Enveloped with Love! (Taekook)

CHAPTER XV

January 30th, 2022 - Seoul - Jeongguk's residence

It had been five days since Jeongguk had sent his reply and if he was not wrong, Taehyung most probably had received it a couple of days after he posted it. So that means technically, it's only been 3 days since Taehyung actually would have read it.

Contrary to the last time, Jeongguk was not panicking. For some reason, he was absolutely sure this time that he would get a reply one of these days and the waiting this time was not as hard. Maybe because Taehyung had written so sweetly to him, letting him know what's happening in his life.

His heart broke a little knowing Taehyung had no heating at his place and Jeongguk would send one or hundred heaters to him in a heartbeat but they're not there yet. Not that he was hoping they'd be. Maybe, he thinks!

Oh whatever!

In any case, Jeongguk fared okay these past days. Even the dialysis was not as bad since he did read Taehyung's last letter a few times... as many times as he needed actually, which was a lot!

He was also surprised but happy that his previous letter had reached Taehyung on his birthday and he had zeroed down the date to either 29th or 30th December. But he will find out the right one soon, he thought.. All in good time...

As promised to Taehyung, he was actually going to try to paint again, so once he finished his breakfast he decided to head to the studio. This time he felt different, alive somehow as he entered the room.

The curtains were open and bright sunlight had wrapped the room in its warmth. He had not come back here after his last attempt so the black canvas and all his supplies were still out.

He approached his seat slowly but not with any fear as he had felt the last time. The whole year that he had tried his hand at it, he had always been jittery and panicky every time he had approached his set up fearing failure even before he started.

Can't blame him though. Imagine being a prodigy since age 10 and then suddenly not able to do anything at all... anyone would be scared!

Yet as he sat down and touched his brushes lightly, he felt the familiar tingle in his fingers that he had not felt for a long, long time.

As an artist, Jeongguk knew that the best results would come if he tried to paint something that was close to his heart, something that he felt connected to in his mind so as to be able to recreate it on the canvas as if tearing an actual piece of his heart and pasting it on there...

And so taking a deep breath, Jeongguk closed his eyes to rid his mind of unnecessary things to find that one thing that spoke to him the most...

As if by reflex, his fingers moved to the brushes and the paints and he let his creativity flow. Jeongguk painted for a long time until the rays for the sun had started to go down so he had to switch on the lights to see clearly.

He took no breaks, he couldn't even if he was tired. It was as if he was in a trance, his senses captivated by the image slowly starting to take shape from the midst of haphazardly plastered colors. It was as if he was on a mission to complete what he started.

Just as the faint rays of the morning sun once again began to coat the walls of his studio, he made a final swipe with his brush and put it down in the muddy water bowl to clean later.

He picked up the dirty cloth laying on the table and began to wipe his fingers that were dirty with an indistinguishable color as he observed his work.

He felt dead tired, his eyes hurt and his body felt as if on fire but as his eyes roamed over the canvas that held one of his creations after a year long hiatus, he knew it was worth it. A wide bunny smile that truly lit up his eyes was seen on Jeongguk's face that fine morning. One that was not seen for many years.