painted. The careful brush strokes were like the motion of her bow on the strings and the almost melodic way the paint swirled was like a melody that was constantly playing in her head.
”You never told me what this one’s about, you know.” Mina smiled as she felt the vibration of Chaeyoung’s laugh. It sent a warm tingle through her body.
Now that Chaeyoung thought of it, Mina was right. She had been working on the painting for almost a month now and hadn’t said a word about it to the violinist.
//
Chaeyoung stayed after that first concert just to talk to Mina about the pieces she played. She didn’t know anything about them, but the more Mina spoke, the more she wanted to listen to the violinist talk about classical music.
Every concert Chaeyoung went to after that, she would stay and talk to Mina. Very quickly, their post-concert conversations became post-concert dates.
Before either of them knew it, Mina spent more of her time at Chaeyoung’s apartment than her own. She claimed that it was warmer and lively. All of the paintings made it feel like a home.
//
Chaeyoung turned to look at her painting once more before she gently wrapped her arms around Mina’s waist. “This one’s about you.”
Mina blushed and looked closely at the painting, trying to analyze every brush stroke and every color weaved into each other. “But why so much of the minty green?”
Chaeyoung laughed and shook her head. Would Mina think she’s crazy that from the moment she met the violinist she thought she was seafoam green? She probably wouldn’t. She’d most likely blame it on Chaeyoung’s love of painting.
”All of the green is you. All of the other colors are the pieces you played. I remembered the ones that touched me the most and they each got a color.” Chaeyoung explained this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, her eyes shining as she looked up at Mina.
”Why am I green?” Mina smiled and sat down in Chaeyoung’s lap, resting her head on the painter’s.
There were a million reasons why Mina was seafoam green.
Mina was relaxed even when she was on stage playing the most intense pieces. Mina was kind. Every fiber of her being was elegant and respectful. Mina was calm as well. Even though she was loud and commanding on the stage when she played, she was quiet and peaceful when she was with Chaeyoung.
Mina was simply… Mina .
“You’re this specific type of green because you’ve got more than meets the eye going on. From the moment I saw you on that stage, I knew you were seafoam green.” Chaeyoung looked at Mina intently, placing a few kisses on her now light pink cheeks.
”It’s a mix of blue, green, and gray. If you break down each of those colors, they have their own qualities. Blue can be seen as loyalty and trust. Green can be a sign of vitality and life. Gray is neutral and calm. I see all of that in you and so much more.”
Mina didn’t know what to say. She stared at Chaeyoung’s painting, the smaller girl’s words floating through her head. The piece had a whole new meaning now and she was sure that each tiny color held a million different ones as well.
Chaeyoung watched and admired as Mina looked at the painting. She admired the way her eyebrows furrowed the same way when she played her violin. She admired the small smile that graced her lips as her eyes bounced from color to color.
She admired all of Mina so much that she knew this was the first of many paintings to come that would be for the violinist.
You were always seafoam green.