Painted with Words

7

The two boys had cooled off and started having a calm, honest conversation about unsolved things from their past that may have affected how they acted with each other. Jisung told his part, and Minho was there to listen, the younger not having any pre-made expectations of his reactions. Then, naturally, came Minho's turn to tell his part.

"Can I ask what happened? With Jeongin?"

Minho sighed. "It's a long story."

"I got time. That is if you're comfortable to tell."

Minho was so pretty, hugging his pillow in his gray sweatpants and black t-shirt and his dark brown hair almost entering his eyes. He didn't need a haircut though. He was too pretty like that.

"He was nice to me. We were happy together. But he had this habit of always telling the harsh truth, without caring about my feelings first. And so, when I would show him something I'm proud I made, like my paintings for example, pieces I teared from my soul and put on a canvas, he never understood them. I do have a quite weird art style to be honest, but he straight up told me they sucked. That I sucked."

One day, Minho showed Jeongin some pictures of his paintings from when he was taking art classes. He liked to paint. It was the only subject he liked in school. He loved moving his brush freely on the canvas, trying to tell a story. He knew he wasn't exactly Picasso when he was younger but he improved a lot since then.

And Jeongin said "Min, sweetie, I think there's a reason why they put your paintings at the back of the class."

Minho knew he wasn't good at all back then but he was sure he got way better since then, so he tried recreating one of the paintings from back then, but with his new skills, showing it to him.

He did want to prove him wrong, but he was also willing to agree with Jeongin, just so he can face the reality: that he's actually not a good artist at all and he will never be.

"He'd say things like 'Minho, I love you, but your paintings look stupid. Painting's not for you, so please never do that again.' Stuff like that."

"Oh hyung, I'm so sorry, what the hell? Is that why you dropped out of uni?"

"When I saw him yesterday, I knew he was gonna laugh at me for having an arts major. And so I started believing him again."

"Hyung, I never saw any of your paintings but goddammit, art is art. Everyone does it in their own unique way and that's the beauty of it. He sounds like a jerk."

He laughed. "That's what Bin and Chan said too."

"And they're right! Don't let him dictate your life and dreams! Even if your art is let's say 'bad', which I doubt, even then you should stand up for it proudly. You know why? Because it's your dream."

Minho smiled so widly all of the sudden, as if an idea sparked into his brain. "I wanna show you something."

"What?"

Heading over to the easel, he took one of the canvases he had stored hidden in a small corner and put it on. It had a cloth over it and he wanted to take it off, but hesitated.

"Uh...before I take this down, there's something you should know."

Jisung nodded attentively.

"I paint nude portraits."

"Oh. Oh." Jisung gulped.

"Just kidding, I don't" he laughed soundly, seeing Jisung's flabbergasted reaction. "But there's another thing. I might have lied. I actually read a bit more from your notebook."

"What..."

"Please don't laugh" he finally said, taking off the fabric to reveal his painting.

It was the cuddle scene from Jisung's book. Minho didn't think this boy's eyes could get bigger than they already were, but they did. "My Haneul and Leejun! Oh my goodness they're perfect! The colors, the faces, the warmth...everything that was in my brain, you just painted!"

"Do you like it?"

"Are you kidding me? I adore it! Holy moly, I wanna use it as my book cover."

"Oh no, it's not that good."

Jisung pointed a finger at him. "I'm seriously gonna slap you."

Minho giggled. God he was so beautiful.

"Hyung, you're an artist. A real one. And you're insanely good at it. I've had people tell me my writing is shit, but I still annoy y'all with my nerdy writer ass" he said, taking Minho's hand in his. "You're an amazing painter. Promise me you won't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"I promise."

"Good."

They spent some time holding each other's hands and playing with them. Jisung loved it. Minho's hands were a bit smaller and his palms were square-shaped. Clearly an artist's hands.

"I have a question about your book though."

"You sure you wanna get me started?"

"Shut up, you know I love the story already. And your writing is so vivid. But I was wondering, what is Leejun's dream?"

Jisung's brain malfunctioned. Leejun's dream? "I never though about this before. I wrote him to comfort prince Haneul."

"Yeah, but does he have any dreams, fears, bad days or something?"

"No. No, I forgot to add that. Or did I? Oh my god Minho hyung you're a genius!"

"Haha I know."

"Leejun has a violin in his room that he doesn't play, or only plays when nobody sees him. I totally forgot about that."

"Maybe he's scared people will laugh?"

"Yes! Thank you so much!" he almost jumped to hug him, apologizing for the sudden excitement, but the boy hugged him back even tighter.

Jisung fiddled with his fingers. "There's this ball organized for the first-years at uni and I was wondering..."

Minho replied without even letting him finish. "Yes, I'd love to go with you."

Jisung smiled.

Trying to warm up to Minho little by little until then, Jisung didn't really know where he was going. He thought he'd known Minho for a lifetime,  clearly an illusion provoked by his own image of who Minho should be—a comforter. A warm presence. When in reality, he was nothing to him yet but a stranger. He thought revealing some of his traumas would provoke Minho to comfort him, to carve out a real life Leejun. But that wasn't possible.

Jisung wanted that someone, and when he saw Minho for the first time, he looked exactly like Leejun. But he wasn't Leejun. He was more than that. More than a flat character in a book where his sole purpose was soothing the prince's heart and had no other passions or wishes, never got sad unless someone upset the prince, never got angry unless someone tried to hurt him.

And for a long time, Jisung thought that that was how love is supposed to be. It's not.

And if Minho has dreams, issues, gets angry, sad, screams his lungs out, locks himself in his room or needs a hug... Jisung will be there for him. Because he sees the human in him. Something he never saw in Leejun and it was the most vital thing he failed to add.

And oh, how beautiful he was with all that humanity in him.

Jisung wished he had opened his eyes earlier. Because only now he could truly see how beautiful of a person Minho was.

And more than anything, how real.