glass | gyuricky

seven.

Gyuvin and Gunwook both ended up falling asleep at some point in the bus ride; it was almost noon when they were awoken, by the sound of talking and the jerk of the bus pulling to a stop. He ran his hand through his hair with one hand, wiping the sleep from his eyes with the other, looking out the window. They had stopped in the drive-in of a hotel.

"Wake up, kiddos," Ricky said, brushing his hand over Gyuvin's head as he walked past, squeezing down the aisle with his shoulder bag. "We're here. Get all your stuff and make sure not to leave anything behind, okay?"

Gyuvin felt around with his hand to make sure nothing had fallen out of his pockets while he was asleep, nudging Gunwook to hurry so they could both get off the bus. They'd been on it for more than four hours, and even though most of the ride had been spent asleep, Gyuvin's legs were sore from being in the same position for a little too long and he wanted out as soon as possible.

"Thank you for driving us," he greeted the bus driver with a little bow as he descended the little steps, almost falling over as his knees buckled under him.

"Whoa, steady," Ricky said, catching him by the elbow. "I can't lose you so early in the trip, got it? You alright?"

He smiled a little ruefully. "Just sleepy." Ricky was back in teacher mode, back in the persona he used to keep the class listening to him. Gyuvin wondered if he should find any joy in the fact that Ricky'd only ever seemed comfortable enough to let go of his persona around him.

Then again, it wasn't like he was sure about that. Maybe Ricky was like that with all his students when they were alone. Maybe he was like that with Seoyun, even, or anyone else. The thought sobered him up enough to wipe the hint of a smile off his face as the group of them entered the hotel.

They were just dropping by to leave their bags so they wouldn't have to carry them around all day at the museum. Gyuvin followed the others off to the side and loaded his duffel bag onto the bellboy's cart, before gathering back with the others at the front lobby.

The museum was just a ten minutes' walk away. It was just past eleven in the morning when they got there, and after distributing the tickets and getting past the security and bag checks they were basically set free to roam the museum in their own time and pick out the piece they wanted to use for their assignment. Gyuvin wanted to look at something sculpture related, partly because he needed some inspiration for his own work and partly because he was just more familiar with the art form than something like ink painting, but he placatingly agreed to follow Gunwook around for an hour or so just for company's sake. The museum only closed at eight in the evening, anyway, so he'd still have ample time to look for his own piece.

Gunwook dragged him by the cuff of one of his sleeves, stopping by the little directory by the stairwell to see where they should go first. "Here," he pointed to one of the rooms on the map. "It's to the left of this corridor. Let's go!"

They whizzed past rooms filled with displays of ancient pottery, vast scroll-type paintings and modern art exhibits to get to the one Gunwook was looking for. The far wall of the room was occupied by a massive gilt-framed canvas, just about Gyuvin's height, a Romantic-style painting depicting a woman lying with her eyes closed in the grass. Gunwook took up his camera and started snapping away immediately, awestruck.

"Whoa, this is..."

"You're not even going to look at other paintings? You've decided on this one already?"

Gunwook didn't even look away from his camera. "Yup."

Gyuvin shook his head, laughing. "Right then, you're easy to please."

Though Gunwook had his heart set on doing his assignment on that painting, he'd wanted to stick around and browse the rest of the gallery still, and he'd let Gyuvin go off on his own after a while, to look for his own assignment piece.