When The World Stops

Childlike

Yellow by coldplay

A month later, November:

"How's it coming together?" Ji-Tae asked, crossing the small space of the living room. His sister pulled out an earphone letting it dangle down as she bobbed her head to the music entering through the other. She smiled at her brother who looked like he took a power nap before getting back to his books, hands stuffed in his sweatpants, shirt crumpled, round rimmed glasses sitting on the tip of his nose with his straight hair pointing in every direction messily.

"Good, I think this is my best piece yet." She said wiping her soiled hand on her oversized white shirt she wore whenever she worked. Ji-Tae connected his index and thumbs of both hands and pretended to zoom into it while shutting an eye erupting a snort from the older. "It's Aju nice!" 

A-Rin shook her head, chuckling. She was in a good mood, the coffee shop at the intersection ordered a painting from her saying 'You're vibe suits the aesthetic we're going for'. A-Rin took up every order but this one within a heart beat at the price they offered her. 

"You say that for everything." Ji-Tae pulled out a dining table chair turning it around before sitting on it staring at his sister's creation. It was breathtaking as usual. He didn't understand how she managed to flick her wrist moving her brush like an extension of her fingers painting the image she visioned in her head. Only she could do it like that, she could put dreams down on canvases and force unspeakable things to whisper. 

"It's calming." He said staring at the gracefully painted sail of the boat, Seagulls flanking either side of it, it didn't seem like a picture, it seemed like the ending of a story. He could almost feel the boat tilting beneath him, the tall mast and the sail flapping behind like an angel wing the sweet cry of seagulls gracefully whizzing past forming formations before reaching land. And to think the whole painting was painted with delicate strokes of hundreds of shades of only blue and white.

"Good, that's what I was going for." She said satisfied, not caring that she used her paint stained hands to push the strands of her hair that fell from the messy knot she tied. "We could get Korean barbecue for a month with the money they offered." She said, eyes twinkling.

Ji-Tae said nothing, still caught in a daze. It was hypnotising. He watched his sister take a thin brush dipping it in black before signing her name onto the lower bottom corner. 'Lee A-Rin' in beautiful italics before carefully placing it on the cart covered by a newspaper...if at all he could call it that that, the printed words barely visible underneath all the paint smudged on it.

When he would come to visit his sister from busan, he hated her paints, he hated her cat and he hated waking up to the smell of varnish and acrylics and somewhere beneath it all, french toast. But now, this was all that gave him comfort, he grew to love it. His home wouldn't be the same without her brushes and her canvases. He even got used to her tabby- knight, who was now warmly snugged in his bed playing around with a  plushy, It's black coat dusted with specs of white paint - a result of his naughtiness.

"All done." She breathed out satisfied, being sure to step out of danger zone ( it's what she named her makeshift studio) before crinking her neck and stretching she let out a satisfied yawn, happy that two weeks worth of effort payed off in the end. 

"It's almost noon." Ji-Tae said, looking out of the French windows opening into their tiny balcony, normally the afternoon sun would shine angrily but the sky was clouded with grey clouds making it look like evening had set in. "Hungry?" She asked him knowing full well that her brother was eternally hungry. 

"When am I not?" He laughed getting off the chair knowing that his sister would probably whip something yummy like she always did. She was a better cook than their mother, mostly because A-rin had to make dinner when her parents where busy with work.