I Told You Back Then

"Have I seen this before?"

"So shall we begin?"

The middle-aged woman asked,

Everyone nodded and expressed their gratitude to the lady. She then smiled and shouted, "Let's begin!"

All the students followed the woman as they examined the art pieces one by one, All of Gong Jun's classmates took notes of what the lady had said. However, being one of the class Gong Jun carried a different attitude. An attitude of a student who has long been gone on earth. He was completely dilly-dallying away, wanting to end it all about minutes ago. It's not that he's lazy, showing no interest or an art genius. He just wasn't in the mood, as yesterday he read too many books about mathematics, on which they have the test right after this trip.

"If I didn't have to worry about my grade in mathematics, I would've enjoyed this history flashback by heart," He whispered in his thoughts, his eyes threatening to shut at any second. Well, he was already in a half-awake state after stepping on the museum floor.

His mind was drifting carelessly outside the realm of reality when the tour guide noticed him.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked. However, Gong Jun, who had already landed on Mars, didn't quite hear the question and unconsciously answered randomly.

"You are absolutely right. It is truly captivating," he said, looking into nowhere. All his classmates were stunned by what the hell Gong Jun was saying, while the tour guide just smiled, shook her head, and nodded, wondering why such sentences were the answer to a simple yes or no question. But due to her position, she simply sighed and said,

"That is what these artifacts have. The power to transport us to different time periods and evoke long-forgotten emotions. Now, let's move on..." She's the host, alright.

They all proceeded to examine each artifact in the vicinity, and finally, Gong Jun got his mind back on the matter in front of him.

While exploring, Gong Jun unexpectedly caught sight of something that instantly grabbed his attention.

It was a painting of flowers, all red except for one that was white. He examined the painting, and it exuded elegance and distinctiveness. It was a normal thing for an artifact, but he didn't know why the painting seemed normal, but the feelings residing in him told a different story.

A story, but what was it?

"Red flowers? Are they in bloom?" he stated.

He couldn't understand why, and perhaps he would never understand, but something puzzled him about it. The same thing puzzled him about why he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

The extreme familiarity.

Was it admiration? Maybe it was desire? It could be just a normal emotion, but even until now, he didn't know he was some kind of lover of art. He never cared about paintings before, knowing he could paint too, just not as beautifully.

But this time, a surge of unwanted butterflies stirred within him.

Wait! Could he be some sort of "..." Right? Yes! It's utterly nonsense. He couldn't be in love with a painting, right? If he were, then at least let it be a person and not a flower.

The day at the art museum was done, and everyone gathered outside to line up together. They will be going back to their university now.

Staring at the ground, Gong Jun remain utterly dumbstruck unaware of what happened to him inside the museum. It was then when one of his classmates went to him and asked, "I saw you staring at the flower painting earlier, you even teared up. Why?"