riki.nishimura → airport hug

8

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People fought through to get into the exhibition, guards tried their best to stop as many people barging through as possible, but sometimes a few people managed to sneak through.

But eventually, everybody managed to settle in and doors closed. Of course, I acted as if I was a casual viewer, looking around amongst the public.

I sat down on a chair, many others had already done so too. And after a while, everybody was sat down, waiting for the speech from the director.

She came up on the podium, making eye contact with me, sat in the front row. She gave a small smile, looking around completely inconspicuously.

"First and foremost, I just want to thank you all for taking the time to come and see this exhibition that has been in such high demand." She started, "Our team has been working really hard in order to ensure you get the best experience when viewing and purchasing these paintings."

"Welcome to the Hirata collection, this season is the Lunar collection, full of intricate, beautiful paintings, so skillfully crafted by the artist themselves. Bidding for paintings will start later, we will call you back when it starts." She continued as I just listened as if I was a regular person here to view the exhibition.

If I catch anybody shit talking my paintings I won't hesitate to stick a paintbrush down their throat.

"So, now for the part you all have been awaiting, you may explore the world of Hirata, a collection of gorgeous, handmade paintings. Enjoy your experience." She dismissed the entirety of the group, and they immediately stood up, heading over to where the actual exhibition was.

There were decorations around the exhibition, fitting in with the theme of my paintings. Damn, they really went all out on this.

I slowly and carefully walked paced around the rooms, staring at the pretty pictures plastered onto the walls on canvases, people probably thought I was weird for just walking around so much and barely looking at them for longer than five second, little did they know I've been staring at some of these paintings for hours.

The director made her way up to me, making me feel a little nervous as it might draw attention to me.

"Hello fellow viewer, how do you find this exhibition?" She giggled at her own words, I just looked at her, in utter horror at her words.

"You make me want to leave." I chuckled, joking with her.

"Very funny Mei, how do you think we did with the decorations, I think it fits perfectly." She smiled, looking around with such a proud expression on her face.

"It looks so pretty, I love it. You should decorate more often." I nodded my head, appreciating the hard work put into this gallery.

"Ah, I know. Maybe for your next exhibition here?" She winked, insinuating that I should create another collection sometime soon.

"I'll keep it in mind." I chuckled, "Gotta go blend in now." I walked off, completely casual and continued my viewing.

As I walked into another room, a man walked out, and we made direct eye contact.

Are you fucking kidding me right now?

He raised his brows, looking at me with another smirk as I stopped.

"Oh? You're here too. Seems like we run into each other often." His words made my lips curl into a look of irritance.

"Pfft, purely by coincidence, I'd never willingly run into you." I rolled my eyes as we walked around the gallery slowly.

"Alright, sure, you ran willingly onto me at the airport though." He chuckled, thinking he was so amusing and funny.

I glared at him as he stopped at a painting and observed it, his eyes lighting up.

"You are so painfully unfunny." I rolled my eyes as he looked over at the painting closer. I wondered what the hell he was doing.

Was he some kind of painting-observer-connoisseur that he had to look at it for so long?

"Mm." He mumbled to himself, still staring around the large canvas.

"What?"

"I could do so much better than this." He had the audacity to say, and It made me choke on air. I looked at him, visibly offended and confused to what would make him even say that.

"I beg your pardon? You know how long that took m-- the artist?" I had to rethink my words and recalculate my sentences, I couldn't give myself away.

He looked over at me, a knowingly teasing smile reaching his face as he looked at my face.

"It looks like it took the artist five minutes." He continued teasing me, knowing that it'd make me irritated.

"You think? What about these small details, you probably couldn't even see it at first, you'd have to look close, or multiple times for that case. Everything here contains such small intricate details, look at the lanterns, do you see this?" I pointed to a design in the lanterns that took me ages to replicate among the canvas.

He stared down at me, with a smile as I just lowkey gave myself away. I realised that after my speech, however, I could still play clueless.