Paint Me | Kang Taehyun

17. MUSE

"Are you going somewhere Taehyun?" Beomgyu asked as seeing him get up in a rush. ''There's something I must do for Hayun to wake up.'' he replied and ran away before Beomgyu could say anything further.

It was the time when Taehyun finally made his mind to do something. He was going to fulfill Hayun's wish. He made a deal with himself. "When I complete this painting, Hayun is going to wake up for sure"

As soon as the boy reached home he rushed to his study room where his easel and paints were kept. He took a deep breath as he took a seat and began to think about Hayun, trying to remember her exact facial features.

Taehyun picked up a pencil and sketched his subject on the blank canvas. Grabbing a paintbrush, he dipped it in the paint and was about to paint on the canvas but his hands began to tremble and he dropped the brush. ''Calm down, you have to do this'' he said to himself and picked the brush again then began to think about the girl he loved. Slowly and carefully he began stroking the paintbrush against the surface of the white canvas.

Entire night passed but he still kept working on every little detail. Her dark brown wavy hair, eye smile flashing her teeth, the mole below her button nose; he precisely worked on each part making sure that he wasn't making any mistakes.

It was early morning when he finished making the last stroke on the canvas, he placed down the brush in the water container and analyzed his final work. A satisfied smile appeared on his face looking at the output. ''Please wake up now, I'll make sure to not be a coward again.'' he mumbled.

Taehyun grabbed his phone and wallet along with the painting making sure not to ruin it as it wasn't dry yet, and left for the hospital. He was tired from not sleeping the entire night and his body was aching due to working continuously, he decided to take a taxi instead of driving himself.

Upon reaching Hayun's hospital room, he saw Beomgyu was asleep. He walked towards her bed and took a seat. He gently held her hand and looked at her unconscious figure. ''Good morning Hayun, see what I got for you. I've finally overcome my trauma, all thanks to you. Wake up now, come on...I can't wait to tell you how I feel.'' he said closing his eyes to fight the urge to cry.

''Then tell me'' a soft voice was heard. Taehyun shot open his eyes in surprise and saw that Hayun was awake. ''You're up...how are you feeling? Does it hurt a lot?'' he asked, trying to control his excitement. ''I'm fine'' Hayun weakly replied. Taehyun helped her to sit up. ''What's that? Is that me?'' she asked pointing at the painting kept at the corner. ''Yes, that's you. I've overcome my trauma Hayun and it's all because of you.'' he explained.

Taehyun brought the colourful canvas towards her and she observed it with such happiness. ''It's beautiful. You did it Taehyun. I'm so proud of you!'' she said hugging him with all the energy she had left. ''No, WE did it.'' he replied placing a soft kiss on her forehead. ''I couldn't have done this without you.'' he added. They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds when Hayun noticed the bags under his eyes. ''Why do you have eyebags? Did you stay up all night doing this?'' she asked gently rubbing her thumbs under his eyes. ''I wanted you to see this as soon as you wake up.'' he replied smiling proudly.

''It's so noisy.'' Beomgyu spoke in his raspy morning voice, his eyes half-closed. ''Hyung, Hayun is awake.'' Taehyun said which made Beomgyu open his eyes wide in surprise. ''What took you so long? Are you alright?'' Beomgyu whined like a kid hugging her tightly and almost cried. ''Yes I'm fine but let me breathe.'' she replied finding it hard to speak as the boy was hugging her as if his life depended on it. ''Ah sorry!'' he replied pulling away and smiled sheepishly ''I'll inform everyone.'' he said and left in a hurry. Soon Mr. and Mrs. Lee arrived followed by the Choi family. Everyone was really happy and thankful that Hayun finally woke up. Hueningkai, Heejin, Yeonhwa, Bo Young and Sohee and Miss Kim also visited.

She was discharged the next day as the injuries weren't severe.

Taehyun wanted to confess his feelings right away but he waited for a few days so that Hayun could recover properly. Thankfully there weren't many injuries. She had a few bruises on her hands and had a sprained ankle which took almost a week to heal.

Hayun was laying on her bed doing nothing. She missed Taehyun and wanted to talk to him so she was about to message him when a notification popped up on her phone's screen. Seeing it was a message from Taehyun, her eyes lit up. ''Let's go to the beach tomorrow I'll pick you up at 6 pm.''

As decided Taehyun came to pick her up. They chatted about random things on their way. At the beach, the two took a walk along the shore. There weren't many people around as it was already evening. ''Did you bring me here at this time because I love watching the sunset?'' Hayun asked looking curiously at the boy beside her. ''Of course.'' he replied as he stopped in his track to glance at her face which he found most beautiful. He thought that it was finally the time when he should let his feelings out.

Taehyun was slightly nervous. He didn't know how Hayun would react to this but began anyway. ''Lee Hayun, I can't thank you enough for making my monochromatic life into a colorful one. Thanks to you I could overcome all the difficulties in my life. Even though I was slightly rude to you at the beginning you were still kind towards me. Actually I fell for you when I first saw you falling down in front of the supermarket. So I always tried to be around you.'' Hearing this a chuckle escaped from Hayun's lips. ''All I did was accept from you, but now I want to do a lot for you like take you out on dates, buy you things like clothes or food which make you happy and want to do everything to give you the happiness that you deserve. Will you give me a chance and take me as your boyfriend?''

A huge smile appeared on her face ''I'd love to Taehyun. You don't have to thank me for anything and I would be more than happy to be your girlfriend.'' she replied and looked away shyly. Taehyun pulled her into a tight hug while smiling like an idiot and she did the same.

''I love you Lee Hayun'' he said staring deep into her brown eyes. ''I love you too Kang Taehyun'' she replied as he pulled her closer. Their faces were just a few centimeters away. Taehyun closed the distance between them as he crashed his lips with Hayun's as the girl melted at the moment and kissed him back with all of her heart.

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