'Til We Meet Again | Taekook AU

Chapter 44

[Unedited]

**

Taehyung didn't know that Jungkook was watching him from the side.

He had gone about, grabbing the brush and a piece of charcoal, and set out to draw the scene in his mind. And the moment he lost himself to the art, to his painting, Jungkook had moved, positioning himself a couple feet behind Taehyung.

He had never seen an artist at work. Jungkook hadn't witnessed how their hands moved over the canvas as if they had a mind of their own. It fascinated him and Jungkook couldn't help but stare.

Taehyung's long and delicate fingers held the charcoal stick by it's tip, and let it dance around the blank, pristine white canvas, creating lines everywhere the tip touched. It was a show of magical tricks, Jungkook thought, as he observed the skill unfurling from within Taehyung, and how his hands swayed to some unheard music, letting the tune become alive, bleeding onto the canvas.

Jungkook didn't know what Taehyung planned to draw, but his use of colors – brown, mauve, yellow, green, red and a few shades of black and grey, told him it could be a landscape.

The painting was coming along well, and at a speed that took Jungkook's breath away.

Either Taehyung's powers also increased his level of artistry, and allowed him to paint at such an inhuman pace or he was watching a prodigy at work. The other customers hadn't even finished half of their painting, whereas Taehyung had finished off his main sketch and was now highlighting parts of it, darkening a few lines, smudging the color into the canvas with the tip of his ring finger and turning the canvas around, adding a few stroke to the other side.

Jungkook took a minute to process the scene Taehyung had drawn – it was a castle, no, they were castle ruins to be precise, with vines twining in and out of the old brick walls, and some blackened debris lay on the ground, hidden within the wild grass. The walls rose randomly, without any particular shape or size, and in midst of these ruins, lying in the grass were two boys. Their faces weren't clear, and it made Jungkook wonder if it was on purpose. One of the boys was smiling at the other, and the second one had his hands in the other's hair, as if combing through it. Maybe they were lovers? Jungkook guessed. He gave Taehyung's painting another glance and came back to the faces, and the way Taehyung had blurred the lines, not focusing on the expressions but rather the body language of the two boys.

"Beautiful!" The painter praised Taehyung.

"Thank you." Taehyung said, with a soft smile on his lips and put down the brush. The other customers peered over his shoulder and at his painting.

"Are you a famous solo artist in disguise?" One of them asked, to which Taehyung laughed and shook his head.

"No. I used to paint a long time ago. I guess the past practices helped me with this one."

"What is the story behind this art piece?" Another customer asked.

At the question, the smile on Taehyung's face drooped a little. Was it a touchy topic? Jungkook wondered. Had he drawn something that was personal to him?

The customer too much have sensed Taehyung's discomfort because he quickly added. "Uh...It's fine if you don't want to share it."

"It's a story of two lovers. They shared a forbidden relationship." Taehyung said in a quiet voice. He didn't face the customer, but instead stared at his painting. "They weren't meant to be together, but they still fell in love and used this place as a hideout to meet each other. The ruins had been abandoned for a long time, and since no one bothered to check them out, these two spent their time there."