Yellow

- six -

Karina awoke the next morning to an empty bed. It took her a few seconds to remember the events of the night before, and when she did, she sat up quickly and scanned the room. Winter was nowhere in sight.

"Winter?" She called, standing up and walking over to the door of her room. There was a rustling noise coming from behind her as soon as she went to open the door. Pausing for a moment, Karina turned around slowly, following the source of the noise and ending up in front of her closet. Cautiously, she opened the closet door, widening her eyes when she saw Winter.

"What are you doing?!" Karina choked. She bent down and snatched her sketchbook out of Winter's hands, glaring at the smaller girl. "Where did you get this?"

"I found it," Winter chirped, climbing to her feet and smiling widely. Karina's eyebrows furrowed when she saw the streaks of marker that stained Winter's hands. Her grip on her sketchbook tightened.

"It's mine," Karina huffed. She walked back over to the bed, sitting down and hesitantly opening to the first page. Her anger boiled when she realized that Winter had covered every single one of her sketches with meaningless scribbles. Hours and hours of her hard work were now ruined.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Karina yelled, standing up and throwing her sketchbook across the room. It hit the wall, scattering her papers all over the floor. Winter instantly flinched and covered her ears.

"Do you know how much time I've spent on these?" Karina continued, crossing her arms and glaring at Winter from across the room.

"They are pretty," Winter nodded, walking over and picking up one of her drawings from where Karina had thrown them.

"They were pretty, Winter, until you ruined them," Karina spat. "Just like the flowers. What did I tell you about leaving pretty things alone?"

Winter just stared at her blankly for a few moments before holding up the drawing and walking over to Karina, extending it for her to see. Karina groaned and pushed the drawing out of her face.

Confused, Winter tilted her head to the side. "Yooji?"

"That's not my name," Karina's voice was low in the back of her throat. "I don't want to talk to you, get out of my room," she growled, pointing to the direction of her door.

Winter took a slow step backwards, still holding onto the drawing. "I am sorry," she held the drawing up and looked at Karina pleadingly.

"I don't care!" Karina snapped, grabbing Winter by the shoulders and shoving her into the hallway. "Leave me alone," she warned, slamming the door in the smaller girl's face and making sure to lock it. She waited until she heard footsteps walking away from her room before collapsing back onto her bed and groaning.

Karina's sketchbook was her prized possession. She never let anyone touch it. Let alone open it and draw in it. Months and months of hard work were now useless. The brown eyed girl sat up and eyed the collection of papers that scattered along the wall. She should've known better than letting Winter into her room.

With a frustrated sigh, Karina dragged herself out of bed and began collecting all the papers that had spilled out of her sketchbook. It all appeared to be meaningless scribbles to her. She began sifting through all of her drawings, making sure Winter hadn't spared one or two of her sketches.

Of course, she hadn't. Every page had marker scribbled over it. One drawing in particular caught her attention, though. Her half-finished daisies from yesterday. It appeared as if Winter had tried to finish drawing them, adding the flowers atop the stems that Karina had sketched in pencil. Karina closed her eyes and sighed, placing the drawings back into her sketchbook and shoving it into her backpack.