Right Here | SunNew / Sunric

「8」

★Eric Sohn★

The two ate together comfortably in the car. Sunwoo had suggested they get some food at the convenience store and eat in the car with a little music playing.

"So you lived in the US?" Sunwoo asked.

Eric nodded, he swallowed his food before speaking.

"Yes, I was raised in Los Angeles most of my life. I don't mean to brag but I won 4th place in a Rubik's cube competition when I was in the fourth grade." Eric shrugged with a smug look.

Sunwoo snickered. "Did you now? How fast can you solve it?"

Eric then leaned in closer to whisper. "Not that fast actually the competition was just four of us."

Sunwoo suddenly choked on his food, about to laugh. Eric burst out laughing as Sunwoo broke into a coughing fit.

Sunwoo took a sip of his drink to wash down the food.

Sunwoo was glad that Eric was in a good mood again, he really didn't like seeing him so dejected.

"So what else did you accomplish in the states?" Sunwoo asked, coming down from his coughing fit.

"Well, I won 2nd place at a baseball championship when I was in middle school." Eric replied, playing with his food a bit.

Sunwoo made a surprised face. "Baseball. You play?"

"Played." Eric corrected. "Yeah, I have a bad habit of losing interest in hobbies very quickly." He laughed lightly.

Sunwoo hummed.

"What about art? How long have you been into it?" Sunwoo asked.

Eric paused, seemingly thinking for a moment. "I guess it's the only thing I haven't lost interest in. I've been playing around with Art since the fifth grade I think. One of my teachers entered a painting I did into some contest my school was holding. I took first prize and I guess that's when I realized I was actually pretty good. I started experimenting in middle school, sketching, painting, sculpting, pottery, basically anything you could think of. It's become a sort of mental therapy for me." Eric explained.

When Eric talked about art he had this little smile on his face, art has been the only thing he's loved this long. His hobbies never lasted longer than two months, but he's been doing art for 6 years now. Once his parents started fighting over his mom losing her job, his only escape from having to listening to that was art.

He'd sit in his room for hours at a time, painting or drawing. When he was doing art he wasn't at home, he was in his own world, making another universe. It's what saved his life many years ago.

"That's really cool, you think you can show me some of your work sometime?" Sunwoo asked.

Eric was touched that someone actually wanted to see his work. It was something personal to him and he's never been able to share it with anyone because no one ever really took interest in it. So Sunwoo wanting to see it made Eric feel warm inside.

"Yeah, definitely." Eric replied.

"Well, we're pretty much done eating." Sunwoo said, collecting their garbage in the bag from the convenience store. "Want me to take you home?"

Eric checked the time on his phone. 9:25. His mom should be pretty much passed out by now. And if not she's probably out.

"Yeah, sure." Eric agreed.

So Sunwoo pulled out of the convenience store parking lot and started the route to Eric's house, which wasn't that far anyway.

Eric waved goodbye as Sunwoo drove off. He sighed deeply as he entered his home to find his dad cleaning up a pile of shattered glass in the living room.

"Youngjae, you're home. Where have you been?" He asked.

Eric looked at the glass for a second before looking up at his dad.

"Out with a friend. Mom?" Eric raised his eyebrows.

"She's upstairs taking a shower." Eric's dad replied, collecting the glass on a dustpan.

"Did she break that throwing it at your head or throwing it on the floor?" Eric asked, not really wanting an answer.

Eric's dad sighed.

"Youngjae, please not tonight. Your mother has gone through enough, she just had a bad day today." He said in her defense.

"You're just as bad as she is." Eric scoffed. "It's bad enough she's drinking herself to death, but if you keep defending her instead of making her see the bullshit she's put this family through she'll end up destroying more than just that vase."

Eric didn't wait for his dads response and instead stormed upstairs to his room.

He hated that his dad refused to see that his mom was doing just as much damage to her family as she was to herself. After their fights he always excused her saying that she had a bad day. Eric was sick of it.

He laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He thought back to his conversation with Sunwoo in his car. Talking about his art was something he could do for hours. And he loved doing it with someone that actually listened.

He rolled over to his side, catching sight of an unfinished painting sitting on his easel. He wanted to match the feeling of The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, he felt a feeling of comfort in Van Gogh's famous piece. It was a masterpiece. Even the story behind how Van Gogh came to make this painting.

He read that Van Gogh painted Starry Night because it was the view outside of his room during his time in an asylum after his breakdown and the mutilation of his left ear. However he wasn't allowed to paint in his room so he painted in the studio, where he couldn't use the view for reference.

He'd painted Starry Night purely from memory and imagination. Van Gogh actually hated this painting, he thought it was a failure.

And that's why Eric loved it so much. Vincent thought his painting was a failure, it meant nothing to him when he completed it. Yet, today it was one of the most famous and adored paintings in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had copies hanging in their houses, offices, tons of copies were displayed in tons of museums around the world.

He wanted to make a painting inspired by Starry Night, because he didn't just want to buy a cheap copy. He wanted to make something that ignited the same feeling inside of him as Starry Night did.

He stood up from his bed and approached the incomplete painting, touching the edges of the canvas, admiring the painting.

This one. This is the one he wanted to show Sunwoo first. This is the one he wanted to show Sunwoo and have him say "this reminds me of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh."

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Hey, besties😌☝️

So I just wanted to say, thank you for choosing to read this story:( I don't know if the cover caught your eye, or the title, I don't know but thank you for giving it a shot🥺

It really means the world to me that this is already almost at 300 views?? I've never had a story reach 300 views this fast with barely 8 chapters??

Seriously thank you!! I love y'all so much!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you in the next one!

Bye!

-K♡