His Muse

ch#2//Watercolor and Coffee

A couple of months have passed, and I completely forgot about the man on the bus with his camera. I got a new job across town. This time it was an actual job that I could pay my own rent with.

I'm now a manager of a small art museum on the edge of town. I was finishing my work for the day when I got a call from an unknown number. I answered it, thinking it was a coworker. I forgot to save the contact information.

" hello this is y/n, may I ask who this is?"

"Yes, hello this is Hyunjin, we met on the bus a while back, and I finally finished that painting of your eye, would you like to see it now?"

I was shocked at how I completely forgot about this glorious man and his strange artwork.

"yes actually I would love to know where I should meet you?"

"my house I'll send you the address"

"Great, I'll come right away!"

I hung up the phone and cringed on how excited I sounded going over to a stranger's house, a man's house. But he didn't seem like the type to do anything wrong, so I went over without a doubt in my mind. It was the top penthouse of a fancy apartment complex.

I was perplexed on how an artist could live in such a nice place. I guess all of the stereotypes about them being poor were wrong.

I rang the doorbell, and he answered immediately, as if he was waiting by the door.

"Hey it's good to see you again. I brewed coffee...unless you're not wanting to drink coffee at this hour... I guess it's late. Never mind you don't have to drink the coffee."

I laughed at his failed greeting.

"No, that's OK. It's never late for coffee when it comes to me."

He smiled and let me in through the door.

Please take a seat on the couch over there. He pointed in the direction of the couch that was facing a large window that you can see the whole city from. I stared in awe at how beautiful the city glowed at night.

I looked around his house to see a bunch of paintings that were covered in sheets and watercolor. He had a couple plants lying around, but most of them were dead. I guess he was painting them too.

He Came back over with two mugs of coffee and sat next to me.

"I'll show you the painting soon. I actually just wanted to get to know you first before anything." he smiled.

I laughed at his stupid, slick behavior.

"Don't tell me you've only painted my eye, just ask me out." I joked.

"Maybe I did. maybe I didn't" he said sipping from his coffee mug. I sipped mine right after him. I bit my lip, thinking about how grand this painting might be.

"I guess I'll just show you the painting now since you're here I don't wanna keep you waiting any longer."

He walked around the couch. I followed him with my eyes, and his hands grabbed a sheet that was placed over a large canvas about the size of the wall.

He put the sheet off of the canvas, and there was the largest painting I've ever seen. It was so detailed, and there were so many different colors that I didn't know my eyes even had. It looked very realistic, but I also looked like a fantasy.

My eyelashes seemed very long, even though I knew it wasn't true. There were small fragments of color that were very detailed. It was just like a picture. I couldn't help but stare in awe. I was speechless. I've never seen such a beautiful painting of me before, even though it was just my eye.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"I love it, I never knew how beautiful an eye could be," I said, looking at him.

"Your eye is the most beautiful I've ever seen." He sat next to me again staring into my eyes. I couldn't help but stare back at his beautiful eyes. They were also very beautiful.

"Ethereal seems to be the best adjective for you." he whispered, still looking inside of my eyes, but then he looked down to my lips then my neck and back at my lips again I began to blush. I think he could tell because he quickly looked back into his mug, and took another sip.

"I'm glad you like it." he finally said.

A moment of silence took over the room until I finally broke it wanting the awkward tension to break.

"May I see your other paintings?"

He looked back at me again.

"Sure."

He gave me a tour around the room. There are many different paintings, ones or flowers ones of couples; they all seemed very romantic.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" I blurted out.

It wasn't until I already said that I knew how weird the question was. He looked at me confused then finally answered.

"No, unfortunately I've never had one. Why do you ask?"

"Well because you have so many paintings of couples, so I just assumed that you had a girlfriend that inspired them."

"Nope. just a hopeless, romantic painting of what he wants" he laughed, but I could tell the laughter was forced, and that he was actually upset by his answer. I couldn't look away from him, but he was still staring at his painting, so I felt weird and looked back at his work.